Letter sent to Head Teacher & Govenors of Ullapool school in 2013 re Philomena McCann and Tony Rickwood

Apologies in advance for formatting as copying for a pdf.


Address  not supplied - see later.
                                                                          
October /  November  2013

The  Head-Teacher, and others

Sir,

I am compelled to write to you with the following  information.

In the current climate of sensitivity about people who  have abused and exploited children 
and young persons, and more importantly about those who  knew or suspected, or 
should have known or suspected abuse and inappropriate actions but did nothing, it is 
impossible for  me to continue to conceal from you the following.

I am entrusting this  information to you, and others, whom  I shall list, in the  knowledge 
that you will ensure it is dealt with it correctly.

My concerns centre around a teacher at your school, Mrs Philomena McCann, and her 
husband, Tony  Rickwood. She first came to notice after she made a number of 
pronouncements in the Madeleine McCann case which were shown to be totally untrue. 
She is as you know the elder sister of Dr. Gerry McCann.  

First, she circulated in the  media a story that an abductor had broken and jemmied 
open the windows and shutters of the McCanns’ holiday apartment.  This was quickly 
shown to  be completely false  and deliberately  misleading.

Second, in response to  news of a substantial  reward being offered for  Madeleine’s 
return, she loudly proclaimed that only a  ‘greedy and unscrupulous’  person would come 
forward with  information.  

Third, she claimed that the McCanns had been offered a  ‘plea bargain’ whereby they 
would  be offered a light sentence in exchange for confessing that  Madeleine had died in 
their apartment  . This was again not only untrue but legally impossible under 
Portuguese law. 

These  pronouncements probably caused great harm to the search for  Madeleine and 
may have damaged the  McCanns’ subsequent attempts to  protest their  innocence.

During research the following  disturbing facts were  revealed.

Philomena McCann is employed as a teacher at  Ullapool High School, where we 
believe she is in charge of “Modern Studies”.
Philomena McCann is married to one Tony  Rickwood.
Rickwood is a skilled  photographer of some  note.

He not only takes and publishes on the  internet ‘normal’ photographs of high quality, but 
he also has a particular and worrying “hobby”.     It is that of transforming photos of young 
women to give the  impression of their drowning  in swamps, or  in quicksand.

He publishes these on various sites, of which  mercifully we were  previously unaware, 
including deviantart.com, quicksandfans.com,  deepsinking.org,  and  possibly others.

Rickwood uses the  pen name of Auroraman, - he is keen amateur astronomer - and on 
the deviantart site also signs his work as scopertonosol    ( incidentally an anagram of 
coolest pornos )

The overtly sexually deviant and perverted nature and intention of these photos is clear 
from the comments attached by persons who visit or inhabit these sites. 

On its own this might not be a matter of comment by a third party, but it was noted during 
the initial phases of the  McCann case and then detailed in Kate McCann’s book 
‘madeleine’ that  Philomena McCann left Portugal, flew  home and then went on a long 
holiday to Turkey. This was in June 2007

I believe I am correct in saying that this was a school trip to a coastal resort, as detailed 
in the school prospectus.   
( quote:  “senior school trips to Turkey as part of this week in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 
2009”.)

I believe I am also correct in saying that Rickwood was part of the group.   (It was in fact 
separate emails sent by him and Ms McCann to the  resort which alerted researchers to 
his use of that  particular pen name and led to  his identification.)

It is therefore likely that he had with him a camera, and took photos.

I do not know the provenance of any of the photos of the girls and young women he has 
used in the deviantart  photos, and I can make no observation as to whether they are or 
may have been your pupils. 

I can also make no observation about whether  Philomena McCann shares  her 
husband’s perverted interest.  

It is however doubtful whether after several years of marriage that she can be totally 
unaware of it.

Whether it is appropriate - if he did - for a man with this clear sexual deviance and 
perversion to accompany adolescents from your school, without the knowledge of their 
parents, is of course a matter entirely for the Head-teacher, the Governors, and the 
Local Education Committee to decide.

I have copied this  letter and the appendices to

Please find  attached

Appendix 

Article from  Daily Mail re Teacher jailed  for  making inappropriate images.

NSPCC Child Protection Policies - Scotland

Child Protection Policy for Schools, Pre-Schools and Childcare –  Dumfries & Galloway 
Council

Copy of some pages from  http://scopertonosol.deviantart.com/ 

Print out of typical comments for sample photos.

Circulated in confidence to

Head teacher - Mr Peter Harrison
Chair of the Board of Governors
Charles Kennedy MP
Rob Gibson,  MSP.
David Martin  MEP