Leicestershire constabulary remove link to the McCann's fraudulent fund
Following a letter from Tony Bennett of the Madeleine Foundation to Leicestershire Constabulary - the relevant section posted below - the link to the McCann's fraudulent fund has been removed:
QUOTE:
"Why before, during and after the time the McCanns were ‘arguidos’ (which the McCanns insist means ‘persons of interest’ but is more usually translated ‘suspects’), did Leicestershire Police:
(i) Link their website to the McCanns’ fund-raising website, and
(ii) In doing so, encourage those who might have relevant information, to give this not to Leicestershire Police nor to the Portuguese Police, but to the McCanns’ own team of private investigators?
In the view of many, this set a dangerous and wholly new precedent in the history of criminal investigations anywhere in the world. A police force, openly and in a high profile manner, invited the public to donate to the fund-raising campaign of two suspects in a serious criminal investigation and helped them by diverting people who wished to supply information away from official police investigators and to their own private investigators, some of whose controversial history we have demonstrated above."
UNQUOTE
Posted on our forum here
First Dr Doug Skehan and Gerry's brother, John McCann, resign from the Fraudulent Fund and now Leicester police.....
More about Leicester police here
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Update from Tony Bennett:
Madeleine McCann has been restored, after a few days, to the list of officially missing persons on the Leicestershire Police website.
But now there are TWO crucial differences between the previous page and the one put up by Leics Police last night, after some cleaning up:
1. Their page no longer links to the McCanns' fund-raising website, Find Madeleine - and
2. Their page now - and rightly - asks the public to contact Leicestershire Police with information, and not, er, Metodo 3, Francisco Marco, Oakley International, Kevin Halligen, Dave Edgar, Arthur Cowley etc.
By the way, The Madeleine Foundation does not claim the credit for this very significant change of policy by Leics Police.
Many people have protested about the previous situation of Leics Police inviting the public to donate to the McCanns and give information to them not to the police.
What we do say - and this is a matter of public record - is that we have continually raised this subject with both Leicestershire Police and the Home Office over the past two years, and we've asked FOI questions of Leics Police and encouraged others to do so. We cannot say what effect these may have had.
Tony Bennett
Secretary
The Madeleine Foundation