by Tony Bennett on Wed 15 Feb 2017 - 23:02
This is an updated revision of an earlier article on the same subject posted many years ago.
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THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE WHO RUSHED OUT TO PRAIA DA LUZ AFTER 3 MAY 2007 AND BY FRIDAY 11 MAY 2007
This summarises a list of those known to have rushed out to Praia da Luz after 3 May 2007 (or on the case of Resonate and Robert Murat, BEFORE then). Dates of arrival given where known, all before Thursday May 10 unless otherwise stated:
Government officials
Robert Henderson – British Consul for the Algarve – immediate (persuaded Portuguese Police to allow the McCanns to wash clothes before seizing them)
John Buck – British Ambassador to Portugal (Lisbon), arrived immediately
Angela Morado – British Proconsul, arrived immediately
Liz Dow, British Consul rom the Embassy in Lisbon, arrived immediately
Andy Bowes, British Embassy Press Officer, arrived immediately
Sheree Dodd, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Other staff from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
British Police Officers
Glen Power, British Police Liaison Officer for Portugal, arrived 5 May
An ‘Analyst’ (unnamed) from the National Policing Improvements Agency, arrived 4 May
Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Small, Leicestershire Police
Two other police ‘family liaison’ officers from Leicestershire Police
Government security and secret service personnel
Staff from MI5 (unnamed)
Staff from Child Exploitation and OnLine Protection Service (unnamed – Kate McCann in her book describes them As ‘Forensic Psychologists’), arrived 4 MayMore staff from CEOP, the ‘Director of the Forensic Psychology Unit’ AND a CEOP ‘social worker’ (arrived 6 May)Staff from Special Branch (unnamed)‘Criminal profilers’ (unnamed - attached to unnamed government security departments) Government-funded private security firms
Kenneth Farrow from Control Risks Group
Michael Keenan from Control Risks Group
Staff from government-supported private crisis psychology group
Alan Pike, Head of Yorkshire-based Centre for Crisis Psychology (CCP) (arrived 4 May)
Martin Alderton, Colleague of Alan Pike from CCP (arrived 5 May)
Public Relations Consultants
Michael Frolich, Head of Resonate, subsidiary of international PR company Bell Pottinger (already there by Monday 30 April)
Tricia Moon, Deputy Director of Resonate, (already there by Monday 30 April)
Alex Woolfall, Head of Risk for international PR company Bell Pottinger, arrived 4 May (helped to edit Gerry McCann’s photos before putting them on a disc for the PJ)
Lawyers
Staff from the recently-formed International Family Law Group (IFLG):
Michael Nicholls, barrister, arrived 11 May
Accompanied by a ‘paralegal’ from Leicestershire, arrived 11 May
There are references to other government lawyers having arrived
Top staff from Mark Warner (company that organised the holiday)
David Hopkins, Managing Director of Mark Warner
One of his senior colleagues
Interpreters
Robert Murat became the initial main interpreter for the Portuguese Police on 4 May. He had already flown out from England on 1 May. He was recommended by British Consul Robert Henderson
Religious Organisations
Rev. Haynes and Susan Hubbard mysteriously arrived in Praia da Luz from Canada on Sunday 6 May, to take up an appointment as the Anglican Minister in Praia da Luz. The Hubbards rapidly became very close friends of the Mccanns
Others
‘Hugh’ – Kate in her book says he would only identify himself as ‘Hugh’, he was brought in by Control Risks Group and said he was ‘a former intelligence officer, now a kidnap negotiator and counsellor’. He attended meeting with the lawyers from IFLG
OTHER APPOINTMENTS
Clarence Mitchell, Head of the government’s Media Monitoring Unit: According to the reply to a Freedom of Information request, he was appointed on Sunday 6 May to head up the government’s PR support for the McCanns, but he did not travel to Portugal until 22 May 2007
The government set up a very high-powered liaison committee on Tuesday 8 May under the Chairmanship of Matt Baggott, Leicestershire Police Chief Constable. It consisted of representatives from a wide variety of government departments and agencies. The government has refused to answer FoIAct questions about who those agencies were.
Government Ministers Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Margaret Beckett (Foreign Secretary) spoke to Gerry McCann in the first week. Tony Blair, Prime Minister, did so later.
Literally hundreds of international journalists were also there in that first week.