Madeleine reconstruction called off
Press Association - 2 hours ago (Tonight, 9pm)
A police reconstruction with Kate and Gerry McCann of the night their daughter vanished will not go ahead after their friends said they were unwilling to take part, the couple's spokesman has confirmed.
The McCanns were invited back to Praia da Luz to take part in a reconstruction along with the "Tapas Seven" - the friends they were dining with the night Madeleine disappeared in May last year.
Clarence Mitchell, the McCann family spokesman, said the decision was taken by all of the couple's friends.
He said: "The friends had a number of serious questions about the value of the reconstruction and what it would do to help find Madeleine.
"After some discussion, they have informed the Portuguese authorities that they do not intend to go back."
P.S. The BBC report (U.K.) on this is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7422787.stm
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Anyone recall this exchange on Panorama, 19 November 2007?
RICHARD BILTON: That has been widely reported now but also throughout this idea that you want to go back and change your story.
JANE TANNER: It's just complete lies. I mean I don't know where these stories come from. We've never been in contact with the police to say we want to change our stories.
RICHARD BILTON: So you said you're prepared to answer questions.
JANE TANNER: Yeah.
RICHARD BILTON: In some ways would you like to?
JANE TANNER: I'd love to, yeah, I think...you know, I actively want to be re-interviewed. If there is a feeling that what we're saying is wrong, you know, be interviewed...you know, and we can clarify that it's not wrong, you know, we're not making things up, it's just what happened.
RICHARD BILTON: Have you been asked to return to be questioned?
JANE TANNER: No.
RICHARD BILTON: Would you be prepared to?
JANE TANNER: Yes. Yeah of course we would. Yeah, and I mean if it helps to find Madeleine, be interviewed tomorrow, you know, we're obviously key witnesses.
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FINALLY, I have read Bishop Brennan's analysis on 3 Arguidos but I think it is flawed - in excluding David Payne - for at least three specific reasons:
1. The aggressive way he told a Portuguese/Spanish newspaper (was it
Sol?) back in July/August (sorry, don't have the date/source) that "We have a Pact of Silence. This is our matter". IMO those were very sinister words indeed, expressed according to the newspaper at the time with a degree of anger
2. The way David Payne suddenly popped up out of nowhere on Day 144 after Madeleine's disappearance to say that he had seen Madeleine being put to bed, heard Gerry reading a bedtime story, saw Kate bathing the children etc. etc. - at the very same time that we heard for the first time that Gerry had asked David Payne to 'go and check on Kate to make sure she was all right'. IMO not a word of this is true, it was another case of the McCanns and the Tapas 9 conducting an exercise in emergency backfitting evidence with self-serving statements designed to weaken the Portuguese police's claims that there was a 'missing six hours'
3. David Payne, it seems, was among a full secret meeting of the Tapas 9 held at the Rothley Court Hotel in Leicestershire, i nNovember 2007, details of which leaked out about 10 days later. The spokesman for both the McCanns and the Tapas 9, Clarence Mitchell, claimed it was some innocuous reunion, but we know now that lawyers were there and it is probable that this was a meeting to doubly reinforce what Payne called 'The Pact of Silence', double- and triple-check their timelines, and discuss strategy and tactics.
Frankly I see no actual evidence that any one of the Tapas 9 is not involved in this. I am convinced that there is a dark secret they are holding that binds them all together.
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THE WALLS OF SILENCE
Hello Russell, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again,
Because Maddie’s vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain,
Still remains. We’ll keep those walls - of silence.
In restless hours of drinking booze, The restaurants of Praia da Luz,
At the table of the Tapas bar,
I texted the media on my Nok-i-a,
When the bar was struck by the cry of Kate in fright,
That split the night. We’ll need a wall - of silence.
And in the evening light I saw, Dozens of people, maybe more.
People searching without finding,
Policemen coming without sealing.
I told people what to share - and what not to share,
And no one dared. Disturb the wall - of silence.
"Fools" said I, "You do not know, Rumour like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Via Clarence Mitchell all must go through,
And the Find Madeleine Fund will create a diversion,
And plenty of funds. And so maintain the wall - of silence”
And the media bowed and fawned, To the abduction god they spawned.
And the Team flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming,
And the sign said, "The words of the Team are written in the tabloid press
So don’t try and mess - With our wall (or should I say Pact) of Silence.
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