Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

As long as people are honest and speak the truth, that's enough in my book.

Criminal cases are never perfect, and sometimes they don't end the way we wanted, particularly this one (given the high level cover-up).

Invariably the simplest answer is the way forward. 

Looking for complicated theory with little or no evidence, or just pure speculation, is akin to building castles on shifting sands.

There is, and always will be, a tendency for conspiracy theorizing, it's good thought fodder and opens the field to alternative thinking but it has to be kept in it's place, in proportion.

Always back to basics, look at the evidence and see where it leads.  Don't try to build a massive construction without a solid foundation.

The parallels are manifold..

Madeleine detectives to DNA test paedophile suspect Raymond Hewlett

By Sam Greenhill for the Daily Mail and Daily Mail Reporter
Created: 17:53, 24 May 2009

Detectives hunting the whereabouts of Madeleine McCann will use DNA testing to determine whether paedophile Raymond Hewlett was involved in the little girl's disappearance.

Officers involved in the case are flying to Germany today, in an effort to question Hewlett, 64, who is recovering from throat surgery in hospital in Aachen.

A spokesman for Aachen police confirmed the public prosecutor will decide whether to give Hewlett the test in the next few days.

The convicted child rapist was living near the Algarve resort  at the time when Madeleine disappeared while on holiday with her parents in May 2007.

Police will use the results of the test to determine whether they match samples taken from the McCann's holiday apartment, which so far have not been linked to anyone.

The family's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said he hoped Hewlett would comply with the tests.

'Mr Hewlett has denied any involvement in Madeleine's abduction,' he said.

'Our investigators hope he will co-operate by giving them whatever information is needed so they can eliminate him from the investigation.'

News of the DNA test comes as the wife of Hewlett declared him ' innocent' after it emerged that he was well acquainted with the resort where the McCanns were staying.

Marianna Schmuker said her husband had nothing to do with the little girl's disappearance, despite reports he was seen outside the apartment in Praia da Luz 'many times'.

His family live in an apartment in the city.

Yesterday a man who knew Hewlett came forward to reveal he had talked non-stop about the Madeleine case in the weeks after she vanished in May 2007.

Hewlett boasted of knowing Praia da Luz 'very well' and being familiar with the Ocean Club complex where Kate and Gerry McCann were staying with their children and friends.

Hewlett was living in the Algarve at the time, but packed up and left for Morocco shortly afterwards, according to Peter Verran, who shared a Morocco campsite with Hewlett and his family for three months.

Mr Verran, 46, a former Scots Guardsman who runs an antiques business from his home in Fowey, Cornwall, said: 'We got talking at the toilet block.

'He brought Madeleine up straight away. He said his three-year-old daughter looked like her.

'He was worried that because there had been reports that Madeleine may have been spirited away to Morocco, people might think his child was her.

'Then he suddenly said: "Madeleine's not in Morocco". I asked him what he meant and he said he knew Praia da Luz really well.

'He knew the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns had been staying. He said he'd been there many times and often parked his van close to the apartment.

'He said he knew the layout of the place, the flat and the restaurant where the McCanns and their friends had been eating.'

Mr Verran claimed Hewlett had made wild and unfounded claims about the McCanns - both doctors, from Rothley, Leicestershire, adding: 'He said it was common knowledge among locals that Praia da Luz in general and the Ocean Club in particular was a magnet for Romanian gipsies who abduct and then traffic children.

'I asked him why he'd left and come to Morocco. He told me he'd had to leave Portugal in a hurry.

'He said he'd packed his family up in half an hour and just driven out of the area. That was just after Maddie was taken.'

 
Investigation: Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett (left) and a sketch of a man allegedly seen close to the resort when Madeleine was abducted (right)


Unfounded: Hewlett was said to have made 'unfounded' claims about Kate and Gerry McCann who are still searching for their missing daughter

A sketch drawn by a police artist of Madeleine's possible abductor, depicting a straggly-haired man, bears some similarities to pictures of Hewlett, who is wanted for questioning by West Yorkshire police in relation to an alleged sex attack on an eight-year-old in 1975.

Although he is 'a person of interest' to the McCanns' investigation, their spokesman has stressed he is only one lead among many.

Hewlett has strenuously denied having anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance.

Speaking from his hospital bed last week he insisted: 'I've done nothing wrong - nothing, nothing.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1187064/Madeleine-detectives-DNA-test-paedophile-suspect-Raymond-Hewlett.html

Verdi wrote:

Unfounded: Hewlett was said to have made 'unfounded' claims about Kate and Gerry McCann who are still searching for their missing daughter

Very interesting choice of photograph.

Propaganda at its finest.

Looking quickly, I first thought is said .... Dumbfounded - reference to the image.

More apt I would suggest .

Lottery winner and jailbird Lee Ryan to make bizarre documentary about Madeleine McCann

LOTTO jailbird Lee Ryan is helping to make a bizarre TV documentary about missing Madeleine McCann.

Byohla

00:05, 19 APR 2015Updated13:58, 7 SEP 2019

Nicknamed the Lotto Lag, he was one of the first big winners in 1995 – pocketing a £6.5million jackpot weeks before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing cars.

Lee, 54, who dubbed his win “a curse” and has blown the lot, yesterday told how he has become obsessed with the Maddie mystery.

While down on his luck he studied the disappearance of the girl from his home county, Leicestershire.

He said: “I started looking into it, it’s a fascinating case and I read everything about it. I even read the Portuguese police files and started thinking about all the theories.

“I’m keeping an open mind.” Divorced dad Lee, who now lives in a tiny flat in south London, has teamed up with journalist and broadcaster Sonia Poulton, inset, who is making a 90-minute film, The Untold Story Of Madeleine McCann.

Maddie was days away from her fourth birthday when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

Her parents, heart doctor Gerry, 46, and former GP Kate, 47, from Rothley, Leics, believe she could still be alive.

Lee insisted: “I am not proactive against the McCanns, I am just on a quest for the truth. It is a global story.”

Sonia, a regular guest on ITV’s This Morning show, said: “We are making an evidence-based documentary about the disappearance of Madeleine.

It will be shown soon on mainstream TV and will first appear in America. I’ve had trolls online trying to sabotage and smear me over this but we will not be silenced.”

Lee, she said, does “ad hoc filming whenever needed”.

When the former used car trader won the lottery 20 years ago, he was awaiting trial for handling stolen cars. He later served nine months of his sentence.

He spent a decade living the high life, blowing his cash on a fleet of super-cars and bikes, a helicopter and a country mansion.

Then he moved to Kyrgyzstan in central Asia with his second wife but returned with nothing in 2010, leaving behind a series of misfortunes and failed business ventures.

After spending two years sleeping rough in London he picked himself up again.

And he vowed: “I’m doing OK now – and one day I’ll be wealthy again.”

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said he had not been informed about the new Maddie TV documentary Lee Ryan was working on.

He said: “I am aware of Sonia Poulton and all her conspiracy theories. These film makers always claim they have a commission.

“But we are not going to fuel whatever they are doing in any shape or form by making a comment.”

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/madeleine-mccann-conspiracy-lee-ryan-17339137

Clarrie still thinks he has some kudos even after the lies he spun
for the Mac’s ,after the two election whuppings you’d think he’d quietly
go and stop embarrassing himself,nobody gives a toss what he says
anymore,please Clarrie go away and stop ridiculing yourself,you’re
a has been.

Blackpied wrote:Clarrie still thinks he has some kudos even after the lies he spun
for the Mac’s ,after the two election whuppings you’d think he’d quietly
go and stop embarrassing himself,nobody gives a toss what he says
anymore,please Clarrie go away and stop ridiculing yourself,you’re
a has been.

Be fair - he thinks he's a big shot.  

Delusions of grandeur springs to mind - another one making a career on the back of a tragedy.  If he was genuine, he would shut-up and disappear off the scene - odious creature.


It was this big!   Honest - would I lie to you?

What the shaming of Kate McCann says about us all

Claire Cohen
Women's Editor
5 June 2020


Kate McCann has been blamed for 13 years, writes Claire Cohen Credit: Andrew Crowley

Over the past eleven weeks, most of us have been kept apart from those we love. Parents have missed their grown-up children, grandparents haven’t seen grandkids, siblings have been separated. It has been a cruel taster of what life would be like without their physical presence in it. Hard. No Zoom call can replace a hug or kiss, or even seeing their face properly - since March, I’ve mostly had conversations with my mum’s forehead and dad’s left nostril. But we know they are there, eagerly awaiting the moment we can embrace once more and hopefully pick up family life where it left off.

Kate and Gerry McCann’s only hope is that their daughter might still be alive. They have been apart from Madeleine for 13 years. They don’t know where she is, or what happened on the night she was taken from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.

For 13 years they have also been blamed. As news broke this week that the police have identified a new prime suspect - a 43-year-old German man, already in prison for child sex offences - in the three-year-old’s disappearance, I was shocked at the number of people still pointing their fingers at her parents. Specifically her mother. The social media echo chamber resonated with thousands of tweets reading ‘I didn’t know Kate McCann was German’ and GIFs of people wiping sweat from their foreheads, “The McCanns right now - phew”.

Is this supposed to be funny? At what point does the pain of parents who have had their infant daughter abducted become a joke? It made my blood boil because it shows so clearly our cruel habit of turning women from victims into villains.

Almost from the moment Madeleine was taken, Kate McCann was treated this way. Never mind that the Portuguese police ruled her, and her husband, out as suspects. The public appetite for blame wouldn’t be held back by something as trifling as that.

We like women to fit one of two stereotypes in these situations - the martyr or the monster; the madonna or whore. What began as “that poor woman’ swiftly became “she’s hiding something” - because the latter trope is so much more thrilling, right?



Over the past eleven weeks, most of us have been kept apart from those we love. Parents have missed their grown-up children, grandparents haven’t seen grandkids, siblings have been separated. It has been a cruel taster of what life would be like without their physical presence in it. Hard. No Zoom call can replace a hug or kiss, or even seeing their face properly - since March, I’ve mostly had conversations with my mum’s forehead and dad’s left nostril. But we know they are there, eagerly awaiting the moment we can embrace once more and hopefully pick up family life where it left off.

Kate and Gerry McCann’s only hope is that their daughter might still be alive. They have been apart from Madeleine for 13 years. They don’t know where she is, or what happened on the night she was taken from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.

For 13 years they have also been blamed. As news broke this week that the police have identified a new prime suspect - a 43-year-old German man, already in prison for child sex offences - in the three-year-old’s disappearance, I was shocked at the number of people still pointing their fingers at her parents. Specifically her mother. The social media echo chamber resonated with thousands of tweets reading ‘I didn’t know Kate McCann was German’ and GIFs of people wiping sweat from their foreheads, “The McCanns right now - phew”.

Is this supposed to be funny? At what point does the pain of parents who have had their infant daughter abducted become a joke? It made my blood boil because it shows so clearly our cruel habit of turning women from victims into villains.

Almost from the moment Madeleine was taken, Kate McCann was treated this way. Never mind that the Portuguese police ruled her, and her husband, out as suspects. The public appetite for blame wouldn’t be held back by something as trifling as that.

We like women to fit one of two stereotypes in these situations - the martyr or the monster; the madonna or whore. What began as “that poor woman’ swiftly became “she’s hiding something” - because the latter trope is so much more thrilling, right?

So Kate McCann was accused of not crying enough, of not showing the proper amount of emotion. She was criticised for not appearing devastated, daring to wash her hair and wear make-up during television appeals for her daughter’s return. When she was spotted exercising, it only fanned the flames. How could a woman whose child has gone missing dare to think about keeping fit? We didn’t understand then, as we do now, the mental health benefits of running. But even if we had, I have a feeling the McCann conspiracy theorists wouldn’t have cared.

And the rest of us? There are still plenty of people who dole out blame and shame, and have done so for more than a decade. What sort of mother leaves her children unsupervised to go to a bar? No loving mum would do such a thing...

As if the McCanns don’t feel guilty enough already. As if they don’t berate themselves for that decision day in, day out. As if many of us haven’t made similar decisions, assessing the risk and doing what we think reasonable at the time. The only difference being that the McCanns paid a heavy price for it.

This pattern of blaming women has been repeated in a number of high profile cases in the past decade or so. By coincidence, Joanne Lees was back in the news this week, as a new Channel 4 documentary examines the disappearance of her boyfriend, British backpacker Peter Falconio, in the Australian Outback in July 2001. Lees told police that they had been flagged down by a truck driver on a remote stretch of road; he shot Falconio, whose body has never been found, while she escaped.

Bradley Murdoch is in prison for the murder, but almost 20 years on Lees is labelled as guilty in the court of public opinion. At the time, she was accused of being - guess what? - “cold” and “emotionless” in press conferences. Surely not the behaviour of someone who’s just witnessed their boyfriend’s killing? God forbid she, as with Kate McCann, might have been in shock, traumatised, in denial or simply resilient and not prone to tears.

Why must a woman appear broken - a distraught, inconsolable heroine - to be believed? That was also what made Amanda Knox problematic in 2007 when, shortly after the murder of her flatmate Mereditch Kercher in Perugia, Italy - she was seen doing cartwheels and kissing her boyfriend. I have always believed that Knox’s only crime was being a naive, idiotic teenager who didn’t appreciate how her behaviour would look to a world desperate to apportion blame.

Not to mention the madonna/whore fixation - how much more titillating to buy into the ‘sex game gone wrong’ story featuring Knox, than believe a scarier truth: that any one of us could have our lives altered in a moments by a total stranger.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/shaming-kate-mccann-says-us/
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There is only one thing I can say in support of this nauseating twaddle - social media! Considering all the genuine people out there trying to fathom the truth about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, those that twitter on and on and on and on do nothing to help.  I can only agree that some of the things said about the McCanns the case and associated matters are nothing short of disgusting.

By all means be critical after examining the case in detail but to resort to personal insults and unfounded speculation is an utter disgrace - it's embarrassing.  Even decent folk are tarred with the same 'troll' brush.

Claire Cohen wrote:
any one of us could have our lives altered in a moments by a total stranger.

Quite so but that ain't what happened here - is it?  You put a lot of soul into your article Ms Cohen but it's woefully lacking the all essential ingredient - fact.  You quite surprise me after all these years, still believing the McCann version of events despite all the evidence out there in the public domain.  I'm not talking social media or garden fence gossip but real evidence and intelligence garnered by the Portuguese police during their initial investigation, in spite of outside interference and of course everything else that's come to light over the past 13+ years.

Dear Ms Cohen, before embarking on another fantastical story, read here ..

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/

If you don't then get a glimmer of light, I can only suggest you are living in the dark.  Flick the switch for enlightenment, for your own good if nothing else.

Are these people deluded,are they telling outright lies(without a doubt)
are they friends of the instigators of this horrible crime or are they getting their pockets lined or are they so stupid they can’t see the overwhelming evidence against the McCanns.It could be all of the above,they don’t want to believe the evidence we can all see.
Disgusting people.

I must say, the Telegraph surprises me. This genre of sentimental carp is usually dominated by the tabloid press who would sell their souls to the devil for want of a farthing.

There seems to be an undercurrent of McCann support in the tabloid world. A group of like minded hacks, quite a number I might say, are hell bent on singing the McCann gospel with no due consideration for anything factual or evidential that might contradict that first testament gospel.

In short they care nothing for truth and accuracy. A crime in itself .... surely?

Verdi the tabloids are not on the McCanns side out of the goodness of
their hearts they disbelieve the McCanns as much as most of the
public,they are terrified of the consequences if they write what they
know is the truth and trust me they know the truth.

That might well be true to a certain extent but when you look at some of their staunch tabloid supporters, you can't deny they've stepped well and truly over the line of duty.

Tracey Kandohla - Antonella Lazzeri - Tom Towers - Jon Clarke - old uncle tom cobblers 'n all, to name but a few. Relentlessly flying the flag of innocence in the face of fact and evidence. They could spin a web from a few strands of nothing.

Hang on - they have .

Yes Verdi but that motley crew know the truth they just won’t say 
anything to upset the Mac’s.

Blackpied wrote:Yes Verdi but that motley crew know the truth they just won’t say 
anything to upset the Mac’s.

Can't disagree with that .

This is news to me..

'If only we had never come here': my return to Praia Da Luz with Gerry McCann

Documentary maker Steven Anderson has seen at first hand how the McCanns coped with the agony of losing their daughter
By Steven Anderson 6 June 2020 • 6:00pm


Gerry and Kate McCann in Praia Da Luz Credit: Luis Forra/Shutterstock



A few years after Madeleine McCann went missing, I returned to Praia da Luz with her father, Gerry. I was an independent television producer who had come to the Algarve to film reconstructions of what might have happened – the McCanns’ private detectives hoped broadcasting the footage might jog someone’s memory and lead to the crucial breakthrough.

Word quickly spread through the small village, and a crowd gathered as we followed Gerry to room 5A of the Ocean Club resort – the first time he’d been back. We filmed as he revisited the bedroom where he’d last seen Madeleine asleep in bed, her younger twin brother and sister in nearby cots. He surveyed the sliding patio doors, which had been left unlocked that night so they could avoid waking the children when they returned from dinner in the Tapas Bar, 70 metres away.

Gerry handled the moment and his emotions calmly. But while filming in the nearby restaurant where he and Kate had eaten with their group of friends – the so-called Tapas Seven – he suddenly needed a minute to himself. Walking away from our crew, he was out of my earshot, but heard to say, “If only we hadn’t come here.” His momentary self-chastisement was met by one of my colleagues, who tried to plead with him that it wasn’t his fault. “It’s the abductor who’s to blame,” I heard her say.

It was a striking moment as both Gerry and Kate tried hard to keep their composure in public. In the intense days immediately after Madeleine’s disappearance, they had received counselling advice to try to stay controlled in front of the media. Many kidnappers, they were told, “get off” on the grief that traumatised parents show on television, “so stay calm and don’t play into their hands.”


Gerry and Kate McCann leaving church in Praia Da Luz Credit: John Taylor



Gerry is a consultant cardiologist and during the time we spent together I noticed a certain professional detachment take over. Like Kate, he was criticised in some quarters for not showing enough emotion, but to me, this looked like a coping mechanism. Madeleine had gone missing when she was in their care and both felt a crushing sense of responsibility. The only way ahead now was bringing all of his discipline and focus to the task of finding her – or, at least, finding out what had happened to her.

Like almost everyone, I was fascinated by the story from the start. On a personal level, I had been on Mark Warner holidays, similar to the resort where Madeleine went missing, with my own family. And on a journalistic level, it was the biggest, most powerful human-interest story I’d ever known.

At the end of the summer in 2007, I was asked to be the executive producer of a BBC Panorama programme due to air that November, marking 200 days since Madeleine went missing. Richard Bilton was the reporter and, as well as showing behind-the-scenes footage of Kate and Gerry, filmed by a friend of theirs in Praia da Luz that summer, we also secured an exclusive interview with one of the Tapas Seven, Jane Tanner, who spoke for the first time about what she had witnessed – a man walking away from the holiday apartments with a child in his arms, on the night Madeleine went missing.

After that, I made a programme for ITV marking the first anniversary of her disappearance, and spent time filming Kate and Gerry at their home in Rothley, Leicestershire. Our team also accompanied them to the European Commission, where they were campaigning for a child abduction alert system to be introduced across the continent.

What struck me was how incongruous it all was. An ordinary young family living in an anonymous cul de sac just outside Leicester, at the centre of this extraordinary story resonating across the world. Not only had their life changed forever, in the most appalling way, but they were now characters who millions believed they knew well enough to judge. I recall Kate’s exasperation at one sensationalist story that bore little relation to reality: “This isn’t a soap opera,” she said. “It’s real life, and it’s our life.”


'This isn't a soap opera,' said Kate. 'It's real life, and it's our life.' Credit: Eddie Mulholland



I was with them when news broke that the owners of Express newspapers were ordered to pay them £550,000 for libel after publishing defamatory stories about their case. I was also filming with them when the Portuguese police announced the McCanns were no longer being considered “arguidos” (persons of interest) – a moment that should have been one of relief, but was tempered by the reality that the police were simultaneously “shelving” the case. The hunt for their missing daughter had effectively come to an end after just 14 months, and with no result. Living with this devastating new reality was clearly debilitating and I felt a certain empathy.

Like Kate, I’m from Liverpool, and like Gerry, I have a big, loud, working-class family, and did well enough to go on holiday to middle-class resorts. Gerry once spoke about briefly having the perfect nuclear family – before the unimaginable happened.

Over subsequent documentaries, my colleagues and I interviewed others involved in the case: various members of the Tapas Seven; Robert Murat, the first suspect who was subsequently cleared; and the Portuguese police detective, Goncalo Amaral, whose legal battles with the McCanns have kept the courts busy for more than a decade.

When some of the early weaknesses in the investigation began to become clear – failure to secure the crime scene and preserve potential forensic evidence – the British media turned its fire on the Portuguese police. The McCanns were wrongly suspected by many in the force of somehow orchestrating those attacks. The relationship poisoned quickly and to a significant extent, never recovered.

Various suspects were mentioned to us over the years, but never Christian Brückner – the 43-year-old German rapist and child sex offender, now the prime suspect – whose name I first heard only last week. It seems that Brückner wasn’t on Scotland Yard’s radar until 2017, after being turned in by his drinking friend in Germany, though Mr Amaral is said to have considered and discounted him back in 2007.


The McCanns hold a photograph of how Madeleine might have looked as she got older Credit: John Stillwell/PA

As speculation mounts, I imagine that Kate and Gerry will be trying hard not to get ahead of the situation. I was with them on several occasions when new sightings of Madeleine were reported from all over the world, only to be met by a muted reaction from her parents. This seemed like self-defence: steeling themselves against building up hopes most likely to be cruelly dashed. Also, they had their own parents and relatives to consider. All were anxious for good news; the McCanns didn’t want to crush their dreams over and over again.

Both highly-educated doctors, they would have known that it was highly unlikely Madeleine had survived after vanishing that night. But as parents, they said they would never give up on her, they owed it to her, particularly as there was no evidence that she had come to any harm. They also had two more children and had to do all they could to give them the love and care they deserved.

After Kate published her book in 2011, and they succeeded in persuading the government to launch a Scotland Yard inquiry, the filming stopped. The McCanns felt they’d said all they had to say, and that the police should get on with the job, unhindered by the media circus their intervention would guarantee. But my time with them gave me an insight into one of the most remarkable stories of our times; how life can be transformed in an instant, no matter how much we like to think we’re in control.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/had-never-come-return-praia-da-luz-gerry-mccann/
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Shame on you Mr Telegraph, shame on you!

What is it with these journalists, home and abroad, that can so casually sell their souls to the devil for want of a farthing?



Decent journalists, like politicians, are very few and far between.

Since those halcyon days on location in Praia da Luz, seconded to cover the case of missing Madeleine McCann, journalist Gordon Raynor has risen to the dizzy heights of Political Editor for the Telegraph.

The sad case appears to have been a career advancement for many across the broad spectrum of the establishment.   If there's a buck to be made, just mention the name Madeleine McCann and the world is your oyster.

Madeleine McCann's family accuse police

By Caroline Gammell, Gordon Rayner and Nick Britten 10 September 2007

The family of Gerry and Kate McCann have attacked the Portuguese police for framing the couple over the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, as it emerged that it may be another year before they find out whether they will face charges.

Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, accused the police of "clutching at straws" in order to get the case cleared up.

"Kate and Gerry have been a thorn in their sides for a long time. What better than to cast them as the villains?" she told GMTV this morning.

"It is unbelievable they have been named as suspects - no-one believes the Portuguese police.

"To think they are so callous and psychopathic that they could have done that... two more loving parents you could not hope to meet."

The family wanted the police to refocus the investigation on finding Madeleine alive, and drop the assumption that she is now dead, she added.

As the McCanns made an emotional return to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, 130 days after the four-year-old went missing, Portuguese police made it clear the investigation was not over "by any means".

The couple now fear the "cloud of suspicion" which hangs over their heads after they were named as formal suspects in the case will divert attention away from the search for Madeleine and leave them increasingly isolated in their attempts to find her.

They are also said to be "terrified" that their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, could be taken into care if they are charged with any crime.

The McCanns had always clung to the belief that they would eventually return home with Madeleine, but instead Mr McCann faced the cameras at East Midlands airport as part of a family of four, forced to deny he and his wife were to blame for their daughter's disappearance.

Struggling to maintain his composure, Mr McCann, 39, said: "Portuguese law prohibits us from commenting on the police investigation. Despite there being so much we wish to say we are unable to do so except to say this: we have played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter Madeleine."

The McCanns were both named as "arguidos", or formal suspects, on Friday after two days of police interviews during which Mrs McCann was offered a "deal" of a suspended prison sentence if she admitted to "accidentally" killing her daughter and told police where the body was.

The move is reported to have followed the discovery of traces of blood in a hire car used by the McCanns, but serious doubts have been raised about the value of the evidence, leading to speculation that Portuguese police are unlikely to bring charges unless more evidence comes to light.

In an interview which Mrs McCann gave hours before being declared a suspect, which was published on Sunday, she said: "They want me to lie - I'm being framed.

"They are basically saying, if I confess Madeleine had an accident, and that I panicked and hid the body in a bag for a month then got rid of it in a hire car, I'd get a two or three years' suspended sentence.

"I was even told: 'Think about it - Gerry would even be able to work again.' It is ridiculous."

A spokesman for the couple said they were willing to return to Portugal to answer further questions "at any time" and that they had "nothing to hide".

Explaining the decision to return home, Mr McCann said: "After very careful thought, we want the twins to live an ordinary life in their home country.

"While it is heartbreaking to return to the UK without Madeleine, it does not mean we are giving up our search for her. As parents, we cannot give up on our daughter until we know what has happened."

The couple had decided late on Saturday night to book themselves on to an EasyJet flight from Faro to East Midlands airport, which landed shortly after noon.

   Your View: Has this put you off visiting Portugal?
   Full coverage: The search for Madeleine McCann

They drove home to Rothley, where Madeleine's bedroom remains exactly as it was the day she excitedly left for the family holiday on April 28.

Although Mr McCann made a brief return to the house weeks after Madeleine's disappearance, it was the first time his 39-year-old wife had gone home.

A family friend said they had been reluctant to return home, as they are increasingly concerned that the investigation will grind to a halt without their continued presence in Portugal.

"The worst thing would be for the case to run down while this horrendous cloud of suspicion hangs over their heads," the friend said.

"There is a real concern that the Portuguese police now put this investigation in a dusty filing cabinet, never to be opened again."

Chief Insp Olegario Sousa, the police spokesman for the McCann case, insisted the investigation was "not over by any means".

He added: "The investigation will only end when we think the case file is complete and we hand our findings to the public prosecutor who then decides whether to drop the case or bring charges."

Sources close to the case said the process could take up to a year.

The McCanns had more bad news when they were told a request for the case to be reviewed by British police had been turned down.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said she was satisfied with the way Portuguese police have conducted the investigation.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1562721/Madeleine-McCanns-family-accuse-police.html
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Promoted out of the sphere for some reason or beyond the sphere for services rendered?  What do you think Mister Mitchell?  You have the credentials to pass judgement!

The family of Gerry and Kate McCann have attacked the Portuguese police for framing the couple over the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, as it emerged that it may be another year before they find out whether they will face charges.

Framing them eh - how so?  The evidence led the Portuguese police to develop their investigation - the evidence led directly to Gerry and Kate McCann.

Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, accused the police of "clutching at straws" in order to get the case cleared up.

Why would the Portuguese police want to clutch straws to get the case cleared up?  The truth is their investigation was seriously hampered by interference by the UK authorities.  Had the Portuguese police been allowed to continue their investigation we would not be here now discussing the Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann.

"Kate and Gerry have been a thorn in their sides for a long time. What better than to cast them as the villains?" she told GMTV this morning.

Kate and Gerry a thorn 'in their sides'?  I think you'll find it was the Portuguese police that was a thorn in the sides of Kate and Gerry! What better than attack in order to defend.

"It is unbelievable they have been named as suspects - no-one believes the Portuguese police.

Oh no it's not!  Oh yes they do!

"To think they are so callous and psychopathic that they could have done that... two more loving parents you could not hope to meet."

Done what?

The family wanted the police to refocus the investigation on finding Madeleine alive, and drop the assumption that she is now dead, she added.

Refocus?  Do you mean the Portuguese police should consider only the McCann version of the truth and ignore the evidence that leads to another consideration?

A spokesman for the couple said they were willing to return to Portugal to answer further questions "at any time" and that they had "nothing to hide".

But they didn't return to Portugal to answer further questions did they. They didn't even truthfully answer questions before leaving Portugal did they.

The only reason the McCanns returned to Portugal, after they fled the country early September 2007, was to crucify the name of Gonçalo Amaral through the courts and trial by media.

That doesn't appear to be the actions of innocent parents of a missing three year old child. You'd think they would move heaven and earth to assist the investigation - even if they were suspected at any stage.

The loss of a child is the loss of life, there can be no turning back. The last thing you'd think of is yourself - only your lost child, no matter what was thrown at you personally. Could it be any worse that self loathing, self recriminations - eternal suffering at the hand of fate?

They could throw the book at you, it wouldn't compare to the heartache of losing your child.

Verdi wrote:

That's just put me right off my tea 

Though for once I'm in complete agreement with Kate !

sandancer wrote:

Verdi wrote:

That's just put me right off my tea 

Though for once I'm in complete agreement with Kate !

Lest they forget..



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6986005.stm

Dear Prime Minister,

As a devoted father and family man, you know the importance of children. Our beloved eldest child, Madeleine, was abducted from Praia da Luz, Portugal, four years ago. Since then, we have devoted all our energies to ensuring her safe return.

Today we are asking you - and the British and Portuguese governments - to help find Madeleine and bring her back to her loving family.

We live in hope that Madeleine will be found alive and returned to us. One call might be all that is needed to lead to Madeleine and her abductor.

To this end, we are seeking a joint INDEPENDENT, TRANSPARENT and COMPREHENSIVE review of ALL information held in relation to Madeleine's disappearance. Thus far, there has been NO formal review of the material held by the police authorities - which is routine practice in most major unsolved crimes.

It is not right that a young vulnerable British citizen has essentially been given up on. This remains an unsolved case of a missing child. Children are our most precious gift.

Please don't give up on Madeleine.

Kate & Gerry McCann

They did open-up the files, the PJ files in July/August 2008.

Why didn't team McCann like that particular exposé? Why did they insist, cajole, another exposé that was destined to include their own dubious private detective investigations, using public donations to the quasi-legal Find Madeleine Co. Ltd - literally money for nothing. Then the dubious intelligence (not the tabloid on this occasion) documented by various UK police forces, government departments, NHS sources, the media and the intimate friendship that quickly developed between government media manipulators, public relations consultants and one very enigmatic personage in the name of Jim I will if you will' Gamble, at the time chief executive of the CEOP - the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command.

MADDIE SPY PLOT Madeleine McCann investigators plotted to spy on family of dead paedophile suspected in disappearance

Scotland Yard planned surveillance of Raymond Hewlett's ex-wife and children to try and track missing girl
Exclusive

   Nick Pisa

   10 Dec 2016, 23:05Updated: 12 Dec 2016, 4:13

POLICE hunting Madeleine McCann wanted to spy on the family of a dead suspect, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.

The Scotland Yard detectives planned covert surveillance on the ex-wife and children of paedophile Raymond Hewlett.

The pervert — who died of cancer aged 64 in 2010 — lived an hour from the holiday complex where Madeleine disappeared.

He denied involvement but in a deathbed letter to son Wayne said she had been “stolen to order” by a Belgium-based gang.

Detectives wanted to see if they could establish a link between Hewlett’s family and the gang. Two of his six children live in Portugal and ex-wife Mariana lives in Germany. There is no suggestion they were involved with Madeleine’s disappearance.

A source told The Sun on Sunday: "The surveillance was to gather information on Hewlett’s family and their connections.

"They were not suspected — it was more of a fishing expedition to see who they associated with and if any of the ring were in contact.

"The operation needed the involvement of the Portuguese police and this had to be smoothed over as you couldn’t have a covert surveillance team working there without them being informed.

"Hewlett had claimed traffickers took Maddie and the surveillance operation was to see if any of the ring were in contact with members of his family. If she was taken then there is always the possibility she could still be alive."

Sex pest Hewlett was jailed three times for crimes against young children in the 70s and 80s.

In 1972 he received a 12-month term after raping a 12-year-old girl he had lured to his car and knocked out with paint stripper. Six years after that he was jailed for four years after attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl. He later received six years for abducting a 14-year-old paper girl at knifepoint.

Last night Raymond Hewlett's son Wayne, a builder, told The Sun on Sunday he suspected in summer 2015 that he was under surveillance at home in Telford, Shropshire.

He said: "My partner and I thought someone might be watching the house. We would notice a car with somebody in it parked so they could see in.

"If it’s connected to Madeleine it’s the biggest waste of money I’ve heard of. What did they hope to find? I told detectives all I knew years ago."

Last week we revealed police working on the "Operation Grange" investigation into Maddie's disappearance had been given an extra £95,000 to look for a new lead involving a Europe-based child trafficking gang.

Kate and Gerry McCann have always clung to the hope that Madeleine — who would now be 13 — was taken by traffickers from Praia da Luz, Algarve, in 2007 and may still be alive.

The theory she may have ended up in the hands of a child sex ring with connections in Morocco or Belgium has always rated highly with investigators.

Last night a Scotland Yard spokesman said:"Operation Grange are not prepared to discuss any lines of inquiry while the investigation is ongoing."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2373266/madeleine-mccann-investigators-plotted-to-spy-on-family-of-dead-paedophile-suspected-in-disappearance/
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Déjà vu  Meester Pisa?

What's to be expected now - a deathbed confession?

Verdi, How do you cope with all this garbage after all your work and that of others? Why do journalists run the world (well at least the Anglosphere? Are people who watch and regurgitate the content of documentaries (sic) on TV stupid or are they so innocent that they cannot see depravity and lies that are obvious to the rest of us? 

Every time there is a new torrent of words about, or spoken by, the perfect parents, you can find one something ridiculous that makes you wonder -- something as simple as leaving the patio doors open so they didn't wake the children on their return. Try saying that to your friends over dinner and watch their faces. Noisy entrance and sleeping children versus the chance chidden would get out or there people could get in. I am not discussing the doors open/doors closed argument (or changing story about what was opened and closed and by whom. I am merely illustrating how the most innocuous comment from Dr Perfect Parent can signal their seeding of untruths.

Oh, any excuse to expose the wretched media for what they are, no matter where, I'm there like a rat up your left trouser leg.

In the light of the current daily/weekly nonsense churned out between Germany and the UK - with poor old Portugal playing piggy in the middle - I see the Raymond Hewlett saga to be curiously similar. Borderline identical, with a few minor adjustments to separate the two.

I also despair that people believe everything propagated by world media, although in the case of missing Madeleine McCann the UK media are accountable for most of the inaccurate (read lies) reports.

They tell you what someone wants you to believe. That applies to every aspect of world affairs - generally known as propaganda!

Madeleine McCann investigator didn't listen to ANY tip-offs given to hotline - and squandered £500,000

By DANIEL BOFFEY IN WASHINGTON
UPDATED: 12:06 GMT, 29 August 2010

A private eye whose company was paid £500,000 from a public fund to find Madeleine McCann squandered the money on a series of bizarre schemes that had no chance of locating the missing child.

Kevin Halligen, who claimed to have experience in the British secret services, was arrested last week in an Oxford hotel after an FBI manhunt over an unrelated £1.3million fraud case in America.

His investigations company, Oakley International, was taken on in March last year by the Find Madeleine Fund and her parents Kate and Gerry McCann.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal today that despite setting up a hotline for potential informants and witnesses, none of the hundreds of calls received by a call centre hired by Halligen, 48, was listened to by Oakley investigators - and Halligen also bragged to his colleagues that he had executed a series of peculiar tactics to find Madeleine.

He claimed to have hired an actor to pretend to be a 'drunken priest' who would seek confessions as he toured the bars of Praia da Luz, the resort where Madeleine disappeared in May 2007.

And he told colleagues that a family with a Madeleine lookalike daughter had been paid to set up home in a nearby resort in order to tempt out a potential kidnapper.

Meanwhile, a paper trail obtained by The Mail on Sunday shows that Halligen, a former director of a catering firm, launched an extraordinary spending spree on hotels, cigar bars, restaurants and luxury goods while he was in the pay of the Find Madeleine Fund, and in the period shortly after he was fired last summer.

Documents show that in his first two months as lead investigator in the search for Madeleine, Halligen spent £7,000 on a personal chauffeur.

A few months later, on a short trip to New York with a girlfriend, he lavished £1,600 on Salvatore Ferragamo leather goods, £5,500 on handbags, £500 on an Italian meal, £150 on a pair of designer glasses and £900 on a three-night stay at the five-star Renaissance Hotel.

And in a one-month visit to Washington, where he owned a £1.5million mansion, he spent more than £3,000 on dining out and £6,000 on a room at the US capital's Intercontinental Hotel.

He also paid out more than £50,000 on plumbing and mosaic tiling for his house in Great Falls, Virginia - a property in which he has never spent a night because of constant home-improvement work.

The revelations will dismay everyone who donated to the Find Madeleine Fund. But perhaps of most concern is the lack of attention paid to the hundreds of phone calls received by the Madeleine hotline.

Halligen and Oakley International, based in Washington, failed to listen to a single call received on the hotline set up for potential informants by Kate and Gerry McCann last year.

Johan Selle, the director of operations at iJet, the US firm that managed the Find Madeleine phone line, revealed that for a year nobody even asked his company if they could listen to any of the calls received.

Mr Selle said his operators, in Annapolis, Virginia, had answered 'hundreds of calls', but the information seemed wasted - possibly squandering valuable leads.

He said: 'We delivered Oakley a report with a summary of the calls and said if they wanted to come back they could listen to the recording, but nobody did.

'For someone with an understanding of the case it would be very easy for some to say that maybe 80 or 90 per cent of the calls were hogwash, but there may be a percentage where one would say maybe we should listen to this one or listen to that one. But our understanding is that this never took place.

'We are not sure whether Halligen provided our report to the family or to the trust or to those working with them or to the teams working after him, because no one came back to us.

'We sent the report to Oakley group and our assumption was that they were using it as a piece in the puzzle. But it appears that wasn't the case.'

The firm says it was not paid for it services by Halligen or Oakley International.

Two of Halligen's former colleagues in the investigation, John Taylor and Dr Richard Parton, said they became concerned early on in their working relationship with the self- styled 'super-spy'.

Dr Parton, whose company Psyintel was employed for its expertise on interview techniques, said he and his partner had been encouraged by Halligen to get involved with the high-profile case.

Halligen had also mentioned other future projects that could net them millions of pounds, although these schemes never came to fruition.

But Dr Parton said fears over Halligen's suitability for the job first arose when the private detective suddenly asked him to stop calling him Richard, the name by which they had known him for several years. He then also raised details of Halligen's extraordinary tactics to find Madeleine.

Dr Parton, who claims he was later left with an unpaid invoice for £50,000, said: 'It was very strange. I had met him years earlier and it had been Richard. Then before a meeting with some people who wanted a presentation on my techniques, I was asked to call him Kevin from then on. I thought it was odd but he was so secretive and that was just the way he was.

'Whenever we had a meeting he would also always immediately say that he needed to leave for a flight. Every time. He would always also try to get the conversation around to talking about the psychological characteristics of a sociopath.'

Dr Parton added: 'I repeatedly told him his investigators on the ground in Portugal were not doing a proper job but he insisted lots of things were going on I didn't know about.

'That is when he told me about some of his schemes, such as the drunken priest seeking confessions from people drinking in the bars of Praia da Luz and the family with a girl who looked similar to Madeleine. This family were set up, apparently, in a resort near to Praia da Luz just to sit and wait and see what happened.

'It was all such a waste of money and time.'

However, it was only later, when tape recordings of interviews undertaken in Praia da Luz were sent to Dr Parton and Mr Taylor, in Washington, that they started to fear the worst for the investigation.

Mr Taylor said: 'The quality of the interviews was terrible, very amateurish. The noise in the background was bad, the interview questions were useless and the subjects were irrelevant. I told them to stop wasting time and money on such low-key figures - homeless people and receptionists who knew nothing.'

Things came to a head after Halligen reneged on repeated promises to pay their invoice. Dr Parton said: 'I took him to one side and asked when I was due to be paid. Three days later he disappeared. He had fled to Rome with his girlfriend.'

It was then that Dr Parton and Mr Taylor started to contact others who had been hired by Oakley International. Mr Taylor added: 'He would hire lots of people to do work but only pay a few of them. Meanwhile, he was spending lots of money on his own lifestyle. It only gave the appearance that work was being done.'

They also contacted Maria Dybczak, a trade lawyer for the US Commerce Department, whom they understood to be Halligen's wife. It emerged she had agreed to go along with a fake wedding service to keep up appearances for Halligen.

Dr Parton said: 'She admitted she wasn't proud of it but she had been tricked, too. He claimed that a job he was doing with the CIA meant that he couldn't have his name on a marriage certificate.

'She was manipulated into going along with a fake wedding with an actor posing as a priest. He said they would get properly married a few weeks later, but that never happened.'

Shortly afterwards Halligen fled to Rome with a girlfriend, named in a writ filed by another former colleague as Shirin Trachiotis, a glamorous doctor based in Washington.

Almost immediately after arriving in Rome on their first-class Lufthansa tickets, Halligen withdrew hundreds of thousands of pounds more from Oakley International's bank accounts and spent £8,000 on a luxury hotel before slinking back to the UK a few months later.

Dr Parton said: 'He has left a trail of debts across America and the UK. But the horrible truth is that he stole from the McCanns what they really couldn't afford - time.'

Following a short hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court last week, Halligen was refused bail and was remanded in custody until December 2, when the next stage of his case for extradition will be heard.

The US Department of Justice issued an indictment for Halligen, from Surrey, earlier this month alleging that he tried to defraud a London law firm.

They claim he took £1.3million as part of a deal to secure the release of Dutch business executives arrested in the Ivory Coast. Instead, it is claimed, he spent it on a mansion, a gift to his girlfriend, cash machine withdrawals and debit-card transactions.

Kate and Gerry McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell refused to be drawn on the details of Oakley's investigation, much of which, it is understood, the McCanns were unaware of. He said: 'The first phase of the contract was satisfactorily seen through, such as the setting up of the hotline. Towards the end of it there were question marks about delivery and the relationship was terminated.

'Given Mr Halligen is in custody it is inappropriate to comment further.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231757/Madeleine-McCann-investigator-didnt-listen-ANY-tip-offs-given-hotline--squandered-500-000.html

Russia reopens Madeleine McCann-style probe into the mysterious disappearance of two girls aged three in 2013

   Ayana Vinokurova and Alina Ivanova vanished from Sinsk in Yakutia, Russia
   Top criminal investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, has sent detectives from Moscow
   Move comes after pressure from girls' two families who have not given up hope

By Nicole Conner For Mailonline

Published: 12:15 GMT, 31 December 2020 | Updated: 12:15 GMT, 31 December 2020

Russia has reopened a Madeleine McCann-style probe into the mysterious disappearance of two girls aged three in June 2013.

Ayana Vinokurova and Alina Ivanova were last seen playing in the yard of a house in the remote village of Sinsk in the region of Yakutia, Russia, before they vanished.    

The girls were last seen outside Alina's grandfather Gavrila Ivanov's house on June 24, 2013.

Following their disappearance, an extensive search and criminal investigation failed to locate the children or find what happened to them.

Now top detectives have been sent 5,150 miles east from Moscow in a fresh attempt to solve the crime, ordered by Russia's top criminal investigator, Alexander Bastrykin.

Mr Bastrykin is a former university classmate of Vladimir Putin who heads the Russian Investigative Committee, which has been compared to the FBI.

The move comes after pressure from the girls' two families who say they have not given up hope of finding the children alive.  

Alina's father Alexei Ivanov said: 'There is not a single clue so far, no witnesses, no traces.'

He welcomed the decision to send detectives from Moscow who have begun quizzing villagers, and have been ordered by Mr Bastrykin to come up with new leads.

The girls had been sent for the summer from regional capital Yakutsk to stay with grandparents in the cut-off village, which is only accessible by boat.

The original investigation examined whether they had been snatched by a paedophile or murderer among the 850 population.

It also considered whether they might have been eaten by a wild bear from the nearby forest, or swept away any the Lena River, the 11th longest in the world, which flows nearby.

Helicopters, drones, dogs, boats, divers and thermal imaging devices were involved in the search for the girls, who were both the only children in their families.

There were also 1,800 people interrogated, including 62 teenagers and 41 people with a criminal or psychiatric history.  

At 7:45pm on the day the girls disappeared, Alina's grandfather Mr Ivanov called his wife Olga to say he was leaving for work.

When she returned 15 minutes later she could not find her granddaughter or her friend. She started looking, and was joined by police and 350 volunteers.

There was also forensic checks on all vehicles, motorbikes and boats.

One of the suspects - the grandfather who last saw the girls' alive - twice confessed to accidentally running them over, and burying their bodies.

Twice he withdrew his confessions, and local prosecutors evidently do not believe he killed them.

A 32-year-old neighbour, boat-owning Vasily Latyshev, was also under suspicion. He was described as 'vulnerable and impressionable' with an 'unstable psyche'.

Almost a year after the children vanished, he committed suicide.

The dead man's relatives say that he was confronted by locals who demanded he admitted killing the girls.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9101855/Russia-reopens-Madeleine-McCann-style-probe-disappearance-two-girls-aged-three-2013.html
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You can always rely on the Waily Snail to come up with a Christmas cracker!

What is a Madeleine McCann style probe?  Ignore all the compelling evidence and adhere to the prime suspects story line with super glue?

Why bring Madeleine McCann's name into it anyway, it's a downright insult to her memory.

Besides, the circumstances reported here are more akin to the disappearance of Ben Needham.

'EXASPERATED' Madeleine McCann’s parents fear Brexit uncertainty is delaying Euro court battle to silence shamed conspiracy cop

Tracey Kandohla

17 Sep 2019, 0:33Updated: 17 Sep 2019, 0:43

MADELEINE McCann’s parents fear their quest to silence the former Portuguese police chief who accused the couple of being involved in their daughter's disappearance will be hindered by Brexit delays.

Kate and Gerry appealed to the European Court of Human Rights more than two years ago, but now believe their case will drag on "indefinitely".

The couple's last ditch appeal is still "under consideration" and "no timeframe has yet been fixed for its examination" an official has said.

Their battle against Goncalo Amaral, 59, who originally led the probe into their daughter’s disappearance, has raged for more than a decade.

The former cop has spouted multiple theories about what happened to Madeleine, including implicating her parents in her death and accusing the pair of faking her abduction.
'EXASPERATED'

Family spokesperson Clarence Mitchell said last night: "They are exasperated by this and want to draw a line under it all."

A close pal of the couple added: "It just drags on and on and causes them even more anguish.

"It could be several years or more before they get an outcome. It’s indefinite.

"It’s never been about seeking damages but simply trying to stop lies and malicious accusations being spouted.

"It doesn’t help that Brexit is still hanging in the balance and could be having a negative effect on European judicial as well as business affairs."

Maddie’s parents' civil fight against shamed ex Portuguese officer Goncalo Amaral has been going on for ten years.

After winning, then losing on appeal, they lodged an application with the ECHR in Strasbourg, France, in July 2017.
BREXIT FURORE

The court declined to say if the Brexit furore has had any impact on the delay in British applications being heard.

Of Maddie’s parents appeal a spokesperson said: "It is impossible to speculate on how long it will take the court to examine this application.

"It varies depending on many factors and the court takes into account the importance and urgency of the issues.

"But for now it’s just one of almost 57,000 applications pending - more than a fifth of them from Russians.

"The case is under consideration and no timeframe has been fixed as to the examination of its admissibility."

In March it was revealed that Kate and Gerry had already forked out £24,000 in legal fees to the ‘tormentor' ex cop with a further £5,500 still due.

But so far no damages for hurt feelings have been settled by either side.

Under Portuguese libel law, compensation is only paid at the very end of court proceedings - although a successful party can demand costs before.

The latest setback for the couple from Rothley, Leics, comes after British police were given an extra £300,000 to keep the search for their daughter going.

The welcome Government boost for the couple means the investigation, which has cost taxpayers a massive £11.75 million, will last until the end of March next year.
BATTLE AGAINST AMARAL

Kate and Gerry first issued a writ against Mr Amaral for libel in June 2009 after he claimed in his best seller 2008 book 'The Truth of the Lie’ that Maddie had died accidentally and they had faked her abduction.

He suggested that the youngster’s body may have been hidden in a Brit woman’s coffin as she was cremated in the Luz church the McCann’s had been given keys for to pray in private at any hour.

In 2015 Mr Amaral, who led the initial bungled hunt for Maddie before being thrown off the case, was ordered by a Lisbon court to pay the couple £360,000 in damages with interest of at least £76,000 for his alleged slurs which the McCann’s described as "false, malicious, defamatory and hurtful".

They also said his accusations could hamper the worldwide hunt for Maddie because if people believed she was dead they would stop searching.

Their Portuguese lawyer Isabel Duarte said at the time: “This is the news we have been waiting for after six long years.

"We were always confident of a victory but in recent months had a few doubts. But the fact that Mr Amaral has now been silenced is very good news.

"It was never about the money. It was about stopping awful lies, which hindered the search for Madeleine, being printed. I now hope and pray that they can find their daughter."

But retired detective Mr Amaral, 59, successfully appealed the decision before any money exchanged hands.

The country’s Supreme Court found against the McCann’s in January 2017, stating in their 76-page ruling that they had not ‘successfully proved their innocence’ and with compensation due to Mr Amaral.

After careful consideration the devastated couple lodged an appeal six months later with the ECHR in the final round of their battle.

More than two years on, the application by eminent heart doctor Gerry and former GP turned medical worker Kate, both 51 - simply titled 'Appeal McCann & Healy v Portugal' under Maddie’s dad's name and mum’s maiden name - remains in the huge pending pile.

The ECHR spokesperson said that if an application is not declared inadmissible the court, on further examination, would make a judgment that either "there has been no violation of the Convention or a person’s rights have been violated".

She added: "If it does find a violation it may award that person compensation."

If the McCann’s eventually win their appeal and are awarded damages any payout would go into the public Find Maddie Fund - which now stands at about £750,000 - to continue the search for their daughter when the controversial police inquiry Operation Grange is shelved.

However, if they lose and damages with increasing interest and potential further costs are given to Mr Amaral it could wipe out the entire fund.

A pal said: "If this happened it would be a bitter blow but Kate and Gerry would keep their heads up and carry on searching. There can be no more appeals by either side. This one is the final challenge but they have no idea when it will be heard."

It would be a bitter blow but Kate and Gerry would keep their heads up and carry on searching ... This one is the final challenge but they have no idea when it will be heard.
Friend close to the McCann's

During a TV interview to mark the milestone 10th anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance in May 2017 BBC presenter Fiona Bruce asked the McCanns: "One of the police officers in Portugal has been a thorn in your side for many years, he was thrown off the investigation but then he wrote a book and you fought it through the courts.

"At the moment you've lost and he's won. Is this the end for you now, are you going to continue to fight him?"

Gerry replied: "I think the short answer is we have to because the last judgment I think is terrible.

"I think it's also important to say that when we lodged the action it was eight years ago, and the circumstances were very different, where we felt there was real damage being done to the search for Madeleine at that time, particularly in Portugal."

Agreeing that Mr Amaral's claims needed to be challenged, Kate said: "I find it all incomprehensible to be honest.

"It has been very upsetting, and it has caused a lot of frustration and anger which is a real negative emotion."

Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal’s Praia da Luz in May 2007 while her parents were dining in a nearby tapas restaurant with pals.

They cling onto a glimmer of hope she could still be alive. She would now be aged 16.#

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9941816/madeleine-mccann-kate-gerry-brexit-uncertainty-delay-court-battle-amaral-cop/