Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

Lest they forget..

Verdi wrote:Lest they forget..

The thing that puzzles me is that Eddie and Keela were brought in for a reason. Their alerts were followed up but then that's it. For example what is OG position on Eddie and Keela? I can't seem to find any acknowledgement of them. Maybe I haven't looked far enough, but it seems to me it is better to acknowledge (and discredit with evidence), rather than not acknowledge at all.

It could of course be argued that Operation Grange, aka the Metropolitan Police, have investigated both McCanns and their group of friends, including the evidence provided by Martin Grimes' report as regards his secondment to Portugal and the site inspection by Eddie and Keela. It could likewise be argued, if this be the case, why are they - eight years down the line, still chasing burglars etc.  The evidence is all there in the PJ files, all that's needed is to expand on that evidence with a vigorous fresh investigation - by the Portuguese police without outside interference.

Granted, all this nonsense about new suspects, new evidence etc. emanates from the gutter press not the police, or even a source close to.  You would think however, if Operation Grange were doing the job of reviewing/re-investigating the case, they wouldn't have reduced the team to four officers afew years back - indeed the case would have been sewn-up a long time ago.

Having said that, Mark Rowley made a spectacular faux-pas when he said during interview, the PJ had thoroughly investigated and eliminated the McCanns and they had no intention of going over old ground - even though that statement alone contradicted the remit of Operation Grange.

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14374-mccann-interview-and-videotranscripts#371708

Thanks to the PJ files being made public, we know the McCanns were not elminated from the PJ investigation.

The Metropolitan Police are under no obligation to publish reports nor comment on their policing but in this particular case, having spent so much public money and the case being so high profile, in my view they have a moral obligation to appease the public.

Harriet Harman, Jack Dromey, Patricia Hewitt and the Paedophile Information Exchange

The links that left Harriet Harman being forced to deny support for paedophiles date back nearly four decades when the Labour deputy leader was an official in the National Council for Civil Liberties



By Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent

8:09PM GMT 24 Feb 2014

The links that left Harriet Harman being forced to deny support for paedophiles date back nearly four decades when the Labour deputy leader was an official in the National Council for Civil Liberties.

Miss Harman, along with her husband Jack Dromey – now a frontbench Labour MP - and Patricia Hewitt, a former Labour Cabinet minister under Tony Blair, all worked for the council in the 1970s.

In 1975, the campign group – which lives on today as human rights watchdog Liberty – controversially granted official “affiliate” status to the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), a body which lobbied openly for child sex.

Tom O’Carroll, PIE’s founder and described as a “sexually predatory” paedophile, was put one of the Council’s working groups, and in spring 1977 he was allowed to make a speech at the Council’s spring conference.

During this period, the Council stepped in to defend paedophiles against “hysterical and inaccurate” newspaper attacks.

One leaflet sent by PIE to MPs claimed: “Paedophiles are ordinary, decent, sensible human beings, no more sexually depraved than yourself, and with a capacity for loving and helping children which is at present being repressed.”

The organisation also submitted a report to MPs claiming that “girls as young as four months can achieve orgasm”, and that four-year-old children can “communicate verbally their consent to sex”.

However, within a few years the harm caused by paedophiles was clear and many of PIE’s activists were jailed. PIE was disbanded in 1984.

The focus returned to PIE’s activities in December when The Daily Mail newspaper first drew attention to the links with the modern-day Liberty.

Shami Chakrabarti, Liberty’s director, issued a public apology, saying it was “a source of continuing disgust and horror that even the NCCL had to expel paedophiles from its ranks in 1983 after infiltration at some point in the Seventies”.

The Mail also focused on the roles of the three Labour politicians, and published new claims last week. It said Miss Harman - the Council’s legal officer in 1978 until 1982 - wrote a briefing paper on the Protection of Children Bill, which sought to ban child pornography

Miss Harman had claimed such a law would “increase censorship” and argued that a pornographic picture of a naked child should not be considered indecent unless it could be proven that the subject had suffered.

Miss Hewitt - general secretary of the Council from 1974 to 1983 - had published in 1982 a document called “The Police and Civil Liberties”, in which she wrote that "Conspiring to corrupt public morals is an offence incapable of definition or precise proof.”

Mr Dromey sat on the council’s executive committee for almost a decade, from 1970 to 1979, when the Council was working most closely with PIE.

Miss Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, initially tried to play down the claims. Her spokesman said: “The very suggestion that Harriet was in any way supportive of the PIE or its aims is untrue and misleading.”

The Daily Mail persisted, publishing a series of front page stories during the MPs’ half term break last week asking why the three Labour figures had failed to answer the claims.

After another front page yesterday Labour leader Ed Miliband, issued a limited statement in which he praised Miss Harman’s “huge decency and integrity”, insisting he did not “set any store” by the claims.

However last night Miss Harman broke her silence, condemning “horrible and untrue” allegations, claiming she was the victim of a “politically-motivated smear campaign” and insisting she had “done nothing wrong”.

Specifically Miss Harman denied that she had ever supported lowering the age of consent to 10, scrapping the law on incest, or sought to water down the law on child pornography in an 868-word statement.

She said: “They have accused me of being an apologist for child sex abuse, of supporting a vile paedophile organisation, of having a relaxed attitude to paedophilia and of watering down child pornography laws. These are horrific allegations and I strongly deny them all of them.”

Mr Dromey added that the allegations were “beneath contempt”, saying: “As a lifelong opponent of evil men who abuse children, the accusations of the Daily Mail are untrue and beneath contempt.” Miss Hewitt declined to comment.

Following the statements from Mrs Harman and Mr Dromey, Mr Miliband went for broke instructing his press aides to brief that he was “extremely angry” about and had "reached boiling point" about the Mail’s “smear by innuendo”.

The latest controversy comes nearly six months after the Mail claimed that Mr Miliband’s Marxist father Ralph "hated" Britain.

One aide told The Telegraph: “This has very much to be seen in the light of what the Daily Mail did in the Ralph Miliband row. They smeared by innuendo and by association then and they are smearing by innuendo and association now.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10659100/Harriet-Harman-Jack-Dromey-Patricia-Hewitt-and-the-Paedophile-Information-Exchange.html

Harriet Harman's My London

The Labour MP goes to the pub in Camberwell and calls Margaret Hodge for a good time

Samuel Fishwick
Wednesday 8 April 2015 18:02

Home is…

Herne Hill, for nearly 30 years. My family live close by and the Victorians built great houses.

Last play you saw?

City of Angels at the Donmar Warehouse. It was a fun, stylish, film noir-style production.

Building you’d most like to buy?

A modern apartment on the river by Tower Bridge — but it would annoy me to meet oligarchs in the lift.

Most romantic thing someone’s done for you?

My husband, Jack Dromey, unstacks the dishwasher while I watch The Great British Bake Off.

Favourite pub?

The Sun of Camberwell — but I prefer a glass of wine slumped in front of the TV.

First thing you do when you arrive back in SE24?

Spend time with my two Burmilla kittens, Minky and Silvio.

Issue that will decide the General Election?

People will think that this country can do better than we’re doing now, that we can’t risk the NHS, and shouldn’t have to put up with an economic recovery that only seems to have helped people at the top.

Best thing a cabbie has said to you?

‘Hi Tessa — you did great on the Olympics!’

At the moment you are...

On tour in the pink bus looking for the 9m women who didn’t vote last time.

What will happen to it after the election?

We’ve had all sorts of offers. Someone wants it for hen parties. All it needs then is a Prosecco bar!

Earliest memory?

My father taking me to the Science Museum.

What would you do as Mayor for the day?

Sort out London Bridge station and give proper compensation to passengers for their misery.

Deputy Leader of the Labour party Harriet Harman

Best place for a first date?

Adulis, an Eritrean restaurant in Vauxhall. Buzzy atmosphere, great food, no cutlery!

Have you ever had a run-in with a policeman?

Yes, when a report showed the police recording rape allegations in my constituency as ‘no crime’ so they didn’t have to investigate.

Best meal?

Potted brown shrimps at Peckham Refreshment Rooms.

Building you’d most like to be locked in overnight?

The House of Commons... and I often am.

Where do you go to let your hair down?

The Ritzy cinema in Brixton. I recently saw Birdman, which was so surprising and clever.

Favourite shops?

Sainsbury’s Local for cat food; Dugard & Daughters butchers in Herne Hill; Mimosa deli on Half Moon Lane; Ikea for a great day out.

Who do you call when you want to have fun?

Margaret Hodge — she wants to have fun and she wants to change the world. She’s also a great travelling companion because she asks local people all the questions you’d like to but daren’t.

Favourite discovery?

The Bussey Building in Peckham. I saw an incredible production of Dido and Aeneas there.

Biggest extravagance?

Having my hair dyed at Kiki in West Dulwich.

Best piece of advice you’ve been given ?

Your setbacks are as important as your successes.

Last album you downloaded?

Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour.

What do you collect?

Parking tickets.

Harriet Harman is Deputy Leader of the Labour party

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/harriet-harmans-my-london-10162905.html

Horses for courses or courses for horses?

PIE controversy: Harriet Harman has got this one wrong

Joan Smith - 1st March 2014

If you are a public figure with left-of-centre politics, it is a question that can’t be avoided: how to deal with the Daily Mail? The paper is hysterically opposed to most things I believe in but it has millions of readers, which is why some kind of “Mail strategy” is essential.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, took a calculated risk last year when he challenged the paper’s distasteful attack on his late father. His deputy, Harriet Harman, tried a similar approach last week, with very different – some would say disastrous – consequences.

Between 1978 and 1982, Harman was legal officer of the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty). Her husband Jack Dromey, who is Labour’s shadow police minister, chaired the NCCL in the 1970s; Patricia Hewitt, who was later a cabinet minister, was its general secretary. The links between the NCCL and an organisation called the Paedophile Information Exchange have been known about for years, and are a stain on its reputation.

The problem for Harman, Dromey and Hewitt isn’t that they were advocates of sexual relationships between adults and children when they were at the NCCL. It isn’t even an NCCL press release in 1976 calling for the lowering of the age of consent to 14 – a terrible idea, but not one supported only by paedophiles at the time. It’s that the origin of the attack seems to have blinded them to the fact that they might actually have something to apologise for.

Hewitt broke her silence three days ago and admitted she “got it wrong” on PIE, but Harman’s tardiness in acknowledging the organisation’s poor judgement has kept the story on the front page. She was defensive on BBC2’s Newsnight programme, and didn’t express regret about the link until the following morning.

I have known Harman for years. I admire the way that she pushed through groundbreaking legislation to protect vulnerable women and children. I’m sure that part of the Mail’s motivation is her support, as shadow Culture Secretary, for the proposals for press regulation in the Leveson report.

But the cases of Miliband’s father and Harman’s role at the NCCL are very different. Miliband had nothing to apologise for, but there was a collective failure at the NCCL to kick out a very nasty bunch of people. Harman’s defence – that any legal organisation was allowed to affiliate to the NCCL – suggests a lack of proper governance. Yesterday a Court of Protection judge confirmed that he resigned in 1979 when he discovered that representatives of PIE were speaking at NCCL meetings at the London School of Economics.

Harman has many talents but she also has a patrician testiness which doesn’t respond well to being challenged. I can understand her revulsion at having to admit that the Mail has a point, but I’m also surprised the story hasn’t blown up before now. The brightest people make mistakes, even if it’s a matter of failing to notice something or act robustly enough.

That’s what Harman, who went to work at the NCCL after PIE affiliated to it, should have acknowledged. Instead, she has played into the hands of a newspaper which wants its readers to believe the appalling smear that the Labour Party is stuffed with covert supporters of child abuse.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/pie-controversy-harriet-harman-has-got-this-one-wrong-9162728.html

[Thanks to CMOMM member who sent me this report]

Madeleine McCann's Parents Create Missing Kids Site on YouTube

The "completely revolutionary" YouTube site will help find abducted children

By Ellen Tumposky August 10, 2007 12:00 PM

The parents of missing child Madeleine McCann have launched a new channel on YouTube to allow people to post videos, images and information about their missing children.

The site, youtube.com/dontyouforgetaboutme/, which kicks off today, has been created by Gerry and Kate McCann, the British doctors whose 4-year-old daughter disappeared from their vacation apartment in Portugal on May 3. They are working with Google, YouTube and the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), a U.S.-based organization.

“Because of what has happened to Madeleine, we have become aware of so many other children that have gone missing and also a lot about how many children are abducted and the extent of child sexual exploitation,” Kate McCann told the British newspaper the Guardian.

Gerry McCann says he approached ICMEC to regulate the channel to make sure any child on a video that is posted is really missing, that authorities know the child is missing, and that the images are not exploitative.

Ernest Allen, chief executive of ICMEC, said the new site is “completely revolutionary.”

The group had previously set up missing kids’ sites in 14 countries, he said, “and then Gerry came along with this idea. We hadn’t thought of using YouTube. Now it will allow us to have one worldwide clearinghouse for all the information on missing children.”

The McCanns, who have remained in Portugal during the search for their daughter, have been conducting their campaign from a two-bedroom apartment lent to them by friends. Friends and family have raised money, distributed pictures and a DVD of Madeleine to the press, and celebrities including soccer star David Beckham and author J.K. Rowling have helped publicize their search.

https://people.com/celebrity/madeleine-mccanns-parents-create-missing-kids-site-on-youtube/

Booker winner writes of dislike for McCanns


Booker winner Anne Enright



By Caroline Gammell and Aislinn Simpson

7:13PM BST 17 Oct 2007

Booker prize winner Anne Enright has launched an astonishing attack on Kate and Gerry McCann, describing in detail why she does not like the couple.

Madeleine: Police 'allowed to seize Kate's diary'
Full coverage: The search for Madeleine McCann
Man Booker Prize 2007 in full

That sentiment is even the title given to her 2,000 word essay which appeared in the London Review of Books under the headline Diary: Disliking the McCanns.

Mr and Mrs McCann, both 39, remain official suspects in the disappearance of their four-year-old daughter Madeleine, who went missing on May 3 from the Algarve and whose case has attracted worldwide attention.

The 45-year-old Irish novelist, who has two young children aged four and seven, was the surprise winner at Tuesday night's literary awards ceremony for her book The Gathering.
Writing before she won this week's prize, she said: "Disliking the McCanns is an international sport.

"I disliked the McCanns earlier than most people (I'm not proud of it). I thought I was angry with them for leaving their children alone.

"In fact, I was angry at their failure to accept that their daughter was probably dead. I wanted them to grieve, which is to say to go away. In this, I am as bad as people who complain that 'she does not cry'."

She wrote: "Most of the animosity against the McCanns centres on the figure of Madeleine's beautiful mother. I am otherwise inclined.

"I find Gerry McCann's need to 'influence the investigation' more provoking than her flat sadness.

"The sad fact is that this man cannot speak properly about what is happening to himself and his wife, and about what he wants.

"The language he uses is more appropriate to a corporate executive than to a desperate father. This may be just the way he is made. This may be all he has of himself to give the world, just now.

"Then I go to bed and wake up the next day, human again, liking the McCanns."

Her views came to light as reports in Portugal claimed police want to carry out a "minute by minute" reconstruction of Mrs McCann's movements on the night Madeleine went missing.

Despite the re-invigorated police investigation with Portugal's second most senior detective Paulo Rebelo taking the lead, the dectectives' suspicion still surrounds Mrs McCann.

Police are said to believe she was responsible for her daughter's death and relied on her husband to help cover it up, an accusation angrily dismissed by the McCanns.

Detectives have also been given formal permission by investigating judge Pedro Daniel Don Anjos Frias to seize extracts of Mrs McCann's diary and the desktop computer used by Mr McCann while in the Algarve.

Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas reported on Wednesday: "According to the theory among PJ, the little girl's body was hidden before the alarm was raised.

"Kate McCann is at the centre of this theory. The Policia Judiciaria want to reconstruct her movements minute by minute and step by step."

Mark Williams-Thomas, a former Surrey Police child protection officer, said such a reconstruction was long overdue.

He said: "A reconstruction is an important part of any investigation and would normally be done in the very early days. I would be amazed if they had not constructed a timeline months ago.

"I think we are seeing a different approach being brought by the new head of the inquiry, who wants to go over everything until he is satisfied, which is quite right."

A family friend revealed Portuguese police had not approached the McCanns for assistance in any reconstruction.

"Kate and Gerry have always been more than happy to assist the Portuguese police with their enquiries. There has been no new approach, or indeed any approach from the police since they have returned home to Rothley."

But on his blog, Mr McCann welcomed the police inquiry: "It is very encouraging that Mr Rebelo's officers will be seemingly reviewing all the material in the inquiry, which will hopefully identify areas for further investigation."

In the UK, the results of an independent investigation carried out by five criminal investigators who travelled to Portugal will be shown on Channel 4's Dispatches: Searching for Madeleine on Thursday night.

The team, led by retired Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, was given full access to the Portuguese police files and assessed how officers in the Algarve dealt with the case.

It is now 168 days since Madeleine disappeared and despite the revamped investigation, no trace of the little girl has been found.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1566565/Booker-winner-writes-of-dislike-for-McCanns.html



https://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n19/anne-enright/diary

Madeleine McCann: Tycoons withdraw support

By Caroline Gammell in Praia da Luz

1:25PM BST 13 Sep 2007

Two millionaire businessmen who gave money to help find Madeleine McCann refused today to contribute to the legal fight to clear her parents' name.

A mother's diary of love | What the police want
Madeleine McCann: Police seize mother's diary

The couple's official spokeswoman, Justine McGuinness, has also decided to step down, it emerged this afternoon. Exhaustion, and the McCanns' need for a PR adviser with more legal experience, are said to be behind her decision.

Kate and Gerry McCann, 39, have hired top lawyers in Britain and Portugal after they were named official suspects in their daughter's disappearance.

Detectives believe Mrs McCann may have accidentally killed her daughter and relied on her husband to help cover up the crime. Although the couple insist the claims are baseless, the cost of trying to clear the "cloud of suspicion" is expected to run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Although the fighting fund set up to find Madeleine has raised more than £1 million, the trustees said the couple - who did not want to take the money anyway - would not be able to make use of the funds.

One entrepreneur, who refused to be named because of the delicate nature of the case, has given his backing in the past.

But today he told the Evening Standard: "I am not going to contribute any more. It is a difficult issue and it is not something I propose to get engaged in.

"It is the most confusing scenario anybody has ever seen. I am not judge and jury and I hope what I am reading is wrong. I have not yet been approached [a second time] but I wouldn't put any money in.

"If they can turn the tide in some form maybe there will be loads of backers. But right now this does not look a good place to go."

A number of well known figures have publicly supported the McCanns including JK Rowling, Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson, Topshop owner Philip Green and EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

A second wealthy businessman, who has given £100,000 to the fund, said: "We won't be pledging any more right now.

Madeleine McCann coverage in full
Timeline: How the story unfolded
Ben Affleck film halted over Madeleine concern

"I don't think that at the moment we would allow the money to be swapped to cover defence costs, but this is a difficult position and a very sensitive issue." The McCanns, from Rothley in Leicestershire, returned to the UK on Sunday, 48 hours after being declared suspects by Portuguese police.

Ms McGuinness, the McCanns' spokeswoman, is expected to step down this weekend if a replacement can be found in time.

The Media Guardian website is reporting that the couple are looking for a "big hitter" to work as their full-time PR representative as the investigation into their daughter's disappearance enters a new phase.

Phil Hall, the former News of the World and Hello! editor, who has been acting as a consultant to the McCanns in recent months, is thought to be the leading contender.

The world's leading expert in DNA cast doubt on a key facet of the alleged forensic evidence against Kate and Gerry McCann last night as he offered to act as an expert witness for the couple.

Sir Alec Jeffreys, who invented DNA fingerprinting, said a match did not necessarily demonstrate a person's guilt or innocence.

It follows claims that DNA samples matched to Madeleine had been found in her parents' hire car and holiday apartment. Sources said the traces were being treated by Portuguese detectives as strong evidence that Madeleine's body was placed in the car.

However, Sir Alec told BBC's Newsnight programme: "There are no genetic characters in Madeleine that are not found in at least one other member of the family.

"So then you have an incomplete DNA profile that could raise a potential problem in assigning a profile to Madeleine given that all other members of that family would have been in that car."

Sir Alec, 57, added: "DNA testing seeks to establish whether DNA sample A from a crime scene came or did not come from individual B.

"So if you get a match there's very strong evidence that it did come from B. It is then up to investigators, the courts and all the rest of it to work out whether that connection is relevant or not.

"So DNA doesn't have the words innocence or guilt in it - that is a legal concept. What it seeks to establish is connections and identifications."

Off-camera, Sir Alec said he was prepared to act as a witness for the McCanns.

His caution came as a leading genetics expert also called into question the value of DNA evidence in its own right. Dr Paul Debenham, a member of the advisory body the Human Genetics Commission, said there could be legitimate reasons as to how DNA from Madeleine found its way into the hire car.

Prosecutors would need to establish that it got there as part of a criminal process and not through chance contact, he said.

Dr Debenham said: "With the current highly sensitive DNA methodologies we can deposit DNA as a trace amount just from contact with a fabric. And that fabric can touch another surface where the DNA is passed on.

"So there is a situation where there is a legitimate or a possible explanation as to how the DNA got on the back seat despite the individual not being there, but through some legitimate transfer of garments, clothes or soft toy.

"It questions the value of that particular evidence in interpreting what happened."

The development came as it emerged that Portuguese prosecutors have applied for Gerry McCann's laptop and his wife's personal diary to be handed over to the authorities investigating their daughter's disappearance.

Detectives in the Algarve are particularly keen to track emails sent by Mr McCann, a cardiologist, from the computer he used while in Portugal to keep an almost daily blog on the campaign to find Madeleine.

An urgent application for access to the personal artefacts was made by public prosecutor Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses to a judge in Portimao yesterday.

Philomena McCann, Mr McCann's sister, said she advised her sister-in-law to keep the diary to show Madeleine how much they loved her.

She told The Sun: " I said to Kate that it would be a good idea if someone wrote down, for Madeleine, notes on everything that was happening, because we have to prove to Madeleine how much we looked for her and how much we love her.

"That wee girl will be thinking, 'They're not looking for me. My mummy, daddy and my aunties - they don't love me because they can't find me'.

"I was just thinking about how insecure Madeleine would be, so Kate has been keeping that journal faithfully every day.

"She's been writing down everything that we've been doing so we can prove to Madeleine that we have worked so hard to try and find her, that we've put our lives on hold to search for her and show our love for her is unending."

Gerry's brother John McCann said last night that his brother believed the Portuguese police had "gone up a cul-de-sac".

He told BBC's The One Show: "Gerry keeps telling me that they have gone up a cul-de-sac and have lost track of what they should really be doing."

Asked whether the fact the case was being dealt with at such a high level in Portugal gave him confidence, he said: "It does and it doesn't. There is data out there, there's all these leaks.

"There is so much speculation going on as to what the actual information the Portuguese police have.

"If they have got something that suggests Madeleine really is dead then for goodness sake tell the family who have the strongest feeling for this."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1562995/Madeleine-McCann-Tycoons-withdraw-support.html

Emotional McCanns deny 'pact of silence' on Maddy

Paul Burnett - 4th November 2009

Kate and Gerry McCann were grilled yesterday for the first time about allegations they could have been involved in their daughter's disappearance.

Portuguese police had previously named the couple as "arguidos", or formal suspects, in the case in September 2007.

But the McCanns, both 41, have always strenuously insisted they are innocent, and their suspect status was lifted when the authorities in Portugal shelved the case in July last year.

However, last night Sandra Felgueiras, a reporter for Portuguese TV station RTP, questioned the McCanns about claims made in a book by Goncalo Amaral, the former detective in charge of the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance.

The couple took legal action against Mr Amaral and in September Lisbon's main civil court banned further sale or publication of his book.

The McCanns were visibly frustrated by the course of the RTP interview, which included questions about the findings of sniffer dogs brought in to search their apartment in Praia da Luz and whether they had close links to the British government.

Ms Felgueiras quizzed them on claims there was a "pact of silence" between the couple and friends on holiday with them when Madeleine disappeared.

Mr McCann explained that there was no pact, but they had all refused to talk to the media about what happened that night in line with Portugal's strict judicial secrecy laws.

The journalist also asked if they felt they were victims of the Portuguese investigation, to which Mr McCann replied: "The victim is Madeleine."

Ms Felgueiras said afterwards: "It is two-and-a-half years after Madeleine disappeared and this was the first time they talked to us in a big interview since the files were closed. I think I should feel free and they should feel free to talk about it. It would be the only chance to clear up the rumours."

But Mr McCann insisted that: "The place to have those discussions is in the judicial and legal environment where they can be properly assessed and dealt with within the bounds of the law.

Evidence

"That's the approach that we've taken, and clearly we're very pleased that the Portuguese judiciary have agreed that there is absolutely no evidence that Madeleine is dead or that we were involved, and that's why injunctions have been given.

"If people accept that, then they will accept that Madeleine is missing and can still be found."

Earlier Gerry McCann told how the couple's four-year-old twins have started saying they want to find and fight the person who took their missing sister. Sean and Amelie were just two when Madeleine vanished.

But their parents have discussed the fact that their big sister is missing with them and they are now fiercely protective of her.

The McCanns were speaking as police released a video showing how Madeleine might look now, in a bid to prick the conscience of anyone who knows what became of her.

The 60-second video, released in seven languages, features film footage of Madeleine and digitally enhanced photos of what she might look like now with shoulder-length blonde hair, as well as one with a tan and dark hair.

The clip, produced with the aid of psychologists, can be viewed at www.ceop.police.uk.

"This message is aimed at prompting the conscience of an individual who is keeping a secret," said Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

Mr McCann hailed the global online appeal as "a world first".

"We're optimistic that this message will get to them, it will cause them to wrestle with their conscience," he said.

Irish Independent

https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/emotional-mccanns-deny-pact-of-silence-on-maddy-26578825.html

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14374p50-mccann-interview-and-videotranscripts#404836

Madeleine Web site gets 55 million hits [ x 55,000,000]

Original Source: REUTERS: 18 MAY 2007

LONDON | Fri May 18, 2007 3:52pm BST
By Peter Griffiths

(Reuters) - A Web site set up to help find missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann has received more than 50 million hits, its operator said on Friday.

More than 7,500 people have left messages of support on the www.findmadeleine.com site and 55 million hits have been counted since its launch.

Thousands have downloaded appeal posters and forwarded an email chain letter started by Madeleine's family. The little girl disappeared from her bedroom at a hotel resort in Portugal on May 3 as her parents dined nearby.

"It is booming," said Calum MacRae, director of Infohost, the Scottish IT company behind the findmadeleine site. "We didn't expect this number of people.

"We had 10 million hits between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday -- our server just gave up, but we resolved that within five minutes."

The website www.bringmadeleinehome.com was launched on May 9 and it changed to www.findmadeleine.com on Wednesday.

Messages of support from across Europe, the United States and Australia have been posted on the site.

"You are in my thoughts every day," wrote Heidi from Finland. "I pray that she will be found soon safe and well."

Debbie Bates, from Australia, wrote: "As a mother of two, I cannot imagine for a moment what you are going through."

Parents Kate and Gerry McCann are taking "immense strength" from the messages, said family member Michael Wright.

"Their purpose is to turn hope into action," he said on Thursday. "We want everyone to have an image of Madeleine in whatever country in Europe they visit."

A video appeal will be shown on Saturday at the FA Cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium.

Portuguese police say they have insufficient evidence to arrest anyone in the hunt for the girl.

One suspect has been identified by police -- a 33-year-old who lives in the area -- but his name has not been made public

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-portugal-girl-website/madeleine-web-site-gets-55-million-hits-idUKL1820079420070518?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Where you at the Vatican too?

The Times:  published 1st June 2007

Mick Hume: Notebook

Who exactly was meant to benefit from the mass outbreak of voyeurism at the Vatican this week, as the world watched Madeleine McCann’s parents praying with the Pope? (Or as a BBC headline put it, in a Lloyd-George-knew-my-father moment, “Pope meets Madeleine’s parents”.)

I am sure the McCanns, devout Catholics, will have drawn spiritual succour from their blessing. But what did the rest of us get out of effectively peering over their shoulders as the story topped the news bulletins? As the sober report in The Times described, “their audience lasted all of 30 seconds”. Then it was “the inevitable press conference”, which lasted rather longer. Gerry McCann said that the meeting in a packed St Peter’s Square had been “more personal than I could ever imagine”. Just them and the millions in the media audience.

Mention of a butterfly landing on Kate McCann moved Clarence Mitchell, described as “a family spokesman”, to tell the press that this had almost made him weep: “It was as if Madeleine was with us, and was a good omen.” Such superstition is now the stuff of news. The emotional Mr Mitchell is in fact a British Foreign Office liaison officer.

Before the Vatican trip the McCanns had already visited the modern confessional box of the media interview. The front pages of Saturday’s papers read: Guilt will Never Leave Us (Sun); The Guilt Will Never Leave Us (Mirror); The Guilt Will Never Leave Us (Mail); Our Guilt Will Never Leave Us (Express); We Will Always Feel Guilty (Star). The quality papers, too, made headlines from the quote, a show of unanimity unseen since President Bush declared “war” on terror after 9/11.

The public focus on the story has little to do with any progress in the case in Portugal. It almost seems as if the less that is happening over there, the more it is in the news over here, a stream of Madeleine stories that keep people in the emotional maelstrom.

The McCanns insist that they have drawn strength from all the coverage. It remains to be seen what the longer-term effects may be of having their trauma nationalised. Of course, as they say, the guilt will always be with them. Let us hope that the McCanns are not always with us, turning up to be made an exhibition of years later, like the haunted parents of some past abducted children.

Nobody should blame the parents for trying to keep the story in the news. But that cannot explain why many others have felt the need to indulge in displays of emotional exhibitionism for “our Maddy” that go beyond normal sympathy. Nor is it any excuse for an outbreak of national voyeurism. No doubt if this is what audiences want, they must have it.

But perhaps we should first take a look at ourselves, and see what it says about our society that a family tragedy can be turned into a public spectacle, which, unless something dramatic happens, looks set to run for longer than Big Brother this summer.

[Acknowledgement themaddiecasefiles.com]

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16565-mick-hume-the-increasingly-strange-case-of-madeleine-mccann#405010

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

Human trafficking gangs are known to operate in Mauritania.

By Sara C Nelson    

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.

Press AssociationMadeleine McCann went missing in 2007 

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. 

Luke MacGregor / ReutersFormer Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton believes the Mauritania theory should be investigated 

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.

Encyclopaedia Britannica via Getty ImagesHuman trafficking gangs are known to operate in the north west African country of Mauritania 

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.

AFP/Getty ImagesBushra Binhisa - who was mistaken for Madeleine - with her parents and her family’s registration certificate

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.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/madeleine-mccann-was-snatched-to-order-by-a-rich-family-and-smuggled-into-africa_uk_58fdce28e4b06b9cb918174b?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAC4wLMJ4TEzWLRG8e3aqYSxMfqGjAIhZa1IIeo4ih8BZoP3v4ZqebYUUrtNNE_JuRq7_I0EH2N0BR2bBbemGOKWhDjEPOsJ587OE-rQfpG7F8u9sm8nkPV0JytQpDm4cWxx46MwDvoDM0dK10gDzlLcUWUkdEjUAFysQl92hX_o-

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3397351/madeleine-mccann-smuggled-africa-rich-family-cop/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/madeleine-mccann-disappearance-latest-what-happened-scenarios-a8632886.html

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/madeleine-mccann-snatched-slave-traders-12935247

Whoa - stop right there Mr Huffington!

Child trafficking is not, I repeat not, country specific.  It's a worldwide atrocity syndicated by a phenomenal collection of criminals operating within the north south east and western hemispheres.

If anything I venture to suggest Asia is the most likely hub of child trafficking.  Destitution across lands of the orient is common place, unwanted children from impoverished regions are readily sold or abandoned on the streets.  That's abandoned, not abducted.

Turn your eyes inward, see what's going on before your very eyes.  Or is it wrongly assumed that these criminals won't be found anywhere in the civilized world.  It's a multi-billion dollar business - not barter trading in the local market.

When is somebody going to stick a muffler in Colin Sutton's chops - unless of course he's been misquoted .

Has he been told to backtrack on his original theory that something
happened in the apartment,I think so.

There is a quick fix alternative, he could of course just and leave the stage.

His, Colin Sutton's, public debut was the time worn claim that he received a call from a very senior police officer warning him off heading Operation Grange. Curiously this call was allegedly received only a matter of months before Sutton was due to retire. Unless, as some believe, he kept it to himself until it was ripe for disclosure.

Question .... Why would Colin Sutton be a favourite to lead Operation Grange, only then in the embryo stage, if he was on the verge of retiring.
Answer .... There was never any evidence to support Colin Sutton's claim. Just empty words.

Trouble is, he's been too inconsistent in his theorizing since his first appearance on the scene. I find it difficult to rationalize such vacillation.

Maddie McCann disappearance: Media in bidding war for interview with Kate and Gerry McCann

MEDIA groups are jostling for an exclusive interview with the McCanns as the 10-year anniversary of their daughter Maddie’s disappearance looms.

Tracey Kandohla
The SunFebruary 5, 20175:43am


KATE McCann has been thrust into a global bidding war as TV chat shows and news giants battle to try and sign her up for talks on the 10th anniversary of daughter Madeleine’s disappearance.

The Sun reports that the anguished mum, who has no idea if Maddie is dead or alive after nearly a decade, has been offered huge bids for an exclusive interview, a friend said today.

But Kate, still reeling from her shock libel defeat against a former Portuguese cop this week while trying to enjoy her younger twins’ 12th birthdays, has not yet considered any deal.

The ex-GP and heart doctor husband Gerry now face sizeable court costs after losing their civil action on appeal and previously-won but not paid £360,000 ($588,000) in damages which they had been ring-fencing for the ongoing search for Maddie.

The brave parents are bracing themselves for the heart wrenching 10th anniversary of Maddie’s kidnap in just 12 weeks.

UK breakfast TV host Lorraine Kelly, who is a friend of Mrs McCann, could be a firm favourite although ITV would probably only pay a fraction of a fee being offered by brash American broadcasters.

One has told the McCanns: “Name your price!”

A close friend of the McCanns said: “They have been bombarded with offers from media around the world.

“They’re already got 30 sitting on the table and are getting new bids every other day particularly from the big American networks.

Mrs McCann did her last TV chat with Scottish presenter Kelly nearly three years ago.

“Kate likes Lorraine’s softly, softly approach and feels comfortable with her,” a source said. “She never asks too many searching questions.”

Maddie’s mum’s last print interview was with The Sun a year ago as the newspaper helped promote a new child rescue alert campaign on behalf of her charity Missing People.

After three-year-old Maddie vanished during a family holiday to Portugal in May 2007, the McCanns were in a £1 million ($1.6 million) bidding war by two of America’s biggest chat show stars at the time — Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters.

The McCanns, for an undisclosed fee, finally chose Winfrey and in May 2009 told in a heart breaking interview how they felt their snatched daughter was still alive.

“Kate and Gerry get weary from all the demands for interviews, especially in the run up to the anniversary,” a family source said. “The tenth one is a significant one and there is tremendous interest, not just from Britain and America but Australasia and Europe and of course Portugal.

“Talk shows, news channels, glossy magazines, newspapers — everyone’s after them!”

“America has always had a fascination with Madeleine. And they’ve had their own high profile stories of missing children with happy endings after being found alive and well years later,” the source said.

Just last month the McCanns were given fresh hope and “buoyed up” when a kidnapped girl Kamiyah Mobley was found alive in the US after an incredible 18-year search.

Maddie, if alive, would turn 14 in mid May just nine days after the anniversary.

The McCanns have been left “bitterly disappointed” after losing an eight-year libel battle against Goncalo Amaral, an ex-detective they had tried to silence but who defeated them.

They now face big court costs which they will take from but will eat into the dwindling Find Maddie Fund.

It is made up of public donations and proceeds from Kate’s bestseller book.

The friend added: “Gerry said ‘It’s not good news. We’ve gone to the pinnacle of the Portuguese legal system and we’ve lost. We now have to pay a sizeable amount in costs.’”

The McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today: “No firm decision has been made about any 10th anniversary interview.”

He has previously said: “Kate and Gerry would only ever agree to a deal which would widen the search for their daughter.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun


https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/maddie-mccann-disappearance-media-in-bidding-war-for-interview-with-kate-and-gerry-mccann/news-story/79dcce5a1e27173342ea49ab14f09d34




The Daily Tablet [circa. May 2007 - July 2019]

So the McCanns were getting fed up with the interviews,I don't think
so the money was their main aim not the "abduction"of their
daughter.Now the interviews have dried up they put things into the media to try for interviews like G in the depth's of depression the
anniversaries etc.They are horrible excuses for human beings in my 
eyes.

As this is what they got..

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13407p775-video-of-the-day#405154

.. a half hour slot with Fiona Bruce

Not very rock 'n roll is it?

Madeleine McCann: parents appeal to European Parliament

Kate and Gerry McCann are hopeful that their attempt to set up a European-wide missing child alert system could succeed after a number of meetings with MEPs in Strasbourg.

Gerry and Kate McCann have been speaking to MEPs


By Caroline Gammell
5:02PM BST 17 Jun 2008

The couple spent the day trying to convince parliamentarians that they should sign a written declaration which, if it gets enough support, will be sent to the European President and published.

They have now gathered 225 signatures and need a further 168 by the close of the plenary session at the end of July to ensure the declaration is formally recognised.

Although it carries no legal weight, the McCanns believe it will help them win the moral argument over whether such a cross-border system is needed.

Mr McCann said: "This is an important issue and Europe needs to work together. We want to get as many signatures as possible but there's limited time left."

The couple, 40, from Rothley in Leicestershire, launched the drive for an American-style Amber Alert in April, 11 months after Madeleine went missing from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve.

They believe a European version of Amber Alert - which notifies the public via media across America when police confirm a child has been abducted - would have helped the search for their daughter in the crucial hours after her disappearance.

The couple's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said: "We are very encouraged by the support that many MEPs have shown by saying they will sign the declaration. Kate and Gerry believe it is achievable."

In Portugal, the Attorney General Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro told a local newspaper that the couple should find out in July what evidence the police have against them after months of secrecy.

The couple, who are "arguidos" or formal suspects in the disappearance of their daughter, should get full access to the police files, he said.

"From July the (Madeleine) case will cease to be covered by judicial secrecy, and will be available to consultation by all parties involved," he told 24 Horas.

"I do not know which date, but in July the case ceases to be covered by judicial secrecy."

Mr Mitchell gave a cautious welcome to the news: "Despite the attorney general's comment in the Portuguese press, neither Kate and Gerry, nor their lawyers, have heard nothing to this effect.

"They simply will not be commenting until it is known for a fact that the judicial secrecy is lifted.

"If that happens, clearly this is something to be welcomed. Their lawyers would once again urge the authorities to lift their arguido status as soon as possible."

Judicial secrecy is normally lifted in Portugal after eight months, but investigating judge Pedro Frias has previously granted extensions to the period after state prosecutor Jose Magalhaese Menezes argued the case was "exceptionally complicated".

The McCanns still face the possibility of charges of neglecting their daughter and court documents disclosed last month confirmed they could face "abandonment" charges, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

It is understood for such a charge to succeed prosecutors would have to show the McCanns intended to neglect their daughter.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/2145840/Madeleine-McCann-parents-appeal-to-European-Parliament.html

They believe a European version of Amber Alert - which notifies the public via media across America when police confirm a child has been abducted - would have helped the search for their daughter in the crucial hours after her disappearance.

Slight technical hitch as regards the disappearance of little Madeleine McCann.

The police did not confirm abduction .

Madeleine McCann’s parents have not been ruled innocent, judge says


Kate and Gerry McCann have vehemently upheld that they have not done anything wrong Credit: Niall Carson/PA Wire

   Telegraph Reporters - 9th February 2017

Madeleine McCann’s parents have not been ruled innocent when it comes to their daughter’s disappearance, a judge in Portugal’s highest court has said.

Kate and Gerry McCann have vehemently denied any involvement in their daughter's disappearance from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

However, they have been plagued by allegations suggesting they were involved, including former police chief Goncalo Amaral's claim that Maddie died in the flat and her parents faked her abduction to cover up the tragedy.

Now, Portuguese Supreme Court judges – who last week ruled against their final appeal over Amaral's 2008 book The Truth of the Lie – have  said the lifting of their status as 'arguidos', or formal suspects, and the archiving of the criminal case into Maddie's disappearance did not mean they were innocent.

The court issued its 76-page ruling on the McCanns' fight against a lower court's decision last April to reverse their 2015 libel win against the former detective.

The couple were left facing a legal bill and the prospect of being sued by Amaral, who led the initial hunt for Madeleine when she vanished, after being told last Tuesday the Supreme Court had gone against them in a ruling which was not made fully public until Thursday.

"It should not be said that the appellants were cleared via the ruling announcing the archiving of the criminal case"
Portuguese Supreme Court judges

Judges made it clear in their decision their job was not to decide whether the McCanns bore any criminal responsibility over their daughter's disappearance and said it would be wrong for anyone to draw any inferences about the couple's guilt or innocence from their ruling.

But they added: "It should not be said that the appellants were cleared via the ruling announcing the archiving of the criminal case. In truth, that ruling was not made in virtue of Portugal's Public Prosecution Service having acquired the conviction that the appellants hadn't committed a crime.

"The archiving of the case was determined by the fact that public prosecutors hadn't managed to obtain sufficient evidence of the practice of crimes by the appellants.

"There is therefore a significant, and not merely a semantic difference, between the legally admissible foundations of the archive ruling. It doesn't therefore seem acceptable that the ruling, based on the insufficiency of evidence, should be equated to proof of innocence."

They added: "It's true that the aforementioned criminal inquiry ended up being archived, namely because none of the apparent evidence that led to the appellants being made 'arguidos' was subsequently confirmed or consolidated.

"However even the archive ruling raises serious concerns relating to the truth of the allegation that Madeleine was kidnapped."

The McCanns were told their arguido status had been lifted on July 21, 2008, when the Portuguese probe into Maddie's disappearance was shelved, three days before Amaral published his controversial book.

The former detective was ordered to pay the couple 500,000 euros (£430,000) by a Lisbon court in April 2015 after they won round one of their lengthy judicial battle.

Amaral got that ruling – and a ban on selling his book  overturned on appeal in April last year.

The decision by Lisbon's Court of Appeal sparked the Supreme Court fight which was resolved last Tuesday.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/09/madeleine-mccanns-parents-have-not-ruled-innocent-judge-says/

Verdict on the McCanns' treatment: little short of a national disgrace

Evidence from Gerry and Kate McCann to the Leveson inquiry has given experts much to consider about regulation of the press

23rd November 2011


Gerry and Kate McCann leave the Leveson inquiry. Their evidence gave the Lord Justice plenty to contemplate. Photograph: Reuters


It took Kate and Gerry McCann to transform the Leveson inquiry, which in its first three days had struggled to reach a serious tone. Hugh Grant did offer a compelling account of a life lived at the centre of media attention, but he is still a highly paid film star with the kind of colourful love life newspapers and the public find hard to resist. Other witnesses fell flat, notably Steve Coogan, who spent too much of his evidence complaining about how interviewers had artfully prised personal information out of him, which is hardly something that needs to be regulated. Not every interviewee, after all, is supposed to like the resulting piece.

But what happened to the McCanns at the hands of the tabloid press in the 18 months or so after their daughter's disappearence was – as their lawyer, David Sherborne, said – little short of a national disgrace. The inquiry heard an account of repeated violations of truth and privacy by every major tabloid, built up over two measured hours of testimony from Gerry McCann, punctuated by Kate's more emotional contributions. While the couple acknowledged help and support from the press when they received it, their criticisms amounted to a plea for reform that will be very difficult for Lord Justice Leveson to dismiss.

It was Richard Desmond's newspapers, the Express and Star titles, that paid out £550,000 in libel damages after a string of defamatory articles. Their apology was on the front page – "unprecedented", as both papers could not help trumpeting – but as Gerry McCann observed, despite all the mistakes, nobody had resigned. "I've seen no journalist or editor brought to account, be it the Express or any other group ... repeat offenders should lose their privilege of practising," he said.
He might have said the same about the News of the World, which printed a copy of Kate McCann's personal diary.

Her husband pleaded for the judge to find out how the diary – taken as evidence in Portugal where Madeleine went missing – ended up in the hands of the paper in a version translated from Portuguese and back into English again. Leveson noted that he had the legal powers to find out what happened – and in an instant, statutory regulation of the press had arrived.

Kate McCann described the actions of the paparazzi. They would wait every day for her to get in the car with her two other children, and on some occasions "they'd bang on the window" to get the expressions they wanted. The picture was enough, she observed, to attach "fragile, furious or whatever they wanted to put in the headline" – carrying on despite the fact that the Press Complaints Commission code of practice says quite clearly that "journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit". So, when, later, Gerry McCann demanded a change in the rules when it comes to the taking of the photographs in public places, his call for reform packed a real punch.

"You should not be able to publish photographs of private individuals going about their private business without their explicit consent," he argued. To bring in such a rule really would require the introduction of a privacy law, and while few in the press would welcome that, after hearing both the McCanns speak it would take a brave onlooker to conclude that they did not have something of a point. And as a result of their contribution, Lord Justice Leveson has plenty to contemplate.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/nov/23/leveson-verdict-gerry-kate-mccan






What the illustrious Grauniad fails to mention, is the McCanns privileged position of being awarded the personal services of a government media monitoring director.

So Mr Mitchell, where were you hiding when all these negative reports were being published by the media - the media that you were appointed to monitor. 

Where were you hiding when Ms McCann's private diary was splashed across the News of the World headlines in September 2007, curiously only days after the McCann family's return to the UK.  Not hiding behind a source, I trust Mr Mitchell?

Leveson Inquiry: I wanted to climb into a hole, I felt so worthless, says Kate McCann

For more than four years they had suffered, often in silence, as the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine was followed by a “sinister” campaign to portray them as her killers.

By Gordon Rayner, and Martin Evans

9:11PM GMT 23 Nov 2011

Threatened with jail if they discussed details of the Portuguese investigation, Kate and Gerry McCann had “wanted to shout out” the truth to the world, but could not.

Today, at the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, the couple finally had the chance to give evidence under oath in public for the first time since Madeleine vanished during a family holiday in Praia da Luz in May 2007.

They did not shout, nor were there any tears; just quiet dignity and an even tone as they allowed the facts to tell the story of their unbearable ordeal. Lord Justice Leveson began by telling the McCanns that no parent could fail to appreciate the “terrible impact” of Madeleine’s abduction, adding: “Words of sympathy for these appalling circumstances are utterly inadequate.”

After nodding their appreciation, the McCanns, sitting side by side, began detailing the “long lasting damage” caused to their family by elements of the media, which had left Mrs McCann feeling “totally worthless” and her husband in disbelief.

For almost an hour, Mrs McCann hardly spoke, sometimes putting a comforting hand on her husband’s arm as he took the lead in giving evidence. But the former GP took over when it came to describing what happened when the News of the World “mentally raped” her by printing extracts from her diary, written immediately after Madeleine’s disappearance.

She had been at church on Sunday, Sept 14, 2008, when she received a text from a worker at the nursery attended by the couple’s twins, Sean and Amelie, saying: “Just seen your diary – heartbreaking. Hope you are OK.”

She said: “It was totally out of the blue. I got a horrible panicky feeling of confusion. I didn’t have a clue. I went to look at it online, which was five pages, and got my original handwritten copy out and it was lifted in its entirety and put in the newspaper without my knowledge.”

She said “subtle differences” in the wording showed it had been translated into Portuguese and then back into English, and she suspected it had been leaked by the Portuguese police even though a judge had ordered all copies to be destroyed.

“I felt totally violated,” she said. “I had written those words at the most desperate time of my life and it was my only way of communicating with Madeleine.

“There was no respect shown for me as a grieving mother or for my daughter Madeleine and it made me feel very vulnerable and small. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Mrs McCann, 43, said that before the article appeared, the couple’s spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, had received a call from Ian Edmondson, the then news editor of the News of the World, who had said the newspaper was going to run a “supportive story” criticising the Portuguese police.

Mr Edmondson, who was arrested earlier this year by detectives investigating phone hacking at the newspaper and was sacked before it closed in July, made “no mention” of the diary.

“I just recently read through my diary entry at that point in that week,” said Mrs McCann, “and I talk about climbing into a hole and not coming out because I just felt so worthless that we had been treated like that.”

Several months earlier, on the first anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction, the couple had agreed to an interview in Hello magazine, which incurred the wrath of the News of the World’s editor, Colin Myler. The Sunday tabloid had put up a reward for information leading to Madeleine’s discovery, and, said Mr McCann, Mr Myler phoned him in person, “irate and berating us for not doing an interview with the News of the World”.

He added: “He beat us into submission verbally and we agreed to do an interview.”

Wearing green and yellow “Find Madeleine” wristbands on their right arms, “Doctor and Doctor McCann”, as they were referred to by Lord Justice Leveson, occasionally touched each other’s hands below the table, and at one point Mr McCann put an arm around his wife’s back.

Their expressions rarely reflected the suffering they were describing, but as the couple flicked through files of newspaper headlines which later led to front-page apologies and substantial damages payouts, they involuntarily shook their heads in disbelief. They said that when the media first descended on Praia da Luz, they felt it was “a good thing” for their daughter’s picture to appear on front pages.

But with “not much happening” in the investigation and a lack of information from the police, tabloid newspapers started to print stories that were “untruthful and sometimes made up”.

Headlines began to appear such as “Police believe mother killed Madeleine”, based on reports of DNA being found in the couple’s hire car, even though, said Mrs McCann, “there was no DNA found”.

She said that they had been unable to tell reporters the stories were not borne out by what police had shown them, because they were bound by strict laws of judicial secrecy punishable by a two-year prison sentence.

“We wanted to shout out, 'It’s not true,’ but when it’s your voice against the powerful media there’s no point,” she said. Mr McCann added: “We were being tried by media and unable to defend ourselves adequately.”

When the couple eventually returned home to Rothley, Leics, Mr McCann said the journey to the airport in Portugal was “one of the most terrifying experiences that anyone could possibly have”.

He said: “Cars were coming across us, coming in front, cameras, people hanging out of windows, motorbike riders. Dangerous.”

Mrs McCann said photographers camped outside the family home until Dec 2007, waiting for her to drive out.

“They would spring out from behind a hedge to get a startled look that they could say 'fragile, furious’, whatever they wanted to put in the headline. They were banging on the windows, sometimes with lenses, and Amelie would say to me, 'Mummy, I’m scared’.”

In January 2008 the couple took legal action against Express Newspapers, which had falsely claimed, among other things, that Madeleine had been “sold by hard-up McCanns” and that they had killed their daughter and stored her body in a freezer.

At first, the Express group offered the McCanns an interview in OK! magazine, owned by Richard Desmond who also owns the Express, which Mr McCann described as “breathtaking”.

Then, in March 2008, Express Newspapers admitted to printing “entirely untrue” articles and paid £550,000 to the fund set up to find Madeleine. The News of the World also apologised for using the diary and made a donation to the fund.

But while the couple’s treatment by the media improved markedly as a result, Mr McCann said there had still been abuses and numerous weekends had been ruined by having to take legal action to prevent articles appearing in Sunday newspapers, including a false claim that the couple were having IVF treatment “with a view to getting a new baby to replace Madeleine”.

Mr McCann was also angered in July of this year when the Daily Mail printed a picture of a child spotted in India who looked similar to Madeleine. He said that he and Mrs McCann had already seen the picture and confirmed it was not Madeleine, but the newspaper published it anyway.

The hearing continues on Thursday, when JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter stories, will give evidence.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/8911318/Leveson-Inquiry-I-wanted-to-climb-into-a-hole-I-felt-so-worthless-says-Kate-McCann.html

Madeleine McCann fund received £125,000 from News of the World

Confidential deal towards search fund for Madeleine was part of apology for tabloid's publication of mother Kate's diary extracts

Daniel Boffey - 17th December 2011


Kate and Gerry McCann giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry over coverage of their daughter Madeleine's disappearance. News of the World made a confidential payment for publishing Kate's private diaries. Photograph: Pool/Reuters

The News of the World paid £125,000 to the fund supporting the search for Madeleine McCann as part of an apology for publishing Kate McCann's diaries – on condition that the terms of the deal remained secret.

The payment was made after the missing girl's parents expressed their outrage at the story, which Kate McCann said made her feel "mentally raped". All the parties involved in the negotiations over the payment, which was agreed in September 2008, were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement hiding the scale of the newspaper's culpability.

The payment was made despite claims by the defunct newspaper's editor at the Leveson inquiry last week that he believed he had had the full support of the McCanns to publish. Colin Myler, who edited the NoW from 2007 until it closed this year, told the inquiry he had received repeated assurances from his head of news, Ian Edmondson, that the McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, supported publication – a claim which has been strenuously denied.

Myler told the inquiry that he subsequently ran an apology and paid a "substantial sum" because "he felt very bad that she didn't know". However, the Observer has learned that the NoW initially tried to minimise the compensation. A source at News International, the owner of the newspaper, said there were hours of negotiations between the company's lawyers and Carter-Ruck, the solicitors hired by the McCanns, in the days following publication of the story on 14 September 2008.

A deal was finally struck in which a £125,000 payment was agreed, but all parties were obliged to sign agreements that they would not talk about the size of the compensation. Last night Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman and News International declined to comment.

The Leveson inquiry into the media will hear this week from former NoW sports journalist Matt Driscoll, who was awarded almost £800,000 for unfair dismissal in April 2007 while on long-term sick leave for stress-related depression following a campaign of bullying provoked by the newspaper's then editor, Andy Coulson.

It will also hear via video link from Piers Morgan, former editor of the Daily Mirror and the NoW, who now works for CNN in New York. At 28, Morgan was appointed editor of the NoW, making him the youngest tabloid newspaper editor in history. He was editor of the Daily Mirror for more than 10 years, but was sacked in 2004 after the newspaper conceded that photos it published apparently showing British soldiers abusing an Iraqi were fake.

Morgan claimed in a GQ magazine interview in 2007 that phone hacking was "widespread" and that "loads of newspaper journalists were doing it" when Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in January of that year.

Asked in the interview whether he knew about voicemail interception while he was editor of NoW, Morgan said: "Well, I was there in 1994-95, before mobiles were used very much, and that particular trick wasn't known about. I can't get too excited about it, I must say. It was pretty well known that if you didn't change your pin code when you were a celebrity who bought a new phone, then reporters could ring your mobile, tap in a standard factory setting number and hear your messages. That is not, to me, as serious as planting a bug in someone's house, which is what some people seem to think was going on."

In 2006 Morgan wrote an article for the Daily Mail claiming that he was played a tape of a message Paul McCartney left on the mobile phone of Heather Mills. "The couple had clearly had a tiff, Heather had fled to India, and Paul was pleading with her to come back," he wrote. "He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang We Can Work It Out into the answerphone."

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/dec/17/news-of-world-mccanns-payment
...................

What an eerie coincidence.  Kate McCann's scribbles suddenly appear in the News of the World, of all the salacious gutter press possible, it had to be 'dial M for Murdoch's' the News of the World that gets it's grubby mitts on the secret diary - the diary Ms McCann had every intention of publishing in the form of a book for later publication and worldwide sale.

The PJ, contacts in the News of the World?  I don't think so!

So who did leak this secret diary to Murdoch's most mucky tabloid Mr Mitchell?  The leak that led to a substantial out of court settlement?

You scratch my back I'll scratch yours. Nice little earner.

McCanns 'didn't say Madeleine probably dead'

By Aislinn Simpson in Praia da Luz and Richard Holt

12:01AM BST 17 Oct 2007


Spokesman: 'They have not given up hope that she could still be alive

Madeleine McCann's father has contradicted the family's official spokesman and said that he does not accept the fact that his daughter is probably dead.

We know it is a possibility, however the fact there is no evidence Madeleine has been seriously harmed gives us ongoing hope that she will be found alive.

Previously, the couple's spokesman said that the balance of their feelings about what has happened to the four-year-old had tipped towards accepting the worst possible outcome, nearly six months after she vanished.

"Kate and Gerry are realistic enough to know that there is a probability she is dead," Clarence Mitchell said.

"They have not given up hope that she could still be alive and is being looked after somewhere.

"And they cling to that and have not given up, but human nature is that you always fear the worst and they need to know what has happened.

"This open-uncertainty cannot hang over them for the rest of their lives."

The sad milestone came as Kate McCann's mother admitted her daughter and son-in-law made a "terrible mistake" to leave Madeleine and her twin siblings alone, and said the repercussions had ripped their "perfect" family apart.

In a wide-ranging interview with her local paper, Susan Healy and her husband Brian spoke of their hope that Madeleine would one day come home.

But Mrs Healy told the Liverpool Echo that news about renewed police searches in Portugal, and the appearance of police officers at a reservoir to the north of the Algarve resort town of Praia da Luz, left her "scared" that Madeleine's body would be found.

Mrs Healy said her daughter was tormented by the "scurrilous rubbish" about her and Gerry's culpability in Madeleine's disappearance that is reported daily in the Portuguese press and repeated in the UK.

She said the couple continue to have counselling and have relaunched a publicity campaign in the UK and Portugal in a bid to find their daughter.

But she Mrs Healy said the strain of the case was taking its toll.

"They have to keep trying to get their daughter back - that overrides everything else they are feeling," she said.

Madeleine disappeared from the McCann's rented apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1566419/McCanns-didnt-say-Madeleine-probably-dead.html

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14941p75-gerry-mccann-s-blog-highlights#405319

"There's no evidence that Madeleine is dead"... in the case of a genuine abduction would be a really stupid thing to say! 

Imagine a kidnapper who, after 12 years or whatever time span, would send a postcard to say "sorry, but Madeleine is dead, and here is the proof!"