NO Truth of the Lie in the UK.... by Spudgun

Goncalo Amaral has announced that he intends to market his book, on which the Lisbon Courts lifted a BAN recently, in the UK.

His book, ‘"Maddie - A Verdade da Mentira" - 'The Truth of the Lie", is an account of the investigation over which he presided, in the hunt for the missing girl, Madeleine McCann.

Despite the books obvious popularity, especially in Mr. Amaral’s home Country PORTUGAL,( as well as many other Countries), after a successful, contrived Court action by the McCanns, it was eventually banned in September 2009.

I, (along with many others, I am sure), wish Mr. Amaral all the luck in the world.

Sadly, however, he is going to NEED it........................

For I truly believe that this book, along with copies of the DVD Documentary which was based on the book, will NOT see the light of day here in the UK.

For if they DID, they would produce a rather unique and untenable set of circumstances, for publishers, the MEDIA, for the very laws of Libel and for the ESTABLISHMENT itself that has resolutely thus far sought to protect the McCanns at every turn.

For if we cast our minds back to MARCH of 2008, we find that the EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS dared to repeat what Goncola Amaral and the Portuguese Media had suggested: That Kate & Gerry McCann were involved in the disappearance of their daughter.

For daring to do so, it cost them £550,000 paid to the McCanns in an “out of Court settlement”(not to mention Court costs which would have been at LEAST equal to this amount).

They THEN paid a further £375,000 to the ‘Tapas 7’ for repeating SIMILAR allegations, which in turn they nicely ALSO donated to the McCanns. (SORRY, the “Find Madeleine” fund).

For those who do not KNOW anything about the owner of the Express newspaper group, they may perhaps suspect nothing untoward in this apparent climb down and substantial payment by the Newspapers the ‘Daily Express’, ‘Sunday Express’, ‘Daily Star’ and ‘Sunday Star’.

For those who DO know "Dirty Des", however, this course of action simply beggared belief!

I have never met Express Newspapers Proprietor, Richard Desmond. I know many that have and feel confident I know SOME things about him.

I know that he is extremely forthright and has a notorious temper.

His well known ‘party piece’ is an impersonation of Adolf Hitler singing a chorus of "Deutschland über Alles"

He is alleged to have once locked a senior Executive in a cupboard. He denies throwing a chair at the head of one of his own senior executives but admits, "I pushed the chair."

He also denies that he once ordered an executive to stand on the boardroom table, pull his trousers down and call himself a "cunt" because he was late for a meeting.

There are certainly many who have had dealings with him, who attest to having been on the receiving end of just that foulest of expletives.

He has accumulated quite a wealth, partly due to his publication of soft-Porn titles, starting with Penthouse. It was the beginning of a magazine empire that went on to include such salacious names as Asian Babes, Readers' Wives and Big Ones to name but a few.

Although he has since SOLD these titles, he still runs his own soft-core Pornography channel on Satellite/Cable TV, as well as now owning the ‘Channel 5’ TV channel.

He greatly enjoys his reputation of being a man who takes no prisoners, of behaving like an underworld gangster.

According to ‘Private Eye’, just within this past week, in a meeting with executives with ‘Endemol’, designed to negotiate a deal to screen the now defunct ‘Big Brother’ Reality show, he offered them a “pittance” for permission to screen it on Channel 5.

He violently smashed his glass down on the table and called them “Fucking Wankers” when they refused his offer. (Funnily enough, exactly the same terms he used on Executives when trying to negotiate a purchase of the ‘Telegraph’ newspaper some years ago).

As the Eye pointed out, he notoriously exhibits “tight-fistedness” and “foul-mouthed thuggery”.

You get the picture?

Now try and align these traits and characteristics with someone who, without a single Court appearance, threw up his hands, took out his wallet and coughed up well over a MILLION Sterling for doing no more, (and in some cases, much LESS), than what many other Newspapers, magazines and media outlets had ALSO already done, which was to merely report on the allegations that were emanating out of Portugal.

I once commented, ACCURATELY I surmised, (although perhaps tastelessly), that the only way Richard Desmond would willingly part with money to the McCanns was if he were successful in persuading KATE to appear nude in one of his less than salubrious magazines!.

How can it possibly BE, that this fearless GIANT of the Media World, a man who by his own admission likes to challenge the very borders of “acceptability”, not only parted with what was for HIM, an unprecedented amount of money, but also published FRONT PAGE APOLOGIES on all publications, a move described by the Media commentator Roy Greenslade as "unprecedented".

("I think this is an amazing stand-down, a U-turn, by the Express newspapers,") he said.)??

Like so much with the case of Madeleine McCann, perhaps we shall never know. I am certainly in no position to suggest the reasons, and like so much with anything to do with the McCanns and their missing daughter, hard EVIDENCE is a bit thin on the ground.

But there ARE a few pointers, and a few issues which bother me.

When Desmond first announced his intention to acquire the Express Newspapers group, he was ridiculed and lambasted from all sides, his critics asserting that he would never pass a “fit and proper person” test to make such an acquisition.

According to the ‘INDEPENDENT’ (amongst other newspapers), in 2000, within “minutes” of walking into the Express headquarters, Desmond received a call inviting him for a chat with Tony Blair.

Mr. Blair's Labour critics believed and commented that the meeting produced a promise that the Government would not block the acquisition.

Sure enough, in February 2001, the then trade and industry secretary, Stephen Byers, announced that he would not block the Desmond deal.

Richard Desmond promptly gave the Labour Party a £100,000 donation.

Perhaps more importantly for New Labour, Desmond, (an obviously blatant Capitalist), suddenly declared himself a ‘Socialist’, and faithfully printed Blair and Brown propaganda in his newspapers.

I guess that’s the way business and politics work.

But it has always confounded and perplexed me as to WHY, the most resilient, independent, vociferous, FEARLESS publisher, a man who has frequently been referred to as an ‘OUTSIDER’ and as a man who apparently cows down to NO-ONE, should so quietly, almost reverently, bow down under very little, if ANY tangible pressure.

For example, when Desmond was seeking to acquire a LONDON Evening Newspaper, he announced that he would call it the ‘Evening Mail’. This was a big JOKE, on Desmond’s part.

He famously LOATHES the Daily newspaper the Daily Mail, and his declaration of the intended title was merely a prank, a 'wind-up', purely designed to irritate the Daily Mail group.

It worked spectacularly. It was inevitable that Associated Newspapers, owners of the Daily Mail, would object to such a flagrant misappropriation of their trade name.

They issued a writ and TOOK DESMOND TO COURT to prevent him from using that name.

Even though it was a Joke, and no such title, (or indeed nightly NEWSPAPER), would ever have existed, Desmond went to Court and FOUGHT the case!!.

He lost, but thought the case worth it, if only to cause angst and grief for his enemies.

Because that’s exactly the kind of guy he is.

In its front page apologies to the McCanns, the Express Newspapers wrote:-

"A number of articles in the newspaper have suggested that the couple caused the death of their missing daughter Madeleine and then covered it up. We acknowledge that there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter's disappearance."

About as Clarence Mitchell-esque as one could get. (No doubt Clarenece got to actually write it himself).

But as I pointed out in a previous Blogging, the basic, fool-proof, cast-iron defence in a Libel or other Defamation case, is where the assertions being made are TRUE.

And if the UK is to allow the publication of Goncalo’s book, based on the LISBON Court findings who,( as well as re-establishing Amaral’s right to freedom of speech), declared that as the book was based on Police records, it was essentially a TRUE account!!; then where does that leave Richard Desmond?

Surely, if Amaral’s book can be deemed to be an accurate and TRUE account, then not only is Desmond free to RE-PUBLISH his assertions and accusations relating to the McCanns, copied from the Portuguese Press, but he could technically SUE the McCanns and the Tapas group for his MONEY BACK, based on them PERJURING themselves, could he not?

After all, the News of the World are clearly rubbing their hands in expectation over Tommy Sherridan and his wife, who have GONE ON TRIAL over allegations that they LIED in their £200,000 LIBEL Victory over the Newspaper a few years ago.

However, as much as I would relish such a prospect as seeing Clarence Mitchell make pleading noises with the public for donations to help out Kate and Gerry in their legal plight, it’s never going to happen.


Because underneath all this murky subterfuge, staged propaganda and fabricated garbage put out by the so called ‘Media’, lays an unknown secret.

Or perhaps SEVERAL secrets.........

As I have been wont to say on many occasions, we may NEVER know what happened in Praia de Luz in May 2007.

But what we DO know, surely without question, is that since that fateful night when a little girl was reported missing, Madeleine McCanns parents, (who were subsequently made criminal SUSPECTS in the case), have enjoyed privileges, freedoms, rights, advantages, treatments and PROTECTIONS afforded by the British Authorities, its POLICE, its Celebrity Culture, its Press and Media and, most tellingly, its Politicians and GOVERNMENT.

And to completely usurp that state of affairs with the TRUTH, just because of a decision made by those “bungling Porto Judges” in Lisbon, would be a truth too far. Perhaps for too many people.

I’m sure that Richard Desmond is cursing the McCanns as ‘C***s’, (under his breath of course), as I write.........................