The Pool Photo is one of the strongest pieces of evidence
AGAINST the McCanns
In Chapters 12 and 14 and 15 and 21 and 28 and 28A. (“I’m not making this up” © J Tanner) I tried to make sense of the Pool Photo, or as Kate called it the LAST photo.
The McCanns initially through their ever mendacious spokesman Clarence Mitchell but later in Kate’s own book in her own words, insist it was taken on Thursday 3rd May 2007, around ‘lunchtime’, and the time stamp indicates either 1.29pm or 2:29 pm - depending whether the ‘Time and date’ setting was set to GMT or BST. (WET or WEST)
We then sat round the toddler pool for a while, dipping our feet in, and I took what has turned out to be my last photograph to date of Madeleine. p.66 Kindle
REF 1
For a long time we assumed that this sudden publication of the photo was to prove that Madeleine was alive and well at lunchtime on Thursday 3/5/7. What better than a Photograph, Real and Documentary evidence that this was so?
The Photo was timed to precede a tight sequence of individual items of evidence which had previously been relied upon
1 Photo - 1:29 or 2:29pm
2 High Tea, witnessed by Nanny Cat Baker 5:30 - 6 pm
3 David Payne’s visit to see the children, whilst Kate was in the shower 6:30 - 7pm
4 Kate’s statement in the book about all four of them bouncing around on Madeleine’s bed - singing and clapping before having their bedtime drink and going to sleep, 7 - 7:30 pm
5 Gerry’s by-his-watch check, and his proud father moment, 9:04 pm
and finally
6 Oldfield’s visit to see all three children, safe, well (and breathing) and in their cots with Madeleine in her bed. 9:30pm
An unbroken chain of SIX events leaving no doubt whatsoever that Madeleine was alive and well and had been seen by independent witnesses on different occasions throughout the day and with particular reference to the evening.
Unfortunately each one of those six ‘proofs’ has been inspected, analysed, dissected and found to be wanting.
And if we start with the FIRST, the Photo, then we can say that
As soon as we know that the photo has been forged – that the date has been altered – we KNOW that Madeleine was already dead.
Let me explain. The other five proofs quoted above are each sufficient to prevent the issue of her existence being raised in the first place. Each of them individually does this
Payne says “I saw her at six o’clock”, and that is it. He saw her at six o’clock
Gerry says he saw her at 9:10pm and Oldfield says “I saw her at 9:30”, and again that is the end of the matter.
Dr Amaral and the PJ were presented with respectable professional people apparently telling the truth, and had no reason at that early stage to doubt them. It made sense even if in an odd sort of way, and everything seems to dovetail together
But they weren’t and it didn’t.
Even after two weeks it must have become clear to the McCanns that the ‘official story’ was beginning to break down. The first openly hostile newspaper article was published on 30/5 with the Mccanns and Tapas 7 being aware for some time before that what was happening, and that the PJ were ‘leaking’ details, which made it clear that Dr Amaral and the PJ were having grave doubts about – amongst other things :–
REF 2
* The TWO handwritten timelines, with the OLDFIELD visit very swiftly whooshed from the second
EDIT: It has been pointed out that these timelines may be in the wrong order, with the group adding the Oldfield visit in an attempt to extend the time during which Madeleine was 'alive'. The subsequent typed version a week later then shows his reluctance to be put in the position of "last to see her alive' when he stresses that he did NOT see her at all. In any event the PJ clearly recognises the Timeslines as inventions.
APP A
* The THREE, or more, different versions of the Payne visit to the apartment and his ludicrously over-elaborated description of the children
* The Scenes of Crime photos of the bed, which on any examination had not only NOT been slept in, but had certainly NOT been sat upon by an adult and three children, all singing and clapping and bouncing around
* Gerry’s 9:04 by-his-watch visit, and the Jez-and-Jane nonsense, came under suspicion within days
* The High Tea and all the conflicting stories and lack of convincing evidence surrounding it was seriously called into question some time later, but it must have been evident to the McCanns that it was not going to be sufficient by itself, as they were the principle witnesses.
There was then a desperate attempt by the entire Tapas group to formulate the Third Time Line, this time on several sheets of A4, word processed and with copious explanation at each stage. This was duly handed to the PJ on 10th May, a week after the alleged events. It was no doubt filed under “Self Serving, Exculpatory”, (except that by this time the Oldfield ‘check’ included in the First timeline, but whooshed from the Second, is now re-instated in an even stranger and less credible form than he put in his statements.)
APP B
Against this background it is not surprising that the McCanns feared that the possibility of an earlier death would be raised, and pre-emptively struck by producing a photo dated 3/5/7 and clearly intended to prove conclusively that Madeleine was NOT DEAD on 3/5/7.
But the danger with this approach was always that if it was not taken on 3/5/7, then she was.
Let us remind ourselves that this Photo was and had been IN the camera from which the other photos had been extracted and put on a CD, and that Gerry had signed a Police Statement saying that ‘he had no other photos in his possession’. This was a very simple LIE, as he HIMSELF proved three weeks later when the Pool Photo was revealed. The McCanns had held back this vital photo. We can only speculate as to their motives at the time, but it might have included the use to which it was subsequently put. An Insurance Policy.
REF 3
In the previous Chapters I have described at length, with references and Appendices, the process of proving that the Pool Photo was taken during the luncheon interval on SUNDAY 30th April 2007.
The Appendices to Chapters 28 and the follow up 28A contain the main body of the evidence including the Weather reports, Sunshine records, the Tapas’ own statements about weather conditions, contemporaneously recorded diary entries from a “professional weather recorder”, a wide selection of other peoples photos taken during the week and posted on the web-site FLICKR, together with shots taken at a windsurfing competition in Portimão, a short distance along the coast to the east, in which the weather conditions are very obvious.
REF 4
I did not include hundreds of satellite images from EUMETSAT, as these require interpretation and attract adverse and abusive comments from those not willing to try or intellectually unable to comprehend. Suffice it to say that they show exactly what the terrestrial photos did, and reflected exactly what the weather and sunshine records told us. I append the midday one for each day of the holiday here to demonstrate this.
APP 3
It all allowed us to deduce that the photo was NOT taken on Thursday 3rd May 2007, but was taken on Sunday 30th April. A bold statement but one which has not over the last 10 years been robustly challenged with supporting evidence to refute it.
Releasing the photo was the McCanns’ last desperate ploy, and for a long time it worked.
DCI Amaral and the PJ paid little attention to it even once they became aware of it. It was, we remember, NEVER submitted to the PJ, but was just placed by Mitchell in the world’s press with the editorial emphasising the lie that it had been taken on 3/5/7. The PJ assumed it was a form of collage, designed to evoke feelings of empathy.
The Pool Photo is not to be found in the PJ files, nor is a copy included in any edition of Kate’s book, a fact on which we might like to reflect for a moment.
But all this leads us to the clear understanding – and another bold statement that :–
As soon as we know that the photo has been forged – that the date has been altered, or even (pace the photoshop believers) – that it has been materially tampered with in any way at all,
WE KNOW BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT THAT MADELEINE WAS ALREADY DEAD BY THE DATE AND TIME CLAIMED
It fits perfectly the established McCann and Mitchell tradition of giving too much information.
To adapt Bœthius slightly
Si tacuisses, te ipsum non damnares
if you had kept silent, you would not have condemned yourself
If Kate’s infamous Book is Prosecution Exhibit 1,
then the Pool Photo will be Prosecution Exhibit 2