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

At the risk of being repetitive..

On Tuesday 8 May, we said an emotional goodbye to the family and friends who were leaving us, including my parents and Gerry’s mum. It was so sad, but we all knew it was for the best. Later, I went down to sit on the beach for a while with Fiona. I still felt oblivious to everything around me; nothing whatsoever mattered except Madeleine. We talked and cried and held on to each other. It was like a horror movie that refused to end. But this was my life now, until Madeleine was found.

As we were walking up from the beach at about 5pm, I had a call from Cherie Blair, in her final days as wife of the prime minister (her husband Tony would announce his resignation two days later and leave office the following month).

She was kind and helpful. She told me it was amazing but encouraging that Madeleine was still the first topic on the news every night. This was only five days after the abduction: as it turned out, our poor daughter would continue to headline the bulletins for some time to come. Cherie also warned me, ‘Whatever happens, your life will never be the same again.’

She mentioned that a friend of hers, Catherine Meyer, was the founder of PACT – Parents and Abducted Children Together – and said she would get in touch with her on my behalf. Doubtless I asked Cherie if there was anything the British government could offer the Portuguese in the way of resources to assist or expedite the search for Madeleine. It wasn’t my intention to make her feel uncomfortable by asking this, and I’m sure I didn’t. We were just so desperate I couldn’t let the opportunity go by.

madeleine by MATE MCCANN
.................... 

NOTE: Baroness Catherine Meyer is married to Sir Christopher Meyer, former British Ambassador to the USA.   He sits on the board of the charity his wife founded, PACT (Parents and Abducted Children Together).

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13407p1050-video-of-the-day#442171

Friday 4th May 2007

By this time our friend Jon Corner, a creative director in media production in Liverpool, was circulating photographs and video footage of Madeleine to the police, Interpol and broadcasting and newspaper news desks.

Jon Corner had opened up the file transfer protocol he’d set up on 4 May to circulate Madeleine’s image to family, friends and other supporters. No, I didn’t know what one of those was, either: basically, it provided access via a password to a repository for photographs and other material, allowing people to share their resources. Helpers could post their material on a dedicated server via the FTP and use that supplied by others to create flyers, posters and so on. The press already had the password, which gave them access to pictures and video footage.

Wednesday 16th May 2007

Jon Corner had produced a DVD of photographs and video images of Madeleine to the soundtrack of the Simple Minds song ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’. It was a wonderful film but very difficult for Gerry and me to watch. That evening it was shown at the UEFA Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow, which happened to involve two Spanish teams, Sevilla and RCD Espanyol. With Spain so close and accessible from Luz, we were heartened that it would help to increase awareness there. The more people who knew Madeleine, the more eyes there would be out there looking for her and the greater our chances of finding her would be.

madeleine by KATE MCCANN

[Excerpt for research and study only]

Tuesday 8th May 2007 - only five days after the alleged disappearance of Madeleine McCann

As we were walking up from the beach at about 5pm, I had a call from Cherie Blair, in her final days as wife of the prime minister (her husband Tony would announce his resignation two days later and leave office the following month). She was kind and helpful. She told me it was amazing but encouraging that Madeleine was still the first topic on the news every night.

This was only five days after the abduction: as it turned out, our poor daughter would continue to headline the bulletins for some time to come.

Cherie also warned me, ‘Whatever happens, your life will never be the same again.’ She mentioned that a friend of hers, Catherine Meyer, was the founder of PACT – Parents and Abducted Children Together – and said she would get in touch with her on my behalf.

Doubtless I asked Cherie if there was anything the British government could offer the Portuguese in the way of resources to assist or expedite the search for Madeleine. It wasn’t my intention to make her feel uncomfortable by asking this, and I’m sure I didn’t. We were just so desperate I couldn’t let the opportunity go by.

madeleine by KATE MCCANN


[For political awareness only]

Friday 4th May 2007

I was taken into a large room containing several desks. Gerry had asked João Carlos if he could be allowed to stay with me while I was questioned because he was extremely worried about my psychological state. I was grateful to João Carlos for agreeing, with the proviso that Gerry remained seated behind me. I appreciate now that this would not be acceptable practice in most police investigations.

Friday 11th/Saturday12th/Sunday 13th May 2007

yeah, another example of the politeness of the pj, not very much expected from the horrible, bad, bungeling and of course also corrupt pj. who are used to do nasty things to suspects behind doors. 

well, would it not be they were far to polite to people who did not deserve that, whose first words about the portuguese police were fucking* tossers. silently whispered while playing an act. 

and indeed the very wrong way, jim gamble would not have given such a opportunity, he would have handled you as being a suspect, no mercy before you was cleared out, at least he tells us exactly that, time after time. 

and you know, the british police does very much the same as the portuguese police, at least they did a year later, because those officers care about a victim, a very young child. 

and it is so stupid, this is about that very first interview as a witness, husband gerry was hearing you say how you entered 5a, but in his own interview het told a different story, it does not even matter if he was the first or the second to be interviewed, that first day there was no one who corrected that mistake. that happened much later. so dearest gerry m. heard that day two very different stories, one from his own mouth, one from you. but he let it be. was that the start of confusion is good?

and that day the seeds to become suspect were sowed by yourselves. common people call this lies, and the police officers did exactly the same. they heard that day two stories, one could only be a possible true version, or were none? none of you asked to give a declaration to correct what you told. only days later that happened. 

it did not helped the search for that girl madeleine mccann very much, these so polite officers of the law never expected this, they had the idea, you needed help, and they were there to give you that, but you could not even give one story, a story that was important because it had information needed to look into all possible scenarios, even more important when a stranger was part of this case. 

from about 20.00 hours the next day the 5th, you had every hour access to british police officers, the family liaison officers, still it takes to the 10th of may 2007 to get the story corrected to one story. the one of the unlocked patio door. 

very helpful in the search for a missing, and by your own words taken child. 

and then that country that after being under duration of a totalitair regime had a part of law, you never thought could have existed, it had to open up the files to the public when a investigation was shelved, the same book of law you could have chosen to just ask to keep it open. and now we could read all how very helpful the family of a missing child in reality was. 

looking back to the pictures of the days after, you both didn't care about it very much. as long as your little helpers keep on shouting about bungling, nasty, corrupt fucking* tossers, when they talk about the polite police officers, even you was impressed with, it is all good. 


*note to the forum manager, after reading a certain book printed in the uk, my understanding is this are perfectly fine words, used by the british middle classes.

onehand wrote:
well, would it not be they were far to polite to people who did not deserve that, whose first words about the portuguese police were fucking* tossers. silently whispered while playing an act.

Shouldn't that be while 'praying an act'?

Anyway .... back to business.

Friday 4th May 2007

We stepped out of the police car amid clicking, whirring cameras and dazzling lights. To suddenly become the focus of such attention – fiercely acute, and yet at the same time disconnected, impersonal, as if we were some rare species in a zoo – was bewildering, and it certainly increased my already rocketing stress levels. But in some ways this was just another bizarre scene in a bad dream from which I couldn’t seem to wake myself up.

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

[For research and study only]

Thursday 3rd May 2007

While the officers looked around, Gerry called his sister, Trisha. As difficult as it was to tell our family, we knew we needed help from home, and quickly. Trisha, who is a nurse, and her husband, Sandy, are Madeleine’s godparents and two of life’s copers. Gerry was a mess – ‘roaring like a bull’, as Trish put it – and sobbing down the phone. She could barely make out what he was saying. It was painful for me to see my strong, assertive husband unravelling, and frightening for her to hear her ‘wee bro’ in this state. I could hear him crying over and over again, ‘She’s gone, Trisha. She’s gone.
’
After Gerry rang off, Trisha and Sandy called the Foreign Office in London, the British Consulate in the Algarve and the British Embassy in Lisbon, requesting assistance. It was also left to them to tell the rest of Gerry’s family. Trish drove over to their mum’s. This was not news that could be broken to her over the phone.

At 11.52pm, Gerry spoke to my Uncle Brian [Kennedy] and Auntie Janet in Rothley, at my request. Janet is a woman of strong faith and I wanted her to start praying for Madeleine as soon as possible. Brian then got in touch with the duty officer at the Foreign Office in London.

madeleine by KATE MCCANN

[For research and study only]

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

[For research and study only]

Did she not notice Jon Clarke ?

" not a thinker is she ! " 
We are the ones not supposed to think , but to believe everything they tell without question ! 
After all it was " within the bounds of responsible parenting " don't you know !!!

Over thinking can make you very angry..

On the plus side, it could be said that we covered a lot of ground. But it was all incredibly deflating and some of it was downright stomach-churning.

Once again the police shared details about Murat; once again they bemoaned the absence of hard evidence.

My frustration with their lack of progress, combined with what they were actually telling us about him, whipped up a storm of fury in me that was completely out of character.

It seems to me now as if for several months I was possessed by some demonic alien that infiltrated my thoughts and filled me with anger and hatred.

I needed a face on which to pin all this rage, someone to blame. And although, as I now know, the PJ had no case against Murat, they handed him to me on a plate. Since they had insinuated throughout that he might be the person responsible for the unimaginable fear and pain suffered by our little girl, is it any wonder I felt as I did?

madeleine by KATE MCCANN

Every time I read these independent statements in the files (and neither could have been influenced by the other, remember – Jane’s description had not been released to the public before the Irish witnesses made their statements), I am staggered by how alike they are, almost identical in parts.

As a lawyer once said to me, apropos another matter, ‘One coincidence, two coincidences – maybe they’re still coincidences. Any more than that and it stops being coincidence.’

madeleine by KATE MCCANN

The night of 3rd/4th May 2007

Dave [Payne], seeing Gerry’s anguish and frustration at how little was being done, knew Madeleine needed more help than she was getting. At some point before the PJ left, a retired British couple in a nearby apartment lent him their computer and he sent an email to Sky News alerting them to the abduction of our daughter, using an address listed on their website.

Evidently this wasn’t the best way of contacting Sky, because, as it turned out, Dave’s email remained buried in some inbox. Despite the fabricated tales that later emerged in certain quarters, suggesting that we had contacted the media before we’d even called the police, apparently the first Sky heard of Madeleine’s disappearance was from the Press Association, and from seeing one of our friends on GMTV, later that morning. Though we knew little of what was going on at the time, it is true that the news filtered through overnight. Rachael had contacted a friend of hers at the BBC seeking help and advice and several friends in the UK informed the press some time after 7am.

madeleine mccann by KATE MCCANN

[For research and study only]

Now, I can't speak with any certainty but the situation of a three year old child disappearing off the face of the earth whilst holidaying with her family, I would expect to be reported worldwide through a central news agency.  Unless the news report was communicated by those concerned, like the child's parents or group of holiday friends, to specific media outlets.

Here there is confusion.  Beyond a shadow of doubt, the disappearance of a three year old child ranks over and above any tragedy that could befit media reportage but it's necessary to consider the effect of that disappearance with the persons involved and within the environment from which she disappeared. In short, I would expect the trauma and panic of the situation would be so overwhelming the last thing on the participants mind would be contacting the media.  Generally that's not within the remit of the victim/s but the police, if they feel the media would be of use to an investigation.

So .... the question is who was first informed, by whom, when and why !!!

From the very beginning it would appear that team McCann and family back in the UK were anxious to publish their story - to get in first!

How was it that Jon Clarke of the Olive Press - based in Spain, in it's infancy in May 2007, was so swiftly alerted by Britain's Daily Mail to rush to Praia da Luz to cover the story?

Naturally any hack journalist would like to be the first on the scene and the first with the world 'exclusive' but who when and where did the story first break?

" our friend Jon Corner, a creative director in media production in Liverpool, was circulating photographs and video footage of Madeleine to police, Interpol and broadcasting and newspaper news desks".

That's always worried me .... what was Jon Corner doing with a portfolio of Madeleine images !?!

And they couldn't even produce a current photograph of Madeleine for the police investigation - despite having the playground and poolside photographs at hand, stored on camera .... and kept quiet until a later date.

Makes you wonder how they had the inner strength to spend the night of 3rd/4th May 2007 frantically phoning around friends and relations back in the UK.

You'd think the police would be the priority.

As an aside, at that particular time in history, foreign diplomats were not authorized to interfere with police work - that is not their function.

At 9.30pm I stood up to go and make our second check. Almost simultaneously, Matt [Oldfield] got to his feet to see to Grace.

As his apartment was right next door, he offered to look in on our three while he was there. I hesitated. I was quite happy to go myself but it seemed a bit silly to insist when Matt was going anyway. ‘Oh, OK, then. My turn next.’ When Matt returned he reassured us, ‘All quiet!’

madeleine by KATE MCCANN

No mention of swinging doors, open/closed/flapping windows/blinds/curtains compared to the previous Oldfield check from outside the apartment?

Did they have a responsible parenting nightly child listening/watching system of their own making or some ad hoc hokey cokey everything free and easy do as you darn well pleasy arrangement?

As I've said time and time again - clearly they had no idea the Portuguese police files would ever be released into the public domain.

What a killer!

Then again, the group clearly had it in mind to leave their children every night whilst wining and dining.

Matt Oldfield witness statement - 10th May 2007

For the rest, he relates that the couples would give preference to resorts that have 'baby listening' services available.

Pressed to define 'baby listening' service he clarifies that that service can be summed up as a watching, by doing 'rounds' of the outside of an apartment in the course of which someone checks for noise coming from the location where children are sleeping and, if noise is heard, to alert the respective parents of that situation.

Furthermore, he wishes to make clear that while making the aforementioned reservations the operator had told them that a 'baby listening' service was not in place in the Ocean Club Garden.

That fact had made some of the couples - and himself in particular - reluctant to come to Portugal because all the families have minor children.

As far as he [MO] is concerned, he wishes at this time to add that, in conversation with DP on a date he does not recall with certainty but likely to have been on 7 or 8 May, he [DP] confided in him that that, at that time, KH had been particularly reluctant about coming to Portugal because she had had a bad feeling [presentiment] about the children of the group and the non-existence of the 'baby sitting' service.

Nevertheless, he relates that, they had discussed this problem resolving to make the trip since the operator had assured them accommodation sufficiently close together that, collectively, they had managed to assure the checking and supervision of their respective progeny.

So again I question the logic.

A trifle airy-fairy for such an important issue as child care - what to do with the kids whilst you go off on a jolly with your mates.

Again I ask - a grandmother, in this case the Payne family, agreeing to leave very young children alone in their respective apartments - being part of the dinner group? Never !!! A grandmother would never agree to such an arrangement unless they knew the children where being properly cared for - like a babysitter official or unofficial.

Was Charlotte Pennington taken on that trip to Portugal to care for the children? Was there some sort of strange agreement with Mark Warner staff to accept such a proposal?

There has to be some acceptable explanation.

Quite!

Matt Oldfield wasn't happy about the Portuguese Mark Warner night time child care facilities - he/they went ahead with it anyway.

David Payne packed a duper-super child monitor, another couple packed a not so duper-super child monitor.

It's apparent they intended to leave their children every night whilst they wined and dined. The most obvious clue is the grandmother - perhaps packed for childcare, why else was she there amidst a group of 30'somethings, all with something in common. But then she, the grandmother, was at the Tapas restaurant with the rest of the group - apparently!

It stinks like rotten sea bass.