Spudguns' Spoutings: August 2011

Gerry McCann belongs to a secret Masonic ‘Knights Templar’ Order whose other ‘Illuminati’ include Gordon Brown.

Kate McCann was a promiscuous sex-aholic and binge drinker, having entertained an innumerable number of her University colleagues.

The ‘Tapas 7’ frequently holidayed together in low-key “working class” resorts, sometimes with the McCann’s, where they engaged in group, open sexual relations together.

Madeleine McCann was a ‘Clone’ or a genetic experiment.

Madeleine never actually existed at all.

Madeleine was abducted by Aliens.

OK, I made the last one up, but the other statements have, (and still are), circulating in some form or another in the bowels of internet chat rooms, discussion forums and blogging sites.

Despite there having been some interesting observations made which could, ostensibly, be indicative of some of these comments having a modicum of truth to them, (excepting the Aliens bit, of course), in the absence of any corroborating evidence, we simply have to assign them to the realms of fiction.

However, there has been so much written and reported about the Madeleine McCann case in six years that it is undoubtedly very difficult, if not impossible, for anyone seeking to make up their own mind regarding what might have happened to the little girl, to actually DO so.

The opinions of most people in this country are influenced by what they read in the newspapers, which is pretty much how and why Rupert Murdoch came to be so courted and pandered to by virtually every influential leading Politician since Thatcher; not just here in the UK but globally.

Many will have undoubtedly been influenced by their reading of the recent publication of Kate McCann’s book, ‘Madeleine’, a rather touching if not wholly accurate account of the case.

It is also clear that many people, parent’s and grandparent’s themselves, cannot and WILL not look beyond the fact there is a small child missing. They are happy to subscribe to the notion that Madeleine must have been abducted by a paedophile, without questioning any aspect of what is currently asserted in the Press or indeed what is asserted by the McCann’s themselves.

They do not question because it is all too easy and natural to form an instant empathy with people who have purportedly lost a child to such tragic circumstances. Additionally, we are all too well aware of the reality of evil people in this world who do, indeed, prey on children, which induces another, natural, human response of:

“God, this could have been MY child/us” and also “thank God this isn’t happening to my child/us”.

People spend their lives accepting and being influenced by what they are told. Indeed, they are frequently shaped by the events that they read about.

Which is fine, as long as the events that shape them have been subjected to more scrutiny and validation than that afforded by the mainstream Media reporting them, or by books written by the protagonists themselves.

Because unless people are given reasons to do otherwise, they will simply carry on their daily lives without questioning the information printed in front of them or that which is being spoken on the TV or Radio.

Which rather leads me to another statement, which I assert to be, NOT fiction, but rather FACT.

That the Madeleine McCann case is so much more than a matter of a missing child and what might have happened to her; that it is clearly part of an, as yet, unfathomable secret involving an innumerable number of powerful, wealthy and influential individuals, some of whom extend to the very fabric of our Society, including the British Government itself.

A secret? More internet lunacy? Conspiracy Theory?

Well, permit me to cite a few more facts in support of this assertion.

Anyone who has ever been unfortunate enough to suffer a tragedy or a serious problem whilst being abroad in a foreign Country is rightly afforded some assistance from their respective Embassy and its Ambassadors.

Kerry Needham, for example, whose son BEN went missing in Kos in 1991, effectively got little more than a cup of tea and some sympathetic words from the British Consulate.

She has been on record as stating that although she was appointed a wonderful Liaison Officer from South Yorkshire Police, she has effectively spent the past twenty years, fighting, ALONE, to keep her son’s disappearance in the public eye.

Ironically, it is only recently, in light of developments in the McCann case, that she has received any worthwhile attention or response at all, to her letters and pleas for assistance.

The Needham family are not unique.

In fact, every other family who has ever had the misfortune and heartbreak of having their child kidnapped abroad, or who has suffered any other kind of tragedy has come to realise the very same thing;- that, ultimately, when struck by disaster outside of one’s own Country, one has only limited resources and assistance.

Every other family.

Except the McCanns.

Kate and Gerry McCann got rather more than tea and sympathy. Since the disappearance of their daughter in May, 2007, they have received, effectively, the assistance and attentions of, seemingly, the entire British Government, including the personal administrations of not one, nor two; but THREE British Prime Ministers, no less!

Tony Blair, just weeks before his stepping down, ensured that the McCanns had a whole TEAM of diplomats to assist them in the early days, and bizarrely even dispatched Sheree Dodd described by the ‘TIMES’ newspaper as a

“long-serving senior spokeswoman for the Government”.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced that she was being deployed as

“press officer responsible to act as media liaison officer for the McCann family”.

Why the family of a missing child NEEDS a Media and Press Liaison officer was never properly explained.

Newspaper reports at the time show communications, advice and assistance being provided by then Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and subsequently by HER replacement David Miliband.

Even from the early stages of this case, before being appointed in his full time role as the McCann's spokesman in September 2007, the fragrant, ubiquitous and ridiculously contrived CLARENCE MITCHELL was involved.

Mitchell’s previous specialty, (for the entirely uninitiated in this case), was spying on, fabricating and shaping public opinion on anything and everything for the Government’s ‘Media Monitoring Unit’.

This unit, encompassed by the Governments Central Office of Information, helps to: “drive best practice and cost effectiveness in the way citizens are informed, engaged and influenced about issues that affect their lives “.

Indeed. About as Orwellian as it gets!

I accept that the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was fairly unique in context, and obviously a tragic event, but what could possibly be so important about the McCanns and their predicament that could warrant them receiving this level of ‘assistance’?

But these unprecedented lines of support and help pale into complete insignificance when one considers the involvement, influence and direct interference, from the then, Chancellor of the Exchequer and soon to be Prime Minister , fellow Glaswegian Gordon Brown.

By their own admission, Gordon Brown maintained regular contact via personal cell phone with the McCanns. (Does he have the mobile numbers of all British subjects who come unstuck whilst abroad?)

Clarence Mitchell himself has been keen to brag in the past about how HE, along with the coercion of Gordon Brown and others, was able to secure a meeting with the POPE, who subsequently administered his personal blessing to the McCanns and to a picture of their missing daughter.

It was the UK Government who arranged for the McCanns to meet and liaise with a number of European and other word-wide Political leaders to discuss the setting up of an American version of 'Amber Alert'; a child abduction alert system.

It is entirely possible, of course that these incidents were merely born out of an association and presumably friendship between Gerry McCann and Gordon Brown's brother, ANDREW Brown, with whom Gerry worked at COMARE.

COMARE, (Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation) is a British Government quango, basically set up to debunk claims by campaigners that certain areas around the vicinity of Power Stations can induce childhood cancers.

Gordon Brown is, or at least WAS, a huge supporter and advocate of further Power Station development in the UK and COMARE, (of which his BROTHER Andrew is a Director), was an essential weapon for Brown in allaying any ‘Nuclear fears’ amongst the public.

Essentially, along with others, COMARE was “advised” by Gerry McCann.

On the basis of that, such a show of support by Brown could be deemed relatively innocuous, nothing more than the actions of a family friend, however highly placed.

However, a much more and somewhat disturbing involvement by the then Prime Minister –in- waiting was yet to take place.......

Ostensibly, the ONLY evidence that Madeleine McCann was abducted comes from JANE TANNER.

She insists that she saw a man carrying a small child whom she believes was MADELEINE, around 40 minutes before Kate McCann actually declared the girl was missing.

Those more conversant with this case will know that Tanner’s description of this ‘abductor’ changed dramatically over the subsequent Month’s and indeed years, since Madeleine’s disappearance.

His height, size, shape, hairstyle, clothes, manner, and on at least one occasion, even sex, have all been changed or modified, often coinciding with, (and dependent ON), the description being given out by ‘Team McCann’ of the person that they and their ‘investigators’ were eager to locate in any given Month.

Additionally, not only the ‘abductor’ but his prey was also subjected to a number of changes, starting out as a mere ‘bundle’, as in a blanket, before metamorphosing into a little GIRL with pink pyjamas just like Madeleine!

More saliently, particularly for the Police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, the Policia Judiciaria afforded NO significance to Tanner’s sighting for THREE reasons.

ONE, because it would have been way too dark to afford any credibility to the description Tanner provided;

TWO, despite insisting that she DID see an abductor, 40 minutes later when Kate McCann appeared at the Tapas bar, screaming that Madeleine was, indeed missing, Jane sprung into action and erm......not only did nothing but SAID nothing!!

And THIRDLY, the Portuguese Police were equally sceptical when it transpired that at precisely the same time Tanner is alleged to have seen this abductor, two other witnesses who were effectively in exactly the same location saw neither this man nor indeed Tanner.

One of these witnesses being Gerry McCann himself!

It doesn’t need a forensic mind to deduce the obvious flaws in Tanner’s testimony.

None-the-less, after a private audience with Gordon Brown where the McCann’s had sought his assistance in early June, the British and Portuguese press widely reported that Brown had intervened in the case and that he had persuaded the Portuguese Authorities to permit the McCann’s to appeal for information relating to this ‘abductor’.

After the McCanns were made arguidos in September, SUSPECTS in the disappearance of their daughter, the TIMES reported that;

“Ministerial Contact was severed with the McCanns because of the sensitive nature of their Legal status”

However, it was apparent that the Government, rather than distancing itself from the McCanns, formed closer relations than ever.

Brown dispatched the ever-ready Clarence Mitchell, once again, who formally resigned his Media Monitoring post at the Cabinet to take up the FULL time role of McCanns Media advisor, a role he had initially adopted whist seconded to the Foreign Office in the weeks after Madeleine first went missing.

The TIMES again:-
“Mitchell still has the key phone numbers and e-mail addresses of people in power and will continue to use them. He has attended top-level briefings at No 10 every weekday for the past two years. The McCanns do not expect help or influence to be exerted on their behalf but want to get messages to the very top that they are innocent.”

Quite.

Clearly those messages got through to someone because at the same time as the Portuguese Police were reported to be waiting at the Airport to fly to the UK to interrogate the McCanns and the ‘Tapas 9’, possibly even forcing them to be returned to Portugal for further “grilling”, as one paper put it; Judge Pedro Anjos Frias suddenly decided there wasn’t quite enough evidence to enforce such a return after all, and the eager PJ never got on the plane.

This huge and sudden change of heart and mind by the Portuguese appears to coincide with, firstly telephone conversations between Gordon Brown and his Portuguese counterpart, Jose Socrates, followed up by a personal meeting between the two a few weeks later in LISBON at an EU Summit where it was widely reported that Brown and Socrates “discussed” the case.

Exactly what was discussed and decided upon has never been fully revealed.

What IS known, however, is that the Portuguese Police never made it to the UK.(At least not to question the McCanns and the Tapas 7 who were still official suspects in the case).

Instead, it was decided that this further questioning could be conducted by the BRITISH Police, in the form of what came to be infamously known as the ‘Rogatory Letters’, sent to the UK, where they would ask the questions on behalf of the Portuguese Police.

However, as much as the Portuguese were aghast and dismayed at this decision to refuse them to conduct their interrogations and investigations in the UK, citing “Political Interference” and “Meddling” from the British Government, things were about to get a whole lot worse.

For an inordinately long period of time after the Portuguese submitted the Rogatory Letters, an inexplicable period of inactivity occurred.

Firstly, the Home Office denied having received the letters. Then the letters WERE confirmed as having been received but were duly returned because of some ‘Red Tape’ issue. As the President of EUROJUST explained:-

“A magistrate from the Home Office decided that the legal procedures for the sending of the document had not been fulfilled and informed the colleague at Eurojust. After everything was duly analysed, we decided to request Portugal to make the letter again and to send it through official channels."

The rumblings in the Portuguese media complaining about British Government involvement intensified, and the matter was full addressed in the UK Press.

The TELEGRAPH:-

“Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has been accused of bringing Madeleine McCann investigation to a stalemate”.

It went on:-

“Police in Portugal said the nine-month case has stalled because the Home Office has still not approved their request to re interview the seven friends who dined with Kate and Gerry McCann the night their daughter went missing”.

Bizarrely, as reported by the paper:-

“A Home Office spokesman refused to confirm if it had received the letters of appeal from the Portuguese police”.

Finally, however, the letters were received, and the requests duly carried out by Leicestershire Police.

It is obvious from the results of these ‘interrogations’, which are freely available to scrutinise elsewhere online, that the British police, whilst essentially sticking to the requirements being asked of them, did NOT pursue the lines of enquiry with the tenacity that the Portuguese Police would have, nor did they effectively treat the subjects, (Tapas members), as the SUSPECTS that they were.

Subsequent to these Rogatory Letters being conducted by Leicestershire Police, matters become even more muddled and unclear.

It is difficult to pin down the precise sequence of events that occurred, but by July 2008, the Portuguese authorities removed the Arguido status placed upon the McCanns, (and Robert Murat, the OTHER Arguido), and effectively ‘shelved’ the inquiry.

As the TIMES reported at the time:-

“According to reports yesterday, one key error that led to the McCanns being declared suspects was made by Britain’s own Forensic Science Service.

The report, apparently from the Portuguese authorities and which was leaked to the London Evening Standard newspaper, states that the Policia Judiciaria, Portugal’s criminal investigation department, was told that DNA evidence found in the couple’s hire car, on the window sill of their holiday apartment and in the car park of the apartment complex, belonged to Madeleine.

The document claims that it was given categorically as her DNA and as a result the McCanns were questioned and later made suspects. But, one month later, the forensic service wrote another report saying that it could not be sure that those findings were correct”.

This matter has never been fully explained, to my mind.

To this day, many reports from the time, including SKY News’s Martin Brunt, still exist, stating that a MATCH to Madeleine McCanns DNA was ascertained, relating to material unearthed by the specialist dogs.

The reports vary in the accuracy of the match, SKY News reporting a 100% Match, as did reports in the TELEGRAPH, Times and other newspapers. Other journals talk about the significant numbers of relevant ‘Markers’ to Madeleine’s genetic profile.

What IS unequivocal is that the Birmingham Forensic Science Services, reputed to be the BEST in the world, the “'vanguard of forensic science technology that has an unrivalled reputation for the integrity, impartiality and accuracy of its findings”; DID, in its initial reports and statements made to the Portuguese, state that a match to Madeleine McCann’s DNA profile HAD been made.

For reasons best known to itself, and for which it has never fully explained, a Month subsequent to its initial report, and AFTER the McCanns had returned back to the UK, the FSS released a NEW statement, asserting that the tests were inconclusive, after all.

Or, as the TIMES put it, they could now "not be sure that their initial findings were correct".

In the research that I have subsequently conducted, I have been unable to unearth another single example amongst the innumerable cases that they have handled where the Forensic Science Services changed their mind. Not one.

Presumably, now that this “Vanguard of forensic science technology” is CLOSING, being shut down by its UK Government sponsors/owners, it shall take its secrets with them.

Coincidentally, at around the same time the results had been initially submitted to the Portuguese, Low Copy Number, (LCN), DNA analysis was being QUESTIONED vehemently in the Court reviewing the OMAGH case, as a result of which, a CPS REVIEW was ordered.

The Sunday Times:-

“The Crown Prosecution Service announced the review after Mr Justice Weir attacked the low-copy, or low-template, method of gathering DNA evidence as potentially unreliable and lacking validity”.

I prefer to think that THIS is potentially what influenced the FSS to review their initial suggestions about matches to Madeleine’s profile, rather than some other, more sinister involvement, or "interference", as has been suggested in Portugal.

It is also worth noting that the LCN DNA testing technique was SUSPENDED within the UK, pending the CPS review.

This review was completed and the suspension lifted on January 14, 2008 with the CPS stating that it had

“not seen anything to suggest that any current problems exist with LCN".

Notwithstanding, as was widely reported in the BRITISH Media, the McCanns were “OFFICIALLY CLEARED” by the Portuguese Authorities in July 2008, “of any involvement in the disappearance of their daughter”.

Which brings us neatly to the FALLACY part of my ramblings!

The FINAL report by the Portuguese Attorney General, although lifting the ARGUIDO status of the McCanns, does NOT, to my mind clear them at all. It states:“despite all that has been done and in spite of all our efforts and lines of enquiry, it has not been possible to obtain a solid and objective conclusion about what really happened that night, nor about the present location of Madeleine”.

The report goes on to mention and rather dispel another huge Fallacy in the McCann case.

Since the early hours of Madeleine’s disappearance, right up to the publication of Kate’s book, the McCanns and their representatives have perpetuated a myth whereby the Portuguese effectively bungled and botched the whole investigation, affording very little, if any, assistance to the McCanns, even failing to conduct the most basic of searches or enquiries.

However, in the report, the one that the McCanns insist is ACCURATE, it:-

illustrates and demonstrates the huge and hardworking efforts made by the Authorities and the Portuguese people to try and find Madeleine, including securing the apartment, roadblocks, house to house searches and an account of all the intelligence and sightings that passed through their offices.

As I have published elsewhere, this “accurate” final report, the one referred to by Gerry McCann when he asserts that there is “NO EVIDENCE” to suggest that they were involved in the disappearance of Madeleine; also states very clearly:-

that there were “inconsistencies” surrounding the evidence and testimonies of the McCanns and their friends, and that these inconsistencies could have been easily highlighted and addressed were it not for the “un-cooperation from several, relevant witnesses”.

It goes on to say that the Portuguese strove for a re-construction or “reconstitution” of KEY events, but that they could not as “some of the key members of the McCann holiday group” were unwilling to return to do so.

The report goes on to specify that there were CLEAR inconsistencies and irregularities with some of the statements provided by the McCanns and their friends, thus the further need for a reconstruction, particularly in relation to Jane Tanners’ statements relating to her alleged sighting of a “supposed abductor”, specifically noting that at the precise same time, Gerry McCann and TV Producer Jeremy Wilkins were in the very same “narrow confines of space”, yet neither man saw either Tanner OR the alleged abductor.

The report also suggests that a reconstruction was necessary to pinpoint how and when an abductor could possibly have struck, given the regularity and frequency of the checks being made on the children, as asserted by the McCann’s and their friends. The report clearly doubts not only this testimony, but also the ability of any abductor to enter and exit the apartment as proposed by the McCanns, through the small window of the apartment in the manner being suggested, whilst carrying a child.

More importantly, it suggests that the events as suggested by the McCanns and their friends contained inconsistencies and irregularities relating to the whole period spanning from around 5.30pm on the evening in question,(“the last time at which Madeleine and her siblings were seen by anyone other than her parents”), up until around 10pm when Madeleine was reported missing.

Additionally, the report also takes issue with the fact that, as was widely reported at the time, the McCanns and their ‘Tapas’ friends had a secret meeting in a Leicestershire Hotel in October 2007. As a result of which, a more ‘corroborating’ series of statements were issued, relating to the sequence of events of the night of May 3^rd. OR, as the Portuguese put it:

“A typed report produced by the McCann holiday group after a detailed joint meeting between them all. This report of theirs deals with their recollections about the events of the evening of 3^rd May”.

So you will have to forgive me if I fail to see exactly WHERE, in this most definitive of reports, the McCanns are cleared.

Of course, if I wanted to be a bit “scurrilous and unhelpful” as no doubt Clarence Mitchell would have it, I could also add that this report make no denouncement or retraction of the previous, initial report made by Tavares de Almeida, then Chief Inspector in September 2007.

THAT report concluded, amongst other things that:

Madeleine McCann died in the Holiday apartment on 3^rd May 2007.

A staged HOAX abduction took place.

The McCanns were involved in the concealment of the corpse of their daughter.

And so we come to the present day. David Cameron joins the list of supremely powerful allies to the McCanns by announcing that the Metroploitan Police are to “review” the case.

Apparently, he was moved after receiving a ‘heartfelt’ letter from Kate and Gerry.

Gerry thoughtfully and tactfully pointed out in a later TV interview that the Prime Minister

“knows what it’s like to lose a child” referring to the death of Cameron’s son, Ivan.

Nice touch, that, Gerry.

It still remains to be seen what form, (if any), this review will take, given that this case is still the legal domain of the Portuguese.

Matters are even more clouded, now that the man in charge of the MET review, Sir Paul Stephenson, has resigned after allegations of corruption and bribery relating to senior members of the Metropolitan police force.

Those “bungling, boozy, inept Porto plod” WILL be amused.

“FFS Spudgun, shut the fuck up! You’re like a stuck record, going on and on and on about the same thing!”

That message from one of my frequent 'trolls'.

And they’re right. I AM like a stuck record. And I am so stuck in this groove.

And as I am forever repeating, I care little for the McCanns, their culpability or lack of it. I care not one iota about their alleged neglect, their parenting skills, what they might have done or what they didn’t do; what their sexual peccadilloes are, how much they drunk, whether they’re narcissistic or arrogant or both.

What I DO care about are the obvious and seemingly limitless network of high profile supporters:- politicians, businessman, media moguls, tycoons, magnates, celebrities, TV pundits, newspaper columnists and chat show presenters who all queue up to peddle Team McCanns official stance;-

That Madeleine McCann was abducted by a paedophile and that the Portuguese were complicit in allowing him to escape by accusing her parents instead.

A stance for which there not only exists not ONE, single, reasonable, feasible, logical or rational scrap of evidence; but for which, rather, there exists a whole plethora of circumstantial evidence to suggest an alternative scenario; one which all of the above are either ignorant of, or choose to ignore.

And if they are electing to ignore that evidence, then one has to ask why?

Or, perhaps, that’s just the problem. The evidence that exists IS, purely circumstantial. Or at least, the evidence that we know about.

For who knows what lies in those boxes of evidence, gathering dust somewhere in a Lisbon Court storeroom?

Documents, files, dossiers and materials that never got released along with the thousands of pages that did.

Materials still retained by the Portuguese for if, and when, they elect to re-open the case.

Materials that never even got released into the hands of the McCanns, despite their most ardent and sustained efforts to secure them.

I wonder if Kate sometimes think about what is in those boxes. late at night, when she is having one of those sleepless, restless nights that she writes about.

For my sins, I am frequently perturbed by an image.

An image that keeps me reading, researching and writing about a case that I often fear may forever go unresolved.

It is that of a little girl curled up and lifeless, alone and abandoned; clinging to the only thing from which she could derive any comfort; a soft toy called ‘Cuddle Cat’, whilst laying in a spot behind the sofa in Apartment '5a' where, according to a specialist Victim Recovery Dog called Eddie, once lay the body of Madeleine McCann.