And so it was.
The night of the 3rd/4th May 2007, the wires were buzzing across Europe with tales of a three year old child, snatched from her bed in the middle of the night between checks by her parents and one or some of their group of friends. Journalists on call, instantly available to jet across to Portugal's Algarve to be first with the breaking news, the exclusive to fill the mornings headlines over coffee boiled eggs, soldiers and cornflakes.
Slowly but surely the world's media arrived on the scene, some claiming to be first past the post, others just content to be part of the foray and on the ground to satiate the appetite of the early morning news fanatic. What better than a missing child to set the pulse pumping hard and fast, what a start to the day to occupy the minds and voices of the commuter, the coffee break, the lunch break, the dinner table and across the pool table down the pub. A case to attract more attention than Brexit or Donald Trump's latest venture could ever hope to achieve in a lifetime.
So the greatest show on earth commenced.
In an instant, almost, the media were being led down a labyrinth of intrigue, with tales of forced break-in, abduction, paedophiles, lurking strangers - and so it goes on. It didn't seem to matter whether the information being fed was fact or fiction, just as long as it was a good story-line, a good headline - or so it seemed.
The media were happy to repeat claims that the Portuguese police failed to seal-off the crime scene, that they failed to cordon off the crime scene and contaminated the crime scene trampling around in their hobnail boots. What the media failed to report was the very fact that the crime scene was already contaminated by the McCanns, their friends and various Ocean Club employees, before - yes before, the police were called. Yet still they tried to put the blame on the Portuguese police.
So the biggest assault in history on the Portuguese police commenced.
It's hard to imagine how two middle englanders, with no claim to fame, could engineer such a maze of deceit and deception - and harder still to imagine why.
The parents of lost Madeleine McCann thought it preferable to hound the Portuguese investigation coordinator, Mr Gonçalo Amaral, rather than cooperate with the investigation assigned to solve the case of their daughters disappearance. The daughter they claimed was abducted from her bed, in a room shared with her two siblings, in the middle of the night, whilst they, the parents, were allegedly away from the apartment eating and drinking. Why did they try to destroy the investigation and the coordinator's reputation and life in preference to embracing the investigation and above all else cooperating.
So the labyrinth becomes more amazing.
Days passed, weeks passed, months passed, years passed and still the labyrinth lengthened adding more twists and turns and blind alleys along the way. To this very day the UK media continue to churn out stories that, by all intents and purposes, emanate from the McCanns defence league. It can never be stated with conviction that the stories come from the McCanns direct but the evidence suggests that to be the case. The media can be quite creative when the need be but there is normally a source behind the story.
In the very early days, those heady days of the summer of 2007, the parents McCann were granted the services of a UK government spin-doctor, seconded to Portugal (under curious circumstances) to assist the McCanns with the intense media coverage, a spin-doctor who resigned his position with the government after the McCanns returned to the UK in September 2007, in order to take up full time employment working for the McCanns. To this day, although perhaps only on retainer, the spin-doctor continues to represent his clients when the need arises. His name is Clarence Mitchell
Good publicity v. bad publicity it mattered not - just as long as the false stories were out there to keep the show on the road.
"One good thing to come out of all this is that there is so much in the press, nobody knows what is true, and what isn't"
Gerry McCann
So say the man himself - we must take it to be true because he said so.
Nothing can be said in support or defence of the UK establishment ... the Metropolitan Police ... the government ... the health service .... the media, from the very beginning they joined the greatest show on earth and led the general public a right merry dance - not around the Maypole but through a labyrinth of lies, deception and deceit. In excess of twelve years the public have been fed fake reports, careful not to say news, about the mysterious case of missing Madeleine McCann.
It's quite understandable that the perpetrator of a serious crime would do anything in their power to preserve their career, their reputation, their life and more serious still, their freedom. This case however goes way above and beyond rational thought. For the UK establishment to join forces in defence of the prime suspects needs very careful observation. A popular school of thought is that the UK government and police got themselves involved for genuine altruistic reasons and in a sticky wicket when evidence started to emerge that strongly implicated the parents. They were in too deep to climb out without losing face.
Well, the UK government and police spend half their working lives in a sticky wicket but they never allow themselves to be compromised. Such is the nature of the system, the establishment are fully protected by an impenetrable metaphorical fortress, always have been always will be so they can't be exonerated by some simplistic excuse.
It would be amazing to trust the system, to believe everything possible has been done in service to the memory of a little lost three year old child but there is not one single element that can be said to even remotely service Madeleine McCann. She has been left behind somewhere in the labyrinth of time, never to be found.
It is truly amazing.