Kevin Halligen: blood-soaked body of 'James Bond-style' private eye who conned the fund to find Maddie McCann out of £300,000 is found at his mansion

sallypelt wrote:By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent
Police are investigating the death of one of the first private detectives hired by the parents of missing Madeleine McCann.

Kevin Halligen, 56, was found unwell at his girlfriend's Surrey home and later died.
Police are treating his death as "unexplained" and are expected to pass a report to a coroner.
Mr Halligen's company, Oakley International, was hired on a £500,000 contract by Kate and Gerry McCann and the administrators of the Find Madeleine Fund in 2008, a year after their daughter vanished in Portugal.
The McCanns had become frustrated with the failure of the Portuguese police to find Madeleine or any clue to what happened to her.

https://news.sky.com/story/madeleine-mccann-investigator-kevin-halligen-found-dead-11206829

I don't know in detail how the British Police routins are when it comes to cases with dead persons like this.
The Police here in Sweden always start a 1st or 2nd degree murder investigation if they found someone dead and the death is "unexplained"

Surrey Police said:


"We were called to an address in Cobbett Hill Road, Normandy, Guildford, on Monday following a report of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell, who subsequently died”.


"The death is being treated as unexplained and a file will be passed to the coroner's office in due course."


ANALYSIS


Surrey Police said:


"We were called"


By whom?


When?


to an address in Cobbett Hill Road, Normandy, Guildford, on Monday following a report


By whom?


When?


of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell,


In what way?


Ill or injured?


Was a doctor called?


Was he taken to hospital?


who subsequently died.


‘subsequently’ – a few minutes after the call was made?


‘subsequently’ – or maybe before the police arrived? (compare Stuart Lubbock death)


‘subsequently’ – when? Hours later? The next day? Yesterday?


"The death is being treated as unexplained and a file will be passed to the coroner's office in due course."


In due course? What?? Was the Coroner not informed straightaway? - As soon as he was certified dead?


When is the funeral?

Who declared him dead? 
What time was he certified deceased? 
Was this at his girlfriends property or on the way to the hospital or at the hospital? 

Have his family been informed? 

When is the autopsy? 

I assume the police file will be passed to the coroner once the police have exhausted their investigation? 

That article is as clear as mud... confusion  is good eh?

sandancer wrote:Are we about to be bombarded with yet another rash of 
" Poor , brave heartbroken McCanns " this time with " Conned " added to the list ? 

I bet the fingers are twitching over keyboards already !

Sound judgement sandancer - sound judgement

Get'emGonçalo wrote:

ChippyM wrote:Don't  alcoholics have hemorrhages from the stomach / throat?  It might explain blood being 'all over the place'.  I imagine the official explanation will be along those lines.

    It is anyway, fishier than a haddocks underpants, many commenters on the article are in agreement.  I wonder if he was planning to talk, or a book or something?

My cat had liver cancer and she haemorrhaged and became jaundiced just before I took her to the vet for the final time. But the blood came out in a fine spray mainly through her nose, she certainly wasn't covered in blood.

Surely if Kevin had liver failure due to alcoholism he'd have been in hospital at that stage in his illness...?

 There's a thing called 'oesophageal varices'. The blood vessels in the throat become enlarged in alcoholics and can rupture, it sounds very nasty, vomiting blood and having to be ventilated so you don't drown in it are things that can happen.

  The sources coming out before any investigation and saying it was alcohol related do seem very convenient though.

"The death is being treated as unexplained? Surely the blood-loss is  good starting point. Was it from a wound somewhere on the body or haemorrhagic in nature? Did he die from blood loss, some kind of trauma or from vital organ disease or malfunction? A post-mortem should be able to determine any of these easily. Unless he had cardio-rhythm incident and the blood-loss was the result of a fall, establishing cause of death should be very straight-forward. Toxicology should be able to rule out poisons, venom, overdose etc. quickly. The decision to belatedly report on this "suspicious death", the obvious contradictions in the reports, and the posting of it as headline news linked to the McCanns smacks of deliberate conspiracy bait IMO.

I'm waiting for the inevitable - the insatiable grapevine to suggest that Halligan was murdered in order for the Home Office to grant yet another stay of execution for Operation Grange. Utter nonsense of course but it wouldn't surprise me if this incident is used to bolster renewed public support for the McCanns and thus prolong the inevitable - another Home Office grant to continue the facade.

Interesting to note it is only the tabloids and obscure regional press that have latched onto the McCann connection so far - dial M for Murdoch! The pits and the pendulum..

Phoebe wrote:"The death is being treated as unexplained? Surely the blood-loss is  good starting point..

Perhaps he cut himself shaving. Now where have I heard that before .

How convenient, one less blabbing mouth to worry about.
However, if this was a non accidental death, IE homicide then the mccanns have to be investigated as possible suspects due to the fact they knew him, he was employed by them via a 3rd party and, crucially, he conned them out of £500,000 that they have admitted to/claimed and that they took no action against him to recover said money /the 3rd party took no action.

So far we now have 3 deaths linked to the mccanns directly and indirectly.
I have always said once you kill for the first time, the rest become easier as the taboo has been broken.

We cannot say the mccanns have direct involvement but then apart from Maddie we have Brenda Leyland dead by suicide and now kevin halligan who was employed by them/the fund/3rd party to find their allegedly abducted daughter.
We know they like to use sources to get their nasty little comments and positive media stories out into the big wide world so that they can then claim ignorance when the response isn't as expected, always willing to play the blame game.

As it stands, the tapas 7 should be getting a little worried.
They know too much and after 10 years the guilt will be eating away at them.
Friendships change and they are no longer as close as they used to be, in fact i suspect they barely, if at all, talk to each other, let alone go on chummy vacations.
The only thing they now have in common is the death, disposal and subsequent coverup of Maddie which is a huge secret to be kept.

If one or more of the tapas was actually involved in the actual death of Maddie along with the mccanns, the worry is that after 10 years almost 11, the huge financial hit the mccanns have taken which will pretty much bankrupt them is that a nasty little accident will happen and suddenly the case gets solved with all blame being laid on said tapas member/s.
The mccanns profess shock and horror claiming they suspected nothing, case gets solved and the mccanns walk free albeit poorer unless they can somehow claim compensation as victims of crime and/or sue said estate of tapas member.

The mccanns are lying, conniving, duplicitous nasty little people who will stop at nothing to get their own way as we have seen with all the leaked stories in their favor.

There is also the risk that their supporters who can and will see no wrong with their beloved and saintly mccanns will not take action on their behalf in an attempt to protect their master and mistress from anyone who doesn't believe their innocence.

If this was an accidental/natural death, the mccanns still have a problem.
What if halligen kept diaries on what he did find out little as it may be.
We know he employed genuine experts who we later learned were not paid, they too were conned by the conman.
What if they found interesting information that implicated the mccanns and chums?
They may not have been able to locate Maddie's remains but may have had a general idea of what happened to her and where she was dumped.
What if halligen had all this information safely locked away as a nest egg?
What if he decided perhaps a little blackmail was in order since his expensive lifestyle had gone pants up?

Mccanns pay an amount per month/per annum to keep him quiet rather than face charges of homicide, concealment of a corpse and filing a false police report in Portugal and then all those nice fraud charges relating to the fund?

Now that they have to pay out probably hundreds of thousands in court costs and legal fees for not only themselves but also that of all the defendants they took to court plus also facing being possibly sued by selfsame defendants, and knowing just how avaricious the mccanns are plus the £500,000 that was ringfenced (in this case in such a way it had to be spent on property) they had to look for savings somewhere.

Gerry is a lecturer which means he possibly may not be earning as much as before and won't have the same status as a cardiologist consultant (he was in a dead end job there with no chance of promotion as well as being a liability to the hospital) and, even as a professor he won't have tenure nor much chance of promotion given his notoriety.
Kate is working in a medical job but hasn't said what so it could be receptionist, nursing assistant as anything else would require her to undergo full training, maybe a phlebotomist,maybe even a cleaner in a hospital or porter so her income may be somewhat limited especially if she is part time.

I bet right now the tapas 7 are quivering, 3 deaths linked to the mccanns, imaginations working overtime, wondering if perhaps they could be next?

This might also be enough to get someone talking, even if halligan's death turns out to be natural, it is still enough to cause jitters especially as they are part of a large secret involving possible homicide which would make them  co conspirators, aiding and abetting an offender, filing a false police report, perverting the course of justice, obstruction of justice, perjury and fraud, charges both in the UK and Portugal.

This could get quite interesting.

Verdi wrote:

Phoebe wrote:"The death is being treated as unexplained? Surely the blood-loss is  good starting point..

Perhaps he cut himself shaving.  Now where have I heard that before .

I think you may be onto something, Mr Verdi...

Hobs wrote:How convenient, one less blabbing mouth to worry about.
However, if this was a non accidental death, IE homicide then the mccanns have to be investigated as possible suspects due to the fact they knew him, he was employed by them via a 3rd party and, crucially, he conned them out of £500,000 that they have admitted to/claimed and that they took no action against him to recover said money /the 3rd party took no action.

So far we now have 3 deaths linked to the mccanns directly and indirectly.
I have always said once you kill for the first time, the rest become easier as the taboo has been broken.

We cannot say the mccanns have direct involvement but then apart from Maddie we have Brenda Leyland dead by suicide and now kevin halligan who was employed by them/the fund/3rd party to find their allegedly abducted daughter.
We know they like to use sources to get their nasty little comments and positive media stories out into the big wide world so that they can then claim ignorance when the response isn't as expected, always willing to play the blame game.

As it stands, the tapas 7 should be getting a little worried.
They know too much and after 10 years the guilt will be eating away at them.
Friendships change and they are no longer as close as they used to be, in fact i suspect they barely, if at all, talk to each other, let alone go on chummy vacations.
The only thing they now have in common is the death, disposal and subsequent coverup of Maddie which is a huge secret to be kept.

If one or more of the tapas was actually involved in the actual death of Maddie along with the mccanns, the worry is that after 10 years almost 11, the huge financial hit the mccanns have taken which will pretty much bankrupt them is that a nasty little accident will happen and suddenly the case gets solved with all blame being laid on said tapas member/s.
The mccanns profess shock and horror claiming they suspected nothing, case gets solved and the mccanns walk free albeit poorer unless they can somehow claim compensation as victims of crime and/or sue said estate of tapas member.

The mccanns are lying, conniving, duplicitous nasty little people who will stop at nothing to get their own way as we have seen with all the leaked stories in their favor.

There is also the risk that their supporters who can and will see no wrong with their beloved and saintly mccanns will not take action on their behalf in an attempt to protect their master and mistress from anyone who doesn't believe their innocence.

If this was an accidental/natural death, the mccanns still have a problem.
What if halligen kept diaries on what he did find out little as it may be.
We know he employed genuine experts who we later learned were not paid, they too were conned by the conman.
What if they found interesting information that implicated the mccanns and chums?
They may not have been able to locate Maddie's remains but may have had a general idea of what happened to her and where she was dumped.
What if halligen had all this information safely locked away as a nest egg?
What if he decided perhaps a little blackmail was in order since his expensive lifestyle had gone pants up?

Mccanns pay an amount per month/per annum to keep him quiet rather than face charges of homicide, concealment of a corpse and filing a false police report in Portugal and then all those nice fraud charges relating to the fund?

Now that they have to pay out probably hundreds of thousands in court costs and legal fees for not only themselves but also that of all the defendants they took to court plus also facing being possibly sued by selfsame defendants, and knowing just how avaricious the mccanns are plus the £500,000 that was ringfenced (in this case in such a way it had to be spent on property) they had to look for savings somewhere.

Gerry is a lecturer which means he possibly may not be earning as much as before and won't have the same status as a cardiologist consultant (he was in a dead end job there with no chance of promotion as well as being a liability to the hospital) and, even as a professor he won't have tenure nor much chance of promotion given his notoriety.
Kate is working in a medical job but hasn't said what so it could be receptionist, nursing assistant as anything else would require her to undergo full training, maybe a phlebotomist,maybe even a cleaner in a hospital or porter so her income may be somewhat limited especially if she is part time.

I bet right now the tapas 7 are quivering, 3 deaths linked to the mccanns, imaginations working overtime, wondering if perhaps they could be next?

This might also be enough to get someone talking, even if halligan's death turns out to be natural, it is still enough to cause jitters especially as they are part of a large secret involving possible homicide which would make them  co conspirators, aiding and abetting an offender, filing a false police report, perverting the course of justice, obstruction of justice, perjury and fraud, charges both in the UK and Portugal.

This could get quite interesting.

I see no evidence that the McCanns have killed anyone - including Madeleine.

I found the above post eye-raising to say the least.

The kind of post that invites trouble.

This story clearly shows that there are STILL people who are privvy to inside information. 
Police are called to ALL sudden deaths. They decide if the death may be suspicious. They dont however disclose the circumstances of how that person was found to the newspapers. 
They may offload to a family member if it was a harrowing case but they are not allowed to run to the papers. 
Who leaked this and on whose instruction?
Whos idea was it to pre-empt HM Coroner on the cause of death? 
It stinks and its about time this in itself was investigated.

BBC News website is reporting that Adrian Gatton, investigative journalist and TV director, confirmed KH's death to the PA, stating that he had not been in good health.

From today's Sunday Independent (Ireland)


 "Adrian Gatton, a TV director and investigative journalist, who made a documentary with Halligen in 2014 The McCanns and the Conman and who knew Halligen well, confirmed that he died last Monday, having sunk into alcohol addiction.
He said: "Although his death is certainly not foul play, as has been suggested, there are certainly a lot of people who wished him ill. But he was also unique.   
"I knew chapter and verse about his life and career, but my interest was really to try and get to the bottom of why he did what he did.
"My understanding is that he was found dead on Monday night. There was blood around the house, probably caused by previous falls when he was either drunk or blacking out.
"Halligen was increasingly shambolic and these blood stains hadn't been cleared up.
"His house was full of empty drink bottles. A lot of people wished him ill but his death is almost certainly related to alcoholism."
Surrey Police said the death was currently being treated as "unexplained".

In this article police are also quoted as stating they were called to the house following a report of a man in his 50s being taken unwell. 

The McCanns and the Conman - Documentary

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13407p350-video-of-the-day#380040

And where was his girlfriend at the time KH was supposedly blacking out or falling all over due to alcoholism for blood to be left around the house? 

No cleaning up old blood from previous falls?  
Did the girlfriend call an ambulance or the police? 
If the police first, why? 

Was she in the house at the time? 

And a coroners job is to ascertain and determine death...where, why, how...it is not for the police or anyone else to release a cause of death, their job is to investigate and pass the file to the coroner to determine at inquest.

Phoebe wrote:From today's Sunday Independent (Ireland)

He said: "Although his death is certainly not foul play, as has been suggested...

Well that'll save money on an inquest.

The Sunday Times - 22nd November 2009

Two years ago Halligen allegedly faked his own wedding to a lawyer in Washington. He told his bride that his spy masters would not allow his real name to be on wedding documents. He was, in fact, already married and the priest was an actor. A wider investigation has found he bought a £1m mansion with money allegedly defrauded from Trafigura, the firm accused of dumping toxic waste in Africa. Last week the US Department of Justice issued an indictment seeking his arrest.

Far bigger fish to fry than the McCanns - pond life by comparison.

Mark Willis wrote:

Verdi wrote:

Phoebe wrote:"The death is being treated as unexplained? Surely the blood-loss is  good starting point..

Perhaps he cut himself shaving.  Now where have I heard that before .

I think you may be onto something, Mr Verdi...

Is that an Occam's razor I see before my eyes?  Nothing like it for that awkward 5 o'clock shadow..

Verdi wrote:

Mark Willis wrote:

Verdi wrote:

Phoebe wrote:"The death is being treated as unexplained? Surely the blood-loss is  good starting point..

Perhaps he cut himself shaving.  Now where have I heard that before .

I think you may be onto something, Mr Verdi...

Is that an Occam's razor I see before my eyes?  Nothing like it for that awkward 5 o'clock shadow..

Well spotted. One scrape of that you'll never cast a shadow ever again! 

Verdi wrote:The Sunday Times - 22nd November 2009  

Two years ago Halligen allegedly faked his own wedding to a lawyer in Washington. He told his bride that his spy masters would not allow his real name to be on wedding documents. He was, in fact, already married and the priest was an actor. A wider investigation has found he bought a £1m mansion with money allegedly defrauded from Trafigura, the firm accused of dumping toxic waste in Africa. Last week the US Department of Justice issued an indictment seeking his arrest.

Far bigger fish to fry than the McCanns - pond life by comparison.

Are you sure?  Rebekah Brooks told Cameron "were all in this together".  In what????

There were a number of corrupt PI's, dodgy police officers, money laundering experts, millionaire business men, celebrities, and people with honours either employed by or supporting the McCanns despite the overwhelming evidence that  there was no abduction.  Even Everton FC got adverts out of Madeleines' demise.  Did Halligen really have bigger fish to fry or is this Maddie case cover-up part of a much bigger scam?

sharonl wrote:

Verdi wrote:The Sunday Times - 22nd November 2009  

Two years ago Halligen allegedly faked his own wedding to a lawyer in Washington. He told his bride that his spy masters would not allow his real name to be on wedding documents. He was, in fact, already married and the priest was an actor. A wider investigation has found he bought a £1m mansion with money allegedly defrauded from Trafigura, the firm accused of dumping toxic waste in Africa. Last week the US Department of Justice issued an indictment seeking his arrest.

Far bigger fish to fry than the McCanns - pond life by comparison.

Are you sure?  Rebekah Brooks told Cameron "were all in this together".  In what????

There were a number of corrupt PI's, dodgy police officers, money laundering experts, millionaire business men, celebrities, and people with honours either employed by or supporting the McCanns despite the overwhelming evidence that  there was no abduction.  Even Everton FC got adverts out of Madeleines' demise.  Did Halligen really have bigger fish to fry or is this Maddie case cover-up part of a much bigger scam?

I have little doubt as to the extent of this cover-up.

As regards Halligan specifically, my meaning was leaning more towards his past victims who would like to see him dead and the sum of money paid to him  by the McCann faction, being peanuts compared to his past misdemeanours.  

I have before wondered if Halligan was money laundering for the Fund Limited Company but that wouldn't explain sacking Oakley International mid contract - unless of course he failed to keep to his side of the bargain.  I don't believe Oakley International were engaged to privately investigate Madeleine's disappearance any more than any of the other bogus private detectives were.

ETA: It has been implied that Halligan was murdered because the Oakley International investigation into Madeleine's disappearance uncovered evidence that could put the McCanns behind bars - or words to that effect. This I think is total nonsense for the simple reason Halligan and his Oakley International were not employed by the Limited Company board of directors to investigate Madeleine's disappearance.

PS: Sorry if this appears a bit garbled - computer problems

BlueBag wrote:

Hobs wrote:How convenient, one less blabbing mouth to worry about.
However, if this was a non accidental death, IE homicide then the mccanns have to be investigated as possible suspects due to the fact they knew him, he was employed by them via a 3rd party and, crucially, he conned them out of £500,000 that they have admitted to/claimed and that they took no action against him to recover said money /the 3rd party took no action.

So far we now have 3 deaths linked to the mccanns directly and indirectly.
I have always said once you kill for the first time, the rest become easier as the taboo has been broken.

We cannot say the mccanns have direct involvement but then apart from Maddie we have Brenda Leyland dead by suicide and now kevin halligan who was employed by them/the fund/3rd party to find their allegedly abducted daughter.
We know they like to use sources to get their nasty little comments and positive media stories out into the big wide world so that they can then claim ignorance when the response isn't as expected, always willing to play the blame game.

As it stands, the tapas 7 should be getting a little worried.
They know too much and after 10 years the guilt will be eating away at them.
Friendships change and they are no longer as close as they used to be, in fact i suspect they barely, if at all, talk to each other, let alone go on chummy vacations.
The only thing they now have in common is the death, disposal and subsequent coverup of Maddie which is a huge secret to be kept.

If one or more of the tapas was actually involved in the actual death of Maddie along with the mccanns, the worry is that after 10 years almost 11, the huge financial hit the mccanns have taken which will pretty much bankrupt them is that a nasty little accident will happen and suddenly the case gets solved with all blame being laid on said tapas member/s.
The mccanns profess shock and horror claiming they suspected nothing, case gets solved and the mccanns walk free albeit poorer unless they can somehow claim compensation as victims of crime and/or sue said estate of tapas member.

The mccanns are lying, conniving, duplicitous nasty little people who will stop at nothing to get their own way as we have seen with all the leaked stories in their favor.

There is also the risk that their supporters who can and will see no wrong with their beloved and saintly mccanns will not take action on their behalf in an attempt to protect their master and mistress from anyone who doesn't believe their innocence.

If this was an accidental/natural death, the mccanns still have a problem.
What if halligen kept diaries on what he did find out little as it may be.
We know he employed genuine experts who we later learned were not paid, they too were conned by the conman.
What if they found interesting information that implicated the mccanns and chums?
They may not have been able to locate Maddie's remains but may have had a general idea of what happened to her and where she was dumped.
What if halligen had all this information safely locked away as a nest egg?
What if he decided perhaps a little blackmail was in order since his expensive lifestyle had gone pants up?

Mccanns pay an amount per month/per annum to keep him quiet rather than face charges of homicide, concealment of a corpse and filing a false police report in Portugal and then all those nice fraud charges relating to the fund?

Now that they have to pay out probably hundreds of thousands in court costs and legal fees for not only themselves but also that of all the defendants they took to court plus also facing being possibly sued by selfsame defendants, and knowing just how avaricious the mccanns are plus the £500,000 that was ringfenced (in this case in such a way it had to be spent on property) they had to look for savings somewhere.

Gerry is a lecturer which means he possibly may not be earning as much as before and won't have the same status as a cardiologist consultant (he was in a dead end job there with no chance of promotion as well as being a liability to the hospital) and, even as a professor he won't have tenure nor much chance of promotion given his notoriety.
Kate is working in a medical job but hasn't said what so it could be receptionist, nursing assistant as anything else would require her to undergo full training, maybe a phlebotomist,maybe even a cleaner in a hospital or porter so her income may be somewhat limited especially if she is part time.

I bet right now the tapas 7 are quivering, 3 deaths linked to the mccanns, imaginations working overtime, wondering if perhaps they could be next?

This might also be enough to get someone talking, even if halligan's death turns out to be natural, it is still enough to cause jitters especially as they are part of a large secret involving possible homicide which would make them  co conspirators, aiding and abetting an offender, filing a false police report, perverting the course of justice, obstruction of justice, perjury and fraud, charges both in the UK and Portugal.

This could get quite interesting.

I see no evidence that the McCanns have killed anyone - including Madeleine.

I found the above post eye-raising to say the least.

The kind of post that invites trouble.

Aside from the forensic evidence and their own words?

Innocent people act a certain way, guilty people act a certain way.
They are mutually exclusive.

one has to ask, if it was purely accidental, why the need to conceal the body rather than call 911?
Had it been an accidental overdose why did they not call 911 and tell the truth in that she found medication and ingested it and they only realized when they got home?
Parental instinct alone would have had them render first aid and call 911 regardless.

That they had the need to conceal and then lie and refuse to cooperate with LE means the death could not be explained as accidental.
Non accidental death is either manslaughter or homicide.

There is every indication from their behavior and language over the last almost 11 years that the death of Maddie was non accidental, enough that the PJ were looking at homicide.