Dr Christian Ludke interview revisited - November 2007

Dr Gerald McCann started keeping a “blog” as a daily diary of events while he and his wife stayed in Portugal after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The blogs were bizarre and sometimes banal. Most people felt they were an inappropriate thing to be writing when supposedly grieving over a missing daughter. Read this interview with leading criminal psychologist Dr Christian Ludke where he refers to Gerry’s blogs.

Interviewer: You have since early on warned that behavior of Gerry and Kate McCann is pointing towards them being involved, what had made you feel that way?

Ludke: In the latest years I have often been in contact with parents who had lost their child due to a crime. They are under massive shock, were helpless, were insecure, withdrawing themselves. They have an inner struggle, blaming themselves for possibly not have looked enough after their child.

Interviewer: Was it different with the McCanns?

Ludke: They live completely different, often harmonic. Already after a few days they went jogging, as if that was a normal thing to do, they always came together. These parents took matters into their own hands instead of leaving matters in the hands of the police. They distanced themselves from their two other children by going on a European tour, that to me is very strange.

Interviewer: Maybe it was an accident?

Ludke: No. In such a case, after the first shock they would have trusted the police. Both parents are doctors, in case of an accident they would have tried to get help. It is even more unrealistic that of all people two doctors would leave 3 children alone in a strange environment, even more at night. I have many doctors as patients. As professionals they know all that can happen to children, and as parents they are overly protective.

Interviewer: What could have been the motive, to disappear their own daughter?

Ludke: There are parents who have little to no emotional binding with a child. Often such a child is considered a burden, that is treated in a brutal or perverse way. The most known is the Munchhausen-by proxy-Syndrome: The mother hurts the child until it is almost not alive anymore and then calls for the police because she herself has a huge wish for attention.

Interviewer: Do you think it is possible that Madeleine’s parents have killed Madeleine together and hidden her?

Ludke: I believe both have perpetrator knowledge.

Interviewer: You mean, the McCanns have planned the death of their daughter?

Ludke: Yes, it is possible that they have planned the act for a long time, at least in must have been in their minds often and they must have spoken about it together. Otherwise they would now be contradicting each others.

Interviewer: When parents are guilty of killing their child, do they block that out of their minds?

Ludke: not likely. Both are very much conscious, give interviews, travel. It is for them easier to lie than to tell the truth.

One can rule out a psychoses. Many things are pointing towards mentally disturbed. The children of the McCanns were conceived artificially, that can lead to problems in parenthood. Maybe a lack of self esteem that is not often talked about. Maybe the child had to die for a problem that had been going on for many years.

Interviewer: But the McCanns seem perfect and loving parents.

Ludke: That image to the outside world can be due to a guilt mechanism when on a media campaign, and to distract from the real problem.

Interviewer: Why do they not go back to Great Britain?

Ludke: That also speaks against them, when someone looses a child they want to be with loved ones in a trusted surrounding. When they continue to stay on that resort, there were something terrible happened the worse that can happen to a parent, being loosing a child, that points towards a permanent survival instinct, images of what happened must pop up when being there. That the McCanns do not return home, where they also can have memories of happy times with their children can be a way out, to not be de-connected with what they have done.

Interviewer: The world thinks it is impossible that these parents can be guilty.

Ludke: the media are probably been taken on by the McCanns. Very soon they have been thinking of themselves instead of of the child. De parents were treated like the Beckhams. In his Internet diary the father writes almost daily about that and irrelevant/banal things, which shirt he was wearing, what the weather is like. That isn’t a father that is worried. Statistically 70 percent of all the violence against children is caused by the parents, family members or friends. That has unfortunately not been looked into. The Portuguese police was treated very unfairly when pointing towards that.

About Criminal Psychologist Dr. Christian Ludke:

Hochschulstudium:
1. Staatsexamen (Sek. II) in Erziehungswissenschaft, kath. Theologie und Sport Promotion zum Doktor der Philosophie in der Facherkombination Erziehungswissenschaft, Soziologie und Sportmedizin

Berufserfahrung:
1989: New York / USA, Arbeit mit schwer erziehbaren Kindern- und Jugendlichen
1991-1999: Psychologische Ausbildung von Spezialeinheiten (SEK, MEK und VG) bei der Fortbildungsstelle Spezialeinheiten der Polizei in NRW
1999-2001: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter der Universit ln / Lehrstuhl Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie

2001-2007: Geschhrer der HumanProtect Consulting GmbH
Psychologische Akutintervention und Rehabilitation nach (Bank-)Ãllen, Geiselnahmen, Unfllen, Katastrophen und anderen belastenden Ereignissen

Website:
http://emdr-luedke.de/index.html

Mike wrote:Has this guy had a letter from Carter Ruck yet does anyone know?

Tony Bennett wrote:

Mike wrote:Has this guy had a letter from Carter Ruck yet does anyone know?

Dr Ludke has the distinct advantage, from the point of view of avoiding receiving letters from the self-proclaimed 'Britian's most feared libel lawyers', of living in, er, Germany.

Kololi wrote:Surely this can't be right.


"Interviewer: You mean, the McCanns have planned the death of their daughter?

Ludke: Yes, it is possible that they have planned the act for a long time, at least in must have been in their minds often and they must have spoken about it together. Otherwise they would now be contradicting each others."


What parents would plan the death of their child?

I do wonder sometimes if the information given, such as the timelines for checking the children etc., has been manipulated a bit but to think that they would coldly plan to murder their daughter is too hard for me to believe I am afraid.

Judge Mental wrote:Then let us hope they are never shown in the public eye heading organisations as role models for other parents and parents to be.

One has to admit there is still much concern as to why Gerald McCann went to PDL that week. He colourfully admitted to his friend Payne that he was not there for a holiday, but did not furnish us further with what he was actually there for.