Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

Add to that..

It would, as Mills confirmed again yesterday, have scrutinised the various allegations that have been floated against the McCanns and concluded they are baseless: 'We had an investigative team looking into the story for weeks. Our assessment was that the purported DNA evidence was weak and inconclusive, while so far as we could tell the supposedly significant "discrepancies" between the stories told by the McCanns' friends about the night of Madeleine's disappearance amount to very little indeed.'

The 'Observer' must have ignored the PJ files and used Goose and Winters bewk as their reference source.

Mills was complaining about the alternative version being biased?  I wonder what Boon is up to these days

Lest they forget..

Madeleine McCann's parents look to US sniffer dog case

By Caroline Gammell in Praia da Luz
12:01AM BST 17 Sep 2007

Kate and Gerry McCann's legal team has contacted American lawyers over a case where key sniffer dog evidence was thrown out of court in the hope that it may help them fight any charges that they were involved in the killing of their daughter.

The couple fear that Portuguese police will rely on the behaviour of cadaver dogs who allegedly detected "the smell of death" on Mrs McCann's clothes.

Detectives in the Algarve are understood to be working on the theory that Mrs McCann accidentally killed four-year-old Madeleine and her husband helped her get rid of the body. The couple have dismissed this as "ludicrous".

The "smell of death" was not only allegedly detected on Mrs McCann's clothes but in the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz and the Renault Scenic car hired 25 days after Madeleine disappeared, Portuguese sources claimed. A source close to the McCanns' solicitors said the smell on Mrs McCann could be explained by being in contact with corpses while working as a GP.

The couple, from Rothley, Leics, are already preparing their defence in case they are charged with their daughter's death.

Their UK lawyers consulted the legal team of Eugene Zapata, 68, who is accused of murdering his estranged wife Jeanette in 1976.
He was charged with murder last year after dogs indicated that they sniffed human remains in the basement of the former family home in Madison, Wisconsin.

But a judge ruled last month that the evidence was no more reliable than "the flip of a coin" and could not be put before a jury.


"The court papers, giving the legal submissions, are on their way to the McCann team for consideration," said the source close to the McCanns' solicitors.
"At the moment there is no formal allegation against which the McCann team can work.

"But given that we understand the central plank of what the police are alleging involves sniffer dogs, this is important and relevant, and will be raised with the police and brought to the judge's attention."

Senior Portuguese police sources admitted at the weekend that there was "nothing concrete" with which to charge the couple.

In the last 10 days they have been declared formal suspects, accused of fleeing Portugal and endured a number of slurs about their parenting but they began to fight back by launching a newspaper and poster campaign focused in Spain and Portugal to highlight Madeleine's disappearance.

The couple were also boosted by the public backing of Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin boss, who contributed £100,000 to kick start a fund to pay for their legal team.

He has taken a personal interest in the investigation and has spoken at length to Mr and Mrs McCann.

His spokesman said: "When the McCanns said under no circumstances would they touch the find-Madeleine fund and mentioned they would sell their house, he felt he had to do something."

The McCanns have appointed top lawyers in Portugal and Britain to clear "the cloud of suspicion" enveloping them.

A source close to them said: "Any so-called evidence can be explained. There are wholly innocent reasons for everything that the police may have found which gives them cause for suspicion."

In an unprecedented move, the investigating judge, Pedro Daniel dos Anjos Frias, is understood to want to speak publicly about the case.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1563381/Madeleine-McCanns-parents-look-to-US-sniffer-dog-case.html

Meanwhile back at the ranch..

ZAPATA ADMITS KILLING WIFE, GETS 5 YEARS THE FORMER MADISON MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO THE 1976 MURDER.

19th Febraury 2008

Although the evidence was excluded from Zapata's first trial, police said corpse-sniffing dogs indicated the scent of human remains at the Indian Trace home and two other homes occupied by Zapata as well as a storage locker and a rental car. Based on Zapata's statement, the locker and car indications were correct.

http://host.madison.com/news/zapata-admits-killing-wife-gets-years-the-former-madison-man/article_3f7a7f4f-cb83-5869-b9c6-23532bc49a4e.html

I smell desperation!



Gerry McCann:  [smirks]  Ask the dogs Sandra

Sandra Felgueiras:  Ask the dogs?  No Gerry , now I think that I feel free to ask you - don't you think you can answer me?

Gerry McCann:  Rhubarb rhubarb - done our own research - rhubarb  - no evidence - rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb....

DUARTE LEVY / PAULO REIS. Exclusive to EL MUNDO

07 November 2007

People who dined with the parents of 'Maddie' on the night of her disappearance inform the police they wish to correct their statements

LONDON / Praia da Luz. - Lawyers of two of the friends of the McCanns that dined with them on the night of May 3 in the tapas restaurant have contacted police recently and said their clients are willing to be re-questioned so they can 'correct' details of their original statements.

These two members of the group have asked for their identities to be kept secret because they fear that as a result of the 'clarifications' they intend making about what happened the night Madeleine disappeared, they may be pressured by people linked to the McCann family.

The contradictions between the seven friends who dined that night with Maddie's parents have been, from the outset, one of the reasons why the Portuguese Judicial Police have not ruled out other possibilities besides a kidnapping. After replacing Gonçalo Amaral with Paulo Rebelo leading the investigation, a reassessment of the case has been undertaken and the evidence collected so far.

The results of the review have not caused any reconsideration of death as the main hypothesis, which is what the Portuguese police first mentioned on August 11, at 100 days of Madeleine's disappearance. Over the past week, Rebelo convened a meeting of investigators involved in the case, at which Gonçalo Amaral was invited in order to inform him about the review done by the team of experts who have arrived from Lisbon.

Police are now preparing to take the last steps in the investigation, consisting of a new round of interviews of the McCann's friends, taking place in the UK, once it has the results of the analyzes of all samples collected at the crime scene and sent to the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham. All evidence collected so far "is consistent with the possibility that Madeleine is dead and there is practically no evidence that points towards a kidnapping," said sources close to the case.

Since late May, when the Portuguese press published the first information that cast doubt on the statements of the parents and their friends, the McCanns launched an investigation of their own. They hired Control Risks Group, a security and risk management company, staffed by former employees of the special forces and intelligence services of Britain, to help them find Madeleine. The existence of the contract was not disclosed, however, until September and, during this time the couple always hinted that they trusted the Portuguese investigation.

At the same time they hired Método 3, a major Spanish detective agency, to put in place a hotline made available to potential witnesses with information about their daughter. In the first weeks, that phone number received dozens of reports about alleged sightings of the girl that very specifically placed Madeleine in Morocco. During the past weekend, however, the Moroccan authorities have made ​​an emphatic public denial of the existence of any leads which suggest the presence of the girl in Morocco.
----------

Is there a Paulo Reis in the house? A few points of clarification required here..

Kate McCann's heartbreaking Christmas message to Madeleine: 'Be brave sweetheart'

• Friday 21 December 2007 23:07
  

Kate McCann sent her missing daughter a heart-rending Christmas message last night, telling her: "Be brave sweetheart.

"Our only Christmas wish is for you to be back with us again and we're hoping and praying that that will happen. Love you Madeleine."

Her face lined with exhaustion and despair, 39-year-old Mrs McCann also made an extraordinary appeal to any abductor holding the four-year-old girl, begging them to end "all this despair and anguish".



She struggled to control her emotions as she said: "You hold the key. At this time of year, when so many families are coming together, we beg you to help us be reunited with Madeleine.

"Please do the right thing and come forward."

The televised appeal came as Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry, also 39, prepared for what they called "the hardest Christmas imaginable."

The couple must try to hide their pain over Madeleine, who has now been missing for almost eight months, and make Christmas as joyful as possible for their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

Last night they released touching new photographs and video footage of their daughter taken at Christmas last year.
In one, she carries her present to her baby brother Sean. Another shows her standing on the family's kitchen table, excited by the celebrations. Poignantly, a third photograph shows her opening a present - the pink bag she took with her on the Portuguese holiday from which she never returned.

The contrast with this year's "very quiet, private Christmas" could not be greater.

Speaking directly to her daughter during the televised appeal, Mrs McCann said: "Madeleine, it's Mummy and Daddy here.
"Just know how much we love you, Madeleine. We all miss you so much. Sean and Amelie talk about you all the time, every day.

"We're doing everything we can, Madeleine, to find you and there are so many good and very kind people helping us. Be brave sweetheart.

"Our only Christmas wish is for you to be back with us again and we're hoping and praying that that will happen. Love you Madeleine."

In his internet blog Mr McCann said the twins had asked "if Santa will be bringing Madeleine home".
"It just about broke our hearts," he added.

The couple have given few public interviews since they were named as official suspects in Madeleine's disappearance from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May. But they allowed a friend to film them at their home in Rothley, Leicestershire.

Surrounded by the trappings of the season, including a tree and presents for the twins, they told of their heartbreak at facing Christmas without Madeleine.

Desperate: Kate and Gerry McCann have pleaded with Madeleine's abductors to end their nightmare

Mr McCann said: "Clearly for us and the rest of our family it's going to be the hardest Christmas imaginable without Madeleine here."

"Since Madeleine was taken from us on May 3, someone knows what happened to her and may well know where she is now.
"That person has it within their power to show us the compassion to end this terrible ordeal for us."

The couple said they cannot face spending Christmas Day in the house where they celebrated with Madeleine last year, so they plan to visit relatives.

They have been deluged with gifts for all three children from wellwishers across over the world.

The McCanns said they have been "immensely touched" by the gestures of support.

The next stage in the couple's ordeal will come in the New Year, when they begin the fight to end their status in Portugal as arguidos - official suspects.

They have both strenuously denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance and insist she was abducted while they ate dinner with friends nearby.

But their lawyers have warned them they could face a protracted battle through the Portuguese courts and might even have to go to the European Court of Human Rights to clear their names. Friends say they fear privately that they could remain suspects "for ever".

Portuguese police will wait until after Christmas before asking British police to reinterview the McCanns and their holiday friends.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/kate-mccanns-heartbreaking-christmas-message-to-madeleine-be-brave-sweetheart-6660883.html

Vital new lead in Maddie hunt


by Marty B Marples

Maddie cops in last ditch attempt to solve the mystery of the toddler snatched from her bed in full view of the Tapas restaurant where her mummy and daddy were said to be eating and drinking.

A vital clue opens a new line of inquiry focused around Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia and is expected to keep the Scotland Yard  task force very busy until the middle of 2018.  The ex-DCI heading the hunt told the Daily Tablet  - "this is a revelation moment, new information has come forward that we think might be the next suspect worth investigating."

Officers will be traveling around in the new year in the hope of tracking down the mystery person seen lurking around the Ocean Club in December 2006.  The eye witness who has now come forward with this new lead is said to have reported the sighting to Interpol, the FBI, the KGB, Mossad and the News of the World.  The popular widely read UK newspaper was offering a reward of £2.5m.

A source close to another source says the eye witness has given a full description of the suspect.  A media manipulator representing Scotland Yard has said they will be producing an e-fit which will be released early May 2018, to coincide with the next anniversary of the toddlers disappearance.

A source close to Scotland Yard has leaked this image of the suspect.


Photograph - a source close to the family. FoxMedia

The last known sighting was in May 2011 at Marks and Sparks Home and Wear department on Wiggan high street.   If you see this person - do not approach, he could be dangerous and unpredictable, dubbed by cops as 'the blender' because he uses a disguise to blend in with the locale.

Any sightings of this person should be reported to a cop shop near you,  a local high street bank or the greengrocer on the corner - and don't forget to tell the postman.

A source close to the family say the parents are very buoyed by this latest development and will continue to cooperate with any police force proactively searching for the girl.  Their own private investigation/search was put on hold in May 2013 as they didn't want to interfere with an ongoing investigation.

The Daily Tablet wishes them well and thanks them for boosting sales over the past ten years.

The Daily Tablet

After all the huffing and puffing, how exactly does this equate with the biased Operation Grange..


Madeleine McCann Was ‘Snatched To Order By A Rich Family And Smuggled Into Africa’

Human trafficking gangs are known to operate in Mauritania.

24/04/2017 11:16 BST | Updated 24/04/2017 12:17 BST




A former detective has given credence to the theory Madeleine McCann was snatched “to order” and possibly sold to a wealthy family.

The official probe, which is nearing its tenth year, is currently focused on suspicions that the then-three-year-old was spirited out of Portugal after being deliberately targeted by human traffickers.

There have been several alleged sightings of Madeleine in north Africa, particularly Morocco, which is just a short ferry trip from the Spanish port of Tarifa – not far from the Praia da Luz resort the McCanns were holidaying at.

Ex-Scotland Yard detective Colin Sutton told the Mirror: “If someone wanted to get a three-year-old child into Africa it’s the obvious route. The infrastructure and contacts for people smuggling are clearly there.”

The newspaper points out that the alleged sightings of the missing girl in Morocco were on a key smuggling route not far from the north west African country of Mauritania, where human trafficking gangs are known to operate.
“The Mauritania line is certainly a possibility and needs to be looked at,” confirmed Sutton. It is not known if Scotland Yard is investigating the theory, with the force refusing to give a “running commentary” on the case.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against travel in much of the Mauritania region, warning of a high threat from terrorism, including kidnapping.


Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery in 1981, although it was only criminalised in 2007. According to the US Department of State, Mauritania is a “source and destination for women, men and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.”

Among the witnesses who claimed to have seen Madeleine in Morocco were Mari Olli and husband Ray Pollard.

Olli told the newspaper she saw a little girl wearing blue pyjamas looking “sad” with a man at a petrol station next to an Ibis hotel in Marrakech. She said the girl repeatedly asked: “Can we see mummy soon?”

Speaking to the Daily Star, she recalled the man she was with was in his 30s and around 5ft 10 and while he wasn’t Moroccan, he didn’t look like the child either. She said: “I think that was what worried me. I was talking to my husband on the way back in the car and saying there was something wrong.”


Olli contacted the authorities in Portugal and the UK and gave a statement to Scotland Yard, but claims that despite promises to call her back, she was not contacted.

Another witness told the newspaper he also saw a girl he suspected was Madeleine on the same day – at the hotel Ibis, next to the petrol station where Olli reported her sighting.


In 2007 in Morocco, photos of a blonde child being carried in a sling by a woman prompted excited speculation Madeleine had been found. It duly emerged the little girl – named Bushra Binhisa – was the daughter of an olive farmer of Berber extraction. In 2013 DNA tests confirmed a girl mistakenly identified in New Zealand as the missing youngster was not her.



That same year a British woman spotted a youngster “bearing a remarkable likeness to Madeleine” at a market in the northern Indian town of Leh. There have also been reported sightings in Portugal, Belgium and France, but none have produced any firm leads.

Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished in 2007 from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz as her parents dined with friends at a tapas bar nearby. The McCanns have spoken of their bitter regret about leaving her and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie alone. The missing girl would now be a teenager and the family have never given up the search and remain hopeful she is alive.

A British re-investigation into case was launched in 2011 after the initial one by the Portuguese authorities was deemed insufficient. The Home Office said in June that the investigation had cost £10 million, with a further £2 million budgeted for the year ahead.

Private investigators hired by the McCanns in 2007 reported the presence of men watching children at the beach with binoculars and taking pictures of them. The McCanns believe images of their daughter may have been shared with traffickers who then selected her.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/madeleine-mccann-was-snatched-to-order-by-a-rich-family-and-smuggled-into-africa_uk_58fdce28e4b06b9cb918174b

Editor-At-Large: The shameful trial of Kate McCann

The mother of missing Madeleine, unable to speak up for herself, is guilty of no crime other than being fit and attractive

• Janet Street-Porter
  
• Saturday 20 October 2007 23:00 BST
  

Kate McCann believes she is a misunderstood media martyr – at least that's what her mother tells us. On the very day newspapers are full of the results of a survey showing that motherhood leaves many women feeling isolated and lonely, there are more pictures of the world's most famous grieving mum looking completely alone and at her wits' end. We cannot imagine what it must be like to be Kate, endlessly photographed, every move analysed, and every remark picked over.

Everyone's got an opinion about her, haven't they? Even that charmless female Anne Enright couldn't just accept a fat cheque and the Man Booker Prize for her miserable novel about a large family without telling the world, totally gratuitously, that she hated Kate McCann. Her publishers should have put a large brown bag over her head immediately – because to put down someone who is guilty of no crime, except being fit and attractive, is thoroughly repellent. I urge you not to buy Enright's book until she apologises for this slur on another member of the sisterhood.

In the past week the McCanns have seen a panel of experts on Channel 4's Dispatches programme analyse whether they could have killed their daughter. They have let it be known to the press that they have had their twins tested for sedatives and the result was negative to dispel the myth that they regularly drugged their children. We are told that Gerry McCann has had tests to confirm he is the biological father of Madeleine, to nail another rumour. We have been told that, belatedly, the hapless Portuguese police are thinking of planning a reconstruction of the night Madeleine went missing, something the smallest rural police force in this country would have done months ago. Gordon Brown even discussed the case with the Portuguese Prime Minister during last week's EU summit in Lisbon.

In this frenzy of rumour and speculation, small wonder that the McCanns feel the search for their daughter is being sidelined as a hungry media focuses on every aspect of their lives. Now Kate McCann (prohibited from discussing the case since being declared an official suspect) is using her mother as her mouthpiece. Mum tells us Kate feels that if she were not slim, blonde and self-contained, she would not have received such a hostile reception from some quarters. True enough – once we enjoyed gladiatorial sports and watched slaves club each other to death in Roman arenas. Now we surround an attractive woman with cameras and microphones – modern artillery in the war for saturation media coverage – and seem intent on hounding this person until she does us the favour of breaking down and sobbing in front of our eyes, live on worldwide television.

Would any woman (other than a weird novelist) really wish that on another? Kate McCann can't stop being famous overnight – she can't stop the photos and persuade the reporters to go away. She consistently appears composed – unlike reality television stars – and now Mum tells us that in private she breaks down in hysterics every single day. Does that humanise her, make us sympathise more? Why should this dignified woman be reduced to dripping out these gobbets of information about her private turmoil?

Further tests on the evidence taken from a car that the McCanns hired 25 days after Madeleine vanished are being carried out in Birmingham and the results will be sent to Portugal any day. This could mean the couple will either be excluded from the investigation or charged. The sad fact is that Kate McCann has already been found guilty by many members of the public, no matter what the outcome. Her problem is that she doesn't conduct herself as we would like. In short, she exhibits a dignity and composure that seem out of place in a world where celebrities and ordinary people behave incredibly badly in front of the camera.

Britney Spears, for example, has gone so far down the route of excess that she's lost her children and her mother and sister have turned up and started screaming at bystanders. Amy Winehouse wanders around the streets of Soho with bleeding feet, devoid of any shame. Kate McCann, on the other hand, attends church, takes strength from her religious beliefs, goes running alone and always dresses neatly. That's just too sickening for some people – she can't be normal, can she?

Kate McCann
The attack on Kate McCann, mother of missing Madeleine, by Booker Prize winning novelist Anne Enright, is, according to Janet Street-Porter, "thoroughly repellant". Janet urges readers not to buy Enright's book until she apologises. Do you support this?

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/columnists/janet-street-porter/editor-at-large-the-shameful-trial-of-kate-mccann-397444.html

What's not to like?  Enough to get anyone's pulse racing ......

You know how you can see faces in clouds or a coffee meniscus?
Well...ok, maybe it's just me...

Mark Willis wrote:You know how you can see faces in clouds or a coffee meniscus?
Well...ok, maybe it's just me...

Weirdest looking pair of knees I've ever seen , and I don't mean the Trump May images !    

They are very weird knees.
They need a good ironing, at the very least!

Madeleine McCann detectives examine man's pictures after Sunday People probe


Wojciech Krokowski's flat was searched after the three-year-old vanished but he was ruled out and has now given us snaps he took around the time she went missing

By
Adam Aspinall

• 22:15, 24 OCT 2015
  
• Updated10:10, 25 OCT 2015
  

Officers are scouring ­dozens of images from the camera of businessman Wojciech Krokowski, from Poland.

They are focusing on those he took while in Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine went missing – on May 3, 2007.
Krokowski’s flat was searched after the three-year-old vanished. Portuguese cops later ruled him out
.
The images British ­detectives are looking at is in a batch of hundreds handed over to us by the Pole during an interview.

Among them is a ­picture of Mr Krokowski, 52, taken in Portugal in May 2007.

It bears a resemblance to the image of a man walking with a sleeping child – an ­artist’s impression of the ­kidnap which was released in September 2007.

The picture was publicised widely in the hope it would jog ­memories about Madeleine.

But British police agreed the picture was not Mr Krokowski.


Mr Krokowski told our ­investigators he liked taking pictures of ­children while he was on trips abroad.


He said he was amazed he had not been contacted since ­police reopened the case in 2011. The Pole insisted: “ I am ready to speak to them any time they want.”


Mr Krokowski said he ­wanted to ­remove a shadow that has been hanging over him since he ­became the ­subject of an international manhunt over Madeleine.

It is the latest twist in the long-running saga in which British police have vowed to leave no stone unturned to solve the mystery of what ­happened to Madeleine.

The extensive Scotland Yard review, which began in 2011, has so far cost more than £10million, with an extra £2million set for next year.

Mr Krokowski and his wife Anetta, 50, stayed in the Solimar apartments in Burgau just two miles from Praia da Luz between Saturday April 28 April and Saturday May 5 in 2007.

Madeleine was snatched from her apartment while her doctor parents Kate, now 47, and Gerry, 46, dined nearby with friends.
We tracked Mr Krokowski to his office in the Polish ­capital. He admitted he enjoys taking pictures of ­children on holiday but ­that it was for ­artistic purposes. In his first-ever newspaper interview he said: “I take ­photos of old people, young people, landscapes and I have a lot of pictures from places like Thailand, Greece, Portugal, France, with kids on them.

“But I never thought about kids as a sexual object. Nothing like this, never, never never. I am a simple man with normal sexual orientations.”

Mr Krokowski revealed that although Polish police officers quizzed the couple and searched their apartment and the home of his father, they never ­confiscated his camera or inspected his pictures.

Goncalo Amaral, the controversial detective who led the original Portuguese investigation before he was replaced, has said he regretted that the Polish police probe into the couple was not taken further and that they did not seize Mr Krokowski’s camera and look at his holiday pics at that time.

But Mr Krokowski, who describes himself as an “obsessive photographer” told us he still had every single picture he took the day Madeleine vanished and handed them over so we could pass them to Operation Grange.


Our man met Mr Krokowski at the offices of his interior design business in a suburb of central Warsaw near the banks of the river Vistula. Smart and professional, Mr Krokowski was in a meeting when we first called but cut the session short in order to speak to us when we ­explained who we were.

Over a couple of hours together he spoke at length about his involvement in the case and how he was eager to clear his name once and for all.

He revealed the accusations had cast a shadow over him and his wife for eight years after police knocked on his door.

The couple were made a top priority by Portuguese detectives in the ­immediate aftermath of Madeleine’s disappearance. They issued a CCTV picture of the Polish couple at a ­shopping mall in Portugal which went round the world.

The move came after a tourist claimed a man fitting Mr Krokowski’s appearance and driving a rental car was taking pictures of his children in the resort of Sagres just a 20-minute drive from Praia da Luz.

The tourist claimed he feared the man wanted to kidnap his daughter, who he said bore a striking resemblance to Madeleine.


But by the time the report was made, the Krokowskis had left for their Warsaw home. They pair were ­approached by police within half an hour after returning.

Their rental apartment in Portugal was also searched by forensic science experts but no charges were brought.

Mr Krokowski said he has ­taken a close interest in the case and was surprised he had not been ­contacted since the early days of the investigation.

He said: “I have followed this issue and know the British police are re-investigating.

“They have not been in touch with me yet but of course I am ready to speak to them any time they want to.

“Me and my wife came back to Poland via Berlin.
“We came back on the Saturday evening and took the train to Warsaw on Sunday morning.

“Half an hour after we got back the Polish police visited me at home and said they were there because of Madeleine.

“I said, ‘Welcome, please look around, go through my flat.’

“I flew back by plane and train, it would have been impossible to take someone with me.

“They seemed satisfied with that and I was never contacted again.

“But still on the internet I find the reports from the Portuguese police about us as ‘suspects’ and everything we were supposed to have done at this time.


“I am never comfortable when I read this and see I am a suspect. It’s not so good.

“I thought it was strange that I was a suspect. I am a normal man.

“I like ­children. I dream of having them but my wife has had some problems with alcohol and petty crimes over the years so we never had them.


“But I am a great ‘father’ to my friend’s ­children so it was a great pity for me that some ­parents lost their daughter.”

Speaking about the photos from his holiday in 2007, Mr Krokowski said he was happy to hand them over.

He added: “We are not the type of people to lie on the beach so we travelled a lot in that area between Sagres and Burgau and I have plenty of photos from our time there but the police never asked for them.

“I thought once maybe I should show those photos. They are not just ­landscapes, there are lots of people. Maybe something in there could be helpful.

“I collect all my photographs, I still have them from that trip, of course you can have them if they could help in anyway.”
The Sunday People can also reveal Operation Grange has been looking at possible leads in northern and central Europe.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-detectives-examine-former-6699750?ICID=FB_mirror_main

NIGEL NESSLING – Ipswich

16 November 2017  

An Ipswich man who became obsessed with child porn and downloaded more than 40,000 images has walked free from court after a judge decided not to send him straight to prison.
   
Nigel Nessling told police he initially saw an image of an eight-year-old girl and thought she was “pretty and cute” and became obsessed with viewing indecent images of children over a period of seven or eight years, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

“He said he needed to find more material to grow his collection and gained a thrill from forbidden fruit,” said Michael Crimp, prosecuting.

The court heard that police officers went to Nessling’s home in Larchcroft Road, Ipswich, on April 11 and seized items including two laptops, a hard drive and a tower unit.      

When the equipment was analysed it was found to contain 804 still and moving images in the most serious level A category, 818 still and moving level B images and more than 40,000 still and moving images in the lowest level C category.

There were also 3,000 prohibited images of children,.

Nessling, 59, admitted three offences of making indecent images of children and possessing prohibited images of children.

He was given a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work in the community.      

He was also ordered to take part in a 35 day rehabilitation activity programme and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for ten years. He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.

Sentencing Nessling, Judge David Goodin said: “You plainly have it in you to be a decent, responsible member of society.”

He told Nessling, who is a father and a grandfather with no previous convictions, that the offences he had committed clearly crossed the custody threshold.      

However, he felt able to pass a suspended sentence because he had admitted the offences at an early stage and there was sufficient prospect of rehabilitation in his case.

Roger Thomson, for Nessling, said his client had taken part in a course to address his offending behaviour and was determined to put what he had done behind him.

He said Nessling had a good work record and was taking anti-depressants.    

http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/ipswich-man-avoids-prison-after-downloading-over-40-000-indecent-images-of-children-1-5283183

A disgraceful tissue of lies from the 'intelligent tabloid' #madeyouthink..

'The f***ing b******s have taken her': Witnesses tell of Kate McCann's screams on the night Maddie went missing 10 years ago

• Paul and Susan Moyes revealed what they saw from two floors above McCanns'
  
• They said Kate McCann was screaming as Gerry sobbed on a friend's shoulder
  
• Comes as another witness said she saw 'British looking' driver near apartment
  
• Also claims to have seen woman standing outside the apartment then 'hiding' 
  

By James Dunn For Mailonline
Published: 09:59, 3 May 2017  |  Updated: 12:00, 4 May 2017

Holidaymakers describing the night Madeleine McCann disappeared today revealed how they saw her distraught mother screaming 'the f***ing b******s have taken her'.

Speaking for the first time since she went missing ten years ago, Paul and Susan Moyes revealed what they saw from the apartment two floors above the McCanns'.

Mr Moyes, 68, said: 'The McCanns were in bits, he was crying on the shoulder of a friend. She was screaming "the f***ing b******s have taken her".'

Speaking to The Sun, he added: 'There was no doubt about the emotion that night.'

The couple, from Middlwich, Cheshire, claim they saw the McCann parents and their friends - known as the Tapas Nine - from their balcony before going to bed.

They were then reportedly woken by a friend of the McCanns banging on their door around an hour and a half later, at around 11.30pm on May 3 2007.

Another resident has also revealed key information on the night three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from her bed in the resort in Praia da Luz in the Algarve.
 
Jenny Murat, who lives 100 yards from the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns were staying, saw a car driving towards their apartment.

Speaking about the sighting for the first time, Mrs Murat told BBC Breakfast it was driving the wrong way down a one-way street.

'It was one of the small cars, like the rental cars – the normal, everyday sort of rental cars,' she said.

'I saw the driver, I was beside the driver. Both of us looked at each other. I think he had a very British look about him.'

Mrs Murat also described seeing a woman standing outside the family's apartment on the night Madeleine went missing.
'I noticed her there and she kind of looked as if she was trying to hide from me. I do remember she was wearing a plum-coloured top,' she said.

Mrs Murat's son Robert, a translator, was the first person to be made an arguido – a named suspect – in the case.

He told the BBC he still cannot face reading about the case on the internet, despite being cleared of any involvement.

'The internet is full of theories – I want to know the truth, not theories,' he said.

'I just want to know why that was the case. It didn't only lead to me being destroyed, it led to my whole family being destroyed, affected by those allegations. It was completely untrue.'

A special church service will be held at the Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz for all missing people, including Madeleine, at 9pm on Wednesday.

A candle bearing Madeleine's name and a card with her picture on have been placed outside the church in Luz where the service will later take place.

The card, reading 'Maddie with love' features a photograph of the little girl surrounded by diamante stickers, with a butterfly, yellow bow and flower.

Yellow ribbons, to signify hope, were placed around the village at the time of Madeleine's disappearance.

The news comes after new information about the investigation was revealed this week by a Home Office report into the case.

A detective tipped to head up the Madeleine McCann probe was warned he would be ordered to prove she was abducted and ignore other leads.
 
Colin Sutton said a high-ranking friend in the Met called him and warned him not to lead the case when Scotland Yard announced it would get involved in 2010.

The source warned that he would be tasked with proving her parents Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignoring any alternatives to the abduction theory, he claims.

Speaking to Martin Brunt on Sky News, he said: 'I did receive a call from a very senior met police officer who knew me and said it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to head investigation on the basis that I wouldn’t be happy conducting an investigation being told where I could go and where I couldn’t go, the things I could investigate and the things I couldn’t.

Asked to clarify what he meant, he added: 'The Scotland Yard investigation was going to be very narrowly focused and that focus would be away from any suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of the McCanns or the tapas friends.'

The Tapas Nine refers to the McCann parents and the seven friends they were out to dinner with when Madeleine disappeared in 2007.

They were interviewed by Portuguese Police, who have always worked on the basis that Madeleine was abducted from her room, but Mr Sutton said other possibilities should be entertained.

Speaking on Searching for Maddie, which looks at the case ten years on from her disappearance, he criticises the narrow focus of both Portuguese and British police.

He added: 'If you are conducting a re-investigation you start at the very beginning. Look at all the accounts all the evidence all the initial statements and go through them and make sure they stack up and they compare.'

The documentary revealed details from a Home Office report on the case, ordered by then Labour minister Alan Johnson before the 2010 election, seen by Sky News' Martin Brunt.

The report shows that Gerry and Kate McCann's relationship with Portuguese police after they closed the investigation into her disappearance.

The Met took the unusual step of getting involved in the case in 2010 after the report was compiled, and recommends police collaborate with private investigators hired by the McCanns because of the 'unique nature of the case'.

However, it also reveals that much of the information gathered by investigators had not been shared with police investigating the case so far.

Highlighting the 'turbulent relationship' between the parents and detectives, it describes how the McCann's felt badly treated by the Portuguese authorities.

They were called in to speak to officers then asked to wait for hours, only for a detective never to appear, in treatment they described as 'inhumane'.

The relationship broke down entirely when Portuguese police closed the investgation in to Madeleine's disappearance in in Praia de Luz.

McCanns accused of pressuring Tapas Nine to 'keep them silent'

Daily Mail (no longer available online)
 
12th November 2007
 
Madeleine McCann's parents faced fresh allegations today that they are pressurising their friends into keeping silent over the events surrounding their daughter's disappearance.
 
One of the "Tapas nine" who was dining with the couple on the night Madeleine vanished is said to feel "obliged to keep silent".
 
Respected Spanish newspaper El Mundo quoted an un-named lawyer, said to represent the friend, criticising the McCanns' advisers.
 
The lawyer told the newspaper: "My client feels obliged to keep silent about what he can do to help the investigation, and not because of the Portuguese secrecy laws.
 
"This is very revealing about the strange circumstances surrounding this case.
 
"It's not that he is scared of the McCanns, but the economic and political lobby surrounding the couple is truly frightening to anybody.
 
"What my client wants is to reveal the whole truth, but he does not mean to accuse or blame anyone, as that is the job of the police.
 
"The only thing he wants is to help the police discover the truth about what happened before, during and after that dinner on May 3."
 
Last week El Mundo reported that lawyers acting for two of the McCanns' friends have contacted Portuguese police to say they wish to "correct" certain parts of their statements.
 
Gerry and Kate McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell denied the report and said it was not true that any of the couple's friends want to change their stories.
 
But the British lawyer, who has an office in London, told El Mundo: "If you take into account all of the pressure that has been placed on my client and on other people, it is perfectly natural and understandable that my client has not told Clarence Mitchell of his decision to hire his own lawyer to co-operate more closely with the police."
 
The lawyer also claimed that on the night of May 3 the McCanns did not call the police until they had discussed the possible implications for them of having left their three children alone in the holiday apartment.
 
The lawyer said: "The police were only informed after the group in question analysed the problems they could face for having left the children alone, and until now, my client has not had the opportunity to talk for himself about it all."
 
The lawyer, who is said to have been hired by the friend in September, was also critical of the help the McCanns have been given by the British authorities.
 
He said: "I understand perfectly that our government is legally obliged to help the McCanns.
 
"What I can't understand is that they have received help which goes far beyond what would be considered normal in a case like this.
 
However, from the very beginning it has been clear that the Madeleine case is not a normal police case.
 
"It's not my job to have to explain why and how certain politicians have intervened in this case, but I'm afraid these interventions have been prejudicial not only to my client, but also for determining the truth.
 
"My client has not received any personal support from the British authorities, only that which has come through the McCann couple.
 
"I don't want to accuse anyone, but there are people very close to the McCanns who are not helping them at all.
 
"The intention of my client is to bring to light the truth of this sad story, without any concern for who might be implicated."
 
Four of the Tapas Nine, the name given to Gerry and Kate McCann and the seven friends they were dining with on the night Madeleine disappeared from the holiday complex in the Algarve, have reportedly brought in their own lawyers as they prepared to be named as official suspects.
 
A Sunday newspaper named the four as Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, Matthew Oldfield and Dr David Payne.
 
It claimed they had been warned they would join the McCanns and Robert Murat as "arguidos" after the discovery by Portuguese investigators of inconsistencies in key statements made immediately after Madeleine vanished.
 
Dr Payne, a 41-year-old cardiovascular researcher from Leicester, was the last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine at the Ocean Club resort on May 3.
 
Gerry asked him to check on his wife and children while he having a tennis lesson at about 6.30pm.
 
Attention has also focused on Jane Tanner's claim she saw a man carrying a girl from the McCanns' ground floor apartment at about 9.15pm - when another witness says he was outside the flat at the same time but did not see her or the mystery man.
 
Mr Oldfield, 37, from south London, has said he entered the McCanns' apartment to check on the children about 30 minutes before Madeleine was reported missing by her mum.
 
He told police that although he had seen the McCanns' two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, their sister's bed was out of his sight-line.
 
Dr O'Brien, 36, from Exeter, was away from the group for up to 45 minutes between 9.30pm until 10.15pm while he tended to his own child who was sick in his apartment.
 
He told police he had changed her bedlinen, but staff at the Ocean Club were said to have denied any change of sheets was requested.
 
The McCanns and their friends have always denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance - and insist she was kidnapped.
 
They are barred by strict Portuguese secrecy laws from speaking about the events of May 3 but recently issued a statement denying they had a "pact of silence" or that they were covering up a secret.
 
Portuguese police are preparing to send a three-man team led by chief investigator Paulo Rebelo to the UK to reinterview the Tapas Nine.
 
British detectives will ask questions put to them by their Portuguese counterparts.

[Acknowledgement  mccannfiles/pamalam]

Swiftly followed by..

Madeleine investigation grinds to a halt as police are barred from asking suspects 100 new questions
 
By VANESSA ALLEN
14 November 2007
 
The Madeleine McCann investigation has hit an impasse as police are being blocked from asking the McCanns 100 new questions.
 
Detectives said a 'root and branch' review of the six-month inquiry had 'confirmed suspicions' but failed to uncover any new clues which could solve the disappearance.
 
They have drawn up a list of questions they want to put to Kate and Gerry McCann but they will not be allowed to do so unless they convince a public prosecutor that they have a case against them.
 
They also want to interrogate the other members of the so-called Tapas Nine, and to quiz relatives about the couple and their relationship with their children.
 
But the Portuguese public prosecutor has said he will not authorise any new interrogations without seeing stronger evidence in the case.
 
Police have privately admitted that it would take 'a miracle' for them to build a better case against the couple, although they still hope there could be a forensics breakthrough in the investigation.
 
A source told the Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas that detectives were waiting for further test results from the Forensics Science Service in Birmingham.
 
He said: "The tests were requested more than three months ago but the results have not yet arrived. These tests are fundamental to direct the investigation.
 
"The letter of appeal (to the British authorities) is concluded. It contains over 100 questions which will be put to Kate and Gerry McCann, their family members and their friends.
 
"The purpose is to confirm the testimonies produced at the time the little girl disappeared."
 
Preliminary results from the FSS proved inconclusive, as did forensic tests carried out in Portugal.
 
An FSS spokeswoman said tests were ongoing, but a Portuguese police laboratory source revealed growing frustrations within the investigation about the lengthy wait for results.
 
He said: "The truth is that those tests - despite being complex - are carried out in 90 days maximum. One cannot understand the English delay."
 
Detectives have prepared letters of appeal to the British authorities, asking for British police to re-interview Mr and Mrs McCann, both aged 39, and the seven friends with whom they were on holiday.
 
They also want the couple's laptops seized, and some personal items including Kate's bible and diary. But the public prosecutor, Jose Magalhaes e Meneses has refused to authorise the moves without seeing stronger evidence.
 
A police source told 24 Horas: "The new analysis of the evidence, carried out by the team which took charge of the case, has confirmed all the suspicions that exist but nothing more.
 
"There is no new data. New operations were carried out, other people who had not been interviewed at the time were interrogated. But nothing new came of it.
 
"If a body does not turn up or unless somebody comes forward with a credible lead we continue increasingly without any chance of closing the case."
 
Mr and Mrs McCann have provided police with a list of 25 witnesses they would like to see interviewed, including several relatives, in the hope they would give detectives a better picture of their family relationships.
 
A friend said they had heard nothing more from detectives since sending them the list last month, and admitted that frustrations were growing.
 
He said: "Of course there are frustrations this is still unresolved.
 
"There are frustrations amongst Kate and Gerry's friends, that's for sure.
 
"They want to help them in any way they can but are barred from talking because of Portugal's strict privacy laws."
 
Meanwhile it emerged yesterday that police suspected the McCanns as early as July but did not act on their suspicions as they feared they might leave Portugal.
 
A source told Correio da Manha: "They feared the two would stop co-operating, which is exactly what happened when they were made arguidos."
 
Publicly the police insisted the parents, of Rothley, Leicestershire, were not suspects, but then named them as arguidos in September.
 
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Once again, we will not comment on speculation in the Portuguese media.
 
"Kate and Gerry have nothing to hide and we hope they will be cleared as soon as possible."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-493208/Madeleine-investigation-grinds-halt-police-barred-asking-suspects-100-new-questions.html

Madeleine McCann: Crimewatch response 'overwhelming'

   15 October 2013


Kate 'I feel a whoosh coming on' McCann

Police probing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal say there was an "overwhelming response" to an appeal on the BBC's Crimewatch, with almost 1,000 calls and emails.

Officers suggested the 2007 case bore hallmarks of a "pre-planned abduction".

Scotland Yard said it was also looking into possible links to burglaries and bogus charity collections in the area.

Crimewatch editor Joe Mather said several callers gave the same man's name after e-fit pictures were shown.

Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, was three years old when she disappeared from her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007.

Police outlined their latest findings in the search for Madeleine on BBC One's Crimewatch on Monday.

Detectives released two e-fits of a man seen carrying a child in Praia da Luz at 22:00 on the night Madeleine went missing and it was revealed that police now suspect Madeleine could have been taken later than previously thought - just before her mother returned to the apartment to check on her.

In an update, Det Ch Insp Andy Redwood, the senior Metropolitan Police investigating officer, said there had been 730 phone calls and 212 emails "as a direct result of the specific lines of enquiry we issued yesterday".

"Detectives are now trawling through and prioritising that material," he said. "This will take time."

Crimewatch's editor said the appeal "went better than expected" with many of the calls received from British people who had been at the resort at the time but had not previously contacted the Met.

Mr Mather told BBC Radio 4's Today programme a number of different names for the "key 10pm sighting" were mentioned and several callers suggested the same name.

Thursday 3 May 2007: Timeline


   20:30 Kate and Gerry McCann leave their apartment to have dinner at a Tapas bar
   21:05 Gerry McCann checks on Madeleine and her siblings
   22:00 A man is seen carrying a child wearing pyjamas heading towards the ocean
   22:00 Kate McCann raises the alarm that Madeleine has gone missing

Det Ch Insp Redwood told Crimewatch a number of men had been seen by witnesses in the area on the day Madeleine vanished and one theory was they could have been carrying out reconnaissance.

He said they wanted to track down men seen "lurking suspiciously" near the McCanns' apartment block.

The Metropolitan Police say their inquiries have led to the timeline and "accepted version of events" surrounding Madeleine's disappearance being significantly changed.

Det Ch Insp Redwood said it had been a "revelation moment" when police discovered a man seen by the McCanns' friend Jane Tanner at 21:15 was almost certainly an innocent British holiday-maker collecting his two-year-old daughter from a nearby creche.

He said: "Our focus in terms of understanding what happened on the night of 3 May has now given us a shift of emphasis.

"It takes us through to a position at 10pm when we see another man who is walking towards the ocean, close by to the apartment, with a young child in his arms."

Crimewatch featured a detailed reconstruction lasting close to 25 minutes.

The film is also to be shown in the Netherlands, Germany and Irish Republic this week as tourists from those countries were known to be in the resort at the time.

Det Ch Insp Redwood said he would be travelling to the Netherlands and Germany to continue the appeal.

Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry told the programme they were "hopeful and optimistic" after the fresh appeal for information.

Mrs McCann said: "We're not the ones that have done something wrong here. It's the person who's gone into that apartment and taken a little girl away from her family."

The film is also to be shown in the Netherlands, Germany and Irish Republic this week as tourists from those countries were known to be in the resort at the time.

Det Ch Insp Redwood said he would be travelling to the Netherlands and Germany to continue the appeal.

Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry told the programme they were "hopeful and optimistic" after the fresh appeal for information.

Mrs McCann said: "We're not the ones that have done something wrong here. It's the person who's gone into that apartment and taken a little girl away from her family."

The two e-fit images released are of a man a family had seen with a blond-haired child of three or four, possibly wearing pyjamas, heading away from the McCanns' holiday apartment.

Det Ch Insp Redwood said he could be the man who took Madeleine - but there could be an innocent explanation.

He also said there had been a four-fold increase in the number of burglaries in the area between January and May 2007 and one possible scenario was that Madeleine had disturbed a burglar.

Police are also looking at possible bogus charity collectors operating in the area at the time and have released two e-fit images of Portuguese men they would like to identify.

Police have also released e-fit images of two men seen in the area around the time that Madeleine disappeared. Two are of fair-haired men who fit similar descriptions.

Portuguese police shelved their inquiry in 2008 but Scotland Yard began a review of the case in May 2011 and opened a formal investigation in July this year.

BBC News correspondent Tom Burridge in Praia da Luz said Portuguese police have not commented on the Met investigation but have given the impression that they are co-operating well with their British counterparts.

Mark Williams-Thomas, a child protection expert, said it was a "pity" there were no plans to show the Crimewatch appeal in Portugal.

"There are a lot of residents there who may have information," he told Today.

He suggested further progress in the case required Portuguese police to reopen their investigation.

Madeleine and her brother and sister were left in the apartment at 20:30 while her parents dined with friends at a nearby restaurant.

Mr McCann checked on them at 21:05 and Mrs McCann raised the alarm at 22:00.

In the programme, Mrs McCann described the moment that "panic kicked in" after returning to the apartment to find her daughter missing.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-24530186

____________________________________________________________________

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'Our friend Kate McCann, the perfect mum,' two of her closest friends speak out

Original Source: MAIL: SUNDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2007

By LAURA COLLINS
Last updated at 18:09 16 September 2007

Calm, laid-back, loving and happy. Away from the headlines and the horrors, this is how Kate McCann's friends knew her to be with her children.


Yesterday, at the end of a week in which Kate has been described as 'struggling' to cope with three 'hysterical' children and short-tempered with Madeleine, two of her oldest friends, Linda McQueen and Nicky Gill, have spoken out in her defence - and told of her heartbreak and devastation.

Nicky said: "The things that have been said are unfair and hurtful. It's frustrating for Kate and Gerry that anything is taking the focus away from Madeleine and away from the search for her.

"At the bottom of all this, Kate is a mother who has lost her daughter and she needs all the help she can get. Kate is a warm, loving, loyal friend.


"We're her friends. We'll do whatever it takes. We'll continue to support and help right to the end."

The 39-year-old personal trainer, who lives in the Liverpool suburb of Childwall, has known Kate since they met at the age of six on their first day of school.

"If anybody was meant to have three children under the age of three, it was Kate," she said. "She's so cool, calm and laidback. I never saw her run ragged once. She was just so happy."

Nicky also defended Gerry, who had been described as 'absent' when it came to child care. She said: "Gerry is a fabulous dad. He's a working father but very hands-on. He's like a fourth kid, rolling around with them in a very rough-and-tumble way, and with a fabulous sense of humour.

"He and Kate balance each other really well. They have a very special relationship."

Linda McQueen, a 45-year-old teacher from Formby, Merseyside, has also known Kate since they were children. She said: "The family had a great routine - their mealtimes, bedtimes and bathtimes in particular were great fun.

"We holidayed with them as part of a big group earlier in the year. It was just lovely."

Having a large family was, Linda explained, something of which Kate always dreamed. "They were up and down about whether they could have children and then they went through IVF so Madeleine, all of the children, was a dream come true."

Nicky added: "It seems so cruel that this happened to them just when they had all they wanted."


Both women have been in close contact with Kate and Gerry since Madeleine disappeared from their villa in Praia da Luz on May 3. Yesterday Linda recalled how she had spoken to Kate at about 2am on the night Madeleine vanished.

"She just said, 'Somebody's taken Madeleine, somebody's taken Madeleine.' She sounded shocked and frantic and was just trying to get everything up and running to find her. It was just awful. This cold, icy feeling came over you."

Nicky spoke to Kate the next day, by which time "she was exhausted, physically and emotionally".

The McCanns have been criticised by some for a 'too slick' publicity campaign to try to find their daughter.

But Linda said: "Kate and Gerry were so traumatised that they went into a cocoon in the first couple of days. But all the advice they were being given was, 'Get Madeleine's face out there.' So that's what they did. They will do whatever it takes to find her."

Nicky said: "I think Kate has done extremely well. It's horrendous. She is the kindest, most caring person. But the frustration is that every day spent talking about Kate and Gerry is another not finding Madeleine."

Linda added: "They're an amazing couple. They have their vulnerable times and their dark moments.
"But Kate can't let Madeleine down and we'll get through it.

"I think it's only a small minority who are critical of Kate. The rest are sticking with us and keeping Madeleine in their prayers.

"We need to refocus on Madeleine. That's the most important thing to Kate - to get the focus back on Madeleine."

Perfect mothers leave their children alone whilst out on the lash - with the doors left unlocked of course.

Linda McQueen, a 45-year-old teacher from Formby, Merseyside, has also known Kate since they were children. She said: "The family had a great routine - their mealtimes, bedtimes and bathtimes in particular were great fun.

"We holidayed with them as part of a big group earlier in the year. It was just lovely."


I wonder was this Donegal ? 
If not where and when? 


interesting these friends address everything that Kate needs "defending" 


Where are they now in support of Kate to find Madeleine? 


The quietness of friends and family over the years is quite telling. Early days names  were named... 
then it became a source or a close friend said etc

Was that due to Mitchell's involvement or something else?

" We'll continue to support and help right to the end " ?

Err , where are you now , nothing from any of her friends for the past 10 years ? 

Has the " end " come for you ? 

" The family had a great routine - their mealtimes , bathtimes and bed times in particular were great fun " 

How often did friends stay around for the children's meals , baths and bed times ?

Maybe not so " into each other " as the Tapas group were , they were allegedly desperate to get the children tucked up so they could eat , drink and be merry together . The British way apparently !!!!

Perhaps friends were called on to help when the mother was feeling stressed, even fun can be hard work!

Perhaps the narrator was talking of the parents mealtimes, bath times and bed times being fun!

Perhaps this is the most ridiculous character witness that ever hit the press, since Harold Shipman was said to be an excellent and meticulous hands-on doctor.

Perhaps it's just a load of old twaddle.