Kevin Halligen: blood-soaked body of 'James Bond-style' private eye who conned the fund to find Maddie McCann out of £300,000 is found at his mansion

An interesting development. Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere. 

Kevin Halligen has been found dead. Unfortunately, since I am a new member, I am unable to post a link to the story. It is currently the main headline on Mail Online.

Bluddy 'eck!

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Thank you MedleyRoss and welcome to the forum.

  What a star you are MedleyRoss - you are most welcome on the forum.

Blood-soaked body of 'James Bond-style' private eye who conned the fund to find Maddie McCann out of £300,000 is found at his Surrey mansion


   EXCLUSIVE: Mystery surrounds the death of private detective Kevin Halligen, 56
   His body was found at a Surrey mansion and police have launched a probe
   Halligen took over the private investigation into the McCann case in May 2008 but was later accused of conning the family fund out of £300,000

Time to give The Fund another airing?  

What better opportunity to draw attention to other areas of the Limited Company's fraudulant management - starting with the board of directors past and present.

Lest they forget - the McCanns never attempted to recuperate the £300,000 !!!

Big fat red flag!

ETA: It will be very very interesting to see how this story further unfolds this weekend and next week .

Blood-soaked body of 'James Bond-style' private eye who conned the fund to find Maddie McCann out of £300,000 is found at his Surrey mansion

• EXCLUSIVE: Mystery surrounds the death of private detective Kevin Halligen, 56
  
• His body was found at a Surrey mansion and police have launched a probe
  
• Halligen took over the private investigation into the McCann case in May 2008 but was later accused of conning the family fund out of £300,000
  

By [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Published: 15:24, 13 January 2018  |  Updated: 15:50, 13 January 2018  

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The blood-soaked body of a private detective who probed the disappearance of Maddie McCann has been found at his Surrey mansion.
Mystery surrounds the death of Kevin Halligen, 56, who is said to have presented himself as a 'cloak-and-dagger, James Bond-style spy' - with police confirming to MailOnline today that a probe has been launched.
Halligen took over the private investigation into the McCann case in May 2008 but was later accused of conning the family fund out of £300,000.  
It is believed he was found at the home of his long-term girlfriend. There is no suggestion that she was involved in his death.
One former colleague told MailOnline: 'The house was covered in blood but apparently that was from Kevin falling down so much.
'His body is now in the morgue. The police are looking into it.'

Kevin Halligen, 56, pictured, was found dead in a Surrey mansion. Police have launched an investigation into the death which is being treated as 'unexplained', a spokesman said
A spokesman for Surrey Police said today: 'We were called to an address in Cobbett Hill Road, Normandy, Guildford, on Monday following a report of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell, who subsequently died.
'The death is being treated as unexplained and a file will be passed to the coroner's office in due course.' 
Defence consultant Tim Craig-Harvey, a former associate of Halligen, wrote online: 'The lies and alcohol finally caught up with him.'
Another source told MailOnline: 'He died at his girlfriend's place near Guildford, a miserable pathetic death caused by alcohol.'
The McCanns hired Halligen's firm in a bid to boost the search for Maddie after failing to come up with any plausible leads one year after she went missing.
They agreed a £500,000 fee with Oakley International, which was described by a source close to the family as 'extremely secretive' but 'absolutely the best'.

Halligen took over the private investigation into the McCann case in May 2008 but was later accused of conning the family fund out of £300,000

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Defence consultant Tim Craig-Harvey, a former associate of Halligen, wrote online: 'The lies and alcohol finally caught up with him'
Kate and Gerry McCann were initially impressed by Dublin-born Halligen, believing he 'was in a different league' to other private investigators.
He boasted of employing ex-FBI, CIA and Special forces officers while offering undercover surveillance and intelligence gathering in Portugal.
The detective even said he could provide satellite imagery and details of telephone traffic from the night Madeleine disappeared.

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But within a year, questions began to emerge about Oakley and Halligen in particular.
Researchers claimed that the firm had not looked into hundreds of calls made to a special hotline - while specialists found that their bills were unpaid.
The promised satellite images also allegedly turned out to have been grabbed from Google Earth.

Kate and Gerry McCann were initially impressed by Dublin-born Halligen, believing he 'was in a different league' to other private investigators

Six months into the highly-paid assignment, the McCanns were growing increasingly concerned about Halligen.
A family friend said: 'He had this sense of cloak-and-dagger, acting as if he were a James Bond-style spy.
'The McCanns found him hard to deal with, because he was forever in another country and using different phones. He promised the earth but it came to nothing.'
The contract was terminated early after £300,000 had been paid to Halligen.
MailOnline understands that relations broke down after the detective's team discovered he was enjoying a lavish lifestyle, staying in the best hotels and eating at the top restaurants in London - all at the expense of the Find Madeleine fund.
Colleagues said that far from being an expert in undercover operations, Halligen was 'out of his depth' with 'no experience of such investigations.'
There is no suggestion that any former associates are involved in the death of Kevin Halligen.

The McCanns hired Halligen's firm in a bid to boost the search for Maddie (pictured) after failing to come up with any plausible leads one year after she went missing
After being sacked from the McCann investigation in 2009, Halligen was arrested in the UK and extradited to America on fraud charges for an unrelated case
He pleaded guilty to defrauding Trafigura, based in the Netherlands, who had hired him to help free two company executives arrested in Ivory Coast in 2006.
He received about $12 million to provide 'security, intelligence and public relations'.
Trafigura gave Halligen an additional $2.1 million to 'hire lobbyists and influence officials in the United States on Trafigura's behalf'.
The next day, Halligen used nearly $1.7 million of that money to buy a large home with a swimming pool.
The Washington Post reported at the time: 'Owners of Washington restaurants remember him spending thousands on long, boozy days and evenings. He traveled everywhere in a chauffeured Lincoln.'
One restaurant owner said he and his staff called Halligen 'James Bond' because of his stories of spy derring-do and his habit of tossing around huge sums of cash.

It is believed he was found at the home of his long-term girlfriend, which is among the private Henley Park gated community (pictured) in Guildford
His fraud conviction carried a maximum of 20 years in prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines he would serve no more than 41 months.
As he had been in custody awaiting trial for 42 months, he was freed and deported, returning to his birthplace of Dublin.
In 2014, Kevin Halligen made a rare public appearance, agreeing to be interviewed for a Channel 5 documentary - The McCanns and The Conman.
He denied that he misused money raised to find Madeleine. Answering claims that he spent the money on first class travel, luxury hotel suites and a chauffeur, he said: 'It is gross distortion of what was actually happening.'
A source close to Kate and Gerry McCann said they had terminated their contract with Oakley international at the end of 2008 and had not had anything to do with Kevin Halligen since.
'Clearly this is now a matter for the police and the Coroner's office,' the insider said.
The hunt for Madeleine McCann continues, more than 10-and-a-half years after her disappearance.
A team from Scotland Yard has been probing the case since 2011 at a cost to the British taxpayer of more than £11.3million. Portuguese police have lead status in the investigation.
In October 2017, the Home Office allocated an extra £154,000 to Scotland Yard to pursue a 'critical line of inquiry' and extend the search to the end of March 2018.

Get'emGonçalo wrote:
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Defence consultant Tim Craig-Harvey, a former associate of Halligen, wrote online: 'The lies and alcohol finally caught up with him'
Kate and Gerry McCann were initially impressed by Dublin-born Halligen, believing he 'was in a different league' to other private investigators.
He boasted of employing ex-FBI, CIA and Special forces officers while offering undercover surveillance and intelligence gathering in Portugal.
The detective even said he could provide satellite imagery and details of telephone traffic from the night Madeleine disappeared.

To all members - and guests who can read this post.

Please ignore anything said by Tim Craig-Harvey (above) on the subject of the now-dead Kevin Halligen, a death that appears to have been covered up for nearly a week.

Also ignore most of what the mainstream press chooses to tell you about Halligen.

Craig-Harvey was one of three people with very strong connections to the security services, MI5 and Special Branch who were employed by the McCanns and their wealthy backer, Cheshire businessman Brian Kennedy, during a period of about four months in 2008. The others were the now-dead Kevin Halligen and Henri Exton. Exton was formerly the Head of Covert Intelligence for MI5 until a theft of perfume from Manchester Airport blighted his career.

The Daily Mail says that Halligen was paid £300,000 by the McCanns. No, the true figure was £583,000 - and that was for four months work during which he and his team achieved nothing.

Exton was also responsible for the notorious fake 'e-fit' images of a man described as 'the man seen by an Irish family', otherwise known as Smithman. Unfortunately for the credibility of Exton - and of the BBC and the Metropolitan Police who first transmitted these images to the public on 14 October 2013 on Crimewatch - the images were of two very different-looking men. Moreover, the three members of the Smith family who were all supposed to have produced their two different Smithman-images only ever saw this man for two or three seconds in the dark, they were only asked to draw up these images a whole year after they claimed to have seen him, and all three of them told the police a year earlier (on 26 May 2007) that none of them would ever be able to identify him if they saw him again.

For much more of the murky world of how Halligen, Exton, Craig-Harvey and many others employed by or connected to the British security services helped the McCanns, register or login here and search under

HALLIGEN

WOW!!

Just saw this on the news. I'm speechless. Already it's being claimed that "lies and alcohol finally caught up with him". Not long planting thoughts in people's minds, are they.

So, Mr Halligen has been living in a gated community in Gilford. Who would have thought?

Anyway, I am sure more will unfold over the next few weeks on the demise of Kevin Halligen

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all members and guests on the CMoMM Forum a belated Happy New Year.



OOPS!  It's Guildford, England, not Gilford, Ireland.  I really need to concentrate

Apparently the house was covered in blood from him falling down so much ? 

Body in the morgue, police investigating...suggestion of alcohol and bizarrely 
There is no suggestion that any former associates are involved in the death of Kevin Halligen.



What an odd thing to report so early in the investigation? 

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It actually makes me feel ill reading this news report sallypelt.

I can understand alcohol killing you...but lies? How does that work?

And all that blood? Sounds like a bloodbath went on at his mansion.

How many more suspicious deaths are there going to be in this case apart from Madeleine?

Don't  alcoholics have hemorrhages from the stomach / throat?  It might explain blood being 'all over the place'.  I imagine the official explanation will be along those lines.

    It is anyway, fishier than a haddocks underpants, many commenters on the article are in agreement.  I wonder if he was planning to talk, or a book or something?

Verdi wrote:Time to give The Fund another airing?  

What better opportunity to draw attention to other areas of the Limited Company's fraudulant management - starting with the board of directors past and present.

Lest they forget - the McCanns never attempted to recuperate the £300,000 !!!

Big fat red flag!

ETA:  It will be very very interesting to see how this story further unfolds this weekend and next week .

Do you think that we will hear the truth about this or will it be hushed up just like Colin Sahlke and Brenda Leylands'  mysterious death?

ChippyM wrote:Don't  alcoholics have hemorrhages from the stomach / throat?  It might explain blood being 'all over the place'.  I imagine the official explanation will be along those lines.

    It is anyway, fishier than a haddocks underpants, many commenters on the article are in agreement.  I wonder if he was planning to talk, or a book or something?

My cat had liver cancer and she haemorrhaged and became jaundiced just before I took her to the vet for the final time. But the blood came out in a fine spray mainly through her nose, she certainly wasn't covered in blood.

Surely if Kevin had liver failure due to alcoholism he'd have been in hospital at that stage in his illness...?

When did Halligan actually die? These contradictions are from the above M.O.L. article -


"Kevin Halligen, 56, pictured, was found dead in a Surrey mansion.".....


"A spokesman for Surrey Police said today: 'We were called to an address in Cobbett Hill Road, Normandy, Guildford, on Monday following a report of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell, who subsequently died."


The second sentence implies he was alive when police were called and died subsequently. This is odd, why on earth would police be called because someone has been taken ill? Surely it is an ambulance that would be sent for in such a scenario! I have never heard of police being sent for due to the sudden onset of illness, even if it is life-threatening. If he died on Monday, in circumstances so concerning that police were sent for, why has it taken until now to launch an investigation. Did the post-mortem indicate the possibility of foul play?

Are we about to be bombarded with yet another rash of 
" Poor , brave heartbroken McCanns " this time with " Conned " added to the list ? 

I bet the fingers are twitching over keyboards already !

By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent
Police are investigating the death of one of the first private detectives hired by the parents of missing Madeleine McCann.

Kevin Halligen, 56, was found unwell at his girlfriend's Surrey home and later died.
Police are treating his death as "unexplained" and are expected to pass a report to a coroner.
Mr Halligen's company, Oakley International, was hired on a £500,000 contract by Kate and Gerry McCann and the administrators of the Find Madeleine Fund in 2008, a year after their daughter vanished in Portugal.
The McCanns had become frustrated with the failure of the Portuguese police to find Madeleine or any clue to what happened to her.

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Get'emGonçalo wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Oakley International was based out of 2550 M Street, NW, Washington, DC. This address is also the office of Patton Boggs, Washington's most politically-connected law firm and lobbyist organization. When Kevin Halligen first moved to DC in 2005, he hired Patton Boggs to help set up his new business. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
It would be accurate to say through his close connection with Patton Boggs, Kevin Halligen was more than familiar with The Podesta Group:


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ChippyM wrote:
    It is anyway, fishier than a haddocks underpants,

Nessling
H&M
Rowley retires
Halligen dead 

!!!!!!!
Anyone else been watching McMafia?

sharonl wrote:

Verdi wrote:Time to give The Fund another airing?  

What better opportunity to draw attention to other areas of the Limited Company's fraudulant management - starting with the board of directors past and present.

Lest they forget - the McCanns never attempted to recuperate the £300,000 !!!

Big fat red flag!

ETA:  It will be very very interesting to see how this story further unfolds this weekend and next week .

Do you think that we will hear the truth about this or will it be hushed up just like Colin Sahlke and Brenda Leylands'  mysterious death?

No sharon, I don't believe the truth will ever be told.

The thing that makes me suspicious above all else - why is exclusive news headline immediately connected to the McCanns.  Halligan spent most part of his life dodgy dealing, there must be far greater, if I might say more significant, casualties of his dirty work to highlight than the McCanns.  The quoted figure is pocket money to the likes of Halligan - hardly Bundesbank revisited.

At present, the press report would appear to be in favour of the McCanns, portraying Halligan as a drunk and a fraud - well, we already know that but it's hardly a reason to die in a bloodbath, nor is it obviously associated with the McCanns personally  What benefit is this nonsense to the McCanns, why are they the centre of this news?   That's what I would like to know.

Is it just scandalmongering, something our illustrious gutter press afre renowned for.  That's why I'm looking forward to seeing how this story progresses in the next few days.  Perhaps Tracey Kandohla might be able to fill in the details?

I don't believe for a moment the death of Halligan is in any way directly connected with the McCanns.

A faction of the McCanns defence league recommended Halligan's dubious company to work as 'private investigators' for the McCanns.  He received payment for services not rendered somewhere between £300,000 and £800,000 - depending which story you listen to.  Whether this money truly came from the Madeleine Fund or elsewhere is a matter of conjecture.  

Whatever, the directors of the fund have never tried to reclaim the money, or part thereof which in my view speaks for itself.  I doubt half a million would pay a weeks hotel tab for Halligan and his bits of stuff.

Reportage at the moment sounds like 'oribble grizzly murder.  If it is, I imagine Halligan had a closet full of enemies prepared for revenge.  

McCanns?  Nah!  I think this is another weekend flash in the pan to show the McCanns in a favourable light - the limelight!

Still, it keeps the tongues wagging for a few more weeks - they must have sensed the slump.  Nothing team McCann like better than attracting attention, even after all these years. They need to keep the trolls well fed to further their cause.

Kevin Halligen "BRUTALLY MURDERED" - shouts the Daily Star headline - plus dozens of other stories from around the world.


Already there are dozens of stories about what the media generally agree is the 'mysterious' death of Kevin Halligen.

Admittedly it is the Daily Star which is running the 'brutally murdered' headline. Below are the first 10 headlines I picked up from a Google search a few minutes ago.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] made a very good point upthread, pointing out at least three inconsistencies about this story in just one news report (Mail on Sunday).

Already we have had:

'died from lies' - Tim Craig-Harvey

'died from alcohol' - Tim Craig-Harvey

'soaked in blood' - Daily Mail

'brutally murdered' - Daily Star 

'died on Monday' - Daily Mail

'found and helped by police as he was very ill' - Daily Mail.


Whatever next?

Incidentally I suspect if he really did die on Monday that this will have been reported straightaway to the Coroner who again, I suggest, may have already formally opened an inquest - behind closed doors, as it were. Any full inquest cannot realistically take place until the police have completed their enquiries...which I guess could take a long time, what with it being Kevin Halligen and his extensive secret service and Ministry of Defence contacts (see my biography of Halligen, on the forum).

--------------

NEWS HEADLINES

Madeleine McCann investigator Kevin Halligen found dead - Sky News
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]...

2 hours ago - The death of Kevin Halligen, who was previously jailed for fraud, is being treated as "unexplained" by police. ... Police are investigating the death of one of the first private detectives hired by the parents of missing Madeleine McCann. Kevin Halligen, 56, was found unwell at his ...

Maddie McCann detective conman Kevin Halligen found dead | Daily ...
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6 hours ago - Blood-soaked body of 'James Bond-style' private eye who conned the fund to find Maddie McCann out of £300,000 is found at his Surrey mansion. ... The blood-soaked body of a private detective who probed the disappearance of Maddie McCann has been found at his Surrey mansion.

Maddie McCann fund 'conman' found dead and 'covered in blood' in ...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] › News › UK News › Madeleine Mccann

4 hours ago - A conman accused of duping the family of Maddie McCann out of £300,000 has been found dead in a secluded mansion. Kevin Halligen - who posed as a “James Bond-style” private detective to probe the youngster's disappearance - was discovered covered in blood at his long term partner's home.

Maddie McCann detective 'conman' found brutally murdered in Surrey ...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] › News › Latest News

2 hours ago - "The death is being treated as unexplained and a file will be passed to the coroner's office in due course." It's believed that he was found murdered at the house he shared with his long-term girlfriend. Kevin Halligen SCREENGRAB: CHANNEL 5. FRAUD: Kevin Halligen on Channel 5's The McCanns and ...

Body of 'James Bond-style' private detective hired by parents of ...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]...

2 hours ago - THE blood-soaked corpse of a private detective who investigated Madeleine McCann's disappearance has been found at his mansion. Kevin Halligen, 56, dubbed a "cloak-and-dagger, James Bond-style spy", took the high-profile case in March 2008. Kevin Halligen has been found dead at his home in ...

Kevin Halligen: Private detective accused of misusing Madeleine ...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] › News › UK › Home News

1 hour ago - A private detective accused of exploiting the hunt for Madeleine McCann to fund his lavish lifestyle has been found dead. Kevin Halligen, 56, gained notoriety when his firm Oakley International was used by the toddler's parents to help search for their missing daughter. His Washington-based company ...

Private detective who 'conned McCanns out of £300,000' found dead ...
metro.co.uk › UK › Madeleine McCann

3 hours ago - A private detective accused of conning the McCanns out of £300,000 has been found dead at a Surrey mansion covered in blood. Police have launched a probe into the death of Kevin Halligen, who took over the private investigation into Maddie McCann's disappearance in May 2008. Man in critical ...

Madeleine McCann investigator Kevin Halligen found dead - Rutland ...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] › News › UK News

2 hours ago - Police are investigating the death of one of the first private detectives hired by the parents of missing Madeleine McCann. Kevin Halligen, 56, was found unwell at his girlfriend's Surrey home and later died. Police are treating his death as "unexplained" and are expected to pass a report to a coroner.

Maddie McCann detective Kevin Halligen found dead in mysterious ...
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13 hours ago - 6 posts - ‎6 authors

This individual, Kevin Halligen was clearly a shady character, and he may have made a number of enemies over the years. However, his association with Gerry and Kate McCann, suspected by many of concealing facts about their daughter's disappearance, is bound to raise questions. Did Halligen learn ...

sallypelt wrote:By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent
Police are investigating the death of one of the first private detectives hired by the parents of missing Madeleine McCann.

Kevin Halligen, 56, was found unwell at his girlfriend's Surrey home and later died.
Police are treating his death as "unexplained" and are expected to pass a report to a coroner.
Mr Halligen's company, Oakley International, was hired on a £500,000 contract by Kate and Gerry McCann and the administrators of the Find Madeleine Fund in 2008, a year after their daughter vanished in Portugal.
The McCanns had become frustrated with the failure of the Portuguese police to find Madeleine or any clue to what happened to her.

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I don't know in detail how the British Police routins are when it comes to cases with dead persons like this.
The Police here in Sweden always start a 1st or 2nd degree murder investigation if they found someone dead and the death is "unexplained"

Surrey Police said:


"We were called to an address in Cobbett Hill Road, Normandy, Guildford, on Monday following a report of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell, who subsequently died”.


"The death is being treated as unexplained and a file will be passed to the coroner's office in due course."


ANALYSIS


Surrey Police said:


"We were called"


By whom?


When?


to an address in Cobbett Hill Road, Normandy, Guildford, on Monday following a report


By whom?


When?


of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell,


In what way?


Ill or injured?


Was a doctor called?


Was he taken to hospital?


who subsequently died.


‘subsequently’ – a few minutes after the call was made?


‘subsequently’ – or maybe before the police arrived? (compare Stuart Lubbock death)


‘subsequently’ – when? Hours later? The next day? Yesterday?


"The death is being treated as unexplained and a file will be passed to the coroner's office in due course."


In due course? What?? Was the Coroner not informed straightaway? - As soon as he was certified dead?


When is the funeral?

Who declared him dead? 
What time was he certified deceased? 
Was this at his girlfriends property or on the way to the hospital or at the hospital? 

Have his family been informed? 

When is the autopsy? 

I assume the police file will be passed to the coroner once the police have exhausted their investigation? 

That article is as clear as mud... confusion  is good eh?

sandancer wrote:Are we about to be bombarded with yet another rash of 
" Poor , brave heartbroken McCanns " this time with " Conned " added to the list ? 

I bet the fingers are twitching over keyboards already !

Sound judgement sandancer - sound judgement

Get'emGonçalo wrote:

ChippyM wrote:Don't  alcoholics have hemorrhages from the stomach / throat?  It might explain blood being 'all over the place'.  I imagine the official explanation will be along those lines.

    It is anyway, fishier than a haddocks underpants, many commenters on the article are in agreement.  I wonder if he was planning to talk, or a book or something?

My cat had liver cancer and she haemorrhaged and became jaundiced just before I took her to the vet for the final time. But the blood came out in a fine spray mainly through her nose, she certainly wasn't covered in blood.

Surely if Kevin had liver failure due to alcoholism he'd have been in hospital at that stage in his illness...?

 There's a thing called 'oesophageal varices'. The blood vessels in the throat become enlarged in alcoholics and can rupture, it sounds very nasty, vomiting blood and having to be ventilated so you don't drown in it are things that can happen.

  The sources coming out before any investigation and saying it was alcohol related do seem very convenient though.