Prosecution Exhibit 1: 'madeleine' - What's in the book?

Verdi wrote:Friday 4th May 2007

Upstairs our new apartment, 4G, was heaving with people. Among them were my mum, dad and Auntie Norah, who had arrived from the UK. Norah, on a visit from Canada, had been booked to return today but had immediately cancelled her flight home and had come with my parents to support us instead. As we embraced them one by one we found ourselves unable to let go. We were all sobbing. It was so hard seeing each other like this. It was all such a blur I can’t be absolutely certain who else was there that night, but I think I remember John Hill, Emma Knights and Craig Mayhew from Mark Warner, and Ambassador John Buck, British consul Bill Henderson and Angela Morado, who had accompanied us back from Portimão. There were some new faces, too: Liz Dow, the British consul for Lisbon, British Embassy press officer Andy Bowes and Alex Woolfall, a PR crisis-management specialist from Bell Pottinger in the UK, who had been drafted in by Mark Warner, as had a trauma psychologist from the Centre for Crisis Psychology (CCP) in north Yorkshire, who had now also arrived in Luz.

madeleine by KATE MCCANN

[Text excerpt for research only]

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t15973-the-important-people-who-rushed-out-to-praia-da-luz-after-3-may-2007-and-by-friday-11-may-2007#398897

For someone who says it was a blur , and thinks she remembers she certainly managed to get all the important names out there didn't she ! 

That apartment must have been bursting at the seams  ( was the patio door left open ? ) 

" Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all " 
Or maybe - " Pugh ,Pugh , Barney Mcgrew , Cuthbert , Dibble and Grubb "

Exhibit 1.
Try this.
Over breakfast tomorrow imagine you are being contacted by someone 
no earlier than about 8am, and asked / told to go immediately to the Algarve.
Go through the motions with Easyjet and Ryan and anyone else
and see whether you could get to PdL, settle in to a hotel, and make it to the Apartment by 8.30pm

Try it.
You must allow time for packing, travel from home to airport of your choice, 2 hour check in (and parking as appropriate) and time on arrival for baggage reclaim and transport Faro (FAO if you want to do it quickly) to PdL
(1hr 5 min by taxi) or time to organise car hire.  


You may use Faro (FAO)
You are not allowed to use Beja, as it was not opened until 2011
You may use Lisboã,  (LIS)   2 Hrs 42 travel time.

Small prize for anyone who can do it.
Now assume you live in North Yorkshire, and try it again.

Jon Clarke did it - didn't he ?

Or was that by Virgin Galactica Space Shuttle donated by Mr Dicky Pickles c/o Kensington Roof, London, England?

Now that it looked as if we were going to be based in Praia da Luz for the long haul, with frequent journeys to airports and regular meetings set up with the police at the British Consulate in Portimão, we’d decided it would be easier if we had our own car.

We’d duly taken possession of a rented Renault Scenic on 27 May.

madeleine by KATE MCCANN

Twenty four days after Madeleine McCann was reported missing, that's just over three weeks.

Based in Praia da Luz for the long haul - how did Messrs McCann know for sure their daughter wouldn't be found within minutes, hours, days or even weeks?

How did they know there would be frequent journeys to airports (?) and regular meetings set up with the police at the British Consulate in Portimão (?) ?

I can say without fear of contradiction, the PJ would not, I repeat not, have met the McCanns for a meeting at a British Consulate - that was strictly not established diplomatic protocol.  If said police hailed from the UK, questions need to be asked as to why and/or how this was permitted.

Bah!

Ms Healy's autobiographical chiclit is on a par with Professor McCann's blog - the innocent explanation for anything the police might find - Clarence Mitchell .

sandancer wrote:That apartment must have been bursting at the seams  ( was the patio door left open ? )

.... and a window ?

Verdi wrote:

Now that it looked as if we were going to be based in Praia da Luz for the long haul, with frequent journeys to airports and regular meetings set up with the police at the British Consulate in Portimão, we’d decided it would be easier if we had our own car.

We’d duly taken possession of a rented Renault Scenic on 27 May.

madeleine by KATE MCCANN

Twenty four days after Madeleine McCann was reported missing, that's just over three weeks.

Based in Praia da Luz for the long haul - how did Messrs McCann know for sure their daughter wouldn't be found within minutes, hours, days or even weeks?

How did they know there would be frequent journeys to airports (?) and regular meetings set up with the police at the British Consulate in Portimão (?) ?

I can say without fear of contradiction, the PJ would not, I repeat not, have met the McCanns for a meeting at a British Consulate - that was strictly not established diplomatic protocol.  If said police hailed from the UK, questions need to be asked as to why and/or how this was permitted.

Bah!

Ms Healy's autobiographical chiclit is on a par with Professor McCann's blog - the innocent explanation for anything the police might find - Clarence Mitchell .

How neatly the 'long haul' concept dovetails with the 'not a one year anniversary' slip of the tongue.  I do hope Clarence can explain them both.

worriedmum wrote:How neatly the 'long haul' concept dovetails with the 'not a one year anniversary' slip of the tongue.  I do hope Clarence can explain them both.

Don't know about a slip of the tongue, I reckon it was a full blown party blooper

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13534p500-picture-gallery#406630

I'm considering buying the book , mostly for a laugh mind you from the short excerpts I've read so far it's got me faintly interested.

Just out of interest I did the flights thing early this morning . 0852 Spanish time = 0752 BST and Portuguese time
EZJ
LGW 1150 arrive FAO 1450 - would have been JUST possible, though you obviously have to get to Gatwick, park and check in at 0950.  Rush hour on the M 25 ? 
And it is already 8 o'clock and you haven't had a Sh/Sh/Sh and packed and found your passport and rung the office
LGW 1630 and 1855 get there too late to get to Pdl For 2030

EZJ
LUT 1620 arrive FAO 1915  and
LUT 1730 arrive FAO 2025 are both too late

RYA
LST 1600 arrive FAO 1855, 
LST  1800 arrive FAO 2055, also too late

So, as with the Jon Clarke mystery, unless the phones were ringing to send people to Pdl by 0500 4/5/7
and everyone got on line immediately (bearing in mind this was over a decade and a quarter ago and we forget how clunky things were) – – –  these things were organised the day before.  At Least.


And one of the persons of whom we speak lives in North Yorkshire.  

ROSA:

I'm considering buying the book 


It is useful for reference purposes, especially the online version which makes it easier to search.

Used copies of the hardback are always available on Amazon for 1p plus a couple of quid postage.

ROSA wrote:I'm considering buying the book , mostly for a laugh mind you from the short excerpts I've read so far it's got me faintly interested.

Try your local charity shops , Rosa , I've seen copies of the " account " for 50p ! 

How the mighty are fallen 

A summative overview..

ABOUT THE BOOK

‘The decision to publish this book has been very difficult, and taken with heavy hearts … My reason for writing it is simple: to give an account of the truth … Writing this memoir has entailed recording some very personal, intimate and emotional aspects of our lives. Sharing these with strangers does not come easily to me, but if I hadn’t done so I would not have felt the book gave as full a picture as it is possible for me to give.

As with every action we have taken over the last four years, it ultimately boils down to whether what we are doing could help us to find Madeleine. When the answer to that question is yes, or even possibly, our family can cope with anything …

What follows is an intensely personal account, and I make no apology for that …

Nothing is more important to us than finding our little girl.’

Kate McCann, May 2011

‘It is a sad fact that not a single police force anywhere is proactively looking for Madeleine (as is the case for many other missing children).

I am sure this book will re-energize the search for our daughter and the public will get behind the Find Madeleine campaign once again. It is simply not acceptable that the authorities have given up on Madeleine – especially when no comprehensive review of the case has been undertaken. Our daughter, and whoever took her, are out there. We need your help to find them.’

Gerry McCann, May 2011

madeleine by KATE MCCANN
....................

Operation Grange

Operation Grange is an investigative review by London's Metropolitan Police Service into the circumstances of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The review was launched in May 2011 following a request to Scotland Yard from Home Secretary Theresa May, with the support of the Prime Minister David Cameron.

Two year later, in May 2013, Operation Grange commenced a re-investigation (previously undertaken by the Portuguese police and archived in July 2008), to follow new lines of inquiry. They said.

https://www.met.police.uk/notices/met/operation-grange/

Operation Grange

On 12 May 2011 the Met announced that, at the request of the Home Secretary, it had agreed to bring its particular expertise to the Madeleine McCann case.

The then Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, considered the request and took the decision that on balance it was the right thing to do. This was subject to funding being made available by the Home Office, as this case is beyond the Met’s jurisdiction.
Investigative review
The Met’s involvement, known as Operation Grange, is led by the Specialist Crime Command unit and involved, in the first instance, an ‘investigative review’.  This was a review of all of the investigations that had been previously conducted into the circumstances of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

Ongoing investigation

In July 2013 the status of the Met’s enquiries changed to that of an investigation, working with the Portuguese authorities to pursue specific lines of enquiry.

The Portuguese authorities retain the lead and the Met continues to work in support of them.

The Home Office continues to fund Operation Grange.

sandancer wrote:

ROSA wrote:I'm considering buying the book , mostly for a laugh mind you from the short excerpts I've read so far it's got me faintly interested.

Try your local charity shops , Rosa , I've seen copies of the " account " for 50p ! 

How the mighty are fallen 

Thanks for the tip sandancer

Operation Grange

On 12 May 2011 the Met announced that, at the request of the Home Secretary, it had agreed to bring its particular expertise to the Madeleine McCann case.

https://www.met.police.uk/notices/met/operation-grange/

According to amazon.co.uk, the original hardback edition of the book was published on 28th April 2011.

Before the reams of photographs and acknowledgements at the end of the book, Ms McCann (or her ghost writer) has this to say..
....................
A CALL TO ACTION

Please write to the Home Secretary and Prime Minister, urging the British and Portuguese authorities to commission a joint, independent and comprehensive review of Madeleine’s case.
....................

So, some time between 28th April 2011 and the Metropolitan Police announcement on 12th May 2011, the books call to action had a full blown effect?  A notional 14 days for people to place their order, receive delivery, read (right to the end) and then to write to the Home Office and Prime Minister urging a joint independent and comprehensive review of Madeleine McCann's case.

14 days, that's two weeks in pounds shillings and pence, for the Home Office and Prime Minister to receive the public call for action, debate and make a decision, pass that decision down the line to the Metropolitan Police and for them to launch Operation Grange.

That's some doing    and all because the lady said.

Gerald McCann never misses an opportunity to stress ... 'not a single police force anywhere is proactively looking for Madeleine' yet here, within a matter of two weeks, we go from nothing to something.

Call me cynical but something doesn't add up.  Something tells me the McCanns were fully aware of the government's intentions long before the book was published.

Madeleine McCann: text of parents' letter to David Cameron

Here is the full text of the letter from Kate and Gerry McCann to David Cameron, the Prime Minister:

By Andy Bloxham

7:00AM BST 13 May 2011

Dear Prime Minister,

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

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

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

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

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

Please don't give up on Madeleine.

Kate & Gerry McCann

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/8511093/Madeleine-McCann-text-of-parents-letter-to-David-Cameron.html

[This ^^^ was reported to be an open letter, it is undated]

I have to wonder how many parents of missing children received the same letter none I guess
"We will, of course stay in close touch with you through out "

Messrs McCann have an uncanny knack of glossing over - or should I say completely ignoring, matters of importance.

The long term strategy was to control the investigation.  The PJ rendered said strategy inoperable, at least on Portuguese soil, so Messrs McCann were left with no choice but to create their very own self styled investigation.  Which curiously always led in directions opposite to that of the PJ.

All the while pointing fingers - blaming - the Portuguese with second-hand accusations of ineptitude.

madeleine who?

To continue..

Colin Sutton

On Sunday 9th May 2010 the News of the World published a story which suggested that the Met was going to reinvestigate Madeleine’s disappearance and that I would be asked to lead it. This was news to me on both counts. Nobody from the Met had, or indeed ever did, make such a request of me.

The only official news I heard about the reinvestigation was a week or two later when I heard that the idea of such a reinvestigation had been shelved for the time being in the wake of the change of Government. You will recall the note by former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne, apologising to his successor that there was no money left. The rumour in the Met was that, unless and until the Government were prepared to fund it, we would not undertake such an expensive operation which, as desirable as it might have been, was not really something on which Londoners should see their Council Tax spent.

However, before this, just a few days after the NotW story I did receive a call from a senior officer in the Met whom I knew quite well. This officer told me I would do better to avoid the McCann investigation if it did happen, because "You wouldn't be happy leading an investigation where you were told what you could look at and what you could not".

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16061-colin-sutton-revisited#406678

Headlines, hate mail and Kate McCann.

madeleine by KATE MCCANN: Book review by Julie Myerson - 2nd June 2011



A very public agony

One May afternoon in 2007 in Praia da Luz, Portugal, barely 48 hours before their daughter Madeleine disappeared, Kate and Gerry McCann took their three young children down to the beach. It began to rain, and the children were grumpy, but the promise of an ice cream worked its magic.
Kate and the kids sat on a bench as Gerry went over to the shop, about 25 feet away. When he called to Kate to come and give him a hand with the five ice creams, she was "momentarily torn. Would the children be OK on the bench while I nipped over? I hurried across, watching them all the time."

Life as a parent, as anyone with children knows, is crammed with such split-second judgements and (sometimes) misjudgements, so when the McCanns' story hit the press just a couple of days after that afternoon ice cream, parents all over the world caught their breath, recognising the situation. Would we have chosen to eat dinner while our children slept, unguarded, a matter of yards away? Some of us would, some of us wouldn't, but I doubt there is a parent on this earth who hasn't negotiated with their child's safety in similar ways at one time or another.

Kate McCann says her main motive in writing Madeleine was to "give an account of the truth". Given how much false information has been circulated about the family, this impulse to exert a little control excites my full sympathy. One night, exhausted and sad, she switched
on the TV for light relief, only to see a picture of her daughter with the headline "She's dead" as the following day's newspapers were previewed. The McCanns often felt that they were kept in the dark by the police, so, for all she knew, a body could have been found - but time and again, she and Gerry were forced to pick their battles, to shrug off the lorryloads of critical comment, because anything that impeded the search for their daughter had to be ignored.

Much of the comment certainly has been negative. Even now, I am not sure I understand how the McCanns came to be considered as arguidos (named suspects). Although I imagine that the Portuguese police would offer a different version of some of the events described here, no UK official believed that the McCanns were in any way responsible for their daughter's disappearance. That didn't stop the headlines and the hate mail, however, so it seems both understandable that Kate should want to take this opportunity to set the record straight and fair that she should do so.

Yet the book clearly has another reason for existing: Kate wrote it because she knew that there was a market for it. The search for Mad­eleine can continue only if there is money, and all royalties go to the fund set up in her name. With no evidence that their daughter is dead, the McCanns are determined to go on looking. Meanwhile, it's a particularly gruesome limbo they are condemned to inhabit. Kate depicts it here with chilling precision.

Before tragedy struck, this was an ordinary family. Kate tells of her happy Catholic childhood in Liverpool, where her grandad had been "chief clerk for a firm importing nuts and dried fruits". She recalls midnight feasts of pickled onion crisps and dancing to Seventies disco hits. Then came Gerry, youngest in a "boisterous" family of five, growing up in a one-bedroom tenement in Govan. Both he and Kate did well at school and went on to study medicine, she at Dundee and he at Glasgow - which is where, as junior doctors, they met.

These were clearly hard-working and driven young people. Even so, their early married years were tough. There was the hard graft of moving between jobs as he trained in cardiology. She specialised as an anaesthetist, but, wanting more sociable hours, eventually opted to be a GP. Then there was the trying - and failing - to conceive a child. I was startled to read that all three McCann children were IVF babies. Mad­eleine, their first, arrived after many attempts. "Suddenly," Kate writes, "your world revolves around this little bundle, and you don't mind in the slightest."

Madeleine is crammed with clichés of this kind, but I confess that, far from bothering me, they drew me in. Kate McCann is not a writer and makes no claims to be one - the power of her book lies in its straightforward, chatty ordinariness. It is hard, too, not to admire its complete lack of self-pity, bolstered by the McCanns' uncomplicated though sorely tested religious faith. The agony lies in the small, casual detail.

Take how, when friends first suggested a spring holiday in the Algarve, Kate wasn't keen. It seemed like a lot of effort, with three children who were so small - all that equipment to lug around. But, not wanting to spoil things, she came round to the idea. "It was the first in a series of apparently minor decisions I'd give anything to change now."

Another factor was how and where they put their children down to sleep at the resort. The McCanns' apartment was on a corner with easy access from the street. It is now considered likely that someone was keeping an eye on their comings and goings. And it wasn't until a whole year later, when finally they were given access to the police files, that Kate discovered that anyone checking the book at reception would have seen a note stating that the McCann party wished to eat in the tapas restaurant every night because they were leaving young children alone in the apartments and needed to be able to check on them easily.

The story of how Madeleine went missing need not be repeated here, but the book gives us what the press never could: a sense of the misery of that first night and those that followed. The slow breaking of dawn, followed by the sickening job of telling the news to relatives in the UK. Kate's inability to stop banging and bruising her fists on the metal railings of the veranda, "trying to expel the intolerable pain inside me". Gerry breaking down and "roaring like a bull".

The McCanns were soon, and wisely, given access to a trauma specialist, who immediately reassured the couple that they seemed like model parents. "I cannot overstate how much such kind reassurance meant to us at that moment," Kate writes. He explained to them the importance of taking control little by little, "starting with tiny actions as simple as making ourselves a cup of tea".

In fact, kindness and forgiveness - being gentle with yourself in the face of unrelenting shock - is the core, though perhaps unwitting, theme of Kate McCann's book. Her husband was able to shut off his pain for hours at a time in order to deal with the world - something that she admits she occasionally resented. With touching self-awareness, she describes how she could not do the same. She was unable to settle to anything that did not relate directly to finding Madeleine: "I could not even sit down unless it was for a purpose, to eat or to work at the computer."

She conjures a heartbreaking image of the bereft mother, condemned to pace up and down eternally, sniffing for her young. It was two years before she could listen to music or watch television, or allow herself to take pleasure in anything at all without feeling that she was letting her daughter down.

Hugging friends whom she hadn't seen since before Madeleine disappeared, she would find she could "hardly bear to let go", because she knew that the moment she stepped back and saw their faces, she would be reminded of "days spent together with Madeleine". She also says candidly that her sex life with Gerry suffered and that she finally took "a cognitive approach" to getting it back on track.

Years later, even beginning to feel more normal brings its own problems. She worries about what people will think if they see her speaking crossly to her other children in public. Or that, if "people saw me smile or laugh, they'd think it inappropriate". She has a fear that if anyone spots her shopping in Marks & Spencer, they will frown on her "for not going somewhere cheaper like Aldi and putting the pennies saved into Madeleine's fund".

If Kate McCann doesn't feel she deserves to be forgiven, it is striking nevertheless that this is a boldly empathetic and forgiving book. She writes without bitterness about the people whose correspondence goes straight into the "nutty box".

As doctors, she and Gerry have some professional experience of dealing with mental illness, and are not surprised that their tragedy attracts such attention - "within days of Madeleine's disappearance, several people with major psychiatric problems made their way over to Praia da Luz". And although the trauma specialist had warned them that they would lose some good friends (and they did), she is grateful for the "quiet majority". Astonishingly, perhaps, she still believes that "most human beings are inherently good".

Even though I am sure there is a readership for Madeleine, many others will feel free to discuss and comment on the book without having read it. I would urge them to be as kind and non-judgemental as Kate McCann has been. Although she and Gerry come across as remarkably strong - clearly their love for their two remaining children, together with the search for Madeleine, has kept them going - I don't think anyone should underestimate how vulnerable they are.

To endure tragedy of this sort, followed by relentless press attention, leaves you raw, your skin feeling stripped right off. One night almost a year after they lost Madeleine, the couple woke in the night in Leicester to find the whole room shaking. "With the occasional death threat turning up in our morning mail, it is perhaps not surprising that our first instinct was to think we were being attacked."

Thankfully the "attack" turned out to be an earth tremor. You hope for the McCanns' sake that, whether or not they ever discover what happened to their daughter, the agonising rawness - like the tremor - will eventually subside to nothing.

[Acknowledgement pamalam, gerrymccannsblogs]

And it wasn't until a whole year later, when finally they were given access to the police files, that Kate discovered that anyone checking the book at reception would have seen a note stating that the McCann party wished to eat in the tapas restaurant every night because they were leaving young children alone in the apartments and needed to be able to check on them easily.

Where is the note referred to above to be found in the PJ files?

Which book in reception?

What did the note say?

Who had access to the book?

Julie Myerson wrote:Madeleine is crammed with clichés of this kind, but I confess that, far from bothering me, they drew me in. Kate McCann is not a writer and makes no claims to be one - the power of her book lies in its straightforward, chatty ordinariness. It is hard, too, not to admire its complete lack of self-pity, bolstered by the McCanns' uncomplicated though sorely tested religious faith.

The agony lies in the small, casual detail.

Amen to that !!!

Many a true word spoken with misguided loyalty - or borne out of ignorance.

Kate McCann's memoire is like a ping-pong ball lost in the eye of the storm.  Maybe in the initial stages, trying to manage two consecutive investigations - UK and Portugal, proved too much to handle for two middle-englanders with little or no knowledge or experience of crime management.

Again and again she stresses how they were left in the dark as regards the investigation and yet, the word meeting is used no less than 76 times in her aurobiographical novel 'madeleine'.  Granted not all directly relative to the/any investigation but nonetheless shows how busy the McCanns were with their investigative prowess and keeping their profile upfront.

All the same, we were reassured to see some UK police that day in the shape of three family liaison officers (FLOs) from the Leicestershire force, which had also officially logged Madeleine as missing ....

 After the trouble we’d had getting anyone in the PJ to talk to us, that was a relief, although the FLOs would soon find themselves almost as frustrated as we were in this regard ....

The police and judiciary in the country where a crime has been committed have primacy in any investigation ....

The Portuguese police were apparently reluctant early on to accept any help beyond this from their counterparts in the UK ....

However, in addition to the Leicestershire FLOs, they did permit forensic psychologists from CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, and an analyst from the National Policing Improvements Agency to come to Praia da Luz the following week ....

Even that may have been unprecedented: we understood this was the first time the Portuguese authorities had ever allowed any foreign force into the country to assist in an investigation ....

In such a situation, an element of pride is bound to come into play, and the relationship always seemed quite tricky. It never amounted to an effective pooling of information, ideas or intelligence ....

It appeared that the British officers were told very little about what was going on and that their role was essentially confined to making suggestions or volunteering resources ....

The local police, not used to disclosing the details of an investigation, were clearly wary of answering all the questions they were being asked ....

According to what we would hear a few weeks down the line, the Leicestershire officers were told in no uncertain terms that if the PJ declined any ideas they proposed or refused offers of additional expertise they must accept this. If they didn’t, they would be excluded from the investigation completely ....

Still, we were very grateful for their involvement, which would substantially improve communications ....

In the coming weeks we would meet DCS Bob Small, who we found straight-talking and honest. A lot of hard work went on at home as well, where DS Stuart Prior, the senior investigating officer, was kind enough to show our relatives round the incident room – and Gerry, too, later on ....

So on and so forth ....

Still it remains a mystery as to how and why UK police took such an active interest in a case being investigated by Portuguese police.  Firstly Leicestershire Constabulary, closely followed by Jim Gumboil (ex of the CEOP) and later Britain's finest, in the shape of no other than the Metropolitan Police - wow!


Such prestige.