Madeleine McCann case a precedent for new UK Police guidelines which say: "Take notice of what mediums, clairvoyants and witches tell you" - Daily Mail 31 August 2015

by **Tony Bennett** 31.08.15 12:59

As well as widespread corruption in the British police, we now have yet another example of sheer idiocy at the top of our police forces.

The Daily Mail today reports that new police guidelines say that police officers should be more ready to follow up leads from mediums, spiritualists and the like.

Their report is titled: " 'Ello 'ello 'ello, is anybody there? New guidelines say police should not rule out tip offs from 'psychics, witches or clairvoyants "

Full report here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3216727/Ello-ello-ello-anybody-New-guidelines-say-police-not-rule-tip-offs-psychics-witches-clairvoyants.html#ixzz3kO8fD31Q

The Madeleine McCann case gets a mention:

"Meanwhile police in the Algarve followed up tips from psychics during their hunt for Madeleine McCann.

"In the weeks after she went missing from the Portuguese holiday resort in 2007, they amassed a pile of leads from mediums and said they had to investigate them in case it turned out one of them was true".

++++++++++++++++++++++++

FACT: In the Madeleine McCann case, literally hundreds, maybe a thousand or more, psychics and mediums offered police their impressions, imaginations and ideas on what really happened to Madeleine . Every single one was different.

QUESTION: Has there ever been one fully documented and authenticated case of a medium helping to solve a crime?

by sallypelt 31.08.15 13:14

Snipped from Tony's post:

"QUESTION: Has there ever been one fully documented and authenticated case of a medium helping to solve a crime?"

There is a channel on tv called "truTV". It is a "factual programme about murders in the USA. One such programme on this channel is about psychics working with the police to help solve murders or find missing people.

I watch it occasionally in the early morning if I wake up and can't get back to sleep. I have an open mind about their claims, so it's up to the individual viewer to come to their own conclusions

Below is the link to the truTV psychic detective programmes. I don't know if you can see the actual programme if you click on one of the links:

http://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail/147654244/109948974/psychic-detectives#.VeQ2X9KFNeM

by **tigger** 31.08.15 14:16

But couldn't it also be the case that someone who would know what had happened, (not psychic, but know because they saw or knew the person committing the crime) uses the psychic card to stay out of trouble?
So would not need to be a witness.

by TMH 31.08.15 14:34

If the Police used mediums etc in the Madeleine case then they can't be much good as she is still "missing" and they don't know what's happened to her do they?

by sallypelt 31.08.15 14:48

tigger wrote:But couldn't it also be the case that someone who would know what had happened, (not psychic, but know because they saw or knew the person committing the crime) uses the psychic card to stay out of trouble?
So would not need to be a witness.

Tigger, from the programmes I have watched on psychic detectives, the psychics are loosely like the sniffer dogs. They don't solve the crime, or get involved in any big way. They just point the way. The police go to them when they have exhausted all other leads. The Psychics tell them what "they feel" etc, and then it's up to the detectives whether they think the claims are credible.

by **Tony Bennett** 31.08.15 14:56

sallypelt wrote:
tigger wrote:But couldn't it also be the case that someone who would know what had happened, (not psychic, but know because they saw or knew the person committing the crime) uses the psychic card to stay out of trouble?
So would not need to be a witness.
Tigger, from the programmes I have watched on psychic detectives, the psychics are loosely like the sniffer dogs. They don't solve the crime, or get involved in any big way. They just point the way. The police go to them when they have exhausted all other leads.

I think claims comparing assorted psychics and witches to cadaver sniffer dogs, even 'loosely', are very wide of the mark @ sallypelt

If anyone here can give me just one proven instance of a medium 'pointing the way', I might reconsider.

In the Madeleine McCann case, several hundred of them all pointed the wrong way!

by sallypelt 31.08.15 15:08

Tony Bennett wrote:
sallypelt wrote:
tigger wrote:But couldn't it also be the case that someone who would know what had happened, (not psychic, but know because they saw or knew the person committing the crime) uses the psychic card to stay out of trouble?
So would not need to be a witness.
Tigger, from the programmes I have watched on psychic detectives, the psychics are loosely like the sniffer dogs. They don't solve the crime, or get involved in any big way. They just point the way. The police go to them when they have exhausted all other leads.
I think claims comparing assorted psychics and witches to cadaver sniffer dogs, even 'loosely', are very wide of the mark @ sallypelt

If anyone here can give me just one proven instance of a medium 'pointing the way', I might reconsider.

In the Madeleine McCann case, several hundred of them all pointed the wrong way!

I couldn't find another example of what I was trying to say. The point I was making was that sniffer dogs only give an indication of where a body etc had once been (or could still be if it is buried somewhere) I am not suggesting that the psychics have the same ability. Truth be told, I don't believe for one moment that these so-call psychics have the ability to solve crimes. I have watched about half a dozen of these programmes over four or five years, and I keep an open mind on what I have seen. But I have mainly watched in the early hours of the morning, and mainly for entertainment value. I have no idea whether they helped solve the crimes or not. It's a well-known fact that American programmes are overly dramatized. However, whether other people believe it or not, I will let them decide.

by sallypelt 31.08.15 15:20

This may be worth reading, to get things into perspective:

Psychic Detectives or Psychic Investigators is a television program produced by StoryHouse Productions for Court TV, as of 2006 in its 5th season. The program documents real-life cases of situations in which police departments have enlisted the aid of psychics in solving difficult cases. The series production does not investigate the claims of the psychics showcased or confirm their claims. For entertainment it instead recreates some of the atmosphere surrounding psychic claims using a selection of well recognized intuitives, crime psychics, psychic detectives and supporters of paranormal beliefs. A cross section of paranormal psychics are profiled though most are women who typically are engaged as self-described psychic mediums communicating with the dead.

Criticism

The series has often been controversial in its portrayal of events with little scientific skepticism about whether events actually happened as re-created. Critics^[who?] have also charged that several psychics have exaggerated or fantasized events or claims that did not actually occur. Viewers are encouraged to expand their search about specific psychics profiled for a broader range of information.

August 2007 Psychic Detectives was awarded The Truly Terrible Television (TTTV) Award for peddling pseudoscience and superstition to its audience by the Independent Investigative Group IIG. Other winners have been Montel Williams for every episode that has showcased Sylvia Browne, Paranormal State and SciFi's Ghost Hunters.

So, research has shown that it's a lot of tosh!

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_Detectives}

by **Tony Bennett** 31.08.15 15:47

sallypelt wrote:This may be worth reading, to get things into perspective:

Psychic Detectives or Psychic Investigators is a television program produced by StoryHouse Productions for Court TV, as of 2006 in its 5th season. The program documents real-life cases of situations in which police departments have enlisted the aid of psychics in solving difficult cases. The series production does not investigate the claims of the psychics showcased or confirm their claims. For entertainment it instead recreates some of the atmosphere surrounding psychic claims using a selection of well recognized intuitives, crime psychics, psychic detectives and supporters of paranormal beliefs. A cross section of paranormal psychics are profiled though most are women who typically are engaged as self-described psychic mediums communicating with the dead.

Criticism

The series has often been controversial in its portrayal of events with little scientific skepticism about whether events actually happened as re-created. Critics^[who?] have also charged that several psychics have exaggerated or fantasized events or claims that did not actually occur. Viewers are encouraged to expand their search about specific psychics profiled for a broader range of information.

August 2007 Psychic Detectives was awarded The Truly Terrible Television (TTTV) Award for peddling pseudoscience and superstition to its audience by the Independent Investigative Group IIG. Other winners have been Montel Williams for every episode that has showcased Sylvia Browne, Paranormal State and SciFi's Ghost Hunters.

So, research has shown that it's a lot of tosh!

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_Detectives}

@ sallypelt - Very interesting, thanks so much for posting!

by comperedna 31.08.15 17:52

Oh no! It's 'two pennies short of a shilling time' again. However many nutty ideas, or nutty persons, is this case going to attract!

by Grande Finale 01.09.15 3:24

If a psychic detective was of any use, we wouldn't still be here pondering on where Maddies body was.

Some interesting lucky guesses mentioned here though
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_detective

In the United Kingdom

In 2006, 28 British police forces responded to a query from the Association for Rational Inquiry to say that they did not and have never used psychics, one force saying "We are unaware of any inquiries significantly progressed solely by information provided by a psychic medium."^[1] In 2009, when the Metropolitan Police had denied the use of psychics and were then presented with emails suggesting the use of a psychic they made a press statement authorized by the senior investigating officer that was much more ambiguous: "We do not identify people we may or may not speak with in connection with inquiries. We are not prepared to discuss this further."^[33]

^{Now I'm away to have a slice of whiskey "fruitcake"}

by plebgate 01.09.15 10:05

I have never heard such a load of baloney in my life.

Let's waste money following claims from thousands of "psychics" in case they happen to be true, but refuse to turn out to burglary victims where real clues such as fingerprints might be available to catch crooks.

BRITIAN HAS GONE ABSOLUTELY BARMY.

Would the police ask to see the "psychics qualifications" so to speak, if not I PREDICT that there will be many more "psychics" ringing the cops now this has become general knowledge.

YOU COULD NOT MAKE IT UP.

by Lands_end 01.09.15 12:45

There is one event that spings to mind and that is "Kates DREAM". It was the initiator of the call for the Cadaver Scent dogs. I know GM is on record for having denied that Kate actually had this "dream" but perhaps there is some credence to listening to ever so slightly ESP events.

by **Tony Bennett** 01.09.15 20:07

Lands_end wrote:There is one event that spings to mind and that is "Kates DREAM". It was the initiator of the call for the Cadaver Scent dogs. I know GM is on record for having denied that Kate actually had this "dream" but perhaps there is some credence to listening to ever so slightly ESP events.

Ah!

So one of the pair was lying!

I vote for Kate

by Grande Finale 02.09.15 2:29

GM must have beeen psychic though !

What with a spirit from the other world opening the door wider than they left it, which caused him to go into the
bedroom for the first time that night, thereby alerting him to the fact that something was going to happen in that
room in the very near future.

You don't think it was all fake do you ? wink

by Lands_end 03.09.15 1:21

But where do we draw the line? Wasn't kates bewk full of "we felt this" or "just knew that"? Personally what did it for me was the line after they met Clarence the Mitchell, "Gerry liked him straight away". That statement was just bizarre.

Madeleine McCann case a precedent for new UK Police guidelines which say: "Take notice of what mediums, clairvoyants and witches tell you" - Daily Mail 31 August 2015