The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann™
Welcome to 'The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann' forum 🌹

Please log in, or register to view all the forums as some of them are 'members only', then settle in and help us get to the truth about what really happened to Madeleine Beth McCann.

When you register please do NOT use your email address for a username because everyone will be able to see it!

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Mm11

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Regist10
The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann™
Welcome to 'The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann' forum 🌹

Please log in, or register to view all the forums as some of them are 'members only', then settle in and help us get to the truth about what really happened to Madeleine Beth McCann.

When you register please do NOT use your email address for a username because everyone will be able to see it!

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Mm11

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Regist10

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Page 2 of 3 Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

View previous topic View next topic Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by sharonl 27.03.19 21:57

Chapter 25: How much of this is Fraud, and how much totally innocent?


In the accounts for 2008 the figure for setting up the website is given as £ 37,071 (Thirty seven THOUSAND).
A website, even of the complexity it now has, seven main pages, some with supplementary pages, and a Shop page, would cost a professional website master less than £ 2,000 (TWO thousand) to set up and to run for a year.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Fund
Source, Daily Mail, [1]
Note that the Professional fees for creating the “Fund”, which we assume refers to solicitors, Bates Wells Braithwaite, a top of the range firm, based in central London, amounts only to £ 36,070.
‘Accountants’ (Haysmacintyre ?) is shown separately, as £ 7,050
So we are asked to believe that a teenaged school leaver, in Ullapool, charged more than one and quarter times the average wage for Scotland, (£ 28,296 in 2008) [2] to produce a relatively simple web site, available off-the-peg.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 B2BmAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Large%2Bjpeg
Cost of a Large-Sized Website
Website costs increase considerably as you move up in scale. With multiple sections, 40 to 50 pages and lots of functionality, large websites are ideal for big companies or established online brands.  [3]
The website was created by Calum MacRea, a police officer’s son, then aged 18. [4]
An article in the Scottish ‘Sunday Herald’, reported that he had been designing websites “since he was 10”. He had allegedly been approached by Gerry’s sister, the egregious Philomena, previously his teacher, within four days of Madeleine’s being reported missing.
So what are the possibilities ?
1. Callum MacRae invoiced the “Fund” for £ 37,071. The accountants signed it off and he was paid this amount. If so, this is potentially fraudulent.
2. Callum McRae was paid no such amount, but it has been entered as “creative accounting”, and the actual cash has gone elsewhere. If so, then two further possibilities arise.
a. Haysmacintyre did not know and did not notice
b. Haysmacintyre DID know, but let it pass anyway
The first option suggests incompetence, the second - fraud.
3. Is there another option ? Is there a sensible explanation ? If so, I confess I cannot see what it might be.

REFS:
1 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1131284/Where-2m-gave-Madeleine-McCann-gone.html
2 http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12372742.Average_wages_in_Scotland_continue__to_grow/
3 http://webdesign.expertmarket.co.uk/how-much-does-website-cost
4 https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t1465-calum-macrae-and-the-mccann-website

Post scriptum
To the above we have to add the strange dealings with criminal organisations and people posing as Private detective agencies, such as M3 and Halligen; the extremely suspicious way in which ALPHAIG was set up as a company some time after Mitchell had announced the contract; the lack of transparency of the “fund’ from its inception; the threats of action for defamation by the Solicitors and accountants when pertinent questions were raised; the sudden withdrawal by the accountants - apparently without having prepared a final account . . .
And so on
All very strange - as my grandmother would have said.
sharonl
sharonl
Forum Owner

Posts : 8522
Activity : 11159
Likes received : 1397
Join date : 2009-12-29

http://www.cold2012.org.uk

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by sharonl 27.03.19 22:09

Chapter 26 : What do I think happened to Madeleine ?

Over the past decade I have looked at this case and dissected bits of it, trying to decide what parts of the story are credible and to distinguish them from what is frankly not, and to try to see which parts were pure fabrication.

So I am now prepared to rise to the challenge, and to present my “purported’ theory.

I thank all those who have led me to this point, but stress that this, and all the mistakes and inaccuracies which may be found are entirely mine.

I would hope that any inaccuracy or misinterpretation could be pointed out or explained, so I may revise my idea, as everyone should on being confronted with new evidence.


What do I think happened to Madeleine ?

On Saturday night she did not sleep - a combination of excitement and her documented habit of wandering into the parents’ room during the night

Discussion - Kate tells us this in her book, (p. 59) and there is evidence from the “Star Chart” in the Rothley house, and family members. Excitement and over-tiredness on the first day of a holiday is normal

On Sunday evening she and the twins were therefore all given a sedative with their documented ‘cup of tea and a biscuit’. The twins sleep. This continued during the week.

Discussion - Kate tells us in the book that she suspected sedation from the start. Both she and Fiona Payne are qualified anaesthetists; Kate specialised in paediatrics. Strangely neither report that they took any of the medically appropriate steps towards the twins on the night of 3/5/7, leading to a inference that both know exactly what had been given and therefore had no concerns.


Madeleine did not sleep well and during the evening got out of bed, went into the parent’s room, found they were not there, and climbed onto the sofa to look out of the window to see where they were.

Discussion - One of the early theories involved Madeleine ‘wandering off’. Even if those particular shutters had been closed she would not be aware of them, only of the curtains, and would have tried to look out. We were told definitively that Madeleine could not have opened the sliding doors, even though they were allegedly unlocked.

She fell down the back of the sofa, and because the gap was narrow and she was sleepy, was unable to break her fall with her hands. She may have struck her head or face first on the sill as she slipped forward. She landed head first on the terrazzo floor, and some time during the night died of a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage, with light bleeding from the ear and possibly the nose and mouth.

Discussion - The ‘Eeyore’ pyjamas were washed because of the “large brown stain” (p.63) and then dried and photographed on the blue sofa, but then they became confused about what they had said, and why they would have taken a photo of the pyjamas in the first place, and subsequently held them up at a news conference in Berlin on 6th June 2007, describing them as “the ones she was abducted in”. This was confirmed by uncle John McCann when he reported that Amelie had been dressed in the garments and had immediately identified them saying “Maddie’s jammies. Where is Maddie ?”

Bleeding would have been confined to some small leakage from an ear - possibly including cerebrospinal fluid, typical of brain damage - and from the mouth and nose, which stops once the heart stops.

The parents came back late, crept very quietly into their room and went to bed without checking the children

Discussion - There is evidence from other sources that on some nights the parents stayed out into the early hours, and in the book this is admitted (p.60)

In the morning they see the empty bed, and during the frantic search find Madeline’s body behind the sofa, by now stiff and cold and leaking bodily fluids.

In her grief Kate holds and cuddles the body tightly to herself, covering her own clothes and cuddle-cat in cadaverine, which is detected a long time later. She then stays with the twins in the bedroom, getting them dressed and ready, and cuddling them both, holding them all tight to her. Cadaverine is transferred to the red T shirt worn by Sean at this stage, which was alerted to later, and to whatever Amelie was wearing.

Meanwhile Gerry puts Madeleine’s little body into the blue Tennis bag, and places it under the bushes in the garden, so that it will not be seen by the cleaner - if she comes, nor by the twins.

Discussion - The little gate at the bottom of the steps keeps everyone out. In Spain and Portugal there are very few dogs roaming around. The chances of a random intruder entering, searching, finding a bag of ‘stuff’ under a bush and deciding to steal it - without looking inside are - in the author’s estimation, slightly less than the chances of an abduction = 0.

During Monday the bag is left in the flower bed, and the cleaner does not see it. The sofa is pushed fully back against the curtains and the cleaner does not bother pulling it out to clean behind it. Kate goes to the supermarket to make purchases (p. 56) - perhaps including cleaning fluids.

Discussion - The bag may have been brought indoors for Monday night, and placed on the shelf. Bodies do not begin to smell strongly for some time. But if left in the garden it would have assisted the cooling, as the air temperature fell to 10º C (50º F) during the night of 30/4/7/- 1/5/7

There was a suggestion that the cleaner might have been sent away on the Monday. In any event a quick clean two days into a one week holiday does not involve anything much more than beds, bathroom and kitchen area. Moving furniture and cleaning underneath and behind it is confined to the day of departure or a deep “spring’ clean. Even if the cleaner did move the sofa, she would simply mop with bleach.

Personal problems, stains, spills, leakages, soiled sheets and towels are nothing to comment about if you are a cleaner in a holiday resort. The amount of leakage is unlikely to have been much, would probably have been mopped up by the parents, and with three very young children, two in night-time nappies, in an apartment a certain amount of ‘soiling’ would be well within a middle aged Portuguese cleaner’s comprehension and be totally unremarkable.

Robert Murat is summoned, and arrives early on Tuesday. He offers the assistance of a nearby hotel, which has outhouses and chest freezers. Gerry, in full tennis kit, and carrying the tennis bag is able to take Madeleine there and conceal her. Possibly by taxi, or perhaps in Murat’s rented car, and giving some meaning to Gerry’s quote: “I’m not going to answer that . . .” when asked whether he knew Murat previously.

Discussion - Murat had rented a car, as his own was allegedly in for repair (according to his statement). Some may argue that the body might have started to smell by that stage, but Tuesday is only 36 hrs post mortem. Some studies of dead piglets have reported that putrefaction only starts being noticeable to humans at 2-3 days, (but discoverable by dogs within 90 minutes of death ). https://australianmuseum.net.au/image/

Bin liners and air fresheners are on sale in the supermarket.
Gerry’s answer may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qNhoWz0rQw&feature=related

Gerry returns and spends much of the next few days playing tennis at every opportunity to establish his credentials. The now empty tennis bag is placed on the shelf, and the process of scent transference starts

Discussion - despite the denials, the blue tennis bag is clearly visible on the photos taken during the night of 3-4/5/7. It then disappears from the record and like the pink Princess blanket has never been traced. The spot on which the blue tennis bag is shown is the exact point at which the cadaver dog alerts - and it alerts to no other place in that room. The depth of detail in the book about each of the tennis sessions is extremely suspicious. On one day he was reported to have had an injury to the Achilles tendon, which prevented his playing tennis during the afternoon, but was able to resume later that same day. This has not been confirmed.

The conspiracy is hatched with the entire group. After the dreadful event of the Sunday night they all pull together and ensure nothing else could ever happen like that to the other children . . . and begin to work out the strategy. This includes all the children being looked after by one adult every evening.

Discussion - There is much circumstantial evidence to support this theory. It is concealed in statements about recurrent illness accounting for the absence at dinner every night of at least one of the group.

The planning stage concentrates on large issues, but neglects details like cuddle cat, the pink blanket, and the pyjamas. It also neglects the weather, ambient temperature, evidence to be deduced from the lack of photographs and video recording, and the sheer implausibility of the half hourly checks being made by everyone every evening. It becomes overcomplicated with far too much detail and precision being offered.

Discussion - At some stage during that week the Pool Photo - which may be the last or penultimate photo of Madeleine, is selected as ‘proof’ of her continued existence on 3/5/7, and an elaborate strategy is developed, firstly to ensure the Polícia Judiciária never obtain a copy, (included in GM’s second statement in which he affirms and signs that he has no further photos in his possession, only to produce the Pool Photo via Mitchell exactly three weeks later ) and secondly to falsify the time and date. It is clear that the Pool Photo CANNOT POSSIBLY have been taken at lunchtime on 3/5/7, and is most likely or almost certainly - considerably beyond the test of the ‘balance of probabilities’ - to have been taken at lunchtime on Sunday 29th April.

The date for the discovery is deliberately chosen to allow the Police one whole day to take statements before they had to allow people to leave on Saturday, but not to allow them two whole days to conduct follow up interviews or detain witnesses when inconsistencies began to show.

Discussion - The Tapas 7 mostly return to the UK on Saturday 5/5/7 as planned and are replaced with close McCann family members who close ranks


I think this fits with what we know. Whether it is accurate or near the truth is an entirely different issue.
What I do not know is WHY ?
sharonl
sharonl
Forum Owner

Posts : 8522
Activity : 11159
Likes received : 1397
Join date : 2009-12-29

http://www.cold2012.org.uk

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by sharonl 27.03.19 22:11

Chapter 27: Can any of this really be true?

Shortly after reporting Madeleine missing, the McCanns selected -    
                        VERY CAREFULLY  and very quickly

Metodo 3          whose principal investigators went to prison for 4 years
involving :
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 0
Francisco Marco  - was appointed in September 2007, or possibly earlier, by the McCanns and their advisers, to head their much-vaunted ‘search for Madeleine’. He was the boss of the disreputable downtown Barcelona detective agency, Metodo 3. The agency had been in constant trouble with the authorities, having been caught up in a telephone tapping scandal in the 1990s, when all their top staff were arrested. During the period leading up to Christmas 2007, his staff did not look for Madeleine. They were busy promoting fake sightings to keep up the pretence that Madeleine had been abducted. In the lead-up to Christmas, he was exposed as a serial, and practiced liar. He said he knew Madeleine was alive. He maintained his men ‘knew where she was being held’. He claimed his men were ‘closing in on the kidnappers’, and finally promised that ‘Maddie will be home by Christmas’. These were all outright lies.
(Strangely the lawyers for the McCanns denied in writing that he had said this, only later to realise that Kate had included it in her book)

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8
Antonio Giminez Raso   -  once a high-flying Detective Inspector in the Regional Crime Squad of Catalonia. He had a prime position in the Drugs and Human Trafficking Department. This employment came to an end around the end of 2004; whether he ‘resigned’ or was ‘pushed’ is unclear.

and
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Jp
Julian Peribañez   -  who admitted in his book Cortina de Humo that he had been paid to invent sightings of Madeleine in Morocco  

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3
Kevin Halligen  - operating under the company name of Oakley, who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for fraud.
Mitchell told the world “The hunt for Madeleine is becoming more and more international, and it was felt that a truly international firm was now needed to lead the inquiry.  
These really are the big boys. They are absolutely the best . . “ In fact Oakley was not set up until after Madeleine had been reported missing.


Followed by

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4
The ALPHAIG 2  - David Edgar and Arthur Cowley - who did not go to Barcelona to investigate an allegedly strong lead, (but probably charged the “Fund” for [not] doing so.)  The pair who it seems continue to maintain that Madeleine is being “held in a hellish lair in the lawless hinterlands...”.  
Again the egregious and mendacious Mitchell led the world to believe that they were Alpha Group Investigations – a non existent company, but with a name similar to Alpha Investigations Group, a large internationally known American company.
       ALFAIG was in fact registered some time after the TV documentary in which their appointment had been announced.



    The McCanns immediately made friends with and consorted with

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5
Clement Freud  - A known Paedophile and pervert

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6
Ray Wyre  - A self appointed expert in Paedophilia  - who it later transpired was on the Elm House list of visitors - for “whatever reason”

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7
Jim Gamble  - Sometime head of CEOP, and another self appointed expert on Paedophilia, who was notoriously silent and apparently inactive during the decades of abuse of young white girls in Oldham, Rochdale, Bradford, Oxford, but who went to Thailand to buy a young girl - ALLEGEDLY to see if it was possible.  


They were contacted and assisted by

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Cb.gb
Gordon Brown - then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was instrumental in covering up the details of the Hamilton / Dunblane massacre. His motives for this are unknown, but there are serious rumours on the internet about his own past activities and proclivities, for which he has neither issued a denial nor sued.

Cherie Blair - wife of Tony Blair, then PM, widely known as “Miranda”, and jokingly referred to by his own Head of Chambers as “the nearest star to Uranus”. Believed by some to have been fined for homosexual indecency many years ago, under the name Charles Lynton (his middle two names)


They accepted gifts from
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Bhs
Philip Green - noted for his corrupt and greedy theft of many hundreds of millions from BHS, before selling the totally destroyed company for £1 to another fraudster, and for a long time refusing to assist the many hundreds of defrauded members of the BHS pension scheme

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Bk
Brian Kennedy - the double glazing millionaire, represented by lawyer

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Es
Edward Smethurst - who had been publicly criticised in a trial by a judge for his lack of candour


They employed

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Hm
HaysMcIntyre - Accountants for the “Fund: who on due consideration and after the publication of a damning revelation of the very simple and obvious methods involved in defrauding the “Fund” and their apparent total lack of any professional application of “Due Diligence” - - - (Cortina de Humo) and some percipient questions in an Open Letter - resigned without presenting even an interim final account

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3
Michael Linnett - who was then, as a retired Accountant and director, forced to take over financial responsibility for the “Fund” but resigned within three months. He died recently - (before he could be questioned about his knowledge of what details he had found which caused him to resign)

They briefed Lawyers

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1
Bates Wells Braithwaite - who set up the "Fund" and apparently still act for it. Their apparent lack of "Due dilligence" in the appointment of various fraudulent firms and teams of bogus private detectives seems to mirror that of HaysMcintyre q.v. This, combined with their supposed neglect or refusal to attempt to reclaim the monies defrauded from the "Fund" has been a matter of some speculation.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Mr
Mishcon de Reya - who specialise in preventing the extradition for proper trial of people whose alleged actions are beyond comprehension by civilised people

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2
Carter-Ruck - who represent indefensible people in their attempts to keep disgusting secrets hidden, often by threatening to inflict financial misery on those who attempt to speak or discover the truth. The list of clients subsequently found “guilty” of the very things C-R had alleged it was libelous to state - is too long to include here.


They were represented by PR agents
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Bp
Bell-Pottinger - who represented the most hideous and vile dictators and regimes across the world, and the most wicked murderers, and whose company has recently fallen apart when the true nature of their methods of planting mendacious “false-news” was revealed. The company said were paid £500,000 to keep the ‘abduction’ story on the front pages of the Tabloid press for a year.

They were supported by
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1
Father Jose Pacheco - who comforted Gerry and Kate McCann in the days after Madeleine vanished but later claimed that he had been the victim of some form of deception. He gave them the keys to his church but left the parish soon afterwards. He has said it was an extremely unpleasant situation and the McCann family only ever brought him problems. He later added that the McCanns had “ruined his life

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Sc
Sandy Cameron - brother in law who helped deep clean the carpet in the boot of the hired car prior to the search with cadaver and blood dogs - which nevertheless alerted to the car and key fob

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Pm
Philomena McCann - sister, who took a leading role in the preparation of the “Dossier of Death” which led ultimately to the death of Brenda Leyland, and was probably involved in the Pool Photo conspiracy

Tony Rickwood - husband of Philomena q.v. specialist in astronomy and creator of perverted images of young women drowning in mud or quicksand, who probably had a leading role in the Pool Photo conspiracy


They are supported by

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Tk
Tracey Kandohla - ‘journalist’ for The Sun, whose articles have been mendacious, ludicrous, or simply demonstrated a total lack of knowledge of the facts of the case, or of the legal niceties that surround it. More recent articles have been left with the Comments open and apparently unmoderated, allowing the full extent of the public disbelief and antagonism towards the McCanns’ story to be demonstrated

Various Shills - on Twitter and Facebook. Many actively support the convicted child murderers Leonor Cipriano and Joao Cipriano

Including

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Nn
Nigel Nessling - outspoken McCann supporter, who narrowly avoided imprisonment on being found guilty of possession of over 40,000 indecent images of children

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Ms
Michael Shrimpton - outspoken McCann supporter who claimed that Madeleine had been stolen by a paedophile ring, and was then himself found guilty of possession of pornographic images of children

And then a further very strange link

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Cm
Clarence Mitchell - The official spokesman for the McCanns contacted

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Cm2
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor - who had been on the point of being prosecuted for failing to report priest Fr. Hill to the police for indecent assaults on children, but who died before action could be taken - to arrange a visit to Rome to meet

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Pope2
Pope Benedict XVI - who as Cardinal Ratzinger and then as Pope, was involved with and then became the head of an outrageous systematic and long term cover-up of child sexual abuse by hundreds of thousands of homosexual pederast priests - much of it covered up personally by him both as Cardinal in Germany and then as Pope

They count as a personal friend

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Jc
Jon Corner - who released a highly dubious photo of Madeleine, with adult make up and accessories, and in exactly the same pose as one released by Graham Ovenden, who received a long prison sentence for the creation of child pornography

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Mbm

¿  ¿ ¿  WHY  ? ? ?

We make no further comment
Res ipsa loquitur

sharonl
sharonl
Forum Owner

Posts : 8522
Activity : 11159
Likes received : 1397
Join date : 2009-12-29

http://www.cold2012.org.uk

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by sharonl 27.03.19 22:20

Chapter 28: The 'Pool Photo' refuses to go away



PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Sun%2Bhat%2Band%2Bflapping%2Bcurta1


The Pool Photo is of crucial importance. Of that there can be little doubt.


To put the matter simply –


IF it was taken on Thursday 3rd May 2007 - it is capable of showing that Madeleine was alive and well at lunchtime that day


IF it was not, - then the implications go far beyond a simple misunderstanding.
The fact that it was presented by Mitchell on behalf of the McCanns as having been taken at a particular time on a particular date, and the fact that Kate unequivocally repeated this in her autobiography has great bearing on almost every aspect of the case. It goes directly to the veracity of the McCanns and the involvement of Mitchell – amongst many others.


In previous essays the issue of the weather was set out, and some contemporary photos and weather reports were appended in support of the thesis.


This failed to impress some, who argue that the photos themselves are not sufficient to prove the negative, namely that the photo could not have been taken at lunchtime on 3/5/7. Proving a negative is notoriously difficult, but not impossible. The legal process deals with this by insisting on an overwhelming weight of evidence.


What follows therefore is another more detailed examination of the weather conditions, with yet more evidence introduced in the form of weather reports from several stations, many more contemporary photos, and a recapitulation of the pertinent parts of statements and comments.


No apology is given for the length of this essay, nor for the volume of the evidence included.


For ease of understanding, and for reasons of clarity I am pasting edited pieces about the formation of clouds taken from various places on the internet. All can be searched through “google”.


Many of the photos may be accessed on Flickr, using the search engine on that site.

Some were accessed from ‘google images’, others are screen shots from the videos of the World Windsurfing competition in Portimão held between 29/4/7 and 3/5/7, and four are from the author’s personal collection.

I have included only a few in the main text, in thumbnail format, to illustrate the various points. The rest are included in an appendix after the reference section.

The weather reports are all available on the internet, and the exact references are given to allow anyone who has a genuine interest to do their own research. A small fee was payable for one set.

After I have set out the main thesis I shall try to raise and answer the objections I am already aware of, or can think of, but as always if strong contrary evidence can be adduced, I am prepared to be shown to be in error.


I shall first discuss Clouds, then Weather reports in general terms, then I shall look at specific reports before looking in detail at the photos and analysing what they can tell us.


After this I shall look again at what people said in their statements, and at pertinent extracts from Kate McCann’s autobiography, before discussing a personal diary kept by a resident of PdL.

What causes clouds


A cloud is defined as ‘a visible aggregate of minute droplets of water or particles of ice or a mixture of both floating in the free air’. Each droplet has a diameter of about a hundredth of a millimetre and each cubic metre of air will contain 100 million droplets.
Clouds form when the invisible water vapour in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals. For this to happen, the parcel of air must be saturated, i.e. unable to hold all the water it contains in vapour form, so it starts to condense into a liquid or solid form. There are two ways by which saturation is reached.
(a) By increasing the water content in the air, e.g. through evaporation, to a point where the air can hold no more. The steam from a boiling kettle is a simple example. As it rises it reaches air which is not saturated, and so disappears from human view
(b) By cooling the air so that it reaches its dew point – this is the temperature at which condensation occurs, and is unable to ‘hold’ any more water. There is a maximum amount of water vapour the air, at a given temperature, can hold. In general, the warmer the air, the more water vapour it can hold. Therefore, reducing its temperature decreases its ability to hold water vapour.
Method (b) is the usual way that clouds are produced, and it is associated with air rising in the lower part of the atmosphere. As the air rises it expands due to the reduction in atmospheric pressure, and the expansion causes the air to cool. Generally speaking, for each 100 metres the air rises, it will cool by 1 °C. The rate of cooling will vary depending on the water content, or humidity, of the air.
Therefore, the vertical ascent of air will reduce its ability to hold water vapour, so that condensation occurs.
Put simply, clouds are simply air containing moisture, which condenses so it can be seen.


This can also be seen in mountainous areas where clouds form over the highest peaks and ridges, and although the clouds appear to ‘move’ they warm up as they lose altitude and the moisture is lost to human view. The English expression “burning off” is sometimes used to describe this phenomenon.


These photos are taken of the Sierra de Grazalema near Ronda in southern Spain. The high peak shown is 1654 m. (5,400 ft.) the village lying at 800 m. (2650 ft.)
The photos are taken towards the west, and the prevailing wind is a westerly i.e. from the west. It has picked up moisture as it crosses the Atlantic, and this ridge is the first high one it crosses. Grazalema has the reputation of being one of the wettest places in Spain


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6


The “burning off” effect may be seen here as the cloud passed through the pass “Puerto de las Palomas”. (In this photo the wind is travelling from left to right)


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5



These and more photos may be found at Appendix A - CLOUDS

Weather reports


Most weather reports are recorded automatically by Meteorological stations, situated at intervals around a country.

These weather stations measure a large variety of different meteorological parameters, including air temperature, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, wind speed and direction, humidity, cloud height, visibility, and sunshine.

This map shows the distribution of the weather stations in Portugal of which current data and forecasts with pinpoint precision are available. In general, the weather stations measure air temperature and humidity (2 meters above ground), wind speed and wind direction (10 meters above ground), as well as sunshine duration, amount of precipitation and air pressure

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 P7


The nearest ones to Praia da Luz are at Faro airport to the east of Praia da Luz, and at Sagres at the far western point of the Algarve. Their position relative to PdL may be seen here

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2

The distance Sagres – PdL is 22 km.


The distance Faro – PdL is 66 km.


The distance from Sagres to Faro is 86 km.



PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3





A similar pattern is observed in the UK.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4


The distance Camborne – Yeovilton = 150 km


The distance Hurn – Eastbourne = 100 km




When was the Pool Photo taken ?


In what follows I shall concentrate on two dates.
The first is Thursday 3rd May 2007
The date on which Mitchell said on the McCann’s behalf the Pool Photo had been taken.
The date which Kate herself repeats in her book ‘madeleine’ that the photo was taken.
The date which is embedded in the EXIF Metadata on the photo as released to the world’s press on 24th May 2007


The second is Sunday 29th April 2007.
I shall explain why.


The family arrived in PdL on Saturday 28th April, and it was not until mid to late afternoon, after checking in and being taken to their apartment, then re-arranging furniture and unpacking, that they were able to visit their part of the resort to explore.
It is fairly clear that the three photos of the children in the play area on the lawn and with the playhouse were taken then.
p. 69 ‘madeleine’ - The weather was pleasant enough, although there was a cool breeze.


In fact there were large ‘fluffy’ cumulus clouds, which are seen on the photos of the children.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5



On Sunday 29th April the weather was, on any test, beautiful. There was no cloud, the sun shone for 13 hours at Faro – the Meteorological Station just along the coast, and photos from third parties posted on Flickr are clear evidence of this


On Monday 30th April the weather ‘closed in’ and it was dull and cold for the next few days. It rained on Wednesday 2nd May, as the group record.
I do not therefore concentrate on the days 30th April to 2nd May, though for the sake of completeness several dated photos may be found in Appendix D


But on one of the days between Saturday 28th April and Friday 4th May, the Pool Photo was taken.
The question is obvious.
What day ? What date?



METAR DATA


Weather stations record meteorological date in coded form. It is standardised through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which allows it to be understood throughout most of the world.


An example looks like this


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7




Two layers of cloud are then described




PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8





There is another common entry, which is important for this discussion
CAVOK Definition : Provided the visibility is >= 10 km, AND the height of the lowest cloud (any amount) is >=5000 ft (or highest minimum sector altitude) AND there are no cumulonimbus clouds (CB, any height) within sight, AND there is no significant weather (see list below), then the visibility and cloud part of the standard METAR is replaced by CAVOK (say "cav-oh-kay": 'Ceiling And Visibility OK').



Here we shall confine ourselves to looking at the period 1230 to 1530 on each day




PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7



PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8





Q: What does the METAR data tell us?

A: At lunchtime on Sunday 29th April the sky was clear - CAVOK
At lunchtime on Thursday 3rd May the sky was overcast - with 2 levels of cloud


The tutorial on the interpretation of METAR data may be found by activating the reference, and at Appendix B


The full set of METAR data from which the above have been extracted may be found by activating the references given, and at Appendix C1 and C2



SUNSHINE DATA


Some weather stations record the total sunshine on a daily basis
Both Sagres and Faro do so.


The charts and details may be found in Appendix C and by consulting the references given


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 11




PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 12


They show that
In Faro, on 28th and 29th April 12.6 hours of sun were recorded
On 30th April, 1st May and 2nd May NO sunshine was recorded
On Thursday 3rd May only 0.9 hours (54 minutes) of sun were recorded over the entire day




PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 13


In Sagres, on 28th and 29th April 12.6 hours of sun were recorded
On 30th April, 1st May and 2nd May diminishing amounts of sunshine were recorded
On Thursday 3rd May only 8 hours of sun were recorded over the entire day



Q: What does the Sunshine data tell us?




A: It confirms what we already know from the raw METAR data

For most of Sunday 29th April the sky was clear - CAVOK

For most of Thursday 3rd May the sky was overcast


Observation: The sunshine recorded in Sagres is exactly as expected. The weather station is on the furthest west point of the Algarve, and the wind during that period was a fairly consistent WSW. As we have already discussed, cloud does not usually form until the air begins to rise over the land, and so we would predict that Sagres would have clear skies. The next section examining the photos will make this more clear

PHOTOS


The website Flickr invites people to upload photos, and large numbers of people do so. Most if not all have the date and the type of camera and other details attached
The site has a good internal search engine, and is thus a useful if unintended resource where weather conditions are an issue.


There is the obvious caveat – that people do not take many photos on dull days, and secondly that even on a cloudy day where the sun appears only occasionally, unless the event itself is the focus of attention, they may wait until such a moment.


On a dull or overcast day however, there is no such choice.


A few photos in thumbnail size will suffice. The originals and many more are to be found in Appendix D, and the relevant url is shown in the reference section

Sunday 29th April


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 16
Thursday 3rd May



PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 15




Between 29th April and 5th May 2007 the World Windsurfing Championship was held in Portimão, Algarve, some 17 km from PdL.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 17


The website has a wealth of photos and video of the whole event, and brief references to wind speed and sea state with wave height in the daily Press release.


It is also instructive since the archive shows photos taken not only from the land out to sea, but also from the official launches back towards the coast


These photos were taken on the same day at the World Windsurfing event.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 18

Photos taken from the sea show thick cloud over the land.
Those taken from the land show clear sky over the sea.
The wind was blowing at an angle from the sea towards the land, (WSW)
So we can observe how the saturated air is forced to rise and how the clouds form over the land.


This is incidentally how mariners across the ages knew they were approaching land


But even if we have a photo taken outdoors which does not show the sky, we may deduce what the weather must have been. To make this more clear, consider these.

Here a photo taken on land is seen, showing a lack of sharp shadows, from which we may reasonably deduce significant cloud cover, even though we cannot directly see it


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1


From this photo however we can reasonably deduce clear sky, again without being able directly to see it


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2



The first photo is dated 3/5/7. The second 29/4/7


Knowing how clouds form and disperse as the air reaches the coast, we can therefore look back at the three photos at the start of this section, and deduce that in the third, although there appears to be only 6/8 cloud cover, this is out at sea, and therefore over the land must have been considerably more. The cloud is, to use the common English expression ”breaking up”.
This solves another of the apparent objections raised by this issue.


The METAR data at Faro reports one layer of cloud at 1/8 – 2/8 cover, and a higher one at 3/8 – 4/8 cover. Faro airport is close to the coast, only 2,200m to the control tower.



PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3



The cloud cover report is of the entire visible sky, in this case horizon in the south to the mountains in the north.


Full cloud cover over the land and clear sky over the sea gives 4/8 cover even if the lower 2/8 layer is ignored.


In Appendix 3 many more photos from the windsurfing event may be viewed, including not only those taken towards the sea, those taken from the sea towards the land, but some taken on the land.



Q: What do the Photos tell us?




A: They confirm what we already know from the METAR and the Sunshine data

For most of Sunday 29th April the sky over land and sea was clear - CAVOK

For most of Thursday 3rd May the sky over the land was overcast





FIRST HAND WITNESSES


Let us look at what witnesses said about the weather.


Firstly the Tapas 7


These are clipped from the full statements.
References for the full statements may be found in App F
* * * * *
Kate McCann has told the world that the Last Photo was taken at 14:29 on Thursday 3rd May 2007. At that time there was heavy cloud, overcast and an ambient temperature of only 17ºC or 18º C (62.5ºF - 64.5ºF)


By 9pm that evening the temperature had dropped one or two degrees, to 16ºC, a temperature which prompted Jane Tanner to complain about the cold and to make quite an issue of collecting one of her partner’s thick fleeces during her visit to their apartment.


Kate McCann describes the day of their arrival, Saturday 28th April, thus
p. 69 “The weather was pleasant enough, although there was a cool breeze.”


There is no mention of the weather on Sunday 29th April.


She goes on to say of Tuesday 1st May
p. 84 “The weather wasn’t great: in fact, on the beach it started to rain.


Strangely, Kate McCann also describes the weather at the time and date she states she took the Pool Photo
p. 94 “The weather was a little on the cool side and I remember thinking I should have brought a cardigan for her,


Referring to the evening of Thursday 3rd May Kate McCann is very clear that outside, the weather was cold.
p. 104 “It was so cold . . .”


The remaining quotes refer to the evening of Thursday 3rd May


Jane Tanner is insistent in her rogatory interview
JT: . . . and I just thought that child's not got any shoes on because you could see the feet, and it was quite a cold night in Portugal in May it's not actually that warm, and I'd got a big jumper on, and I can remember thinking oh that parent is not a particularly good parent, they've not wrapped them up.
- - -
and yet again


4078 “So you went on the wrong day.”

Reply “Yeah, I think err so it wasn’t, that’s one reason why we didn’t open the shutters to open the window or anything in that room, it wasn’t actually really hot at all, it was actually quite cloudy in the days and at night it was actually quite chilly.”


The remaining Tapas group are also clear that 15ºC is cold.

Russell O’Brien : The nights were quite chilly
Matthew Oldfield : in the evenings it was very cold,
Rachel Oldfield : it was really cold in the evenings
David Payne : it was quite cold some nights and you know perhaps nearly too cold to be sat outside
Fiona Payne : it was still very cold
Diane Webster : when they were brought up to our apartment and they would have to
come out into the cold

Here they are describing their experience of a temperature of 15ºC or 14ºC
This is only one or two degrees less than that recorded at lunchtime on 3rd May



Q: What do these accounts and statements tell us?




A: They confirm what we already know from the METAR and the Sunshine data

From 30th April to 3rd May a weather front passed over Portugal, bringing cold and cloudy conditions, only moving away late on Thursday 3rd May

* * * *
Weather conditions may not only be seen in or deduced from photographs and METAR data. Many people for personal or professional reasons keep diaries in which they record weather, and many have recollections, particularly if asked soon after the event, or if given access to photos they have taken


A local PdL resident and retired RAF Navigator, who continued into his retirement his practice of observing weather and recording it in his diary said

[NOTE: This has been heavily edited to concentrate on the weather related items]

Saturday, April 28 2007. Clear skies with warm temperatures for time of year enabled a full entry in the golf competition at the nearby Boavista Resort. From 1 ’til 4pm, warm dry conditions. Clear skies at night resulted in cooler conditions by dawn the following day.

Sunday, April 29 2007. Another fine day (warm once the Sun got up) but some evidence of weather on the change by evening. No threat of frost for the following day due to cloud cover that night.

Monday, April 30 2007. Cloudy day, but dry and average temperatures.

Tuesday, May 1 2007. Cooler cloudier weather,

Wednesday, May 2 2007. Cool, cloudy with sunny spells and moderate winds

Thursday, 3 May 2007 Weather continues cool and cloudy with sunny intervals, but not pool dipping weather. Noticed first evidence of weather change, as by 7.15 pm cloud was clearing from the North. Just after 11pm night sky clear with full moon. I arrived at my apartment about 11:45pm. It was a clear dry moonlit, and it was good to reflect that better weather had now set in.

Friday 4 May, 2007 I was awakened at c.0750 on a fine clear morning,

Saturday 5 May, 2007. Weather continues fine and sunny.


He was then asked to view a series of photos taken from Flickr - shown in Appendix D


He replied
All show the same pattern, of the clear skies on 28 and 29, then turning to heavy overcast and beginning to open up on 3/5/7 in the evening.


Q: What does this account tell us?




A: It confirms what we already know from the METAR and the Sunshine data, and from the photos, and from the first hand witness statements

For most of Sunday 29th April the sky over land and sea was clear - CAVOK

During the week a weather front moved across Portugal bringing cold, cloudy, and rainy weather

For most of Thursday 3rd May the sky was overcast and the day was cold

From late evening of Thursday 3rd and on Friday 4th May the weather improved

CONCLUSION


Q: What does all this tell us?

A: Does all this tell us that Thursday 3rd May 2007 was largely overcast, cold and windy, but Sunday 29th April 2007 was clear, and warm. Does it tell us that on the first full day of the holiday the McCann family acted normally, as would any other family of five, the children dressed in their new holiday clothes, wearing their new sun hats, exploring, having their photo taken, dipping their feet into the pool, and generally enjoying the sensation of being on a family holiday ?


It may do.
But there are two important objections to all of this


1 Gerry McCann is on record as saying the evening of 3rd May was HOT
Concerning the bed where his daughter was on the night she disappeared, he says that she slept uncovered, as usual when it was hot, with the bedclothes folded down'. Police statement 10 May


2 Mitchell, acting for the McCanns, and subsequently Kate McCann in her autobiography, have united in saying that the photo was taken on Thursday 3rd May


Those 3 people clearly reject the Meteorological Office records, ignore the many photos on Flickr, dismiss the evidence of official photos of the World Windsurfing Championships, reject the statements, turn a blind eye to the diaries, and insist that the photo was taken at lunchtime on Thursday 3rd May 2007


Is it even remotely possible that it could have been ?





OBJECTIONS, OBSERVATIONS AND QUESTIONS


These relate to Thursday 3/5/7 unless otherwise stated.


Q: The charts show there was 4/8 cloud cover. Only half the sky is covered, so the sun would have shone through the other half.


A1: Clouds are not static. They move more or less quickly across the sky. Everyone knows how the sun ‘comes out’ and then ‘goes back in’ to use the standard English expressions. The Pool Photo shows bright sun, but also, crucially, shows Gerry with a sheen of perspiration on his forehead, and everyone wearing light clothing.
If the Pool Photo had been taken during a brief appearance of the sun through a gap in the clouds, we might have to explain why everyone was suitable dressed for that exact moment, and not for a generally overcast and cool day. Even Kate says so -
p. 95 “The weather was a little on the cool side


At Faro airport only 54 minutes of sunshine were recorded for the entire day



A2: There were two levels of cloud. The higher altitude one was in the range 3-4/8 cover, the lower one in the range 1-2/8. These move at different speeds, and in slightly different directions depending on the wind direction at each altitude. Thus some of the time there would have been 6/8 cloud cover. Only when the two levels coincided would there have been only 4/8 cover. It is submitted that although this might have been enough to allow the pool photo to have been taken in one of the short intervals, it would not have caused, or allowed Gerry and the children to dress in light clothing, don sunglasses, sun hats, nor to persuade Gerry to wear sunglasses and develop a sheen of sweat on his forehead.
The highest temperature recorded on 3/5/7 was 19º C (66º F) some 2 hours after solar zenith. At 1429 it was 18º C (64º F), with a Force 3-4 wind off the sea.


A3: The figure of 4/8 cover is recorded by the Meteorological station at Faro. Faro is close to the coast. As we have seen, cloud forms as air comes in from the sea, and rises over the land. The land can then have total cloud cover and the sea be entirely cloud free. The report will then show 4/8 cloud cover. This is clearly illustrated in the windsurfing photos.
The weather report from Faro records only 0.9 hours of sunshine on 3/5/7


IT BOILS DOWN TO ONE SIMPLE QUESTION



Was this photo
.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Sun%2Bhat%2Band%2Bflapping%2Bcurta1




taken on this day ?


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5


or on this day ?










PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6



As they say in school exams . . .”show your reasoning





REFERENCES
CLOUDS

https://www.thoughtco.com/types-of-clouds-recognize-in-the-sky-4025569


METAR


https://www.wunderground.com/metarFAQ.asp#sky


http://www.centrometeo.pt/en/weather/weather-stations.html


http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/book/export/html/197


https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/LPFR/2007/5/3/DailyHistory.html?req_city=&req_state=&req_statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=


https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/LPFR/2007/4/29/DailyHistory.html?req_city=&req_state=&req_statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=


https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/LPFR/2007/5/3/WeeklyHistory.html


https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/making-a-forecast/first-steps/observations/weather-stations


https://www.windfinder.com/#12/37.0958/-8.6648


http://dpds.weatheronline.co.uk/historical_data/weather_stations_download/#forward


PHOTOS
https://www.flickr.com/search/?sort=relevance&advanced=1&text=ALGARVE&min_taken_date=1178143200&max_taken_date=1178315999

http://www.formulawindsurfing.org/event/112

GENERAL
https://www.cm-portimao.pt/


EXTRACTS
From the Hard Back edition
madeleine” Kate McCann, 2011, Bantam Press. Random House
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781446437605
ISBNs 9780593067918 (hb)
9780593067925 (tpb)




APPENDICES


A CLOUDS


B METAR Tutorial


C METAR report Faro
METAR report Sagres


C1 pdf METAR REPORT FARO 29/4/5
C2 pdf METAR REPORT FARO 3/5/7


D FLICKR Photos


E WINDSURFING photos Portimão


F STATEMENTS


APPENDIX A – CLOUDS
Personal collection, ‘google images’




PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 11




PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 11




PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 12





sharonl
sharonl
Forum Owner

Posts : 8522
Activity : 11159
Likes received : 1397
Join date : 2009-12-29

http://www.cold2012.org.uk

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by sharonl 27.03.19 22:24

Chapter 29: Fake News

Enlarge this imageReduce this image Click to see fullsize
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Rs-5-Crore-Penalty-For-Writing-Fake-News-Socialpost-653x365

UNTRUTH

When a normal person does it, it is called a Lie
When a child does it, it is called a Fib
When a person does it in court, it is called Perjury
When a politician does it, it is called Spin
When a journalist does it, it is called Fake News

But is there a difference ?

And why do we not like a Lie, teach a child to forgo a Fib, punish Perjury, but suck up Spin, and just shrug our shoulders and give up on Fake News ?

WIKI gives a reasonable definition of Fake news. [1]
Fake news is a neologism often used to refer to fabricated news. This type of news, found in traditional news, or fake news websites, has no basis in fact, but is presented as being factually accurate.

Claire Wardle of First Draft News identifies seven types of fake news

  1. satire or parody ("no intention to cause harm but has potential to fool")

  2. false connection ("when headlines, visuals or captions don't support the content")

  3. misleading content ("misleading use of information to frame an issue or an individual")

  4. false context ("when genuine content is shared with false contextual information")

  5. imposter content ("when genuine sources are impersonated" with false, made-up sources)

  6. manipulated content ("when genuine information or imagery is manipulated to deceive", as with a "doctored" photo)

  7. fabricated content ("new content is 100% false, designed to deceive and do harm”)



Those who have followed the Madeleine McCann case quickly became hypersensitive to the stream of Fake news and indeed outright lies put out by Team McCann through the compliant media. It quickly became clear, for example, that anything said by the spokesman Clarence Mitchell was likely to be the reverse of the objective and verifiable truth. Lists of his falsehoods have circulated for years.

And although at 11 years after the event, the stream of invented sightings has diminished, and the attention seems to have turned in a different direction, there remains a body of unconditional supporters of the McCanns who will hear nothing said against them, and who refuse to address issues raised by the available evidence.

Recently, and right on cue, the main offenders published two stories. The first about the impending decision of the ECHR in the case brought by the McCanns against the State of Portugal. The second about various aspects of the “Fund” and the six-monthly application for further funding for Operation Grange to continue.

Both appeared in the tabloid press, and were copied freely between and among them.
Both were so riddled with mistakes, falsehoods and downright lies that they are hardly worthy of comment, except to observe that the clear intention of both was somehow to present the McCanns as permanent victims of a cruel and inhuman system.

I append the references to both articles, and will confine myself to short extracts.

Daily Mail, online. [2]
Kate and Gerry McCann are returning to court to fight against the ex-detective who claimed they were responsible for Madeleine's death. No they are not. The ECHR does not take evidence from individuals, it considers documents and Legal arguments.

If they lose the case the pair will be forced to pay Goncalo Amaral £750,000, after he made a bid to sue them for compensation. No they will not. And no he did not.

The couple will face Amaral in the European Court, as public money which was funding the search for Madeleine is about to dry up. No they will not. The case is McCanns v Portugal, They have to show that Portuguese law and its Constitution is contrary to Human Rights. Their case against Dr Amaral was lost a long time ago. And in any event none of the parties ‘go’ anywhere.

A hearing is expected this year after Amaral decided to sue the McCanns when their libel case was overturned. No he did not.

The Sun, online [3]
The McCanns are embroiled in a row with Goncalo Amaral. No they are not. They took him to court, won at First Instance and then lost on Appeal and on final Appeal to the Supreme Court. That part of the case is finished, over, terminated, ‘res judicata’.

The legal action is aimed at overturning a Portuguese Supreme Court ruling that detective Goncalo Amaral — who wrote a book about the case claiming Madeleine died in Portugal and her parents covered it up — did not defame the McCanns. No it isn’t. It is about something else entirely.

If the couple lose the European Court of Human Rights case they face having to pay Amaral £430,000 in damages, plus costs, which could wipe out most of the remaining money. No they won’t. They do not have to pay Dr Amaral anything in Damages. He was the respondent in the original action. They sued HIM. And lost. So they have to pay full costs of all the actions.

As we see, if we ignore the inevitable padding in the articles, the only attempts at presentation of ‘facts’ are simply inaccurate, or wrong. Given that the authors have all the resources of their own legal departments and researchers, proof readers and sub-editors, these examples of False News can be classed as downright lies.

And furthermore, lies told with a specific intent, which makes them more sinister.

The manipulation of the public’s credulity by the Press may however be coming to a close.
The internet allows people to do their own ‘research’, and to cross check the facts against many other sources.
But the traditional dead-tree press continue to blunder on in the way they always have, secure in the delusion that they will be believed.

Increasingly they seem to be using a desperate form of self-justification to add an air of authority as in “I have been reporting on this case for 10 years and I can say . . . .” or “I was first on the scene . . . ” with the phrase “. . and therefore know more than you do” implied

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Olive-press-voted-best-expat-newspaper-spain

One notable example is the free newspaper circulating in southern Spain - ”The Olive Press”.
The proprietor, who was once a decent investigative journalist, wrote the obligatory 10 year anniversary article, which also appears on the on-line version. [4]

In the article he repeats the following “Facts”.

“When I arrived at about 11.45am I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns and told them I would do everything I could to help.
The only reporter on the scene till late that evening – apart from Sky News reporter Kate Burley, who happened to be on holiday there – I spent time grilling neighbours,”

Note: In the initial piece he referred to a KATE Burley, but he amended that to ‘Kay Burley’ after the Comments Section pointed out his mistake. But he has failed to amend the name to that of the journalist who WAS there. Ms Burley was in the UK at the time. Timed and dated video evidence of this fact exists and was pointed out to the author. The identify of the reporter who was there is known, and has been pointed out, but despite this, he has done nothing to correct his potentially serious allegation.

And then he introduces a very familiar “Straw Man” fallacious argument.
“These are just some of the reasons why I am convinced the McCanns did not kill their daughter.”
(This is also technically an Argumentum ad lapidem, a statement made forcibly, but without any relevant facts adduced, or a species of Proof by Repeated Assertion. The ‘facts’ he does adduce are entirely irrelevant to his conclusion, including as they do the number of people in the group, their professional status, and the fact that he personally cannot see how ‘it’ could have been achieved.)

He recounts one of the more egregious leads for which he was responsible
“. . . I inadvertently found myself interviewing a former nightclub bouncer in Huelva, who claimed he knew who snatched Maddie.
A huge Angolan chap, he told me she had been taken on order and was now, most l likely, in America.
We double checked his credentials, ran it past Maddie’s family and published a carefully worded and, I believe, sensitive piece, which then of course got picked up by the Sun to be splashed on its front page. Not so sensitively.” [5]

And he finishes with a nice journalistic oratorical flourish
“I doubt the case will ever be solved, but I am certain the parents were not involved.
And nor, should I add, was I.“

[ I think “And nor, I should add, was I”, is stylistically better; the personal pronouns separated slightly more for balance, but the iambic-anapestic-iambic is satisfying]

So how much of this is objectively true, how much is “Spin”, how much “Fake News”, and how much deliberate lying.

It is difficult to know where to start, but his criticism of The Sun is as good a place as any.

The facts are that he was writing exclusively for The SUN and other papers for many months. Even though he had his own newspaper which was in its early stages of development, he did not publish a single article about the case there until September or October. Some articles in the Sun appeared under his name alone, others jointly with Lazzeri, some with Emily Nash, some with others.

The Sun make no pretence that he is on their team. [6]
MOMENT HOL MUM'S WORLD FELL TO PIECES
Sun team: John Scott, Guy Patrick, Antonella Lazzeri, Alastair Taylor, John Coles, Gary O'Shea, Emma Cox, David Goodwin, Tom Worden, Jon Clarke and Doug Seeburg.

Which begs an important question.
Why did he ask me to refrain from making the link between him and News International in his Comments columns all those years ago ? I have refrained, but now, 11 years on, I feel able to reveal this apparently insignificant fact.

But let us go back, once again right to the beginning. Keep our eye on the squirrel.
He tells us he walked into the apartment, and spoke to the McCanns, and then spent time “grilling neighbours”.
He does NOT tell us and never has told us, about the state of the apartment, of the windows, of the shutters, of the curtains, or of the doors.
He does NOT tell us about the conversation he had with the McCanns, about their physical or emotional state, nor the story they told.
He does not tell us if he re-traced the walk from the Tapas bar to the apartment, or paced it out, or timed it, or indeed of anything he actually did.

Since he was there (and there is no reason to suspect that he was not) he will have seen that the shutters were NOT damaged in any way. He will - must - have observed this by mid-day.

But he clearly did not relay this first-hand information back to his employers. For several days many media outlets in the UK, both in print and television news, were repeating the totally false and frankly mendacious claim that the shutters had been forced or broken, jemmied or smashed.

Why did he not ?

It was left to John Hill, the manager of the Ocean Club to make that statement. Strangely, after his announcement he was quietly sidelined by the media and never again asked to comment. Not one reporter, investigative or otherwise, has published an in-depth interview with him about what he saw and what he found. Not one.

Why not ?

The question that springs up is not Why were they all doing this ?, but rather WHO was controlling this information flow, to ensure that the LIE about the shutters was repeated sufficiently often and for sufficiently long to enter the mendacious narrative ?

And WHO was paying for this mendacity ?

A Portuguese investigative journalist, (a real one) Paulo Reis, did some investigation of his own. Specifically he investigated the way in which ex-pat and British journalists were behaving, by going incognito into their midst. It is a fascinating or deeply worrying description, depending on your view of the role of the Media in modern society.

I quote a few short extracts. The entire article may be found in the references, [7]
. . . I approached the crowd of onlookers, tried to be close to the British journalists, listening what they were talking about. As it happens with most British coming to Portugal (and don’t take me wrong, I don’t want to be offensive) they believe “natives” could not understand English, so they talked. And talked a lot.

The comments of John Hill were published and broadcasted by the British Media only in the first couple of days after Maddie disappeared. Then, as people used to see in Soviet Union, something happened to Mr. John Hill: he just vanished from the newspapers pages and TV reports, like the rivals or supposed enemies of Stalin were erased from official pictures.

I collected a lot of information, during those three times I stayed “incognitoat Praia da Luz. I had the opportunity to find how the system set up by Alex Woolfall, from Bell Pottinger, worked, “managing” information released by PJ to the McCann couple and "feeding" it to be published and broadcasted (after some“adaptations”…) by British Media.


So let us look again at the two main claims for Friday 4th May 2007.
“When I arrived at about 11.45am I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns and told them I would do everything I could to help.

There is no doubt about what he is saying. No doubt about the time, day, date or place. No doubt about the people. It is a straightforward and unequivocal statement of ‘fact’.

The PJ had taken photos of the scene during the night and early hours of the morning, and then, as is normal practice, sealed the scene, and left it under the control and supervision of the GNR. Their statements are clear, the practice is so normal as hardly to merit further consideration. [8]
Even Kate in her autobiography confirms this, though she puts a different interpretation on their presence [9].
p.81 I couldn’t see anyone about by this time, except for a couple of GNR police cars in the road outside and a handful of officers hanging around. None of them appeared to be doing very much.
And at 9 am
p.85. The GNR patrol was still in evidence, although again, there didn’t seem to be much sense of urgency

Around 10 am the McCanns were taken to Portimão to give statements. They did not return until 8.30 pm.

How can we be sure ?

Because the McCanns’ statements are timed and dated; the PJ officers’ statements covering the McCanns’ statements are timed and dated and confirm this; the Tapas 7 confirm it in their statements; AND Kate spells it out in great detail.

p. 88 It was about 10am by the time a couple of PJ officers turned up. (One of them, in his thirties, tall and well built, I thought of for ages simply as John. I’m not sure he ever gave us his name, but later – much later – we found out that it was João Carlos.) They told us they had to take us and our friends to the police station in Portimão. We couldn’t all go at once as somebody needed to look after the children. After some discussion, it was agreed that Gerry and I, Jane, David and Matt would be interviewed first and the PJ would come back for the others later in the day. Fiona and Dianne took Sean and Amelie to their club along with the other children. While our world was falling apart, the best way of trying to keep theirs together seemed to be to stick with what they were used to.

Gerry and I travelled in one police car with the others following in a second vehicle. It was an awful journey. It took twenty, twenty-five minutes, but it felt much longer.

And then

p. 92 We were completely unprepared for what we found when we drove back into Praia da Luz some time after 8.30pm.

Conclusion : - The McCanns were in Portimão, NOT in the apartment. And the apartment was sealed and under the control of the GNR until the arrival of the Forensic team.

The apartment was examined later that day in detail by Forensic scientists.

How do we know ?

Because it is normal practice; because their statements tell us what they did; because the list of things they did and the exhibits they collected is available for anyone to read; AND because Kate tells us in her autobiography that she watched the proceedings on the television in the police station in Portimão

p. 86. A forensic team also arrived from Lisbon that Friday. Having moved out of apartment 5A, we weren’t aware of exactly when, but presumably it was some time in the morning.

Her use of the Perfect Participle “having moved out”, carries in English the clear indication that this was an action which had been completed, and the context tells us this happened some time before the morning.

But the Author tells us he walked into the apartment and spoke to the McCanns . . .
As someone once said . . .
And surely Brutus is an honourable man . . .”

He then says something very strange - for an investigative journalist.

And this may be the clue, the brain leak, the hidden confession . . .

He says
I introduced myself to the McCanns and told them I would do everything I could to help.”

He does not say he asked them for details; that he quickly rehearsed the story with them; that he had a look at the window and the shutters - (which even while he was there were being described across the English speaking news media as smashed, broken, forced and jemmied); he does not say he did any of the things an investigative journalist might reasonably be supposed to have done.

He told them he would do everything he could to HELP.
What part of an investigative journalist’s role is it to HELP the principal suspects in a case ?

But was that in fact his brief ? Has he just told the truth ?
Has he inadvertently revealed the link between News International and Team McCann ?
And does his admission that with the Angolan bouncer story he “ran it past Maddie’s family”. also give the game away ?

* * * * * * *
So in the space of one short piece of parrot-cage, cat-litter, free-paper ’journalism’ we have

Four classical fallacies. (Straw man, Argumentum ad hominem (abusive), Argumentum ad Lapidem and Proof by Repeated Assertion)
One demonstrably false story about a named person placed at the locus delicti - potentially a very serious allegation
Two further demonstrably false stories about his visit to the scene and about his speaking to the principle players in the Missing Person enquiry
One long story of extremely dubious content clearly designed to be repeated in the English gutter press.

But not much else.

The author had had 10 years to do the research, to cross check, to compare and contrast, to read the statements of the principal parties and others, to write out time lines, to think about alternative scenarios, and so on.

Instead of which he tells us he does “not believe the McCanns killed their daughter” !

Where then to place this ?

Can we say he is LYING ?
Tricky, for if he genuinely believes his own fantasy after 10 years then that is a species of delusion, and he is not culpable in the usual sense.

Can we say it is a FIB?
Not really. He is a self-professed investigative journalist who years ago did some good and perspicacious work. He is no longer a silly child.

Can we say it is PERJURY ?
Certainly not. He has never sworn or even averred or insisted that what he has said is the truth. (He is a journalist, and like Government spokesmen, they do not give evidence under oath). He has however said it, and written it in permanent and electronic form, and clearly expects it to be taken at face value and believed.

Can we say it is SPIN ?
We could, but that is normally reserved for politicians and their spokes-people. In any event this is not slight distortion of background truth. This is blatant invention.

Can we say it is FAKE NEWS ?
More difficult. We might have to delve into the intention behind writing the piece. It seems to fit three of Claire Wardle’s categories, but doesn’t sit easily there.

Or do we think it fits into another category ? That of a long and detailed conspiracy to deceive, in which the Author may be merely a innocent pawn, himself deceived into churning out nonsense stories for money without perhaps understanding the “Bigger Picture”, or understanding how so many small players were being manipulated, nor why or by whom.

I do not know.
I do not know why he wrote what he did, nor why he used the manner or tone in which he wrote it.
Nor do I know why having been given documentary proof of several glaring errors, he did not correct the article, or take it down.

These are indeed strange times.
Over the years we have grown to despise, revile and reject anything written by Lazzeri, or Kandohla, or said by Mitchell.

But his tragedy is this -

His credibility and personal veracity have been damaged
His credibility as a journalist is seriously damaged
His credibility as an investigative journalist was lost long ago
The credibility of his newspaper has gone
He can no longer rely on anyone’s believing anything written by him, either before or since.

In mitigation we can suggest that he is an old fashioned wordsmith, trained in a pre-internet age, and believing that by putting his words on paper and on-line they somehow acquire ‘gravitas’. The reality is different.
He is not alone. Team McCann had clearly also not seen it coming, and had not realised that so much of the documentary evidence would be released into the public domain, or subject to the detailed scrutiny it has had over the past decade.

We no longer live in the Age of Credulity and Gullibility
Journalists may not like it, but we no longer do.

And behind all this is the fear that we may all be being manipulated by the Press, under the control of an Orwellian MiniTrue
Let us hope it is more Lewis Carrol. (Alice Through the Looking Glass)
Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said, 'one can't believe impossible things.’
'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.


As someone else once more trenchantly remarked -
“You are entitled to your own opinion
You are NOT entitled to your own set of facts.”

REFS:

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news

2 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6178661/Public-fund-Madeline-McCann-WIPED-upcoming-court-case.html

3 https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7319265/madeleine-mccann-donations-dried-up/

4 http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2017/05/11/madeleine-mccann-olive-press-editor-talks-first-journalist-scene-10th-anniversary-disappearance/

5 https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/379292/madeleine-mccann-is-in-america-and-i-know-who-took-her/
This is the Sun article in question.
Madeleine McCann is in America – and I know who took her
From EMILY NASH and JON CLARKE in Huelva, Spain
18th February 2011, 12:00 am Updated: 4th April 2016, 8:00 pm

AN INVESTIGATOR has told cops Madeleine McCann was taken to the US — and he has named two key suspects.
Marcelino Italiano, 36, said she had been snatched by an Algarve-based
paedophile ring.
Angolan-born Italiano said the gang of influential and dangerous perverts had
hunted children in the Algarve before smuggling them out of Portugal.
And he told how he had to flee for his life when his investigations threatened
to unmask them. . . .

The facts, if anyone is interested, are that Huelva is just over an hour’s drive from Faro along the coast into Spain. There is no border control as both countries are within the Schengen zone. The English expression “flee for his life” tends to imply something slightly more than this.

And if anyone cares to ‘double check his credentials’ they will discover very easily that Italiano lived and worked in Huelva, and had done so for some time, being named as one of the main players in the local basketball team. His height of 6’4” must have been of great benefit, as they were promoted in their first season. He also clearly made no attempt to hide his identity or whereabouts.

6 http://newsoutlines.blogspot.com/2007/05/shutters-had-been-jemmied-maddie-was_05.html
Shutters had been jemmied.. Maddie was gone
John Askill and Julie Moult in Praia da Luz, Portugal, and James Clench in London
5 May 2007
The Sun

MOMENT HOL MUM'S WORLD FELL TO PIECES

Sun team: John Scott, Guy Patrick, Antonella Lazzeri, Alastair Taylor, John Coles, Gary O'Shea, Emma Cox, David Goodwin, Tom Worden, Jon Clarke and Doug Seeburg.

7 https://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/search?q=undercover&max-results=20&by-date=true
Thursday, 10 May 2018
Why I went undercover to Praia da Luz

8 http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/VITOR_MARTINS.htm#p15p3862
After the site had been isolated, he proceeded to make an inspection, together with the inspection and photographic report carried out by Deputy Specialist Joao Barreiras.
* * *
He then states that upon leaving the apartment was locked, leaving the space preserved for the GNR elements that were stationed next to the apartment.

9 ‘madeleine’, Kate McCann, 2011, Bantam Press


APPENDIX

Ref 7
https://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/search?q=undercover&max-results=20&by-date=true

Paulo Reis, Thursday, 10 May 2018

Why I went undercover to Praia da Luz

In 2007, I wrote in my blog “Madeleine McCann Disappearance” that I went to Praia da Luz once. That is not truth. But this not exactly a lie. I went once, as a journalist. I was there three other times, acting not as a journalist, but playing the “role” of another “Portuguese native”, curious like all the other inhabitants of the small village about what was going on with Madeleine McCann’s police investigation.

Before going there, those three times, I took some precautions. I shaved my hair just like a skinhead (I had it medium to long-sized), cut my moustache and, to help the “disguise”, at the time I already had to use glasses. It’s amazing how much these little details can change your appearance. I didn’t want to be recognized by other colleagues, journalist that knew me before.

I had something in my favor. In 1986, I went to Macau and stayed there until 1997. Came back to Portugal, worked on a national weekly newspaper “O Independente”, between 1989 and 2004. I had editorial responsibilities, so spend most of my time in the office, not in the street, reporting and getting in touch with other journalists. Between 2004 and 2008, I worked as a freelance journalist.

Many of the colleagues that knew me before 1986 had a successful career and are, actually, working at top jobs, in newspapers, radios and TV. The actual editor of “Correio da Manhã”, the leading daily newspaper in Portugal, Octávio Ribeiro, around 1984/85, was just a young man, friend of a fiend of mine, also journalist and, at the time, I think he wasn’t planning a career in journalism. My good friend António Ribeiro Ferreira, who I know since 1981 as we started as journalists at the same time, in the same newspaper, was until recently editor of a daily newspaper, the “i”. Nuno Tiago Pinto, who was a trainee at “O Independente”, now is deputy-editor of “Sábado”, a weekly news magazine. They just stay in the office, don't go out for reporting.

PLAYING A GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE

While I was at Praia da Luz, I kept a closed eye on Portuguese journalists that were there, reporting. They had the natural tendency of bundling together, exchanging tips and information, so it was easy to spot them. During those three stays at Praia da Luz, I detected only two journalists that knew me: Rui Gustavo, from the weekly “Expresso” and Francisco Leong, a photographer from Agence France Press.

I was sleeping in a tent with capacity only for one person, at a camping park, a few miles from Praia da Luz and I always parked my Honda CB 500 far from the place where action was going on, near the Ocean Club resort. I approached the area carefully, trying to spot those two friends and, in case of a “positive identification”, I just change my path and went to a coffee-shop near by, waiting until they left the area.

When there was no risk to meet them, I approached the crowd of onlookers, tried to be close to the British journalists, listening what they were talking about. As it happens with most British coming to Portugal (and don’t take me wrong, I don’t want to be offensive) they believe “natives” could not understand English, so they talked. And talked a lot.

After lunch, I spend time at the terrace of supermarket Batista, very close to Ocean Park and the only place where you could buy all British newspapers. But I never bought a single one, always choose one or two Portuguese newspaper and spend a long time reading them. Many British journalists spend their free time in that sunny terrace. They had laptops, mobile connection to Internet, fresh beer and some snacks. They sat down in groups of three or four and, once again, they talked among them with the same lack of basic precautions, convinced that the few “natives” sitting there English illiterates.

At the end of the afternoon and after dinner time, I used to made a round up through a few bars were retired British expatriates met, for a couple of beers and a small chat. Late at night, I had the routine of going to the two only places that were open until dawn. There was a big disco, but I don’t remember the name, and a bar, I think it was known as the “Carlos Bar” – but I’m not absolutely sure.

There, I played the role of a joyful “native” who had a couple of beers more that he should, but always in a good and happy mood, choosing carefully my “targets” (groups of British journalists), making toasts with them, trying to make “contact”, and speaking in a rather primitive and basic English.

THE REASONS WHY I DID IT

Some people may question the ethics of this behaviour, from the point of view of the Deontological Code of Portuguese Journalists, “spying” on his own colleagues. May be this a matter for discussion and debate and there will be, of course different views. I did what I did because, since the beginning of this case, when I was in Lisbon, sleeping 5/6 hours and spending the remaining of the day (and night) zapping through Sky News, BBC, ITV, checking dozens of British website newspapers and online news sites, I had the feeling that there was something strange, in the way UK Media was reporting the case.

I remember one of the first details that called my attention: the alleged broken shutters, and the Press reports “quoting” that “Gerry and Kate reportedly believed someone had ‘jemmied open’ the shutters to get into (Madeleine) her bedroom”.

A direct testimony of Kate McCann was more clear: at 10.00pm she checked the children and “she becomes alarmed when she reaches out to the children's bedroom door and it blows shut. Inside the room, the window is open and the shutter is up. The twins are sleeping but Madeleine's bed is empty.” More details came from Gerry McCann. He told Polícia Judiciária “that, when he was first alerted to the disappearance, he had lowered the shutter, then had gone outside and discovered that it could be raised only from the outside”. Against this, the police said the shutter could not be raised from the outside without being forced, but there was no sign of forced entry; they also said forcing the shutter open would have caused a lot of noise.

"Trish Cameron and Philomena McCann, Gerry’s sisters, Jill Renwick, a family friend and Jon Corner, Madeleine’s godparent were important key players in the McCann’s campaign of manipulation and distortion, since the early hours. Despite the clear and blunt denials of John Hill, the Ocean resort manager, Portuguese police and witnesses, they insisted that the shutters of apartment 5A were “jemmied” or “broken” and – small but interesting detail – the door, which had been locked, was open.”

The comments of John Hill were published and broadcasted by the British Media only in the first couple of days after Maddie disappeared. Than, as people was used to see in Soviet Union, something happened to Mr. John Hill: he just vanished from the newspapers pages and TV reports, like the rivals or supposed enemies of Stalin were erased from official pictures.

I collected a lot of information, during those three times I stayed “incognito” at Praia da Luz. I had the opportunity to find how the system set up by Alex Woolfall, from Bell Pottinger, worked, “managing” information released by PJ to the McCann couple and "feeding" it to be published and broadcasted (after some“adaptations”…) by British Media. It will be the subject, soon, of another detailed post in my blog.

I must tell one of the most curious stories of this case. Around September 2007, after the McCann were made “arguidos”, his British lawyers from Carter-Ruck asked for meetings with the editorial board of several UK Media organisations. One of the newspapers that got the request was a little bit uncomfortable, expecting something bad, from that meeting. So, minutes before, the team of lawyers from the newspaper came in and waited in another room, ready for a confrontation with Carter-Ruck lawyers, as they were expecting some kind of legal threat that could take them to court.

But the newspaper’s lawyers spend around 30 minutes waiting for nothing. All that the Carter-Ruck lawyers wanted to explain to the editorial board of that newspaper (and they did the same with other Media organizations) was that, according to the Portuguese Law, if there was no body found,the McCann never could be accused of nothing…

That, is not truth. Recently, a group pf criminals kidnapped a Portuguese businessman, to demand a ransom. They killed him and dissolved his body in a tank with sulfuric acid, leaving no trace, not even a small piece that could be used for a DNA analysis. But they were arrested, went on trial and sentenced, because their phones were wiretapped and PJ collected other strong evidence, enough to convince the court send them to prison for 25 years.
sharonl
sharonl
Forum Owner

Posts : 8522
Activity : 11159
Likes received : 1397
Join date : 2009-12-29

http://www.cold2012.org.uk

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by sharonl 27.03.19 22:30


Chapter 30: Forget the Facts - Focus on the Fallacies

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Ozone_facts_fallacies_900_704_a
Forget the Facts - Focus on the Fallacies


In Chapter 17 we started to consider some of the philosophical issues concerned with this case.


We looked at whether absence of evidence could become evidence of absence ( it can !) and we touched on Logic and fallacious arguments


What I want to do now is look at it purely from the point of view of Formal Logic.
We know, know, that there is no forensic evidence of an abduction on Thursday 3rd May 2007
So let us look at the logic of the arguments that have been put forward in the absence of that evidence.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 25


There seem to be three phases, each involving different fallacies.
I will try to pursue them in chronological order




1 Argument by assertion.
Of the night in question, 3rd May 2007 Kate writes “I’d done that, and I knew, I knew, that Madeleine had been abducted.”
The addition of the second ‘I knew’, and putting it in italic is clearly designed to emphasise and therefore to persuade.


This is a classical fallacy known as the Argument by assertion.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2%2BArgument%2Bby%2Bassertion
If you have no evidence, simply state something. If necessary shout, and as we saw in Chapter 17 in the Lewis Carrol extract - What I tell you three times is true ( and other less amusing and more sinister examples)
If in doubt, Keep repeating it.
It is then sometimes referred to as the Argument by repeated assertion.
This does not reinforce the argument. In some cases it may make it weaker in the minds of perceptive listeners, as the lack of any supporting evidence is exposed.



In fact Kate does this as well in her book. In one paragraph she says “Refusing to acknowledge what I already knew, . . . mentally ticking boxes that I knew, deep down, were already ticked.” In two short paragraphs she uses the word four times, without adducing a single piece of relevant evidence to support the contention.


Gradually this fallacy can begin to metamorphose into the Argumentum ad baculum - the Argument with the club, as the repetition becomes more violent and aggressive, and develops into legal proceedings or in hounding a person to their death. I discuss this later.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3%2Bad%2Bbaculum


It can also become the Argumentum ad lapidem - the argument by kicking a stone to prove its existence.
Even Dr Johnson used / misused these forms. I know our will is free. And there’s an end on’t!’




2 Affirming the consequent. This is a form of non sequitur (it does not follow) argument, and was used from the start by the McCanns


The correct form of the argument is this. It is called the modus ponens, and is logically sound


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4%2Bmodus%2Bponens


It is usually put in the form of a syllogism, formed by the combination of a general statement (the major premise) and a specific statement (the minor premise), from which the conclusion is deduced

If a child is abducted, it disappears
General statement, antecedent -> consequent
Madeleine has been abducted
Specific statement, confirming the antecedent
Therefore she has disappeared.
Conclusion following logically

But affirming the consequent turns it round; it places the consequent (the consequence = ‘disappears’) before the antecedent (abducted) and this makes it logically unsound, a fallacious argument

If a child is abducted, it disappears
General statement
Madeleine has disappeared
Specific statement, confirms the consequent
Therefore she has been abducted.
Conclusion is not logical

To continue with this argument would require evidence of abduction, but this cannot be deduced from the second line.

This can look similar to the fallacy of the undistributed middle, where the minor premise talks about Some, but not All, leading to an illogical conclusion, but it is in fact something different.

This example mixes both
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5%2Baffirming%2Bthe%2Bconsequent
3 The Red Herring They then move to a fallacious argument, that even Kate in her book refers to, by name.
The McCanns invoke several ‘red herring’ arguments to wriggle out of their original statement that the window was open, the curtains were wide open, and the shutters were pulled up when she entered the room. These range from “the intruder was in the room whilst I was there,” to “someone did a dummy run the night before”, and even to “ left the shutters open as a red herring whilst leaving by the patio door and down the stairs right past where Gerry was standing . . . (I’m not making this up !)


The Red Herring is a reference to a stinky fish dragged across a trail being followed by hounds in order to divert them by leaving a stronger scent.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Red%2Bherring


In fact the main Red Herring which was pulled across the trail of the PJ was the insistence by 9 professional people that everything happened on the evening of Thursday 3rd May 2007 between 9:10pm and 9:50pm. (see also Appeal to authority, post.)

It was wholly successful.

The PJ, and almost everyone else concentrated on that day and date, those times, and the description of the situation in the apartment, and tried to make everything fit within them.

In fact even the alleged “evidential facts” do not fit.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7%2BPJ%2Bhaving%2Ba%2Bsardine%2Blunch
But the Red Herring was sufficiently pungent to keep most of the Truth Hounds on the false trail for a long time.
Get back on the real trail and follow the squirrel - not the herring, and another much more productive line of enquiry shows itself.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8%2BRed%2Bherring%2Btrack


4 The next fallacious argument they use is the Argumentum ad nauseam. The fallacy of Argument by constant repetition.

For this they quickly sought professional help. Bell Pottinger who were paid £0.5m, Hanover who were paid some unspecified amount, several gullible or paid tabloid journalists, and a series of spokesmen, culminating with the egregious Clarence Mitchell who went round the world repeating the official story ad nauseam, were employed specifically to promulgate this fallacy.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9%2Bad%2Bnauseam
Their job was to repeat the word “abduction” as many times as possible, and to allow no other possibility to be promulgated

5 Intertwined in all this is another fallacy, Shifting the burden of proof

If you state something to be true, then you have the burden of proof, and it is not up to people who doubt you to provide any evidence against what you have said, until you yourself provide evidence of its truth.

Gerry does this outside the Court in Portugal. “where is. . . where is . . . Where is the child, we’re looking for that evidence, what other explanation can explain why she’s not here , . . .” [3] at 7:15




Simple answer – MANY – but it is not our responsibility to provide them, until you show us the evidence you have of abduction.

In fact the reporter presses the point “Are there any other explanations . . .?”
But Gerry shuts him down, turns away with “OK, any other questions.”


(See also false dilemma, post.)

After the initial stages we moved into TV interviews, articles in the press, visits to foreign countries, press articles and other things, and a new set of Logical fallacies came to the fore.


6 At this stage the Argumentum ad baculum - the argument with a big stick, became much more serious.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.1%2Bad%2Bbacumulum
The famous or infamous – depending on your status as litigant – libel lawyers Carter-Ruck specialise in this and are acknowledged to be best in the world at what they do.

Never once did they allow their case to be sullied with evidence, or statements given under oath, or to be tested in open court by qualified forensic practitioners.

What they do is more devious.

They threaten their victims with penury, with impoverishment, by quoting exorbitant fees and costs, all of which will have to be paid if one word or phrase can be shown to be defamatory . . . and by so doing are able to get grudging and coerced agreement for signed undertakings, and qualified admissions. They then claim this as victory for their clients.

It is NOT.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.2%2Bad%2Bbaculum%2B3


None of it speaks to the truth or otherwise of what has been said.

It is therefore a fallacious argument.

The only time the truth has been even partially tested, the McCanns lost. And the Supreme Court of Portugal made the unprecedented statement that their status as suspects was still not settled.

The Argumentum ad baculum was then used to deadly effect against a random internet poster, Brenda Leyland, who after being hounded by Sky News and Martin Brunt over an entire day, took her own life. The ‘truth’ or otherwise of the contents of the ‘Dossier of Death’ may be judged by the fact that neither the Metropolitan Police, nor Leicestershire Police found sufficient in it to take any action at all. [vide Chapter 13]


7 The next fallacious argument used is the Argumentum ad numeram, the bandwagon argument, which is a species of Appeal to the people.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 0


In Germany at a press conference they were asked whether they were involved in the disappearance.
Kate replies “To be honest I don’t actually think that is the case, I think that’s a small number of people who criticise us”. [4]. 0:27
Whether that statement is correct or not is immaterial. The issue is whether they were, or were not involved. The numbers of people who believe it or do not is entirely irrelevant to the truth of the matter.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.4%2Bad%2Bnumeram


8 They then moved to the Appeal to Authority.
This is an interesting one.
We are used to accepting the word of experts with knowledge outside our own personal sphere.


We might for example be impressed by a keynote speech on the Aetiology of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation if it came from an experienced consultant cardiologist.
We might be equally impressed by a description of the protocols and legal procedures necessary to take a case to the European Court of Human Rights if that came from a Queens Council


But perhaps not if these were the other way round.


The appeal to authority becomes fallacious if the authority itself is irrelevant or non-existent.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.5%2BAppeal%2Bto%2Bauthority%2B4


We saw that in the court in Portugal where one witness, Pike, held himself out to be a psychologist. His evidence was undermined when he did have to tell them that he held no such qualification.

Similarly the retired Detective Inspector Edgar gave evidence which was similarly undermined when he admitted that not only had he not read the book in question, but that neither had he been given, nor had he read, all the relevant documents.

Their evidence may in fact have been accurate, but their proven lack of authority condemned it.

The fallacy is overused. A man whose authority depends on his historical skill in playing Association football and of selling potato crisps is invited to give his views on the ‘political and socio-economic implications of Britain’s leaving the European Union’.
A woman with a décolletage whose size can vary with the seasons and a name which is similarly flexible, is invited to give her views, not about décolletage, but about matters unrelated to any of her known or supposed expertise.


9 This fallacy has a close relative, the Appeal to vague authority
Here the authority itself is presented as relevant, and may indeed be so, but the identity is so vague as to leave the statement as fallacious.
“Many scientists believe that the Universe is beginning to shrink”. Well, possibly, but if they are micro-biologists their views may not be as authoritative as those of, say, Astrophysicists.


Kate used this “So on the afternoon of Friday 11 May, the paralegal, accompanied by a barrister, flew out to Portugal. . . .
. . . the barrister first of all assured us that our behaviour could not be deemed negligent and was indeed ‘well within the bounds of reasonable parenting’. “ [p. 124]


We do not know the identity of the alleged barrister, nor whether she or he was a specialist in Family Law, nor of her or his experience, nor whether s/he has a list of relevant authorities and precedents up the sleeve of the gown . . . All we have is Kate’s statement that this was said.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.6%2Bcamels
10 As we move further on, we encounter the Argumentum ad hominem (abusive).
Anyone commenting on any aspect of the case was dismissed as a “troll”. The McCanns even had boxes into which they put correspondence they did not agree with, labelled ‘Nasty’, ‘Nutty’, and ‘Psychics Visions Dreams’
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.7%2Bad%2Bhominem
This vituperation continues to this day on the internet, with some people, suspected to be in the pay of the McCann team scanning the fora and blog sites and putting on-line vile abuse and threats of physical violence against anyone critical of the official story.
[See argumentum ad baculum, supra.]

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Einstein

11 The False dilemma is a favourite fallacious argument used by people in a tight corner
Gerry used it outside the court room in Portugal, where it was also a species of Shifting the burden of proof
His words “where is. . . where is . . . Where is the child, we’re looking for that evidence, what other explanation can explain why she’s not here , . . .” [3] at 7:15. not only try to shift the burden, but to suggest that there is no other valid alternative to the theory being proposed.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.9%2Bfalsedochotomy%2B2
12 Every schoolboy knows . . .
Here a statement is made in such a way that there is a suggestion, which may be explicit or implicit, that anyone who does not agree is ignorant or stupid, or both.

It is used more frequently that we notice
“Everyone knows there is no link between smoking and lung cancer”. (Said for many decades)
“Only a fool would argue that speed kills, Look at Formula 1”. (Still used !)

And here we saw Gerry
GM: We’ve looked at evidence of cadaver dogs, and they are incredibly unreliable.
Q: Unreliable ?
GM: Cadaver dogs. Yes [5] at 4:39

The clear implication being that only a fool would disagree.

The truth might be that only a fool would refuse to read the detailed evidence of their incredible reliability and almost total infallibility.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.91%2Bcancer


We then entered a third phase. That of consideration of the McCanns themselves and the implications or their being prosecuted or convicted of a crime or offence in Portugal or England


Whilst these may be valid as arguments in themselves, they are fallacious when they are said to speak to the guilt or innocence of any concerned


13 Argumentum ad misericordiam. The Appeal to pity - think of their suffering in a Portuguese or English prison, think of the twins, and the breakup of the family, of the loss of their professional reputations, of the impact on their friends. Who would look after the house...?
Very clearly this says nothing at all about guilt or innocence, but it diverts neatly from that inconvenient issue.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.92%2Bad%2Bmisericordiam
14 This overlaps with the Argumentum ad sentimus. Emotional appeal,

Pity us, cry with us, light candles, hold vigils, pray during services, make programmes with tear-jerking poems about dead children for Radio 4, drop broad hints about mental strain, and even suggest incipient mental illness when convenient. (But obviously be in a position to deny it vehemently when it is not convenient, such as when it is suggested that mental illness might have been the reason behind an assault...)

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.93%2BSentimens


15 Appeal to ignorance
We see this fallacy from various people. Some in the press have used it, as have some retired senior Police officers (all of whom ought to know better.)

They all amount to the same thing each time. A bald statement after a re-statement of usually irrelevant details, usually taking the form . . .

“That is why I can’t believe they killed their daughter . . .” or

“I can’t believe they were involved in the disappearance of their daughter . . ."

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.94%2Bappeal%2Bto%2Bignorance


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.95%2BJournalists%252C%2Band%2Bmany%2Bothers%2Bcopy


We are clearly supposed to follow this, relying on the Appeal to authority, but it is fallacious.
The fact that YOU cannot believe it is frankly of no interest, and immaterial to the argument. The question is DID THEY, or DID THEY NOT


16 The Genetic fallacy. This is normally used to destroy an argument, but here it is being used to positive effect. They are Doctors, THEREFORE they are not guilty.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 00


There would rightly be outrage if anyone were to invoke it the other way round, and make loud noises about Dr. Harold Shipman, Dr Crippen, Dr Bodkin Adams, and others through history. [6]




17 The Slippery Slope. This can appear to be persuasive, and is clearly used to stop prosecutions of famous persons, with those cases labelled “Not in the public interest”
The argument runs –
If they are prosecuted, let alone found guilty, then look at the list of people who will be sucked into the case. There will be those who on any test would be guilty of Conspiracy of one sort or another, many who would be guilty of professional negligence, those who would be exposed as stupid, and so many who will be embarrassed, either personally or professionally, and risk having their public lives changed irrevocably.


Better to let it just die away, and say no more about it !


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9.98%2Bslippery%2Bslope



Books on the subject and references


1 “How to win every argument: The use and abuse of Logic”. Madsen Pirie, Continuum International Publishing Group, (Available from amazon.co.uk)


2 Mastering Logical Fallacies”, Michael Witney, Zephyros Press, (Available from Amazon.co.uk)


3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k5Q7QZNfFA At 7:15


4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ3ForLXJT0 At 0:27


5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ULxqfGTVU&t=321s At 4:39


6 https://www.ranker.com/list/serial-killers-who-were-doctors/ranker-crime
sharonl
sharonl
Forum Owner

Posts : 8522
Activity : 11159
Likes received : 1397
Join date : 2009-12-29

http://www.cold2012.org.uk

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 27.04.19 12:31

Chapter 31: JON CLARKE – OLIVE PRESS LIES AND VIDEOTAPE

JON CLARKE – OLIVE PRESS
LIES AND VIDEOTAPE

Foreword
Nota Bene: After reading the article under discussion I contacted “The Olive Press”, asking for a retraction and an apology. I received neither acknowledgment nor reply
A week later I sent a repeat email.
This time Jon Clarke, publisher and editor replied, denying that anything was ‘libel’.
I sent a suggested form of words for the retraction and apology.
He replied repeating that they did not consider that there was any libel.



In view of this I believe I am entitled to assume that there is no reasonable prospect of a retraction, a correction, nor an apology.
The attitude of “The Olive Press” towards defamation may also be clear, as it was expressed in an article of November 2011, trumpeting under a 44-point-bold banner headline –
          WHY LIBEL IS NO BIG DEAL IN SPAIN                                                                   [1]


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1
In the previous Chapter “Fake News” I looked at an article by Jon Clarke, the owner and publisher of a free newspaper in southern Spain “The Olive Press”.
I showed how that article, published in 2017, was seriously divergent from, and often contrary to facts as reported by other people. Notably, and potentially seriously, it directly contradicted much of what Kate McCann herself had written in her autobiography “madeleine”. But there the matter rested. It was discussed on several Fora, but was largely dismissed as “the usual nonsense”.

In late March 2019 I went into a supermarket in southern Spain, purchased a bottle of wine and wrapped it in one of the free tabloid papers helpfully supplied at the check-out for this purpose.
On this occasion it was “The Olive Press”. Vol.13 Issue 314 to be precise.

On page 3 is an article on the recent Netflix documentary about missing Madeleine Beth McCann, saying “The Olive Press” played a “starring role” [sic] and entitled “Hoping for Answers”.
The article is not attributed and is written in the third person, but is clearly by Jon Clarke.
As the publisher and editor of the paper he is ultimately responsible for its content.

In it I am identified by name, occupation and location, and then subjected to the routine, gratuitous ad-hominen insults and abuse sadly so typical of what we have come to expect of those who uncritically support the ‘official’ story put out by Team McCann and their acolytes and apologists.

In that article, 7 column inches are devoted to Clarke and the Netflix documentary, whilst 3.5 column inches are devoted to maligning and defaming me. 293 words - v - 140 words
One third of the entire article is devoted to entirely gratuitous abuse.

Gratuitous in that it does not address the central point of the article, which is to emphasise the importance of Clarke and “The Olive Press” in the Netflix programmes.
Gratuitous in that yet again it sets up and then knocks down the straw-man argument about “proving that the McCanns did not kill Madeline’ which it is unlikely anyone actually believes.

I am a long since retired police officer as he accurately states, from a previous millennium and perhaps from a more robust generation. I am hardened to abuse of the sort we come to expect from drunks, drug users, criminals and tabloid journalists.

But there is more. He goes on to make four distinct statements about me.
It is in the public domain, published in 100,000 copies, with huge numbers of readers both on-line and via Facebook and Android apps - his figures, not mine - and so I give a quote

“The former Nottinghamshire copper has long trolled that the parents were guilty and even produced a libellous pamphlet on why they did it. . . .
. . [he] once tried to claim that Olive Press editor Clarke could not have been in Praia da Luz on the morning after Maddie’s disappearance.
In a disgusting blog post he also somehow suggested that Clarke may have been in some way involved.”


Strong stuff. So perhaps a measured and proportionate response is not altogether unexpected.

Let us pick it apart. Let us be clinically detached, ignore the sneering and abusive tone, forget the libel, and stick to the facts of what is being said. Keep our eye on the squirrel.

       “Libellous pamphlet”
No pamphlet in this case has ever been adjudged to be libellous. Clarke is fully aware of this

      [he] . . . even produced . . a pamphlet . . .
I have never produced any pamphlet, libellous or otherwise. Clarke knows this

       once tried to claim that Clarke could not have been in Praia da Luz . . .
This is not true. Clarke knows this is not true

       he … suggested that Clarke may have been in some way involved
This is not true. Clarke knows this is not true

Here we have four distinct and discrete untruths. Jon Clarke knows that each one is untrue.

We can be absolutely sure of this because in each case he has previously published the ’real, true’ facts in other places including his own newspaper. He has previously published the identity of the person who did produce a leaflet and engage in ‘robust discussion‘. And it was not me. So these are not mistakes, errors, typos, mis-information, general editorial sloppiness, nor any of the other excuses normally trotted out on these occasions.

These are lies.
 It logically follows that Jon Clarke, Publisher and Editor of “The Olive Press”, is a liar
and that his newspaper “The Olive Press” deliberately and by design publishes lies.

* * * * * * * *

That might have been the end of the matter. As a person of reasonable fortitude I could have simply accepted that within the fortnight the cat litter trays, the parrot cages and the rubbish bins would have been cleaned and emptied, and that the lies would have disappeared with them – notwithstanding in the modern world they remain forever floating in the aether cloud of the internet.

But I suspected that I was dealing with something else; that I was dealing with organised and concerted mendacity. It is in the first part of the article, in which Clarke’s appearance in the Netflix documentary is featured, that we find very significant differences between what is being said now, and what was said in 2017, only two years ago, authored by the same Jon Clarke.

We need to examine extracts from these three versions together

2017 article in “The Olive Press”                                                                                            [5]

      “But for a couple of loving parents to murder their daughter, bury and cover all traces in an hour while on holiday is stretching it just a bit too far.
      But this didn’t stop the Portuguese police from charging them… “
      “When I arrived at about 11.45am I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns and told them I would do everything I could to help.
      “The only reporter on the scene till late that evening – apart from Sky News reporter Kate Burley, who happened to be on holiday there – I spent time grilling neighbours, . . ”
      “Incredibly, we had to wait till late afternoon before a couple of sniffer dogs had arrived, which was amateur to say the least, given that Maddie had been reported missing a full 18 hours earlier.


2019 article in “The Olive Press”                                                                                             [4]

      “The Olive Press Editor, 50, was the first journalist on the scene in Praia da Luz the day after police began their disastrous attempt to find the toddler.
      “ . . he takes the crew around the resort, and reveals his shock at how laid back the police operation was and how he met the McCanns in those early hours.
      “Initially there was just a small bit of tape in front of the apartment, and then a bit at the side where the patio doors were,” he revealed in the film.
      “It wouldn’t have been difficult to walk in and have a look round. It certainly wasn’t Fort Knox,” he added.


2019 transcript from Netflix documentary                                                                            [7]

      “This is it, this is it.”
      “This is now what was the Mark Warner complex, the Ocean Club, this one here 5a
      “I said hello to them as they were leaving and introduced myself to them as a reporter from the Mail, and they said “Hi”, and I think they may have also said “thanks for coming”.


      “That was really unfortunately all I could get out of them at that point, so there really wasn’t much opportunity, sadly, to talk to the family about what had happened the night before.

      “Initially there was maybe just a small bit of tape here in front of the apartment, and a little bit at the side where the patio doors were.”
      “And then there was a note on the steps leading up, saying ‘Don’t go past this point’.


      It went up, and I looked in and the door was open and I think I tried to speak.
I didn’t, . . . I didn’t want to push my way through the door or into the apartment which obviously would have been a crime scene, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate to do that, but I got the impression it wouldn’t have been difficult to do that at all, to sort of walk in and take a look around, you know it certainly wasn’t Fort Knox.”


Readers will already realise that some of this is contradictory. In 2017 he says he walked into the apartment and spoke to the McCanns there. In 2019 he says he spoke to the McCanns as they left, and then did not enter the apartment. So let us deconstruct these “versions of the truth

We find a series of direct statements
          He arrived about 11:45am
          He was the only reporter till late that evening
          He was the first journalist on the scene
          Kate [Kay] Burley was there
          He walked into the apartment
          He did not walk into the apartment
          He met the McCanns in the apartment
          He met the McCanns as they were leaving
          He introduced himself, and told them he would do everything to help
          He introduced himself, and they said ‘Hi’, and may have said ‘thanks for coming
          There were no dogs until late afternoon
          The Portuguese police charged the McCanns

What is truly astonishing about this whole series of statements is not merely that some contradict others. It is that there is documentary evidence available in the public domain in the form of professionally recorded contemporaneous Video, which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that every one of those statements is untrue.
And Clarke, a professional journalist who has access to the internet and to search engines as we all do, must be fully aware that his lies can be, and will be exposed.
And yet he persists, and refuses to correct or apologise.

          He arrived about 11:45am

In her autobiography Kate covers the departure from the complex with the PJ for the initial statements. The statements are timed with Gerry McCann’s beginning at 1115, Tanner and Oldfield at 1130. Portimão police station is about 32 km from the apartment, and google.maps estimates the time to drive at around 32 min.
Allowing time for organising rooms, paper, interviewers and interpreters and other domestic matters this would indicate a departure time of around 1015 - 1030. This accords with Kate’s book, where she says “it was about 10am by the time a couple of PJ officers turned up”.

What Clarke has failed to notice or factor into his story is the one hour time difference between Spain, where he lives, and Portugal. This was pointed out in the ‘blog’ comments on the 2017 article, but he did not seem to grasp the importance of the detail.

This puts Clarke in PdL around 1045 local time or shortly before. In time to see the McCanns, Payne, Tanner and Oldfield leaving with the PJ in fact. And there is clear video evidence of this.

          He was the only reporter on the scene until late that evening

This is one of Clarke’s most bizarre statements. It seems totally pointless to print such an egregious lie about such an apparently unimportant issue.
The area was ‘swarming’ with reporters and camera crews. A group of 6 reporters including Clarke congregated in the car park outside apartment 5H waiting for them to leave. Clarke is seen on film speaking to one reporter, a woman, and standing within a yard of Len Port, a British journalist based just along the coast who had been there since 0830

          He was the first journalist on the scene . . .

This lie is repeated, even in 2019 when Clarke knew that the Netflix film would include video from 2007 showing this was simply untrue, and despite having access to Port’s book. He could have used the construction “among the first” but again chooses to print another untruth. It is unclear why. Len Port arrived about 0830, and has not only written about this, but was filmed by one of the camera crews. Port does not claim to have been the first – probably because he has no evidence that this was so, possibly because it is entirely irrelevant.

          Kate [Kay] Burley was there

In the 2017 article he names Kate Burley. Commentators on Clarke’s blog site pointed out the mistake in the name, and he altered the on-line version to KAY Burley. It was then pointed out that video exists of Ms Burley presenting the news in the UK that day, and that the person in question was actually a weather presenter, who was identified and named. He has never corrected the untruth, or apologised.

          He walked into the apartment

“When I arrived at about 11.45am I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns”

In fact the place had been sealed off the previous evening, the McCanns who had been in another apartment overnight – the Payne’s, 5H – either ‘keeping vigil’ (Kate), or sleeping (Gerry) moved their remaining possessions early that morning into their new apartment, 5G, and shortly after 1000 were on their way to Portimao with the PJ
During the morning and afternoon the forensic people were in the apartment, there were dog handlers outside, and the place was crawling with reporters and film crews

          He did not walk into the apartment

In the Netflix documentary Clarke has now changed his story. He will have been aware that Netflix had access to the contemporaneous video footage, and was planning to include some clips. Those include footage of the tape and the warning notice he refers to.

“I didn’t want to push my way through the door or into the apartment which obviously would have been a crime scene, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate to do that, but I got the impression it wouldn’t have been difficult to do that at all, to sort of walk in and take a look around, “

His use of the negative of the conditional perfect tense - “wouldn’t have been difficult” - is a clear admission that he did not enter. He also excuses himself from so doing by rightly stating that it would have been inappropriate because it was a crime scene – or at least a missing person scene – and because it was taped off.

          He met the McCanns in the apartment

But the McCanns were not there. They had spent the night in the Payne’s apartment, and then the entire day in Portimão. They arrived back in PdL around 2030 and went straight to 5G, their newly allocated apartment. Food was provided and they did not go out again until 2200 to give the short press conference by torchlight.

          He met the McCanns as they were leaving

This is more intriguing. For this you should view the relevant video clip above, which can be slowed, and ‘clicked’ frame by frame. Full details are given in the Appendices. A series of annotated stills from the video can be seen at Appendix B.

Clarke is seen standing in the car park among the group of six journalists. He then leaves toward the camera, shaking hands with one of the 5 GNR police officers. As he moves out of shot to the left, Gerry McCann is seen in the distance leaving the stairwell, and walking into the car park on the right of shot.
From this point the camera follows the McCanns, Oldfield and Tanner as they walk with a PJ officer in a leather jacket to the waiting cars. They are joined by Payne, and are seeing getting into the cars and driving away.
Clarke is seen emerging from a row of marked police vehicles on the right of shot, striding into the middle of the road close to Len Port, and taking a photo. At no point is he close to the McCanns. Seconds before the car pulls away Payne is seen winding down the front passenger window and says something indistinct.
So unless Clarke shouted at the open window as the car begins to drive away it is unlikely that this polite exchange could have taken place as described. 
“I said hello to them as they were leaving and introduced myself to them as a reporter from the Mail, and they said “Hi”, and I think they may have also said “thanks for coming”.

          He told them he would do everything to help

It is unclear what part of a journalists professional duty it is to “help”. It suggests that the official story is already known. I shall return to this later

          He introduced himself, and they said ‘Hi’, and may have said ‘thanks for coming

This is a very different story, and implies something far shorter and less formal than the previous version.

          There were no dogs until late afternoon

Here Clarke uses the words. “Incredibly, we had to wait till late afternoon. . .
It is certainly incredible. It is unbelievable. We do not believe it.
For the simple reason that it is not true. It is another palpable lie.

 Len Port describes dogs searching during the early hours of the morning -
“As I moved around the village on foot there was at least one obvious manifestation of police activity. Police officers with search dogs on leads were vigorously combing the vicinity of the apartments, the area around the village church, on down towards the seashore and along the full length of the long curving beach. It was all being done in silence.”

In the few video clips referred to it is possible to identify no fewer than four dogs with their handlers. Two are black, one is black and white, and the fourth is a large golden Labrador. And these are only those filmed in the immediate vicinity of the apartment. Len Port is clearly describing yet more further afield.

To ensure that this was correct I contacted a Portuguese journalist who has followed this case
I referred to sentences taken from Clarke’s 2017 article
“From the word go, they did not take this crime seriously. “
“Incredibly, we had to wait till late afternoon before a couple of sniffer dogs had arrived, which was amateur to say the least, given that Maddie had been reported missing a full 18 hours earlier.”


I received the following email [edited with grammar and spelling corrected]

Around 2.00 am, May 4th, there were already more than a dozen GNR officers at Praia da Luz. The lieutenant-colonel in charge of Algarve area also was there, around 3.00 am. He called off-duty officers and brought others from at least 6 precincts in the Algarve. There were also 2 K2 [dog] units, from Portimão.
Around 4.00 am, the GNR commander called headquarters in Lisbon and asked them to send more K2 units, dogs more specialised in searching for missing persons. Those 3 units left Lisbon around 4.30 am and arrived at Praia da Luz around 8.00, starting immediately the searches.
In the early hours of the morning of May 4th, there were more than 20 GNR officers at the place, all access to the building was cordoned off, nobody could get closer than 20 meters, so everything that Clarke says is just a lie


Even more incredibly, the dog van and handlers were in the car park only feet from where Clarke walked as he left the scene. One camera crew was there taking film of the dogs and of the shutters, and was itself filmed doing so by a second film crew. It is inconceivable that Clarke did not notice, and so the inevitable conclusion is that for some reason he is choosing yet again to lie.

          The Portuguese police charged the McCanns
“But this didn’t stop the Portuguese police from charging them… “

It is difficult to know in which category of mendacity to place this, or whether to try to excuse it on the grounds of crass stupidity. But Clarke is not a stupid man. He is reasonably well educated and his craft depends on the use of the English language. He lives in a country with a Continental legal system ultimately based in Roman Law, and will be, or should be aware of the different roles adopted by GNR police, PJ, and of the role of the Public Prosecutor.

The McCanns have never been charged with anything. There is insufficient evidence to do so.
For many people that is the “causus belli”.

It is unlikely that Clarke has misinterpreted ‘arguido’ status as “charging them”. Most people by now understand the meaning of that term as ‘formal suspect’, equivalent to being ‘interviewed under caution’ despite the McCanns trying to deny that interpretation on oath at Leveson.

It may be instructive to compare Clarke’s mendacious style and somewhat Cavalier approach to truth, facts and evidence with what another British journalist, Len Port, who lives a short distance along the coast in Portugal, says in his book 'People in a Place Apart

Ch. 24. THE MADELEINE MYSTERY 
[Extract.] On arrival in the village before 8.30am on Friday 4th May 2007, I expected to see some urgent activity. A young British girl, Madeleine McCann, had gone missing the previous night. At first I saw no movement at all. The village was silent and still. While driving around, I came across a single police vehicle parked on the roadside at a junction of minor roads towards the back of the village. I parked directly behind it. A few uniformed police officers were standing outside a block of holiday apartments. The only other people in sight were two women in conversation close to a corner ground floor apartment, 5A.                                                                                                         [11]

Port then walked round the village, and was filmed by one of the many camera crews who were also beginning to arrive during the morning.
This is a still from one such video, showing Port by the pool to the south of the McCanns’ apartment. The heavy plastic tarpaulin screens of the notorious Tapas bar are clearly visible in front of him behind the yellow umbrellas.
If we look at the shadows of Port and of the palm tree and then replicate them on a N-S image from Google Maps, we observe that the image was recorded in the early morning, as stated.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2

Later in the chapter Port says
“As I moved around the village on foot there was at least one obvious manifestation of police activity. Police officers with search dogs on leads were vigorously combing the vicinity of the apartments, the area around the village church, on down towards the seashore and along the full length of the long curving beach. It was all being done in silence.”
“The tranquility outside apartment 5A gradually changed. As the morning and afternoon wore on, the number of people arriving on the scene steadily increased. Curious passers-by mingled with reporters, photographers, TV cameramen and staff manning outside broadcast vans. A mixture of Portuguese, British and other nationalities, we all stood around asking each other questions and wondering what had happened to the little girl.”


Paulo Reis makes trenchant observations about this phenomenon of journalists and reporters ‘feeding off each other’ in his blog article.                                                                                              [14]

How much more of this can we take ?

These untruths are in a different league from the normal Team McCann and Mitchell mendacity.
We have become inured to the McCann tactic of simple reversal of statements when the objective facts prove inconvenient

* The curtains were wide open - v - they were tight closed
* The abductor got in through broken shutters - v - did not enter through the window
* Gerry entered through the locked front door - v - through the unlocked patio door
* They had no wristwatches - v - they checked the time by their watches
* We never lied to anyone - v - we told a lie about Gerry having a stomach complaint


The McCanns are stuck with those lies for all time. They will be endlessly repeated whenever any claim is made that the McCanns are telling the truth. They can never escape them.
The late Antony Sharples, writing as John Blacksmith, discussed this in “The Foundation Lie”  [13]

But Clarke’s untruths are of a different order of magnitude.

To redeem himself and to try to recover some scintilla of professional credibility Clarke has to admit that it didn’t happen AT ALL.
He has to admit that he simply made it up; to state openly, that as an‘Investigative Journalist’, or indeed a journalist of any hue, and the publisher of a newspaper and on-line outlet, he simply invented a story; invented a meeting, invented dialogue, and twisted the available facts to fit some unknown agenda.

It is no longer open to him to say, “Well it did, but just not quite in that way

He either DID go into apartment 5A on arrival, or he did NOT

He either DID speak to the McCanns in the apartment shortly after he arrived in PdL on 4/5/7, or he did NOT

There either WERE police dogs present or there were NOT

The McCanns were either CHARGED or they were NOT

And these lies are now preserved on video, to be viewed by millions, exposed over and over again, for all time. He is stuck with it for all eternity.

Even if he had no ultimate editorial control the sequence must be:
- Netflix consult him about events
- Clarke inflates his own role about being first on the scene and first to speak to the McCanns
- Netflix write the screenplay to incorporate what Clarke said in the 2017 article
- Clarke is an important and integral part of the filming and editorial team
- Netflix put that part of the interview as voice-over to the video clip for emphasis
- "The Olive Press" then trumpets itself as playing a 'starring role' in the documentary

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3
He also makes another revealing change, which we are perhaps supposed not to notice.
Is he following the McCann and Mitchell Rule-book and changing the story to make it fit the facts ?

In the film he has – or they have – now completely changed the order of events from –
2017 - went in and THEN spoke to the McCanns in the apartment. 
“When I arrived at about 11.45am I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns”.

to a complete reversal – 
2019 - spoke to the McCanns as they were leaving (the film implying this was outdoors) and THEN went to the apartment
“I said hello to them as they were leaving and introduced myself to them as a reporter from the Mail, and they said “Hi”, and I think they may have also said “thanks for coming”.

Only then does he go to the gate and the stairs with the tape
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4
And we see the notice indicating that even he as reporter should not enter
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5
He waves to indicate something out of shot
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6
And says : "It went up, and I looked in and the door was open, and I think I tried to speak.”
The words “It went up, . . .” are, curiously, a voice-over to a clip from 2007 of the stairs, the tape and the notice with an unidentified woman in shot, left, who is clearly holding a microphone, clearly a news reader and speaking directly to camera probably LIVE.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7
And his use of the construction "It went up," leads us to understand "The prohibition / the cordon / the exclusion zone went up, . . .
which makes his reluctance or failure to go into the apartment even more understandable and acceptable.

By saying he “tried to speak” he is also, of course, clearly admitting that there were already people IN the apartment to be spoken to. We know these were police and Forensic officers. As does he.
Which may be why he only “tried to speak” as his Portuguese may not be as fluent as his Spanish, and perhaps why he did not want to risk a confrontation and possible arrest, as he explains -

I didn’t . . . I didn’t want to push my way through the door or into the apartment which obviously would have been a crime scene, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate to do that,

[Just as an aside, the repeated “I didn’t . . [pause] . . I didn’t . . .” is potentially an interesting insight into the possible mental turmoil he may have been feeling as he repeated this version of a story he knew to be untrue and which he feared might one day be exposed]

The fact remains that the McCanns are in the shot – in an unbroken ‘real time’ sequence – from the car park, along the road, and getting into the car, and at no time does anyone approach them close enough to have a conversation. Tanner keeps behind the group, and Oldfield is seen using his body and arm as a physical shield the entire time. The sequence is unbroken until the first car is seen driving off and the camera pans to take in the entire convoy. The only ‘window of opportunity’ is when Paynes opens the passenger window, a sequence of rather less than 6 seconds, before the vehicle moves away.

Viewers must draw their own conclusions about whether Clarke really 
“ . . . said hello to them as they were leaving and introduced myself to them as a reporter from the Mail, and they said “Hi”, and I think they may have also said “thanks for coming”.

We note his use of the deliberately vague “I think they may . . .” Is this his escape route ?

If so it is a very long way from the 2017 version. 
“When I arrived at about 11.45am I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns and told them I would do everything I could to help.”

Does Clarke have an escape route from that ?
Or can we now accurately describe the 2017 version as a Lie, on the simple grounds that
HE DIDN’T – AND THEY WERE NOT THERE

How many more untruths do we have to tolerate before we are allowed to say about “The Olive Press” and Jon Clarke –
- not that this is just sloppy writing about poorly remembered events –
- not that this is mere tabloid trash journalism –
- not that this is nothing more sinister than trying to sell a few more copies with ludicrous attention grabbing “Freddie-Starr-ate-my-hamster” headlines –
- not that this is innocent mistake or inadvertent misunderstanding –

but that this is a quite deliberate, studied, careful and calculated series of untruths.
Falsehoods published to a very particular end.

And if so, would this make Clarke a calculated liar, or perhaps, since he is very free with the accusation of “conspiracy theorist”, is he himself merely a highly paid pawn in something much bigger, of which perhaps even he knows nothing ?

Cui Bono ? Who benefits ?

What was the point of lying about me ? What did it benefit anyone ?
What was the point of lying by claiming to be the only, or even the first journalist at the scene ?
What was the point of lying by saying he went into the apartment ?
What was the point of lying by saying that he spoke to the McCanns, there and then ?
What was the point of lying by saying there were no dogs; by saying that Kate (or Kay) Burley was there; of claiming that a road crew was still digging up the street “literally right outside the apartment“ ?

Why did he not write articles based on the truth? It can be just as critical, just as sneering, just as disparaging. I am no journalist, but it is not difficult to do.                                           [APP C]


What led or has caused Clarke to publish this entire series of egregious, false and defamatory statements in his own newspaper “The Olive Press” over many years, to say nothing of the ludicrous ‘new leads’ that were then so eagerly picked up by “The Sun” and others ? [Olive Press passim.]

* * * * * * * * *

Jon Clarke and “The Olive Press” are no strangers to criticism of their antics.

In 2013 FAPE, the Federación de Associationes de Periodistas de España - the Spanish Journalists’ Association, handed down a judgment against “The Olive Press” and Jon Clarke for having published a long article entitled “Maddie? Yes, but not the one we were looking for . . .” and found it infringed Articles 4 and 13 of the FAPE Ethical Code for not having respected the right to personal and family privacy of M.A., a minor, and of her parents, Mr. L. A. and Mrs. R. E., and also did not bother to check the sources of the information.                                                                               [APP E]

The judgment continues [my translation]. “In the reasoning of this resolution it states that the journalist has acted with remarkable flippancy and published a scandalous story based on very flimsy material. The information published in "The Olive Press" is an example of irresponsible sensationalism to attract the attention of the prospective reader. Its content is pure charlatanry, "gossip" in the language in which it has been written and in journalistic language “amarillismo", [sensationalist journalism] always reprehensible but much more when an innocent subject of the information can be endangered”

The facts are that “The Olive Press” latched on to a young British girl who lived with her parents in a small village in southern Spain. It was her misfortune to be called Madeleine. Her photo was published, against the specific wishes of her parents, the family home was clearly identified, and inevitably hordes of tourists descended to take photos. The article bore the sub-title "Has Olive Press solved the connection of the Axarquia with the disappeared Madeleine McCann?

The answer was of course “No” which rendered the article otiose, irrelevant, and even more reprehensible.

Spurious ‘facts’ were invented about the parent’s employment and supposed travel to Thailand,

The journalist in question was contacted by the parents and exonerated herself saying that it was not her decision to publish the article in that way, but that of the editor Jon Clarke.

The incident in question had occurred over two years before publication.

Even more revealing is the fact that Clarke and “The Olive Press” had not contacted Operation Grange, nor apparently the Portuguese PJ with their ‘revelation’, and in reply to the complaint by the girl’s father it appears merely sent the draft of another article about their daughter, saying that in view of the complaint they had decided not to publish it.

The panel also noted “the report published in "The Olive Press" dominated its news items and pretends to be "investigative journalism" although this was cursory and elementary

She was merely one of many victims of ludicrous and lurid Olive Press stories.

A paedophile took Madeleine McCann, not her parents - (by which we assume that what Clarke means was not that a paedophile had intended to take her parents . . . ! ?
I saw Maddie in a supermarket on the Costa del Sol
Ex-soldier claims he saw Madeleine McCann by a Nerja swimming pool
Spanish Maddie mystery solved
I saw Madeleine McCann playing outside Costa del Sol beach restaurant
Could Maddie be alive and well in Nerja?
Gypsy link to Maddie

Article 13 of the FAPE Code is very clear
Art. 13. The commitment to the search for truth will always lead the journalist to publish only facts of which he knows the origin, without falsifying documents or omitting essential information, as well as not publishing false, misleading or distorted information.
In consequence:
a) A journalist must substantiate the information published, which includes the duty to check the sources and to give the opportunity to the affected person to offer their own version of the facts.
b) Journalists are warned that the spread of false, misleading or distorted material, will result in an obligation to correct the error with all speed and with the same typographic and / or audiovisual display used for its dissemination. Likewise, they will publish an apology when appropriate.                                 [APP E]

******************

What is the force which drives a journalist who has been paid in the past by News International, to publish over a long period a series of stories clearly designed to defame and traduce the officers and the organisation of the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), and the officers and the organisation of the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR), not to mention the British Police and specialists including a dog handler and the many journalists and camera crews who attended the scene in the first days.

What is the motive behind insisting that the investigation was anything but the best that could reasonably be done under difficult circumstances, particularly given the misleading and contradictory information supplied to them by ‘witnesses’ ?

As a wider issue, what or who caused the British Press to turn from initial professional detachment to an all-out assault on anyone who dared question the ‘official’ story put out by the McCanns and their large team of advisors and sponsors ? An assault which manifestly continues to this day.
 
A Portuguese journalist, Paulo Reis, has interested himself in this latter aspect, writing first on his blog site about three undercover visits he paid to PdL to observe the manipulation of other journalists  - particularly British - and recording their ‘methods’ of obtaining information, and more recently authoring a book, “A Guerra os McCann”. ('The McCann's War') which is currently on sale, with the English translation in final proof reading.

In it he is able to identify the exact date from which the British Press changed from normal professional detachment to a concerted and mendacious attack on the Portuguese, their lifestyle, their Police and their legal system.

We remember that the McCanns notoriously paid Lord Bell of Bell-Pottinger half a million pounds –we suppose out of the “fund” to keep their story on the front pages of the papers for a year, whilst simultaneously complaining to Leveson about ‘Press Intrusion’.

Which then raises the question - was Clarke himself an innocent dupe ?

And here we are forced back to the so-called “conspiracy theory” that much of what the British press have published from very early has been on a concerted attempt to deflect from proper consideration and analysis of the available evidence.

How many ‘pieces of silver’ are the Press and journalists paid to keep this up ?
Who is controlling it, and why ?


Post scriptum
Everything I have said is based on materials freely available to anyone who cares about the truth.
I have no special skills, no sources of information nor access to documents or photos and videos not in the public domain.
Everything here is available to every journalist and every police officer and every member of the general public – everywhere.
I have tried to provide extensive references, and in the Appendices are series of photos, made up of screen shots taken from the video footages from Friday 4th May 2007, so that readers may draw their own conclusions.
If I have made mistakes, they are entirely mine, and I will correct and apologise.


I don't ask you to believe me. I am not a journalist, just the intended victim of one.
All I ask is that before judging – before making a decision –
before coming to your own view – before forming your own opinion –
you look at the evidence for yourself
All you need to do is “Keep your eye on the squirrel

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Squirrel2


Is this all just silly nit-picking over a short article in a free Tabloid supermarket paper ?

My integrity has been impugned and I feel entitled to respond proportionately, by addressing the cohort of people who follow this case and who read the evidence and opinions about it.

Clarke is a journalist and publisher. His craft is the use of the English Language. He is an educated man. He speaks standard received English, using normal grammar and syntax
without any noticeable regional or national dialect forms.

When he writes “I did this, then, there” we can suppose he reasonably intends us to believe it.
If we then find we can not, serious questions are raised.
Amongst the serious educated British ex-pat population round Ronda the word most often used about The Olive Press was “embarrassing”. To move the paper from that to “consistently mendacious, unreliable and abusive” is a serious step.
The paper’s reputation may take some time to recover.

Post-Post Scriptum
Whether Netflix will be impressed to discover that they have been so cynically manipulated to put out across the world this series of untruths is not yet known. Only time will tell.


And only Clarke can tell us for which of the untruths he
and “The Olive Press” – and by association Netflix –
prefer to be remembered.


---------

Read more here: http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/01/chapter-31-jon-clarke-olive-press-lies.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Chapter 32: ON LIES AND CONSPIRACIES

Post by Jill Havern 13.05.19 18:03

New chapter published today 13 May 2019

Chapter 32: ON LIES AND CONSPIRACIES


ON LIES AND CONSPIRACIES

THE GESTATION, BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A CONSPIRACY THEORY

In his recent book Paulo Reis lays bare the development of the campaign by the British Press against the PJ and Dr Amaral. Jon Clarke and “The Olive Press” were at the forefront of this.

Here I try to trace the origin of one of the more persistent Conspiracy Theories.
I start by examining three apparently unconnected circumstances, and will try to show how they overlap and how these coincidences can so easily be interpreted as being something different.

Having established that “The Olive Press” is somewhat relaxed about the truth, cavalier with ‘facts’ but very free with invective and personal and public abuse of those who do not accept every word of what they say, let us turn to one of the more interesting of the conspiracy theories.

I want to go through this carefully so that errors can be identified.

We start with Clarke

Jon Clarke has said, twice, that he was phoned about 0715 on Friday 4/5/7, and that he left his home about 30 minutes later. He is very precise about this time, and repeated it in the Netflix voice-over emphasising “and it was 7 or 7:30

2017 – I RECEIVED the call at 7.15am . . . I was on the road half an hour later

That puts him on the road at 0745 Spanish time (technically CEST = CET+1 since we are in ‘summer’ time)
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1

The distance from his home to Praia da Luz calculated from google maps is 404 km

It is 5 km from his home to the main road, along single track rural lanes and narrow roads with blind corners.

Sunrise was at 0715, civil dawn at 0645.

What follows is included so that anyone with the inclination can look at google maps, or google earth, and follow this for themselves. It is even possible using “street view” to travel the entire route and see it from a driver’s point of view. . Any errors can then be identified.

We join the main A-374 and the next 150k is on a two lane mountain road winding up gorges and through passes in the mountains of Andalucia, west onto the A-357 and then turning north onto the A-384 and the beginnings of the rolling central meseta at Puerto Serrato. The speed limit is 90 kph, but for much of the route this is simply not possible. In many places it is restricted for safety to less than this, and in many stretches overtaking is prohibited, or simply too dangerous.

From there it is less winding, more open, but still only two lane, and still within the national speed limit of 90 kph.

As we approach the Sevilla ring road there is a series of junctions where the limit is as low as 40
The approach to Sevilla and the ring road are officially motorway, but are heavily used and frequently congested. There are many junctions, and the short stretch to the bridge has 4 of the top 24 Sevilla congestion areas.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2
Clarke would have hit the ring road about 90 minutes after leaving home, so on his timing around 0915. Roughly the peak of the ‘rush hour’.

We skirt Sevilla to the south and west on the A-4 and the SE-30 on the high level bridge over the Ship Canal, with a rigidly enforced speed limit of 60 kph. In reality traffic usually passes much more slowly than this
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3
After crossing another bridge over the Guadalquivir and negotiating a series of tricky junctions and filters which cause all traffic to slow even further, we head out west on the A-49 motorway up a
long slope out of the valley, past IKEA, and towards Huelva. Then after another 125 km. across the bridge forming the border with Portugal, also restricted to 70 kph, it is renumbered as the A-22.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 11

The “Border” is nothing more than a collection point for motorway tolls for ‘foreign’ vehicles, - if they can be bothered to pull off the motorway and stop. There is no physical barrier, as both Spain and Portugal are within the Schengen area, and have been since 1995. Under the treaty the border may only be reinstated, “for a short period where there is a serious threat to that state's public policy or internal security”.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5
Approaching Lagos and PdL we leave the motorway, the roads again become smaller, and the speed limits drop. From the border to PdL is given as 137 km, a further hour and quarter, 

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6

Google.maps gives an estimated total driving time of 4 hrs 20 minutes including the part I have not shown from his house to the main road. Allowing for ‘flexibility’ with speed limits, and the inevitable comfort stop we are still left with an arrival time of around 1200.
Clarke states he arrived at 1145. But we must charitably assume he means Spanish time (Central European Summer Time = GMT+2, or CET+1).
Portugal is on British Summer time, (Western European Summer Time = GMT+1) so the time he reports arriving would have been 1045 -1100 local time.

NB. It should be noted that this is the ONLY route. There is no short cut across country, for the simple reason that there are no roads crossing the Doñana wetland Natural park to the south of Sevilla. (See map supra) If you want to go to Portugal or Huelva from the south there is simply no choice but to take this route. The ring road bridge is the most southerly crossing point for road traffic. This may easily be confirmed by glancing at google maps.

So to repeat, Clarke’s own timing puts him in PdL around 1045-1100 local time

* * * * * * * * *

But let us approach this issue from the other end.

Kate McCann reports the PJ officers arriving to take them to Portimão about 1000. The use of this phrase and its context clearly indicates their leaving some time ‘shortly after’ 1000.

The extract is instructive.

“It was about 10am by the time a couple of PJ officers turned up. . . .They told us they had to take us and our friends to the police station in Portimão. We couldn’t all go at once as somebody needed to look after the children. After some discussion, it was agreed that Gerry and I, Jane, David and Matt would be interviewed first and the PJ would come back for the others later in the day.”

The implication is clear. Kate is expecting us to believe that this is the first time they had realised they would need to go to a police station or make statements, and that until that point no thought had been given by anyone within the group to the logistics, nor to Child-care arrangements. How long the “some discussion” took is not explained.

Whether any of this is even credible is another matter entirely.

The McCanns and Tapas friends were taken the 30 minutes to Portimão and GM’s statement is recorded as starting at 1115
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7

When we factor in organisation time at the police station, parking, re-grouping, finding suitable rooms, drinks, writing and recording materials, interpreters, introductions, preparation, briefings – all of which must be translated into Portuguese – and then all the other ancillary tasks, as we must, it is apparent that they must have left PdL some time before 1030. Probably as early as 1015
Which is what Kate indicates.

It is clear from the video evidence, however, that by that point –1015 – Clarke was already deeply embedded at the scene. He had found the location, found somewhere to park, picked up his camera and note pad, had obviously introduced and identified himself to at least one senior GNR officer – with whom he shakes hands later – had determined the McCann’s location, had spoken to the other reporters at the scene – he is seen comparing notes with one young female – and is then shown striding away to the left out of the car park area a little time before the McCanns and the Tapas friends begin to emerge in the background on the right to make their way to the cars waiting some distance up the road.

Consideration of all of this leads to a suggestion that the entire sequence of events as reported by Clarke should be pushed back. Certainly by at least half an hour. possibly considerably more.

Even more realistically, given that his car at the time was a robust and functional family vehicle, not a fast sports model, and that as a responsible and fiercely protective family man he does not take unnecessary risks with his own or his family’s safety, and given that in his own words he did not know what the full story was or even if the child would be found before his arrival, indicating clearly that there was for him no overwhelming sense of urgency, we should perhaps push this back yet more. From Netflix –

“I don't think they said whether it was a girl or boy. I don't even think I had the age. I didn't have any idea who the family were. I fully expected to arrive there and for this child to have turned up and for it to have dissolved into a non-story." ( transcript)

This pushes the phone call to 0600 - 0615 (Spanish Time), Clarke leaving at 0645 (SpT), arriving at 1100 - 1130 (SpT) which is 1000 - 1030 Portuguese time.

0600 Spanish time is 0500 British time. The British press offices were therefore well aware by 0430 - 0500 of the incident and of the course of action to be taken.

I shall return to this later.

* * * * * *
But then we note a strange thing.

Among the many journalists and reporters on the scene not one seems to have done any investigating.
Not one seems to have reported that – contrary to the news bulletins coming at regular intervals from the UK – the shutters were NOT damaged, forced, smashed or jemmied.
Not one at that early stage seems to have reported the lack of visibly from the Tapas bar through the opaque plastic screening, across the pool, over the wall and through the untended vegetation to the patio door of the apartment
Not one seems to have paced it out
Not one reports how long it took to walk, or jog, or to sprint
Not one reports doing the same journey round to the front door opening into the car park
Not one reports investigating the shutters, even during the weeks after the initial frenzy had died down, nor of asking a police officer to demonstrate or supervise whilst it was done.
Not one is filmed actually doing it – testing the hypothesis with physical experiment and recording the results. As I was.
And unless we are very much mistaken, not one reports a long and detailed interview with the McCanns or any of the Tapas group. There may be, and probably are, good reasons for that, since the PJ had tried to prevent press involvement, and the publicity team was in full control.

It is that apparent total lack of any investigation which led one commentator in sheer exasperation to say words to the effect “Were you even THERE ? ? ?

Instead, as Paulo Reis observed during his undercover visits, the journalists seemed to have done little more than sit around in bars talking to each other in their respective languages, and waiting for the official briefings so obligingly provided by the McCanns’ Publicity team. In English.

So where do conspiracy theories come from. Where are they conceived and born, and who raises them.

Let us take a few simple examples.

Gerry McCann first said in his first signed police statement that – “. . . the deponent entered the club, using his key, the door being locked,
A mere 6 days later he changed this to “Despite what he said in his previous statements, he states now and with certainty, that he left with KATE through the back door which he consequently closed but did not lock,”

Ok. So he lied.

We could all easily say - So what if he did go in though the front door, or the patio door, or climbed through the kitchen window - Madeleine is missing, and that is what matters.

We should not care which way he went in, we should care that Madeleine is not longer there.

But we do care that he lied, because the lie forces us to ask – Why did he even say that ?

Not What did he say ? but Why did he say it ?

The lie diverts us. It was apparently pointless, it added nothing, but he still felt the need to do it.
And that fact – the fact of the lie – suddenly assumes a greater importance than the underlying fact that Madeleine is missing.

And so it goes on. Mitchell very quickly built up a reputation for himself for lying, to the extent that it almost became possible to predict that the exact opposite of anything he said would one day turn out to be the objective truth.

His ludicrous assertion about no watches or mobile phones, stated long after we had been told of split-second accuracy of times – checked by watches – served only to demolish any credibility he might once have supposed he had.

But what or whom did it serve ? Who cares whether they had phones or watches. If you are going to check a child it is unlikely that you would click open a mobile phone to check the time, or even glance at a wristwatch. Normal people don’t do that. If pushed for accuracy, honest witnesses will time visits between one course at dinner and another, or by reference to TV programmes or external events.

It didn’t matter. It wasn’t important – until Mitchell made it so.

A long time ago a character in a drama was given the words, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”. The McCann case has been full of too much protest from the very start.

Lying is poisonous. It acts like a slow venom, dissolving the liar from the inside, until only the husk of what had once been a decent human remains.

Or to mix metaphors it spreads like a malignancy eroding the strength of a person’s character.

Once Jon Clarke had been caught out telling one blatant and provable lie, it became clear that even that one article was riddled with them, and that they have now spread their poisonous tentacles into the Netflix programme and beyond.

And then we can go back and look at other things written by him on other subjects, and begin to discover more examples of deliberate falsehoods, or an attention to detail so lax that it must allow us to suppose ‘facts’ have simply been invented.

The malignancy is at work. Or, like the larvae of the parasitic ichneumon wasp which lays eggs in its victims, he is being consumed from the inside, until ultimately only a shell will remain.

Tanner recognised this too late, and tried to counter it, but ended by insisting, feebly and pathetically “I am telling the truth, you know”. 

 * * * * * *

We are not talking here about the Lie - simple.
          Did you eat the last chocolate biscuit ? - No

Everyone can understand that one, and why it is said. To an extent we can also begin to forgive the person using it. They have only two choices. Deny, or admit.
English law does not add extra punishment to a person who pleaded Not Guilty to punish the lie, though discount is often given for telling the truth. It is tacitly accepted that many guilty people will lie about their guilt.

Here though we can observe the construction of something larger, a structure, a scaffolding frame, designed to support or prop up the central lie.

JUST suppose, purely for the sake of argument of course, that the following was NOT true in the conventional meaning of the word.


The core proposition is that Madeleine was
-  abducted
   -       from Apartment 5A
   -       between 9:30pm and 10 pm
   -       on Thursday 3rd May 2007

Points to prove - as they say in legal circles - or things to be established in support of the above proposition are
1         She was alive on 3/5/7
2         She was in the apartment
3         She was there at 9:30
4         Someone got in
5         Someone got out
6         She was abducted

Taking these in turn we see that each has had some ‘evidence’ attached to it. An attempt has been made to strengthen and reinforce each of these with struts or supports.

1.        She was alive on 3/5/7. For this we call in aid the Pool photo, which uniquely, although it is not visible on the image itself, has a time and date embedded in it. And so that everyone shall recognise the importance of the photo in establishing the exact date, the existence of the EXIF Metadata will be emphasised, totally unnecessarily, by a spokesman, and the image – with the Metadata – will be released for publication.

2.        She was in the apartment. It is clearly not sufficient for the parents alone to give this testimony, and so for this we will call on a third party to testify to a visit and to seeing her

3.        She was there at 9:30pm. A parent’s word alone would not be sufficient, so again we need to ask a third party to testify to this.

4.        Someone got in. For this we can rely on family and friends, and thereafter a compliant press to spread the story of broken, forced, smashed and jemmied shutters. The parents can talk about the window and the curtains being wide open, and can aver that the shutters can be opened from outside.

5.        Someone got out. We can rely on people supposing that an intruder would have had the same range of entry points at his / her / their disposal. We do not need to elaborate. This can be left deliberately vague for people to form their own opinions, if it ever occurs to them.

6.        She was abducted. Ideally someone will have seen someone carrying someone away, but in a perfect scenario will only report it much later, after any chance of immediate pursuit has long passed. We will call on a third party to do this.


And there we have it.
A scenario proposed, and each of the major points covered by ‘evidence’.
An open and shut case, surely, and all the Police of Two Nations have to do is solve it.


7.         But we also recognise that with this scenario there is the possibility that we may be accused of Child Neglect. So we have to cover this aspect. Again we can call on Third parties to testify to a regular checking scheme, and feel confident this will be accepted.


A big problem then arises when each one of these crucial ‘supports’ is examined forensically.

One by one each has been demolished, or so badly damaged that it is no longer capable of supporting the core lie. Like cutting the cables of a suspension bridge, or knocking out props in a coalmine, for a time nothing much appears to happen. We see no change.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8


But gradually there will be some visible movement, followed by a sudden total collapse.

To take them in order

1.         The Pool photo has been examined. It does not appear to provide the necessary proof

2.         The third party visit to the apartment is riddled with contradictions, and does not appear to provide the necessary proof

3.         This third party clearly realised that he would be severely compromised by being the ‘last person to see her alive’ and reneged on his promise, changing his story at the last minute to say definitively that he had NOT seen her, and dropping that awesome responsibility back on the father. His testimony does not therefore provide the necessary proof

4.         The “broken, forced, smashed and jemmied shutters” were proved to be an untruth within a few hours. Video evidence is clear for all to see. The window is visibly too small. The story about the curtains has been changed from wide open, to tight closed. It was demonstrated that the shutters cannot be opened sufficiently from outside to achieve the intended goal. This entire thread of testimony does not appear to provide the necessary proof.

5.         Placing the father with JW outside the apartment rules out one possible exit. The untouched front door, and the size and accessibility of the window seem to rule out the other possibilities. There is nothing which appears to provide the necessary proof.

6.         The ‘sighting of an abductor’ remained in the public domain for a long time, despite scepticism, until it was comprehensively and finally dismissed by the Operation set up to examine the conduct of the case. This therefore does not provide the necessary proof.

7.         The regular checking scheme was examined with considerable attention to detail, and attempts were made on paper to re-create it. It was realised that its preparation was lacking in fine detail. The Tapas group refused to submit themselves to a reconstructive demonstration of their claims. Extensive analysis has failed to produce a coherent timetable. It does not appear to provide the necessary proof.

And that seems to be that.

Every one of the supports, the struts, the cables or the props supporting the central proposition has been removed. In some cases there was physical evidence. Not just that there was no evidence for it, but that there was clear evidence against it.
In others it was people who failed to provide the essential support, or wavered at the crucial moment.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9

Or to put it another way

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 10

There is no amount of invective, of legal process, of ad hominem or profane internet abuse which can put this back together again.

 * * * * * *
Let us try to pull these threads together

From the start we were treated to several stories which “just didn’t sound right”. From that point doubts began to creep in. They still fell short of proof of falsehood, but on the credibility spectrum were definitely towards the end marked just possible rather than the one marked very probable.
When research failed to support the stories this was exacerbated and they were deemed even less possible than before.

Suddenly we are able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond a peradventure, that one or more of the stories were very simply LIES.
From there, the natural reaction is to go back to everything else that particular person or group has said, and to apply that standard of veracity to previous statements.
This is of course, as readers will immediately recognise, a fallacious argument. A species of the Genetic fallacy
Just because a person has lied on one or more previous occasions does not automatically mean that he is lying on this occasion.

Sometimes however we come across someone who is so used to lying that it is apparently second nature. Someone whose moral compass was washed overboard long ago. Someone for whom lying, and then the use of aggression to conceal this fact appears to be second nature.

But it is still necessary to test each of the previous statements independently. Previous convictions are not admissible as proof.
On this occasion we can do it.

Clarke lied about being the only journalist at the scene until late afternoon, he lied about there being no dogs, he lied about entering the apartment and speaking to the McCanns . . . And about much more

The McCanns lied about their point of entry, about the window and the curtains, about the shutters . . . And about much more

Mitchell lied about the absence of watches or mobile phones . . . And about much more.

The British Tabloid Press lied, and continues to lie, about sightings and suspects. It invents “information” supposedly leaked from the Metropolitan Police. It has, from very early on, acted in a concerted way to denigrate the Portuguese authorities . . . And much more.

And all of this is clearly to one end.

To take the focus of attention away from the parents and friends

Conspiracy ?

It is when we add all of the previous together,
when we add the early involvement of News Corp, owners of the Sun and SKY TV
when we observe that for many months Clarke was in the pay of The Sun,
when we consider the clear evidence of coordination of the attack by the British Press on the PJ, the Portuguese authorities in general, against Dr Amaral, and against even the Portuguese Diplomatic service . . .
When we add all of this together it is surely tempting to identify a greater “power’; a Great Architect pulling all these strings.
And our imaginations can run riot.

Then, as we think about this and look back, we find other interesting points.
Clarke has come up with two totally distinct explanations of his behaviour.
In one, he says he went straight into the Apartment, spoke to the McCanns there, and “promised he would do all he could to help.”

In another version “I don't think they said whether it was a girl or boy. I don't even think I had the age. I didn't have any idea who the family were. I fully expected to arrive there and for this child to have turned up and for it to have dissolved into a non-story." After which he says he merely introduced himself as a journalist, and they said “Hi”.

Which is correct ? He did know who they were and offered to help, or he did not know who they were and they said “Hi”.
The first version is from his 2017 article. The second is from a transcript of the Netflix programme.

A conspiracy theorist might suggest that Clarke was sent to PdL specifically to “help”, as he claimed he said, and that the subsequent attempt to change the story has been done with the realisation that his previous untruth might reveal the existence of the conspiracy.

At the moment is it impossible to be certain.

* * * * * *

What are the possible responses if you have lied, and realize you are about to be exposed ?
You can hold your hands up and admit it, attempting to mitigate by blaming
           typing errors,
           “mis-speaking” – a favourite of politicians, since it is totally meaningless
           being “tired and emotional” – another politicians’ favourite
           poor briefing
           confusion
           or a whole thesaurus of other emollient words
OR, you can Attack.
And this attack must prevent the facts ever from emerging or being tested. It should never address the central issue, ideally never referring to the stated facts at all. It is frequently associated with ad hominem abuse, and with other arguments based on the fallacies of relevance, such as abusive analogy, or dicto simpliciter. The fallacy of loaded words often passes unnoticed.

We remember that some of the fiercest attack as the best form of defence is conducted by Libel Lawyers. It is axiomatic that the substantive case must never be allowed to go before a court. To do so is to allow exposure of the facts.
Cases within memory illustrate the perils of this only too clearly. In Archer -v- Daily Star Archer was awarded £ 0.5m, only then to be imprisoned for 4 years for perjury, and forced to repay not only the £ 0.5m but a further £ 1.3m in costs and interest.
Aitken –v- Guardian and Granada collapsed when the facts became known. He was jailed for 18 months, and bankrupted by the incident.
So the facts must never be exposed, never be tested. Firms like Carter-Ruck, and Schillings are the experts in work of this kind. A previous iteration of one web-site laid out the way in which the substantive issue is neatly converted into a procedural one, which is almost impossible to answer.

And looking back to the Conspiracy theory, what have we seen ?
Ad hominem abuse, gross and profane language on the internet, the publication of vituperation in local newspapers, harassment by a News Corp outlet of a pensioner resulting in her untimely death, threats of bankruptcy against another pensioner, and much more.

A fully paid-up Conspiracy Theorist might with justification conclude that it was possible to judge the wickedness of the lie or the level of guilt by the viciousness of the attack.

* * * * * *
 
Very recently someone with a more poetic command of English than I wrote a short piece, of which this is the gist.

A little girl is missing
Her parents lie
Their friends lie
A reporter lies


12 years later the little girl is still missing
Her parents are still lying
Their friends are still lying
The reporter is still lying, and now adding new ones.

Someone else once said

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?


I have appended a list of References and Sources.

All are in the public domain

REFERENCES AND SOURCES

1         A Guerra os McCann, (The McCann’s War), Paulo Reis, 2019, Guerra & Paz

2         Paulo Reis, undercover in PdL
https://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/2018/05/why-i-went-undercover-to-praia-da-luz.html

3         The Olive Press, 2017,
https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2017/05/11/madeleine-mccann-olive-press-editor-talks-first-journalist-scene-10th-anniversary-disappearance/

4         The Olive Press, 2019,
[url=https://www.theolivepress.es/print-edition/" \l]https://www.theolivepress.es/print-edition/#fb0=3[/url]

5         Netflix,
To access the Netflix documentary go to
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=netflix
           and enter 'The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann’


6         Google maps and ‘street view’

7         'madeleine’, by Kate McCann, 2011, Bantam Press.

8         Video evidence at
https://www.youtube.com.watch?v=DRe3g25ma4o

9         McCann’s and Tapas 7 friends’ police statements at
http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/Nigel/
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/TRANSLATIONS

10        ‘Hamlet’, W Shakespeare, Act 3 Sc. 2

11         Pool Photo,
http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/gestalt-3AsTheKTPHorg.jpg

12         The Bible, Mark 8:36


https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-32-on-lies-and-conspiracies.html

To post comments, please use this thread: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16362-chapter-32-on-lies-and-conspiracies

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 22.05.19 20:37

Chapter 33: Jon Clarke Entrenched Lies


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Trench1
Jon Clarke Entrenched Lies

First an Addendum to previous chapters

After publication of Chapter 31: Jon Clarke – Olive Press LIES and VIDEOTAPE
and Chapter 32: ON LIES AND CONSPIRACIES
I have been contacted by several people who made important and trenchant observations.

I now realise that I have fallen into my own logical trap. I presented some of the case as a choice. Often called the ‘black and white’ fallacy; false dichotomy or dilemma, or the either/or, it is fallacious because other possibilities may exist, but here I was clearly in error by suggesting that two statements by Jon Clarke were mutually exclusive.
This
“When I arrived at about 11.45am I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns”
- Versus -
“I said hello to them as they were leaving and introduced myself to them as a reporter from the Mail, and they said “Hi”, and I think they may have also said “thanks for coming”.

I suggested it had to be one or the other, or neither, but not both.

But it is now more clear that in a real sense BOTH could be correct.
Ignore the nonsense about the apartment and times and places, and concentrate instead on the message Clarke is trying to impart.
It need not be the exact words he used. It may not even be any of the words he used, but he is clearly trying to convey information. To get a point across.

So let us roll the quotes together. [Note - this is my elision, Clarke is not on record as saying this]
** “I said hello and introduced myself to them as the reporter from the Mail, and told them I would do everything I could to help, and they said “Hi”, and I think they may have also said “Thanks for coming”. **

Does that sound feasible ? If so, then even more serious questions remain.

Does this imply that the McCanns knew that the Mail were sending a reporter, and were therefore not surprised by his arrival, even thanking him for coming ?

– – – – –

A second issue was also raised.
It is always useful to go back to the core material. It helps us keep our eye on the squirrel.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Squirrel2
The creche sheet - Jellyfish - for Friday 4/5/7 shows Amelie, Sean and Lily signed in by Diane W at 1010
So IF Kates' reported arrival of the PJ, and the discussions about what to do with the children took place at all, they MUST have been significantly before 1000, or DW would not have had time to round the children up, walk them round the pool and sign them in at 1010.

They were still 2 years old. Difficult to 'herd' at the best of times, and with the PJ and GNR and dogs and vans and traffic and reporters milling around, must have been a nightmare.
[ had they already come to an agreement that the children would not be photographed . . .?]

from KM’s book.
“It was about 10am by the time a couple of PJ officers turned up. . . .They told us they had to take us and our friends to the police station in Portimão. We couldn’t all go at once as somebody needed to look after the children. After some discussion, it was agreed that Gerry and I, Jane, David and Matt would be interviewed first and the PJ would come back for the others later in the day.”

The implication is clear. Kate is expecting us to believe that this is the first time they had realised they would need to go to a police station or make statements, and that until that point no thought had been given by anyone within the group to the logistics, nor to Child-care arrangements. How long the “some discussion” took is not explained.
Whether any of this is even credible is another matter entirely.

The three possible routes for DW and the children are shown here
5G, down stairs, through car park right, right again, right again though pool reception, to Tapas bar crèche = 160m
5G, down stairs, short cut through apartment 5C or D, out of garden, left onto footpath, right onto road, right again though pool reception, to Tapas bar crèche = 130m
5G, down stairs, through car park left, left again along footpath, right, then right though pool reception, to Tapas bar crèche = 200m
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2

So for about 10am, we may now perhaps force it as far as a bit BEFORE 10 am
Which gets them out of 5H very soon after 1000, into the car, and off to the PJ in Portimão, to do all the necessary things
before settling down and hitting the record button on the tape machine with GM at 1115
WHICH in turn puts Jon Clarke in PdL and at the scene at the very latest by 1000, and given his relaxed body language with the group of reporters and the GNR Inspector, possibly even earlier.
Which in turn pushes his Phone call from the UK even more firmly to 0600 Spanish summer time = 0500 BST

– – – – –

But now to the purpose of this Chapter

In his 2017 article Jon Clarke wrote
“The only reporter on the scene till late that evening – apart from Sky News reporter Kate Burley, who happened to be on holiday there – I spent time grilling neighbours, before noticing that a road crew was still digging up the street to lay sewage pipes literally right outside the apartment. The trench was nearly two metres deep and three men continued to shuffle around inside it.
Nobody had stopped them.’

Until recently most thinking people had passed quickly over the first few of the five distinct and separate lies in that one sentence, and then just assumed that describing a trench as “literally right outside the apartment” was simple hyperbole, just journalistic exaggeration, overstatement, embellishment, magnification, and “puffery’ which could be cheerfully ignored.

But then in 2019 came the Netflix production, prepared and filmed largely in 2018.

In it Clarke lies yet again. As we have seen earlier his ludicrous assertion that he was the only, or the first, journalist on the scene was simply untrue. His contention that there were no dogs, that the police were not treating the issue seriously, and so much else of what he wrote and said is simply a catalogue of lies.

Now he goes even further.
Now he stands immediately outside Apartment 5A on Rua Dr. Francisco Gentil Martins, just south of the junction with Rua Dr. Agostino da Silva, a few metres from the infamous Tannerman location.

Now he faces south, down the hill towards the Pool reception and the Baptista supermarket.

Now direct to camera he says
“There was a big trench here, from about here going down . . . leading down from here,
all the way down the road about this wide, and six foot deep.
And there was two or three guys working in the trench . .
And you think . . . could she have fallen down there.“

here’ is said three times, There is absolutely no doubt about the location.
He is standing on an exact spot and pointing.
When he says “literally right outside the apartment” he intends us to believe him.
He desperately wants us to believe him. He demands that we believe him.
He expects the word “literally” to be taken literally.

That piece to camera in the 2019 Netflix video is in tight close up, so the background is out of focus. Nevertheless it is easy to see where Clarke was when this was filmed.

Usefully the Netflix production also uses multiple video clips and photos from May 2007.

We start where Clarke comes into left frame. We see the overhanging hedge and the dark red bougainvillea beyond. The break in the building line is a clear focal point.

(Reference is Netflix, E1, S1, at 14:07)
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6

But the problem is – ALL THIS IS UNTRUE
Clarke knows it is untrue
Clarke knows it will be checked
Clarke knows he will be exposed as a serial liar
Clarke knows that video and photos exist from 2007 which prove he is lying.
Clarke knows that anyone watching Netflix can immediately see that he is lying.
But still he goes ahead.

A glance at “google maps –> Street view” will clarify the situation. These shots are dated September 2018
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7
The red bougainvillea has been pruned hard back by September 2018, but is still obvious
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8
The following stills are from Netflix E1:S1, and originate in video taken on 4th and 5th May 2007.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9
At 19:20
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 10
At 21:48
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 11
At 48:38
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 12
At 10:20

Clarke had the option of simply not saying it, or perhaps of making it a passing throwaway remark,
but chose, quite deliberately, to Lie

To coin a neologism – “if you find yourself in a trench, stop digging”

Is Clarke somehow committed to fantasy, to untruth, to pure invention, or as we now must term it – to LYING ?

These are stills taken from the very same Netflix production.
They are not from any outside source. They are contained in that same 50 minute film.
Everyone seeing the film may confirm their provenance, and come to a fuller understanding of the egregious extent of Clarke’s continuing mendacity.

Roadworks in Praia da Luz

There WERE of course road works in Praia da Luz. It would be remarkable if there had not been.
They were obviously the subject of diligent investigation by the PJ during their enquiries.
The foreman was interviewed and his statement is easily accessible in the PJ files, by using the search engine.
ANYONE can do this. (I have appended the full statement and link to save people the trouble.)
I have also prepared a composite map to show the three streets named.
The nearest point is slightly under 300 m. from Apartment 5A

https://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/CARLOS_PEREIRA.htm
Witness Statement
Carlos Manuel Figueiredo Pereira
Date: 2007/05/31
Occupation: Civil Engineer

He comes to the process as a witness, he works for the municipal chamber of Lagos since 1988 as a civil engineer.
With specific reference to the Urban and Environmental re-qualification works carried out in the town of Luz, namely in Rua Direita, the witness clarifies the following:

During 2006 a public tender was issued with the aim of adjudicating the firm offering the best conditions and guarantees.
This tender was won by the company Canana & Filhos Ltda and the date for starting work was established as April of the current year (2007).

During the first days/weeks of April in Rua Direita together with Largo da Republica, the different necessary infrastructures were created such as : networks for domestic drains, water supply, public lighting and telephones. These actions took place over the course of about 30 days, following others that had been implemented along Rua Helena Nascimiento Baptista.

With regard to the month of May, and after the first days of the month, work was begun at Rua Direita, aiming at the installation of water pipes, telephones and public lighting. The technical space excavated which guaranteed the application of three types of infrastructure previously mentioned, had the following average dimensions : 1,20 metres deep by 0,90 metres long, it being certain during the excavation work that they were almost immediately covered with sand and earth.

When asked how the daily checking was done, with regard to security measures and the quality of the work carried out, the witness said there was nothing abnormal to point out, it was a work that had been carried out calmly and without any incidents.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 13
And for those who will wish to argue that it is credible that Madeleine wandered off, and fell into uncovered road works, unnoticed by anyone that evening, and unremarked during the overnight searches, or the following days by the GDR, the PJ, dogs, horses and half the holidaying population, this is most direct route.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 14
And this then leaves us with another serious issue

Why did not the Netflix editorial staff see what everyone else can ?

One of the few possible answers is –
That the Netflix production was part of the much larger campaign which exists for one purpose, and involves a great many people.
Everything they do, everything they say, write, tweet or post is done to one end –

To divert attention from the inconvenient fact that there is no evidence of Abduction
          No evidence of a time Window
                    No evidence of Entry
                              No evidence of Presence
                                        No evidence of Exit

And that after 12 years, or 4,400 days . . . of the police of 2 Nations, of various experts in their respective fields, of commentators, apologists, acolytes, ‘private detectives’ of varying morality and expertise, members of their many legal teams, and all the others . . .
not one has been able to suggest even a superficially plausible Abduction scenario.

Not one.       Ever

To conclude – for the moment –

We may wonder how this makes Jon Clarke’s wife and children feel, knowing that their husband and father is a serial liar.

Knowing they cannot trust anything he says nor anything he writes

Knowing that he will stoop to lying about the disappearance and probable death of a little child.

We wonder how his friends feel, knowing that he is so easily caught out when he does lie.

We wonder how employees at “The Olive Press” feel knowing they have to sift anything he says

We wonder how his advertisers will feel, knowing they are associated with mendacity of this enormity, (and perhaps realising that they have to believe his circulation figures.)


I have no answers.
But someone does.

http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/07/chapter-33-jon-clarke-entrenched-lies.html
---------

For comments, please see this thread: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16396-chapter-33-jon-clarke-entrenched-lies

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 23.01.20 21:30

Chapter 34: Decline and Fall of Modern Journalism

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Jon%2Bclarke%2Bdeath%2Bof%2Bjournalism

One small slip for a man; one giant fall for a profession.

In previous short Chapters (29 - Fake News; 30 - Clarke Lies and videotape; 31 - On Lies and conspiracies; 33 - Jon Clarke Entrenched Lies ) I tried to unravel some of the extraordinary stories relating to the reported disappearance of Madeleine Beth McCann put out by Jon Clarke the disgraced journalist, editor and proprietor of “The Olive Press”, a free tabloid newspaper and advertising sheet found at supermarket-check-outs in southern Spain.

I tried to unpick the way in which outright and provable lies were printed, published on-line, and then, bizarrely, put into first-hand reporting in the recent Netflix ‘documentary’.

I showed how a whole series of Clarke’s lies was immediately revealed by the contemporary video footage included in that same Netflix production, and how anyone watching and thinking about what they were seeing could identify the untruths and inventions and falsehoods he was uttering direct to camera, sometimes as he was actually making the mendacious statements.


Read more here: http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-34-decline-and-fall-of-modern.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 23.01.20 21:33

Chapter 35: Mirage

A Diversion on Observation,
and the influence of our previous Knowledge and Beliefs

This chapter is something of a diversion.
In it I shall examine how we can think or believe we see something, when in fact the objective and scientifically provable truth of the matter is that we either did not, or that we saw something else.

We were not ‘lying’ or being dishonest when we told what we saw. We saw something and our mind forced us to interpret it in a particular way.

We can only fit what we see into categories we already know and understand. Before the discovery of Oxygen the phenomenon of burning could not be interpreted as oxidation, and so Phlogiston was a rational but ultimately flawed attempt at explanation.

Medical treatment is the most obvious case of rapidly changing knowledge, exposing millennia of previous professionally agreed diagnosis and treatment as nothing better than ignorant superstition. Even ‘modern medicine’ is being exposed in a similar way. The last frontal lobotomy was performed as late as 1967, and the leading Medical journal in the UK is The Lancet, betraying its origins in the bloodletting prevalent as a treatment and recommended in medical texts up to 1923, but now condemned as ignorant and misguided barbarism. Every new treatment implicitly criticises the previous one. We no longer prescribe Insulin Shock Therapy for schizophrenia, cocaine for toothache, cigarettes to “ease the chest”, or Bed Rest for “hysterical women”.

Through history this has always been the case. Historical observations can be reviewed and interpreted in the light of modern scientific knowledge, and we must be humble enough to recognise that our current observations and explanations will in turn inevitably be interpreted differently in the future. Archaeologists are recognizing this and in some places are deliberately leaving significant parts of sites untouched for future generations to explore.

Continental Drift started as an interesting theory, ridiculed by Sir David Attenborough’s own Cambridge professor, which evolved into Plate Tectonics and remained at the level of highly probable theory until someone sent a submarine down to the mid-Atlantic ridge and actually filmed it happening. And Sir David had the last laugh – but only for the time being.

Read more here:  http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-35-mirage_1.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 18.06.20 11:37

Chapter 36

PRESS FREEDOM

The Good, the Bad, and the VERY Ugly in Journalism

A free press is one of the foundations on which modern ‘liberal’ democracy rests.
“ Freedom of speech ” has long been recognized as important “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” George Washington

We have become used to reading and hearing, and more recently actually seeing, proceedings in Parliament. Our Parliament. It was not always so.

Hansard, which publishes a verbatim but edited record of proceedings in the House, was founded only in 1771. Before that date only decisions had been reported, not the content of the debate, and to attempt to do so was punishable by both Houses. A commentary at the time refers to "the difficulties faced by independent newspapermen who . . . in varying degrees, attempted to educate the populace to the shortcomings of their rulers.” Hansard we know today began only in 1909.          
[1]

We have also become accustomed to access to a range of newspapers. We accept that each will have its own political agenda reflected in the leader article or evidenced by the general tone of the editorial and commentary.

There was a time when journalism was a respected profession. It was referred to as the 4th Estate, with a mission to hold the Establishment to account by reporting the truth and by fearlessly exposing corruption and deceit.

Thomas Carlyle attributed the origin of the term to Edmund Burke, who used it in a parliamentary debate in 1787 on the opening up of press reporting of the House of Commons of Great Britain
     "Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all”
[2]

Relatively quickly however, that importance and power began to corrupt. As Lord Acton observed in 1887 “Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely”

Oscar Wilde wrote in his 1891 pamphlet The Soul of Man under Socialism:
     "In old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralising. Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism."

Though he was also scathing about its purpose: “There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.“ 
[3]
What are the gradations, the categories of truth and of truth telling?
Is truth indivisible? Can it have context or nuance?
Can you have your personal “version of the truth”?
Can it be placed onto a scale according to some level or quantum of truth or mendacity, or by assessing the spectrum of damage caused to individuals and to the freedom of us all?
And when that truth is reported, what then?
I have tried to fit it into a scale here.

(I use the word Truth to mean objective and provable fact, and I use Mendacity to mean deliberate, calculated falsehood, as opposed to error, mistake, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.)

You may observe that I include a category not normally associated with Journalism, but I believe intimately concerned with Truth and Mendacity and able to influence freedom of speech. Libel Lawyers.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 C1

Let me try to develop this

At the origin of the curve is -
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 IJ
 
Investigative journalists do not simply report what they see or are told. They go deeper and further. They ask questions, they research, they compare and contrast the stories; they check and double-check their facts. They challenge everything they are told, seek proper references for every statement they make. They look at events from different points of view, before coming to a synthesis.
They have their minds open to new evidence, and are always ready to reassess, re-write; to correct and to apologise for inadvertent error.
Independent, courageous, honest and decent investigative journalists spend enormous amounts of time and effort to reveal the truth.

In the US the term ‘muckraker’ is sometimes used of investigative journalists, usually pejoratively by those who are the victims of the revelations of the truth about corruption. The term, in fact derived from Bunyan, became popular in the Progressive era between 1880 and 1920.

Perhaps the best known in the UK is the late Paul Foot, after whom a prize is named. He exposed the corruption of architect John Poulson; was instrumental in overturning the verdicts of the Birmingham 6; and campaigned against the miscarriage of justice in the conviction of al-Magrahi for the Lockerbie bombing. He won awards including Journalist of the Year (twice), Campaigning Journalist of the Year, The George Orwell Award and many others. He was among the founders of Private Eye.

Investigative journalists Robert Winnett and Christopher Hope on the staff of The Daily Telegraph exposed the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2008, which indirectly brought down a government.

As a result a new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority was established, but as The Guardian observes:
     “Now, anyone can check how much their MP gets, and what they are spending it on – petrol costs, hotels, rent, and so on. MPs are no longer claiming money for birdhouses, or to have their moats cleaned out. That’s mainly because of IPSA’s new rules, but partly it is thanks to the fear of being caught out by the press.” [my emphases] 
 [4]

It was Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two young reporters on The Washington Post staff, who by their tenacity and boldness in the Watergate saga brought down a President.

Private Eye tried long and hard to expose Saville and Smith as disgusting perverts, only to find both were protected by the Establishment and libel lawyers.
Their current editor, Ian Hislop, is referred to as the most sued man in history.
Others might place him among the bravest journalists of the modern age.

Truly investigative journalists will sometimes go so far as to put their lives at risk.

Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana, was assassinated when it became clear she was going to expose governmental corruption. Despite intimidation and threats, libel suits, and arrest on two occasions she continued with her investigations into Maltese politicians and their links with the Panama Papers scandal. 
[5]
And today her work is being continued by Juliette Garside, an investigative journalist for The Guardian. 
[6]

The murder, dismemberment and disposal of the body of the Saudi Arabian journalist in the Consulate in Turkey is another such example.
Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi dissident, a journalist for The Washington Post, and former general manager and editor-in-chief of the Al-Arab News Channel. Khashoggi wrote in his last, posthumously published column, that he was of the opinion that "What the Arab world needs most is free expression”. It is thought he was getting ‘too close’ to members of the Saudi royal family
Unusually, a Saudi court sentenced five defendants to death; sentenced three defendants to prison terms, and acquitted three others. Coincidentally the Crown Prince deemed responsible by the CIA for ordering the murder was not included. 
[7]

To counter this and ensure that the assassination or murder, imprisonment or silencing of an investigative journalist shall never succeed, a group known as Forbidden Stories has formed.
TOO MANY TRUE STORIES REMAIN UNTOLD EVERY DAY
All around the world, journalists face threats, arrest, and murder.
There are stories that corporations, organised crime groups and governments don’t want to see published. 
Forbidden Stories has a mission:
bypassing any form of censorship by publishing these stories. . .
even if you succeed in stopping a single messenger,
you will not stop the message  
The comments from around the world from the general public are telling:
     “Even if Forbidden Stories rescues just a handful of investigations that fall into a sort of limbo each time a journalist is jailed or killed, it will already be a great victory for citizens.”
[8]

The people understand the vital importance of decency, honesty and truth, and yearn for the freedom from tyranny supported by good, bold, and honest journalism.


******************************

At the other end of the curve is the deliberate and malign control of the media in general by rich and powerful people, and eventually total control by the State. This is easier than we might think.

The UK's national newspapers and Media outlets are mainly owned and therefore controlled by just six people, or companies controlled by them.
We remember with a sense of increasing nausea Labour MP Robert Maxwell, who was owner of The Mirror until his death. His media empire is now largely Reach plc
Reach plc                                                           Mirror, Express, Star, Record, People
Richard Murdoch,                                            News Int. / Corp., Times, Sun, News of the World, Sky, Fox,
Barclay Brothers,                                             Telegraph, Spectator, Scotsman
Jonathan Harmsworth (Lord Rothermere). (DMGT). Mail, ‘i’, Metro,
Guardian group                                                 Guardian, Observer.
Nikkei                                                                  FT

It is clear that parties and governments select media outlets to “put across their message” in the way they wish it to be seen.
On 11 April 1992 The Sun blazed across its headlines "It's The Sun Wot Won It" [sic], making no pretence that it was taking personal responsibility for the election result which saw John Major (Tory) defeat Neil Kinnock (Labour), and become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
 [9]

The Sun is part of the media empire owned and controlled by Rupert Murdoch. An Australian.


******


Next up the graph is:  
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Journalism

Journalists report what they see, hear, or are told. They often do so uncritically, perhaps lacking the time, the inclination, critical faculties, or the intelligence to probe more deeply.
The danger is that a small misinterpretation of fact combined with that same lack of research may allow unintentional error to proliferate.

Journalists operate under a loose professional code and have their own professional bodies, but these are largely toothless, in that they can only advise and reprimand, and have no ultimate coercive power.

An example is the judgment from the journalists’ professional body in Spain against Jon Clarke, the owner and editor of The Olive Press. It amounts to little more than fine words, and there is no evidence of any change in behaviour since it was handed down. Indeed the demonstration of their lack of ‘teeth’ seems perversely to have emboldened him.
[App 2]


******


At some point that lack of research can be added to sometimes accurate facts which can then focus on irrelevant peripheral detail.

Here we enter the zone of
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Gutter%2Bjournalism

In the UK the term “The Gutter Press” is used for Tabloid red top papers which thrive on scandal, rumour, and sensationalism. They concentrate on stories about crime and sex, the lives of celebrities – however defined – and put a sensationalist twist or ‘spin’ on anything they report.

One of their favourite tactics is to find an entirely spurious link to another story.

A particularly nasty example was The Sun publishing an article about an English cricket player, but including full details of the murder of half-siblings on the far side of the world some 31 years before. The distress this caused to the surviving relatives can only be imagined.
On that occasion other parts of the press openly criticised the decision to publish partly, but only partly, because of the damage it did to the standing of the profession as a whole.
 [10] [App 1]

Another frequent tactic was to seek out a distant relative, who may have once been, or been the partner of, a Police officer. This became so ridiculed that now, mercifully, it is seen more rarely.

In the US it is known as Yellow Journalism, with its emphasis on treating news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism.
Characteristics which typify Yellow Journalism
1.      scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news
2.      lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings
 3.     use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudoscience, and a parade of false
         learning from so-called experts
4.      dramatic sympathy with the "underdog" against the system.
Interestingly the term is also in use in Spain, (amarillismo), and was specifically used in the judgment by the professional body FAPE against Jon Clarke and the Olive Press.
[11, App 2]

******
More recently, and particularly noticeable with the expansion of the internet we have a new phenomenon, known by the neologism
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Churnalism

Material is simply ‘copied and pasted’ from other sources, usually unnamed, never checked or referenced. It is simply “Churned”. Very rarely is the copy edited or re-written, so the same spelling errors, sloppy grammar and syntax, poor punctuation, factual inaccuracies and even photo images can be tracked across the web.

The danger here lies with the way in which the error or misinterpretation referred to above under Journalism, and Gutter Journalism, not to mention outright falsehood, can be spread so quickly, and as in the parlour game of Chinese Whispers, gets altered, edited, amended and added to.
A recent example, again involving the egregious Olive Press, was the ludicrous development of the story of The Rock in the Road.

This relatively harmless story about a rock on a road, accompanied by a perfectly adequate photo, was ‘developed’ with increasingly hyperbolic language, and then after some days and out of the blue irrelevant, wholly absurd and scientifically impossible weights and measurements were added.
There in turn were ‘churned’, further developed and manipulated until the result was a bold statement, again by The Reliably Mendacious Olive Press, that the ‘weight’ was 5 tonnes.
A simple calculation showed that the rock, which took two weeks to remove, would have been less dense than balsa wood.
[12]

*************************************************************


So far we have considered reporting which has not usually attempted deliberately to mislead, even though it may inadvertently have done so.
So to move to the next item is a big step.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Censorship

This is the point on this progression at which someone, some organisation or entity, acts deliberately to suppress a fact or facts, an opinion or a point of view. It is the point at which a decision is made that they alone shall be allowed to know the truth, but that no one else shall.

We should not confuse this with the wholly respectable ‘Précis, or Editing’, which may seem to be achieving the same ends, selecting some things and cutting out others to achieve a finished product.

A commentator put the difference neatly -
     Editing is soliciting, selecting and polishing the best material you can get for your publication.
     Censorship is when you use your position of power – any power – to shut people up and/or to control the information that other people can access. 

Editing is seen as a benign activity. Helpful, and respectable.
Censorship – as malign and controlling
ASIDE: 
The Portuguese investigative journalist, Paulo Reis has examined the available evidence, and is currently of the opinion that the British Media were subject to some form of censorship and control throughout their reporting of the McCann case.
[13]

*****

And now, somewhere beyond the mid-point of the curve we come to
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Libel%2Blawyers

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION [!] libel lawyers are at a critical point on the Truth – Mendacity spectrum,
but well beyond the tipping point on the Danger scale
– A short diversion on the English legal system – 

The UK has a common law based “accusatorial” legal system, in direct contrast to the continental “Inquisitorial” systems. 
Both in the criminal and the civil systems one side, the Crown or the Plaintiff, makes the accusation, the other defends or responds. 
The judgment is made on the evidence adduced and the arguments put forward. In both cases the Facts may or may not come into it. Astonishing as that may sound we have to understand the concepts of Legal Guilt and Factual Guilt in the criminal world. 

Factual Guilt.      You are factually guilty if you did the act,. Whether or not anyone knows this or believes it is irrelevant 
Legal Guilt.         You are legally guilty if a court decides you did the act. Whether you did or not is similarly irrelevant 

Concomitant with this are the concepts of Factual Innocence, and Legal Innocence. Factually innocent if you did not do the act; Legally innocent if a court decides you did not. Or, in the accusatorial system, Legally Innocent if the proof of guilt or responsibility falls even very slightly short of the required standard. If the two concepts overlap then that is a bonus, but it is not a necessary feature of the system
Lawyers in general perform a vital function. They give voice to the voiceless, they speak for the inarticulate, they interpret the rules for those who are unable to do so.
In an accusatorial system it is vital that anyone accused should be represented by one as educated and articulate as the accuser. It is also vital that this representative should not judge. That is not the lawyer’s function, which is to give the best advice given the strength of the opposing argument and the details of the evidence – so far as they know them.

Libel Lawyers however operate on a different plane.
The tort of Defamation (slander and libel) is concerned with reputation, not necessarily with objective facts.
The facts are immaterial, what matters is whether “the statement serves to undermine the reputation in the eyes of right thinking members of society generally, by exposing the victim to hatred, contempt or ridicule.“
However if I may quote
     Truth provides a full defence to an action of defamation. It requires the defendant to show that that the imputation conveyed by the statement complained of is substantially true. Therefore the onus is on the defendant.
 [14]

The danger is apparent. If the matter goes to trial and the defendant is allowed to rehearse the ‘facts’ in open court, and they can not be adequately refuted, then not only might the case fail, but the plaintiff may become liable for civil suit or criminal prosecution for the acts alleged.
The two notorious cases of Archer and Aitken who were both allowed to give evidence during their proceedings, and who both subsequently went to prison for perjury make the point.
 [15] [16]

For this reason Libel Lawyers keep their clients away from court proceedings, and specialise in procedural tactics to achieve this.
The most feared and arguably the best Libel Lawyers in the world, Carter-Ruck, boasted openly about this strategy, and in a previous iteration of their web-site gave details of how they had used it in a string of cases. (It has since been altered, or ‘edited’.) But what is still clear is how many cases are never allowed near a court.
[17]

It is for this reason, the deliberate and calculated concealment of the truth and of the facts, that I place them so high on the chart.

A list of the people who have been successfully represented by the three major firms in the UK includes murderous dictators, predatory sexual perverts, companies which cause immense and irreparable harm to the environment and to people. One notorious case under the guise of the recently invented “super-injunction” involved an attempt to stifle the reporting of Parliament itself. All this may prompt right-thinking people to wonder whether Libel lawyers should not be somewhat further along the Danger axis.


******
Full article here: http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-36-press-freedom-good-bad-and.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 18.06.20 11:40

Chapter 37: A short re-cap

A short re-cap.

A brief restatement of some of what we know.
 

An easy entry point for people new to the research and analysis. 

And above all a reminder to us all of why we are still here after 13 years.

First the known facts:
On Thursday 3rd May 2007 the world was told that a three-year-old British girl, Madeleine Beth McCann, had been abducted that evening from her bed in an unlocked apartment in Praia da Luz, a small seaside resort on the Algarve, Portugal.

Over the next 24 hours details were released for publication. Many of these were proven within a very short time to be false; others were so extraordinary as to be incapable either of proof or refutation.

Over the following weeks more stories and details were added, and eagerly seized on by the world’s media. Many of these have been shown to be false, and several are clearly deliberate fabrications.

This was spotted in the very early stages of the investigation by the GNP – The Portuguese National Police – and then by the PJ – the Polícia Judiciária, the Portuguese Criminal Investigation service.

British police were sent to assist the PJ with nationally accredited search experts and others. All came to the same conclusion: the story was not coherent; the “abduction” hypothesis was not credible.

In plain English – it did not hang together.

Bluntly – the more they looked, the less they found.

Several of the initial stories are characterised by their inaccuracy or impossibility





















The shutterswere notbroken, forced, smashed or jemmied
The curtainsdid not“whoosh”
The apartmentcould notbe watched from the tapas bar
The pool photocould nothave been taken on Thursday 3rd May 2007
The tennis balls photowas nottaken by Kate after mini-tennis
The waterslidedid noteven exist
The deep trenchwas notimmediately outside the apartment
Jane Tannerdid notsee an abductor
Jon Clarkedid notgo into the apartment and speak to the parents


And so on for dozens more examples.
Every one of these lies has been exposed and picked over. In some cases we have the facts behind the falsehood; in others it is more difficult to see why the lies were told.

But every lie has a motive. Lies are told for a reason, often a very specific one:

– The shutters and curtains, the visibility of the apartment, and the alleged sighting of Tannerman are clearly intended to make us believe in an abduction.

– The pool photo, the tennis balls photo and the unforgivable waterslide fabrication are clearly designed to convince us that Madeleine was alive and well from Sunday onwards.

Jon Clarke’s contributions are less easy to divine, since he has produced three different and contradictory versions of going to the apartment and of speaking to the parents. His disgraceful insistence on a deep but non-existent trench is clearly designed to convince the gullible that there might have been an alternative explanation for the disappearance.

All fail.

We can, reluctantly, understand why the parents might lie, and why they might invent elaborate stories. We can, almost, begin to understand why their friends, the Tapas 7, might offer a degree of support. But from that point it gets murky.

Is it as simple as “follow the money”? Journalists are paid for what they write, and their success is judged by the numbers of copies sold. We remember Martin Brunt of Sky News, who had a reverse Damascene conversion, moving from professional detachment and skepticism to being an active proselyte and persecutor of non-believers.

Jon Clarke professes to having been neutral on his way to PdL, but also undergoes a conversion despite being in a position to see for himself the falsity of much of what he was being told. He continues to repeat falsehoods, and adds many of his own, even though videos of the scene expose his mendacity.

But then we learn that he too was ultimately on the payroll of News Corp (now News International), the company which owns Sky News, employs Brunt, and pays Kandohla and Lazzeri.

Let me take each of the nine points in turn. I shall try to explain them briefly and then give the references so that people may either refresh their memories, or look more closely at what is being suggested.


1. The shutters were not broken, forced, smashed or jemmied 
    (See Chapter 1) 

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1
This was almost the first detail to be put into the public domain.


Apologists have tried to argue that there is no evidence that the McCanns said these things. This is not quite correct. The McCanns phoned various members of their close family and friends during the night of 3rd and 4th May, and they in turn dutifully contacted media outlets on the 4th and gave verbatim reports of what had been said.

The fact that these reports were going out on live TV and radio news at the same time that viewers could also see live footage of a hapless forensic scientist trying to find a single fingerprint on shutters, which were clearly intact and unmarked, seems to have escaped notice by people determined to believe everything they were told.


2. The curtains did not “whoosh” 
    (See Chapters 3, 12)

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2
This extraordinary story was a later invention by Kate McCann.

In the parents’ original statements, and the second one by Gerry, there is no mention of curtains “whooshing”, nor of the door “slamming”. In fact both parents are very specific that the window and shutters were wide open and the curtains were also drawn back, fully OPEN.

It was some years later, both in the autobiography and then in various TV interviews, that Kate develops this into the curtains being tightly CLOSED, and 'whooshing' into the room when blown by a sudden powerful gust of wind, complete with histrionic excess involving dramatic gestures with open and outstretched arms. On two occasions this draws a look of astonishment and incredulity from Gerry, who had of course in his police statements originally said the curtains were wide open.

The story is disproved by simply accessing the wind records for the night in question.


3. The apartment could not be watched from the tapas bar 
     (See Chapter 4)

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3

 It was said in the initial reports that there was a clear line of sight from the tapas restaurant to the apartment, and it was implied that this of itself ruled out any suggestion of negligence in the child-care arrangements.
When the facts began to emerge a different situation emerged.

It was night. What lighting there was came from low-power lamps on posts. The tapas restaurant is around 65m in a straight line from the patio doors, across the pool, and over a high wall. There was at that time a thick overgrown hedge which stuck up over this wall. In any event the children were in the “front” room at the opposite end of the apartment overlooking the car park. There was a thick translucent plastic screen enclosing the tapas bar area which distorts images, reflects the light from the lamps, and is difficult to see through clearly.

And . . . on their own “admissions” when asked to sketch their positions round the circular table, the McCanns BOTH place themselves as having their backs to this screening.


4. The pool photo could not have been taken at lunch time on Thursday 3/5/7 
     (See Chapters 12, 14, 15 28, 28A)

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4
The pool photo, widely referred to as the “Last Photo”, was presented to the world three weeks after the night in question, after a visit to the UK by Gerry, his return to PdL with Clarence Mitchell, and the arrival of his sister Philomena, the wife of a keen astronomer and skilled manipulator of digital images.
So far as is known it was not first handed to the PJ, but went straight to a press agency from where it was sent across the world.

Embedded in the digital photo is the metadata, also called EXIF, the detailed record of the camera settings and of the date and time of the creation and subsequent alteration of the image.

There was considerable debate about this image, which was said to have been taken during the luncheon interval on Thursday 3rd May.

Analysis of weather reports, sunshine records, travellers’ photos posted on various sites, and a host of other independent sources shows that this photo cannot have been created at that time on that date.

It allows us to speculate, with some certainty, that it was taken on the Sunday 29th April, and to imagine the possible sequence of events which led to the metadata’s being altered.


5. The tennis balls photo was not taken by Kate after mini-tennis
     (See Chapters 21, 22)

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5The tennis balls photo represent a strange anomaly in the midst of so many other anomalies.
 It is said to have been taken by two different people on any of three different days.
What is plain however is that despite what Kate insists in her autobiography, it was not taken on the McCann’s camera, and examination of the evidence available within the picture leads to a belief that it does not depict what it is supposed to.

Whether it has been tampered with is still debated. The original has never be put in the public domain, and the quality of what has been released in its various forms is so poor that further analysis is barely possible.


6.  The waterslide did not even exist 
     (See Chapter 20)
 
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6
This story illustrates the depths to which journalists and journalism will sink in order to create a story out of nothing. It is a clear fabrication from start to finish. Every part of the story is invented. Not only does it not ‘hang together’ internally, with clear contradictions and impossibilities included in its own text, it is apparent to anyone who has bothered to look at the photos and video of the resort that is it full of downright lies. There is no waterslide. There was no waterslide.

Nevertheless it was published, and for some reason has never been denied, corrected or disavowed by the McCanns nor by their teams of advisors and acolytes.


7. The deep trench was not immediately outside the apartment
     (See Chapter 33)

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8
Although the story about the trench in the road emerged a long time ago it had been consigned to the folder marked “journalistic puff”, and dismissed as irrelevant exaggeration or nonsense.
The actual trench and indeed all the roadworks in the village had of course been identified on the first day by the GNP and the PJ, and the statements from the supervisor, and the detail of the searches carried out are in the PJ files released on DVD when the investigation was shelved. They are available to anyone who cares to read them.

The story came back to prominence when the Netflix production released a long and detailed piece to camera by Jon Clarke, a self-styled investigative reporter, the editor of The Olive Press, a tabloid free news- and-advert sheet available at supermarket check-outs in southern Spain.
 His appearances on the Netflix “documentary” were widely trumpeted in his own paper, which printed several different versions of the events. All different, and all incompatible.
 As the chapters observe, his lies and deceit know almost no bounds, and he persisted in his mendacity even as the accompanying video from sources recorded in the days immediately after the report of the missing child show conclusively that he is lying.
It is entirely unclear why he did this, or why Netflix did not edit the footage.


8. Jane Tanner did not see an abductor
     (See Chapter 4)


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7
Jane Tanner’s alleged sighting of a man carrying a motionless child across the top of the road was one of the first ‘red flags’ which alerted the PJ within the first days to the probability that the entire story put out by the entire team was an elaborate but badly flawed invention.
To re-cap. Tanner said she walked past Gerry and Jez W who were standing on the pavement directly outside the small gate at the foot of the stairs of Apartment 5A, with a pushchair containing yet another child. The pavement is around 2m wide. Tanner says she pushed past the two men.

One of the men confirms they were standing there, on the west side of the road, the other insists they were on the opposite pavement, on the east side.
Neither man recalls seeing Tanner, and neither man saw the alleged man carrying the alleged child across the top of the road.

But the image was planted in the public’s mind and for years the man was sought.
Then in a bombshell moment, a ‘revelation’, the then head of Operation Grange, DCI Redwood, revealed that the man had come forward and identified himself as a doctor known to the McCanns as a holiday tennis partner, and had explained that he had been carrying his own child home from the night crèche. The inconvenient facts about the location of the crèche, Dr Totman’s apartment, and the alleged direction of travel were quickly glossed over.
As was the inconvenient fact that four years of ‘investigation’ had been wasted.


9.  Jon Clarke did not go into the apartment and speak to the parents
     (See Chapters 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36)


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 9
Jon Clarke’s egregious and disgraceful role in this whole miserable affair has yet to be fully exposed. It continues to be investigated and may one day be properly documented so that he can be called to account for it.

In the meantime all that can be done is a case by case dissection of his extraordinary interventions and inventions.

The four chapters referred to show the way in which Clarke is apparently quite happy to foist different and conflicting stories onto his readership.
The exact circumstances of his involvement and his early arrival in PdL cannot yet be ascertained. His various explanations not only contradict each other, they are not in accordance with the known facts.
But he says, variously:


– that he was able to go into the apartment and spoke to the McCanns there;

– that he was not able go into the apartment because it was taped off and that he spoke to the McCanns as they left [to go to Portimão police station for interview].

The available video from that time, which is in the public domain for anyone who wishes to view it, shows him not speaking to the McCanns, and being a considerable distance from the cars as they left.


To conclude:

After 13 years of enquiries by the police of two nations, by at least three private detective companies, by other official and unofficial agencies, and by many more concerned individuals . .

not a single piece of evidence has been discovered to support the official “abduction” hypothesis.

Not one.

On the contrary, the evidence which has been uncovered, the detailed investigation of the arguments put forward, the application of logic, the analysis of statements and of body language and non-verbal communication, all lead us towards another hypothesis.

Whether that can ever be proved in a Court of Law, in Portugal or the UK, is another matter entirely.

http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-37-short-re-cap.html
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 19.09.20 18:51

Chapter 38
Lies  –  Damned Lies  – And Jon Clarke
 
 
Over the 13 years and 3 months we have been following and analysing this dreadful case we have been variously disappointed, astonished, appalled and disgusted at the way the Media in general and the press in particular have failed to adopt their constitutional role as disinterested reporters of the known facts.
 
We learned to expect that Kandohla, a some-time gym friend of Kate McCann, would write drivel which simply churned out the ‘official story; that Lazzeri would publish nonsense; and that The Sun and other gutter-press tabloid red-tops would maintain a decade-plus long campaign of disinformation.
 
This is normal, and to an extent we have to accept it. A free press is free to publish what it chooses, and the alternative of having the press shackled by law, by ministerial edict or by libel lawyers is the first sign of tyranny.
 
In the internet age some of the press maintain ‘Comments’ columns where their editorial stance or the statements they make may be challenged or corrected.
 
The hope of all decent people is that one day the press will themselves start to behave decently, will report known facts and make clear what is no more than speculation and hearsay, and identify what is clearly fantasy.
The laws of Libel and in some cases the internal monitoring of the press by their own Professional body should act to prevent excess.
 
The position of Jon Clarke, editor and publisher and, it is believed, part owner of The Olive Press is altogether more worrying.  He operates in Spain, is not answerable to English legal system nor to the Press Association, and cares nothing for the law of Libel, as he clearly set out in banner headlines in his own paper.
[1]
Let us first explore what we do ‘know’
In previous chapters I showed, giving full and detailed references, how Clarke has changed his story over time. He has claimed –
• to have been phoned at 7:15am CEST (Spanish time) = 6:15am BST (Britain and Portugal)
• to have arrived, after a 4 hour car drive, in PdL at 10.45am (unclear which time zone applies here, since  neither fits the known facts. Spanish time allows him to have seen the McCanns leaving, – which is recorded on video –  but even that does not allow sufficient time for the journey). see Ch 32
• to have been the FIRST journalist at the scene – or alternatively
• to have been the ONLY journalist at the scene until late afternoon
• to have walked straight into Apartment 5A and to have spoken to the McCanns there – or alternatively
  to have found the apartment taped off and therefore NOT to have walked straight in, but to have spoken to the McCanns as they were leaving [to go Portimão for interview]•   to have spoken to the McCanns in those early hours and so on. 
[2][3][4]
 
Many of these versions with some minor variations have been repeated in the years leading up to and then including the Netflix production.  Mercifully for seekers of the objective truth that same Netflix production included several pieces of contemporaneous video footage from the day in question recorded by the many News crews who were already at the scene with their many reporters and journalists and presenters, not to mention the many police, dog-handlers, dogs, forensic teams and a throng of others - when Clarke arrived. 

Those videos have been and remain available in the public domain, notably on You Tube, and can be double and cross checked by anyone with the will to do so, [including Libel lawyers]
I appended some still shots in Chapter 31 and 33 where I expose yet more of Clarke’s more egregious mendacity, [or in plain English disgraceful lies]  and provide the full references and the YouTube links
The clips and the fuller videos show conclusively that much of what Clarke said was simply untrue
[3]
For non-native speakers of English, let us conjugate the verb
                  Infinitive                                 To lie
                  Present indicative                 Clarke lies
                  Present continuous              Clarke is lying
                  Simple Past                            Clarke lied
                  Past Perfect                           Clarke has lied
                  Perfect continuous               Clarke was lying
                  Pluperfect                              Clarke had lied
                  Past imperfect                       Clarke used to lie
                  Future                                     Clarke will lie
                  Future perfect                       Clarke will have lied . . .
                                    and so on
 
But now yet another of Clarke’s “versions of the truth” has been exposed.

It comes from the magazine CLOSER, published by the Bauer Media Groupin Peterborough, who produce
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Ch38%2B-1
at least 40 magazines, and have 51 radio channels.
This is from the on-line version at https://closeronline.co.uk/ and is BY KRISTINA BEANLAND | POSTED ON 11/06/2020
[5]
We might by this time have expected a retraction and explanation for the previous sets of falsehoods, and their replacement with the definitive account of Clarke’s actions on the first day, and then during the weeks that followed.
Our hope for honesty and decency from Clarke is however dashed once again.
The full text and the reference is appended, so I summarise. (I underline for emphasis some salient points)
Here we learn
Journalist Jon Clarke was one of the firston the scene in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when Maddie went missing from a holiday resort in May 2007, while her parents ate in a nearby restaurant.
Jon recalls the call he received from a British newspaper on the morning of 4 May 2007, asking him to report on a missing child.
He says, “I remember thinking that by the time I got there, she’d have turned up. Praia da Luz was a sleepy little village and hardly anyone was around when I arrived later that morning. But I was shocked when I saw the McCanns’ apartment – there was no security and just a flimsy piece of police tape covering the side gate.”
A few hours after arriving, Jon met Kate and Gerry. He says, “They were polite, and even thanked me for reporting on the case. They were clearly devastated. The press conference outside their apartment later that day only confirmed my feelings. I think almost every person there shed a tear. As a journalist, you try not to get too emotional about a story, but my own daughter had just turned two, so it was hard not to get upset.
[5]
It is very clear and very precise.  It is also in direct speech. In Quotes, if that means anything in modern journalism
He now claims
• to have been one of the first [journalists] on the scene
• to have met the McCanns a few hours after arriving
• to have had his feelings confirmed at the press conference later that day
 So although he is now clearly admitting in print that being THE FIRST journalist, or THE ONLY Journalist until late afternoon were lies, for which small mercy we may be thankful, his inclusion in the video footage among a group of at least six, and the presence of multiple fully equipped camera crews leads one to suppose that for him ‘among the first’does not imply a podium place.
But look at the weasel words that he met the McCanns “a few hours after arriving”.
Now his proven lies about entering the apartment speaking to the McCanns there, and/or of having spoken to them ‘as they left’ are by implication admitted for what they were.  Lies.
Their replacement with ‘a few hours after arriving’ seems sufficiently anodyne as to try persuade some that there might be admission of previous error and an explanation of the truth.
Let us dissect it further.
In this context “met Kate and Gerry” can only mean ‘for the first time’.
What do we know, from Kate’s autobiography, from the times on Police statements, from TV footage, and from other sources.
 Well, this.
The McCanns left the Payne’s apartment shortly before 10am under close police protection, were driven to Portimão for long interviews and statements, and did not return to PdL until around 8.30pm. 
On arrival they went straight to their new apartment which contained members of the family and friends looking after their remaining children, had some light refreshment, and then prepared a short statement for the benefit of the press, which was read out by Gerry with a torch in the stair-well at 10pm.
And as can be seen on the video recording of that event, the McCanns spoke to no one either before or immediately after the statement, but turned abruptly away,  returned to the apartment, and were not seen again until the following day.
[6]
At what point then did Clarke speak to them?
 
Having established that his first two statements are bare-faced lies, it looks ever more apparent that his third may bear the same stamp.
“A few hours later’ must mean in this context an absolute minimum of 10 and a half hours. (9:45am - 8:30pm),  but we can also be fairly sure the Clarke did not speak to them on their return.
Firstly because they were under Police ‘protection’ and escorted throughout.  
But then when Kate herself takes up the story and describes the scene on their return –
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Cha%2B38%2B3
"We steppped out of the police car amid clicking, whirring cameras and dazzling lights. . .
Upstairs our new apartment, 4G, was heaving with people. Among them were my mum, dad and Auntie Norah, who had arrived from the UK. . .  It was all such a blur I can’t be absolutely certain who else was there that night, but I think I remember John Hill, Emma Knights and Craig Mayhew from Mark Warner, and Ambassador John Buck, British consul Bill Henderson and Angela Morado, who had accompanied us back from Portimão. There were some new faces, too: Liz Dow, the British consul for Lisbon, British Embassy press officer Andy Bowes and Alex Woolfall, a PR crisis-management specialist from Bell Pottinger in the UK, who had been drafted in by Mark Warner, as had a trauma psychologist from the Centre for Crisis Psychology (CCP) in north Yorkshire, who had now also arrived in Luz.
[7] 
13 named people.  All crammed into a small apartment, plus an assortment of Tapas 7 who will have been responsible for herding them all together and catering for their needs.
 

 But no mention of Jon Clarke !
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Cha%2B38%2B2


From that moment they were under the protection of the Tapas 7 and several family members who had arrived during the day. . . and within a few days were controlled by PR and ‘Spokes-people’.

The press conference is a different matter. That would have been, and clearly was communicated to all interested parties in the usual way. The stage was clearly set with television news cameras and lighting in place before their scripted appearance – which was carefully timed for 10pm GMT, to go live on the News

Bulletins across the world. There is nothing unusual about that. It is how “live” broadcasts are arranged.

And as we all clearly saw, and can see again if we choose to on YouTube, the McCanns appeared in the stairwell, Gerry read the short statement, and they then turned away and disappeared, taking no questions.

They were neither approached nor spoken to by Clarke nor by anyone else.

So now we have to address an even more fundamental question.

Did Clarke speak to the McCanns at all ?    Ever ?  
 
There is no clear evidence of his having done so. There are no attributable quotes, only the suspiciously vague 2019 version – “they said “Hi”, and I think they may have also said“ thanks for coming”.”, which has now hardened into 
“They were polite, and even thanked me for reporting on the case. They were clearly devastated.”
No explanation or details of the evidence which led Kate to know ‘know’ that Madeleine had been abducted, and very specifically by a paedophile.  No quotes to show the anguish they were both allegedly suffering at that moment.  No heart-string-tugging phrases . . . and certainly no long attributable interview, reported in his own newspaper, - which on any test would be been worth a small fortune at that moment in “syndication rights”.
Nothing.
All we are given are at least three different and contradictory versions of his “alleged’ first encounter.
The language he employs may be revealing –
“there wasn’t much opportunity, sadly, to talk to them about what had happened . . .”
But this was written in 2019.
What he notably does NOT add is words to the effect -
“It wasn’t until 5 days later that I managed to get them on their own and hear the whole story . . .”
and that may be important.
Even Martin Brunt, the world famous Sky Crime Correspondent, who spent 10 days in PdL did not manage to speak to the McCanns before he left, so close was the protective barrier erected around the them and the Tapas 7.
I spent 10 days in Portugal," he says. "I thought there were still angles to the story to explore. But I came back because it was deemed we were spending a lot of money on it when there were other stories to cover." So he'd have liked to stay longer? "Yeah. I hadn't at that stage interviewed the parents.”
[8]
Kate is similarly silent in her book.  One might have thought that a friendly English-speaking journalist fully seised of the official story would have been of great value in their press campaign.  (As in fact he tried to become over the next few months.)
Brunt admits that even he did not manage to speak to the McCanns in the 10 days he was there.
Clarke stays silent.
Clarke wrote for the Sun and News International (now Corp) for some 6 months before he published a single article in his own paper.  
Is that astonishing, or does it simply suggest an exclusive – and lucrative – contract.
He continued to write the most lurid and far-fetched articles for The Sun, which were then copied and pasted across the tabloid churnalist world,  the most ludicrous being ‘The Curious Case of the Angolan Bouncer’, over which it is probably better to draw a veil.  The rotting corpse of this story has been dissected at length and the debris sluiced away.   Only the salient points remain pickled in the formaldehyde of the internet in case someone cares to re-examine it.
[9]
In the early days his reports featured in the Mail, though it is not possible to say whether this is syndication, churnalism, or a continuation of the original contract.
And from there we have to ask – What was Clarke actually DOING for the two weeks he claims to have been there?
Can we assume that during that time he nipped home the four and a half hour trip each way to see his wife, G*******a,  and his young family?
Did he try to build contacts within the GNR or the PJ?
He now tells us that he walked up and down the beach at least ten times, and looked into deserted buildings, for what possible reason again we are not told.  Given that the GNR dogs and large and diverse search parties had been at the scene since the early hours of the first morning – contrary to what Clarke reports, but clearly evidenced in the contemporaneous news reports which include shots of Clarke himself – and spent the following weeks scouring almost the entire town and waste land surrounding it, it seems a fairly pointless and time-wasting activity for a journalist.
Or did he confine himself to joining the gaggle of reporters in the bars who sat and drank and waited for their official briefing each day before hastily filing their copy, as was so perceptively observed by a real Investigative Journalist, Paulo Reis, who went ‘under cover’ to observe how his fellow journalists continue the slide of their profession into disrepute.
[10]
Clarke was on his own account, at least for the initial stage under twocontracts.  Sky and the Mail.  
And this means double pay and double expenses.
NOTA BENE:    I am assured that this is apparently normal and permitted within the arcane rules of the Media, and however dishonest it may seem to us lay people, it must be made clear that it is not.    It is one of the few perks of being free-lance.
What it means is that he was not short of funds.  But the suspicion arises that longer he remained in PdL, the longer this particular financial arrangement would continue.
We can be sure his imagination did not extend to making full enquiries and recording observations, nor of considering the full range of options.
Nowhere have I been able to find any discussion of the not-broken, not-forced, not-jemmied, and not-smashedshutters, though they were clear even on his arrival.  They are shown already liberally covered with “Dragon’s Blood” fingerprint power as he is filmed walking past them.   And this despite this particular story’s appearing on news bulletins across the world for the first few days.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chap%2B38%2B4


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chap%2B38%2B5
Nowhere have I been able to find an in-depth interview with anyone of interest.
No interview with Hill about the lack of evidence of forced entry nor of abduction for example.
He puts forward no theories, no scenarios, no explanation of how ‘it’ might have been achieved.
What we are given is an endless repetition of the original story, that one fixed in time as at 10:00pm Thursday 3rd May 2007, and never altered since that day, even though the subsequent discovery of evidence and multiple enquiries shows it was neither credible nor even remotely possible.
In that sense became a “mantra”. An article of faith, which if repeated often enough induces in its practitioners a type of semi-hypnotic state in which it becomes part of what may be termed a religion.
A Religion – in the sense that it relies only on Faithand Belief, and not on evidence except that written by the leader of that religion whose writings are or course self-fulfilling.
A Religion – in the further sense that any who dare to question it will be dismissed, reviled, punished, abused, financially penalised, and in some cases put to death or pressured into taking their own lives.
Or is it more like one of the fake pseudo-religious cults, so frequently discovered in the US exploiting the most gullible and intellectually underprivileged, where at the centre is that which all worship.   MONEY
To repeat – Clarke was paid both by the Mail and by The Sun in the early days. Double pay and double expenses.  For the first six months he did not publish a single article in his own paper in Southern Spain
This highly suggestive of lucrative and highly exclusive but legally restrictive contracts.
It is also, when we look at the evidence of how it seems to have worked after that contract came to an end probably in late October, suggestive of the manipulation for money of a ‘useful idiot’  to plant or invent stories which can then be repeated in the national press.
The Media can then always claim to be merely repeating what has been written somewhere else.
It was during this time that Clarke was heavily censured by the Spanish Press Association’s watchdog, FAPE,  but given their lack of coercive powers he simply ignored them, and carried on his regime of vilification, abuse and defamation of any who stood in his way.   See chapter 31.  
[11]
And the next big question is WHY.  Why did Clarke do this?   Why does he continue to do it?
This is not a question of being right or wrong. Either or both of us may be wrong.
The question is about why Clarke felt and still feels the compulsion to lie – endlessly – when his lies are so easily exposed, and add little if anything to the topic under discussion.
Let me demonstrate.   Compare the following hypothetical statements :-
“I was the first journalist at the scene and I saw that the shutters were not broken.”
against what he could so easily and honestly have written –
“I joined a group of journalists at the scene and we could all see that the shutters were not broken”
[And of course he says neither, since it is clear that discussion of the shutters is tabooHaram. Verboten.]
How does the first statement enhance the observation ?
It clearly doesn’t, but it has the incidental side-effect when the lie contained therein is exposed of reducing or totally destroying the credibility of the reporter.
It would be easy to assume that money was involved at the beginning, and that gradually it has become impossible for him to resile from the initial stance for financial and contractual reasons.    But what does it say about all the journalists and reporters and commentators who have sold their souls in the same way?

This does not pre-suppose that one theory or the other is de facto correct. Far from it.
What it implies is that members of a ‘profession’ we have relied on to challenge the establishment, to pick apart statements, to dissect points of view and thereby to maintain our collective freedom had cynically and deliberately decided not to do so.
They have failed us all.    And for that we condemn Clarke and all like him. 
We shall not easily forget this betrayal.
 
BUT NOW BACK TO THE SQUIRREL
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chap%2B38%2B6
As the German connection begins to fade away, and the Staatsanwalt [State Prosecutor] Hr. Wolters has his bluff called and is about to be exposed as having no evidence sufficient to put before a Court of Law, (despite Brunt claiming a couple of months ago that he “believes that perhaps the prosecutor has video evidence of her being killed, or her dead body.”.    Yes, he really said that !) we might remind ourselves what the professional and other people at the scene in the immediate aftermath told the world, either then, or subsequently.
[12]
 
 
 
 
Brunt:                                        There is no evidence . . . we were over-sympathetic, lost our objectivity 
Mitchell:                                   Disappearance is a complete mystery
Hill:                                            No evidence of a break in, and no evidence of abduction
DCI Amaral:                              No evidence
DCI Tavares:                              No evidence
DI Paiva:                                    No evidence
Prosecutor Magalhães:          No evidence about the circumstances under which she was removed
Forensic teams:                       No evidence
Search teams:                          No evidence
Tracker dogs:                            No evidence 
BritPol:                                      No evidence
MetPol:                                     No definitive evidence (of anything very much really)
Lee Fountain:                           No evidence. But concentrate on the parents
 
In a previous Chapter  (Ch. 17 Philosophical Problems) I examined this lack of evidence and tested it against the oft-repeated aphorism –   “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.
I showed how in this case it very definitely IS evidence.
To precis : Absence of evidence (of abduction) can be evidence of absence (of abduction) if:
1               You would reasonably expect to find evidence, and
2               Qualified investigators conducting a proper search fail to find evidence.
In this case both apply, and we can become ever more confident that it is indeed Evidence of Absence.
[13]
To spell it out for those who are hard of understanding :-
The issue is not that there is no evidence that Christian Brückner or Raymond Hewlett, or Robert Murat, or Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Daniel Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Uncle Thomas Cobleigh . . .
or indeed anyone else chosen apparently at random “DID IT”– 
The issue is that there is no evidence and anyone “DID IT”.
There is no evidence that ’IT’ was ‘DID’ in the first place.
In that place at that time in that way.
 
What we can be sure of is this –
Madeleine is missing.  This fact was reported around 10pm on Thursday 3rd May 2007
 
And it is worth repeating as often as we can, so that everyone remembers and understands; 
the only people who insist that Madeleine was abducted by a paedophile are the principal suspects – the parents – and neither they, nor any of the people who have supported them in this story over the past 13 years are able to point to a single piece of what any rational person would term ‘evidence’, nor to provide a coherent scenario how “IT” might have been performed, or in which “IT” might have been achieved within the parameters so rigidly set by the principal suspects – the parents - themselves.
 
And if that is correct they we may tentatively suggest that Operation Grange and the Bundeskriminalamt –the German FBI / CID, (the BKA) might spend their time more productively hunting Unicorns.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chap%2B34%2B7

CHAPTER 38

REFERENCES AND ORIGINAL TEXTS.


1

https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2011/11/07/24455/

WHY LIBEL IS NO BIG DEAL IN SPAIN


2

http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-29-fake-news.html


3
http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/01/chapter-31-jon-clarke-olive-press-lies.html

JON CLARKE – OLIVE PRESS - LIES AND VIDEOTAPE


4
http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-32-on-lies-and-conspiracies.html


5
https://closeronline.co.uk/real-life/news/madeleine-mccann-german-suspect-jon-clarke/


As a prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case is announced, Closer speaks to Jon Clarke who has followed the story since the three-year-old went missing...


Journalist Jon Clarke was one of the first on the scene in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when Maddie went missing from a holiday resort in May 2007, while her parents ate in a nearby restaurant. He has been reporting on the case ever since.

Jon recalls the call he received from a British newspaper on the morning of 4 May 2007, asking him to report on a missing child.

He says, “I remember thinking that by the time I got there, she’d have turned up. Praia da Luz was a sleepy little village and hardly anyone was around when I arrived later that morning. But I was shocked when I saw the McCanns’ apartment – there was no security and just a flimsy piece of police tape covering the side gate.”

A few hours after arriving, Jon met Kate and Gerry. He says, “They were polite, and even thanked me for reporting on the case. They were clearly devastated. The press conference outside their apartment later that day only confirmed my feelings. I think almost every person there shed a tear. As a journalist, you try not to get too emotional about a story, but my own daughter had just turned two, so it was hard not to get upset.

“In the days that followed, it was clear this was a story like no other – hundreds of journalists descended on the town and Maddie’s face was everywhere. Everyone was looking for her – I must have walked the length of the beach ten times, combing through the wasteland and looking in abandoned houses.”

Jon stayed in Portugal for two weeks while the case unfolded – until it became clear that Maddie was no longer in Praia da Luz. He says he has since returned countless times to report on the story, and even appeared in a Netflix documentary that aired last year about her disappearance.


6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxHuwT__URc

Press conference 4/5/7 10pm


7
'madeleine’, by Kate McCann, 2011, Bantam Press.   p.93


8
https://web.archive.org/web/20070706231113/http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2725892.ece


Brunt accepts that the way that the story was handled by his and other media organisations was imperfect. "It's the view of a few of us that when we look back over the first two or three weeks of the coverage we were in some ways over-sympathetic. We kind of adopted the tone and the language that the family did. I think we perhaps lost our objectivity a bit, we became a bit too subjective about the story."

The message of hope that was broadcast contradicted what Brunt's police sources had told him from the outset. "Ever since day one, when I spoke to cop contacts and others who had been involved in this kind of story, they said 'Just look at the statistics'. Most children who disappear in these circumstances are victims of paedophiles who plan everything and then panic. The easy option for them is to destroy the only witness to their crime. It was clear to me from very early on that this was going to be the most likely outcome. I think journalists in general tended to shy away from making that point."

Nonetheless, he remains sore that he was pulled off the story before he was ready to come home. "I spent 10 days in Portugal," he says. " I thought there were still angles to the story to explore. But I came back because it was deemed we were spending a lot of money on it when there were other stories to cover." So he'd have liked to stay longer? "Yeah. I hadn't at that stage interviewed the parents.


9
https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/379292/madeleine-mccann-is-in-america-and-iknow-

who-took-her/


10
https://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/search?q=undercover&maxresults=

20&by-date=true

Thursday, 10 May 2018       Why I went undercover to Praia da Luz


11
FAPE Resolucion 1013/82


La información publicada en “The Olive Press” es un ejemplo de sensacionalismo

irresponsable para atraer la atención del eventual lector. Su contenido es

charlatanería en estado puro, “gossip” en el idioma en el cual se ha escrito y en el

lenguaje periodístico “amarillismo “, siempre reprochable pero mucho más cuando se

puede poner en peligro al sujeto pasivo de la información que irrumpe

inesperadamente en el ámbito de la intimidad de la menor, una niña de ocho años,

sacándola a la luz pública con perjuicio de su estabilidad emocional e incluso con

riesgo para su integridad personal. 


[my translation]. “In the reasoning of this resolution it states that the journalist has acted with remarkable flippancy and published a scandalous story based on very flimsy material. The information published in "The Olive Press" is an example of irresponsible sensationalism to attract the attention of the prospective reader.    Its content is pure charlatanry, "gossip" in the language in which it has been written and in journalistic language “amarillismo", [sensationalist journalism]  always reprehensible but much more when an innocent subject of the information can be endangered”


VII.- RESOLUCIÓN

Teniendo en consideración los anteriores razonamientos de la ponencia, esta

Comisión de Arbitraje, Quejas y Deontología del periodismo ACUERDA que don Jon

Clarke, editor de “The Olive Press” y doña Wendy Williams, autora del reportaje

“Maddie? Yes … but not the right one” han infringido los arts. 4º y 13 del Código

Deontológico FAPE por no haber respetado el derecho a la intimidad personal y

familiar de Madeleine A., menor de edad, y de sus padres, el señor L. A. y la señora

R. E., ni haber cuidado de contrastar las fuentes de la información, no dándoles

además la oportunidad de ofrecer su propia versión sobre los hechos.

Madrid, 6 de noviembre de 2013


[my translation].   In 2013 FAPE, the Federación de Associationes de Periodistas de España - the Spanish Journalists’ Association, – “is agreed that Mr Jon Clarke, editor of “The Olive Press” and Wendy Williams, the author of the report, “Maddie? Yes, but not the one we were looking for . . .”  infringed Articles 4 and 13 of the FAPE Ethical Code for not having respected the right to personal and family privacy of M.A., a minor, and of her parents, Mr. L. A. and Mrs. R. E., and also neither bothered to check the sources of the information, nor gave them the opportunity to offer their own version of events.”

Madrid, 6 November 2013


12
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/german-prosecutor-claiming-madeleine-mccann-is-dead-may-have-video-of-the-incident/

Mr Brunt believes that perhaps the prosecutor has video evidence of her being killed, or her dead body.


13
http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-17-some-philosophical-thoughts.html


http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-38-lies-damned-lies-and-jon.html

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16952-petermac-chapter-38-lies-damned-lies-and-jon-clarke#425725

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 18.02.21 8:33

  PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1.%2Bpool
Beyond a Reasonable Waterslide. Beyond the Pale.


Since this chapter was first published significant new information has come to light. For all who believe in truth and justice new evidence must be carefully considered, and any views and interpretations re-thought and revised in the light of new information.
This is therefore the revised chapter.

Regular readers will already understand, but anyone unfamiliar with discussion of anything to do with the McCanns and the ‘Complete Mystery’ of Madeleine’s disappearance 
[© C. Mitchell] should scatter the word “allegedly” freely throughout this essay.

* * * *
The story published in “First” magazine on 19th May 2007, giving details of an interview by Danielle Gusmaroli with one Mrs Vicky Boyd about her long meeting with Kate McCann, and including precise details of a waterslide, the colour of a skirt, the length of time they sat by the pool in the sun, the exact time of day, the whereabouts of Gerry, and sundry other issues, continues to bother me, as it does several other researchers.
It is not so much that the entire story is nonsense. We have established that in a previous Chapter
It is something potentially far more sinister, far more worrying.
Kate McCann’s version of the truth, which at no point overlaps with this story in any way, is based on what she describes as “my detailed chronology of events..” Her words, not mine.
We know that KM’s version of the truth is anything but the truth, and have established that the Pool Photo, the so-called Last Photo, can only have been taken at lunchtime on Sunday 29th May, making the nomination of the image as the Last Photo perhaps inadvertently and embarrassingly, absolutely accurate.

Whatever KM was doing during the afternoon of Thursday 3/5/7 it was clearly not sitting on a sun-lounger in the sun talking for an hour or more to Mrs Boyd and watching Madeleine in a blue skirt whizzing down a waterside

So far, so boring, and so irrelevant.
But is it ? 

To re-cap I refer readers to Chapter 20, Spot the Waterslide for some further details . . .
This article appeared in an edition of an unknown and short lived magazine, of the type found in hairdressing salons [or so I am told !] to while away the time wasted under hair driers.
It seems to have been an early edition after a re-launch, since it is offered at an introductory price. Strangely it has a Sterling price and a price in Euros, but specifically states this is for Spain and the Canary Islands. Not for the EU as a whole. And specifically not for Portugal.
The timing of the magazine’s issue is noteworthy. The publication date is given as 19 May.
We remember that the Pool Photo was released on 24th May, having obviously been sent to the Press Agency on 23rd, following the return to PdL by GM with Clarence Mitchell, and the arrival of his sister Philomena on 22nd.

It has been confirmed that the Pool photo never appeared in the PJ’s files. It was never handed to them by GM nor Mitchell, and that fact confirmed the exposure of the blatant and obvious lie in GM’s statement of 10/5/7 that “he has no other photos in his possession”.
The PJ became aware of it but dismissed it as a ‘montage’ attempting to show GM as a loving father, and paid it little more attention. It is not thought they had access to the full 24mB and 7mPixel image, which included the EXIF metadata and was subsequently released onto the internet by a researcher. It was this which enabled much of the subsequent forensic analysis and logical deductions to be made.

Look, if you can bear to, at the front cover of the issue in question.
In a star shape logo top left are the words. “Special Trial Price 99p”. This only applies to the UK, as the price for Spain and the Canary Islands is given as €1.75
The exchange rate for Friday 18 May 2007 was €1.463 to £1 Stg. making the price in Euros equivalent to £1.20. Spain was not offered the Special Trial Price, if indeed it was ever offered in Spain at all.
*****
LET US TAKE THE STORY AS PUBLISHED AT FACE VALUE

The story and the web of intrigue around it becomes tangled and it may be helpful to break it down into individual issues and concerns
The Story itself
The Publication of the story
Possible deductions and conclusions
Theories arising

The latter two will of course be entirely speculative and personal opinion.
Only the two people responsible for this can provide the full facts

The Story - AS PUBLISHED
Let us examine the time and date of this alleged meeting
“The three-year-old was having great fun tearing around with the pal he had met that afternoon
So this was NOT Lunchtime

But the next day Madeleine who turned four last Saturday, was abducted.”
This is capable of implying that the events in the article took place on Wednesday 2/5/7, but it more probably suggests that it was ‘the next day’ when the Boyd’s became aware of the abduction. That would be 4/5/7, and put the date of the events at 3/5/7

“When posters went up . . ‘Mummy, isn’t that the little girl I played with yesterday
Confirms the date as 3/5/7

“She and Louie were kicking a football around in the play area for about an hour
Implies this was not straight after lunch.

Maddie’s dad Gerry, 38, was playing tennis on a nearby court, and after the match . . .”
Confirms this was afternoon, not lunchtime

So we have established that we are dealing with the afternoon of
Thursday 3rd May 2007


And then the crucial details. They are given as a direct quote.
“Vicky …was sitting by the pool as Maddie’s mum Kate, 38 relaxed on a sun-lounger and watched her daughter whizzing down the waterslide.
“Maddie was wearing a sunhat, a little pink top and blue skirt… Vicky recalled”



In the previous chapter we observed that
• there is no waterslide
• small children even if very good and strong swimmers would not use a waterslide unsupervised
• A child using a waterslide would be wearing a swimming costume rather than a blue skirt.

Even allowing for the ‘passage of time’ between the alleged event and the interview (no more than 72 hours, for which see later) this is clearly an extraordinary catalogue of improbable or impossible details.

Now we come to an uncomfortable fact. Another uncomfortable fact.
We have a first hand report of events that day, Kate McCanns autobiography, or Exhibit A as it is increasingly being referred to. (pages 65/6 if anyone can be bothered to check)
As usual there is far too much detail. I paste a long quote to prevent any possible misunderstanding.

“Madeleine that lunchtime is one of them. She was wearing an outfit I’d bought especially for her holiday: a peach-coloured smock top from Gap and some white broderie-anglaise shorts from Monsoon – a small extravagance, perhaps, but I’d pictured how lovely she would look in them and I’d been right. She was striding ahead of Fiona and me, swinging her bare arms to and fro. The weather was a little on the cool side and I remember thinking I should have brought a cardigan for her, although she seemed oblivious of the temperature, just happy and carefree. I was following her with my eyes, admiring her. I wonder now, the nausea rising in my throat, if someone else was doing the same.
        At the Toddler Club near the Tapas restaurant Fiona collected Lily and headed back to her flat. Madeleine and I met up with Sean, Amelie and Gerry and returned to ours for lunch. As the children were getting quite restless in the apartment we decided to get them out in the fresh air before the afternoon’s activities. We went to the [p.66] play area, which was such a hit with our three that they never seemed to get fed up with it. We then sat round the toddler pool for a while, dipping our feet in, and I took what has turned out to be my last photograph to date of Madeleine. Heartbreaking as it is for me to look at it now, it encapsulates the essence of Madeleine: so beautiful and so happy.
        Together we took Sean and Amelie back to the Toddler Club at around 2.40pm and dropped Madeleine off with the Minis ten minutes later. Ella was already there. Gerry and I had booked an hour-long couples’ tennis lesson with the professional coach at three-thirty, and as the courts were unoccupied, we decided to have a knock-up for half an hour first. Near the end of our lesson, as I strove desperately to improve my substandard backhand, another guest appeared, and he and Gerry decided to have a game together.
        Having arranged for Gerry to meet the children, I opted to go for a run along the beach, where I spotted the rest of our holiday group….I had finished my run by five-thirty at the Tapas area, where I found Madeleine and the twins already having their tea with Gerry. ”

It is very clear.
Lunch in the apartment, followed by a family visit to the play area and the toddler pool on a cold day – so no actual swimming – the creation of the forged photo, white shorts . . .
(No sun-lounger, no waterslide, no football, no blue skirt)
Then children back to the crêches followed by a half-hour knock-up, and then a JOINT hour-long tennis lesson. Then after 90 minutes of tennis, a run along the beach and a return to high-tea.

In plain English KM categorically refutes everything Gusmaroli has cobbled together. And has done so in a book which has sold millions of copies in two editions, and is relied upon by the McCanns and their supporters as ‘Holy Writ’ – absolute and inviolable truth.

But now we must look at the undoubted fact that KMs version is also a tissue of lies, deceit and prevarication. The fuller facts, analysis and references are to be found in the several chapters dealing with the Pool photo.
Briefly, the weather on 3/5/7 was cold and windy, with only half an hour of sunshine recorded through the whole day; the Pool photo was undoubtedly taken during the lunch break on Sunday 29/4/7 and the date subsequently altered by a skilled and knowledgeable relative.
10 
This leaves us in the strange position of having two totally contradictory stories allegedly supporting the official story, and yet being able to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that both are false.


The Genesis and publication of the Story

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Dg
Gusmaroli was in Portugal at the time, as confirmed in the Author acknowledgement in the article.
The interview must have taken place within a tight time frame

How can we be sure of this ?

There are various stages in the process of getting a story into a published magazine.
Let us go through them in reverse order. These are the absolute tightest estimates and are derived from discussions and knowledge from people in the trade.
12 
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Sale
The implication is clear. Gusmaroli conducted the interview some time between Friday 4th and Monday 7th or Tuesday 8th.

The article includes several existing public domain photos which would have required research and selection by staff in the First office, plus one of the Boyd family which may have been taken in PdL.
It also has three pieces of space allocated to it. The main body of the ‘story’ which takes up 2 whole pages, a front page headline block, and a long piece by the sub-editor which is one entire page.

And then we concentrate on another marker in the article
“Madeleine, who turned four last Saturday . . .”
Madeleine’s date of birth is 12/5/03.         12/5/07 was indeed a Saturday
The article is in a magazine published on Saturday 19/5/07

For the article to include that detail, it must have been written in the full knowledge that it was going to be published in that exact edition, unless some parenthesised instruction such as – (insert date here) –was included in the copy.

Consider also for a moment.
In a small resort in which one defined area is crowded with reporters, police, detectives, cars, dogs, film crews, news commentators, concerned locals, and foreigners whose holidays have just been terminally disrupted, . . . . . is it credible that Gusmaroli just happened upon the only person in the village who had spent an hour with the mother of the missing child only one or two days before? In the street? By chance? And spoke to her? And persuaded her to speak at length? On record? With personal details?

That would surely be a truly remarkable coincidence.

Boyd’s story does not appear in any other syndicated outlets, despite its obvious commercial value at that time. How the egregious Jon Clarke and all the other journalists swarming round PdL during those first weeks managed to miss her is not explained.


Is there something more sinister at work ?
Warning: Some of this is pure conjecture
Look back at the publication of the magazine, and the window of opportunity for the interview and creation of the article. 
To re-cap, the piece includes several existing public domain photos which would have required research and selection, plus one of the Boyd family which was taken in PdL.
It also has three pieces of space allocated to it. The main body of the ‘story’ which takes up 2 whole pages, a front page headline block, and a long piece by the editor which is one entire page.

Does it not suggest that Gusmaroli was told what the article had to include, how long it had to be, and to whom to send it ?

IN THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE CHAPTER I WROTE:-
Whether Vicky Boyd ever said the things alleged we may never know. 

BUT NOW WE DO KNOW
Mrs BOYD IS VERY CLEAR, AND SHE HAS CHECKED HER RECOLLECTION WITH HER MOTHER AND HER HUSBAND. What follows is from face-to-face real-time internet enabled communication

Gusmaroli, with many other journalists in the days following the ‘incident’, trawled up and down the beach speaking to innocent holiday makers trying to find any who would ‘give them a ‘story’. Sometime early in the week of 7th - 13th May she spoke to the Boyd family who were sitting on the beach.
Mrs Boyd recalls that Gusmaroli “didn’t stay very long” and merely “crouched or knelt down” to speak to the family.

Mrs Boyd reported that she thought she might have seen the McCann family on the Wednesday or Thursday during the morning, as they came past with some children. At that stage they did not know the McCanns. They were merely two adults with young children. Mrs Boyd recalls and reported that the weather was “lousy”, grey and cloudy.
Her son Louie engaged with one of the children with the couple for a very short time, measured in no more than seconds or minutes, and a ball was involved. The McCanns, if indeed it was them, continued on their way and the incident concluded, with the Boyd family seeking a warming coffee.

No words were spoken between the Boyds and the McCann parents. The weather was not conducive to sun-bathing, the entire contact took less than 3 or 4 minutes.

And from that Gusmaroli concocted and invented the entire story, embellishing it with totally invented details of date, time, location, activity, weather, speech, and clothing.

It is perhaps worth recording Mrs Boyd’s recollection of her reaction to seeing the article for the first time.
She reports becoming extremely upset, swearing openly, contrary to her usual behaviour, and throwing the copy into the rubbish bin. When another friend showed her the article on a second occasion Mrs Boyd again became angry and again destroyed the magazine, such was her distress at having been traduced in this way.

So far as we can discover Gusmaroli’s article was not syndicated to any other paper. It did not appear in the Daily Mail, which was a tabloid for which she used to write.
The Magazine in question, First, which was published by Emap, was launched in May 2006, but was not the success its US predecessor had been. The Editor resigned, a new editor was appointed and it was re-launched in the spring of 2007. This may explain the Special Introductory price. It makes it look as if it had miraculously “popped up” with its first or second of the new edition tailored for this particular story. But the new Editor also resigned shortly after this edition was published. It disappeared fairly shortly afterwards after a series of stories about not hitting its sales targets.

The publishers have not replied to my emails seeking clarification on a number of points.
Possibly not surprising since I was exploring the economics of sending a journalist to PdL for one 600 word article for an obscure women’s magazine. It does not seem to have been syndicated or churned by any of the usual suspects.

In the previous version of this chapter I wrote - “We shall certainly never know why Gusmaroli, a professional and experienced reporter, did not check even the most basic of the facts being related to her - if indeed they were - or write the article so that it would reflect even some of the truth, some vestige of credibility, or at the very least one or two verifiable details.”

What we can now say, based on the first hand evidence of the witness in question is this -
“We now know on the basis of firm evidence, that Gusmaroli, a professional and experienced reporter, invented almost every aspect of this article, including in it details which were manifestly untrue, and capable of being exposed as such by simple investigation.”

She is described by one of her more recent employers as having “a tradition of breaking exclusives”.
We may hope this was not one of them, and that her CV does not rely on journalism of this type.
13 
The unworthy suspicion grows that this was a highly detailed and specific commission.
But organised by whom? And when?
Would no one at Emap, the publishing company, object to being coerced or manipulated in this way ?

(Incidentally and obviously ‘a propos’ of nothing, and clearly totally coincidentally, the editor of First,
Jane Johnson, resigned from EMAP on 12 June 2007, to go to News of the World, the now defunct Murdoch tabloid, in the role of Deputy Editor and Editorial Director. Second in Command to the egregious Rebekah Brooks. The edition of 19 May would have been the last one she edited.

Given the length of time it takes to ‘’apply for’ and negotiate a career change of that magnitude, we can safely assume that she knew and had decided some time before June 2007)

14a 
14b 
14c 
But behind all this is a much more serious issue.

This is not just another in the long line of mendacious nonsense about sightings of suspects pedalled by poor journalists for cheap tabloids and populist Television shows. The outrageous mendacity and misdirection by Jon Clarke of The Olive Press has been exposed for what it is, but continues unabated.

This seems to be different.
This seems to be part of the deliberate attempt to provide false testimony that Madeleine was alive and well very specifically during the afternoon of Thursday 3rd May 2007. Its publication and distribution seems to have been timed to coincide with the release of the forged Pool photo with its altered date, and to corroborate that story.

The fact that it does no such thing is in one sense even worse – for the McCanns.

As the ‘evidence’ is analysed and dissected, only to be shown to be entirely without substance, to be invented, to be false and fraudulent, the more it becomes proof of the exact opposite.
Now we have TWO such stories, both referring to important and crucial events on one important day, but both proven to be false, and each contradicting the other.

The combination becomes yet more proof that Madeleine was already dead, 

and that desperate attempts had been put in train to conceal that fact 


It is the equivalent in a criminal trial of relying purely on an alibi as a defence. If it can be broken, you are finished.

As such it needs to be exposed and the people involved in this disgraceful act to be held to account and ultimately brought to justice.
Whether they ever will be, is, of course, an entirely different matter. 

One day, one, just one, person will be driven by a higher sense either of common decency or of overwhelming guilt at what they have done to purge their conscience and to tell the truth.

When that person does, it will be too late for everyone else involved in this disgusting charade to avoid the brickbats and the shame; the prosecutions and the sentences that will inevitably follow; the guilt by association, and the public disgrace and humiliation for all those on the periphery.

In Memoriam 

Madeleine Beth McCann. 

Abandoned and betrayed by all who should have stood up for her 

RIP little one 

† 



If you want a totally ridiculous conspiracy theory, try this

  • Murdoch, The Sun and Sky TV have always been firm and uncritical supporters of the McCanns
  • Brunt was turned from his initial dispassionate and professional reporting, and to his eternal shame became a prime player in the Brenda Leyland scandal.
  • The Editor of a little-known and failing women’s magazine is persuaded to devote several pages of one edition to a story timed to correspond with the release of the Last Photo, and to corroborate it
  • A hapless reporter is given the job of writing or of filling in some details in an article already prepared
  • A random holiday maker is selected
  • The article is published
  • The editor is immediately ‘promoted’ into the Murdoch empire with a significant increase in salary
  • As it becomes clear that all it not as it seemed, the reporter emigrates and is employed by another Murdoch outlet

All ludicrous nonsense of course, as are all conspiracy theories.


DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Danielle Gusmaroli emigrated or returned to Australia a few years later, married on Bali (according to her FB and Instagram pages) and now writes for Daily Mail Australia submitting important and in-depth articles on subjects such as homemade toothpaste, chocolate cake, cellulite thighs, wearing nappies during pregnancy, exposed nipples, and why a 10 year old girl thinks sex is disgusting.
15 
She also writes for, or is employed by the Daily Telegraph Australia, which is not a clone of the British version, but a tabloid in the stable of News Corp, which is ultimately owned by Murdoch who has been mentioned before (vide supra, Editor of First, Jane Johnson). Her articles are syndicated across southern Australia, to publications such as Courier Mail.
16 

Mrs. Victoria Boyd was easily traced from the details supplied by Gusmaroli in the article which padded out the 600 words with irrelevant and gratuitous details of the family’s full names, occupations, place of residence, previous holidays, and the names and ages of the two children. It took less than 5 minutes with google to trace the family to their home address and a contact telephone number. 

Out of common decency I will not reveal their details here.


TO CONCLUDE

I have turned this story over in my mind for a very long time. I asked other researchers to criticise it forcefully and destructively, searching for any mistake or logical error in the development of the thesis.

Could the article have been written in error perhaps as to the time, the date, or the place?
Could there have been a genuine misunderstanding, by someone, about something?
Could Gusmaroli have mis-heard, or misunderstood or misreported what she was told?

Could the meeting and the waterslide and the football perhaps have occurred on Wednesday 2nd ?
Or Tuesday 1st, or possibly even the Monday?
Sadly the answer is clear.
NO
All four days were overcast, cold and windy. On the Tuesday even Kate correctly records that it rained.
The weather reports for the Algarve are, and have always been, available on-line for anyone who wishes to look.     Including journalists and lawyers.
10 
The article is so specific, so detailed; the words used are put as direct speech in quotation marks; the interview must have been conducted when the events described were in the very recent past – probably no more than three days; ... that we must conclude that no such caveats applied, and that the article contains the story as it was intended to be told.
17 
The fact that the story is so wrong on so many levels is disturbing.

It is surely stretching credulity to propose that a seasoned reporter and a respectable woman with a family would both either agree, or allow themselves to be coerced into purposefully giving false information in the case of a missing child, when that might amount to the crime of obstructing the Police, or even Perverting the Course of Justice, and a possible risk of a heavy penalty.

In this case we have had our credulity stretched beyond breaking point many times before, but on this occasion it was worth following the story back to the 'alleged' original source.

And now we knowknow, that the respectable married woman on holiday with her extended family DID NOT allow herself to be coerced.
Her name, and that of her family, has been taken in vain.
Lies have been told. Her veracity has been impugned. She has been, in journalists' language "Set Up".
And let it be clear that Mrs Boyd played no active part in this disgraceful episode.

But as always, the journalist has been handsomely rewarded for lying about the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and probable death of a three-year-old girl.


SOME FINAL THOUGHTS TO DWELL ON

One of the things decent journalists cherish above all is a reputation for telling and uncovering the truth. They form the “Fourth Estate”, and are a vital part of a modern democracy, exercising their right to freedom of expression on our behalf, giving voice to the inarticulate, and standing up for the rights of the oppressed.

The story of what really happened to Madeleine Beth McCann is very probably the biggest and certainly the longest-lasting story that any of the journalists involved have ever covered.

IF – and of course ONLY IF – any of the journalists we have looked at so far invented a story, or distorted facts, or told untruths, or connived or agreed to do so, then each carries a heavy burden on their shoulders.

For publicly voicing doubts about the absolute and inviolable truth of the “official story” one woman was hounded to her death, a Portuguese Detective Chief Inspector was impoverished and his marriage destroyed by being put through a series of trials over six years for writing a book about his understanding of what the evidence revealed, and an old man was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for daring to tell the truth as he saw it.

And the “official story’ was supported in its so-called credibility by invented articles such as this one.

Accordingly it is surely incumbent on all the journalists involved immediately to tell the world the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about how this evidently bogus story, not to mention Clarke’s ludicrous inventions about the trench, entering the apartment and all the rest of that extended web of deceit, came into being.

Failing that, then their individual reputations as journalists will be destroyed for ever, along with the reputations of every other person, high or low, who was involved in developing and promoting this dreadful lie.

Again we have to make clear that we do not know what happened.
The world can however be very sure indeed of what did NOT happen. The evidence on that is clear.



NOTE
Before allowing this essay to be published I sent a Draft copy in .pdf format to Mrs Danielle Gusmaroli, indicating I was prepared to correct any factual inaccuracies she might identify.
Mrs Gusmaroli replied and we discussed several points in the draft, which I have now amended at her request.

As always I am ready to apologise and correct any mistakes or inaccuracies, and revise anything I may inadvertently have misunderstood or misinterpreted.

***** ***** ***** 

REFERENCES, LINKS AND TEXTS

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1
1

2    http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-20-spot-water-slide.html
3    “madeleine”. Kate McCann, Random Press, 2011, at pp. 123, 266, 272, 282 . . .

4    http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-20-spot-water-slide.html  

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Ref%2B5
5
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8
6

7    Witness statement of Gerald Patrick McCann, on the 10th of May 2007, at 3.20 p.m.
        Processos Vol I, pages 891-903 Location: CID Portimão
        http://mccannfiles.com/id192.html#sta3

8    “madeleine”. Kate McCann, Random Press, 2011, at pp. 65, 66


9    http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com.
       chapters 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 28A


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4
10

11    Danielle Gusmaroli. DELETED


12    morethanwords.com

13    https://www.couriermail.com.au/journalists
        https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/journalists
        Danielle Gusmaroli
        Senior reporter

        She enjoys a deep dig and likes to get to the heart of the matter. Has a tradition of breaking exclusives. 
          She comes from a pedigree of London’s Fleet Street newspapers and has several national awards to her name.


14.a www.campaignlive.co.uk › article › emap-puts-former-...
Jul 12, 2007 — LONDON - Emap has turned to the former long-serving editor of Now
Emap puts former Now editor in charge of First
LONDON - Emap has turned to the former long-serving editor of Now magazine, Jane Ennis, to take charge of its problematic weekly celebrity and current affairs title, First.
by Paul McNally
Ennis takes over as editor from Jane Johnson, who left the Emap magazine last month to join the News of the World as deputy editor.
First launched in May 2006, billed as a weekly magazine for women interested in more than celebrity gossip and real-life stories.
In its debut set of ABC figures, covering the second half of 2006, First posted a circulation of 100,439. Its launch target was to be selling 150,000 copies by May 2007.


14.b https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jun/13/newsoftheworld.emap
        Wed 13 Jun 2007 12.00 BST
        Jane Johnson, the launch editor of Emap's Closer magazine, is to be the new deputy editor of the News of the World.
Johnson, one of Emap's top editors who successfully launched real life and celebrity title Closer in 2002, is returning to Fleet Street after five years. She was previously an executive editor on the Sunday Mirror.
Johnson was promoted to editorial director at Emap last year, overseeing Closer and First.
She handed in her notice yesterday but no leaving date was set. Emap is looking to appoint a new editor for First.      

14.c https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/emaps-jane-johnson-joins-news-of-the-world/
        JUNE 13, 2007
        Emap's Jane Johnson joins News of the World
        The launch editor of Closer, Jane Johnson, has been announced as the new deputy editor of the News of the World.
The move is a return for Johnson to her tabloid roots. She was previously women’s editor at the Daily Mirror in the late 90s and returned to an executive editor role at the Sunday Mirror before the move to Emap.
She leaves Emap after five years in which she launched one of its most successful titles, the real life plus celebrity hybrid, Closer.
Most recently she has been drafted in to oversee the development of the company’s latest women’s weekly, First and taken a editorial director role across the two titles.
Johnson will take on the role of deputy editor and editorial director at The News of the World.

15 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.htmls=&authornamef=Danielle+Gusmaroli+for+Daily+Mail+Australia
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5
16

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/journalists/danielle-gusmaroli
https://www.couriermail.com.au/journalists

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7
17

https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-39-beyond-reasonable-waterslide.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Cammerigal likes this post

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 27.02.21 15:15

 

The Crown - v - McHaggis and McHaggis

Foreword

Regular readers may be surprised to find that I have a sense of humour, even if by some standards it is somewhat strange if not downright cruel, and on this subject it might be felt inappropriate and unfeeling.
Why would I ‘stoop’ to satire and mockery?
Let me quote what others have said about the power of humour and ridicule.

  • Ridicule is society's most effective means of curing inelasticity. Truth will prevail over it, falsehood will cower under it.      C Stone

  • One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. Ridicule is the most powerful technique the least powerful have against the more powerful.      H.L. Mencken

  • Laughter is the one thing that pomp and power can do nothing about.      C Hitchens

  • Ridicule strips the adversary of his mystique and prestige, it eliminates the adversary’s image of invincibility, and when properly directed, ridicule can be a fate worse than death.


And here are we,
powerless – in that we have no free access to the most expensive lawyers in the land;
inarticulate – in that we do not have free access to media backing;
penniless – in that we are not backed by millionaires, nor by public subscription on false pretences;

What we share is a sense of Justice and Right, and of Duty to the Truth, whatever that might turn out to be.

(Discerning readers may detect a faint aroma of Beachcomber and Private Eye.)

The Crown - v - McHaggis and McHaggis 

Preposterous Legal Disclaimer
Like most of this case, this is a work of fiction.
Any resemblance or similarity to any person invented, alive, or dead is purely coincidental.
It is based on the faithfully and accurately recorded accounts from the eye-witnesses, and the fully researched articles detailing the diligent enquiries made by experienced and reputable investigative journalists whose word is never to be doubted, disputed, or criticised in any way, even if they should individually give four different “versions of the truth”, each contradictory of the other, and even if the different journalists’ versions conflict violently and irreconcilably one with another, and with the witnesses of first-hand. Their word is to be accepted absolutely and unconditionally. 

It will therefore model itself on the “Official Story” and use exactly the same cast list of pantomime characters, imaginary baddies, contradictory and invented scenarios. It will use argumentorum ad absurdam, ad falsum, ad impossible; and the Socratic dialectical method of addressing absurdity by asking apparently naïve and simple questions – the ‘elenchus’. In this way the essential spirit of the “official story” and of the journalism may be preserved intact.

****


It is the year 2037, and the case has now entered its fourth year. 

The first three years were dedicated to opening submissions. The jury was dismissed at the end of year 2 after a series of suicides (the hangings in the Court room being particularly distressing) and severe sudden-onset mental illness had reduced the numbers to three, one of whom was stone deaf, one could communicate only in Aramaic, and the third on examination turned out to be a witness for the Defence who had walked through the wrong door some years before, and felt too embarrassed to say anything. 

We open the Court Extract at day 94 of the resumed hearing

***

The date Thursday 3rd May 2037
The Place; The Central Comedic Court, London
The Case: The Crown - v - McHaggis and McHaggis

Day 94
His Honour Mr Justice Tugendkamen presiding
The examinations begin.
Sir Desmond Gussett QC, assisted by a team of juniors, led by Mr Janus Money-Baggs, and briefed by
Messrs. Sooe, Grabbit, and Runne, Solicitors and Commissioners for Oaths,  takes out his Parker Duofold Centenial Black and Gold Trim fountain pen [£350] and opens: 
Dr McHaggis, can you describe the event of the night in question, in as much detail as you can.

Dr McHaggis: Ay, Surr, Ah went intew the aparrtament threew the paatio dooors, and then reeelized I coodn’a keep up this seelly aaaccent for veery loonng.
I went inteew the bedroom and saw ma wee bairns, then went for a wee jimmay’.
Then I cam oot agin, and fell into the deep trench reet ootside the gate. The one the Orrlive Press was warnin’ everyone aboot.

Sir Desmond : And then?

Dr McH: I met young Jasper there, with his poosh-chair and his ain wee bairn. and we gort chattin’

Sir D: Was anyone else in the deep trench?

Dr McH: Only young Ja-ane, soorry Sir, Miss Directing, She joined us exaac’ly 3 minutes and 42.836 seconds later, but yer’ understand none of us ha’ clorks wi’ us, an’ anyway we didn’a see her

****

Sir D: Thank you. Mr Lord, my learned friend Sir Dowting Gnowne-Skeptic QC briefed by solicitors Looke, Seacombe and Fynde will now examine Miss Directing 


Sir DG-S: dramatically waves his Montblanc Meisterstück Geometry LeGrand Solitaire fountain pen [£1,250], and begins:
Miss Directing. You have told the court that you saw a man carrying a child jump over the deep trench in a single bound. Did you recognise him?

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Egg


Miss D: Not really. He had a condom pulled down right over his head, like students do at parties, and that is how I was able to give such an accurate description later when they did the sketch.

Sir DG-S: (shows Miss Directing the sketch)
Have you any idea who he was?

Miss D: Oh yes. They told me his name was Pete O’Phiaill.

Sir DG-S Who did?

Miss D: The men in the trench. Dr McHaggis and Mr Fybbre

Sir DG-S: But they have said they did not see you.

Miss D: (starts to cry). They definitely said it was Pete O’Phiaill. Over and over again, for days and months and years afterwards. So it must be him. (continues crying for the next 13 years)

Mr Justice Tugendkamen chews his Bic Cristal Original Ballpoint thoughtfully [£8.69 - for a box of 50]
****

CALL Mr Jon Clerical-Erreur

Sir D: Jon without an ‘H’, I believe you have a newspaper originally called “Proves Lies”

JC-E: Yes, but we made an anaconda out of the letters and called it Olive Press. Clever don’t you think press, newspaper, press, eh, eh, eh, press, olive, oil, eh, eh, eh, d’ you get it, eh, d’ you get it?

Sir D: I think you may mean an anagram, but either way the first title suited it better. To return to the matter in hand. You described on television and direct to camera the exact position and dimensions of a deep trench.

JC-E: Yeah. It was right outside the apartment all along the road. Very long, very wide and very deep. 

Sir D: No one else was able to discover where it had been. Can you account for that? 

JC-E: Of course. When I got there there was nobody about. I was the first person on the scene. The whole village was empty until late afternoon, when a couple of journalists and an off-duty policeman turned up. Then gradually the trench got filled up with police cars who didn’t see it and tried to park there, and by the time all the film crews arrived at the end of the afternoon it was totally filled in. I was the only one sharp-eyed enough to spot it. 

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Trench


Sir D: Is this a photo of you pointing at the trench ?

JC-E: Yes. You can’t actually see the trench obviously, because I am much more important and the camera's focussed on me, but it’s definitely there, because I said it was there. Three times. And what I tell you three times is true. Any fule kno that.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Trench2

Sir D: I refer the court to Photo No 3067, showing the trench 

Sir D: You said you went into the apartment, 

JC-E: Yeah, but no, but yeah, but no, but when I said I “went in”, I meant I wanted to but I couldn’t because it was, like, taped off, like by Police, like. So I didn’t. I just looked. From the road. By the trench.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Shutters


Sir D: Do you recognise this as the photo of the front of the apartment ? [Shows photo No 1114]

JC-E: Yeah, that’s it, with the shutters all smashed and broken and forced and jemmied. That proves all the people who said they weren’t are wrong. So there. Ya boo sucks to them all. With knobs on.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Shutters2


Sir D: How do you account for the next photo which shows the shutters in perfect condition?

JC-E: Well that’s obvious innit. They got mended. Any Sherlock Clouseau could work that one out.




****
Sir D: I now call Yvonne Goolagong. – – – Ms Goolagong, you wrote an article about a waterslide, 

YG: I'm sorry your Majesty, I was on the way to check the waterslide but didn't have time because I fell into the deep trench and when I got out I would have missed the publication deadline. So I didn’t have time to see the waterslide being dismantled and taken away, which is what must have happened because by the time they took photos early that morning it had totally vanished. So that’s why I never actually saw it and that’s why there are no photos of it.

Sir D: And you wrote about Thursday being a warm sunny day.

YG: When I got there on Monday the weather was lovely . . .

Sir D: I am speaking about the Thursday before.

YG: . . . and the Tuesday and Wednesday were lovely as well. I went down to the beach . . .

Sir D: But what about the Thursday before, the day you wrote about in your article?

YG: . . . and I had ice cream and watched the people sitting in the sun. It was lovely. I chatted to Mrs Nullan Void and took some pictures. Do you want to see them?

Sir D: M’Lud, I submit . . . . . . [pause]

Tugendkamen J: What do you submit Sir Desmond?

Sir D: Nothing, My Lord. I just submit. I give in. I surrender. I am defeated.

****
Court Adjourned for the day,
His Honour Mr Justice Tugendkamen invited Sir Dowting Gnowne-Skeptic and Sir Desmond Gussett, the juniors and the instructing solicitors into the judges’ chambers for many, many, very stiff Gins.

Tomorrow’s witness list:

Mrs Nullan Void,
Mr and Mrs Fybbre,
Miss Taken and Miss Leading.
Dr D. Seatful, Mrs D. Sembling

******

TOMORROW. (WELL ACTUALLY TODAY, BUT YESTERDAY IT WAS TOMORROW). [© H. Dumpty Esq.]

The court rises. His Honour Lord Hahmercy-Honus, and Mr Justice Tugendkamen enter

Lord HMO: Can I borrow one of your biros?
Tugendkamen J: Certainly My Lord. Here’s one I haven’t chewed. You can have it for 20p



Sir D: I call Herr Wolt-disney, State prosecutor for Baden-Baden-Baden-Württemburg-Holstein-Pils.
You say you have a prime suspect and you are absolutely sure he committed the crime and deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life and then flogged, followed by a large fine, and then Community service and a Conditional discharge.

Hr W: Ja mein Herr. Off course. Ve alvays haf ze usual suspects. If you do not like zis fonn, ve haff ozzers. Like your Mrs McHaggis said. “Zis is just fonn version ov ze truce.” So ve say “Zis is just fonn prime suspect who is guilty.” If you don’t like him I haff many more. Zey are very guilty also. All ov zem.

Sir D: How exactly did you identify your suspect?

Hr W: Vee started viz Kris Brückner, but he is difficult to distingvish from Gus Mahler or Dick Wagner, so you can choose vich you vant. Ve choozed Brückner first, because he vas already in prison. So it vaz eazy.

Sir D: Oh, mein Gott. Never in the Field of Human Cornflakes was so much Drivel uttered by so Few to so Many – for so Long at such Cost.

****

Sir Dowting Gnowne-Skeptic: I call Mrs Nullan Void.
Mrs Void, Yvonne Goolagong wrote a long article in which she quotes you as saying you sat in the sun on a sun-lounger watching a girl in a blue skirt whizzing down a waterslide and then playing football for an hour with your son whilst talking to her mother also on a sun lounger. Is that correct ?

Mrs NV: Is what correct ?

Sir DG-S: Is that what the article said ?

Mrs NV: Yes. But it is totally wrong.

Sir DG-S: How can it be correct and wrong at the same time ?

Mrs NV: For journalists it is very easy. Apart from the fact that I think I may have seen Mrs McHaggis once, for a few minutes, every other of the so-called details is an invention.

Sir DG-S: Can you explain ?

Mrs NV: Easy. I didn’t sit on a sun-lounger, the weather was not hot and sunny, there was no waterslide, I didn’t speak to anyone, no one played football for an hour, and I didn’t describe any details of anyone’s clothing. Is that difficult to understand ?

Sir DG-S: So it is not true.

Mrs NV: Exactly. If I may use legal language, it is a tissue of lies, a farrago of fabrication, a crock of that which makes roses grow, a web of deceit, a fairy tale, a poisonous concoction, a REDACTED, and one giant REDACTED. And the so-called journalist is a REDACTED REDACTED, REDACTED and a REDACTED.

Or in plain English the whole thing is a LIE. Indeed it is a whole steaming series of lies. If I could get my hands on her I would make her regret having drawn me into this vile conspiracy.

Sir DG-S: M’Lud, Mrs Goolagong fled these shores for the Antipodes shortly after the article was published, and is no longer within the jurisdiction. The editor of the magazine also hurriedly left the firm. In view of that, and the unlikely nature of her ever returning to face justice may I propose that Mrs NV’s evidence be accepted at face value.

Lord HMO: sic fiat fiat

Sir DG-S: Immo domino meo. Omnium sicut verba tua

Mrs NV: Can I go home now ?

Lord HMO: Scilicet ut vos cara. Gratiam propter quod maxime sumus.
Oh, sorry. Yes, of course you may, my Dear. We are most grateful for your evidence.

Sir DG-S: Your Honour I refer the photo, No 4261, which the journalist in question claims to have taken by the pool on that day which may clarify the situation slightly. Or possibly not.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Waterslide


****

Sir D: M’lud, Kaylie McHaggis’ evidence will be given by Mrs Mackerell, of the law firm Waggoner-Scrum.

Lord Hahmercy-Honus: This is most irregular. Why can she not attend?

Sir D: M’lud I understand she is busy writing a sequel to her best selling autobiography, including a lot more pages about her own childrens’ naughty bits, which was so successful last time. And she needs the money to pay for the failed appeals to the Appeal Court in Portugal, then to the Supreme Court of Portugal and then to the European Court of Human rights. Mrs Mackerell, please proceed.

Mrs M: (Reads). “I went into the fully locked and secure apartment through the totally unlocked and insecure patio doors and found Margaret wasn’t in bed and the window was broken open and the shutters were all smashed and broken and jemmied and forced and I looked in the cupboards and under the bed but not behind the door or the sofa and I knew immediately that Maureen had been abducted by Pete O’Phaiall”

Sir DG-S: Why did your client Mrs McHaggis immediately jump to the conclusion that this was an abduction by a named individual? It sounds to me more like a missing person enquiry at that stage.

Mrs M: (Looks helplessly at the judges). I don’t know. This is just what I was told to say. They made me do it. (Begins to cry)

Sir DG-S: How exactly did they make you do it?

Mrs M: They paid me. (Continues to cry).

Sir DG-S: How much?

Mrs M: Lots. Actually lots and lots. (Begins to smile again)

Sir DG-S: Mrs Mackerell, did you or any member of your firm at any stage actually Interview your client? By which I mean question and probe, test and verify, to seek out the truth?

Mrs M: No. Certainly not. We never do anything as grubby as finding facts! Mr Abel Plantagenet said my job was just to write down what she said. And take the money. Obviously.

Sid DG-S: Well quite so.

Lord Hahmercy-Honus: Have you anything useful to add? Is there any actual evidence of anything in that affidavit? Even a smidgin or a scintilla, a jot or a tittle, a whiff or a scent, an iota or even a single grain?

Mrs M: (Starts crying again, and shuffling helplessly). No. M’Lud, Nothing at all. I was just told to keep repeating the word ‘Abduction’ and the name ‘Pete O’Phaiall’ until everybody started saying it.

Lord Hahmercy-Honus: Well it won’t work here. We don’t keep repeating Abduction just because Abduction we have heard it Abduction for the last Abduction 13 Abduction years. That is Pete O’Phaiall ludicrous. Don’t you Pete O’Phaiall agree Abduction Sir Desmond?

Sir D: Abso-Pete O’Phaiall-lutely, my Abduction Lord.

All the lawyers present now begin to twitch uncontrollably and to gibber inanely. Flecks of white froth form at the corner of their mouths. All that can be heard is “Abduction Pete O’Phaiall, Abduction Pete O’Phaiall, Abduction Pete O’Phaiall”, which makes no sense to the ambulance crews summoned to their aid, nor to the Psychiatrists at the Mental Hospital where they are subsequently treated using Alcohol Therapy.

The court adjourns

****

TOMORROW. (WELL ACTUALLY TODAY, BUT YESTERDAY IT WAS TOMORROW, AND THE DAY BEFORE THAT IT WAS THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW). [© H. Dumpty Esq.]

Sir D: Call Dr D Seatful. Please take the Oath

Dr D.S: “I promise to tell the Agreed Version of the Truth, the whole Agreed Version of the Truth, and nothing but the Agreed Version of the Truth.”

Sir D: Please tell the court about the Child-minding arrangements on the night in question.

Dr D.S: Well we all sat down for dinner and then every ten minutes someone got up and walked back to their apartment and looked at their children and then came back and then someone else went and looked at theirs and so on throughout the meal.

Sir D: Did you look at other people’s children?

Dr D.S: Let me just check (consults crib sheet in trouser pocket). Yes, I think so. Probably. Sometimes.

Sir D: So may we assume each of you collected up all the keys for all the apartments each time each of you went to check the children?

Dr D.S: Oh Bugger, we didn’t think of that. Errm, sorry. (Clears throat) That is not within my sphere of knowledge nor my area of professional competence, and I can make no further comment at this stage

Sir D: You mean it’s not on your crib sheet. 

Dr D.S: Precisely. (Pause). Oh Bugger I’ve done it again. Err, we probably just listened at the window.

Sir D: Listening for what, precisely?

Dr D.S: Sounds.

Sir D: Only sounds? What particular sounds?

Dr D.S: Well, sounds. And silence, obviously.

Sir D: What sound does a dead child make?

Dr D.S: I‘ve no idea. I’m not that sort of doctor. I’m a Plumber. 

Sir D: Oh that is useful. Perhaps after this session I could talk to you about a small prostate issue.

Dr D.S: A “Small” issue, Sir?

Sir D: Well actually quite a large one, that’s rather the point (The court laughs uncontrollably)
Would you now look at this plan prepared from the statements of all the witnesses, which shows the routes taken by you all on the night in question.
It is Chart No 9657 M’Lud. In Folio XVIII of Appendix 458, at page 893 

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Checks

Dr D.S: That appears to be in accordance with the Agreed Version of the Truth, Yes.

Sir D: Thank you. My learned friend Sir Dowting Gnowne-Skeptic will now cross-examine.

Sir DG-S: You agree that each line represents a journey from the restaurant to an apartment, or back again. How many lines do you observe ?

Dr D.S: Quite a lot, Sir

Sir DG-S: Let me help. There are ten. And if each one takes 3 or 4 minutes and we add the time taken to open the apartments in turn and check each child and then to exit and lock up the apartments and then return that amounts to how long, do you estimate?

Dr D.S: I don’t know. I’m plumber so I only have to count up to 2. 1.P, 1.S, and 2.B is our limit

Sir DG-S: Around 45 minutes. And since the first such journey did not begin until precisely 9:04 by a watch, would you not agree that for the next three quarters of an hour there was an almost continuous presence of one of more members of your group on the road, coming and going, milling about, streaming hither and thither, all desperately trying not to bump into each other or fall into the deep trench we have heard described in so much detail and so accurately by Mr Jon (without an H) Clerical-Erreur? 

Dr D.S: (consults the crib sheet). I can only refer you to the answer I gave earlier.

Sir DG-S: Which was . . .?

Dr D.S: “Oh Bugger, we didn’t think of that. That is not within my sphere of knowledge nor my area of professional competence, and I can make no further comment at this stage” 

Sir DG-S: Quite so. Is there anything else you can usefully say?

Dr D.S: Not really, except I wish I had fallen in and the deep trench had swallowed me up along with everyone else long ago.

Sir DG-S: I am sure that can be arranged.

****

Sir Dowting Gnowne-Skeptic: Mr Cowledgar. I understand you consider you are something of an expert.

Mr C: Oh yes, look you. A real exx-pert. Piii-geons, lofts, raa-cing, isn’t it.

Sir DG-S: And what did your expansive and expensive investigations reveal?

Mr C: Chlorr-oform, boyo. That the clue. Chlorr-oform. It always is. I read about it in a detec-tive

mann-ual I keep on the taa-ble by my bed.

Sir DG-S: What book?

Mr C: The Hound of the Bass-kervilles. And that’s how I knew Marr-garet was being kept by Pete O’Phaiaill, in a hell-ish lair in the law-less hinn-terlands 


Sir DG-S: Can you point to the Hellish Lair in the Lawless Hinterlands on this aerial photograph of the area? 


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Hinterlands


Mr C: [Points]

Sir DG-S: Mr Cowledgar. That is a bunker on the golf course. 

Mr C: Exactly boyo, Pee-ople there walk round hii-tting things with long clubs. That’s laww-less for you. 

Sir DG-S: My Lord, I feel we need to remember the derivation of the word Expert, It is from the Latin.
Ex, meaning a ‘has-been’ and Spurt, meaning “a drip under pressure”.

****

Sir D: Would you be good enough to tell the court your involvement in this story. 

Mrs P. O’Meana-Quicksand: (for it is she) : Ooow shȝay na ða wee gurrrul wa’ hay þen’ ∫eewww

[the language is identified as a rare western dialect of ancient Doric. An interpreter is eventually found. Living in a converted cave with a pet seal on a remote island off the Faroes, herding puffins]

The court resumes some days later.

Sir D: You say you know how the blood got on the wall behind the sofa

[Interpreter]. Aye, the midges in Portugal are huge and reely vicious, so they suck gallons o’ your blood and then smash themselves into the wall, like they do on your car windscreen and “splatttt!”

Sir D: Can you explain why no one has ever recorded this in Portugal before?

[Interpreter]. Thaaat’s orbvious. They’re wee midges, so they only go for Celtic an’ Scoorts bluud

****

Sir DG-S: I call Clarence the Cross Eye’d Liar
Why did you tell people to send cash in plain brown paper envelopes?

Mr CCEL: Well, it’s the normal way to retain anonynonynomity, isn’t it.
(By the way, did you get yours this morning, Your Honour?)

Lord Hahmercy-Onus: Mine will have to be a great deal more persuasive before I can consider coming to fully and properly independent and unbiased Verdict based purely on the evidence. See to it.

Mr CCEL: I’ll make the arrangements this afternoon Your Highness. There is sufficient left in the Fund, and if we need more we’ll get Jon (without an H) to invent another sighting. It never fails. Money floods in.

****

Sir DG-S: Dr Hurting. Will you now tell the court what happened

Dr H: No, I can’t. We have a Pact

Sir DG-S: What sort of Pact?

Dr H: I’m not allowed to say. We have a Pact.

Sir DG-S: Is it a Pact of Silence?

Dr H: I’m not allowed to say. We have a Pact.

Sir DG-S: Do you mean you are Conspiring with others to withhold evidence in a criminal case?

Dr H: I’m not allowed to say. We have a Pact. And anyway there is a Super-(inaudible) 

Sir DG-S: I’m sorry, would you repeat that. The court didn’t quite hear what you said.

Dr H: It’s a Super-inaudible

Sir DG-S: What is that exactly? 

Dr H: I’m not allowed to say. We have a Pact.

Sir DGS: It seems – There’s a hole in your bucket
Mr Hurting, Mr Hurting
There’s a hole in your bucket
Mr Hurting, a Hole

****

Sir D: My Lord, now that we have an interpreter I would like to re-call Dr McHaggis
Dr McHaggis. Some months after the event you described so clearly, two dogs detected blood and cadaver odour in many places and on many things associated with you and your family, but nowhere else.

Dr McH: They’re notoriously unreliable. We saw them. They wouldna’ go into the deep trench, just stood on the edge and wee’d on all the people who'd fallen in. And they couldna’ even find the waterslide. Useless.

Sir D: Are there specialist dogs in the medical world?

Dr McH: Och Aye. Brilliant they are. Prostates, kidneys, bladders, and now melanomas, diabetes, and loads more. And loads doing bombs and drugs and explosives.

Sir D: So why were these dogs different?

Dr McH: Well obviously they were Portuguese dogs, fed on Sardines and red wine for lunch, so they’ve got no sense o’ smell. Useless. Just like that American one.

Sir D: Dr McHaggis. These were British dogs, trained and operated by a British police officer, and recommended by a British search coordinator. And in the US case they were proven to have been 100% accurate. 

Dr McH: Oh Bugger. Is that so. I didna’ know tha’. I’ll have to get the silly wee woman to re-write the bewk. 

****

Sir D: My Lord I now move to a ZOOM call

Lord Hahmercy-Honus: What pray is a ZOOM call ?

Sir D: A modern electronic audio-visual system permitting the simultaneous viewing of many protagonists one with the other delivered through the wide web of fibre optic cables under the oceans of the world enabling communication not only of sound and speech but also of the speakers’ faces and any other intimate body parts they care to expose and also revealing their individual lack of taste in home decor. 

Lord H: I am no wiser.

Sir D: Indeed not, my Lord, But much better informed. (court laughter, including Lord Hahmersy-Honus, who has either heard it before and enjoys the old joke, or didn’t really understand what had been said)

I now call by ZOOM the : –
Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God. . .
Pontifex Maximus, Germanicus Apologistii et Colaboratum,
His Holiness Pope Pedofilus Innumerabilis

Pope P: Urbis et Orbes. Procedo

Sir D: Papa, ut ego quaeritur quod factum est. [Plebian: what happened?]

P P: Omnia referat sit obliteratus araneae vaticano, sacerdos postqua indicavit nobis facta
[Pleb: All references were erased from the Vatican website, after the Priest told us the full facts]

SirD: Gratias tibi ago, Papa [Pleb: Thank you very much, Pope]

P P: Don’t mention it, Sir Desmond. I’m so grateful to get out of the house arrest I endure. Having to wear a white frock the whole time, and never going out for a pint with the lads, or watching the rugby, and pretending to speak Latin the whole time. I’m German. I was in the [REDACTED] you know.

Sir D: So you speak English?

P P: I speak 37 languages. I just pretend I can’t so that I can listen in to what people are really saying behind my back. Very useful trick. You should try it.

Sir D: In that case, Your Holiness, may I now ask you about your relationship with . . .
the audio link suddenly goes down and the background video of a number of small choirboys appears
They are dressed in REDACTED and are seen to be REDACTED with a number of REDACTED
REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED, and REDACTED.


The court is adjourned, in confusion.

The next hearing is scheduled for 3rd May 2057. 

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Chapter 40: The Anatomy of a Revelation

Post by Jill Havern 28.08.21 19:07

Anatomy of a Revelation

Revelation; n. A surprising and previously unknown fact that has been disclosed to others. [Oxford Lexico]

The story:

Madeleine McCann suspect and ex had secret Portugal compound guarded by fierce dogs

In July 2021 the press of the world ran a story about a “secret compound” in Portugal, which they linked to the alleged suspect Christian Brückner through a tenuous contact between him and a one-time tenant of the property.

As is the way with the Tabloid press, at each iteration the story became more lurid. Household pets became a pack of savage dogs, of a type which inevitably have the most powerful bite in the world; the perfectly average and unremarkable villa became a secret hidden compound, and all the usual nonsense took over.

The story was syndicated or churned round the English speaking world, and possibly further.

A brief screen shot makes the point.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.1


Using the old Counter Intelligence service technique of red arrows to track leaks of information we find, to no one’s surprise, that they all point back to the usual suspects. . . –> Jon Clarke and the Olive Press.


Fair enough, we might argue. Clarke has followed the story almost from the beginning, and still seems to be active and keen to push the McCann version of events, so what is extraordinary about that ?

Well this.

We track back and find that Clarke had published this exact story in his own newspaper, the Olive Press, more than a YEAR earlier, 8th June 2020 to be precise, and that he posted a short YouTube video of a visit to the property in question, also dated 8th June 2020.        2, 3

The Portuguese Journalist Sandra Felgueras through her Sexta às 9 TV show presents the whole thing, of which the YouTube Video is a clip. Clarke seems now to be a regular on her show.

In the YouTube video is a figure we believe we can identify as Clarke himself, now shorn of his 1980s leftie-student long hair, standing next to a silver car, near to two friendly looking dogs. On her show Sandra interviews the Stenard family there, and later speaks to a boy who was alleged to have been living there.   https://youtu.be/scPh64slUbs

The video takes us round the plot, shows us the pool, the orchard, vegetable garden, the garage, and much more. The location is clearly indicated, allowing anyone to find it on Google Maps, or Google Earth.

The area is laid out in the manner typical of southern Spain and Portugal where once previously agricultural or unused scrub land has been re-designated for “Urbanisation”. Roads are laid out to create a right angled grid pattern with roads exactly 200m apart, allowing for plots of 100m. x 50m., resulting in 5,000m2, (half hectare, one and a quarter acres), which is often the minimum plot size on which it is permitted to build in rural areas.
Many of the plots by now have villas and pools, others have been turned over to productive fruit-culture, the houses are numbered, water and electricity supplies are in place, the major roads are metaled, the side roads graded and compacted.

Apart from a few teasing comments the video attracted little interest. Neither it seems did the article in Olive Press. And there the matter rested. A non-story, nothing to see here, move along please . . .

Now we turn and look in a different direction.

In 2021 Andy Lines, the Chief Reporter at the Daily Mirror put on his LinkedIn page
“Bored. Am only working on the periphery of the coronavirus epidemic. Anyone got any decent stories out there ? Andy.Lines@mirror co.uk. All ideas/thoughts/tips very welcome!      4

Lines has worked variously for the Mail, the Daily Express, The Daily Record/Sunday Mail and now the Daily Mirror. Given this spread of employment and networking it is certain that he is known to Clarke, professionally and very possibly personally.
Clarke is second on the list of contacts on Lines’ page, and Clarke himself admits to working for the Daily Mail from 1996 - 2000

Clarke had a ready-made story, which almost no one had bothered to read, and almost every one of those who did would have forgotten.
Now it can be presented as a Revelation
Now it can be syndicated and churned across the world – for money.
All that is needed is some photos, the addition of some Tabloid adjectives, and a bit of embellishment.

It can be brought up to date with uncheckable quotes all adding weight to the simple LIE that this is a recent event and not a warmed-up story from over a year before.

But Clarke cannot use the photos from the original article, or the video as they show a large villa, pool, parking area and friendly dogs, and the whole thrust of the re-hashed story is that this is hidden and secret. And a Compound. So much more exciting than an unremarkable villa with a pool on a standard plot in an unknown identikit urbanisation.

Instead of driving the four hours with a camera all the way back to Portugal from Ronda, Spain (where Clarke lives), how much easier to use Google Maps street view, take a couple of screen shots, crop them heavily, put your own name stamp on them, and present them as up-to-the-minute reportage on which you can no doubt claim copyright payments every time they are reproduced.

And so it came to pass.

On 26 July 2021 Andy Lines published the story in the Daily Mirror. Both the cropped image from Google Maps street view and the aerial shot are attributed to The Olive Press, Spain      5, 6

It was then churned by The Mail which ran a longer article, dated July 2021, before doing the rounds of all the other Tabloids
In it they included a screen shot of the Google Maps “satellite view’ [in fact taken from a small plane] showing the area, and demonstrating clearly that this is no more a secret hidden compound than any house on any urbanisation anywhere.

The cropped image taken from the “Street View’ of the garden area of the plot is also clearly marked and attributed to The Olive Press. Thus :– “ 📷 Image: Olive Press Spain”

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.2


In the Mail article within two sentences the number of dogs increases from three to four. Household pets become the highly unlikely most savage Kangal shepherd dogs with the most powerful bite in the world. The fact that this breed exists largely in Turkey is not mentioned.

Even more bizarre is the change of the “facts” from 2020, to 2021.
Nota Bene: for those who have not been following this saga, this is a McCann storyso no one should expect it to make any sense, or be internally coherent, let alone be verifiable from independent sources.

In 2020 it is said that the owner of the property is one Lia Silva, who let it to Nicole and Nicole’s boyfriend – Roman who was violent towards her. Despite this Nicole was involved in fostering children who lived in the villa [with the savage dogs with the world record bite ?]. When they left leaving a large rental debt, the owner had to clear away drug paraphernalia, which, in the best traditions of dealing with all traces of evidence in this case, she destroyed.

In this 2020 Olive Press version Brückner parked his Westphalia camper van outside the villa, and people were very frightened of him because he carried a gun. In spite of this he was employed in the restaurant diagonally opposite and did odd jobs for local people in return for showers, which we assume he was not permitted to take in the villa. We are told the villa has now been rented out to two Brits.

By 2021 the story has changed. Roman is now omitted, and Brückner becomes the boyfriend of Nicole Fehlinger. The story is now attributed to Herr Fehlinger,
Now we find that Nicole had access to ANOTHER “compound”, which no one else had been aware of, and this was the compound which was guarded by the savage dogs.

Herr Fehlinger, Nicole’s father, describes it . .
'"It’s an overgrown property of over 5,000 square metres. It was a secure area with fencing and four aggressive Kangal dogs were there day and night. The area is completely overgrown, not visible. No one could get in or out, only my daughter and perhaps Brückner with her.”
The secure compound is on land very close to the house where Nicole lived on the Algarve, 38 miles from Praia da Luz.’


So it is nothing more than another plot on the urbanisation. Same size. Fenced. With a dog. Like tens of thousand of rural plots in southern Portugal and Spain.
We look in vain to identify a ‘completely overgrown’ plot very close to No 89, and are entitled to ask why Nicole would have exclusive access to it, except of course to feed the four savage Turkish Kangal shepherd dogs with their world record bite. The whole area looks well tended, which given that the price for a plot may be around €30-50,000 is perhaps not surprising.

But then Clarke submits the cropped Google Maps Street View image with the caption including the typo
The Agarve [sic] plot that police may look at”, and Lines publishes it inviting us to believe this is the hidden secret compound. As it is repeated round the world, other papers fall for the same fraudulent representation.
But that image is taken from the more major of the roads – Google did not take street views of the minor ones – and is the garden area of the very villa he has been talking about, but with the villa and the road name cropped out. As is the Bed&Breakfast directly opposite.
It is emphatically NOT a hidden secret compound.
See appendix for the exact point at which this image was obtained.      7

But it is from the Olive Press.
Not to be taken too seriously.
Not very absorbent.
And strangely not very good for lighting fires.


Why does any of this matter ?
Why do we care that Jon Clarke publishes nonsense of this sort ?
Why do we care that the tabloid gutter press continues its acknowledged role of disinformation and distortion ?
Why should we care that the people of New Zealand, Australia and New York are fed nonsense ?

Is this a simple case of revisiting and revising an old story when more facts become available ?
OR is it a deliberate ‘massaging’ of the facts to make a previous story fit the ‘official narrative’ better ?

You choose.

But before you do, perhaps you should also be aware that Clarke has just published his own book, of which an excerpt has been published in The Sun. and The Scottish Sun

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/7619216/madeleine-mccann-prime-suspect-lair-shallow-grave/

From that extraordinary Chapter we see that Clarke is following the new official story, that Christian Brückner abducted Madeleine at the time and date specified so precisely by the McCanns, using unknown and unspecified means to enter and exit, and without being seen or leaving any forensic trace.

Clarke now introduces yet another element into the story.
‘I think it is highly likely that if B snatched Maddie he drove her inland to the village of Foral where she was kept for one or two weeks – perhaps by a group of paedophiles – before being driven across an unmanned border into Spain.”      8

This is of course more in line with the first “official story” of child trafficking rings which emerged early on in the investigation, but is not even in line with Clarke’s own previous story, either version 1 or 2, about the secret hidden compound in Foral.

He also sticks to the Tabloid journalistic idiocy of the “Unmanned border”, ignoring the fact that Spain and Portugal joined the Schengen zone which bans all border controls in June 1991.

We shall have to wait for the full text to be released, if we can bear to read it.


Appendix

1  Screen capture from
https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/?search=Madeleine+McCann&lang=a
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.1

2  First Article Olive Press, June 2020
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.3

3 Screenshot of the article, Olive Press June 2020
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.4


4 Linked In. Andy Lines
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.5



5 Cropped Google Street view image
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.6


6 Image superimposed onto full screen version
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.7


7 Google images of Foral
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.8

8 Praia da Luz to Foral

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Chapter%2B40.9

http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-40-anatomy-of-revelation.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Chapter 41: Who is the Fat Controller?

Post by Jill Havern 02.09.21 11:11

Who is The Fat Controller ?

One of the issues which lurks in the background of this saga and bothers researchers is the question of who it is organising and coordinating the “Official Story’; the timing of the releases of information and ‘revelations’, and the blatant invention of sightings and stories designed to give weight to the “Official Story” at each stage of its long metamorphosis.
Those who have devoted 14 years of their spare time to this Complete Mystery may be forgiven for suspecting that there is a single malign entity at the helm.

We can investigate this through the technique of Information Flow Analysis, and create some rudimentary charts similar to those generated by the ANACAPA system

We focus on the WHO ? questions
Who HAS the information? Who HAD the information?
And if someone now has it who is not a first-hand witness, what is the possible link, what is the route by which the information travelled?

It is irrelevant whether the information is true or even accurate.
Paradoxically it is more easy to track false and invented information, since there is no chance of a third party innocently having discovered or invented it for themselves.

The techniques of the “Canary trap”, and the “Barium Meal Test” are well known and documented in the world of counter-espionage and counter-intelligence, and can be used even in everyday situations.
Marking notes, numbering copies, and typing onto photosensitive paper are well known techniques.

Let us give a simple example from the workplace :–
An employee is suspected of leaking information to the press, and we know the Press are are now in possession of a copy of a document.
I prepare another document.
The original in my possession reads     “This document is not to be copied”
The copy for Employee A reads             “This document is not to be photocopied.”
The copy for Employee B reads.            “This document is not to be photo-copied”
When a copy is found I can then tell whether my secretary has copied it, or whether employee A or B is responsible. Trapped by a hyphen or a full stop.

Let us go back to the beginning

Consider the first [false] story about the forced, broken, smashed and jemmied shutters and the open window. We can be certain that this information got to the press from relatives and friends who in turn got it directly from the McCanns. Because they told us so. On the record. All of them

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1


But even if they had not told us, the McCanns were the only ones in possession of that [false] information, and so it cannot have some from any other source.

This is what they would like us to think. All very direct and straightforward, even though, strangely, McCann supporters deny this is what happened, and insist that no claim about the shutters was ever made. 

In fact what we have discovered was this.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2

We have wondered for 14 years what could possibly have possessed the McCanns to open their campaign with such a series of blatant untruths, when it must have been obvious to them, and to the Tapas 7, that they would be exposed as the sun came up, so soon as the first independent observer looked at the shutters in question.

We are thus led into a place we do not wish to be. Into a Conspiracy Theory.
Most Conspiracy Theories are nonsense, nothing more than the product of overactive minds incapable of sifting through observable facts and admitting that there are gaps in knowledge.

This is probably no different [before anyone goes rushing off to Libel Lawyers ! ]
But it may not be.

Several followers of this case have seen the influence of people who would not normally have been involved in a case of a small girl missing in a foreign country, beyond some anodyne statement that “the department is keeping the matter under review . . .”

We therefore tentatively posit the existence of some one, or some group, manipulating and controlling the entire Saga, right from the start.
We have no idea who he, or she, or they may be, though several of the Usual Suspects present themselves.

Let us for sake of lightheartedness, and to show that we are not necessarily being serious, refer to this person or entity as The Fat Controller.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 3

Now the story involving the shutters, relatives and Press begins to look different.

The Fat Controller must be in possession of the truth from the start, and will then work out a strategy of misinformation to push into the public domain the “Official Story” we know only too well by now.

https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-3-curtains-door-and-windows.html

**

Applying this possibility, ridiculous as it may be, to other episodes may help to make clear what was previously obscure. In the Gusmaroli story we may seriously suspect the presence of a controlling hand.

https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-20-spot-water-slide.html

Gusmaroli cannot POSSIBLY have known about Madeleine’s clothing either on Sunday 29th April, or on Thursday 3rd May.
She was not told it by Mrs Boyd, who had no reason to recall it, nor by the McCanns.
Therefore . .
Someone TOLD Gusmaroli what to include.

The fact that Gusmaroli’s story is slightly at odds with the image in the Pool Photo is not important.
The fact that the story includes a top and skirt rather than a swimming costume, a sun hat, and includes the slide even though it is identified as a “waterslide”, rather than the one on the Wendy House is paradoxically an indication that she did know what she had to include.

Similarly with the day and date and time of the alleged encounter.

After 14 years of research and investigation we know that the Pool Photo was not and cannot POSSIBLY have been taken at lunchtime on Thursday 3/5/7.
So who told her to include that exact time, day and date ?

This is what Gusmaroli would like us to believe


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4


In fact we now know that the Information Flow Diagram should look more like this, with Mrs Boyd giving a very limited amount of information, but Gusmaroli inventing the “facts”.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 5


The possibility of a Fat Controller might make the whole episode more comprehensible.
The information can ONLY come from the McCanns, and has to reach Gusmaroli somehow


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6


At its simplest it might look like this. G&K pass accurate information to The Fat Controller, who then gives instructions to Gusmaroli to ensnare an unsuspecting Boyd, and pass the false report to First.

But it becomes increasingly likely that something more complex is involved
The Fat Controller is now also controlling G&K, and probably First, to remain in control of the whole thing.

And the reason for this is that the same Fat controller who organised the First article must also have been involved in the alteration of the date of the Pool photo, so that the two things coincided in time and place, as well as in details of clothing.
Again, the fact that the article got scrambled and distorted does not detract from this.

To digress slightly on this point.
It is not difficult to see how the Gusmaroli story ended up as it did
Picture if you will, the scene.

***

(A phone rings.)
This is Roger. Listen carefully, I shall only say this once ! You are to say that after lunch on Thursday 3rd May Madeleine was wearing a sun hat, a pink top, white shorts, and was with her mother and playing on the slide in the play area next to the pool.
Have you got that?
G:
Err Yes. I think so, pink hat, sun top . . . can you say it again, Roger, and I’ll just write it down
Roger:
NO. This call did not take place. There must be no record of it anywhere, and you must never admit it took place. That is extremely important. You must never discuss it with anyone. Do you understand ?
G:
Roger, Roger. I’ll Just keep repeating it until I get back to the apartment and my lap top –
(Replaces phone)
Straw hat . . No, that’s wrong, pink Sun hat, pink top, um, dress, … No, skirt, . . . mother on the slide in the pool after lunch. No that's wrong. Mother is watching so must be on a sun chair
Yes that’s it. Sun hat, pink top, skirt, slide into the pool, after lunch, sun chair - what’s a sun chair?
Sun hat, pink top, skirt, waterslide, afternoon, sun-lounger
Sun hat, pink top, blue skirt, waterslide, afternoon, sun-lounger


***
This will be familiar to almost everyone. As with the party game of Chinese Whispers peripheral details get lost and added. Sometimes an original detail re-appears, particularly when it is an obvious or likely addition.

The close coordination of the timing of the release of the Pool Photo and the Gusmaroli / First article might lead us to suspect something like this.

Here we can track the flow of information in the two simultaneous events, with the Fat Controller coordinating the two stories. On the left is the Gusmaroli / First story and in perfect synchrony on the right is the preparation and release into the public domain of the Pool Photo, with its all important DATE in the EXIF Metadata

For those who need reminding, none of this could have happened between 10pm and midnight on Thursday 3/5/7. This took some considerable time to coordinate.
https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-39-beyond-reasonable-waterslide.html

The Photo was released on 23rd May, and the first Magazine appeared on the shelves on 21st May


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 7


****

Now let us think back to the egregious Jon Clarke and his part in this sorry saga. We find several indications that he may have started as a bit of a maverick, operating outside instructions in the early days, but then that he was reined in tighter as time went on.

His nonsensical lie about the deep trench directly outside the apartment, repeated on the Netflix film, for example, DIRECTLY challenges the “official story” in that it implies the possibility of the Woke and Wandered followed by accident scenario, but with the body being unaccountably missed by searchers, dogs, police and family over the next weeks and months, even though it lay within two metres of the gate.

https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/07/chapter-33-jon-clarke-entrenched-lies.html

His three (at least) different lies about meeting and speaking to the McCanns add nothing, except to underline his habitual mendacity.

But later there are indications of higher control. We recall that he wrote exclusively for News Corp, the Murdoch press, despite having a young newspaper of his own. Whether that is a factor we may never know.

Read again the chapter on the Angolan Bouncer. Clarke uses a risible and pathetic passive evasive construction when his explanation consists of “I found myself inadvertently interviewing an Angolan chap”.

Claiming to have “found myself” in Huelva, more than 3 hours drive from home, and “interviewing” a man who claims to have material evidence in the case of a young girl abducted by Paedophiles – “inadvertently”, is a ludicrous distortion of language. It is simply not true, as we have sadly grown to expect from him.

To re-cap as briefly as I can, the Angolan was handing in to the Spanish police, in the presence of his lawyer, a dossier about an international child-smuggling ring which had taken Madeleine to the USA. Clarke wrote a lurid story complete with full face photo, and strangely, a photograph of the gentleman in question in an office with piles of documents on the desk in front of him. That he did this to a man allegedly in fear of his life, or at least of losing some more teeth, emphasises what we all really suspect about the story.

We were given no details of location, persons present, time, date or anything which would enable further enquiries to be made. Only the gentleman’s full name. That enabled a quick internet search which revealed that one of the mainstays of the story – that he had “fled to Spain” (or perhaps – just crossed the invisible and unmanned border between two Schengen area countries) was an invention, by one or the other of the people concerned, as it was clear that not only had he lived in Huelva for some some, but had been instrumental in the success of the local basketball team in a Regional or National competition a year or so before.

Again this has all the hall marks of coordination, or Command and Control, by The Fat Controller
Let me summarise from the Chapter
https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-34-decline-and-fall-of-modern.html

Consider:
Ronda to Huelva is 223 km, by car. Approx. 2 hours 40 Min. Allowing for time to park, locate protagonists, coffee, comfort, introduction and explanations we can safely allow 3 hours. Each way.

If we then suppose an absolute minimum of 2 hours interview, in order to investigate, to probe and cross check the information being supplied, read the dossier, discuss with the lawyer what details could and could not be published, organise and agree the photographs, and negotiate and finalise contract for the fee payable both to the interviewee and his lawyer, we are looking at a full 8 hour day.

What can we deduce ?
Someone had to learn of the events about to take place; or to make sure they did;
had to speak to the Angolan Bouncer and/or his lawyer;
had to contact a friendly and complaint journalist;
had to coordinate the date, time and place of the interview;
had to ensure an interpreter was present, or was not necessary;
had to arrange fees and expenses for interviewer AND interviewee;
had to ensure that the finished article was sent to The Sun and nowhere else;
and much much more.

This did not happen by accident or happenstance.

Is not this more likely ?

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 8
The same hand is seen controlling and coordinating. The question is who is The fat controller

And again, to labour the point with another blatant example
Go back to Clarke’s first visit to PdL. I recap from Chapter 32

Clarke claims in print on the record to have arrived at 11:45.
We charitably supposed he meant Spanish time (BST + 1), which gives us 10:45 Portuguese Time (BST = WEST)
But that implies that he left home at 0730 Spanish, 0630 Portuguese

In fact he is known and can be proved to be in PdL at the absolute latest by 0945 Portuguese time, 10;45 Spanish, which implies he must have left home at 0630 Spanish, 0530 Portuguese and UK, well over an hour before he claims to have left.
If we allow for time for Clarke to find PdL, find the locus, park, find relief, orientate himself, meet and introduce himself to the GNR officers and present his journalistic credentials, meet and introduce himself to the several other journalists who were – contrary to his repeated lies – gathered in front of the apartment building [ He is on film doing this] then the time may be pushed back at least another 15 or 30 minutes
His fuller story was that he received one or more phone calls, and that “I was on the road half an hour later”.
As I showed in Chapter 32 this puts the time of the phone call/s at 0600 Spanish time, or 0500 Portuguese and British time, at the very latest.

So by 0500 the British press – as a whole not just one paper – knew, knew, that this story was worth sending a journalist from a neighbouring country. They had had time to brief the various levels of organisation, trawl their contact lists, and to select a pliant reporter, even though he lived 4 hours away, when Len Port another ex-pat reporter, who speaks Portuguese, lives less than 20 minutes from PdL.
This again pushed the knowledge of the importance of the Story to 0400,

Which in turn makes the suggestion of planning by a Fat Controller rather less ludicrous.

There is very high level censorship and involvement in this case.
Someone organised Carter-Ruck to officially offer “pro bono” legal help.
The saga has involved one death, possibly two, possibly more; Libel actions resulting in awards of substantial damages; One High Court case leading to a sentence of imprisonment and financial ruin; Books banned from the Amazon website; books banned from sale; comments banned from on-line news outlets. One emigration.

There is no doubt that the pressure on journalists will be now be very great to continue to toe the party line and push the “Official Story” even as it changes and bends with the prevailing winds.
After 14 years how many of them would willing admit they were wrong all along and name and shame the organisers ?

Should one feel a certain sympathy ? Perhaps. Or perhaps not.

The question remains unanswered –

Who is The Fat Controller ?


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 10

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Chapter 42: 'My Search for Madeleine' - Jon Clarke. Some first impressions

Post by Jill Havern 20.09.21 8:18

Chapter 42: 'My Search for Madeleine' - Jon Clarke. Some first impressions


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 JC%2Bmy%2Bsearch%2Bfor%2Bmadeleine


'My Search for Madeleine', Jon Clarke. 2021
Some first impressions


* Stylistically it is a strange mixture.
 
It starts with more formal documentary account of events over a decade ago, and at times we have a recollection of having read parts before, a long time ago. Nothing wrong with copying and pasting one’s own words of course. It ensures that the meaning and details are not distorted by passage of time.

Then there are passages which are more gentle, even amusing and self deprecatory. He adopts a ‘matey’ style, with somewhat loose grammatical construction and syntax.

It is marred at times, as is so much of Clarke’s work, by viciousness and vituperation, and his pathological venom-spitting hatred of anyone who seeks to question either him or the “official narrative”, using all the well worn clichés, “evil, vitriolic minds behind this filth”“his gang of trolls”, “and all the usual restricted vocabulary employed by those who will not, or cannot argue the case in a civilised manner. He adds the obligatory ad hominen attacks and repeats one or two well rehearsed lies, several of which have been discussed in other Chapters about Clarke and his progressive distancing of himself from the normal rules of veracity.

The first third is also a litany of all the suspects so far named and eliminated.
Murat, (of whom more later), Malinka, Walczuch, vonAesch, Hewlett, Ney, even Monteiro are all listed and examined but only in the sense that their alleged involvement is detailed.
Not, ‘and that’s an emphatic NOT’, in the sense that their eventual elimination from the enquiry is stressed or even grudgingly noted. It is as though Clarke is hedging his bets in case anyone in his book turns out to have been in any way involved in anything.
He quotes Paulo Rebelo, through ‘sources’ as saying he believed that ‘Russian child traffickers’ might be involved. And then adds “He might turn out to be correct”, and leaves hanging and unresolved the re-hashed story about the Angolan Bouncer and taking Madeleine to the USA.
Neat.

He grudgingly admits that Robert Murat, the man whom he personally helped to frame for a crime which may not even have been committed, “Looks as though [he] is innocent”.
You have to wait until p. 124 and the Netflix Nonsense before you find Clarke admitting his part, and “making an impromptu apology to him for effectively ruining his life.”


* And then we come to the Second part of the book.


Chapters 14 to 46, some 190 pages out of the 265 are devoted to the pursuit of a single person. A new suspect, but only in the minds of Clarke and H. Wolters, a German State Prosecutor.

He is, so far as I know, not a suspect in Portugal, nor probably in London, but Clarke seems totally convinced that this suspect is somehow better than all the previous ones.

This second two thirds of the book changes into a lengthy travelogue. The style changes again into the contemporary historical present with a suspiciously large amount of direct speech. Suspicious because with the possible exception of the interview with H. Wolters which may have been recorded with permission, it is unlikely that any of the direct quotes, in full quotation marks, are any such thing. Unless Clarke is wired for sound the whole time, of course.
But it is a style were are familiar with, and we must accept.


* In terms of Investigation it is a mixture.


Never once does Clarke question the abduction story. But also never once does he actually set out in print what the full story actually IS. What would have been involved, what the MO is thought to have been.

He appears to have swallowed the whole story that the shutters were forced, despite being on film watching the scenes-of-crime girl trying to find a single print on obviously intact shutters. He was there. He saw, but as Sherlock Holmes says to Watson in “A Scandal in Bohemia’ “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.”
Clarke saw, but he then seems to have assumed.

He styles himself as an Investigative journalist, but sometimes as merely a ‘stringer’ – one who “contributes reports, photos, or videos to a news organisation on an ongoing basis but is paid individually for each piece of published or broadcast work” WIKI.

Here in the first third of the book he has failed to investigate anything much.
And that which he did he got tragically and disgracefully wrong, identifying a man (Murat) as a suspect, having him interviewed, made “arguido”, hounded by the Tabloid press and universally vilified, and eventually awarded £600,000 in damages against the very tabloid papers for which Clarke had written, purely on the basis of an observable disability, and in Clarke’s own words “ruined his life”.
Clarke confesses that it was he, rather than Lori Campbell, who set it all in train.
They should both bow their heads in shame. People have resigned for less.


The second two thirds are a complete contrast. Here, although he is single-mindedly pursuing one man and filling in a mountain of background detail about him, he seems not to worry that the link between the reported disappearance of Madeleine and Christian Brückner is tenuous at least, even if, as Clarke apparently does, he believes there was an abduction in some vague unspecified way in some vague unspecified time frame.

It would be too easy to dismiss this as a witch hunt.
A child has died. Let’s lynch the local village idiot, and drown the old women with Alzheimers who talks to her cat and doesn’t wash.

But what is the difference between that and “A child has been reported missing. Let’s lynch the guy with the funny eye, and the bloke who steals diesel and goes to raves and smokes pot.”

Brückner may be involved in something. I have no evidence either way.
But until someone explains exactly what that something IS that he is supposed to be involved IN, we should all retain open minds and continue to ask the questions of those who are secure in their own pre-judgment.

The undoubted fact that he is not the sort of person with whom one would wish to have anything other than purely professional dealings, is undoubtedly a pervert, is probably severely psychologically damaged as Clarke catalogues, and has been convicted of a string of heinous crimes and misdemeanours, does not make him automatically guilty of every unsolved crime in Europe.

Clarke tries to suggest he is guilty of the unsolved disappearance of René Hassée, the little boy clearly washed out to sea at Aljezur, and even, almost incredibly, of the solved murder of Joanna Cipriano.
As one of the Tapas 7 said “I’m not making this up”.

Clarke’s description of Kate McCanns book as “excellent”, and of the Summers and Swann pathetic re-hash of existing statements as a “detailed benchmark tome” may give us an idea of the standards he applies.

There are several strange and jarring grammatical errors and malapropisms which an educated and experienced wordsmith or his editors and proofreaders should perhaps have found.
“. . . it was frustrating that despite Lori and I appearing to have almost cracked the case . . .”
“. . . sinister letter to my wife and I . . .”
“. . . they eyed Lawrence and I up suspiciously.”

are sub-O level, grammatically and structurally.
Of DCI Amaral’s book –
“which he wrote on retirement from the force and which must be viewed as extremely sceptical - “
is simple illiteracy. I think I know what he intends to convey but it takes some working out.



* And then there are the simply straightforward factual errors. 

Every one of these can be checked independently, and most people who have followed this case over the 14 years know the truth.
Clarke has exactly the same access to all the files and the reports as everyone else, and very probably much more. He is surely well aware that some of these are not true, and they therefore qualify as Lies.

“Amaral - who later wrote a lucrative book claiming the McCanns killed their daughter. . .”
He did NOT. His book suggests at worst accidental death and concealment of a body. Relatively minor offences. Nothing more.
“Amaral – who made enough money from his book to buy a new house”
He did not. Either make enough money, or buy a house

“It emerged that his [Murat’s] lazy eye was in fact a glass eye…”. [my emphasis]
It is not. Robert Murat has a detached retina and has no sight in the eye, like Gordon Brown and Admiral Lord Nelson. The eye is intact. It simply doesn’t work.
Murat explained this himself in detail at the Cambridge Union debate in 2008 and it was widely reported and is still on-line in the Guardian archive. [see Link, or google ‘Murat glass eye’ and read No 1]
Despite that the myth persists amongst the gutter press, and part of his speech was about how the Tabloids had ‘spoken to school friends’ which is Tabloid for totally invented stories, of his taking it out and rolling it round the playground.
But Clarke is clearly of that breed. He writes for and is paid by the red tops, Sun, Mirror and Mail, and has done for decades, so he doesn’t need to concern himself with facts or details too much. The truth washes over him without even cleaning off any of the dirt.

Although Clarke is happy to describe everyone else as Conspiracy Theorists, he is free with the most often used of their techniques. That of posing a question to which there is no immediate answer, and using that to form the foundation of the next part of the theory.
“Because we cannot yet fully understand the building of Stonehenge/Pyramids/Macchu Picchu (delete as appropriate) – – could it be that extra-terrestrials were at work. Only they surely had the advanced technology needed to move the stones/ flatten them/carry them to the top of the mountain.
And what did these beings look like, and where did they come from ?
 – note how it has now changed from a vague falsifiable suggestion into an accepted fact.

Consider these, a tiny sample of the whole

“Could it be that he discovered something he shouldn’t have, and got silenced ?
“Could he have been involved in some sort of child sex ring himself ?
“And could he be the same blond friend who . . .
“. . .could he be involved in Brückner’s crimes
“. . .could he have been working for a larger number of accomplices involved ?
“… may [sic] he have made considerable amounts of money from snatching her ?
“Regarding the gun, could this be the same one . . .
“Could this be the mystery business man ?
“Could this be the evidence that makes the German police so certain she is dead ?
“Could it be she found photos of Maddie ?

I don’t know Jon. You are the Investigative Journalist. Tell us. Or tell us you don’t know.

And then there is the list of TTBD. Things to be Done. Unfinished business.
For Clarke this involves digging up half of the Algarve and most of Niedersachsen.

This is just one paragraph.
”Why haven’t they excavated his infamous Yellow House in Praia da Luz? Why haven’t police dug up Villa Bianca in Foral where he spent considerable time? . . . Sabine Selllig has pleaded with police to dig up the grounds of the allotment home he lived in in Braunschweig . . And nothing.”
elsewhere -
“I haven’t seen any activity around here, no excavations, no police, no searches,”…
“ I expect the police will come and dig the place up at some stage . . .”
“Why hasn’t more been done on the grounds in Portugal, and Germany digging up Brueckner’s former properties and places of interest, looking for evidence ?”


There are lots of cellars and tunnels, and secret hiding places, real Indiana Jones and the Missing Child stuff, though sadly the Secret Hidden Secure Compound with the four largest and most dangerous dogs in the world with their world-record bite don’t merit a mention, even in passing.
Which is a shame. I was looking forward to them.

There is an entire chapter on the Casa Pia case. But after six pages it ends in the rather plaintive sentence
“But it didn’t solve the mystery of Maddie.”
Well, no. Nothing at all to do with it.

So it’s a bit messy, a bit mixed. Sometimes episodic, sometimes a chronological travelogue, other times thematic. For someone who has not followed the story so far it could be confusing.
But as someone once said “Confusion is good”.

And of the McCanns ?
“I never wavered in my belief that the parents were innocent.”
“Because I believed the McCanns were entirely innocent . .”
“Whilst the documentary didn’t have a knockout punch it did raise a number of key issues . . . .the family were almost certainly innocent . .”


And of H. Fülscher, defence lawyer for Brückner ?
“eccentric”

And of the unending innuendo ?
“he said some things. . . and about his private life – but he insisted I did not publish them. I have agreed not to.”
“why he left in 1999 is open to conjecture, and it would be unfair to print any of the gossip . . .”
“There was something very dark about W. . ., I wish I could ask W, who was gay and had a younger boyfriend, but he died in 2017”


Easy isn’t it Jon? Lucky that most of the rest of humanity finds it unacceptable.

But I shall follow it up in the next Chapter. Out soon. Free.


LINK

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/mar/06/tabloids-madeleine-mccann-robert-murat


https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-42-my-first-impressions-of-jon.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Chapter 43: My Search for Madeleine McCann – Jon Clarke. The framing of Robert Murat

Post by Jill Havern 20.09.21 8:20

Chapter 43: My Search for Madeleine McCann – Jon Clarke. The framing of Robert Murat


'My Search for Madeleine' – Jon Clarke

The Framing of Robert Murat by Jon Clarke


What follows is from Jon Clarke’s new book, much of it in his own words.

Readers must decide for themselves whether this is ‘well within the bounds of normal. . .’ journalism, or is something more egregious that should be exposed as the grubby money-grabbing gutter-press tactics it seems to be.

For the last 14 years those who have followed this dreadful case have been wrong in one significant particular. We had all believed that Lori Campbell of the Sunday Mirror was the origin of the case developed against Robert Murat, the ex-pat who lived in Praia da Luz and stepped forward to help the McCanns and the police by interpreting between English and Portuguese.

Murat lives a short distance away from the centre of activity, was well known in the area through his business as an estate agent, was divorced and had a daughter about the same age as Madeleine. He tried to help.

For his pains he was identified as ‘strange”, then identified as the person who had taken Madeleine, then had a campaign of investigation stirred up against him, resulting in his house being searched, his private life being exposed, his being interviewed and given ‘arguido’ (formal suspect) status, equivalent to being ‘Under Caution’ in the English system, being vilified and abused in the British Tabloid press, until eventually the PJ realised he was nothing to do with the case, released him from his status, and he subsequently won damages from the press who had hounded him for so long.

Initially Lori Campbell took apparent pride in having been the first to point him out.

With the publication of Clarke’s book we find he claims that extremely dubious “honour” for himself.
So in yet another part of this murky story the red arrow points back to Clarke.

In his book Clarke describes himself as starting as a “stringer’, a free-lance reporter. He then styles himself as a Journalist, and an Investigative journalist,
But from his arrival at PdL his clearly stated aim is not to report, or investigate the circumstances to find out what happened and who might have done it –
It is to FIND MADELEINE, to SOLVE the case.
“One Reporter’s 14-Year Hunt To Solve Europe’s Most Harrowing Crime”
and at page 24 – including the hilarious malapropism –
“From the very first moment I arrived in Praia da Luz that May morning in 2007, my overbearing [sic] drive was to solve the mystery and find young Maddie.”

(We must remember that in Clarke’s world the one to find Madeleine gets the prize. Not just a fat cheque for an article, but acclaim, TV shows, endless interviews, book reviews. . . It is worth a fortune – to anyone other than a Police officer. This is a man who freely admits and seems proud of having sold ‘stolen’ photos of an intensely private and intimate moment between two people and buying his family home with the proceeds. Some people’s moral compass apparently allows them to exist like that.)

Suddenly, without even changing clothes in a phone box, he has transformed from mild mannered reporter Jon Clarke-Kent into a latter day Supersleuth dedicated to “The never ending battle for truth, and justice. . .” The Righter of Wrongs and Solver of Crimes.
But perhaps Clarke-Kent should take heed of another Super-hero’s words. “With great power, there must also come great responsibility."
Clarke does have great power. He owns a newspaper, and has access to the Tabloid press of the UK, and the English speaking world. Even if his words are challenged the damage has been done, they remain in print and on-line forever. What he says stays said, and cannot be un-said. That is Power.

But he isn’t a detective. He has never done the job, has no experience of how it actually works. He may have seen it in operation, but clearly has no understanding of the mechanism, hence his endless criticism of the slow pace of the investigation.

There is nothing inherently wrong with Morse, or Miss Marple, or Lord Peter Wimsey, nor yet with Sherlock Holmes or Maigret. It is just that they are fiction. They include some cracking good stories, but they are just that. Cleverly constructed stories.

Real detective work is largely grindingly slow attention to detail, relevant or not, endless TTBD (things to be done), statements from people who clearly have nothing at all to do with the actual case but who must be eliminated so that ultimately you DO follow Sherlock Holmes and think – “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” (Case Book of SH)

And that is what Clarke and others like him do not understand.
In the TV and Tabloid world the Ace Detective solves a major crime in 28 minutes, including the commercial break, and usually by going down one single track, and finding success at the end.

That can happen of course, but it is usually either coincidental, or the case was so obvious from the start that little background work was necessary.
*******

Anyone who starts from 10pm Thursday 3/5/7 and accepts uncritically that Madeleine McCann was abducted from her bed sometime during that evening is at a huge advantage.

The brilliance and ease of this approach is that you then do not have to concern yourself with the lack of evidence, or with the contradictions in the statements. You do not even have to consider the evidence which points away from that. Because you start AFTER the event.

You do not have to construct or explain a detailed scenario, and you can happily condemn as trolls or evil or incompetent anyone who does not follow what you KNOW, because you have been TOLD.
Like the GNR, the PJ, the MetPol, the State Prosecutor, The Appeal Court, the Supreme Court, the compilers of the “Gerry McCann’s blogs”, “Nigel’s McCann files”, and the host of discussion fora.
You can dismiss them. All evil vicious trolls pedalling filth.

Because you know better.
You know Madeleine was abducted, because someone said so, even though they have not provided you with sufficient evidence for you to think it through and to agree or disagree.
It becomes a matter not of mere Belief, but of Faith, and therefore anyone who says anything different is automatically a Heretic, an Apostate, and Infidel, and as in a well known Bronze Age religion can be condemned to death.
As was the late Brenda Leyland. RIP.

When someone produces concrete evidence which disturbs the original article of Faith, it challenges the very foundation of that Belief and you have no choice but to lash out and silence them. Never can you be seen to allow questions which attack the Belief, and never can you be put to the test of replying or offering counter-evidence.

You Know you are Right, and everyone else is Wrong. It is as simple as that.

And we have seen it many times. In newspapers and in this book, and in the courts, McCanns v. Bennett, and McCanns v. Amaral and others, where there was no attempt to argue the central issue. Both were clever legal manipulations and became about a procedural issue in the first case, and personal rights to reputation in the second. The question of the alleged abduction was not put, though on the record the judge in the first, Tugendhat J, took the point himself and as he passed judgment in the way the law forced him to, mused about the legal position if Madeleine had NOT been abducted.

(We can help him there. There will have been multiple cases of Perjury, conspiracy to commit Perjury, Malicious Prosecution, and Wrongful Imprisonment as a consequence. The punishment will be condign. The damages exemplary and punitive.)

****

But then there are a few Believers who also clearly recognise the difficulty of creating a credible scenario, and struggle to fill in the blanks to maintain the Belief whilst staying sane.
They stick with the bare outline of the Belief, but are then forced to invent or imagine other elements to make it in any way workable.

For this reason the very small window was officially abandoned quite early, as were the broken shutters.
For this reason the unlocked patio door became the focus.
For this reason the ‘note in reception’ which has never been made public, becomes important.
Then there must have been two people involved, or possibly more acting as lookouts
Then the children must have been drugged
Then someone must have been watching all week
And from there they must have been ‘taking notes’
There must have been someone in the Tapas Bar signalling, or communicating with the abductor/s
There must have been a minibus or camper wagon,
and so on
Every one of these has been seriously suggested, and printed in the Tabloid press. It becomes increasingly absurd, but to maintain the core Belief there is no option.

The parallels with religious faith are all too clear. Religions usually have a underlying core principle like the Christian one – “Be nice to people” – but then surround themselves with ‘fairy stories’ about flying horses, hyperspace travel, footprints in stone blocks, revelations, visits from angels, serial immaculate conceptions, resurrections, miracles and all the rest, designed to fill in the gaps when children start asking difficult questions.



****
Let us look at what Clarke-Kent, the alter ego of the fearless Supersleuth did in those early hours of his visit.
I make no apology for the length of the three separate excerpts, as they are important in understanding the extent of Clarke’s egregious involvement in the framing of Robert Murat.

“No names in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are as distinctive – or as controversial and memorable – as Robert Murat’s. . . Now, I want you to picture the scene and how exactly this 34 year old emerged as suspicious on my radar. After being largely blocked at the Ocean Club reception, I had walked up to the junction of the block, close to the front door of Apartment 5A, when, bang, he was there. Slightly scruffy and dishevelled, and with what looked like a lazy eye, he was earnest, excited and definitely over-friendly; he immediately asserted himself as being an important source in the ongoing search.” . . .


”Over a ten-minute chat, Murat told me more about the family, and the friends the McCanns were with. He explained that Gerry and Kate were doctors – he a cardiologist and she a GP – from Leicestershire and were on holiday with three other families, including eight children. He explained that they had been having dinner at the tapas restaurant in the grounds just below their apartments, checking on the kids every so often.”. . .

“Why did the police, resort and family allow him to traipse around Apartment 5A leaving his fingerprints and DNA all over a potential crime scene? Was he appointed by the now-disgraced police officer Goncalo [sic] Amaral? It didn’t make sense.”

Let us start from the third paragraph.
Is there any evidence that Murat was “allowed to traipse round the apartment” ?
It was sealed off around 2am, after the McCanns and all the Tapas group had been thrown out, and even Clarke himself admits in one of his three different Versions of the Truth, that he did not gain entry because of the Police tape.
So we may file this with Clarke’s normal sneering innuendo and nonsense.


The second paragraph is more revealing. Here Clarke admits that the information he had about the abduction came from Murat, and not from any formal briefing or personal contact with the police or a Tapas member. Yet he assumed it was factually correct and evidentially credible. Why ?

But it is the wording in the first paragraph which is revealing.
“Slightly scruffy and dishevelled, and with what looked like a lazy eye . . he was earnest, excited and definitely over-friendly:”

Clarke’s normal mode of dress and standard of personal grooming might be excusable if, as an Investigative Journalist, he believes he might blend in. But for him to describe anyone else as scruffy and dishevelled as a pejorative statement is something the reader may judge against his well documented standards of personal grooming and sartorial elegance.


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Jc%2Bscruffy


And then there is the “lazy eye”

A short Digression on disability and facial deformity

The Copper’s Nose, or the Ability to Sniff out a Wrong ’un is not innate. It is acquired from long and regular contact with criminals and liars. The art or skill has been studied academically at various times, and relates to facial expressions, body language, gross and minor bodily movements during speech, identifying mismatches between what is being said and what the other signs are indicating, and much more.
Even the most obvious and frequent signs of scratching the nose, pulling the ear or touching the face are now better understood at a physiological level caused by Adrenaline rush leading to localised dilation of capillaries resulting in a feeling of heat in those areas, and the involuntary need to touch to ensure there is nothing ‘wrong’.

If a person has a physical deformity, facial injury or a disability, it is important not to misinterpret these signs.

On TV and film deformity and facial scarring have long been a ‘trope’ for criminality or evil. Think of the Orcs v. Elves in ‘Lord of the Rings’.

60% of American film villains have facial injury, the majority of Bond villains do, and this trope got so hackneyed that in 2018 the BFI – British Film Institute – announced it would no longer fund films including villains with facial scars. (In the first books Bond himself had a long scar down his right cheek, though never on screen). It is a lazy stereotype, and has no place in a world which embraces difference and diversity, and seeks to be more understanding of disability.

There is a suggestion that the duelling scars on the left cheeks of many German Generals in both World Wars from their student days may have helped perpetuate this trope. The clubs exist to this day – ‘Burschenschaften”.

**
Robert Murat lost the sight on one eye in an accident as a youth. The retina became detached, and he lost the sight of the eye. He did not lose the eye. It remains in place and “healthy”.
Exactly as did Gordon Brown, and Admiral Lord Nelson. None of them used an eye patch.

However, over the years, because it is not being used actively, only passively in tandem with the working one, the six orbital muscles lose their tone, and the eye becomes ‘lazy’ in common parlance. It follows, but not as accurately as the other, and will not ‘focus’ on the same spot.

Humans with good vision are acutely aware of where another person is looking. Children often play games talking to a friend but looking at their ear. It can be acutely disturbing, as is looking directly at a person but focusing on a point in the far distance – looking right through them. The vacant expression.

A person with no sight at all may appear to have a ‘blank’ expression, staring vacantly forwards, or more usually with the eyes flicking around apparently searching for stimulus.

A person with ‘amblyopia’, sight in only one eye, monocular vision, will behave differently. The lack of stereoscopic vision affects depth perception, causing the person to be more careful at kerbs or on the last of a flight of stairs, and possible moving of the head to obtain a visual scan.

They may move their head or realign their whole body when speaking to someone, to ensure that the person speaking is within the field of view, and as some have observed, the brain ’thinks’ the centre of the body is slightly to the sighted side, and the person may lean sideways very slightly.

All of this is freely available on the RNIB and other web sites, and there is no excuse for professionals who deal in personal contact with people not to be aware of it.

**
A person with only one working eye can therefore give out a different and ‘non-standard’ subliminal message, can appear ‘shifty’, and it appears here that Clarke, and in turn Lori Campbell, lacked sufficient experience of life to understand what they were seeing, or were so overwhelmed by the thought of making money out of ‘cracking the case’ that they ignored it and fitted him up.

Later in the book Clarke commits another of his classic errors, failing to do even the most basic research, when he says “It emerged that his lazy eye was in fact a glass eye,”

No. It didn’t, and it isn’t. That is yet another to add to the long catalogue of Clarke’s negligent mistakes or deliberate inventions and untruths.

As is Clarke’s endless repetition that Murat was arrested. He was not. He was interviewed ‘under caution’, as an “arguido”. There is a vast difference, which he either knows and ignores, or should look up and learn. Is that too much to ask after 14 years ?
Even Clarke’s own favourite source of funds for rubbish stories, The Sun, accepts that.

Even though he was never arrested, Murat became the subject of intense scrutiny from the media and in 2009 he claimed the pressure came close to destroying his life.” [Link below]

Though in their defence The Sun does point the finger directly at Clarke as the source of his year of misery.
“But suspicion turned on him when a journalist told police that Murat had been asking lots of questions about the case.”

And so Clarke and Campbell picked on a man with a disability, and arranged for him to be pursued, hounded, abused and vilified for more than a year. They so arranged it that the PJ raided and searched his home, made him the first official suspect, ‘arguido’, in this case, and did not release him from this for over a year.

Kate crowed about it in her autobiography and Clarke gives us a full chapter on Murat, and then one each on his close friends Walczuch and Malinka.

So determined is Clarke that he has single-handedly SOLVED the case, that he shows evident distress in being away when Campbell “goes live’ and threatens to take the glory for herself.

Again I make no apology for the length of the extract. It is necessary to understand the full extent of their egregious iniquity.

“Lori had been making headway. She told me she had also met Robert Murat, whom she found ‘odd’ and obtuse. She said he had told her about his failed marriage and how his daughter had moved back to the UK with her mother. She said she had grown suspicious when she heard him make what she thought was a deliberately loud phone call to his daughter back in the UK.”

“These concerns about Murat had been enough for Lori to make a Monday morning phone call to the British consul and police in Leicestershire, the force that was now liaising with the Portuguese police on the ground in Praia da Luz. By Tuesday afternoon she’d had no response, so . . .”

“By Saturday May 12 – print day – we didn’t have enough to pin anything concrete to Robert Murat. It was frustrating, but we could understand the newsdesk’s requirement for caution, legally, and so we didn’t hamper the police investigation. With the story at something of a dead end, I went home, agreeing to return the following week, if needed.
I was back in Ronda with my family when Murat got arrested. [sic] In a coordinated operation, police raided his home, Casa Liliana, before 6am on Monday, May 14, and by 7am they’d entered his girlfriend Michaela’s house and three other properties that were linked to him.
By the time I woke up it was all over the national news networks and Sky reporter Ian Woods was reporting live from outside Murat’s home. It looked like a massive breakthrough so it was frustrating that despite Lori and I appearing to have almost cracked the case, I was in Spain. I could only flick from channel to channel as Lori appeared on Portuguese and British TV, explaining her theories.”


Just read that bit in bold again, (ignoring the hideous grammar and syntax). Clarke wanted to bask in the glory of having cracked the case.

But then Clarke has to pull his horns in.
“Looking through the PJ files (the nearly complete Portuguese investigative file) today, it is clear that detectives agreed that our theory was strong … but the truth is, they never really had any firm evidence.”

Well quite. There wasn’t any. 
The PJ were bounced into taking action by international pressure based on something invented by Clarke and Campbell.

and then 18 pages later
“Looking at the PJ files from the days around Murat’s arrest on May 14, 2007, it is apparent the police had scant physical evidence that he might be involved.”
and not until p. 75 does Clarke admit “So, in hindsight, it looks as though Murat is innocent.”
But look at the hedging. “never had firm evidence, scant physical evidence, looks as though Murat is innocent”. Clarke will not give up. He believed, and admitting error is difficult for someone like Clarke.

Think of the Superhero :“With great power, there must also come great responsibility’, and despair.

It became obvious to DCI Gonçalo Amaral that this sort of deliberate interference in his meticulous sifting of the available evidence was being organised to divert his and his officer’s’ attention from their main task.

If Clarke and Campbell were not, as Clarke has often somewhat defensively claimed, part of that coordinated campaign then from reading the above we can perhaps at least understand why Amaral might have thought it, and why his forthcoming book addresses the issue.

Footnote 1
There is a somewhat battered and tarnished silver lining to this disgraceful attack on an innocent man and his friends.
Robert Murat was awarded £600,000 in damages, probably ten times what Clarke will ever make from his grubby attempt to cash in on the death of a little girl, however ‘dressed up’ it is as an account of a Search.
Murat was also invited to speak in a debate at the Cambridge University Union Society, a singular honour unlikely ever to be extended to Clarke or Campbell, where “He told a student audience at Cambridge University that he had "felt like a fox being pursued by a pack of hounds ... [caught] between a Kafka novel and the Will Smith movie Enemy of the State".
It was all lies,”


Footnote 2
Even if it turns out there was an abduction between 2120 and 2125, and even if it turns out Brückner ‘did it’, and even if there is sufficient evidence to prosecute and convict him, the case will be presented based on evidence collected by the PJ and the BKA, and not on a self-published flimsily bound paper back written by a free-lance journalist.
Sorry, but that is how the legal system works.
The very best Clarke will be able to say is “I told you so”.

Footnote 3
Because of the haphazard way this book is set out, further research brings up things apparently ‘hidden’ deeper into the text, and away from the original discussion.

“And what I have also recently discovered is that he [Murat] apparently did have clearance to work as a translator in Portugal, having worked as one in the UK before, earning £150 a time for Norfolk Police. While this was never confirmed to the press at the time – nor even the McCanns – it appears that behind the scenes he was actually sanctioned by the British Embassy in Lisbon.”

And this after getting people to say that Robert Murat. ”tried to mislead journalists by pretending to be acting in an official capacity for the police.”
So all that nonsense from Clarke and Campbell was written and done in total, complete, and profound ignorance of the facts.
No wonder Clarke claims to have muttered “an impromptu apology to him for effectively ruining his life.”

And as for Lori Campbell, perhaps the least said the better., Except that her co-starring role in this disgusting horror story should never be glossed over. Campbell and Clarke acted together. In concert, to hound an innocent disabled man.

“The story, headlined "Journalist reported man to the police", and accompanying video, titled "It reminded me of Soham", went up on the Sky News website within days of McCann's abduction in May 2007. The video featured an interview with Lori Campbell, the Sunday Mirror journalist who reported Murat to the police,”

“This settlement represents the final stage of Mr Murat's claims against those sections of the British media which defamed him so terribly," he added.

"He has been entirely successful and vindicated. It was particularly important to him to nail this particular lie – that he acted in some way reminiscent to the Soham murderer Ian Huntley when, in fact, he was working flat out to help try to find Madeleine."                                Guardian LINK

And what did Campbell have to say about her part in these LIES ?

“My decision to report Murat had nothing to do with being a journalist. It was based on gut instinct and a natural sense of duty that I should share my suspicions. Given the unimaginable horrors which Madeleine's parents were enduring, it seemed the very least I should do.”

No. It was nothing at all to do with a sense of duty. It was everything about being a journalist and ultimately about MONEY, as Clarke has inadvertently revealed.

 
LINKS  
https://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/WITNESS.htm

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/nov/14/bskyb-madeleinemccann   

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/mar/06/tabloids-madeleine-mccann-robert-murat

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8656515/who-is-robert-murat-and-what-is-his-involvement-in-the-madeleine-mccann-case/



https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-43-my-search-for-madeleine.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Cammerigal likes this post

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty CHAPTER 44. “My search for Madeleine’. Jon Clarke - 2021: “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

Post by Jill Havern 20.09.21 8:25

CHAPTER 44. “My search for Madeleine’. Jon Clarke - 2021: “The love of money is the root of all evil.”


“My search for Madeleine’. Jon Clarke - 2021

“The love of money is the root of all evil.”
1 Timothy 6:10

More story changes, more errors, more nonsense, more mistakes, but most importantly
MORE MONEY

In this and the following chapter I shall list and explain a number of issues in the book,
for example 


  • Money
  • Schoolboy Howlers
  • Changes in the story
  • Mistakes, errors, grossly negligent reporting, or downright lies
  • Deliberate Confusions
  • Nonsense - and libel
  • Inconsistencies


We shall also examine what the book reveals about Clarke’s personality, about his code of conduct, about his view of the world and the rights of others, about Integrity, Objectivity, Professional competence, Confidentiality, and Professional behaviour.

***
First permit me to explain the most disgusting and reprehensible episode to which Clarke has so far confessed.
It involves Money. Lots of it
I say the most disgusting and reprehensible, though it ranks alongside the Murat scandal as we shall see,
[see Chapter 43, The Framing of Robert Murat] and in both cases was clearly driven by Clarke’s naked greed without any regard to personal freedoms, dignity, privacy or respect for others.
We may take it as read that the facts did not come into it.
Are those strong words ? You decide.

In his book, at page 36/7 Clarke says
“The opportunity had arisen after an unexpected windfall while working on a feature about the movie, Cold Mountain, filmed in Romania and starring Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. I’d come across photographs of the leading actors ‘getting intimate’ at the wrap party. They dutifully made the front page of The Sun, paid for our trip to Spain and, by the time the story had been followed up by Hello! Magazine and the rest, had paid for a deposit on a stone farmhouse in Ronda.”

I’d come across . . . in other words Clarke did not take the photos. He wasn’t there. He either bought them or ‘acquired’ them in some other fashion, legal or not.
He then sold them to the papers he mentions, and very possibly wrote the editorial copy which accompanied them, since he was ‘working on a feature’ about the film. His quip “and the rest’ included his favourite Red Top – the Daily Mail, and indicates he was paid by others in the same journalistic swamp.

This all seems fairly normal gutter-press sensationalist and intrusive journalism until we follow up what then happened.

The story alleged a three month extramarital affair between the two, and further that Kidman had actively encouraged Law, who was at that time still married. The photos were included as “proof’.
It was of course, totally untrue, baseless and without foundation.
Kidman sued. She won. Substantial amounts in damages were awarded against the Sun and the Mail. The Sunday Telegraph which had been seduced into printing a version of the story made an unconditional apology.

The British director of the film, Anthony Minghella, was quoted as saying –
“it is all lies.”
“the "poisonous" stories circulating about the pair are in danger of thwarting Kidman's chances of winning an Oscar.”
“the party where the pair were reportedly pictured acting closer than friends was attended by some 30 of the cast.”
"Nobody seems to care about the facts getting in the way of the story.”
"There have been so many poisonous things written about Nicole recently."


REFS AND COPIES IN APPENDIX

Clarke’s photo and story caused the Sun to pay out, the Mail to pay out and the Telegraph to apologise,
but he STILL got enough money to buy a farmhouse in which he is perfectly happy for his wife and children to live, despite its eternal grubby and tainted origins. And he seems both proud of it, and happy to tell the world that it was he who inflicted such immense misery on Kidman and Law, and their respective families.

His wife is not unintelligent and must know the origins of the unexpected windfall of funds used to buy the house she now lives in, and the enormous damage her husband’s lies caused to another woman – like her, a mother – and to her children, not to mention to Law, who also has three children, and was married at the time.
Clarke claims to be protective of his own family.
Other people’s families, it seems, can be destroyed so long as it makes money for him.
She may one day care to reflect on his willingness to sacrifice a mother and her family for personal gain.
Clarke’s children may one day find out for themselves the depths to which their father will sink in the pursuit of personal gain in his ‘profession’.
It is all in the public domain. Google and the internet work in mysterious ways, and children grow up quickly.

Kidman donated her substantial damages to FARA, a charity for abandoned children in Romania.

Clarke kept his contaminated lucre and bought himself a farmhouse.

****

Now consider
Clarke’s story about Kidman was proved to be false
Clarke’s story about Murat was proved to be false
Clarke’s story about the little girl in Spain was proved to be false


Do we see a pattern emerging ?
How can a journalist who gets things so consistently WRONG, and is so consistently cruel and malevolent, be trusted to tell the truth about ANYTHING ?

*****

While we are on the subject of Clarke and his love of money . . .

On p.171 he is talking about a visit to the villa in Foral where Brückner is alleged to have parked his Tiffin Allegro “Winnebago”. He had previously written two separate and conflicting stories about this villa, with different combinations of names, alleged boyfriends, number and breeds of dog and other extraneous detail. Each of those was sold to the red top Tabloid press, timed a year apart.

Now we get a third version. I won’t dissect the details here, but simply quote this to show how it works.
[See Chapter 40: The Anatomy of a Revelation]
Whilst Clarke is there a car approaches and slows down –
“We would find out later it was a team from The Sun newspaper, who had got a tip off about the village. They had no idea the house had any relevance to the case. It was now 5pm, and we knew we would have to move fast if we were to get the story into the next day’s Mail on Sunday. The paper was going big on Brueckner and a picture of Lia’s villa anchored a four-page Maddie special. Happy days.”

Never mind the facts, or the truth, or the details. “Happy days”, by which he means Loads of money.
Why he feels the need to crow about this is unclear. Everyone knows that journalists are paid for their work. But using this phrase he tells us he has been paid a very large amount, possibly for not very much effort, and given the wording of that phrase an amount perhaps even he thinks is slightly excessive. Why did we need to know that ? It undermines his moral authority. Yet again.

Rushing to hit a deadline in this way may explain the lack of attention to detail, but can never excuse simply making things up to fill in the column inches.

It is notable that a year later when he wrote what is supposed to be the same story, this time with photos, the details changed dramatically. In the first version Brückner was reluctantly tolerated as a visitor, but slept in the van, and took showers in other places in return for work. In the second he had become the live-in boyfriend of the tenant, and the other boyfriend who was actually named in the first has been air-brushed from history.

The photos of the place are marked Photo: Olive Press, but on examination are nothing more than screen shots from Google Maps - Street View, heavily cropped to remove evidence of normal life going on around.
He was no doubt paid handsomely for these as well.

There follows a litany of his ‘success’ in scoops and exclusives.
“While this interview was a damp squib, Abul landed a great scoop with Nicole’s father, who had, by coincidence, also ‘bumped into’ Brueckner on a trip to Portugal in 2007.”

“That same year, in September 2012, we reported how a businessman had seen a girl he thought was Maddie on a flight from Germany to Ibiza. And he sent a photo to justify it. Our exclusive got followed up in 12 countries, which showed how much interest there still was in the story, five years on.”

Which is code for – “I was paid a VAST amount of money for a nonsense story.”

***

Let us lighten the mood slightly

SCHOOLBOY HOWLERS

1
“I was proved right.”
“The next time we really took a look at the case was when I wrote the detailed first-person piece on the first anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance in May 2008, insisting the McCanns didn’t do it, but a paedophile did. Two months later, in July 2008, I was proved right when the police officially lifted the arguido status and Amaral was shortly sidelined.”

It is difficult to know whether this is a howler or just sheer stupidity. “I was proved right” !

Clarke surely MUST know, as everyone else in the intelligent world does, that the case was only ‘Shelved’ for lack of evidence sufficient to prosecute to conviction, and that the McCanns’ release from ‘arguido’ status was a formality which follows automatically.
It says nothing about their status as prime suspects, nor does it, as they have tried to argue and some blind and stupid newspapers have repeated, prove that they were exonerated, cleared or declared innocent.
Equally it says less than nothing about the insistence by the McCanns and Clarke that a Paedophile was involved.

The Supreme Court of Portugal were at pains to point that out some time later, ‘obiter’, which is so rare that no one seems able to recall another instance.
"Nonetheless, even in the archiving dispatch serious reservations are made about the truth of the allegation that Madeleine had been abducted.”
And later
As to the presumption of innocence invoked by the parents, they (Judges) consider that one should not say "that the claimants were acquitted through the order of archiving the criminal proceedings (investigation). The archiving was determined because it was not possible to obtain sufficient evidence of the practice of crimes. It does not seem reasonable to consider that said archiving dispatch, based on insufficient evidence, should be equated as substantiation (proof) of exoneration".

Clarke was NOT “proved right”. The exact opposite in fact.

2
The strange case of the Umlaut

This is a bit more difficult. It is clear that Clarke has no German, nor any understanding of the structure of the language or its orthography. He read Geography, not Modern Languages.

Deep into the part of the book dealing with his latest victim, Clarke says
“In the economic report, he spells his name incorrectly as ‘Bruckner’ and …”

A moment’s thought tells us two things
Firstly - he didn’t. That is how his name is spelled, with the exception of an Umlaut over the ‘u’
Secondly - since Clarke uses the acceptable anglicisation - “Brueckner” - throughout it is clear that he, Clarke, probably doesn’t understand the Umlaut, and possibly may not know how to access accents on his keyboard, hence his failure to use the cedilla in Gonçalo, which alters the pronunciation from GonKarlo to GonSarrlo.        [incidentally – the Umlaut is alt-u,’u’, the cedilla alt-c]

The man in question is called Brückner. BRÜCKNER.

The Umlaut is the two little dots over the ‘u’ which alters the sound of the vowel, and in fact makes it into another vowel altogether. German therefore has eight vowels. a, ä, e, i, o, ö, u, and ü, and alphabetical lists adhere to this, so the Austrian composer Bruckner would come before Clarke’s prime suspect Brückner

The Umlaut, although it is a diacritical mark, is not the same as the diaeresis found in some imported words in English, used to break up an apparent diphthong., Thus the correct spellings are naïf and naïve, pronounced Nigh-eef, and Nigh-eve, and not nayf or nave. The names ChloëZoë, and Noël are perhaps more familiar.

The Umlaut is in fact a form of the ‘e’ and is derived from the Sütterlin script lower-case ‘e’ which is two vertical bars close together with a small angled crossbar, like a tiny broken rugby post.
 Sütterlin was used in Germany up to 1941, and can still occasionally be seen on signs and signposts.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4

in handwriting the mark often becomes two vertical dashes, or often a small horizontal bar, and in print has become the familiar (to some) two dots.

German keyboards have separate letter keys for the vowels in question
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Keyboard

Clarke writes for the Tabloids
Tabloids tend not to confuse their readers with accents or diacritics, nor bother them too much with grammar and syntax or a rich and extended vocabulary. Or facts.
Clarke’s readership in the Sun wouldn’t know an Umlaut from an Omelette, and so they and he cannot be blamed for using the form ‘ue’, in place of ‘ü’.
‘Ue‘ is an acceptable anglicisation, but Brückner is German, and Germans do not use the ‘ue’ form.
Brückner’s letter headed “Press Release of Herrn Christian Brückner” makes that absolutely clear.
It took me about 20 seconds on google to find it. The Umlaut over the ‘ü’ is very clear, even at this poor resolution.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 1

After years of ‘tireless research’ Clarke still doesn’t know, and even if he did, clearly doesn’t understand.
He could of course just have asked someone with better knowledge, as a half decent detective would.
As Clarke says -
“In the economic report, he spells his name incorrectly as ‘Bruckner’ and lists his job as ‘a car salesman in Germany’. More lies.”      Lies certainly. But whose ?

WHO KNEW ?

Some have long suspected that Clarke’s evasiveness, his changing of important details and the general prevarication about the time of the phone call and the details of his trip to, and arrival in PdL is part of a deliberate strategy to conceal something else. One commentator suggested an alternative scenario which Clarke forcefully denied, insisting that his version was the only truth.

Given that there are now at least four versions, all different and all physically impossible, this does not, with respect, settle this. It may be important, it may not. Without the truth we shall not be able to judge.

On several occasions Clarke has written words similar to those which appear in the book “but I figured it would be over by the time I got there . . “ and this time he goes into more detail.

It all sounds perfectly sensible, and explains why he stopped en route for a coffee and toast instead of pressing on, despite knowing that the extra half hour would put him onto the always congested Sevilla ring road deeper into the morning ‘rush hour’ than if he had not stopped. The difference between getting to the junction at 0800 and at 0830 on his timings, (which as we know make no sense).

But then a little later, talking about money and crowing about the ‘stolen photo’ he sold to buy his farmhouse, he keeps up the enthusiasm and says.
“But when an opportunity arose to cover a meaty case for a number of the tabloids it was too good a chance to miss.”

Driving for 400 km, reporting the girl had been found safe and well next door, and then driving back home is not, surely a MEATY case. It might be a ‘bloody’ case, but only in the sense of being a bloody nuisance having to drive all that way for nothing more than expenses.
A body lying on a road or in a Deep Trench (©JonClarke) having been hit by a car might last 24 hours and two editions; found under a bush or in a ditch a day later perhaps three.
But MEATY ?

There may be some who think that this is clear evidence from Clarke’s own keyboard that he already knew this story would run and run, and that the phone call had told him of this. What else it told him we will never know.

But now it gets serious again.
This admission, perhaps inadvertent or negligent, now allows readers to fill in some of the gaps in the scenario which has developed over the years.


  • The phone call is moved forward by at least another hour, possibly more.
  • The case is described as Meaty, right from the start.
  • Huge political and diplomatic resources from the UK are mobilised within hours.
  • A web page is immediately released which in some iterations bears a date stamp suggesting it, or its skeleton outline, had been prepared at an earlier date than the alleged events. Although this has been strenuously denied there is now, in the hands of researchers, documentary evidence which would stand up in court that this was so.
  • The date on the infamous Last or Pool Photo is proven to be a forgery making it clear that this does not prove that Madeleine was alive and well at lunchtime on Thursday 3/5/7, which is a key part of the “official story”.
  • Sky and other TV news channels have full reports in place for the early morning new bulletins. 0745 or earlier (BST) in the case of Sky.


But Clarke says he was the first journalist, (or only, or first British journalist, depending on the version you are reading) and that he arrived at 1045. In fact he must have arrived at 0945 local time (BST) to make any of the observed news reports make any sense at all. And although the McCanns spent some time during the night alerting the British Media, before they retired to sleep or gaze at a candle flame, it is unlikely that they would have been able to impart all the background detail seen in the first bulletins.

And so it is not unreasonable for some to suspect that someone, or more likely some-few, knew, knew that this story was going to be Meaty, was going to keep a lot of people in work for a long time, and was going to be a cash cow for journalists and writers.

This has always been denied. How could it not be?
But perhaps Clarke’s book has blown that denial out of the water.

****
And while we are on this subject, consider also this :
“The story had first appeared as a news flash on Sky News at around 7.45am in the UK, but I figured it would be over by the time I got there: she would be found, like the vast majority of other kids that wander off during their holidays, either dead or alive, in a swimming pool or a ditch somewhere.”

Anyone notice anything unusual there ?

Clarke says he left home around 0700 Spanish time. 0600 UK and Portugal
He stopped for 30 minutes en route about 0815 Spanish. 0715 UK and Port.
He then drove the remaining 3 hrs (300km.) to PdL
Which means he claims to have arrived at the earliest around 1145 Spanish 1045 UK and Port
IN FACT there is film of him in PdL around 0945 UK and Port. which is 1045 Spanish

But despite all that he tells us
“The story had first appeared as a news flash on Sky News at around 7.45am in the UK, but I figured it would be over by the time I got there:”
He does not say,
“I found out LATER that it had been news flash on Sky News whilst I was driving and thinking x y z, but of course I didn’t know that at the time.”

His use of the Past Perfect tense “had … appeared” indicates very clearly and precisely that this event occurred before the next event “I figured out . . .”
for example:


  • I had saved my document before the computer crashed
  • When they arrived we had already finished dinner


But he was driving at the time. So who told him there was going to be – NOT had been – the news flash on Sky ?
Had he been told that such was the importance of the case, there would be one whilst he was en route ?

****
And now let us work the times backwards from what we KNOW, because it is on film.
We will use Portuguese time, BST for the moment, and these are rough timings

The McCanns left PdL to go to Portimão police station around 1000. They are filmed so doing.
Clarke was in the group of six journalists outside the stairwell shortly before.
He therefore must have arrived at the latest by 0945.
Pdl to Utrera coffee stop is 300km, 3 hrs. So he left there at 0645
Pull in, park, order, drink hot coffee, eat toast, relief, pay, back into car, start up, rejoin the main road and get going is 30 minutes on any test.
So he arrived at the Utrera coffee stop at 0615
The coffee stop is 100km from his home, along a mixture of roads. The speed limit is 90 kph even on the fast stretches.
Therefore he left home about 0500, or before.
He says the phone call was 30 minutes before his leaving, or 15 minutes depending on the version.
The phone call is therefore around 0430 British and Portuguese time at the absolute LATEST. (BST, WEST)
which is 0530 Spanish time (CEST)
So someone knew by 0400 British and Portuguese time that this was a major story which would run.
Meaty story in fact.

Meaty food for thought ?

STATEMENT

As always I know I may have made mistakes factual or of interpretation. I am always ready to listen to comments and to make any corrections, and apologies if appropriate.

To conclude this Chapter.

Clarke has targeted wholly innocent people throughout his ‘professional’ career, and does so again now in his Superhero quest to be the First to Find Madeleine and Solve the Crime of the Century.
In this First Edition, Clarke bets all on his belief that the perpetrator of whatever happened to Madeleine was one man.
Christian Brückner
I will wait for the Second edition.
A paperback sized box, which on opening is found to contain a £10 note refund and a slip with the words
“Sorry. It wasn’t.”

****

The next chapter will continue the analysis of the book, and highlight mistakes, more prevarications, negligent reporting, downright lies, utter nonsense, probable libels, deliberate confusions, and much more.

See you again soon.



Chapter 44 APPENDIX


Oscar winner Nicole Kidman has accepted a public apology and "substantial" damages from a major British newspaper which claimed she had an adulterous affair with fellow film star Jude Law.
The High Court in London ruled in favour of Kidman after the Daily Mail alleged she had led Law, who is married with three children, to cheat on his actress wife Sadie Frost.
The Daily Mail, which is Britain's second best-selling newspaper after the Sun, also suggested in its March 6 article that Kidman's repeated denials of the affair were dishonest.
"The publication of this article has caused grave damage to the claimant's personal and professional reputation and she has suffered considerable embarrassment and distress," Kidman's lawyer, Gideon Benaim, told the court.
Associated Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mail, its group editor Paul Dacre and journalist Nicole Lampert all freely accepted that the allegations were untrue and without foundation.

Kidman also issued proceedings against the Sun and the Sunday Telegraph over allegations she had an affair with Law, her co-star on the film Cold Mountain.
The Sunday Telegraph has already issued an apology but the Sun case has not yet been resolved.

The Sun has apologised to Nicole Kidman and agreed to pay her libel damages and legal costs over false allegations that she had an adulterous affair with Jude Law.
The allegations, which appeared in the Sun on March 5, caused the Hollywood actress "considerable embarrassment and distress", her solicitor, Keith Schilling, told Mr Justice Eady at the high court today.

Mr Schilling said the Sun's story implied the Oscar-winning actress "had an adulterous affair with Jude Law, who was at the time married with young children".
"The article implied that the claimant had led Jude Law to cheat on his wife Sadie Frost, and by her behaviour caused the breakdown of their marriage," he added.
The Sun's solicitor, Daniel Taylor, said that the newspaper, editor Rebekah Wade and journalist Victoria Newton - who were all named in the action - accepted the allegations were untrue and apologised "for the distress and embarrassment this article has caused".
The article was illustrated by a photograph taken in a bar while the stars were filming in Transylvania.
The newspaper has agreed to pay Kidman an undisclosed sum in damages as well as her legal costs.
In July Kidman won "substantial" libel damages from the Daily Mail after it published similar allegations that she had had an affair with Law, her co-star on the film Cold Mountain.
The Mail article appeared on March 6, the day after the Sun story.
The Sunday Telegraph also repeated the allegations, but issued an apology to the star.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/oct/14/pressandpublishing.filmnews

***
Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? British newspapers are, at least when Woolf is played by Nicole Kidman. On Tuesday, Kidman won her second libel victory this year against a British newspaper for printing allegations that she’d had an affair with Jude Law, her costar in December’s ”Cold Mountain,” and was responsible for breaking up his marriage to actress Sadie Frost. Kidman won a five-figure sum and an apology from tabloid The Sun, Reuters reports. ”The defendants apologise to the claimant for the distress and embarrassment this article has caused,” the Sun’s lawyer told London’s High Court.

Two months ago, Kidman won a similar settlement from the Daily Mail, which had printed similar rumours. The stories in the Daily Mail and the Sun ran in March, at the height of Kidman’s ultimately successful campaign for a Best Actress Oscar for playing author Woolf in ”The Hours.” Some Oscar watchers thought the rumours would tarnish her campaign and hurt her Academy Award chances, and Kidman’s lawyer claimed during the Daily Mail trial that the stories had inflicted ”grave damage to the claimant’s personal and professional reputation, and she has suffered considerable embarrassment and distress.”

Kidman wasn’t present in court, but she released a statement saying, ”I am glad that this has finally been resolved.” She said she would donate the proceeds of her court victories (minus legal fees) to Fara, a charity that helps abandoned children in Romania, where ”Cold Mountain” was shot.

https://ew.com/article/2003/10/14/nicole-kidman-wins-second-libel-suit/

****
Director: Kidman affair all lies
by ANDRÉ PAINE, Evening Standard
They have been accused of having a three month affair while filming in the wilds of Romania together.

But the man who directed Nicole Kidman and Jude Law on the set of their new movie Cold Mountain has broken his silence to insist: it is all lies.
And, says Anthony Minghella, the "poisonous" stories circulating about the pair are in danger of thwarting Kidman's chances of winning an Oscar.
The British director, who himself won an Academy Award for The English Patient, spent months on location with the film's stars, who also included Renée Zellwegger.
He rubbished reports suggesting that pictures of Kidman and Law together at a crew party proved they had a fling, adding: "Nobody seems to care about the facts getting in the way of the story.
"There have been so many poisonous things written about Nicole recently.
"We were there five months. It was a long shoot in austere conditions but there was a great atmosphere on set. All the actors just showed up, put up with terrible weather and privations without complaint.
Kidman, 35, is understood to be anxious that reports of an alleged romance with Law - strenuously denied by both - could affect her chances of picking up the best actress Oscar for her role as Virginia Woolf in The Hours.
Minghella said: "She deserves an Oscar. I think at this moment there is nobody better than her. She has made some incredible choices for roles and she is a wonderful actor."
Minghella added that the party where the pair were reportedly pictured acting closer than friends was attended by some 30 of the cast.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-171557/Director-Kidman-affair-lies.html

****
Kidman accepts damages over adultery claim
Nicole Kidman has accepted undisclosed libel damages in the British High Court over a newspaper article alleging she had an adulterous affair with actor Jude Law.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-30117257.html

reported everywhere, including
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jul/31/dailymail.pressandpublishing1

https://www.thelist.com/591647/the-truth-about-nicole-kidmans-relationship-with-jude-law/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-08-01/kidman-wins-lawsuit-over-affair-accusation/1457658


https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-44-my-search-for-madeleine-jon.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Cammerigal likes this post

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 30.10.21 8:58

CHAPTER 45. My Search for Madeleine - Jon Clarke - 2021


Mopping up the mess.

Some unconsidered trifles, the usual lies, stupid mistakes,

falsehoods and total nonsense.

Nothing to see here. Move along please !


Having read Jon Clarke’s articles on-line for many years, and now having read this book, one is forced to ask the question “Why does he do it ?”
Not “why does he write articles” ? That is easy. He is a journalist and the owner of a small free news and advert paper which he claims has a readership of over 500,000.
                 (It is notable that this figure its not Audited and verified by the PGD/OJD, which is the section for free publications of the OJD, the official Spanish media auditors, which verify circulation figures.
This is to protect advertisers, so they are not scammed by wholly invented circulation figures.
But Clarke says the figure is 500,000. “and surely he is an honourable man”. ). 1

Over the years we have been treated to a huge rock on a road which we were told was less dense than balsa wood, we have had a small Spanish fighting bull seriously described as weighing more than an elephant, and much more.
The question is rather “Why does he churn out such rubbish.?”

This book does not change that question
••••


JON CLARKE-KENT. SUPERSLEUTH


Clarke has successively described himself as a ‘stringer’, an editor, a journalist and an Investigative Journalist. In this case he is not content to report or to investigate before reporting.

In this case he has promoted himself to Detective. He becomes determined to Solve the Case Himself.
“From the very first moment I arrived in Praia da Luz that May morning in 2007, my overbearing [sic] drive was to solve the mystery and find young Maddie.”

“We went straight down to investigate and, not for the first time, I genuinely believed we might have been close to solving the mystery.”

“But it didn’t solve the mystery of Maddie.”

And then he imputes this motive to others. Writing of Robert Murat he says
“given he was a local expat, and would, understandably, want to try and solve the crime” [Try TO is better]
Murat was there trying to help the Police, the PJ, in their investigation, not to “solve the crime”.
Murat would, as almost everyone else would, want the ‘crime’ to be solved. But not to do it himself, singlehanded.
Might it be that Clarke’s eagerness to frame Murat was to remove him as a potential challenge to himself ? [See Chapter 42, The framing of Robert Murat]

Later he clearly gets worried and frustrated that his glory is about to be snatched away, first by Lori Campbell –
“By the time I woke up it was all over the national news networks and Sky reporter Ian Woods was reporting live from outside Murat’s home. It looked like a massive breakthrough so it was frustrating that despite Lori and I [sic] appearing to have almost cracked the case, I was in Spain. I could only flick from channel to channel as Lori appeared on Portuguese and British TV, explaining her theories.”

and later by the makers of the Netflix documentary –
“I wondered what the filmmakers might have found. Would there be anything groundbreaking? Would it solve the crime of the century?”

Clarke’s histrionic performances in that film may be another manifestation of his wish to feel ‘important’ in the scheme of things, so that when whatever happened is finally determined his name will be forever associated with that determination.

There is however an obvious trap inherent in that approach. If, or more likely when it is determined that there was no Abduction, as is obvious to many who have studied the case from the first detectives at the scene onwards, and/or if it becomes apparent that Christian Brückner was not in any way involved, Clarke’s name may indeed be forever associated with the case, towards the top of the list of those totally duped and deceived by the “official story” and who deliberately and wilfully ignored the clear evidence available to them because it conflicted with their own pre-judged ‘Belief’.

He will not be able to argue that he was independent and disinterested [in the correct use of that word],

and was merely reporting on events as they unfolded before him.

His plaintive whimper that he is merely one the crowd neither convinces nor excuses.
“There were lots of whispers and conjecture, but I can honestly say that not one reporter, at that stage, considered for a second that the family might in any way be involved.”

****


NONSENSE ON STILTS

We now come to one of the most astonishing, ludicrous, and seriously libellous claims we have read so far.

Clarke’s claim that Madeleine’s DNA was “PLANTED” in the hire car.

“We will also look at credible claims that Maddie’s DNA might have been planted in a hire car the McCanns had hired three weeks AFTER she had vanished,…”. p. 17
The fact that he doesn’t return to the issue, neither ‘looks at the … claims’ nor references them points to this being another malicious invention on his part.
[Dr Amaral and his legal team have been made aware of this gross Libel.]

“So desperate was Amaral to get a win, I now wonder if it was possible that the police even planted Maddie’s DNA in the rental car the family had hired from Europcar a month after she went missing.” p.83

Just chew that over for a moment.
Clarke is alleging, albeit trying to keep out of serious trouble by using the words “might” and “wonder”, that DCI Amaral conspired with others to plant evidence in the form of Madeleine’s DNA in the hire car, in order to obtain a wrongful conviction and false imprisonment of one or both of the parents.

Even the most superficial knowledge of this case will tell you that there was no uncontaminated comparison DNA of Madeleine found in the apartment, and that GM had to return to Rothley to bring a pillowcase, which is said to have had sufficient cellular material for her DNA profile to be established.
“It was widely reported that the father returned home to Rothley in mid-May 2007 to obtain a pillowcase from her bed. For some reason there was no toothbrush, no hairbrush, no clothing nor any other object exclusive to the child while on holiday from which a profile could be obtained.
It would also seem that there was no toothbrush nor hairbrush available in Rothley, either.”
     REF 2

This is in fact the trip which coincided with the release of the forged Pool Photo, GM departed 20th May, returned with Mitchell 22nd May, sister PM also arrived on 22/5, photo was sent to APF on 23/5 and released into the public domain on 24/5 with the exhortion to ”look at the time”, clearly an instruction to look at the date.

It was that total absence of any forensic evidence of any kind including Madeleine’s DNA which raised one of the very many early Red Flags in the investigation, leading to the suggestion that the whole apartment had been deep-cleaned during the week to remove all traces of blood and bodily fluids and any cellular material.

There is therefore a vanishingly small amount of Madeleine’s DNA available, and it would be confined to the items sent for screening.

The suggestion that the PJ, under the command of DCI Amaral would wait until the McCanns hired a car 28 days later just before they went to Rome, and then ‘plant’ Madeline’s DNA in it, specifically in the wheel well, in the boot and on the key fob is, with respect, so utterly ludicrous as to render worthless almost everything else Clarke may have to say about this case.

The dogs did not alert to DNA. Dogs cannot detect DNA. That is an elementary and fundamental lack of understanding of one of the most important issues in this case.

They alerted to Human cadaverine, a chemical formed by putrefaction with the formula NH2(CH2)5NH2 which does not contain DNA, and to Human blood, which contains very little. [Only white blood cells – leucocytes – contain DNA. Red corpuscles have no nucleus and therefore no DNA – which is why they are not called ‘cells’]

The Scenes of Crime officers collect specimens, their colleagues in Forensic Science laboratories search for, isolate and identify DNA within the nuclei of the leucocytes or within, for example, cells from a hair follicle. The mouth swab we are familiar with from modern Police dramas collects cells from the mucosa of the cheek. Cells, each with a nucleus containing DNA.
DNA is not something you can carry round in a convenient spray, or on a swab in a jiffy bag ready to smear on the vehicle of anyone you want to ‘set up’.

But Clarke is determined that he is right, and pours scorn on any evidence which does not fit his preconception.
“… and nothing has come close to changing my view. Not even the so-called evidence from sniffer dogs – who allegedly scented her body and blood in the apartment in two places, particularly behind the sofa, as well as in the McCanns’ rental car. Some of their explosive findings might well have some critical relevance today, as we shall see.”

“So-called evidence”“allegedly scented her body and blood”
It is difficult to know where to begin with sneering nonsense of that sort, or whether even to try.

I will observe that yet again Clarke falls into the very trap the McCanns are determined he should avoid as he incriminates them even more than do the actual facts.

The dogs alerted to Human Blood and Human Cadaverine. The McCanns specifically deny it was Madeleine’s, and came up with a list of possibilities of varying absurdity – from a previous tenant’s having cut himself badly whilst shaving and then wandering round the apartment including behind the sofa all the time dripping blood onto the floor tiles, to the now legendary and unforgettable Kamikaze mosquitos which having drunk from a human flew so fast and so erratically they smashed themselves into the wall behind the sofa leaving drops of blood as they burst on impact. [This is not a phenomenon known to reputable conventional science]
As Jane Tanner once notoriously said “I am not making this up”.

But Clarke says the dogs allegedly scented HER body and blood. And as a Geography graduate he will clearly know better than dog handlers, seasoned detectives, Scenes of Crime operatives and forensic scientists.

****

MORE NONSENSE


Clarke went to Neuwegensleben, a small village and visited an empty factory once owned by Brückner. There he found the remains of a blue Renault Twingo, also owned by Brückner.
“However, when I opened the boot I noted that the spare tyre was still in place and out of curiosity I lifted it out of position to see if anything was underneath … and there standing out like a sore thumb was a pair of surgical scissors, that I later brought up with the prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, with him scoffing ‘what would I be expecting to find on it?’ I might as well have replied, ‘DNA of Maddie’s’, and had there been gaffer tape and a mask, we could have been in the realms of a Sopranos episode.”

Clarke took photos of the boot and the scissors which accompanied the puff-piece to advertise his book - especially to readers of The SUN. (Which may explain a lot.)

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Scissors


Clarke has no German and is therefore unable to ask about what the scissors might represent, and may therefore be totally and blissfully secure in his own ignorance of German Traffic Law which makes compulsory the carrying of a First Aid kit in a motor vehicle. With Teutonic efficiency it further specifies exactly what must be in it. It must include by law, ”Scissors DIN 58279 - B 190”. These are blunt ended ‘Lister’ scissors, with angled blades to allow them to push the lower blade with the flattened end under restrictive clothing, a tight seat belt or a dressing to cut it open.

Like this. These are modern and have the Plastic handle


PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Thumbnail


This is the Kit provided in a BMW Roadster

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Thumbnail%2B%25281%2529


And this one of the cheaper versions on sale.
Neatly packed into a small black plastic box, designed to
fit in the wheel well ‘inside’ the spare wheel.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Thumbnail%2B%25282%2529


There is a small black plastic box visible on the ground under the boot of the Twingo. It is highly likely this is the First Aid box, out of which the children who did exactly what Clarke did – opened the boot and removed the spare wheel – before throwing stones at the car to break its windows, and using their BB and airguns to make the small visible dents in the bodywork, and then removing and playing with the bandages and other contents.

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Car

Clarke does not report having bothered to investigate it.

And yet Clarke, fount of all knowledge on things German, sneers at the State Prosecutor for not taking seriously a pair of scissors.
“…and there standing out like a sore thumb was a pair of surgical scissors, that I later brought up with the prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, with him scoffing ‘what would I be expecting to find on it?’ I might as well have replied, ‘DNA of Maddie’s’, and had there been gaffer tape and a mask, we could have been in the realms of a Sopranos episode.”

****


DOGS , POLICE, – AND MORE SNEERING


Before starting this short section readers are urged to watch the News-reel videos of the scene on Clarke’s arrived in PdL. It is available at https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/exterior-shots-around-the-ocean-club-apartments-in-pria-news-footage/487715446 amongst many other places      REF 4

You will notice the dog vans, the dog handlers, the dogs, the reporters milling around close to the stairwell, the groups of Police officers, and general bustle of activity clearly apparent before the McCanns are ushered out and taken away by car. If you scroll back in one of the videos you will see Clarke staring at the dog van and toward the unmarked and intact shutters after shaking hands with the GNR officer.

Despite knowing full well that this is in the public domain and can be viewed free by the entire world, Clarke insists there were very few Police around, no journalists and for reasons entirely of his own – no dogs,
“I was shocked to see some sniffer dogs making an appearance later on that afternoon, some 18 hours after the child had gone missing.”
“Among the information I filed was the arrival of the sniffer dogs at around 4pm.”

This is again in direct contradiction to what Kate McCann recorded in her autobiography, and therefore Clarke has no choice but to attempt to negate what she said.

“At the time, I didn’t know if they had been there the night before (in Kate McCann’s book Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, she insists they had two dogs brought in to track the surrounding area at around 2am the night Maddie went missing), but it struck me as tardy to bring them into the actual apartment.”

Look at the wording of that.
He does not say “At the time, I didn’t know THAT they had been there the night before..” which would amount to an admission that he had been wrong and a correction of an important detail.

He says “At the time, I didn’t know IF they had been there the night before . . “ and then goes on to sneer at Kate McCann’s clear recollection implying that he is right and Kate is wrong. “she insists” being code for “She is lying”.

We see the use of the term elsewhere.
Gamble “insists” that the Madeleine webpage was not set up on 30th April.
Tanner “insists” that she is not lying about her sighting “I’m not making this up, you know”
Clarke “insists” there were no dogs until 4pm. Kate “insists” they were there from 2am.

Clarke’ seems incapable of stopping or of moderating his language and continues with this abject nonsense.

“I walked inside the open front door and bumped straight into the McCanns, who were heading off to the police station in nearby Lagos to make an official missing persons statement. . .
It was clear they couldn’t hang around and needed to go and get the local police force to actually give a damn, for it was apparent right from the start that they really didn’t care very much. This was obvious from the shortage of officers on hand. There were two local bobbies on duty, but the side of the house was unguarded and life in the resort was going on as normal.”

p.24

The facts, such as they are can be determined from Kate McCann’s autobiography –
Having moved out of apartment 5A . . . It was about 10am by the time a couple of PJ officers turned up. (One of them, in his thirties, tall and well built, I thought of for ages simply as John. I’m not sure he ever gave us his name, but later – much later – we found out that it was João Carlos.) They told us they had to take us and our friends to the police station in Portimão. We couldn’t all go at once as somebody needed to look after the children. After some discussion, it was agreed that Gerry and I, Jane, David and Matt would be interviewed first and the PJ would come back for the others later in the day.”

Readers will note the clear statement that the McCanns were NOT EVEN IN apartment 5A, the absence of any reference to Clarke, the fact the PJ were doing the organising, and that very obviously the McCanns were NOT trying to get a local police force to “give a damn”.

Clarke’s version is so ridiculous, so far removed from objective reality, and so divorced from any normal concept of decency and truth that it must be listed as yet another LIE.

****


STILL MORE NONSENSE AND MISINFORMATION


Despite the 14 years of discussion on the many legal aspects of this case which have been aired in newspapers, TV interviews and on-line, Clarke still insists that Arrests were made.

“… exposés that have begun to finally turn the Portuguese public away from the belief that the McCanns killed their own daughter. Saying that, Sandra herself was convinced of it, at one point, and even directly accused them in a famous live TV broadcast soon after their arrests.” p.28

“I was back in Ronda with my family when Murat got arrested. p.49

“Sergey Malinka was arrested two days later” p.60
For the record, and so that everyone shall understand NO PERSON WAS ARRESTED IN THIS CASE.
Several were questioned, some of them ‘Under Caution’, known as “arguido” status which gives the person certain legal rights. But no one was Arrested and subsequently detained in a cell, or bailed.
That is simply wrong. Profoundly wrong. Many of Clarke’s Sun readers will know the difference between Arrest and being interviewed under caution at a Police station.
Why he persists in this untruth is unknown. Having done 14 years of “tireless research” he surely cannot genuinely believe it, and if he does not it must qualify as a LIE.

****


A VERY ODD USE OF WORDS


Consider this
“She even provided the police with the phone number that her ‘friend’ Christian had called her on during the drive. A pay-as-you-go number (915 078 040), not entirely dissimilar to the one used outside the Ocean Club the night that Maddie disappeared in May that year. In further questioning, however, she insisted Christian was in Germany at the time of the call and was still there ten days later.”

This must rank as one of Clarke’s more bizarre sentences. Is he using Not entirely dissimilar to mean Exactly the same ?
If so it is a strangely and singularly inappropriate use of the figure of speech – Litotes – “An ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary”
Or does the number in fact differ, perhaps by only one or two digits. If so, it is emphatically NOT the same number and this entire paragraph is redundant. It’s only purpose can be to attempt to fill in the enormous gaps in the actual evidence by inventing or twisting other things to fit.

****


DELIBERATE FALSEHOODS IN THE PRESS


Here we have to compare the content of the book with previous statements made by Clarke in his paper.
In the same article in The SUN, dated 27 August 2021 Clarke states           REF 2
“I believe the cash Christian B used to buy the motorhome found in the box factory came from a burglary in Portugal.
His former girlfriend used inside knowledge to help Christian B steal €100,000 from a family where she worked as a babysitter.

She has been interviewed three times about her relationship with Christian B and prosecutor Wolters confirmed he has not ruled out charging her in connection with the 100,000-euro theft.”

The burglary was in November 2007
Brückner owned the vehicle in March 2007 (Dieter Fehlinger p.111) , and was seen with it at the Orgiva festival in May/June 2007 by Michael “Micha” Tatschl. (p.146)

Has Clarke just made an innocent silly mistake during his tireless research ?
Well no. This was quite deliberate.
In the book, which was published the next month and must have gone for printing and binding a long time before the article, Clarke says of an interview with H. Wolters on 21 June 2021

“When I later returned to the subject of Nicole and asked him about the claims that she and Brueckner were involved in the robbery of the two Portuguese women of 100,000 euros, in Praia da Gale, he confirmed he knew about the case and added, ‘Maybe that’s where the money came from for the Winnebago.’ I didn’t say that it was most likely bought around six months earlier, but maybe he was right. After all, he was the prosecutor working on the case for three years. Maybe Christian had bought the ‘Winnebago’, or Tiffin Allegro, a few months later. Pushing him on the subject of the robbery, he said the German police ‘certainly have their eyes on this theft of 100,000 euros.’ Note, he said ‘have’ not ‘had’.”

Elsewhere in the book he says giving evidence from another character –
“Yet a year later he told me that he ‘mostly slept in the Winnebago’, which Bischof actually helped him purchase from a computer at his house in the Spring of 2007. He couldn’t recall the exact date.” p.223

The conclusion is clear.
Clarke wrote the article in his own paper then sold it to the Sun, and other Tabloids KNOWING it contained false information.
In common parlance, he LIED

****


PROTECTIVE OF HIS OWN FAMILY ?


In the previous chapter about the appalling and disgusting libellous attack on Nicole Kidman and Jude Law I made reference to Clarke’s attempt to portray himself as a staunch defender of the privacy of his own family, and at one point even praised him for it.

The reality is slightly different. Readers must draw their own conclusions about what this says about his character.

In this book Clarke makes a rather pathetic attempt to protect the family by giving them false names, but makes them very similar to the real ones, in one case by adding only one letter.
And then in a piece he clearly wrote at a different time and which appears in a different place in the book, he uses the real familial pet-name for his wife, which gives the game away.

It was not always so. He has previously included them all in a self-congratulatory piece in the Telegraph about his rebuilding of the farmhouse bought with the dirty money from the Kidman libel scandal.

The full correct names are still there, as they are on several Facebook and trip advisor pages, and can still be found if anyone is even remotely interested.

But in this book he then goes on to confess to having abandoned them all. He uses the normal euphemisms men like him do on such occasion “we had briefly separated for a few months, but it amounts to the same thing. He walked out and left them.

The strange thing is that there was absolutely no need to do so. The context is someone calling at the house, and finding neither parent there, just the children being perfectly properly looked after by a friend,
so “I wasn’t at home” or “we weren’t at home” would have been quite sufficient.
We did not need to know; did not want to know about their marital problems and his abandonment.
Is he proud of it ? If not, why tell the world ?

And whilst we are on the subject of photos supporting libellous allegations to make money . . .
What did Clarke DO during those “few months” he was free of his wife and children ?
He has a good car, money, speaks Spanish, is – I am reliably informed – well built and not altogether ‘repellent in aspect’, and would probably scrub-up well. He has a fund of stories about disasters, crimes and criminals to relate, and I have little doubt is a good raconteur.

Did he live as a Trappist Monk ? Or did he return to what he describes as “the fleshpots and bling of the Costa del Sol,” trip the light fantastic and do what most married men do who abandon their wives and families when they get Seven-year-itch.

In case anyone is offended by this train of thought the book itself contains two photos of Clarke with his arm round the waists of two different MEN.

****
There is more, much more. But not for today.

REFS

1  

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Refs1


2 from “Madeleine Beth McCann. A Mystery Story”, by Albert Moisiu
https://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/AlbyM_Books.htm

3 https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15986828/madeleine-mccann-prime-suspect-lair-shallow-grave/

Videos of the scene long before and when Clarke arrived, showing dogs, dozens of Police officers, police vehicles, at least six journalists including another British one, unbroken and not-smashed shutters, the taped off Apartment and much more, may be found at

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/exterior-shots-around-the-ocean-club-apartments-in-pria-news-footage/487715446

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/exterior-shots-of-tourists-outside-the-ocean-club-news-footage/649708440

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/exterior-shots-of-the-beach-and-ocean-at-praia-da-luz-news-footage/649700450

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/exterior-shots-of-police-searching-the-exterior-of-the-news-footage/649707852

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/exterior-shots-of-police-and-members-of-the-public-news-footage/649708278

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/exterior-shots-of-police-searching-the-grounds-of-the-news-footage/649701232

To access the Netfllix documentary
netflix disappearance of madeleine mccann - Google Search

---------------

https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-45-my-search-for-madeleine-jon.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 30.10.21 9:00

Chapter 46. “My Search for Madeleine” - Jon Clarke, 2021

Jon Clarke Through the Looking Glass
“Why sometimes I believe six impossible things before breakfast”.

Some impossible things to believe


Everyone understands that multiple witnesses to an event will produce slightly different multiple versions differing in small particulars, according to their detailed recollection and understanding of the event at the time.

In the McCann parallel universe we have become familiar with the phenomenon of single witnesses producing multiple and contradictory statements.

•   we have curtains pulled wide open – AND drawn tight closed
•   we have shutters smashed, forced and jemmied – AND totally unmarked
•   we have a photo taken in hot bright sunshine – on a cold and overcast day
•   we have a man in the apartment for 30 seconds – AND for 30 minutes
•   we have a man using the locked front door – AND the unlocked patio door
•   we have people without watches - remembering they stood up at 9:04 ‘by his watch’

In ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’, The Red Queen exclaims “Why sometimes I believe six impossible things before breakfast”.
For most people that is fantasy.     For Clarke it is clearly a daily reality.

Jon Clarke. Press owner, Editor, self-proclaimed investigative journalist and Super-sleuth, is clearly in a league of his own. He has single-handedly produced no fewer than eight separate versions – so far discovered – of one event, every one of them either impossible or demonstrably false by application of the most basic logic and examination of contemporaneous video film and photographs.

There are five separate details of his initial involvement which Clarke changes ad libitum.
•   Time of the initial phone call
•   Time of his arrival in PdL
•   Number of journalists present on his arrival
•   Entry to Apartment 5A
•   Speaking to the McCanns

And there are at least eight sources of ‘information’. Many are written by Clarke or were clearly under his editorial control. All are different.
•   Article Olive Press 2017. (OP17)
•   Article Olive Press 2019. (OP19)
•   Interview with Sandra Felguerias within the Netflix transcript. (SFIG)
•   Netflix publicity 2019. (NET19)
•   Netflix Documentary - transcript 2019. (NET-TRANS)
•   Article CLOSER Magazine 2020. (CLOSER)
•   Article BELLA Magazine 2021. (BELLA)
•   "My Search For Madeleine” - Jon Clarke 2021. (BOOK)

All are quoted in detail in the Appendix, with links and references, so there shall be absolutely NO DOUBT that what follows is an accurate record – of what we have been told.

Let us take each detail in order, and then rationalise and compare with the known facts in each case.

Time of the Phone call

OP17 – – – – 0715
OP19 – – – – 0700 - 0730
SFIG – – – – – 0700 - 0730
NET19
NET-TRANS – 0700 - 0730
CLOSER
BELLA
BOOK – – – – 15 minutes before he left, which was before 0700

Arrival in Praia da Luz

OP17 – – – – 1145. [if we assume that is Spanish time = 1045 Portuguese]
OP19
SFIG
NET19
NET-TRANS
CLOSER
BELLA

BOOK – – – – 0945 - 1015 local time (Portuguese)

Number of Journalists Present

OP17 – – – – Only reporter on the scene till late that evening, (apart from Kate/Kay Burley)
OP19 – – – – First Journalist on the scene
SFIG
NET19– – – – First UK Print journalist
NET-TRANS
CLOSER
 – – – One of the first journalists on the scene
BELLA
BOOK – – – – First British journalist on the scene

Entry to 5A

OP17– – – – – I was firstly able to walk into the apartment
OP19
SFIG
NET19
NET-TRANS
 – – – it [tape] went up and I looked in
CLOSER
BELLA
BOOK
 – – – – up the short flight of stairs to the apartment 5A . . .I walked inside the open front door

Speaking to the McCanns

OP17 – – – – in the apartment
OP19 – – – – as they were leaving
SFIG
NET19
NET-TRANS
 – – – as they were leaving; I think I tried to speak to them
CLOSER – – – – few hours after arriving met Gerry and Kate; later that day
BELLA – – – – – at a press conference that night
BOOK – – – – – in the apartment

It is important to examine some of these issues
ARRIVAL: We know that Clarke must have arrived in PdL around 0945 Portuguese time at the very latest to have been filmed watching the McCanns leaving in the police vehicles to go for their interviews, the departure timed roughly at 1000. So each one of his times is inaccurate.

PHONE CALL: On his own admission he stopped for a coffee and toast en route, and adding all the times together - (Ronda to coffee at Utrera, coffee etc, round the Seville ring road at peak time, then on to PdL) gives us about 4h 45m. Subtracting that and the half hour before that for the phone call gives 0430 UK time, 0530 Spanish time. Which means that then entire media circus, the Politicians and diplomatic must have been on full alert by 0330 BST, and that all his times are inaccurate.

NUMBER OF JOURNALISTS: Contemporaneous news film exists and is easily accessible, showing at least SIX journalists at the scene with Clarke clearly the most recent arrival. He is also seen speaking to, or in close proximity to, Len Port, a British ex-pat journalist who had been on the scene since 0830, and had been filmed walking the ground. Port has written a mature and measured account of the situation he found and as it developed through the morning.

ENTRY TO 5A. Despite Clarke’s frequent insistence that he entered and spoke to the McCanns in apartment 5A the scene was in fact taped off, there were police officers around to enforce it, Scenes of crime operatives were working inside, and crucially – the McCanns were not in 5AThey were simply not there. They had been moved out at 2am, the apartment secured for photographs and then locked up overnight. The McCanns were firstly in the Payne’s first floor apartment 5H and then by that evening were moved into the first floor 4G. It is for that reason that the McCanns emerged from the stairwell to go to the cars before being taken away, just as Clarke was filmed walking in the opposite direction past the group of police officers, the dog vans and the Scenes of crime operative. Following that he doubled back, crossed the road, and is filmed emerging from between parked cars to stand helplessly in the middle of the road as the cars drive past him.

SPEAKING TO THE MCCANNS. There is no question of Clarke’s having spoken to the McCanns in 5A, because they weren’t there.
Film mentioned above shows Clarke not speaking to them “as they left” in the cars, but simply standing in the road as they pass.
A few hours after arriving” can only mean after 2030, eleven hours after arriving, when they returned from Portimão. Kate McCann is very clear in her autobiography about what happened on their return, and it did not include being interviewed by any journalist, even if their minders and close friends had allowed it.
at a press conference that night” must refer to the torchlight reading of the Press statement by Gerry McCann at 2200 to coincide with the News Bulletins in the UK and elsewhere. The news-reel shows the statement, and then Gerry and Kate moving swiftly back into the shadow of the stairwell and the safety of their friends, family and the minders who had arrived during the day. It also shows that they took no questions and did not speak to anyone,.
Not even Clarke.

It is therefore considered highly unlikely that Jon Clarke spoke to the McCanns that day, or at all.
He has failed to identify a credible ‘window of opportunity’ for him to have done so. He has also failed to provide a verbatim, or even approximated record of any conversation or interview.

INTERESTING NOTE:
Even Martin Brunt, the highly experienced and trusted Crime Correspondent for Sky News, who was there for ten days did not manage to speak to them.      See Refs

14 years later the McCanns refused to speak to Clarke.   Book
They clearly want nothing to do with him. Mitchell gave him the message “It is thanks, but no thanks,”

To sum up,
Are any of Clarke’s “versions of the truth” true or credible ?
Phone call – NO
Arrival – NO
Journalists present – NO
Entry into 5A – NO
Speaking – NO

If there is another definitive version – the objective Truth, which fits the known facts AND the video and photographic evidence, then the world is waiting to hear it.
But for the moment we wait.


***

Some of the pieces in the magazines are extraordinary.
Might it be that Clarke has got a taste of his own medicine, where the so-called journalist in question has embellished and filled in invented details ?
But Clarke is a seasoned hack and knows and uses these tricks himself. Whether he would permit the publication of his story and his words without insisting on editorial control is highly unlikely.

BELLA is written in the first person. It is dated 21 Sept 2021 - which is timed as part of the pre-publication publicity campaign
I was living in Malaga, Spain” [actually a village outside Ronda, Malaga Province, Spain]
“Someone at the foreign desk asked me to pack a bag and get to the airport as soon as I could, so I could get across to Praia da Luz in the Algarve region of Portugal.”
[There is no direct flight from Malaga to Faro. Options include a 3 hr stop-over in Lisbon, or in Amsterdam. It is quicker to drive. As Clarke did.]
As a father of two daughters. [Clarke has a daughter and a son, to both of whom he allocates false names in his book. As he does to his wife.]
I remember meeting them shortly after I arrived at a press conference that night.
[See above. Clarke has always claimed to have been, and clearly was, on the scene very early. This sentence implies he arrived just before 10pm. 2200 hrs, which is plainly nonsense, even by his standards]

***

The BELLA article is odd in several other ways. Much later it states
I decided to open the boot, and underneath the spare tyre was a pair of surgical scissors sat [sic] in the middle. “How could police not have taken them as evidence?” I thought to myself in horror. I took a picture and placed the tyre back. [sic]
I later asked the chief prosecutor Wolters about the scissors, but he said, “No comment.’

In his book Clarke renders it thus :
“I ploughed on insisting that I had been to the factory the day before and found some remarkable things, including the surgical scissors hidden under the spare tyre in the Twingo.
I said it was clear they had not been found by the police and I was sure they had not been tested for DNA or potential evidence. I also told him that I had found what looked like a recently unearthed shallow grave, although I could not show him a photo as I was recording the interview and didn’t want to interrupt it.
He looked taken aback. ‘We can’t expect a pair of scissors to help us much further,’ he barked. ‘That there are other things with his DNA on them – we already assume this. Finding his DNA won’t help us further. And we don’t expect to find any DNA of kids or anything.’


Which with respect is a little more detailed than “No Comment”

Clarke also wrote his usual article for The SUN, advertising the publication of his book and including the scissors, though he neglects to mention to Sun readers that they are required by Law to be carried in every German vehicle.
No one will be surprised to learn that it is completely different from the previous two.

“However, when I opened the boot I noted that the spare tyre was still in place and out of curiosity I prised it out of position to see if anything was underneath … and there standing out like a sore thumb was a pair of surgical scissors, that I later brought up with the prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, with him scoffing ‘what would I be expecting to find on it?’ I might as well have replied, ‘DNA of Maddie’s’, and had there been gaffer tape and a mask, we could have been in the realms of a Sopranos episode.”

Again a bit different from “No Comment”, and significantly different from the book version.

In the book Clarke states he was recording the interview on his phone. We now have three versions, all different. Which one fits the recording best ? Which one is the “truth” ?
And even if Clarke tells us, why should we now believe him ?
Perhaps it is “None of the Above”.

And as another commentator said recently . .
“It’s Jon Clarke, and the Olive Press. Do we even CARE any more ?”

[As an aside : BELLA is published by the BAUER publishing empire, who also now own EMAP, the publishers of the short lived FIRST magazine, which published the totally untrue and invented story by Danielle Gusmaroli - See chapters 23 and 31, and probably facilitated the emigration of the author to work for the same Media empire in Australia. They also publish CLOSER – see above]


FELGUEIRAS INTERVIEW in NetFlix Transcript

Jon Clarke: "I got a phone call incredibly early. Normally if a job came in from the national papers in England, I'd get a call at 9:30 or half 8, perhaps, and it was 7 or 7:30 and it was the foreign desk at the Mail. They quickly told me that a girl had gone missing, potentially kidnapped, in the south of Portugal in the Algarve and could I get there as quickly as possible to investigate?

But later in the same interview he backtracks on all this and says:

Jon Clarke: I don't think they said whether it was a girl or boy. I don't even think I had the age. I didn't have any idea who the family were. I fully expected to arrive there and for this child to have turned up and for it to have dissolved into a non-story.

In the Book Clarke is quite clear, and puts this exchange in quotation marks
‘Can you get to the Algarve ASAP?’ he said (for it was more an order than a request). ‘Some girl’s gone missing. A doctor’s kid. The Foreign Office is already on it. Place called Ocean Club in Praia da Luz. Just get going, we’ll call you with more en route.’

And a little later
“It became harder to go away on long trips and I tried to cherrypick the more interesting, local ones, closer to home. It meant committing the cardinal rule of freelancing; turning down work. It meant less money but allowed me to cultivate relationships with the broadsheets, writing more about culture and history and, in particular, doing more travel writing. But when an opportunity arose to cover a meaty case for a number of the tabloids it was too good a chance to miss.

He knew it was going to be Meaty. He has just told us.

Which do you believe ? And why would you believe that version against any other version ?
Which can you believe ? And Why ?

****

To sum up
Arrived 1145. – Untrue
Arrived 1045. – Untrue
Kay Burley there. – Untrue
Only reporter. – Untrue
First journalist. – Untrue
First British Journalist. – Untrue

Able to walk into the apartment – Untrue
Spoke to McCs in the apartment. – Untrue
Spoke to McCs as they were leaving – Untrue
Spoke to McCs a few hours after arriving – Untrue
Spoke to McCs at Press conference – Untrue
Deep roadworks outside the apartment – Untrue

No dogs till late afternoon. – Untrue
Didn’t know if it was boy or girl – Untrue
Didn’t know about the family. – Untrue

Thought M. might be found within hours. – Untrue
but
Knew it was going to be a MEATY Case – – – TRUE







APPENDIX

OP17
A PAEDOPHILE TOOK MADELEINE MCCANN, NOT HER PARENTS
Jon Clarke analyses why her parents were not involved and recalls the shocking way he ended up accused of being involved
By Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor) -
11 May, 2017 @ 15:00
I RECEIVED the call at 7.15am from the Daily Mail foreign desk. It was a Friday morning as we approached deadline for one of the first editions of the Olive Press, then in its early fledgling stage.
The daughter of a pair of British doctors had gone missing on the Algarve the night before. Could I get over and investigate?
I was on the road half an hour later from Ronda, where we had our office, based out of a cowshed next to my home…
The only reporter on the scene till late that evening – apart from Sky News reporter Kay Burley, who happened to be on holiday there – I spent time grilling neighbours, before noticing that a road crew was still digging up the street to lay sewage pipes literally right outside the apartment. The trench was nearly two metres deep and three men continued to shuffle around inside it.
Nobody had stopped them.
Incredibly, we had to wait till late afternoon before a couple of sniffer dogs had arrived, which was amateur to say the least, given that Maddie had been reported missing a full 18 hours earlier.
I am not going to be able to solve the mystery, but I am convinced she was snatched by a local paedophile, who had been watching the family’s movements.
When I arrived at about 11.45am I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns and told them I would do everything I could to help.


OP19
The Olive Press editor, 50, was the first journalist on the scene in Praia da Luz the day after the police began their disastrous attempt to find the toddler.
Vanished
In the hard-hitting series he takes the crew around the resort and reveals his shock at how laid back the police operation was and how he met the McCanns in those early hours.
“Initially there was just a small bit of tape in front of the apartment, and then a bit at the side where the patio doors were,” he revealed in the film. It wouldn’t have been difficult to walk in and have a look around. It wasn’t Fort Knox, he added.


SFIG
Interview with Felgueiras within the Netflix documentary
Jon Clarke: "I got a phone call incredibly early. Normally if a job came in from the national papers in England, I'd get a call at 9:30 or half 8, perhaps, and it was 7 or 7:30 and it was the foreign desk at the Mail. They quickly told me that a girl had gone missing, potentially kidnapped, in the south of Portugal in the Algarve and could I get there as quickly as possible to investigate?

Later in the interview
Jon Clarke: I don't think they said whether it was a girl or boy. I don't even think I had the age. I didn't have any idea who the family were. I fully expected to arrive there and for this child to have turned up and for it to have dissolved into a non-story.

NET19
Crews interviewed the publisher of Spain’s biggest expat paper Jon Clarke, who was the first UK print journalist in the resort when the news broke of Maddie’s disappearance some 12 years ago.
In the new documentary, Clarke travels to Portugal and retraces his steps in 2007 with the film crew.
Directed by Chris Smith, the man behind Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened, and executive produced by Emma Cooper and produced by UK-based Pulse Films in association with Paramount Television, the series has access to never-before-heard testimonies from those at the heart of the story including friends of the McCann family, investigators working the case and from those who became the subjects of media speculation and rumour.

NETTRANS
NETFLIX TRANSCRIPT.
PART ONE:
Reporter 1: Police in Portugal are searching for a three-year old British girl who is thought to have been abducted from her bed. Madeleine McCann was on holiday with her family in a resort on the Algarve. Her parents were having dinner a short distance away and they discovered she was missing when they checked on the room.
Jill Renwick speaking over the phone: “The shutters had been broken open and they've gone into the room and taken Madeleine.“

****
Jon Clarke: I think this is it, this is it, yeah, this is it. This is now what was the Mark Warner complex, the Ocean club. This one here. 5...5A.

Footage gets played from 2007 - 4th May - Video of Gerry and Kate: Gerry McCann asks someone off camera: ''Where are we going please?.'' [Indistinctive chatter]

Jon Clarke: I said hello to them. I introduced myself as a reporter from the Mail. And they said ''Hi.'' I think they may have said ''Thanks for coming.'' That was really, unfortunately, all I could get out of them at that point. So there wasn't much opportunity, sadly to talk to them about what had happened, the night before. Initially, there was maybe just a small bit of tape here in front of the apartment, the front and then a bit at the sides, where the patio doors were.

Jon Clarke: And then there was a note on the steps leading up, saying ''Don't go past this point.'' It went up, and I looked in, the door was open, and I think I tried to speak. I didn't want to push my way through the door into the apartment, which would have been a crime scene, so it wouldn't have been appropriate to do that, but I got the impression it wouldn't have been difficult at all to have sort of have walked in and had a look around. You know, I don't think it was...It certainly wasn't Fort Knox.

CLOSER
As a prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case is announced, Closer speaks to Jon Clarke who has followed the story since the three-year-old went missing...

Journalist Jon Clarke was one of the first on the scene in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when Maddie went missing from a holiday resort in May 2007, while her parents ate in a nearby restaurant. He has been reporting on the case ever since.
Jon recalls the call he received from a British newspaper on the morning of 4 May 2007, asking him to report on a missing child.
He says, “I remember thinking that by the time I got there, she’d have turned up. Praia da Luz was a sleepy little village and hardly anyone was around when I arrived later that morning. But I was shocked when I saw the McCanns’ apartment – there was no security and just a flimsy piece of police tape covering the side gate.”
A few hours after arriving, Jon met Kate and Gerry. He says, “They were polite, and even thanked me for reporting on the case. They were clearly devastated. The press conference outside their apartment later that day only confirmed my feelings. I think almost every person there shed a tear. As a journalist, you try not to get too emotional about a story, but my own daughter had just turned two, so it was hard not to get upset.
“In the days that followed, it was clear this was a story like no other – hundreds of journalists descended on the town and Maddie’s face was everywhere. Everyone was looking for her – I must have walked the length of the beach ten times, combing through the wasteland and looking in abandoned houses.”
Jon stayed in Portugal for two weeks while the case unfolded – until it became clear that Maddie was no longer in Praia da Luz. He says he has since returned countless times to report on the story, and even appeared in a Netflix documentary that aired last year about her disappearance.


BELLA
[Written in the first person - Timed as part of the pre-publication publicity campaign]
“I was living in Malaga, Spain, with my wife and daughter and worked as a reporter, covering stories for the newspapers back home in the UK. Someone on the foreign desk asked me to pack a bag and get to the airport as soon as I could, so I could get across to Praia da Luz in the Algarve region of Portugal. I was given minimal details, but I remember thinking it would all blow over and the three-year-old tot would be located. At that time, I truly had not idea just how big this case was gong to be and the worldwide attention it was abut to receive.

As a father of two daughters myself, I wanted to find answers for Maddie’s devastated parents, Kate and Gerry McCann. They were completely broken – you could see it all over their faces. I remember meeting them shortly after I arrived at a press conference that night. Kate was clutching onto Maddie’s cuddle toy cat and trying to hold it together. I told them I’d do anything to help them find their missing daughter, and they were so grateful for the support.


BOOK
It was an extraordinarily early start. Up and out of the house before 7am was rare for my new life in Spain. It was May 2007 and I was living in the stunning Serrania de Ronda mountains, near Malaga, having relocated from London, and Fleet Street, to set up as a stringer in southern Spain. As I had just set up a regional newspaper, The Olive Press, I was used to taking trips around the country and its islands – usually involving celebrities on holiday, tourists falling out of windows or something connected to the costa del crime ... so to be sent off by the Daily Mail on a missing child story in Portugal wasn’t too out of the ordinary.
What was different though, was the family involved. The professional, middle-class doctor couple Kate and Gerry McCann were not your typical Brits abroad-type victims – the least likely of British tourists to want to get involved with the press, particularly on holiday. But they were clearly in desperate need for help. Conjuring up a legion of journalists to help in their hunt for their missing daughter (the prettiest, most striking of little girls) seemed to be the best way forward.
I didn’t know the poor minion who had called me from the Daily Mail’s London HQ half an hour earlier. I think he was new to the job, and, as is the way with the Mail, there were few pleasantries (when I worked there in the 1990s, its computer password for casual staff was ‘Yes Sir’). ‘Can you get to the Algarve ASAP?’ he said (for it was more an order than a request). ‘Some girl’s gone missing. A doctor’s kid. The Foreign Office is already on it. Place called Ocean Club in Praia da Luz. Just get going, we’ll call you with more en route.’
**
It was now between 9.45am and 10.15am local time (an hour earlier than Spain and sensibly in the same time zone as the UK) and I was the first British journalist on the scene. A small group of expats and tourists were already getting mobilised after a night of drama and anxiety. The McCanns’ apartment was on the corner of the block at the junction of Rua da Escola Primaria and Dr Agostinho da Silva. Easily spotted, it had a flimsy bit of police tape run up the side of it by a rickety gate, and another bit of tape around the front where the car park was. After establishing the name of the missing toddler as Maddie or ‘Maddy’ from one of the expats hovering outside, I walked up the short flight of stairs to the apartment, number 5A, – completely unimpeded by police – to speak to the parents, as any decent journalist is programmed to do on arrival at a job like this. I walked inside the open front door and bumped straight into the McCanns, who were heading off to the police station in nearby Lagos to make an official missing persons statement. They looked fraught and stressed, but were somehow still functioning, despite presumably not sleeping a wink. I smiled and said ‘hello’, introducing myself as a local hack, working for the Mail, just arrived from Malaga. I promised I’d help as best I could to find their daughter.
They seemed grateful and smiled ... well grimaced to be fair – saying ‘thank you’ and mumbling a few other pleasantries, before telling me their daughter’s name and the rough time she had disappeared, which was between 9pm and 9.45pm. I don’t remember much but I do remember them describing it as ‘a nightmare’ and saying they were ‘sure’ she had been snatched. I scribbled it down in my notepad.
It was clear they couldn’t hang around and needed to go and get the local police force to actually give a damn, for it was apparent right from the start that they really didn’t care very much. This was obvious from the shortage of officers on hand. There were two local bobbies on duty, but the side of the house was unguarded and life in the resort was going on as normal.


MARTIN BRUNT
Brunt accepts that the way that the story was handled by his and other media organisations was imperfect. "It's the view of a few of us that when we look back over the first two or three weeks of the coverage we were in some ways over-sympathetic. We kind of adopted the tone and the language that the family did. I think we perhaps lost our objectivity a bit, we became a bit too subjective about the story."

The message of hope that was broadcast contradicted what Brunt's police sources had told him from the outset. "Ever since day one, when I spoke to cop contacts and others who had been involved in this kind of story, they said 'Just look at the statistics'. Most children who disappear in these circumstances are victims of paedophiles who plan everything and then panic. The easy option for them is to destroy the only witness to their crime. It was clear to me from very early on that this was going to be the most likely outcome. I think journalists in general tended to shy away from making that point."

Nonetheless, he remains sore that he was pulled off the story before he was ready to come home. "I spent 10 days in Portugal," he says. " I thought there were still angles to the story to explore. But I came back because it was deemed we were spending a lot of money on it when there were other stories to cover." So he'd have liked to stay longer? "Yeah. I hadn't at that stage interviewed the parents. I came back at that point where we were beginning to think we should be a bit more honest about the likely outcome of this story.



REFS AND LINKS:
OP17
https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2017/05/11/madeleine-mccann-olive-press-editor-talks-first-journalist-scene-10th-anniversary-disappearance/

OP19
[url=https://www.theolivepress.es/print-edition/" \l]https://www.theolivepress.es/print-edition/#fb0=3[/url]

SFIG
From transcript of Netflix film

NET19
https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2019/03/14/netflix-announces-madeleine-mccann-documentary-featuring-the-olive-press-and-never-before-heard-testimonies/

CLOSER
https://closeronline.co.uk/real-life/news/madeleine-mccann-german-suspect-jon-clarke/11/06/2020

BELLA
“Bella. MADDIE EXCLUSIVE. 21 SEPTEMBER 2021. ISSUE 38 £1.30, SPAIN €3.25. CANARY ISLANDS €3.25”

BOOK
“My Search for Madeleine”. Jon Clarke - 2021. Print and Kindle versions on Amazon

MARTIN BRUNT
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2725892.ece
https://web.archive.org/web/20070706231113/http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2725892.ece

SUN
“However, when I opened the boot I noted that the spare tyre was still in place and out of curiosity I prised it out of position to see if anything was underneath … and there standing out like a sore thumb was a pair of surgical scissors, that I later brought up with the prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, with him scoffing ‘what would I be expecting to find on it?’ I might as well have replied, ‘DNA of Maddie’s’, and had there been gaffer tape and a mask, we could have been in the realms of a Sopranos episode.”

NETTRANS
(NB. This is not official. It has been prepared by several people who have listened on multiple occasions, refining it each time. It may not therefore be absolutely word perfect, and may not include the normal grammatical mistakes we find in spontaneous speech.)

Jon Clarke: Freelance journalist: [In Spanish] Good Morning Hector, how are you? Good Morning, how's everyone doing? [In English] Hi, guys. How are we getting on? All good? Funnily enough, I've kept the hotel bill from the first couple of days on the story. Hotel Belavista, there you go. From the beginning, right from the first day, from the 4th to the 5th. I got a phone call incredibly early. Normally if a job came in from the national papers in England, I'd get a call at 9:30 or half 8, perhaps, and it was 7 or 7:30 and it was the foreign desk at the Mail. They quickly told me that a girl had gone missing, potentially kidnapped, in the south of Portugal in the Algarve and could I get there as quickly as possible to investigate?

[Male news reporter clip] More on that breaking news this hour. A three-year-old British girl has gone missing in Portugal. It's thought that she may have been abducted. She and her family were staying in a Mark Warner resort. Obviously something wrong has gone on there and we'll bring you more on that story as we find out…

Sandra Felgueiras Reporter: In May 2007, the news came, a three-years-old girl disappeared from Praia da Luz and I was standing at my computer, astonished with the news. ''It's impossible, not in our country, not in Algarve. Algarve is the safest place in Portugal.'' And my editor-in-chief told me, ''Go immediately to Algarve.''


[UK Female reporter voice]...Praia da Luz in the Algarve. We'll bring you more details on that as we…

Jon Clarke: While on the road, interestingly, I got phone calls from both the Mirror And The Sun also asking if I could cover this case, which is quite rare to have, you know, all the papers asking for you to cover it and so I agreed. I said of course I would file for them as well and keep an eye on the story for them. For me, these stories are often, you know, kind of mysterious, you know? Your job is to go and try and unravel what it is.

Sandra 
Felgueiras: What motivates me being a journalist is to find the beneath truth that explains everything. I have this feeling inside that I need to run for the news. I need to be there and understand because that's my mission. I just had to go home, pick some clothes, and I was on my way to the Algarve.

Jon Clarke: I don't think they said whether it was a girl or boy. I don't even think I had the age. I didn't have any idea who the family were. I fully expected to arrive there and for this child to have turned up and for it to have dissolved into a non-story.

Sandra 
Felgueiras: I was thinking that we go there for two days, she was going to be found in the next hours.

Jon Clarke: I remember driving in and thinking it was, you know, a fairly pretty place with nice sort of stone walls. I'd never been here before, I didn't know anything about the village at all. I'm pretty sure it's not famous for anything, really. I don't think there's anything that any previous news stories or anything of particular note that's ever happened in Praia da Luz.

----------------


https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-46-my-search-for-madeleine-jon.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 30.10.21 9:02

Chapter 47: Stop Press! Public apology and Summary of previous Chapters and even more anomalies

STOP PRESS
Jon Clarke may have told the truth
A public apology

YET ANOTHER VERSION of Clarke’s arrival in Praia da Luz has just emerged.

It is in a 49 minute down-the-line interview for Expat Radio channel, and can be heard by accessing
https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t17177p25-new-blog-jon-clarke-olive-press#443226
at Page 2, and clicking on the embedded video.
It is dated Friday 3rd September 2021, and was clearly part of the publicity drive for the book
It has been viewed more than 20 times.

At 12:30 Clarke again mentions the 5 Ws of journalism. When, Where, Who, Why, and hoW
But again he neglects the first and most important one which we have discussed before . . .

WHAT ?

and then at 12:40, talking about his actions on arrival he says - (this is as near verbatim as I can get).

“. . . you go into automatic mode just going through the paces, the first thing I found the apartment,
straight up to the apartment, go, and walked up the steps and asked, yer know, could I speak to the parents, and they happened to be, they were heading off actually relatively quickly to be, err, to the police station to file the official reports . .
But they were very friendly and you know obviously very stressed out . .
And they, they just told me the name . .
And, yer know, I said who I was and from the Mail and I would do my best to help, and they were like “thanks” and that was that.
So I didn’t, I can’t say I really interviewed them . .
but, yer know I, I wanted, yer know, I wanted to sort of just try and monitor, and gather as much information on – locally as you possible could. . .”


Clarke’s new admission that he went up the steps and ASKED to speak to the McCanns, indicates this was not 5A, as he has been insisting for the last 14 years, but 5H, the Payne’s apartment, a first floor apartment accessible from the central stairwell. It then clearly indicates that the McCanns were being ‘guarded and protected’ and that they were getting ready to leave with various members of the Tapas group and some detectives from the PJ, as we know they did around 1000 hrs. That much is on film.

For students of these things, the almost total breakdown of verbal fluency and coherence, and the addition of fillers and repetitions to buy thinking time immediately after he has admitted he did not interview the McCanns at all is an interesting case history in itself, even allowing for his apparent lack of articulacy and fluency, and his general demotic tabloid style of speech.

The whole of Clarke’s previous elaborate fabrications may therefore be built on no more than two words

“Madeleine” “Thanks”

But it seems he may have asked a question, made a statement, and received a response, even if was done through a Tapas member or a minder and not directly. So possibly on two phrases “She is called Madeleine”. “They say Thanks”

In the light of this new evidence which has come after 14 years, and in the light of his full and frank admission that he never interviewed them or even spoke to them again,
I UNCONDITIONALLY withdraw my suggestion that Clarke may never have spoken to the McCanns
, at least until further evidence is forthcoming.

*****
His statement fixes his arrival at around 0945 Portuguese and British time, as we deduced from the documentary evidence and have stated on several occasions, despite being roundly abused by Clarke for having done so. That in turn has implications for the time of the phone call, of which perhaps more later.

It also nails forever the untruth of his walking straight into Apartment 5A, and makes more credible his various alternative ‘versions of the truth” that he didn’t because it was taped off.

****
Clarke has clearly been stung by the exposure that his previous claims over the last 14 years that he was the First or the Only Journalist at the scene were ‘somewhat less than accurate’ to put it mildly.

Perhaps in the light of having read some suggestions made here and elsewhere, he has now revised this in the radio interview to –

“You know I was there first because the press from the UK none of the national newspapers could get journalists down there until mid-afternoon or late afternoon . . .
so you know I was hands, I was kind of holding hands, holding their hands right the way through the day, making sure that I did the basic checks err, yer know, all the main, [long pause] talking to the manager of the Ocean club… “


To paraphrase in more coherent English,
I was the first British Journalist under contract to a British Newspaper – – – on the scene.

This is what we suggested many years ago, but it does not appear in any of his newspaper articles, advertising pieces for the Netflix film, the Netflix programme, advertising pieces for the book, on the cover of the book, or in the book itself, which use five different variants of First, Only, first British, and more.
This is a criminal case, and details are important.
****

Clearly both these newly discovered statements conflict violently with all the previous ones.
But these may be the truth, or at least may allow us to understand the truth.
And that is a Revelation and a Breakthrough.

What can we say, except “Well done Jon. The truth will out; truth has the mastery.”


*****

CHAPTER 47


“My Search for Madeleine” – Jon Clarke, 2021

Summary of previous Chapters

and some more interesting anomalies

The three previous chapters were written in haste and focussed on individual issues which leapt out of the pages as being simply wrong, or in contradiction to other things the same author had said previously (see above)

What follows therefore is an attempt at simplification and a statement of some of those issues before I then identity and develop yet more.

Readers should perhaps understand before tackling this confusing book that
It is NOT a new look at the available evidence.
It is NOT an analysis of what happened, nor of what could have or could not have happened
It is NOT a dissertation on the investigation
It IS a personal quest for a series of Captain Renault’s “Usual Suspects”, not one of which – except the libelled and persecuted Robert Murat – was identified by Clarke. Clarke gives the impression that he becomes convinced that each in turn is the Guilty party, even though, as mentioned above and like all other ‘believers’, he never states explicitly OF WHAT it is they are supposed to be guilty, nor HOW they are supposed to have done IT.

In this book

•    Clarke admits culpability for the egregious libel of Nicole Kidman and Jude Law some years ago, and confesses that the money he was paid for the story enabled the purchase of his house.
Kidman was awarded substantial damages, and gave them to a Children’s Charity.

•    Clarke admits culpability for the gross libel and subsequent ‘framing’ of Robert Murat which culminated in his being investigated by the PJ and interviewed as ‘arguido’ and being then libelled for a long time by the British gutter press.
Murat was awarded over £600,000 in damages, such was the extent of this disgraceful vicious attack.
It is not known how much Clarke was paid for this story, but he has substantially extended his property empire in Spain since that time.

AN ASIDE:

It may be an appropriate moment to mention this. It gives a good insight into the mind-set of tabloid journalists.
The News of the World was a red top, gutter press tabloid, sister paper to The Sun and The Sun on Sunday.
Recently one of their top ex-journalists and executives died.
His obituary includes these observations :– (Telegraph obit. edited)
“Greg Miskiw, who has died aged 71, was a senior executive at the News of the World sentenced to six months in prison for his part in the phone-hacking scandal that sank the paper in 2011.
As the paper’s news editor, Miskiw used his mastery of the dark tabloid arts to earn the nickname “the Prince of Darkness”, but also acclaim as the archetypal tabloid journalist.
“You were in a bubble at the News of the World,” he explained, “where the objective was very simple: just get the story. Just get it … no matter what … no matter how.”


… professionally ruthless, [his] journalistic exploits could lack empathy,
This emotional vacuum gave Miskiw a professional edge: he pursued stories with little regard for the methods used or collateral damage.
“This is what we do,” he once remarked. “We go out and destroy other people’s lives.”


The utter contempt with which tabloid journalists treat people, families, the law, and common decency is laid bare here in Miskiw’s own words. Not without good reason are they called the “Gutter Press”.

Clarke is therefore not alone. He was, and is, a frequent contributor to The Sun and The Sun on Sunday, as well as to other red top tabloid British newspapers.
His attempts to “destroy the lives of Nicole Kidman and Jude Law,” enriched him and his family, as he admits in the book. It is possible that his partially successful attempt to “destroy the life of Robert Murat” may have done the same, as he now owns several enviable rental properties in addition to his renovated family home; one in the outer-Ronda area, a series of small luxury apartments in old Ronda, and one in an exclusive location on the Costa del Sol, all tastefully appointed and at the upper end of the rental market, some commanding over €4,500 [£4,000] per week. All are widely advertised in the internet.

People’s Lives Matter ? Or People’s Lives PAY ?

To continue.
In this book

•    Clarke now admits that all his previous stories about the phone call and his journey to and arrival in PdL were incorrect, and has now explained that his encounter with the McCanns, if any, was limited to probably no more than two words. (see above)

•    Clarke trumpets his major involvement in the absurd Marcelino Italiano episode. This story has been dissected at length over the years since it was first published. The story is now padded out with some more detail, but nothing which would enable an independent researcher to check any of the given facts. Clarke concludes the chapter with the full tabloid mystery treatment – “Ominously I have been unable to track him down again and wonder where he may be currently living… or did he continue digging and eventually put himself in a shallow grave?”
Clarke fails to acknowledge that it was researchers who discovered that Italiano had been living in Huelva for some time and was playing for the local basketball team. He had apparently been totally unaware of this when he first ran the story, even though it took Google about 4 milliseconds to find it.

•    And now we see Clarke’s most recent obsession. This time with Christian Brückner. He devotes almost 200 pages to him, and details his several years spent charging around Europe like some latter-day “Indiana Clarke and The Quest for the Eighth Suspect”

•    Clarke emulates Kate McCann’s book in drifting into irrelevant autobiographical detail, even at one point confessing to having abandoned his own wife and children for a considerable period, though naturally he uses the common euphemism ‘separated’. The inclusion of that detail is entirely gratuitous; we didn’t know, we didn’t really want to know; but now we and the whole world does.

     We are left wondering whether all these outpourings of guilt and admissions of wrong-doing are a lead up to a catharsis or a quasi-religious “confession of sins”.
But it is necessary in both those cases to feel remorse and to show contrition. Clarke does neither of those things.
He seems genuinely proud of his actions, and boasts openly of the amount of money he made by trying to destroy Nicole Kidman’s life, thus adding Pride and Greed to his personal list.

     As such he exists in the same Moral vacuum as the late Greg Miskiw. Unscrupulous and morally bankrupt.

******

There is a clear and present danger of deciding the outcome before looking for evidence, but it is into that elephant trap or ‘deep trench’ that Clarke has thrown himself.

He clearly “believes” that there was an abduction without troubling to examine the evidence, or consider total lack of it. It follows therefore that he believes someone must have done it. It only remains to identify, or even to “frame” someone, as he tried to with Robert Murat.

The first third of the book is therefore devoted to the people who came briefly to notice before being eliminated. The wording he uses is capable of showing his apparent genuine distress or concern that not one of them could be convicted or more likely ‘fitted up’. He uses the construction “I now wonder if...” no fewer than ten times.

The people whose profession is to look for evidence of WHAT happened and then to develop a scenario round a credible Modus Operandi – found nothing. But Clarke is contemptuous of the Police, of the diplomats, of the Public Prosecutor, the Portuguese legal system, their Appeal court, and their Supreme Court (twice), of police search advisors, and indeed of everyone who does not agree with his own personal “belief”

[See chapter 18 for a list of those who are paid to believe or say they believe in an Abduction, against those professionals who have the necessary training and skills and examined the available evidence - who do not]

Only two people say there was an abduction.
Others simply ‘believe’ what they have been told, without ever asking for the evidence.

As Krishnamurti said “Belief [faith] is the excuse you use if you don’t have a good argument”,
which has been rendered as – “Belief [faith] is the alibi you use when you do not have an ounce of proof or validity for your argument.”

Clarke perhaps inadvertently acknowledges this several times in his text.
“I have never wavered in my belief that the parents were innocent. I laid out my argument in a long feature I wrote for the first anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance in May 2008. I repeated it again on the tenth anniversary in 2017 and nothing has come close to changing my view.”

But he provides no evidence, and merely quoting from something he had written previously, also unreferenced, and itself only a ‘belief’ does not, with respect, reinforce his position.
In the next sentence then has absolutely no choice but to dismiss the dogs’ alerts as so-called evidence from sniffer dogs – who allegedly scented her body and blood in the apartment in two places, particularly behind the sofa, as well as in the McCanns’ rental car.”

As of course he must. Having staked all on something (though he refuses to state exactly what) he has no option but to sneer at and dismiss the known facts. His contempt for people, for their privacy, their family lives, extends now to deriding the facts and professional people’s independent findings.

A problem with Clarke’s approach may be that he has insufficient access to the PJ and BKA reports, probably lacks the time to index and cross reference them as investigators do, and then utterly refuses to accept them even when he does read them.

The alleged sighting of Madeleine at Alcossebre in a VW Westfalia camper van is an example of how lack of the full information combined with a refusal to accept the facts can lead a rank amateur astray. That much is evident as Clarke devotes an entire chapter to the episode, despite its having been dealt with in June 2007, seven weeks after the alleged event, and some eleven years before Clarke started his latest quest.

Briefly: the VW van with the man and little blond girl was on Berlin registration plates. It was traced and the German man and van were eliminated from the enquiry, as was his little blond daughter.
The VW van owned by Brückner was traced to a scrap yard in Portugal close to Foral where he had been staying and was on Portuguese registration plates. It was subsequently recovered by PJ officers.
Photos of both vehicles are available, showing the registration plates. But only if you know where to look, and are prepared to consider the evidence.

Clarke ends that chapter with an astonishing paragraph, demonstrating in only 115 words his utter contempt for Police, his sneeringly superior and xenophobic attitude to “foreigners”, his self-appointed detective status, and most dangerously his totally un-evidenced assumption that there was an abduction and that Brückner therefore must have done it, simply because Clarke says so.

That is not how the legal system works in enlightened western societies.

“Having worked here as a journalist for nearly 20 years, I know the Spanish police well. I also know that in any case involving a foreigner they can be laid back, at best, and I am simply not convinced they went out of their way to locate and eliminate this ‘German man’ from their enquiries.
Maybe they actually did locate Brueckner and, as in 2013, he managed to easily brush it off and evade them.
This could well have been the best chance to have caught Maddie alive so far. We must never give up hope that she might still be alive. And the police finally charge Brueckner with her kidnapping. Only time will tell.” p.267


When we remember that this time he is simply substituting the name Brückner for MuratMalinkaWalczuchvonAeschHewlettNey, even Monteiro this should send a chill down the spine of any intelligent reader.

As has been observed before (? Mark Twain ?). “It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

When that descends into what at the moment is nothing more than blind belief, leading to witch-hunt or lynch-mob mentality, it becomes pathological and extremely dangerous.

*****
Clarke’s refusal to accept the possibility of error or to apologise or explain is well documented. As is his contemptuous dismissal of the tort of defamation.
In a previous chapter I demonstrated this with his 48 point bold headline “LIBEL NO BIG DEAL IN SPAIN” just a few issues before he grossly defamed me. [Ch. 31]

His arrogant dismissal of the rights of others were displayed in the Kidman case, the Murat scandal, and in the general tone of articles in his paper about individuals with whom he disagrees.

Even the excoriating Federation of Association of Journalists of Spain (FAPE), judgment against him and the Olive Press for the hounding of a family with a young blond daughter is belittled and ridiculed.
In the book he states that he did not receive a letter from FAPE, was not allowed to put his side of the story, and didn’t even realise they had been censured until the following year. He does however admit to having received a letter from the family, and a phone call, and claims to have tried to apologise.

Would a professional body really have moved to final published judgment without making serious efforts to contact the ‘respondent’? The family had both the postal address and a phone number and was clearly upset enough to pursue the matter without, for example, an informal resolution of apology and retraction.

Some may think it is straight out of the Del-Boy Trotter list of excuses. “The letter’s in the post; we never got the summons; the dog must have eaten it; my wife used it to light the wood-burner; I must have been on an assignment / holiday / in hospital; we had heavy rain and it must have got lost in the flood . . .”

Readers will make of that what they choose.
Given Clarke’s previous history I regret to have to say that for me, it just doesn’t wash, for this reason:–

Spain’s postal delivery service operates in towns but not in outlying areas. Customers in villages often have an allocated letter box (Buzon) typically at the foot of a block of flats, or physically in a purpose build structure at the entrance to an Urbanisation. (This is not the same as a PO Box – Apartado de Correos in Spanish – which is physically located within a Post Office.)

In 2012 the Olive Press operated such a system. The box in question is in a purpose built bank at the entrance to an Urbanisation over one kilometre from the then office and Clarke’s family home and first rental property. It is clearly stated on the legally required contact information on the editorial page. p.6
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 0

Although the legal address of the Olive Press has now moved to the office to Sabanillas, Manilva, this letter box (Buzon 13, Urb. Cayetano Orroyo) is still used by the Clarke family in his wife’s name for the management of their property empire, the large rental property attached to their own home, the block of apartments in old Ronda, and the luxury apartment on the coast.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 2
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 6

If delivery were ‘infamously erratic’ it is submitted they would have moved to something more reliable.
Does this make Clarke’s statement that he did not receive any communication from FAPE even less likely?

In the book Clarke states
“we certainly didn’t expect to receive a legal letter from the Federation of Association of Journalists of Spain (FAPE), the Spanish equivalent of the Press Complaints Commission. Indeed we didn’t actually receive one, but FAPE had supposedly sent one to our office outside Ronda, which being in the countryside opposite my home was infamously erratic for receiving post. Incredibly, FAPE hadn’t felt the need to send another letter, or indeed call or send an email. p. 114”

Leaving aside the contorted grammar and strange vocabulary of the relative clause in the bolded sentence, it must be clear that no letters were ever delivered to nor ever addressed to the office opposite the house. There is no delivery service, and there is no letter box – as a search on “google maps - street view” will confirm.

But that must be set against this statement earlier in the chapter.
“The girl’s mother, who had not been at the interview, was not happy. She phoned the paper demanding a retraction and apology, which perhaps we didn’t deal with quickly enough or seriously enough.”

Given what we have established about Clarke’s and the Olive Press’ attitude towards people’s privacy, rights, common decency, and much more we may not be surprised that he dismissed a valid complaint in that cavalier fashion. He has dealt with similar complaints about defamation and gross falsehoods in the same arrogant and dismissive way but continues to publish them. [ see Ch. 31. Jon Clarke - Lies and Videotape]

Does any of this matter?
Well yes.

  • He is “investigating” at least two of the most serious crimes known to any legal system.
  • Clarke is purporting to write a truthful account, not a work of fiction.
  • The fact that the book is full of errors and provable falsehoods is worrying.
  • He may argue that details such as whether he interviewed witnesses or spent that evening with an old university friend drinking specialist lager;
  • whether he bothered to check the registration numbers of the VW camper vans;
  • whether post is delivered to his door or left in a bank of letter boxes nearly a mile away;
  • whether he went into Apartment 5A or 5H on arrival;
  • the time of the phone call alerting him and his time of arrival;
  • the numbers of journalists, police, dogs and film crews –
  • he may argue that all this may be of no great importance in the scheme of things, and serves merely to divert attention from his avowed aim to frame a man in prison in Germany for a crime he not only may not have committed, but for a crime which may not have been committed in the first place . . .

So yes Jon. It matters

The strong suspicion that Clarke did receive the letter and a copy of the formal judgment but contemptuously ignored them is hardened towards near certainty by an email of 14 October 2021 direct from the Secretary General of The Commission for Arbitration, Complaints and Ethics in Journalism, which ensures compliance with the Code of Ethics of the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE)
Doña Maria del Carmen Pérez de Armiñán Garcia-Fresca. in which she says: – [translation. Original in App.]

“We acknowledge receipt of your letter of 24 September, in which you bring to our attention information about the version, eight years after the ruling issued by the Commission for Arbitration, Complaints and Ethics in Journalism in 2013 (ruling 2013/82), published by Jon Clarke in the book "My Search for Madeleine".
It is clear that, if the allegations in the book were true, Mr Clarke would have filed a complaint with the Commission at the time, which never took place.”


Doña Carmen Pérez de Armiñán goes on to say

“I understand that your email is only intended to provide us with information on the allegations made against our organisation, for which we are enormously grateful.
Yours faithfully”


It would appear that we must now add this to the long and rapidly increasing list of Clarke’s contempt for facts, for truth, for common decency, and even for the normally accepted standards of Journalism.
It is in fact just another invented story to cover up his own lack of professional and personal integrity.

To repeat the late Greg Miskiw’s words:
“…the objective was very simple: just get the story. Just get it … no matter what … no matter how.”
“This is what we do. We go out and destroy other people’s lives.”


And we may care to reflect at this point on Danielle Gusmaroli’s input into this charade, of another Tabloid press “JOURNALIST” inventing almost totally a story to support the McCann’s “official abduction story” and timed to perfection with the publication of the McCann’s own forged Pool Photo . . . Chapters 20 and 36

They are ALL at it.
It is sadly impossible to take at face value anything they write.

Gusmaroli emigrated to Australia, as did Wendy Williams, one of Clarke’s journalists involved in the FAPE scandal. Clarke tells us this was because of the FAPE judgment. It now seems more likely it was collateral fall-out damage from his own arrogant failure to deal properly with the initial complaint and his contemptuous refusal to challenge the statement of facts in a hearing.
Miskiw served 6 months in prison for his crimes and sins.
Clarke should perhaps reflect on what he is doing.

An insight into Clarke’s pure Tabloid gutter-press mentality may be seen in an extract from a book about his take-over of the Olive Press. Extracts were published in the Olive Press itself, along with photos of Clarke and his wife who is given her real name and not the clumsy pseudonym he affects in the book. [Appendix]

****

The Shakespearean Tragedy of this saga – Shakespearean rather than Greek in that the Characters are in charge of their own destinies and sub-plots and supernatural elements are included – is that one day soon the McCann’s surviving children will look up on the internet what happened to their big sister, and will discover all the people who have made money out of her death. They will, as all children do, start to ask questions, as will the children of the Tapas 7.

One day Jon Clarke’s own children will read his book and discover that the beautiful house they live in was built from the proceeds of another family’s misery caused directly by the actions of their father. They may then remember that he caused them misery when he abandoned them during their formative years.

The shame, misery and guilt will pass down the generations.




APPENDIX:

“The Commission for Arbitration, Complaints and Ethics in Journalism is constituted as an ethical body of the profession based on independent and responsible self-regulation, and ensures compliance with the Code of Ethics of the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE).”
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 4

2     Insight into the Tabloid mentality of journalists. “…the objective was very simple: just get the story. Just get it … no matter what … no matter how.”

“Olive Press: News from the land of the Misfits” Jason Heppenstall - 2019. Amazon.
Quoted in Olive Press, Issue 34. 13/10/2019

“WHEN Jon Clarke strode into our lives I immediately knew that nothing would be the same again.
His initial communiqué arrived in the form of an email stating matter-of–factly that he had picked up a copy of The Olive Press at Granada Airport and, upon reading it, had been overcome by the feeling that we were in desperate need of his help.
He was, he said, a Fleet Street journalist who now lived in Ronda, several hours’ drive to the west of the Alpujarras.

. . .
He sat down and – just as he had done when we first met him – pulled out the latest copy of The Olive Press from his leather case, slapping it on the table between us.
I couldn’t fail to notice that – once again – it was covered in more red ink and scribbles.
“The newspaper is great,” he started out.
“But,” he continued. There was always going to be a but, “you chaps are still not bold enough with your headlines!”
I squinted at the paper to see what he meant.


“Exactly,” he exclaimed. “Look, I know a thing or two about what makes a hit and what makes a miss. Tiny headlines and weak captions look like failure to me.
“You see this caption?”
It was a story about a local girl who had been injured by a wild boar during a fiesta. There was a stock photo of a boar and a caption: “The girl sustained injuries in the attack.”
“That’s weak,” said Jon, pointing at the much-abused newspaper.
“The headline should be ‘BEAUTY SAVAGED BY BEAST – VILLAGE IN SHOCK’ and it would be in bold caps in 90 Times Roman.


“And if they hadn’t caught it, I’d have a close-up of some snarling teeth and ‘WANTED: HELL BEAST ON THE LOOSE’.”
“Hmm,” I said, taking a sip of wine.


We went through the whole newspaper in this way. By the time we’d finished, Jon had demolished The Olive Press, making it seem like the most inept attempt at a newspaper in the history of mankind.
“But don’t mind me,” he finished, “the story’s still great… and it’s up to you whether you use me or not.”

-----------------


https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/stop-press-and-chapter-47.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Back to top Go down

PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Empty Re: PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann?

Post by Jill Havern 08.11.21 20:11

Chapter 48 - Part One: ‘My Search for Madeleine” Jon Clarke 2021
The final Version of the Truth - or Not ?


Just when we hoped Jon Clarke had finally run out of invented stories -
along comes ANOTHER ONE


Many thought that with the publication of Jon Clarke’s book, written, assembled, proof-read, edited, and then printed and published by Clarke himself under his own label OP BOOKS that would be the end.
We fondly imagined that the book would be the definitive version of the truth, and would lay to rest all the other totally differing versions Clarke has published in various places over the past 14 years.

How naïve we all were.

Within two weeks of the launch of the book Clarke was denying some of what he himself had written in his own book, and was getting angry with commentators on his Face Book page who quoted part of what he had published, saying it was NOT correct. When it was pointed out that the quote was from his own book he responded by ‘whooshing’ the entire sequence.

And only a week after that he drew attention to another self-serving piece in a Spanish newspaper ABC. Entitled – in English translation – “Jon Clarke, 14 years to solve the mystery of little Madeleine”, the sub-heading is “A Hunter of Monsters”. On his Facebook page Clarke makes it clear he is proud of that.
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Jc%2Bspanish%2Barticle
https://www.facebook.com/jon.clarke.3745/posts/4853995174650987


THE HUNTER OF MONSTERS.
THE JOURNALIST IN PURSUIT OF MADELEINE’S ASSASSIN
The British reporter started following the trail of the little girl the day after her disappearance.

The most famous Hunter of Monsters in Spain was Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”. (1605). El Quixote’s exploits riding aimlessly across the plains of La Mancha on a quest never fully explained, attacking wine-skins and tilting at windmills insanely believing them to be monsters and giants, are familiar to all.

Now we have our modern incarnation, driving back and forth across Europe, imagining everyone with a disability to be guilty, and everyone with an alternative lifestyle to be a monster who has stolen, kidnapped, raped and murdered a whole series of small children and old age pensioners from the furthest south-west coast of Portugal to the northernmost regions of Germany, and probably beyond.

We speak loosely of a person being a ‘one-man crime-wave’. Don Clarke-ote clearly wishes to go down in history as the ‘one-man crime-solver’ of all outstanding crimes across Europe.

The picture heading the hard copy of the article shows Clarke at a coffee table, with a MacBook Pro, iPhone, and two copies of his book which he clearly didn’t use as reference for what follows.

But for the full horror of the newspaper piece we need to examine it in more detail. This was published under the name of reporter JJ Madueño, but as Clarke clearly provided all the details and appears at the beginning of the on-line article in a live video interview speaking in good Spanish, he must surely have read it and insisted that any errors were corrected. His unconditional praising of it and advertising of it on his own FB page says the rest.


The first five short paragraphs, in translation and tidied up run as follows –

Para 1. On that very day, May 3, 2007, a call to a telephone number in Ronda required his presence. Mobile phones were not so widespread and the big British newspapers tried to contact Jon Clarke (Cambridge, 1968) in this town in Malaga [province]. He answered, and they asked him if he could go to Portugal.

[NOTE on the translation. The original Spanish is “El mismo dia 3 de Mayo 2007 . . .”.
Mismo often translates as ‘same’, but the context here as the opening phrase indicates its use as emphasis.
“I was standing right here = exactly on this spot” would be translated as “estuvo aqui mismo…”.
“I did it myself” would be “Lo hice yo mismo
So “El mismo dia…” is not “the same day” but must be rendered as “On that very day, on that exact day, on the day in question, or, if we drift into paraphrase, “On that fateful day”On that important day.”
It is making the point that we are talking about 3rd May 2007, and NO OTHER DAY]

Here Clarke says he received the phone call on Thursday 3rd May. The implications are far reaching.

***

Para 2An English girl had disappeared there. "It didn't seem like a big case, but I went to Praia da Luz," Clarke recalls of his first contact with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. That same night (or evening) he met the little girl's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann . "They were devastated and they felt that no one was helping them," describes the journalist, who is based on the Costa del Sol.

‘THAT SAME evening (or night)’ can only refer to Thursday 3rd May, and again the Spanish is very clear. “Esa misma noche”“Misma” now clearly meaning “same”. And here it is being said the Clarke met the parents during the evening of Thursday 3rd May, and from the context spoke to them and recorded their emotional distress.
“It didn’t seem like a big case” is of course a direct contradiction with the books on the coffee table in front of him, where he states “But when an opportunity arose to cover a meaty case for a number of the tabloids it was too good a chance to miss.” p.16

***

Para 3He has published a book on this case, 'My Search for Madeleine', available on Amazon, as a summary of his 14 years investigating the disappearance for media such as 'Daily Mail' or 'Sunday Mirror'. He recalls how at nine thirty the next morning he arrived at the place of the disappearance .

Here we have a major and important contradiction within the article in two consecutive paragraphs.
In para. 2 he met them “that same evening”. Now it is “at nine thirty the next morning.”
But note how “the next morning” reinforces that the phone call was on Thursday 3rd, and not the early hours of Friday 4th.
We also note that nine thirty is the earliest time Clarke has so far given for his arrival. [Book: ‘between 9.45am and 10.15am local time’]. The implications for the timing of his journey from home are obvious and have been rehearsed many times.
There may be some who suggest that leaving home at five thirty Spanish time is in fact more consistent with a phone call the previous day, 3rd May. [But see later]

It is incidentally totally different from the version he wrote and printed in his own newspaper in 2008,
“I had been in Praia da Luz since noon on the day after her disappearance . . . I remember Murat well from those first hours in the resort… “
Noon, and not a word about going into taped off apartments or speaking to the McCanns. And that was when his memory must have been relatively fresh, and the notes in his Journal still legible.

***

Para 4'There were no policemen. Just a tape. I crossed, knocked on the door and Madeleine's parents came out, and told me what had happened ». He began to follow the little girl's trail through Portugal, Spain or Germany, until the arrest of Christian Brueckner.

Clarke’s interminably repeated untruth about the numbers of police officers at the scene has been exposed many times by reference to the police reports and by simply viewing the contemporaneous video newsreel taken during that morning. Quite why Clarke still feels the need to repeat it in the teeth of the clear evidence is not clear.
He now says he crossed the Police tape, knocked on the door and Madeleine’s parents came out.
Given that they were not in Apartment 5A, but were with the Paynes and various PJ detectives and minders in the Paynes’ apartment 5H, which is up a flight of stairs in the central stairwell, this can only mean he visited them in 5H.
But again this is contradicted directly by his book. “I walked up the short flight of stairs to the apartment, number 5A, – completely unimpeded by police – to speak to the parents, as any decent journalist is programmed to do on arrival at a job like this. I walked inside the open front door and bumped straight into the McCanns . . . I smiled and said ‘hello’, introducing myself as a local hack, working for the Mail, just arrived from Malaga. I promised I’d help as best I could to find their daughter. They seemed grateful and smiled ... well grimaced to be fair – saying ‘thank you’ and mumbling a few other pleasantries, before telling me their daughter’s name and the rough time she had disappeared, …”

Flight of stairs, open front door, walked straight in and ‘bumped into the McCanns’ ?
There is of course no flight of stairs to the front door of 5A

And it also contradicts what Clarke said in the radio interview publicising his book [my transcription]
“the first thing I found the apartment, straight up to the apartment, go, and walked up the steps and asked, yer know, could I speak to the parents, and they happened to be, they were heading off actually relatively quickly to be, err, to the police station to file the official reports
But they were very friendly and you know obviously very stressed out
And they, they just told me the name
And, yer know, I said who I was and from the Mail and I would do my best to help, and they were like “thanks” and that was that.
So I didn’t, I can’t say I really interviewed them but, yer know I, I wanted, yer know, I wanted to sort of just try and monitor, and gather as much information on – locally as you possibly could...”


Here he still goes up steps [? to 5H ?] but he ASKS to speak to the parents, rather than barging in through an open front door and bumping into them, and gets the replies “Madeleine” and ”Thanks”, before retreating and admitting ‘that was that’ and that he DID NOT interview the parents.

***

Para 5Clarke recalls the complexity of the case , while harshly criticising the Portuguese police for their handling of it." “Madeleine was seen in more than 1,000 places. The family itself had its group of detectives. In Spain, between 2007 and 2013, we published reports on possible whereabouts in various parts of Andalusia, “ explains Clarke, who recalls that just in this country he has investigated a campsite in Mijas, in the Alpujarra of Granada or in Castellón, in a discotheque. Points where the elusive suspect could be seen with the little girl, because "he always drove, knew Spain, stayed in his van and did not usually take planes.”

Madeleine was not “seen” in 1,000 places. There were reports of small blond girls who looked vaguely similar. Not one was confirmed as genuine, and almost all were eliminated or debunked, several by Clarke himself and his organ the Olive Press. The excoriating FAPE Judgment against the Olive Press was for one such where Clarke decided to run the article and the photos despite explaining that the girl in question was definitively NOT Madeleine.
**
[Just as an aside, in his book Clarke accuses the FAPE judgment of having led to the emigration of the journalist in question Wendy Williams. He neglects to detail a telephone conversation between the father and Wendy, reported in a letter to Clarke, which throw a completely different light on things. [Part]
“"In one of my telephone conversations with the journalist she told me
that she had tried to persuade you not to print the article but that you
had insisted and that she had felt incapable of resisting your decision,
you being her publisher and her patron [employer]. In that telephone
conversation I expressed my point of view that in such circumstances
she should resign."

Which of course she did, and by September 2012 was working for an Estate Agent on the Costa before emigrating.
**
We should perhaps gloss over the idea of a four year old in a discotheque as beyond sensible categorisation.

The whole piece is devoted to Clarke’s quest, as is his book and almost every article written by or about him. “He began to follow the little girl's trail through Portugal, Spain or Germany…“

Jon Quixote, the modern Knight-errant, secure in the belief that he alone has the truth, knows the way, and is determined to find and rescue his Emperatrix Doña Madeleine Dulcinea del Toboso y Rothley.

The sad fact is that there was no “little girl’s trail.” Not a single one of the more than 8,685 reports from 101 counties and territories across the globe has been confirmed as Madeleine. From Algeria Andorra and Argentina to Vanuatu Venezuela and Vietnam, not one has been confirmed even as likely. Not a single one.

And that needs to be repeated in the forlorn hope that people begin to understand.
There is no confirmed sighting. Not Tannerman, not Smithman, not one.
Jon Quixote de la Serrania will of course never accept that, and clings like a drowning man clutching at a punctured dinghy to reports long-since explained and dismissed.
Even is his book he exposes himself by refusing to accept he may be wrong. The case of the report from Alcossebre being perhaps the most notorious of these.
To recap :
Man, girl and VW van seen at resort. Registration noted. Police informed
Man, girl and VW van traced and eliminated. THE END

But not for El Quixote, who after being thrown from his noble steed Rocinante by the windmills’ sails and coming to his senses said “moreover I think, and it is the truth, that that same sage Friston who carried off my study and books, has turned these giants into mills in order to rob me of the glory of vanquishing them, such is the enmity he bears me;”


Jon Quixote still refuses point blank to accept the word of three police forces tasked with investigating.
The van had a Berlin registration, B-MS 1049 to be precise. Brückner’s VW van had a Portuguese registration, 34-91-XE for anyone remotely interested, with the suffix indicating date of registration 82/07, in smaller letters on the yellow stripe to the right.
A photo exists on the net of Brückner with this vehicle clearly showing this vertical yellow stripe. Anyone, including Clarke can find it. German plates have no such yellow stripe. There can be no possible confusion.

And yet despite this clear evidence, and despite Brückner’s vehicle being impounded by the PJ for the BKA, Jon Quixote cannot let it go, and in his book prints this somewhat plaintive statement, sad, yet full of his trademark sneering superiority –
“Having worked here as a journalist for nearly 20 years, I know the Spanish police well. I also know that in any case involving a foreigner they can be laid back, at best, and I am simply not convinced they went out of their way to locate and eliminate this ‘German man’ from their enquiries. Maybe they actually did locate Brueckner and, as in 2013, he managed to easily brush it off and evade them.”

Or as his predecessor said
““moreover I think, and it is the truth, that that same sage Friston who carried off my study
and books, has turned these giants into mills in order to rob me of the glory of vanquishing them,
such is the enmity he bears me;”


Whether this refusal to accept facts is, like El Quixote’s before him, becoming a clinical or borderline pathological condition is something only his family and close friends will know. His driving thousands of kilometres around Europe over 14 months following up leads which had already been investigated by professionals a decade before sounds suspiciously like an irrational and obsessive compulsion.

***

What Clarke does in the first of these few short paragraphs is to breathe life back into the suspicion that he is correct;
that the whole circus WAS put into motion before the fateful events were reported;
that he, and other journalists and the press were alerted long before they could have been by a single phone call from PdL;
that the significant 'Missing Persons' web-page had already been created and just remained to be uploaded with its date of creation inadvertently not corrected;
that the ‘official story’ of Abduction by Paedophile had been rehearsed and was therefore published and repeated without a single journalist bothering to ask even the must rudimentary questions or perform the most simple of investigative tasks;
and that many other things were already in train.

It was previously merely a suspicion based on a mass of disparate coincidences and circumstantial details
But now it is here, in the article Jon Clarke is trumpeting on his own FaceBook page
On that very day 3rd May 2007 a call to a telephone . . required his presence .
That same night he met the little girl’s parents . . .


Those who have tentatively suggested this over the years have been abused, reviled and excoriated.
As have those who worked back from his known arrival time in PdL, calculated his probable driving time, allowed for his admitted stop for coffee en route, the time taken on the narrow tracks and winding roads from his home in the campo outside Ronda, the time he claimed between the phone call (the previously reported phone call of 4/5/7 of course, not this one !) arising from his bed, ablutions, dressing, breakfast and leaving the house, and found that even the earliest time he had given thus far was clearly not sustainable. From that it became clear that the entire Machine must already have been in motion in the very early hours of Thursday 4th May, and possibly very much earlier.

Clarke has always denied this, and the suggestion that he might be under “instructions” not to reveal the truth has been attacked with the typical ferocity of an animal which realises it has been trapped. In this case in a snare he both set and triggered himself – “él mismo” – and from which there is no escape.

But now he appears to have confirmed either that this suggestion was correct, or that he has not bothered to check the article, and thus that the article in question is nothing more than a load of the usual nonsense and not worth another minute of anyone’s time.

How reliable is this article ? Is it just one Tabloid journalist attempting to sell a book and getting another one to write about it ?
PeterMac's FREE e-book: What really happened to Madeleine McCann? - Page 2 Peters%2B1%2Bwk%2Bcomment

We placed a question on Clarke’s Face Book page. The first question was ’Whooshed’, so we replaced it.
So far there has been no reply.


Chapter 48 – Part 2
****
AND NOW - THE STUNNING ADMISSION


https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-48-part-two-and-now-stunning.html






REFS:

1. https://sevilla.abc.es/andalucia/malaga/sevi-periodista-britanico-madeleine-enf-202110212008_noticia.html

2. Original article in Spanish.
Jon Clarke, 14 años para resolver el misterio de la pequeña Madeleine
El reportero Jon Clarke, editor de una publicación inglesa editada en la Costa del Sol, comenzó a seguir el rastro de la pequeña el día después de su desaparición
Advierte del peligro del presunto asesino, Christian Brueckner, un alemán que vivió en poblados 'hippies' de Granada y podría haber cometido más delitos
J.J. Madueño
MARBELLA Actualizado: 22/10/2021 18:49h

El mismo 3 de mayo de 2007 una llamada a un teléfono de Ronda requirió su presencia. Los móviles no estaban tan extendidos y los grandes periódicos británicos buscaban contactar a Jon Clarke (Cambridge, 1968) en esta ciudad de Málaga. Acudió y le preguntaron si podía ir a Portugal.

Allí había desaparecido una niña inglesa. «No parecía un caso importante, pero fui a Praia da Luz», recuerda Clarke sobre su primer contacto con la desaparición de Madeleine McCann. Esa misma noche conoció a los padres de la pequeña, Gerry y Kate McCann. «Estaban destrozados y sentían que nadie les ayudaba», describe el periodista, que está afincado en la Costa del Sol.

Sobre este caso ha publicado un libro, 'My Search for Madeleine', disponible en Amazon, como resumen de sus 14 años investigando la desaparición para medios como 'Daily Mail' o 'Sunday Mirror'. Rememora cómo a las nueve y media de la mañana siguiente llegó al lugar de la desaparición.

«No había ningún policía. Solo una cinta. Crucé, llamé a la puerta y salieron los padres de Madeleine, que me contaron lo que había pasado». Comenzó a seguir el rastro de la pequeña por Portugal, España o Alemania, hasta la detención de Christian Brueckner.

Clarke recuerda la complejidad del caso, mientras critica duramente a la policía portuguesa por su forma de llevarlo. «A Madeleine se le vio en más de 1.000 sitios. La propia familia tuvo su grupo de detectives. En España, entre 2007 y 2013, publicamos reportajes sobre posibles paraderos en varios puntos de Andalucía», explica Clarke, que recuerda que solo en este país ha investigado en un camping de Mijas, en la Alpujarra de Granada o en Castellón, en una discoteca. Puntos en los que se pudo ver al escurridizo sospechoso con la pequeña, porque «siempre conducía, conocía España, se alojaba en su furgoneta y no solía tomar aviones».

Las autoridades alemanas han puesto el foco sobre Christian Brueckner. «La última novedad es que el fiscal está casi seguro al cien por cien que secuestró y mató a Madeleine», afirma este periodista, que desvela con inquietud la conexión española de este caso, contado también en 'The Olive Press', el periódico en inglés que dirige desde hace años y que llega desde la Costa del Sol a Gibraltar o el Levante.

https://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2016/08/chapter-48-part-one-my-search-for.html

____________________
PeterMac's FREE e-book
Gonçalo Amaral: The truth of the lie
CMOMM & MMRG Blog
Jill Havern
Jill Havern
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer
Forum Owner & Chief Faffer

Posts : 28210
Activity : 40913
Likes received : 7691
Join date : 2009-11-25
Location : Parallel universe

Cammerigal likes this post

Back to top Go down

Page 2 of 3 Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

View previous topic View next topic Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum