Dr Vernon Coleman: Former GP and Police Surgeon
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Dr Vernon Coleman: Former GP and Police Surgeon
by Verdi 24.04.19 16:09
The McCanns: What the Hell is Going on?
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
Can I really be the only person who is wondering why the Home Office has given the Metropolitan Police yet more taxpayers’ money to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann?
The disappearance of any child is a tragedy. That’s a given.
But what the hell is going on here?
The police have so far been given over £12 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money and what have they got to show for it?
That isn’t a rhetorical question.
It’s a real question.
What exactly have they done with our money? What have their achieved? Why do they think they can usefully spend yet more of our money?
The Government officially values a life in the UK as being worth £1.83 million. That’s how much our leaders reckon it is worth spending to save a life – with new drugs, road safety improvements or whatever.
So why are we able to spend endless bucket loads of money on a search for one child which does not appear to be going anywhere?
And why haven’t the parents of all the other missing children all been given their own special police department and millions of pounds worth of public money?
Countless thousands of other children are missing. The official figures suggest that well over 100,000 British children go missing every year.
So, why hasn’t £12 million been spent on looking for every missing child? Why doesn’t every missing child merit a special police investigation?
That is a rhetorical question. And it’s easy to answer.
The fact is that we could not possibly spend £12 million searching for every missing child unless we stopped spending money on the NHS, benefits, pensions, education, defence, roads and everything else.
Work it out for yourself.
The official figures are 100,000 children missing each year. Multiply that by £12 million and you get 12 trillion. That’s £12 billion billion a year – every year. (It’s a lot of money My calculator couldn’t cope. I had to do the sum by hand.) That is considerably more than the UK’s entire Gross National Product.
If I were the parent of a child who had gone missing, I’d be spitting feathers at the fact that the McCanns seem to have had special treatment right from the start.
And how and why have so many senior politicians become involved in the McCann case?
Do you know how to get through to the Prime Minister’s office?
No, nor me.
If your child was missing would ringing the Prime Minister or the Chancellor of the Exchequer be one of your first priorities?
The McCanns seem to have managed to get hold of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Pope.
What the hell is going on here?
Why weren’t the McCanns told to use all the public money in their Madeleine Fund for the search for Madeleine? Wasn’t that what the money was donated for?
Why have the McCanns got away with not answering the questions I listed in other articles on this website?
And am I the only person in Britain who doesn’t wonder if things might have been different if Madeleine’s parents had been, say, a pair of ordinary shop assistants without the ability to obtain access to senior politicians?
Am I alone in wondering if it could be remotely possible that a pair of ordinary citizens might perhaps at some point in the last 11 years have been cautioned, questioned, arrested and taken to court to answer some of the important questions which still remain unanswered?
Other relevant articles on www.vernoncoleman.com (all under the Miscellany button):
a) The McCanns: Too Many Questions and Too Few Answers
b) Would you hire the McCanns as babysitters
c) Are McCann’s parents guilty of neglect
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2018
Members wishing to discuss any aspect of this blog can do so here: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t15001-dr-vernon-coleman-the-mccanns-what-the-hell-is-going-on
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
Can I really be the only person who is wondering why the Home Office has given the Metropolitan Police yet more taxpayers’ money to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann?
The disappearance of any child is a tragedy. That’s a given.
But what the hell is going on here?
The police have so far been given over £12 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money and what have they got to show for it?
That isn’t a rhetorical question.
It’s a real question.
What exactly have they done with our money? What have their achieved? Why do they think they can usefully spend yet more of our money?
The Government officially values a life in the UK as being worth £1.83 million. That’s how much our leaders reckon it is worth spending to save a life – with new drugs, road safety improvements or whatever.
So why are we able to spend endless bucket loads of money on a search for one child which does not appear to be going anywhere?
And why haven’t the parents of all the other missing children all been given their own special police department and millions of pounds worth of public money?
Countless thousands of other children are missing. The official figures suggest that well over 100,000 British children go missing every year.
So, why hasn’t £12 million been spent on looking for every missing child? Why doesn’t every missing child merit a special police investigation?
That is a rhetorical question. And it’s easy to answer.
The fact is that we could not possibly spend £12 million searching for every missing child unless we stopped spending money on the NHS, benefits, pensions, education, defence, roads and everything else.
Work it out for yourself.
The official figures are 100,000 children missing each year. Multiply that by £12 million and you get 12 trillion. That’s £12 billion billion a year – every year. (It’s a lot of money My calculator couldn’t cope. I had to do the sum by hand.) That is considerably more than the UK’s entire Gross National Product.
If I were the parent of a child who had gone missing, I’d be spitting feathers at the fact that the McCanns seem to have had special treatment right from the start.
And how and why have so many senior politicians become involved in the McCann case?
Do you know how to get through to the Prime Minister’s office?
No, nor me.
If your child was missing would ringing the Prime Minister or the Chancellor of the Exchequer be one of your first priorities?
The McCanns seem to have managed to get hold of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Pope.
What the hell is going on here?
Why weren’t the McCanns told to use all the public money in their Madeleine Fund for the search for Madeleine? Wasn’t that what the money was donated for?
Why have the McCanns got away with not answering the questions I listed in other articles on this website?
And am I the only person in Britain who doesn’t wonder if things might have been different if Madeleine’s parents had been, say, a pair of ordinary shop assistants without the ability to obtain access to senior politicians?
Am I alone in wondering if it could be remotely possible that a pair of ordinary citizens might perhaps at some point in the last 11 years have been cautioned, questioned, arrested and taken to court to answer some of the important questions which still remain unanswered?
Other relevant articles on www.vernoncoleman.com (all under the Miscellany button):
a) The McCanns: Too Many Questions and Too Few Answers
b) Would you hire the McCanns as babysitters
c) Are McCann’s parents guilty of neglect
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2018
Members wishing to discuss any aspect of this blog can do so here: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t15001-dr-vernon-coleman-the-mccanns-what-the-hell-is-going-on
____________________
“ The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made" - Groucho Marx
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Dr Vernon Coleman: The McCann Mystery
by Verdi 24.04.19 16:17
The McCann Mystery
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
The metropolitan police are apparently asking for yet more money for their Madeleine McCann inquiry. They’ve spent around £12 million already and now want more taxpayers’ cash.
Am I missing something here?
In a previous article on this website (entitled `The McCanns: Too Many Questions and Too Few Answers’) I listed a host of questions which the McCanns still do not seem to have answered.
Wouldn’t the police serve the public better by demanding that the McCanns answer those outstanding questions before any more taxpayers’ money is spent on what has so far been an entirely fruitless search?
Two other points:
The current official ‘value of a preventable fatality’ in the UK is £1.83 million.
That’s what the Government thinks it is fair to spend to prevent a single death.
Every year thousands of people who could have been saved die because the Government didn’t think it was worth spending money to save them. Thousands of people die because the NHS isn’t allowed to spend money on needed drugs. Road safety improvements aren’t made because there isn’t enough money available.
I estimate (and I admit it is an estimate) that the £12 million already spent on the McCanns could have saved at least 5,000 lives if the money had been used to reduce waiting times for essential hospital tests.
The McCanns, of course, have been backed by numerous Prime Ministers and cabinet ministers. No one is quite sure why.
And the McCanns are reported to have the best part of £1,000,000 in a Madeleine fund. If they think detectives would help, why don’t they spend that money? Wasn’t that why it was donated? (When I last looked, I noticed that around half a million was in an investment account.)
Oh, and how much have the McCanns spent of their own after tax income on the search? If I lost a loved one and believed they could be found I would spend every penny I could raise.
Finally, it is worthwhile pointing out that thousands of other children go missing – but virtually no public money is spent looking for them. The official figures show that in Britain a child goes missing every three minutes.
Why are the McCanns getting such special treatment?
If the police are still working for us perhaps they wouldn’t mind giving us a few answers.
Copyright Vernon Coleman August 2017
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
The metropolitan police are apparently asking for yet more money for their Madeleine McCann inquiry. They’ve spent around £12 million already and now want more taxpayers’ cash.
Am I missing something here?
In a previous article on this website (entitled `The McCanns: Too Many Questions and Too Few Answers’) I listed a host of questions which the McCanns still do not seem to have answered.
Wouldn’t the police serve the public better by demanding that the McCanns answer those outstanding questions before any more taxpayers’ money is spent on what has so far been an entirely fruitless search?
Two other points:
The current official ‘value of a preventable fatality’ in the UK is £1.83 million.
That’s what the Government thinks it is fair to spend to prevent a single death.
Every year thousands of people who could have been saved die because the Government didn’t think it was worth spending money to save them. Thousands of people die because the NHS isn’t allowed to spend money on needed drugs. Road safety improvements aren’t made because there isn’t enough money available.
I estimate (and I admit it is an estimate) that the £12 million already spent on the McCanns could have saved at least 5,000 lives if the money had been used to reduce waiting times for essential hospital tests.
The McCanns, of course, have been backed by numerous Prime Ministers and cabinet ministers. No one is quite sure why.
And the McCanns are reported to have the best part of £1,000,000 in a Madeleine fund. If they think detectives would help, why don’t they spend that money? Wasn’t that why it was donated? (When I last looked, I noticed that around half a million was in an investment account.)
Oh, and how much have the McCanns spent of their own after tax income on the search? If I lost a loved one and believed they could be found I would spend every penny I could raise.
Finally, it is worthwhile pointing out that thousands of other children go missing – but virtually no public money is spent looking for them. The official figures show that in Britain a child goes missing every three minutes.
Why are the McCanns getting such special treatment?
If the police are still working for us perhaps they wouldn’t mind giving us a few answers.
Copyright Vernon Coleman August 2017
____________________
“ The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made" - Groucho Marx
Verdi- ex forum manager
- Posts : 34684
Activity : 41936
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Dr Vernon Coleman: Are Madeleine McCann's Parents Guilty Of Neglect?
by Verdi 24.04.19 16:19
Are Madeleine McCann's Parents Guilty Of Neglect? (And Is This Really The Biggest News Story In Britain?)
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
Thousands of people go missing every year but the media doesn't usually bother.
However, the disappearance of a three-year-old British girl from her parents' holiday accommodation in Portugal has become a massive news story.
I suspect that the media has persuaded us that the Drs McCanns deserve our sympathy because they are nice middle class parents and Madeleine is a pretty photogenic child. The fact that there are lots of pictures available helps.
Family and friends have used a compliant media to build the story into a variety of mass hysteria matching that which followed Diana's death.
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been considered such a good story that British television has consistently led with it as the main news item for weeks. Most newspapers have kept the story on their front page.
But has this really been the most important news story? For example, on May 17th, one of days that the two week old story of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was considered the most important news item in Britain, here are some of the news stories that were considered less important:
* Gordon Brown was officially announced as Britain's next Prime Minister
* The World Bank met to consider whether or not to get rid of its President Paul Wolfowitz
* The Government announced that it would close a fifth of all Post Offices in the country. (A total of 2,500 villages and communities deprived of their link with the outside world.)
* The Israelis launched air strikes on Palestinians in Gaza
* The British Army and the Government decided that Prince Harry would not serve in Iraq because it was too dangerous for a member of the Royal Family to fight there. (Despite this, Harry decided that he would stay in the army though it was not made clear precisely what he would do.)
* War criminals Tony Blair and George Bush met in the USA to defend their war record. Blair described Bush as a great leader.
* British soldiers continued to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (though without members of the Royal family).
[/size]
***
When three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared she was alone with her younger siblings in a ground floor holiday apartment rented by her parents. They had gone out to dinner.
Let's get this straight.
The Drs McCann didn't have to rush out in an emergency. They could, presumably, have hired a baby sitter. They chose not to. They chose to leave their three very small children in a flat in a foreign country while they went out to have a good time in a restaurant.
What is going on here?
Why haven't the parents been interviewed by social workers?
Is it now legal for British parents to leave their tiny children alone while they go out for fun?
The McCanns left three children alone. The oldest was three-years-old.
The last time I looked, teenage mothers got into trouble if they popped out to the shops to get a pint of milk and a loaf of bread and left their children alone.
Under British law parents can be charged with neglect or abandonment if they leave their children alone if it is unsafe to do so.
It clearly was unsafe to leave these three small children alone. One of them is now missing.
The McCanns chose to go out to have a good time leaving three small children alone in a flat in a foreign country.
These were not impoverished teenagers who didn't know any better. They are thirty-eight-year-old doctors.
What sort of example were they setting?
What sort of example are media commentators who excuse them setting?
Where are the interfering, busy body social workers when they're really needed?
Most media commentators seem to think that the McCanns did nothing wrong. The arguments seem to be that parents must be able to leave their small children alone in the world and that parents are entitled to lead lives without having their children around them all the time.
Huh?
People who become parents take on enormous responsibilities.
Small children are vulnerable. They fall over. They wake up frightened. They see ghosts in shadows. They fall out of bed. They are vulnerable.
Small children are vulnerable.
But society rewards parents in many ways for their decision. And having children is a choice.
If the Drs McCann wanted to have romantic holidays in the Algarve without having their fun evenings spoilt by children they shouldn't have had any children.
(And they could, remember, have hired a baby sitter.)
They chose to have children. And they chose to take them away to Portugal. And they chose to leave them alone while they went out to dinner.
Personally, I'd arrest the pair of them for child neglect.
Whatever happened to Madeleine they must take a huge amount of responsibility.
Personally, I don't think either of them are responsible enough to work as doctors.
Responsible parents don't leave their children alone in a foreign country.
Being a parent is a 24 hour responsibility.
***
The media and the public seem to regard this pair as victims.
But in my view there is only one victim.
Madeleine is the victim.
Whatever has happened to her is clearly awful.
I feel so, so sorry for her.
But the parents?
Sorry, but I just don't think they deserve our sympathy.
The parents have now taken indefinite leave from their jobs.
(I wonder if they're still getting paid for any NHS work they aren't doing? Just a thought.)
They and their family and friends seem to have become media celebrities. Other celebrities are falling over themselves to get involved.
The parents are alleged to be hiring a professional public relations adviser and two London lawyers. A trust is allegedly being set up to handle the money being raised. Why? What the hell is going on?
Why do they need lawyers and a publicity adviser?
And why do they need a trust?
These aren't impoverished people. They are both doctors.
Their combined annual income is probably the best part of £200,000. Personally, I would not be surprised to see the Drs McCann on Celebrity Big Brother next year.
A cynic might say that at least they won't need to bother getting babysitters for whatever children they might have got left by then.
They could just leave 'em at home alone.
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2007
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
Thousands of people go missing every year but the media doesn't usually bother.
However, the disappearance of a three-year-old British girl from her parents' holiday accommodation in Portugal has become a massive news story.
I suspect that the media has persuaded us that the Drs McCanns deserve our sympathy because they are nice middle class parents and Madeleine is a pretty photogenic child. The fact that there are lots of pictures available helps.
Family and friends have used a compliant media to build the story into a variety of mass hysteria matching that which followed Diana's death.
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been considered such a good story that British television has consistently led with it as the main news item for weeks. Most newspapers have kept the story on their front page.
But has this really been the most important news story? For example, on May 17th, one of days that the two week old story of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was considered the most important news item in Britain, here are some of the news stories that were considered less important:
* Gordon Brown was officially announced as Britain's next Prime Minister
* The World Bank met to consider whether or not to get rid of its President Paul Wolfowitz
* The Government announced that it would close a fifth of all Post Offices in the country. (A total of 2,500 villages and communities deprived of their link with the outside world.)
* The Israelis launched air strikes on Palestinians in Gaza
* The British Army and the Government decided that Prince Harry would not serve in Iraq because it was too dangerous for a member of the Royal Family to fight there. (Despite this, Harry decided that he would stay in the army though it was not made clear precisely what he would do.)
* War criminals Tony Blair and George Bush met in the USA to defend their war record. Blair described Bush as a great leader.
* British soldiers continued to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (though without members of the Royal family).
[/size]
***
When three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared she was alone with her younger siblings in a ground floor holiday apartment rented by her parents. They had gone out to dinner.
Let's get this straight.
The Drs McCann didn't have to rush out in an emergency. They could, presumably, have hired a baby sitter. They chose not to. They chose to leave their three very small children in a flat in a foreign country while they went out to have a good time in a restaurant.
What is going on here?
Why haven't the parents been interviewed by social workers?
Is it now legal for British parents to leave their tiny children alone while they go out for fun?
The McCanns left three children alone. The oldest was three-years-old.
The last time I looked, teenage mothers got into trouble if they popped out to the shops to get a pint of milk and a loaf of bread and left their children alone.
Under British law parents can be charged with neglect or abandonment if they leave their children alone if it is unsafe to do so.
It clearly was unsafe to leave these three small children alone. One of them is now missing.
The McCanns chose to go out to have a good time leaving three small children alone in a flat in a foreign country.
These were not impoverished teenagers who didn't know any better. They are thirty-eight-year-old doctors.
What sort of example were they setting?
What sort of example are media commentators who excuse them setting?
Where are the interfering, busy body social workers when they're really needed?
Most media commentators seem to think that the McCanns did nothing wrong. The arguments seem to be that parents must be able to leave their small children alone in the world and that parents are entitled to lead lives without having their children around them all the time.
Huh?
People who become parents take on enormous responsibilities.
Small children are vulnerable. They fall over. They wake up frightened. They see ghosts in shadows. They fall out of bed. They are vulnerable.
Small children are vulnerable.
But society rewards parents in many ways for their decision. And having children is a choice.
If the Drs McCann wanted to have romantic holidays in the Algarve without having their fun evenings spoilt by children they shouldn't have had any children.
(And they could, remember, have hired a baby sitter.)
They chose to have children. And they chose to take them away to Portugal. And they chose to leave them alone while they went out to dinner.
Personally, I'd arrest the pair of them for child neglect.
Whatever happened to Madeleine they must take a huge amount of responsibility.
Personally, I don't think either of them are responsible enough to work as doctors.
Responsible parents don't leave their children alone in a foreign country.
Being a parent is a 24 hour responsibility.
***
The media and the public seem to regard this pair as victims.
But in my view there is only one victim.
Madeleine is the victim.
Whatever has happened to her is clearly awful.
I feel so, so sorry for her.
But the parents?
Sorry, but I just don't think they deserve our sympathy.
The parents have now taken indefinite leave from their jobs.
(I wonder if they're still getting paid for any NHS work they aren't doing? Just a thought.)
They and their family and friends seem to have become media celebrities. Other celebrities are falling over themselves to get involved.
The parents are alleged to be hiring a professional public relations adviser and two London lawyers. A trust is allegedly being set up to handle the money being raised. Why? What the hell is going on?
Why do they need lawyers and a publicity adviser?
And why do they need a trust?
These aren't impoverished people. They are both doctors.
Their combined annual income is probably the best part of £200,000. Personally, I would not be surprised to see the Drs McCann on Celebrity Big Brother next year.
A cynic might say that at least they won't need to bother getting babysitters for whatever children they might have got left by then.
They could just leave 'em at home alone.
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2007
____________________
“ The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made" - Groucho Marx
Verdi- ex forum manager
- Posts : 34684
Activity : 41936
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The McCanns: Too Many Questions and Too Few Answers
by Verdi 26.04.19 1:41
The McCanns: Too Many Questions and Too Few Answers
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
There are few couples in Britain who are better known than the McCanns. And yet the paradox is that there are few public couples about whom less seems to be known. They are surrounded by mystery, confusion, controversy and contradictions. Has any couple ever sought publicity quite so determinedly and yet managed to remain quite so enigmatic? Has there been a crime in British history so well publicised and yet so full of unanswered questions? Has there ever been a crime where the truth has become quite so lost amidst rumour and what seems to me to be a lot of spin – some of it apparently organised by professionals rather than a pair of doctors on a holiday.
I know of no other couple in British history about whom so many questions have been asked and yet so few answers seem to be available.
Whatever the truth, we should not forget that the McCanns left their daughter unattended and so have to accept a good part of the responsibility for whatever crime occurred. And in February 2017, a judge in Portugal’s highest court pointed out that the McCanns have not been ruled innocent.
There still seem to be many unanswered questions and puzzles about this enormously high profile case. There are a host of contradictions. And yet millions of pounds of public money have been spent investigating Madeleine’s disappearance. Since we are now approaching the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, it seems time for a summary of what we still don’t know.
The questions in this article are all genuine questions. I do not know the answers to any of them. (If I did I would write them as statements.) But I think it is in the public interest that the questions are asked. And I hope that one day they will all be answered.
Isn’t it about time a relatively small amount of money was spent taking the McCanns to court so that their story could be properly investigated? (I write as a doctor who has investigated many subjects and who has worked as a police surgeon.)
Surely a trial would help the couple by enabling them to answer many of the often asked questions? The suspicions will never go away. Indeed, I fear that the suspicions and doubts and rumours will grow stronger as the years go by. It is almost certain that whatever any of the Tapas Nine do with their lives, the first sentence of their obituaries has already been written.
I suspect that some parents might welcome an opportunity to put all the available evidence in the public domain and to have witnesses and critics properly and publicly questioned under oath.
Some might think that discussions about the case have in the past been limited by the McCanns’ alleged reluctance to answer some of the questions which have been asked, and by their willingness to take legal action against critics. It has been reported that the McCanns are threatening to sue Goncalo Amaral, if the Portugese policeman’s book The Truth of the Lie is published in the UK. This is odd because I believe that an English translation of Goncalo Amaral’s book has been freely available on the internet for some time.
It seems to me that the McCanns, the police and the politicians (how they became involved is a mystery in itself) have made things worse by what appears to be an endless publicity circus, which it seems to me was to some extent made worse by them or their associates. Precisely, what did Tony Blair and Oprah have to do with helping to find a small girl? What on earth made Prince Charles think he needed to get involved? It has, I understand, been claimed that in such cases, too much publicity can actually be harmful and can frighten abductors into doing something which they might not have planned. I suspect that is true.
Would not everyone – especially Madeleine – benefit if all the confusions and contradictions could be cleared away by a clear cut, forensic examination of all those involved and a proper analysis of the available facts? Would not questions asked, and answers given, under oath, help clear away the rumours and the fabrications – whatever their source?
Why I am constantly reminded of the confusion after the death of Dr David Kelly?
Over £12 million of taxpayers’ money has, it is said, been largely spent on looking for the alleged paedophile ring that the British police apparently believe is responsible for abducting Madeleine. To some, the police seem to be following the McCanns’ strong assertion, right from the start, that Madeleine had been abducted rather than following the possibility that she might have wandered or been killed in the locality.
The police will, of course, know that 70% of child murders are committed by people who know, or who are in some way close to, the child who is the victim.
(In reality, if Madeleine had wandered off then surely she would have been far more likely to have encountered someone who would have taken her home than that she would have happened to meet a wandering paedophile or paedophile gang?)
Is it true, as Kate McCann is reported to have claimed, that the shutters to the window of Madeleine’s room had been forced up? Or is it true, as others have suggested, that they might not have been forced? This is a simple and crucial question.
And here’s another mystery.
The loss of any human being is a tragedy.
But £12 million and more on an investigation into one missing child seems a good deal when other children go missing without any notable expenditure of public funds.
To put this in perspective, the current official ‘value of a prevented fatality’ in the UK is £1.83 million. In other words, that is how much the Government thinks it is reasonable to spend to prevent a single death. Every year, thousands of people die because the Government doesn’t think it is worth spending taxpayers’ money on drugs or surgery that would save their lives. This same figure must be used to justify road safety improvements. The NHS would not spend a fraction of the money spent on the search for a possibly imaginary paedophile gang even if it knew for certain that a life could be saved. This is of significance because the nation’s financial resources are inevitably finite. David Cameron, when Prime Minister, authorised the spending of this huge sum in this seemingly quixotic way.
Why was that?
Why are the McCanns apparently considered so very, very special and more worthy than thousands of other parents, grieving in similar circumstances? A growing number of people seem to feel that this is one of many mysteries that ought to be aired. It isn’t entirely absurd to say that anyone whose child goes missing abroad and who doesn’t have at least a bus load of Government employees fawning over them within a week should now feel cheated. And anyone who doesn’t have at least three cabinet ministers on the phone might also feel hard done by. Is it true that special branch officers escorted the McCanns back from Portugal? If so, is this now normal practice for all parents in such circumstances?
Surely, there could be no complaint if a little more public money were now spent on a proper investigation in a court of law. Indeed, would the McCanns themselves not benefit from an opportunity to put all the facts before a court?
Would not an independent analysis of all of the evidence help in finding a conclusion to this tragic case?
There are, it seems to me, a vast number of questions which could usefully be asked in a courtroom.
Here are just a few of the obvious questions which might usefully be asked and which would help remove for ever any undoubtedly unjust fears and suspicions some people might still have about Madeleine’s disappearance:
1. Is it true that the McCanns left their children at a crèche or play area in the mornings and the afternoons, and then left them unattended on at least some of the evenings while they were in Portugal? This seems odd to me because I would have thought that most people would, when taking their children on a family holiday, want to spend most of their time in their company. What was the relationship like between the McCanns and Madeleine before the trip to Portugal? Was Madeleine seen at the crèche or play area on the afternoon of the day she disappeared? And if so, by whom?
2. Is it really true that when the McCanns left their children unattended in the apartment, one of the doors was unlocked? I suspect that some people wouldn’t leave their camera or mobile telephone in an unlocked, rented apartment in a holiday area. Doesn’t it seem strange to leave three small children in such a situation? Have the McCanns ever taken public responsibility for their behaviour? Have they ever apologised for their behaviour? Is it true that Gerry McCann was playing tennis within days of Madeleine’s disappearance?
3. There is some confusion about how far away the McCanns were when they were dining. It has been said by Kate McCann that dining at the restaurant was akin to having a meal in the garden with the children upstairs in a nearby bedroom. (‘We were sitting outside and could just as easily have been eating on a fine spring evening in a friend’s garden, with the kids asleep upstairs in the house,’ she writes in her book.) But there seems to be evidence that the dining table was between 70 and 150 yards away from the apartment (different reports give differing figures) and it seems to me unlikely that anyone dining there could see or hear what was happening in the apartment. (I have seen it claimed that Gerry McCann has suggested that they were ‘essentially performing (their) own baby listening service’, though I find it difficult to understand this claim.) It has been claimed that the couple could see the apartment but this has been disputed. What is the truth? And even if they could see one outside wall of the apartment then, unless they are claiming to have X-ray vision, they wouldn’t be able to see what was happening inside.
4. The law in Britain is that if parents leave a child alone, and in such a way that the child might be at risk, then the parents can be prosecuted. Hundreds of parents are arrested every year for leaving their children (sometimes much older than the McCann children and sometimes for much shorter periods of time) without adult supervision. One father was arrested for leaving his child alone for just two minutes. Why was the behaviour of the McCanns considered acceptable? Since the McCanns claim that Madeleine was abducted (and this theory seems to be accepted by the British police) and that she must, therefore, have been left at risk, why have the McCanns not been charged by the British police? I believe the McCanns claim that their actions were ‘within the bounds of responsible parenting’ but is it not also the law in Portugal that it is an offence to leave children unattended? Why did social workers not take action over the fact that three small children had been left ‘at risk’? Would a single mother living in a council flat have been treated with such leniency if she had left three young children alone in an unlocked apartment? (In her book Kate McCann writes: ‘…we had a meeting with a social services manager and a local child protection officer. They went through various formalities with us and, while they took care to keep everything on a totally professional footing, I could tell they felt uncomfortable about having to subject us to this sort of scrutiny. But we’d resigned ourselves to it. We’d expected it, accepted it and we had nothing to hide.’) Whatever happened to Madeleine, there are doubtless many who find it difficult to avoid the feeling that her parents were at least partly responsible and that the authorities have behaved very strangely in taking no action. Am I alone in thinking that the McCanns should have been charged with child neglect? And should they have been allowed to remain in charge of their two remaining children? These are surely serious questions.
5. It has been alleged that Madeleine was a poor sleeper who occasionally walked in her sleep. Is this true? If so, was not it particularly risky for two doctors to leave her unattended in a strange, unlocked apartment in a foreign country? Did it not occur to either of them that a young child who was a poor sleeper and possibly a sleep walker might wander off through the unlocked door and then come to some harm? Is it not true that a babysitter could have been hired?
6. Prior to the holiday, was Madeleine ever given any form of medicine to help her sleep? Is it true that none of the McCann children was given anything at all by the McCanns to help them sleep during a holiday where their restlessness or failure to sleep might prove particularly inconvenient? Were any of the children given medication by anyone else?
7. How much alcohol did the McCanns consume while dining with their friends? Precisely how often did they check on their children? Are there no independent witnesses who can provide precise answers?
8. It is alleged that after Madeleine’s disappearance, the McCanns received telephone calls and/or support from Cherie Blair (the Prime Minister’s wife), Gordon Brown (the Chancellor of the Exchequer, due to become Prime Minister within weeks), Margaret Beckett (the foreign secretary) and the Pope. The local Ambassador is reported to have been involved. Is there any explanation for all this high profile support? The official figures in the UK show that a child goes missing every three minutes – well over 100,000 children a year. Do Cabinet Ministers telephone the parents of all these missing children? According to these figures, it is reasonable to estimate that several hundred children went missing on the same day that the McCanns lost their child. Did all those parents receive the same level of official support? If not, why not? Did Blair and Brown really provide the McCanns with a public relations representative? Who paid the bill? Can it conceivably be true (as has been alleged) that the British Government threatened to use the McCann investigation as a reason not to sign the Lisbon Treaty? Were SIS (MI5 and/or MI6) officers involved? Was it just a coincidence that alleged paedophile Sir Clement Freud had a holiday home close to the McCanns’ apartment? Is or was Gerry McCann a member of the Freemasons or any other private body? Has he signed the Scottish Bill of Rights?
9. Is it true that the McCanns continued to take their remaining children to the children’s play area after they had lost Madeleine?
10. What is the truth about the trained sniffer dogs which allegedly picked up the scent of a dead body in the McCanns’ apartment and in their hire car – as well as on Madeleine’s toy? Were these findings of any value? Were the dogs reliable? Was blood really found in the McCanns’ holiday apartment? If so, is it true that the blood was identified as Madeleine’s? If not, whose was it? There seems to be confusion about all these issues.
11. Is it true that Kate McCann refused to answer some of the questions posed by the Portuguese police? If so, why was this? Were any or all of the McCanns’ children conceived using IVF? Was Gerald McCann the father of them all?
12. Is it true that the McCanns have appointed a number of PR experts and high-powered lawyers (including extradition specialists and libel lawyers)?
13. Is it true that the McCanns’ friends had a ‘pact of silence’? If so, what was the reason for this?
14. Is it true that the McCanns refused to take a lie detector test? If so, what was the reason? Even if the test had not been admissible in court, it might have silenced some critics.
15. Is it true that the McCanns deleted some mobile phone records and that the Portuguese police were refused permission to examine medical, financial and credit card records? If so, why was this? Were the Portuguese police helped in every way possible by the British authorities?
16. Why did the McCanns form a fund raising company within less than a month of Madeleine’s disappearance? How did their limited company manage to spend £141,747 on administrative expenses in less than the first year? And was it really necessary to spend £26,113 on media monitoring? Precisely how has all the money donated to the Madeleine fund been spent? It has been claimed that the McCanns did not receive any remuneration from the fund but is it true that some of the money was used to help to pay the McCanns’ mortgage? If so, was that really what donors expected their money to be used for? Exactly how much of the money donated has been spent on legal fees on behalf of the McCanns? What was the McCanns’ financial situation before Madeleine’s disappearance? Why did directors of the fund resign? Why did last year’s accounts for Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited (as published on the ‘beta.companieshouse.gov.uk’ website) show that Madeleine’s Fund had £490,839 in ‘investments’? What were the ‘investments’?
17. As mentioned above, the British police are alleged to have spent £12 million of taxpayers’ money on investigating one particular possibility – the abduction by a gang. Have they spent any effort (and any of our money) on investigating other possible scenarios – such as, for example, the one which appears to be favoured by the Portuguese police chief who investigated Madeleine’s disappearance? If not, why not? Are not taxpayers entitled to know exactly how their money has been spent? What was the police reaction to the fact that a number of people thought that one of the photo fit suspects looked remarkably like Gerry McCann? (As an aside, the Portuguese police investigation seems to me to have been extremely thorough and professional.)
18. Why, within months of Madeleine’s disappearance, did Gerry McCann go to the United States of America to appear on television and visit the White House? Was there ever any suggestion that Americans might have been involved in the alleged abduction? Was there a theory that Madeleine might have been taken to the USA? Might it not seem odd to some that a parent should fly across the Atlantic when their daughter had gone missing in Portugal?
19. Have all the friends with whom the McCanns were dining been thoroughly investigated and cleared by the British police?
20. The chief of police who was initially responsible for the search for Madeleine has made some serious allegations. Have any or all of these allegations been investigated by the British police?
21. Is it true, as has been claimed by a former British Ambassador (though not to Portugal), that British diplomatic staff were under instructions to put pressure on the Portuguese authorities? Is it true, as has been alleged, that British authorities were ordered to be present at every contact between the McCanns and the Portugese police? If so, who initiated these orders? And why?
These are all simple and straightforward questions and to most of them there should, surely, be some simple and straightforward answers. There are, of course, many more questions. How many photographs of Madeleine did the McCanns take with them to Portugal? What happened to Gerry McCann’s sports bag? Were the contents also missing?
Given all the circumstances, the questions do not seem to me to be intrusive or unfair and they are not intended to be.
And surely the answers to them might, just might, help the police. It seems to me hardly believable that after ten years there is still so much mystery over some of the answers.
Might not the answers also help members of the public understand the background to Madeleine’s disappearance a little more clearly? And might not some of the answers help counteract some of the remarkable rumours, insinuations and assertions which now surround this case?
The McCanns seem to have been protected by some very powerful individuals. Inevitably, there are questions being asked. Why did three Prime Ministers, a Foreign Secretary, a Pope, much of the Foreign Service, a Prince, the police and most of the mainstream media put so much effort into protecting a fairly ordinary pair of middle class doctors from the sort of natural suspicion which would, in any normal circumstances, be considered perfectly proper and reasonable? Why was the abduction claim (made so immediately and without much if any serious evidential support) be regarded as the only real explanation for Madeleine’s disappearance?
Might not lessons be learned which could help other parents and help prevent something similar happening in the future? Every few minutes a British child disappears. The problem of missing children is a huge one.
Surely every step should be taken to safeguard all other children.
Isn’t that what everyone wants?
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2017
http://www.vernoncoleman.com/main.htm
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
There are few couples in Britain who are better known than the McCanns. And yet the paradox is that there are few public couples about whom less seems to be known. They are surrounded by mystery, confusion, controversy and contradictions. Has any couple ever sought publicity quite so determinedly and yet managed to remain quite so enigmatic? Has there been a crime in British history so well publicised and yet so full of unanswered questions? Has there ever been a crime where the truth has become quite so lost amidst rumour and what seems to me to be a lot of spin – some of it apparently organised by professionals rather than a pair of doctors on a holiday.
I know of no other couple in British history about whom so many questions have been asked and yet so few answers seem to be available.
Whatever the truth, we should not forget that the McCanns left their daughter unattended and so have to accept a good part of the responsibility for whatever crime occurred. And in February 2017, a judge in Portugal’s highest court pointed out that the McCanns have not been ruled innocent.
There still seem to be many unanswered questions and puzzles about this enormously high profile case. There are a host of contradictions. And yet millions of pounds of public money have been spent investigating Madeleine’s disappearance. Since we are now approaching the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, it seems time for a summary of what we still don’t know.
The questions in this article are all genuine questions. I do not know the answers to any of them. (If I did I would write them as statements.) But I think it is in the public interest that the questions are asked. And I hope that one day they will all be answered.
Isn’t it about time a relatively small amount of money was spent taking the McCanns to court so that their story could be properly investigated? (I write as a doctor who has investigated many subjects and who has worked as a police surgeon.)
Surely a trial would help the couple by enabling them to answer many of the often asked questions? The suspicions will never go away. Indeed, I fear that the suspicions and doubts and rumours will grow stronger as the years go by. It is almost certain that whatever any of the Tapas Nine do with their lives, the first sentence of their obituaries has already been written.
I suspect that some parents might welcome an opportunity to put all the available evidence in the public domain and to have witnesses and critics properly and publicly questioned under oath.
Some might think that discussions about the case have in the past been limited by the McCanns’ alleged reluctance to answer some of the questions which have been asked, and by their willingness to take legal action against critics. It has been reported that the McCanns are threatening to sue Goncalo Amaral, if the Portugese policeman’s book The Truth of the Lie is published in the UK. This is odd because I believe that an English translation of Goncalo Amaral’s book has been freely available on the internet for some time.
It seems to me that the McCanns, the police and the politicians (how they became involved is a mystery in itself) have made things worse by what appears to be an endless publicity circus, which it seems to me was to some extent made worse by them or their associates. Precisely, what did Tony Blair and Oprah have to do with helping to find a small girl? What on earth made Prince Charles think he needed to get involved? It has, I understand, been claimed that in such cases, too much publicity can actually be harmful and can frighten abductors into doing something which they might not have planned. I suspect that is true.
Would not everyone – especially Madeleine – benefit if all the confusions and contradictions could be cleared away by a clear cut, forensic examination of all those involved and a proper analysis of the available facts? Would not questions asked, and answers given, under oath, help clear away the rumours and the fabrications – whatever their source?
Why I am constantly reminded of the confusion after the death of Dr David Kelly?
Over £12 million of taxpayers’ money has, it is said, been largely spent on looking for the alleged paedophile ring that the British police apparently believe is responsible for abducting Madeleine. To some, the police seem to be following the McCanns’ strong assertion, right from the start, that Madeleine had been abducted rather than following the possibility that she might have wandered or been killed in the locality.
The police will, of course, know that 70% of child murders are committed by people who know, or who are in some way close to, the child who is the victim.
(In reality, if Madeleine had wandered off then surely she would have been far more likely to have encountered someone who would have taken her home than that she would have happened to meet a wandering paedophile or paedophile gang?)
Is it true, as Kate McCann is reported to have claimed, that the shutters to the window of Madeleine’s room had been forced up? Or is it true, as others have suggested, that they might not have been forced? This is a simple and crucial question.
And here’s another mystery.
The loss of any human being is a tragedy.
But £12 million and more on an investigation into one missing child seems a good deal when other children go missing without any notable expenditure of public funds.
To put this in perspective, the current official ‘value of a prevented fatality’ in the UK is £1.83 million. In other words, that is how much the Government thinks it is reasonable to spend to prevent a single death. Every year, thousands of people die because the Government doesn’t think it is worth spending taxpayers’ money on drugs or surgery that would save their lives. This same figure must be used to justify road safety improvements. The NHS would not spend a fraction of the money spent on the search for a possibly imaginary paedophile gang even if it knew for certain that a life could be saved. This is of significance because the nation’s financial resources are inevitably finite. David Cameron, when Prime Minister, authorised the spending of this huge sum in this seemingly quixotic way.
Why was that?
Why are the McCanns apparently considered so very, very special and more worthy than thousands of other parents, grieving in similar circumstances? A growing number of people seem to feel that this is one of many mysteries that ought to be aired. It isn’t entirely absurd to say that anyone whose child goes missing abroad and who doesn’t have at least a bus load of Government employees fawning over them within a week should now feel cheated. And anyone who doesn’t have at least three cabinet ministers on the phone might also feel hard done by. Is it true that special branch officers escorted the McCanns back from Portugal? If so, is this now normal practice for all parents in such circumstances?
Surely, there could be no complaint if a little more public money were now spent on a proper investigation in a court of law. Indeed, would the McCanns themselves not benefit from an opportunity to put all the facts before a court?
Would not an independent analysis of all of the evidence help in finding a conclusion to this tragic case?
There are, it seems to me, a vast number of questions which could usefully be asked in a courtroom.
Here are just a few of the obvious questions which might usefully be asked and which would help remove for ever any undoubtedly unjust fears and suspicions some people might still have about Madeleine’s disappearance:
1. Is it true that the McCanns left their children at a crèche or play area in the mornings and the afternoons, and then left them unattended on at least some of the evenings while they were in Portugal? This seems odd to me because I would have thought that most people would, when taking their children on a family holiday, want to spend most of their time in their company. What was the relationship like between the McCanns and Madeleine before the trip to Portugal? Was Madeleine seen at the crèche or play area on the afternoon of the day she disappeared? And if so, by whom?
2. Is it really true that when the McCanns left their children unattended in the apartment, one of the doors was unlocked? I suspect that some people wouldn’t leave their camera or mobile telephone in an unlocked, rented apartment in a holiday area. Doesn’t it seem strange to leave three small children in such a situation? Have the McCanns ever taken public responsibility for their behaviour? Have they ever apologised for their behaviour? Is it true that Gerry McCann was playing tennis within days of Madeleine’s disappearance?
3. There is some confusion about how far away the McCanns were when they were dining. It has been said by Kate McCann that dining at the restaurant was akin to having a meal in the garden with the children upstairs in a nearby bedroom. (‘We were sitting outside and could just as easily have been eating on a fine spring evening in a friend’s garden, with the kids asleep upstairs in the house,’ she writes in her book.) But there seems to be evidence that the dining table was between 70 and 150 yards away from the apartment (different reports give differing figures) and it seems to me unlikely that anyone dining there could see or hear what was happening in the apartment. (I have seen it claimed that Gerry McCann has suggested that they were ‘essentially performing (their) own baby listening service’, though I find it difficult to understand this claim.) It has been claimed that the couple could see the apartment but this has been disputed. What is the truth? And even if they could see one outside wall of the apartment then, unless they are claiming to have X-ray vision, they wouldn’t be able to see what was happening inside.
4. The law in Britain is that if parents leave a child alone, and in such a way that the child might be at risk, then the parents can be prosecuted. Hundreds of parents are arrested every year for leaving their children (sometimes much older than the McCann children and sometimes for much shorter periods of time) without adult supervision. One father was arrested for leaving his child alone for just two minutes. Why was the behaviour of the McCanns considered acceptable? Since the McCanns claim that Madeleine was abducted (and this theory seems to be accepted by the British police) and that she must, therefore, have been left at risk, why have the McCanns not been charged by the British police? I believe the McCanns claim that their actions were ‘within the bounds of responsible parenting’ but is it not also the law in Portugal that it is an offence to leave children unattended? Why did social workers not take action over the fact that three small children had been left ‘at risk’? Would a single mother living in a council flat have been treated with such leniency if she had left three young children alone in an unlocked apartment? (In her book Kate McCann writes: ‘…we had a meeting with a social services manager and a local child protection officer. They went through various formalities with us and, while they took care to keep everything on a totally professional footing, I could tell they felt uncomfortable about having to subject us to this sort of scrutiny. But we’d resigned ourselves to it. We’d expected it, accepted it and we had nothing to hide.’) Whatever happened to Madeleine, there are doubtless many who find it difficult to avoid the feeling that her parents were at least partly responsible and that the authorities have behaved very strangely in taking no action. Am I alone in thinking that the McCanns should have been charged with child neglect? And should they have been allowed to remain in charge of their two remaining children? These are surely serious questions.
5. It has been alleged that Madeleine was a poor sleeper who occasionally walked in her sleep. Is this true? If so, was not it particularly risky for two doctors to leave her unattended in a strange, unlocked apartment in a foreign country? Did it not occur to either of them that a young child who was a poor sleeper and possibly a sleep walker might wander off through the unlocked door and then come to some harm? Is it not true that a babysitter could have been hired?
6. Prior to the holiday, was Madeleine ever given any form of medicine to help her sleep? Is it true that none of the McCann children was given anything at all by the McCanns to help them sleep during a holiday where their restlessness or failure to sleep might prove particularly inconvenient? Were any of the children given medication by anyone else?
7. How much alcohol did the McCanns consume while dining with their friends? Precisely how often did they check on their children? Are there no independent witnesses who can provide precise answers?
8. It is alleged that after Madeleine’s disappearance, the McCanns received telephone calls and/or support from Cherie Blair (the Prime Minister’s wife), Gordon Brown (the Chancellor of the Exchequer, due to become Prime Minister within weeks), Margaret Beckett (the foreign secretary) and the Pope. The local Ambassador is reported to have been involved. Is there any explanation for all this high profile support? The official figures in the UK show that a child goes missing every three minutes – well over 100,000 children a year. Do Cabinet Ministers telephone the parents of all these missing children? According to these figures, it is reasonable to estimate that several hundred children went missing on the same day that the McCanns lost their child. Did all those parents receive the same level of official support? If not, why not? Did Blair and Brown really provide the McCanns with a public relations representative? Who paid the bill? Can it conceivably be true (as has been alleged) that the British Government threatened to use the McCann investigation as a reason not to sign the Lisbon Treaty? Were SIS (MI5 and/or MI6) officers involved? Was it just a coincidence that alleged paedophile Sir Clement Freud had a holiday home close to the McCanns’ apartment? Is or was Gerry McCann a member of the Freemasons or any other private body? Has he signed the Scottish Bill of Rights?
9. Is it true that the McCanns continued to take their remaining children to the children’s play area after they had lost Madeleine?
10. What is the truth about the trained sniffer dogs which allegedly picked up the scent of a dead body in the McCanns’ apartment and in their hire car – as well as on Madeleine’s toy? Were these findings of any value? Were the dogs reliable? Was blood really found in the McCanns’ holiday apartment? If so, is it true that the blood was identified as Madeleine’s? If not, whose was it? There seems to be confusion about all these issues.
11. Is it true that Kate McCann refused to answer some of the questions posed by the Portuguese police? If so, why was this? Were any or all of the McCanns’ children conceived using IVF? Was Gerald McCann the father of them all?
12. Is it true that the McCanns have appointed a number of PR experts and high-powered lawyers (including extradition specialists and libel lawyers)?
13. Is it true that the McCanns’ friends had a ‘pact of silence’? If so, what was the reason for this?
14. Is it true that the McCanns refused to take a lie detector test? If so, what was the reason? Even if the test had not been admissible in court, it might have silenced some critics.
15. Is it true that the McCanns deleted some mobile phone records and that the Portuguese police were refused permission to examine medical, financial and credit card records? If so, why was this? Were the Portuguese police helped in every way possible by the British authorities?
16. Why did the McCanns form a fund raising company within less than a month of Madeleine’s disappearance? How did their limited company manage to spend £141,747 on administrative expenses in less than the first year? And was it really necessary to spend £26,113 on media monitoring? Precisely how has all the money donated to the Madeleine fund been spent? It has been claimed that the McCanns did not receive any remuneration from the fund but is it true that some of the money was used to help to pay the McCanns’ mortgage? If so, was that really what donors expected their money to be used for? Exactly how much of the money donated has been spent on legal fees on behalf of the McCanns? What was the McCanns’ financial situation before Madeleine’s disappearance? Why did directors of the fund resign? Why did last year’s accounts for Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited (as published on the ‘beta.companieshouse.gov.uk’ website) show that Madeleine’s Fund had £490,839 in ‘investments’? What were the ‘investments’?
17. As mentioned above, the British police are alleged to have spent £12 million of taxpayers’ money on investigating one particular possibility – the abduction by a gang. Have they spent any effort (and any of our money) on investigating other possible scenarios – such as, for example, the one which appears to be favoured by the Portuguese police chief who investigated Madeleine’s disappearance? If not, why not? Are not taxpayers entitled to know exactly how their money has been spent? What was the police reaction to the fact that a number of people thought that one of the photo fit suspects looked remarkably like Gerry McCann? (As an aside, the Portuguese police investigation seems to me to have been extremely thorough and professional.)
18. Why, within months of Madeleine’s disappearance, did Gerry McCann go to the United States of America to appear on television and visit the White House? Was there ever any suggestion that Americans might have been involved in the alleged abduction? Was there a theory that Madeleine might have been taken to the USA? Might it not seem odd to some that a parent should fly across the Atlantic when their daughter had gone missing in Portugal?
19. Have all the friends with whom the McCanns were dining been thoroughly investigated and cleared by the British police?
20. The chief of police who was initially responsible for the search for Madeleine has made some serious allegations. Have any or all of these allegations been investigated by the British police?
21. Is it true, as has been claimed by a former British Ambassador (though not to Portugal), that British diplomatic staff were under instructions to put pressure on the Portuguese authorities? Is it true, as has been alleged, that British authorities were ordered to be present at every contact between the McCanns and the Portugese police? If so, who initiated these orders? And why?
These are all simple and straightforward questions and to most of them there should, surely, be some simple and straightforward answers. There are, of course, many more questions. How many photographs of Madeleine did the McCanns take with them to Portugal? What happened to Gerry McCann’s sports bag? Were the contents also missing?
Given all the circumstances, the questions do not seem to me to be intrusive or unfair and they are not intended to be.
And surely the answers to them might, just might, help the police. It seems to me hardly believable that after ten years there is still so much mystery over some of the answers.
Might not the answers also help members of the public understand the background to Madeleine’s disappearance a little more clearly? And might not some of the answers help counteract some of the remarkable rumours, insinuations and assertions which now surround this case?
The McCanns seem to have been protected by some very powerful individuals. Inevitably, there are questions being asked. Why did three Prime Ministers, a Foreign Secretary, a Pope, much of the Foreign Service, a Prince, the police and most of the mainstream media put so much effort into protecting a fairly ordinary pair of middle class doctors from the sort of natural suspicion which would, in any normal circumstances, be considered perfectly proper and reasonable? Why was the abduction claim (made so immediately and without much if any serious evidential support) be regarded as the only real explanation for Madeleine’s disappearance?
Might not lessons be learned which could help other parents and help prevent something similar happening in the future? Every few minutes a British child disappears. The problem of missing children is a huge one.
Surely every step should be taken to safeguard all other children.
Isn’t that what everyone wants?
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2017
http://www.vernoncoleman.com/main.htm
____________________
“ The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made" - Groucho Marx
Verdi- ex forum manager
- Posts : 34684
Activity : 41936
Likes received : 5932
Join date : 2015-02-02
Location : Flossery
'What really happened to Madeleine McCann?'
by Verdi 26.04.19 1:44
What Really Happened to Madeleine McCann
A testimonial from Vernon Coleman
The Madeleine Foundation has received the following testimonial from the well-known and prolific author, Vernon Coleman. Here it is in full:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
9 June 2009
Dear Mr Bennett,
Congratulations on your excellent book: ‘What Really Happened to Madeleine McCann?’
I thought it quite a brilliant summary of the evidence.
The title for your new edition [‘What Really Happened to Madeleine McCann? – 101 reasons which suggest she was not abducted’] sounds excellent. I’m honoured that you suggest I might publish it, but I think you need a London publisher with good newspaper contacts. John Blake Publishing might be right? I’d honestly be surprised if he couldn’t sell serial rights somewhere. Let him see the original book, perhaps? Or try one of the other aggressive, medium-sized publishing houses. The information certainly needs to be given a wider airing.
I do wish you well with this. I will certainly buy a copy of the new edition when it is ready. And if I can find a way to mention your book, I certainly will.
If it helps to quote this letter then please do.
Congratulations again.
Yours sincerely
Vernon Coleman”
A testimonial from Vernon Coleman
The Madeleine Foundation has received the following testimonial from the well-known and prolific author, Vernon Coleman. Here it is in full:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
9 June 2009
Dear Mr Bennett,
Congratulations on your excellent book: ‘What Really Happened to Madeleine McCann?’
I thought it quite a brilliant summary of the evidence.
The title for your new edition [‘What Really Happened to Madeleine McCann? – 101 reasons which suggest she was not abducted’] sounds excellent. I’m honoured that you suggest I might publish it, but I think you need a London publisher with good newspaper contacts. John Blake Publishing might be right? I’d honestly be surprised if he couldn’t sell serial rights somewhere. Let him see the original book, perhaps? Or try one of the other aggressive, medium-sized publishing houses. The information certainly needs to be given a wider airing.
I do wish you well with this. I will certainly buy a copy of the new edition when it is ready. And if I can find a way to mention your book, I certainly will.
If it helps to quote this letter then please do.
Congratulations again.
Yours sincerely
Vernon Coleman”
____________________
“ The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made" - Groucho Marx
Verdi- ex forum manager
- Posts : 34684
Activity : 41936
Likes received : 5932
Join date : 2015-02-02
Location : Flossery
Would you hire the McCanns as babysitters?
by Verdi 26.04.19 1:48
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
Thousands of people go missing every year but the media doesn't usually bother.
However, the disappearance of a three-year-old British girl from her parents' holiday accommodation in Portugal has become a massive news story.
I suspect that the media has persuaded us that the Drs McCanns deserve our sympathy because they are nice middle class parents and Madeleine is a pretty photogenic child. The fact that there are lots of pictures available helps.
Family and friends have used a compliant media to build the story into a variety of mass hysteria matching that which followed Diana's death.
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been considered such a good story that British television has consistently led with it as the main news item for weeks. Most newspapers have kept the story on their front page.
But has this really been the most important news story? For example, on May 17th, one of days that the two week old story of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was considered the most important news item in Britain, here are some of the news stories that were considered less important:
* Gordon Brown was officially announced as Britain's next Prime Minister
* The World Bank met to consider whether or not to get rid of its President Paul Wolfowitz
* The Government announced that it would close a fifth of all Post Offices in the country. (A total of 2,500 villages and communities deprived of their link with the outside world.)
* The Israelis launched air strikes on Palestinians in Gaza
* The British Army and the Government decided that Prince Harry would not serve in Iraq because it was too dangerous for a member of the Royal Family to fight there. (Despite this, Harry decided that he would stay in the army though it was not made clear precisely what he would do.)
* War criminals Tony Blair and George Bush met in the USA to defend their war record. Blair described Bush as a great leader.
* British soldiers continued to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (though without members of the Royal family).
***
When three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared she was alone with her younger siblings in a ground floor holiday apartment rented by her parents. They had gone out to dinner.
Let's get this straight.
The Drs McCann didn't have to rush out in an emergency. They could, presumably, have hired a baby sitter. They chose not to. They chose to leave their three very small children in a flat in a foreign country while they went out to have a good time in a restaurant.
What is going on here?
Why haven't the parents been interviewed by social workers?
Is it now legal for British parents to leave their tiny children alone while they go out for fun?
The McCanns left three children alone. The oldest was three-years-old.
The last time I looked, teenage mothers got into trouble if they popped out to the shops to get a pint of milk and a loaf of bread and left their children alone.
Under British law parents can be charged with neglect or abandonment if they leave their children alone if it is unsafe to do so.
It clearly was unsafe to leave these three small children alone. One of them is now missing.
The McCanns chose to go out to have a good time leaving three small children alone in a flat in a foreign country.
These were not impoverished teenagers who didn't know any better. They are thirty-eight-year-old doctors.
What sort of example were they setting?
What sort of example are media commentators who excuse them setting?
Where are the interfering, busy body social workers when they're really needed?
Most media commentators seem to think that the McCanns did nothing wrong. The arguments seem to be that parents must be able to leave their small children alone in the world and that parents are entitled to lead lives without having their children around them all the time.
Huh?
People who become parents take on enormous responsibilities.
Small children are vulnerable. They fall over. They wake up frightened. They see ghosts in shadows. They fall out of bed. They are vulnerable.
Small children are vulnerable.
But society rewards parents in many ways for their decision. And having children is a choice.
If the Drs McCann wanted to have romantic holidays in the Algarve without having their fun evenings spoilt by children they shouldn't have had any children.
(And they could, remember, have hired a baby sitter.)
They chose to have children. And they chose to take them away to Portugal. And they chose to leave them alone while they went out to dinner.
Personally, I'd arrest the pair of them for child neglect.
Whatever happened to Madeleine they must take a huge amount of responsibility.
Personally, I don't think either of them are responsible enough to work as doctors.
Responsible parents don't leave their children alone in a foreign country.
Being a parent is a 24 hour responsibility.
***
The media and the public seem to regard this pair as victims.
But in my view there is only one victim.
Madeleine is the victim.
Whatever has happened to her is clearly awful.
I feel so, so sorry for her.
But the parents?
Sorry, but I just don't think they deserve our sympathy.
The parents have now taken indefinite leave from their jobs.
(I wonder if they're still getting paid for any NHS work they aren't doing? Just a thought.)
They and their family and friends seem to have become media celebrities. Other celebrities are falling over themselves to get involved.
The parents are alleged to be hiring a professional public relations adviser and two London lawyers. A trust is allegedly being set up to handle the money being raised. Why? What the hell is going on?
Why do they need lawyers and a publicity adviser?
And why do they need a trust?
These aren't impoverished people. They are both doctors.
Their combined annual income is probably the best part of £200,000. Personally, I would not be surprised to see the Drs McCann on Celebrity Big Brother next year.
A cynic might say that at least they won't need to bother getting babysitters for whatever children they might have got left by then.
They could just leave 'em at home alone.
link to article
2nd article by Vernon Coleman "Would you hire the McCann's as babysitters?"
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2007
Thousands of people go missing every year but the media doesn't usually bother.
However, the disappearance of a three-year-old British girl from her parents' holiday accommodation in Portugal has become a massive news story.
I suspect that the media has persuaded us that the Drs McCanns deserve our sympathy because they are nice middle class parents and Madeleine is a pretty photogenic child. The fact that there are lots of pictures available helps.
Family and friends have used a compliant media to build the story into a variety of mass hysteria matching that which followed Diana's death.
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been considered such a good story that British television has consistently led with it as the main news item for weeks. Most newspapers have kept the story on their front page.
But has this really been the most important news story? For example, on May 17th, one of days that the two week old story of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was considered the most important news item in Britain, here are some of the news stories that were considered less important:
* Gordon Brown was officially announced as Britain's next Prime Minister
* The World Bank met to consider whether or not to get rid of its President Paul Wolfowitz
* The Government announced that it would close a fifth of all Post Offices in the country. (A total of 2,500 villages and communities deprived of their link with the outside world.)
* The Israelis launched air strikes on Palestinians in Gaza
* The British Army and the Government decided that Prince Harry would not serve in Iraq because it was too dangerous for a member of the Royal Family to fight there. (Despite this, Harry decided that he would stay in the army though it was not made clear precisely what he would do.)
* War criminals Tony Blair and George Bush met in the USA to defend their war record. Blair described Bush as a great leader.
* British soldiers continued to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (though without members of the Royal family).
***
When three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared she was alone with her younger siblings in a ground floor holiday apartment rented by her parents. They had gone out to dinner.
Let's get this straight.
The Drs McCann didn't have to rush out in an emergency. They could, presumably, have hired a baby sitter. They chose not to. They chose to leave their three very small children in a flat in a foreign country while they went out to have a good time in a restaurant.
What is going on here?
Why haven't the parents been interviewed by social workers?
Is it now legal for British parents to leave their tiny children alone while they go out for fun?
The McCanns left three children alone. The oldest was three-years-old.
The last time I looked, teenage mothers got into trouble if they popped out to the shops to get a pint of milk and a loaf of bread and left their children alone.
Under British law parents can be charged with neglect or abandonment if they leave their children alone if it is unsafe to do so.
It clearly was unsafe to leave these three small children alone. One of them is now missing.
The McCanns chose to go out to have a good time leaving three small children alone in a flat in a foreign country.
These were not impoverished teenagers who didn't know any better. They are thirty-eight-year-old doctors.
What sort of example were they setting?
What sort of example are media commentators who excuse them setting?
Where are the interfering, busy body social workers when they're really needed?
Most media commentators seem to think that the McCanns did nothing wrong. The arguments seem to be that parents must be able to leave their small children alone in the world and that parents are entitled to lead lives without having their children around them all the time.
Huh?
People who become parents take on enormous responsibilities.
Small children are vulnerable. They fall over. They wake up frightened. They see ghosts in shadows. They fall out of bed. They are vulnerable.
Small children are vulnerable.
But society rewards parents in many ways for their decision. And having children is a choice.
If the Drs McCann wanted to have romantic holidays in the Algarve without having their fun evenings spoilt by children they shouldn't have had any children.
(And they could, remember, have hired a baby sitter.)
They chose to have children. And they chose to take them away to Portugal. And they chose to leave them alone while they went out to dinner.
Personally, I'd arrest the pair of them for child neglect.
Whatever happened to Madeleine they must take a huge amount of responsibility.
Personally, I don't think either of them are responsible enough to work as doctors.
Responsible parents don't leave their children alone in a foreign country.
Being a parent is a 24 hour responsibility.
***
The media and the public seem to regard this pair as victims.
But in my view there is only one victim.
Madeleine is the victim.
Whatever has happened to her is clearly awful.
I feel so, so sorry for her.
But the parents?
Sorry, but I just don't think they deserve our sympathy.
The parents have now taken indefinite leave from their jobs.
(I wonder if they're still getting paid for any NHS work they aren't doing? Just a thought.)
They and their family and friends seem to have become media celebrities. Other celebrities are falling over themselves to get involved.
The parents are alleged to be hiring a professional public relations adviser and two London lawyers. A trust is allegedly being set up to handle the money being raised. Why? What the hell is going on?
Why do they need lawyers and a publicity adviser?
And why do they need a trust?
These aren't impoverished people. They are both doctors.
Their combined annual income is probably the best part of £200,000. Personally, I would not be surprised to see the Drs McCann on Celebrity Big Brother next year.
A cynic might say that at least they won't need to bother getting babysitters for whatever children they might have got left by then.
They could just leave 'em at home alone.
link to article
2nd article by Vernon Coleman "Would you hire the McCann's as babysitters?"
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2007
____________________
“ The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made" - Groucho Marx
Verdi- ex forum manager
- Posts : 34684
Activity : 41936
Likes received : 5932
Join date : 2015-02-02
Location : Flossery
Re: Dr Vernon Coleman: Former GP and Police Surgeon
by Verdi 10.12.20 15:47
It's now widely known that Dr Vernon Coleman's YouTube channel was taken down by the adminstrators of YouTube. It's appears they are now very selective about who can and who can't - what should be said and what shouldn't be said.
No matter, there are ways and means to circumvent such inconveniences - ask any proficient safe-cracker, they'll tell you!
Until further notice, anyone wishing to continue to benefit by Dr Vernon Coleman's insightful commentary on important world affairs, can do so by visiting the following link.
Bookmark it!
https://brandnewtube.com/@DrVernonColeman
No matter, there are ways and means to circumvent such inconveniences - ask any proficient safe-cracker, they'll tell you!
Until further notice, anyone wishing to continue to benefit by Dr Vernon Coleman's insightful commentary on important world affairs, can do so by visiting the following link.
Bookmark it!
https://brandnewtube.com/@DrVernonColeman
____________________
“ The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made" - Groucho Marx
Verdi- ex forum manager
- Posts : 34684
Activity : 41936
Likes received : 5932
Join date : 2015-02-02
Location : Flossery
Similar topics» Dr Vernon Coleman's latest article: The McCann Mystery
» New article by Dr Vernon Coleman: The McCanns: Too Many Questions and Too Few Answers
» Dr Vernon Coleman: How Wikipedia is Used as a Weapon
» Would you hire The Mccanns/Vernon Coleman
» Dr Vernon Coleman: The McCanns: What the Hell is Going on?
» New article by Dr Vernon Coleman: The McCanns: Too Many Questions and Too Few Answers
» Dr Vernon Coleman: How Wikipedia is Used as a Weapon
» Would you hire The Mccanns/Vernon Coleman
» Dr Vernon Coleman: The McCanns: What the Hell is Going on?
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