A timeline of events since the disappearance of Madeleine Beth McCann

"A timeline of events extracted from an article on the Madeleine Foundation website - which is now banned as a result of threatened libel action by Brian Kennedy. However, I have permission from MF to publish this, as there is nothing in the timeline itself which could be considered libellous".



A timeline of events

1. 3 May 2007: Madeleine McCann reported missing

2. 5 May 2007: Date that Marcos Aragão Correia says he attended his first-ever Spiritualist Church meeting in Madeira, and says he had ‘supernatural indications’ about what really happened to Madeleine McCann

3. May 2007: A number of ‘sightings’ of Madeleine in Morocco

4. 10-13 June 2007: McCanns visit Morocco; meet top Moroccan officials

5. 11 June 2007: McCanns informed by the Foreign Office that Gonçalo Amaral and four other detectives have now been charged with assault on Leonor Cipriano and falsifying reports, based on Cipriano’s allegations made a year earlier

6. 31 August 2007: Clara Torres said she took a photo of Bushra Bishina, being carried on the back of a Moroccan peasant woman, on this date (see 25 September below)

7. 7 September 2007 (Friday): McCanns made arguidos

8. 10 September 2007: Devastating police report by Inspector Tavares de Almeida suggesting that the evidence points to Madeleine dying in McCanns’ holiday apartment: McCanns leave Portugal

9.  12 September 2007: According to Dr Kate McCann’s book ‘madeleine’, this was the day the McCanns first knew about Kennedy, when Kennedy’s in-house lawyer to his Latium group of companies, Freemason Edward Smethurst, contacted Dr Gerald McCann offering Kennedy’s help

10.  14 September 2007: Kennedy took Smethurst to a meeting at Solicitors Kingsley Napley. Also present were Dr Gerald McCann, Dr Kate McCann, Solicitor Angus McBride (who drove up to Rothley to collect the McCanns), top Solicitor Michael Caplan QC (an expert in extradition proccedings) and at least two members of staff of security company Control Risks Group

11. At this meeting Brian Kennedy agreed to help fund lawyers’ fees and some of the costs of the private investigation. The precise financial arrangements have never been disclosed - and press statements from the McCann Team about the extent of Brian Kennedy’s help have been contradictory. At this meeting, Smethurst was appointed ‘The McCanns’ Co-ordinating Lawyer’

12. It is likley that at this meeting, Brian Kennedy was given authority to run the private investigations, in conjunction with the McCanns and Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ chief reputation manager. Since September 2007, or possibly earlier, Kennedy funded and directed the McCanns’ private investigation operation from a house in Knutsford: There are credible suggestions that he was involved in the case before then

13.  15 September 2007 (Saturday): The McCanns’ public relations spokesman, Justine McGuinness, resigns

14. 16 September 2007: John McCann, Trustee if the Find Madeleine Fund, announces an £80,000 advertising campaign to be spent on publicising Madeleine’s disappearance in Morocco, Spain and Portugal

15. One day later (17 September 2007, Clarence Mitchell officially resigned from the Civil Service and began to be employed full-time by the McCanns

16. Three days after (20 September 2007), another lawyers’ meeting was held where the McCanns met five lawyers: Michael Caplan QC, Angus McBride, Edward Smethurst and Portuguese lawyers Carlos Pinto de Abreu and Rogerio Alves, ‘President of the Portuguese Bar’ (barristers’ association)

17. 22 September 2007: first public announcement of Brian Kennedy’s involvement in helping the McCanns, in the Liverpool Daily Echo

18. 23 September 2007: McCann Team falsely claim that Control Risks Group was only brought in recently. In fact, they had been involved from the first week after Madeleine was reported misisng

19. 25 September 2007: Nearly all Britain’s media carry photos of Bushra Bishina, a pale-skinned girl being carried by a Moroccan peasant, taken by Clara Torres (see above). Many headlines like: ‘Could this be Madeleine?’

20. 25 or 26 September 2007: Kennedy flies out in his private jet to Rabat and meets Ali El Bouazaout, one of Kennedy’s ‘investigators’ in Morocco

21. September 2007: Kennedy chose controversial Spanish detective agency, Método 3, to run the McCanns’ private investigation, handing them a 6-month contract. The decision was taken by Brian Kennedy and the McCanns and  not by the Trustees of the Find Madeleine Fund.

22.Summary of Information about Método 3:
(a) 1986: Founded by Marita Fernandez Lado, mother of Francisco Marco
(b) 1995: Credible allegations that the firm was invovled in illegal ’phone-tapping and other illegal activity, but the charges were dropped
(c) Current boss Francisco Marco said on the record that Método 3’s main activ was ‘investgatimg company fraud’
(d) When Método 3 were hired, Mr Marco claimed he had ‘a 100% success rate’ and had ‘reunited 23 missing children and teenagers with their families’. Despite many enquiries, he never substantiated these claims.

23. Método 3’s activities during their 6-month contract:
(a)    Sep & Oct 2007: generating ‘sightings’ of Madeleine, mostly in Morocco
(b)    Oct 2007?: appointing lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia to help them
(c)    Oct-Dec 2007: developing stories implicating Robert Murat and Michaela Walczuk in Madeleine’s disappearance
(d)     Oct 2007: António Jimenez from Método 3, former Head of the Catalonia Anti-Kidnapping and Trafficking Unit, and later, according to Francisco Marco, ‘Head of our Madeleine McCann investigation’, contacts current Head of the Catalonia Unit seeking to meet with Portuguese Police
(e)    Mid-Oct 2007: António Jimenez of Metodo 3 travels to Morocco with Moroccan ex-pat living in Spain, Naoual Malhi, to research her claimed sighting of Madeleine in Fnideq, Morocco
(f)    19 October 2007: Head of Catalonia Anti-Kidnapping Unit contacts Portuguese Police to arrange a meeting, claiming that Método 3 has relevant evidence for the Madeleine McCann investigation to give them. He says: ‘Brian Kennedy, not the McCanns’, is funding Método 3
(g)     13 November 2007: António Jimenez from Método 3 attends meeting in Portimão with Portuguese Police and Brian Kennedy
(h)     Early December 2007, Spanish TV company Antena stated they had Método 3’s permission to reveal that they were ‘receiving their payment from Brian Kennedy not Madeleine's Fund nor from anyone else’.  This was contrary to what the McCann Team were saying in England
(i)    10 December 2007: Two staff from Método 3 met Marcos Aragão Correia at the Arade Dam, southern Portugal: they planned the Arade Dam story
(j)    December 2007: Francisco Marco, Método 3’s boss, boasted that they knew where Madeleine was and she ‘could be home by Christmas’
(k)     Late 2007: Método 3 allegedly placed a tracking device on Robert Murat’s car and investigated allegations that Método 3 operatives were harassing Murat, a claim supported by his mother, Jennifer Murat
(l)     Early 2008? A detective from Método 3 was questioned over claims that he had run over a man in a car and attempted to murder him - in relation to information the man said he had about the murder of Joana Cipriano
(m)Early 2008: António Jimenez accused of having taken several British journalists to meet witnesses  who had apparently been paid in advance to say that they had seen Madeleine in Morocco
(n)     February 2008: António Jimenez arrested in a case involving serious allegations of theft of and dealing in cocaine. Clarence Mitchell lies by telling the press that Jimenez is ‘nothing to do with us’
(o)     Paid Aragão Correia to make two searches the Arade Dam in February and March for Madeleine’s body, and attended during the searches;  Correia originally boasted that he was paying for the searches himself
(p)2008: Although again the McCann Team have put out contradictory statements about how much Metodo 3 were paid, most of their statements suggest the figure was around £250,000. Later in 2008, Método 3 issued a statement saying they were paid ‘far less’ than this
(q)August 2008: Método 3 threaten to sue the British press for defamation

24. 2 October 2007: Gonçalo Amaral dismissed from the Madeleine McCann

25. Late October: Daily Mail journalist flies out to Morocco to follow up Naoual Malhi’s claims of Madeleine being held high in the Rif mountains

26. 12 November 2007: Madeira court hears Aragão Correia’s case against the Portuguese postal service for allegedly failing to deliver a Recorded Delivery letter to the McCanns. He loses and has to pay 100 euros costs

27. 13 November 2007: Brian Kennedy attends two meetings in Portugal, one with the Policia Judiciária (Portuguese Police) and Francisco Marco and Jimenez of Método 3; at the second he had his lawyer Smethurst with him and dined at the Eveleighs’ house with Robert Murat, Robert Murat’s lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, his mother, Jennifer Murat, and his aunt and uncle Ralph Eveleigh and Sally Eveleigh. Kennedy says it is to ask Murat for help in solving the mystery of what really happened to Madeleine. It is more likely to have been some kind of ‘deal’ between Kennedy and Murat

28. 4 February 2008: first report, by Press Association, featuring news of a search of the Arade Dam, Portugal, for Madeleine’s remains, by Marcos Aragão Correia, who is described in the article as ‘a good Samaritan’

29. February 2008: The Find Madeleine Fund meet with Brian Kennedy to review Método 3’s contract. Método 3’s contract was not terminated after 6 months. They carried on working for Kennedy for at least a year after March 2008, though ‘on a part-time basis’  

30. 10 March 2008: Second search of Arade Dam by Marcos Aragão Correia

31. 14 March 2008: ‘Bag of bones’ is found in the Arade Dam

32.  Approx April 2008: Kennedy appoints Kevin Halligen, one-man owner of Red Defence International and Oakley International, to investigate Madeleine’s disappearance. He is paid either £300,000 or over £500,000 (reports differ) for his work

33.  8 April 2008: Portuguese lawyer Aragão Correia, at the request of Método 3, who are employed by Kennedy, visits child murderess Leonor Cipriano in prison and agrees to help her with her prosecution of Gonçalo Amaral  and four other detectives who, she says, beat a confession out of her

34. 22 July 2008: Portuguese Attorney-General archives the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, saying there is no evidence of any particular individual committing a crime in relation to Madeleine’s disappearance; shortly afterwards, Gonçalo Amaral publishes ‘The Truth About A Lie’  

35. October 2008: McCann Team’s contract with Halligen/Oakley International terminated without the public being given one firm fact about who the abductor might be or where Madeleine may have been taken

36.  iJet Director reveals (in 2009) that the McCann Team, while Halligen was in charge of their private investigation (Apr-Oct 2008) never followed up a single ’phone call to their ‘information hotline’

37.  21 October 2008: Trial of Gonçalo Amaral opens in Faro to hear Leonor Cipriano’s claim that he and four other detectives beat a confession out of her. She sensationally announces that she has ditched her former lawyers and has appointed Marcos Aragão Correia to represent her

38.  November 2008: Probable date that Brian Kennedy hired Dave Edgar

39. 10 January 2009: the domain name ‘alphaig.co.uk’ was registered by Andrew Dickman, who is a long-term friend of Kennedy and inextricably associated with Brian Kennedy’s own company, the Latium Group

40.  April 2009: McCann Team generate stories about paedophile Raymond Hewlett being a possible suspect in relation to Madeleine’s abduction

41. 2 May 2009: British media inform the public for the first time about Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, claiming they run a thriving private detective  agency called ‘Alpha Investigations Group’ - which doesn’t exist

42.  7 May 2009: Channel 4 show ‘mockumentary’, a documentary claiming to  reconstruct of events in Portugal on 3 May 2007 - but it simply recycles the McCann Team’s version of events. New McCann Team detectives Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley feature heavily in the programme

43.  10 June 2009: Arthur Cowley registers ‘ALPHAIG’, a company that has never advertised, and has no assets and negligible reported income; it appears to be merely a ‘shell’ company designed to be confused with the non-existent ‘Alpha Investigations Group’

44. August 2009: Mark Hollingsworth article in Evening Standard reveals that Kevin Halligen is wanted in the U.S. on serious fraud allegations and is on the run from police. Hollingsworth says he Halligen has MI5 connections and is living the high life with a girlfriend and staying at luxury hotels in Britain and the U.S. He is a heavy drinker. The article also alleged that Kennedy and his men intimidated witnesses in the Madeleine McCann case into silence. Kennedy did not sue the Evening Standard

45. August 2009: McCann Team generate story about an Australian-speaking Victoria Beckham-lookalike asking about her ‘new daughter’ on a Barcelona dockside at 2am on Sunday 6 May. The alleged source is an anonymous British banker who had been drinking that evening in Barcelona bars for several hours. It took him over two years to mention this to anyone. Then he contacted the McCann Team

46. September 2009: McCann Team generate story about Madeleine being held in a prison lair near Praia da Luz

47. October 2009: Kevin Halligen found in £700-a-night Oxfordshire Hotel and taken to Belmarsh maximum security prison

48. December 2009: Paedophile Raymond Hewlett dies in Aachen, Germany

49. January 2010: Madeleine said to have been seen in Dubai

50. 4 March 2010: Conservative leader David Cameron announces that his Director of Communications, Andy Coulson, recently arrested in the ’phone hacking scandal, has appointed the McCanns’ reputation manager, Clarence Mitchell, as his Deputy in the run-up to the General Election

51. March 2010: Madeleine said to have been captured on CCTV in a New Zealand supermarket; it was a young girl out shopping with her father  

52. 1 September 2010: The Sun publishes one of its most ridiculous-ever stories about Madeleine, claiming that dying paedophile Raymond Hewlett wrote a death-bed letter to his estranged son, delivered by a ‘mystery man’, claiming that a gypsy gang leader admitted to him, in a drinking session, snatching Madeleine McCann to order for a wealthy North African family                                                                                                                                                          

53.  2010: Kennedy’s company Building Plastics Holdings is found to have ‘breached its banking covenants’ and is struggling to repay large loans of over £30 million. Its accounts were filed late. Kennedy uses libel firm Carter Ruck to try to suppress this story

54. February 2011:  Angolan bouncer claims Madeleine is ‘in the U.S.’              

55. May 2011: Kennedy’s former Football League team, Stockport County, relegated from the Football League and will play non-leaugue football next season. Many fans blame Stockport County’s decline on Kennedy forcing it to ground-share with his favoured ‘Sale Sharks’ rugby union club

56. 21 June 2011: Kevin Halligen loses his High Court appeal against an Extradition Order made by the Secretary of State - and is sent to the U.S.

Thanks for posting this up and to MF for giving permission. This is very interesting