Madeleine McCann General Discussion Thread No. 25

[Tony Bennett]

Here's a quote:

"We are also using this period to get advice to maximise our effectiveness and efficiency in our overall strategy going forward." Eh?

REPLY: Wasn't that something the Chief Exec. of Lehmann Brothers said around this time last year?

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[Kizzbo]

Originally posted by Tony Bennett:

Gerry McCann says he left the room, after checking on the children, at around 9.09pm or 9.10pm. He then says he encountered a journalist, Jeremy (‘Jes’) Wilkins, on the road back to the Tapas bar at the Ocean Club, and was talking to him for about 10-15 minutes between 9.10pm and 9.25pm. Jeremy Wilkins confirms this.

A small point Tony....Jeremy Wilkins does not actually confirm this in his statement of 7th May 2007:

We returned to our apartment. We decided to spend the evening in, watching television. Our son was awake and unable to sleep. I decided to take him for a walk in his pram. I left about 8:15 to 8:30 pm. I was pushing the pram around the complex and went to the toilet near the bar. I could not see inside the restaurant. As I got the baby to sleep, I was on my way back to the apartment. I came out at the top road.

I met him near the stairs of a ground floor. There was a gate leading up to some stairs. I was pretty certain that he had left the apartment. We spoke for a few minutes. He said you’re on walking duty. I said I was staying in and pros and cons and what to do with the children.

(...)

I don’t remember anyone else walking around with a child. The conversation lasted for about three (3) to five (5) minutes.


Two points arising from this:

Whilst Jeremy Wilkins DOES confirm that a meeting/conversation with Gerry McCann took place that evening,

(a) He does not state even an approximate time for their conversation
(b) He says that the conversation lasted only 3-5 minutes

However, in his statement of April 2008, he does give an approximate time, but still says the conversation was 3-5 minutes:

He saw Gerry McCann on the other side of the road (between 8:45 and 9:15 pm), not far from the gate that gave access to the stairs of the ground floor apartment and crossed the street to talk with him, in the sidewalk. As far as he can remember, they talked for 3 to 5 minutes.

 

[Kizzbo]

Tony, have you read this article?

Anatomy of a badly told story

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/08/anatomy-of-badly-told-story.html

 

[Gatinho]

T7 have obtained a big payout from the Daily Express!!!!

 

[Kizzbo]

Sky News Report - includes video footage of 6 of the Tapas Group outside the High Court. Fiona Payne reads a statement on their behalf (scroll half way down the page):

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK...Receive_Libel_Damages_From_Express_Newspapers

 

[Refugee]

So why are the newspapers feeding money into the McCanns fund? Is this a way to pay them off?

What the hell is it behind this!

 

[Refugee]

REPLY: The case has been solved, and a book about it has now been published, 'The Truth about A Lie', by former Madeleine McCann senior investigating officer for the Portuguese police, Goncalo Amaral.

He is certain that Madeleine McCann died in Apartment 5A in Praia da Luz, some time on 3rd May, and that the parents, together with some friends, covered it up. He says the most likely cause of her death is that she suffered an accident.

The reason his 'solution' has not been put to the courts is simply because of relentless pressure from the highest levels of the British government to make sure the McCanns were never charged.

Another false abduction claim which turns out to have been an intra-family death:

Baby Grace
Baby in the attic
Caylee Anthony
Antoine B (French case)
Madeleine McCann.

All cases - in the last 12 months alone - where the parents claimed an abductor stole their infant from their house*, but later the child turned out to have died in the family's house.

----

* Except Antoine B, where the mother and her partner claimed that Antoine had picked up a small rucksack, filled it with biscuits, and wandered off while they were eating out at a nearby restaurant. They're inventive, if nothing else

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The only mystery is why the government and the newspapers are protecting them, indeed the newspapers are funding them!

British justice is now exposed as the farce it has always been - judicial precedent...lets them twist the law any way they like!

 

[CaliKid]

IMO, the fund will never die out. If the McCanns can't get money by normal means- appealing to the public, they'll get it by twisting arms and suing people.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK...Receive_Libel_Damages_From_Express_Newspapers

For anyone interested, in the top picture, left to right: Jane Tanner, David and Fiona Payne, Dianne Webster and Rachael and Matthew Oldfield.

 

[Barnaby]

The only mystery is why the government and the newspapers are protecting them, indeed the newspapers are funding them!

British justice is now exposed as the farce it has always been - judicial precedent...lets them twist the law any way they like!

Well said Refugee!

 

[Barnaby]

IMO, the fund will never die out. If the McCanns can't get money by normal means- appealing to the public, they'll get it by twisting arms and suing people.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK...Receive_Libel_Damages_From_Express_Newspapers

For anyone interested, in the top picture, left to right: Jane Tanner, David and Fiona Payne, Dianne Webster and Rachael and Matthew Oldfield.

Mmmm! Russell O'Brien conspicuous by his absence?

 

[Texana]

That has got to be one of the most smug, most self-righteous photos ever. Is it just me, or do they seem to be copying some Harry Potter movie publicity photo?

I don't care how much they dress alike, pose together, and look smugly vindicated. They're a bunch of selfish people who thought it was fine to leave small children alone in foreign hotel rooms, deliberately withhold information from the law enforcement in that country, and complain bitterly all the while maintaining their "pact of silence."

A pathetic excuse for a group of adults. I hate to say this, but they'll go their graves maintaining that they did their best to search for Madeleine, when in all probability, Madeleine went to her grave in part because of their enabling actions.

 

[Barnaby]

I was just thinking if they were so badly liabelled then £375,000 is not a lot of money awarded to 7 people, think about it! Why did they settle for so little? If anyone said such things about me & I was totally innocent I would be looking for a lot more! What price your good name? This was just another token publicity stunt & a feigned cry of innocence!

Again why is Russell O'Brien missing? He was the one who was supposedly most affected by this, is his conscience pricking him?

 

[CaliKid]

That has got to be one of the most smug, most self-righteous photos ever. Is it just me, or do they seem to be copying some Harry Potter movie publicity photo?

I don't care how much they dress alike, pose together, and look smugly vindicated. They're a bunch of selfish people who thought it was fine to leave small children alone in foreign hotel rooms, deliberately withhold information from the law enforcement in that country, and complain bitterly all the while maintaining their "pact of silence."

A pathetic excuse for a group of adults. I hate to say this, but they'll go their graves maintaining that they did their best to search for Madeleine, when in all probability, Madeleine went to her grave in part because of their enabling actions.

:banghead: ITA :banghead:

Well-trained parrots chirping the same tired line- Madeleine is alive and can be found.

Subliminal message- send money so we can "search" harder.

 

[CaliKid]

"Revisiting the “Maddie case”

Was it the Portuguese and English governments that decided to sabotage the investigation and to get the parents “off the hook”?

by Domingos Amaral*

Now that the Maddie case has been archived by the Public Ministry due to a lack of evidence; now that the process has been opened for public consultation; and now that the PJ inspector who coordinated the investigation, Gonçalo Amaral, has already published a book about the issue, it has become possible to list my conclusions about the case. Here they are:

1 – Contrary to what was suggested by the British press, which presented him as a negligent policeman who spent his life in long lunches, washed down with plenty of wine, and with little investigative capacity, the impression that I got from Gonçalo Amaral, both from the tv interviews and from reading the book, is that he coordinated a competent investigation, that followed the rules, that was neither biased nor tendentious, and that he did everything to crack the case.

2 – All the evidence that was collected by the PJ pointed, right from the first days onward, to the little girl’s death inside the apartment and the subsequent concealment of the cadaver, probably by her parents.

3 – The indicia that was collected, both from witnesses, and later from the DNA tests, pointed into that same direction.

4 – The behaviour of the little girl’s parents’ friends is very strange. There are contradictory depositions that seem to have been “built” to lead the PJ into the direction of the abduction theory. On the other hand, the fact that all of the friends abandoned Portugal in a hurry is extremely disturbing.

5 – The manner in which the little girl’s parents behave, speaking to Sky News on the same day and transforming the case into a media event, obviously forcing the abduction theory, is extremely surprising. It does not seem normal to me that a father and a mother, when confronted with the disappearance of a daughter, establish as their first and only priority to transform the case into a worldwide media event.

6 – Since the first hour, the English press accepted the abduction theory, which was communicated to them by the parents, without judgment. Like a brainless flock, they fell on Praia da Luz exercising enormous pressure on the PJ, suggesting that Portugal is a third world country, and complicating the investigation. We remember that it was an English journalist that “invented” the suspicions about Robert Murat, thus forcing the PJ to investigate him and to waste time with a situation that was lateral, but which suited the parents’ purpose.

7 – The fact that the little girl’s father is a personal friend to Prime Minister Gordon Brown led to the English government making available to the parents, media specialists who built and forced the abduction theory. It was a highly professional operation that used sophisticated marketing techniques, in the press and on the internet, with meetings with international personalities, which culminated with the visit to the Pope in the Vatican.

8 – This remarkable public campaign was accompanied by a political pressure behind the scenes, with the English government exerting pressure on the Portuguese government, in the direction of the abduction theory.

9 – For many months, it was evident that the PJ had lost the public opinion battle and that it was not prepared to handle a media and political pressure of such proportion. In terms of public communication, the case was very badly managed by the PJ and by the Public Ministry.

10 – Despite these tremendous political and media pressures, the investigation proceeded on the terrain and was approaching important conclusions, which clearly pointed to the parents’ guilt, at least of the crime of cadaver concealment.

All of these conclusions lead me to formulate two questions: Why were the directory of the PJ and the Public Ministry incapable of having the courage to accuse the parents, like the investigation suggested? Was it the Portuguese and the English governments that decided to sabotage the investigation and to let the parents “off the hook”?

Some day the truth will emerge, but for me, and even without bulletproof evidence, a case like this should never have been archived and those parents should be tried in court.


source: Diário Económico, 01.10.2008 (http://diarioeconomico.sapo.pt/edic...pinion/columnistas/pt/desarrollo/1153541.html)

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1574&page=17 #254

*Portuguese journalist and author

I brought this over from the translation thread. It's a very interesting read with many, many valid points, especially about the huge push towards making Maddie's disappearance a kidnapping.

 

[Morag]

Again why is Russell O'Brien missing? He was the one who was supposedly most affected by this, is his conscience pricking him?

Well, somebody had to be taking the picture!

 

[feynmanadmirer]

That has got to be one of the most smug, most self-righteous photos ever. Is it just me, or do they seem to be copying some Harry Potter movie publicity photo?

I don't care how much they dress alike, pose together, and look smugly vindicated. They're a bunch of selfish people who thought it was fine to leave small children alone in foreign hotel rooms, deliberately withhold information from the law enforcement in that country, and complain bitterly all the while maintaining their "pact of silence."
<snip>

To me it sounds so articulate, succinct and precise! I don't think the Macs will ever be let completely off the hook when there are people like T who can think (and feel) so clearly.

 

[colomom]

I am sorry I have been neglecting you all. I have been so busy with my life that I have hardly had time to breathe. I have been trying to read and watch for important things but it has been rather quiet.

Did you see what I posted yesterday in the Portuguese Press?? See: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2847713&postcount=437 very interesting possibilities....

I hope you all are fine and not experiencing to much hardship, times are tough, lemme tell ya. I hope, no matter what happens, we get some relief and some positive changes in our country.

So, I will be around, I'll check my PMs, I will be watching and waiting for justice to come to our little girl.

TTYL

 

[Barnaby]

Well, somebody had to be taking the picture!

I presume that the person who took the picture was a member of the Press, I very much doubt that it was Russell O'Brien!


Interesting article, Colomon!

 

[CaliKid]

Again why is Russell O'Brien missing? He was the one who was supposedly most affected by this, is his conscience pricking him?

I hope and pray that the consciences of every single member of that group sound off loud and clear every day. Who knows- maybe somewhere down the road one of them will finally decide he/she can't take it anymore and start telling the truth.

 

[Barnaby]

I hope and pray that the consciences of every single member of that group sound off loud and clear every day. Who knows- maybe somewhere down the road one of them will finally decide he/she can't take it anymore and start telling the truth.

If that is ever to happen, which I doubt, my bets are on Russell O'Brien!