*NEW!* Judge Tugendhat will hear McCanns' CONTEMPT application 10.30am Wednesday 8 February

Maive wrote:

Good luck Tony, I keep my fingers crossed!!! As another poster said, you have the truth on your side!!!

Who knows what the truth is? Certainly no police force either here or in Portugal, nor any forum or an individual. A theory that's all.

Tony Bennett doesn't have the truth or answer, although he has my utmost respect for seeking it. He is also laying on the line what most of here would be scared to do. Our life savings and perhaps our liberty.

I asked on the photo thread for evidence to prove, or even suggest photoshopping. None was forthcoming. If there is evidence, then send it to the authorities. There is none.

I can see no advantage in placing someone elses arm with an icecream into a picture. What is the point?

The two people who know the truth seem to just sue everyone rather than help the proper authorities find that little girl.

Spaniel wrote:

Maive wrote:

Good luck Tony, I keep my fingers crossed!!! As another poster said, you have the truth on your side!!!

Who knows what the truth is? Certainly no police force either here or in Portugal, nor any forum or an individual. A theory that's all.

Tony Bennett doesn't have the truth or answer, although he has my utmost respect for seeking it. He is also laying on the line what most of here would be scared to do. Our life savings and perhaps our liberty.

I asked on the photo thread for evidence to prove, or even suggest photoshopping. None was forthcoming. If there is evidence, then send it to the authorities. There is none.

I can see no advantage in placing someone elses arm with an icecream into a picture. What is the point?

Really?? No police force?

I asked on the photo thread for evidence to prove, or even suggest photoshopping. None was forthcoming

I suggest you read the topic again my friend

jd wrote:

I asked on the photo thread for evidence to prove, or even suggest photoshopping. None was forthcoming

I suggest you read the topic again my friend

jd, I know nothing about photoshopping. I too think the last photo is "wrong". All I'm saying is, if you have firm evidence that the pictures, particularly the last one, were tampered with, then inform the authorities.

I wish to see justice done, so any evidence should be passed on.

Surely you just need the evidence of your eyes?

In that "ice cream" picture there is an arm which is not a child's (see the fat on the upper arm) and in which there is no feasible angle between the upper arm and forearm.

Why the Mccanns would do this, I cannot say.

Tony has asked me to post this brief resume of today’s Case Management hearing.

QUOTE TONY:

The hearing was only ever about getting the matter ready for trial.

The hearing lasted around 1 hour and 50 minutes. The McCanns were represented by Jacob Dean (barrister), Adam Tudor, Isabel Hudson and two assistants.

Carter-Ruck had proposed a timetable for serving and filing evidence ahead of the trial and proposed that the trial would last for 1-2 days, to be held as soon as practicable on or after 10 April.

I made a number of applications at the hearing, which out of courtesy I notified to Carter-Ruck by hand on 2 February.

My application to have a ‘McKenzie friend’ [lay helper] with me at the hearing was granted by consent, and I thank my friend who acted as my McKenzie helper today.

I made an outline application to be allowed to apply for one part of the original undertaking I gave to be rescinded. This was granted. I have until 22 February to submit that application. That involves paying a Court fee of £80.00 and submitting detailed reasons for that application. At this point I will say that I do not propose to seek to rescind any of the following undertakings, all of which I have abided by except for the sale of one book to Mr Michael Gunnill (see below):

• To deliver up all hard copies of “What really happened to Madeleine McCann? 60 key reasons which suggest that she was not abducted” (known in short as ‘60 Reasons’) to Carter-Ruck
• To deliver up all hard copies of the leaflet entitled “What really happened to Madeleine McCann? 10 key reasons which suggest that she was not abducted
• To destroy any electronic version of ‘What really happened to Madeleine McCann? 60 key reasons which suggest that she was not abducted”.
• To destroy any electronic version of the leaflet entitled “What really happened to Madeleine McCann? 10 key reasons which suggest that she was not abducted
• To close our website, whose domain name was: www.madeleinefoundation.org‘
• To use my best endeavours to delete or otherwise prevent access to any and all defamatory allegations about the Claimants published by him on the website http://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net
• To use my best endeavours to delete or otherwise prevent access to any and all defamatory allegations about the Claimants published by him on the website http://democracyforum.co.uk
• To use my best endeavours to delete or otherwise prevent access to any and all defamatory allegations about the Claimants published by him on the website http://www.anorak.co.uk
• To use my best endeavours to delete or otherwise prevent access to any and all defamatory allegations about the Claimants published by him on the website www.truthformadeleine.com
• To pay £440.00 towards the Defendant’s costs [subsequently reduced to £400.00.]

I applied for an Order that ‘the Claimants [the McCanns] do specify which words they allege constitute alleged breaches of my undertaking’. This was because of what I claimed was a lack of clarity in the McCanns’ application. The Practice Rules are very specific in requiring that in a contempt of court allegation, the Claimants must be precise and full in explaining to the Defendant precisely why he is alleged to be in breach of an undertaking to such an extent that he deserves to be sent to prison.

I had also asked for more time to prepare my defence. The Judge was concerned about the volume of paperwork I was faced with [153 alleged breaches of the undertaking] and said that ‘there is considerable force in Mr Bennett’s request for more time to prepare his defence’.

This was resolved as follows. The Judge invited Jacob Dean [the McCanns’ barrister] to take a 5-minute adjournment to consider whether he wished to reduce his 153 alleged breaches to, say, ‘the 10 most serious breaches’. He said that if the McCanns could prove those breaches, it was unnecessary to prove the other 143. After 15 minutes, the McCanns’ legal team came back into Court and said that they would submit a new application based on ‘around 25’ of the most serious breaches. The trial will then be confined effectively to an examination of just those 25 alleged breaches. The Judge gave them until 4pm on Friday 17 February to serve this new application on me. He also suggested to Mr Dean that Carter-Ruck needed to be much more precise than they had been about the words I used that were said to be in breach of the undertaking and which term of any undertaking they were alleged to breach.

The Judge granted me until 9 March to reply to the McCanns’ revised application [the McCanns had originally asked for my response by 22 February.

The McCanns will then have the right to reply to my response. They will have to serve this on me by 5 April.

I applied for an Order that Michael Gunnill be produced as a witness and was able to inform the Judge in outline of how Mr Gunnill had obtained a ’60 Reasons’ book from me by entrapment, and how Mr Gunnill had boasted about doing this ‘on behalf of a third party’ which I believed to be the McCanns, via Carter-Ruck. I was granted permission to apply for a Witness Order against Mr Gunnill requiring to attend the trial and give evidence. I shall be doing that shortly.

I had applied for an Order that one of the McCanns make a Witness Statement to (a) state what evidence there is that Madeleine McCann was abducted and (b) to state what evidence there was, as claimed in Isabel Hudson’s Affidavit, that any of my actions had, as the McCanns claimed, ‘harmed the search for Madeleine’. These applications were refused. The Judge said that it was for the Claimants to give whatever evidence they felt was necessary to support their application to commit me to prison and that if I felt there was insufficient evidence that an abduction had occurred I would have the right to make submissions about this in my closing speech at the trial.

I applied for the McCanns to produce certified English translations of the two judgments against them in the Portuguese Court of Appeal (October 2010) and Portuguese Supreme Court (March 2011). The Judge refused, after asking the McCanns’ barrister if Dr Amaral’s book was now freely available in Portugal, to which of course he agreed. He said that if I considered these relevant, I should produce these myself. One of my supporters at the hearing kindly volunteered afterwards to see if she could obtain these for me.

The trial is scheduled for 2 days, any time on or after 17 April 2012.

In conclusion, I would like to thank each and every one of the eight people who kindly troubled to attend court to support me, and it was a pleasure to buy them all lunch at the Dulcis Cafe afterwards.

UNQUOTE TONY

I have great admiration for Mr Bennett. He is working so hard, and risking so much, to establish the truth.

Well done Tony! It sounds like things went well today and the judge seemed to take a common sense approach to proceedings.

I will be interested to see what Mike Gunnill has to say for himself in the witness box!

My utmost admiration for Mr. Bennett and those who accompanied him today. Well done.

In striving for justice, you are also batting for the many thousands of people who donated, in good faith, to a company whose aims don`t appear to be genuine.

Post deleted except for continuing support and admiration for the man who stepped up to the plate.

Well done Tony, and to those who went to support him

[quote]
I applied for an Order that Michael Gunnill be produced as a witness and was able to inform the Judge in outline of how Mr Gunnill had obtained a ’60 Reasons’ book from me by entrapment, and how Mr Gunnill had boasted about doing this ‘on behalf of a third party’ which I believed to be the McCanns, via Carter-Ruck. I was granted permission to apply for a Witness Order against Mr Gunnill requiring to attend the trial and give evidence. I shall be doing that shortly.

what can one say,except the mccanns have a lot to answer for,but it is good to see that gunnill will have to take the stand,what an odious person that gunnill is.i wish you all the best tony.

I am not a legal person, but it appears that many Pro sites that mirror every thread we have on here are spitting teeth at the moment regardless of how they spin it. Looks like it went well to me.

"I applied for an Order that Michael Gunnill be produced as a witness and was able to inform the Judge in outline of how Mr Gunnill had obtained a ’60 Reasons’ book from me by entrapment, and how Mr Gunnill had boasted about doing this ‘on behalf of a third party’ which I believed to be the McCanns, via Carter-Ruck. I was granted permission to apply for a Witness Order against Mr Gunnill requiring to attend the trial and give evidence. I shall be doing that shortly."

Well Mr Bennett if I was wearing a hat I would eat it. I am not wearing one and as this was the issue that caused me to have a bee in my bonnet I will eat a little humble pie instead and hope that this proves to be as hopeful as it sounds for you. My apologies for being black and white and maybe my assumption on this point will be quite wrong.

I do not always agree with how you have gone about things but I am in awe that you stood up alone against some rather big guns and did this today - it must have been a terrifying experience for you.

positive news! phew! now, time to prepare for battle

Nina wrote:Uppatoffe feels that things went well. Having just read the statement I don't feel this at all except for Mike Gunnill having to take the stand. In fact I have yet again the feeling that the McCanns are ahead. I would have hoped that this judge would have said something on the lines of you are wasting my time and court rooms.

However Tony still has my utmost support and admiration and I know I should be less pessimistic

Sadly that was never going to happen Nina. I expected the worst so anything else was a result. After all the judge may not know anything about the pj police files or their reports!

I think there are a number of reasons to be relatively optimistic. The judge has asked to Mccanns to massively reduce the number of claims against Tony, suggested that their lawyers are wasting time presenting weakly supported claims and agreed to Tony calling Gunnill to show entrapment by the Mccanns.

uppatoffee wrote:

Nina wrote:Uppatoffe feels that things went well. Having just read the statement I don't feel this at all except for Mike Gunnill having to take the stand. In fact I have yet again the feeling that the McCanns are ahead. I would have hoped that this judge would have said something on the lines of you are wasting my time and court rooms.

However Tony still has my utmost support and admiration and I know I should be less pessimistic

Sadly that was never going to happen Nina. I expected the worst so anything else was a result. After all the judge may not know anything about the pj police files or their reports!

I think there are a number of reasons to be relatively optimistic. The judge has asked to Mccanns to massively reduce the number of claims against Tony, suggested that their lawyers are wasting time presenting weakly supported claims and agreed to Tony calling Gunnill to show entrapment by the Mccanns.

Thankyou for your reply to my previous pathetic post that I have deleted as I am sorry for my downward spiral and want to boost Tony's spirit, not moan about my feelings.

And thankyou also for your reminder of the reduced number of claims, that is a bonus for Tony. And the calling of Gunnill quite makes me

Well done Tony and those who went to support him

It all sounds very positive. I think it's worth mentioning that the judge hasn't agreed that Mike Gunnill should be called as a witness. My understanding from Sharon post is the judge has agreed that Tony can APPLY for Gunnill to appear as a witness. Nothing to say the request will be granted as I can almost guarantee the McCanns' lawyers will oppose the application. Hopefully, the judge will accept the request- UNLESS the McCanns remove the claim that Tony breached his undertaking by selling the book. Now, if they remove that claim- it looks to me that's their trump card- then their case collapses IMO

Thank you for posting this great news sharon


Dear Tony,

An absolutely superb and courageous stand against such a formidable band of bullies. Very well done indeed! I'm very pleased that so many good people managed to be there also to support you. Thank you again for your tireless efforts on behalf of a little girl that has no voice xxx.

You are a hero!

Well done Tony - I'm sure today was a dreadful ordeal.

Will the Mcs have to attend or will they just send their lawyers? I do wish there would be press coverage of this because it will show how the Mcs have the money to sue anyone who disagrees with them. But they don't have the courage to attend.

I was sorry to hear that you cannot get them to write a witness statement. They cannot prove an abduction so the whole scenario is a farce. And none of this helps to find or search for their daughter.

I rather hope the Judge will be a bit miffed at having his request to reduce charges from 143 to 10 not fulfilled.
25 is still a lot and he seems to have acknowledged that. I rather hope the 48 questions are still in - be interesting to see what the 25 items are going to be.
I also don't think the judge is going to be impressed getting someone in court who has been tricked into breaking an agreement.

By mid april things may also have shifted re Amaral. We live in interesting times!

Well done Tony Bennett, well done you supporting people who were present!
It is just round one, but it seems that justice can still be done.
You are my 'Hero' Tony Bennett, just like sr Amaral turned out to be a 'Hero' before.
Before this 'ludicrous' affair I scorned any 'Hero' idea.

A for Amaral B for Bennett C .... wait wait, perhaps it doubles each time. Yes of course!!!
A for Amaral B for Bennett and (Pat) Brown
Let justice be done and the truth revealed, at last,
about what did happen to Madeleine McCann.
Not forgotten.

Thank you Tony Bennett
I do stand in awe.
parapono

I hope that Tony is happy with the outcome. I daresay it will take a day or two to recover and assess the situation.

Thanks for the update from today. I don't post much anymore on the forums but I read every day and want Tony to know that I am following this and he has my full support.

Well done to all those who managed to attend in person to support Tony. I wish I could have been there.

The McCanns didn't have all their own way today did they