The McCanns, Ray Wyre, Ian Brady and Sally Smith

by **Tony Bennett** 17.08.12 9:50

The McCanns, Ray Wyre, Ian Brady and Sally Smith

The McCanns, the late Ray Wyre, and Wyre’s assistant who fell in love with Ian Brady and other notorious serial killers

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On reading that a ‘49-year-old woman’ had been arrested on suspicion of preventing the proper burial of Keith Bennett, murdered by Ian Brady, my thoughts immediately turned to Sally Smith. I will explain why.

The charge against her appears to be that Brady might have given this 49-year-old woman the details of where he buried, which she is alleged to have kept secret.

Why might this lady be Sally Smith?

Here’s why.

In October 2010 I penned a lengthy article titled: ‘Ray Wyre and the McCanns’. It was immediately put up on The Madeleine Foundation website and remained there until August 2011 when it was removed, because of claims by the McCanns that it breached the terms of an undertaking I gave to the High Court in November 2009. It has not been reinstated but I will quote from parts of it below.

First, I need to establish the connection between Ray Wyre and the McCanns. Ray Wyre was a self-styled expert in paedophilia and sex offenders. He recommended very unusual treatments for sex offenders at his Gracewell Clinic, and was regarded by many professionals as an expert. The media loved him, interviewing him time and time again when the news was covering stories about paedophiles, sex offenders and their treatment. To say that his treatment methods were unorthodox and controversial would be an understatement. I am not aware of any peer-reviewed article which can confirm that his treatment methods were successful.

Wyre, who died in 2008, less than six months after meeting the McCanns, at the young age of 56, first pronounced on the Madeleine McCann case as early as Monday, 7 May – four days after Madeleine was reported missing.

He was extensively quoted in an article by Dominic Kennedy in The Times.

The article, titled: “Nothing can stop a determined abductor, but there is a chance the child is still alive”, opened with this paragraph:

“If Madeleine McCann was abducted by a paedophile, there is a chance that she is still alive and can be saved by sensitive policing, according to Ray Wyre, a sexual crimes consultant. ‘Lately, there have been more and more cases where there has been an element of planning and an attempt to keep the child alive’, he said. Wyre added that: ‘To maximise the possibility of finding Madeleine alive, police must avoid doing anything to make the kidnapper panic. If he believes that they are about to move in and catch him, he may become so alarmed that he kills the child to stop her being a witness’.”.

Wyre was also quoted in the same article in relation to the activities of paedophiles in Portugal. He continued:

“Portugal is known to attract British paedophiles. A ring of 20 Britons set up there around 1990, filming sex acts with local boys and sending the tapes to Belgium and the Netherlands. Some were later jailed in England. The case helped to persuade the British Government to make it illegal for Britons to have sex with underage children abroad”.

At the same time that Wyre was being quoted by The Times, he was busy writing a full article for the Daily Telegraph, which appeared just three days later, on 10 May.

Here is the full article:

QUOTE

What the Portuguese police must do

Daily Telegraph - By Ray Wyre - 10 May 2007
Last Updated: 2:06am BST 10/05/07

I have worked with men who have abducted and killed children. Often, their capture has failed to save the child and has not come about through good police work.

The planning needed to take the child cannot be overestimated. It was clear from the beginning in Portugal that we were dealing with an abduction and the need to "think offender" was essential.

What was his motivation? How would he initiate contact and target the child? How would he control the environment to evade discovery?

Portuguese police cannot ignore the UK's experience in such cases. In the early '90s a British paedophile group filmed the sexual abuse of Portuguese boys.

At one stage the Americans were so concerned about the role of British paedophiles in Portugal that I was approached about the targeting of schools there. International co-operation should be part of police thinking.

However, there is no culture of community policing in Portugal and they have laws that prevent the discussion of cases. This is clearly the wrong way round. The media are essential in passing co-ordinated and directed information to the community.

In this case, speculation is rife, confused messages are likely to be given.

The parents will be feeling guilty for leaving the children and even a half hour is a long time if a child wakes up and starts to cry immediately after one leaves the room.

This could, possibly, lead to a woman on her own, who has lost a child, saying to herself wrongly that the parents did not care for this child and deciding to take the girl home. No paedophile, no conspiracy - just a lonely woman.

The window of opportunity for the abductor means that the information given by the parents has to be very accurate. Police must help them to say exactly how long it was since they last saw their child.

The parents need to know that if this was an offender who planned the abduction then there is probably nothing they could have done.

I once asked an abductor who had killed girls how we could stop him. He said: “I suppose you would have to chain a child to the mother”. But he added: “No, that would not work. I would take both”.

Ray Wyre is an expert in sexual crime who worked in the UK Probation Service in the 1970s before specialising in programmes for sex offenders.

UNQUOTE

Wyre’s article, as can be clearly seen, assumes the abduction of Madeleine by a paedophile, and moreover is critical of the Portuguese police.

So far as I’m aware, Wyre’s name does not crop up again in relation to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance until Sunday 27 January, when the Sunday People splashed a major story about a private meeting between the McCanns and the Wyres.

The story was dramatically headed: “EXCLUSIVE: THE MCCANNS ARE ‘TOTALLY INNOCENT’”.

I will reproduce it in full here:

QUOTE:

EXCLUSIVE: MCCANNS ARE 'TOTALLY INNOCENT'

EXCLUSIVE TRUTH ABOUT THE McCANNS: BY TOP UK CRIME CRACKER

The People - By Marcello Mega and Daniel Jones

Daniel.Jones@People.Co.Uk
27 January 2008

Kate and Gerry played NO part in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, one of the world's top crime experts declared last night.

Ray Wyre - who has given Cracker-style testimony to courts since the 1970s - said: “It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for them to have been involved”. He insisted the grief-stricken parents were incapable of doing anything to harm their children.

He told how the couple feared Maddie was dead in the hours after she vanished - the first time their initial anguish has been revealed. And he heaped scorn on claims the McCanns are being torn apart by the tragedy, adding: “They are a close and loving couple”.

Wyre spoke out as it was revealed Portuguese cops now believe four-year-old Maddie may have been abducted - as Kate and Gerry have always claimed.

The couple met Wyre, 56, to discuss setting up an international taskforce to help cops trace missing children.

They poured out their hearts to him and his wife Charmaine over dinner at the ace criminologists's home in Milton Keynes, Bucks.

Wyre - who's helped nail a string of monsters including child-killer Robert Black - said: "I was with them for several hours and I could not help but apply some of the practices I use when I'm carrying out assessments of suspects for police and the courts.

“I can state categorically there is no way they were involved in their daughter's murder or disappearance. They would be incapable of such an act. I have more than 30 years' experience in this field and am used to people trying to hide dark secrets.

“There was NO sign of any such deceit. It is absolutely impossible for them to have been involved”.

And Wyre paid a moving tribute to the way the 39-year-old couple manage to think of other people even though their hearts are broken.

He said: “It was humbling and moving to meet the McCanns. They brought flowers for my wife, which brought tears to our eyes. You consider what they've been through and they still bring flowers when they come to your home”.

Wyre hit out at shocking claims of eating disorders and marriage rifts made about Kate and heart specialist Gerry, whose twins Sean and Amelie have just turned three.

He said: “It can't have helped while they've had this massive tragedy on their hands. Days before we met I was reading an ill-informed article saying they were growing apart. But they are a close and loving couple who are certainly united in their roles of being good parents to the twins and maintaining momentum in their quest to find Madeleine.

“There is no doubt they are a couple - they are together and they support and comfort one another. They were very warm and friendly to each other and there was no sign of dispute between them. During the meal, Gerry often put his arm round the back of Kate's chair. They were affectionate to one another all the time. They looked very much together. As for any suggestion Kate might have an eating disorder, it's nonsense. She sat down to my wife's home-made lasagne and garlic bread with a smile and really enjoyed it. And she tucked into the banoffee pie for pudding like the rest of us”.

Wyre told how for 72 hours after Maddie vanished in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year the McCanns were certain their daughter was dead.

Their despair has never been made public before - and Wyre blasted critics who insist they have not expressed enough grief.

He said: “For three days, all they could see in their minds was Madeleine lying dead. They were in complete agreement she'd been taken by a predator, abused and killed.

“They were certain they would never see her alive again. The image of her lying murdered hardly left them and they expected at any time to receive the news that her body had been found. When three days passed and that had not happened, they began to feel the stirring of hope.

“They reasoned it was most likely that if someone had seized her to abuse and kill her, her body would probably have been nearby and would have been found. They continue to cling to that hope - but they are also prepared for the worst. However, as long as she remains missing I know they will not rest in their efforts to find her”.

Wyre also told The People how GP Kate is so dedicated to answering the flood of emails she gets every day about Maddie she sometimes gets up at 4am to deal with them all.

His tribute came as detectives in Portugal finally admitted they could be WRONG in their belief that the McCanns - from Rothley, Leics - were involved in Maddie's disappearance. Prosecutors had named the couple as official suspects in September.

And since then police have been hellbent on trying to prove Kate and Gerry had hidden their daughter's body after the youngster died in their Algarve holiday apartment.

Investigators even claimed they had enough evidence to charge the couple just three weeks ago. But yesterday police sources admitted the McCanns may have been telling the truth all along. And detectives are now set to review the case and quiz all the witnesses again.

The amazing about-turn comes after a British laboratory said DNA tests carried out on blood samples found in the Praia da Luz flat and the couple's hire-car had been inconclusive.

The theory Maddie had been kidnapped was also given another boost last week with the release of a sketch of a possible suspect. A source told Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas: “There are now two hypotheses on the table - abduction or accidental death. There are no concrete proofs to charge the current suspects. No line of inquiry can be discounted - but the first hypothesis is the most credible”.

The McCanns' family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told The People last night: “We welcome any movement on the part of the police that accepts Madeleine was abducted - because that's what happened.

“It’s ridiculous we've had to wait this long for any indication they believe Kate and Gerry are telling the truth.

“The sooner the police realise they don't have a case against them, the sooner they focus on finding Madeleine - which is what this investigation should be about”.

UNQUOTE

It is worth noting that this article about the McCanns’ day out at the Wyres coincided in the same week with a spate of other stories which were also generated by the McCanns.

In the very same week, the following two stories burst upon the British public:

(1) The artist’s sketch of ‘Monsterman’ or ‘George Harrison man’ published in the News of the World, followed the next day by Clarence Mitchell’s ‘Crimewatch/Crimestoppers’-style press conference during which he held up the artist’s sketch and said that this was ‘a person of interest whom are anxious to trace’. The sketch had been produced by Melissa Little, the very same person who had assisted Jane Tanner with her recollections of the man with a dark jacket, mustard chinos and black pointy shoes whom she had seen walking ‘purposefully’ away from around the McCanns’ apartment carrying a child wearing night clothes ‘with a pinkish aspect’, and

(2) The search for Madeleine McCann’s bones by Madeira lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia and his team of divers of the Arada Dam in Portugal. Correia had, 7 weeks earlier, on 10 December 2007, met at the Arade Dam with Metodo 3’s lead private detective, Antonio Giminez Raso, who worked closely with Chester double glazing magnate Brian Kennedy in the McCann Team’s private investigations team. Giminez Raso was later (in February 2009) remanded in custody by a Barcelona court facing serious charges of aiding and abetting a powerful drugs gang to seize over 200 kilos of cocaine from a boat in Barcelona harbour on 25 January 2005.

- o - o - o - o - o - o - o -

I come, finally, to Sally Smith – not her real name.

I now reproduce part of my currently-censored article about Ray Wyre, where I refer to Sally Smith:

++++++++

Sally Smith - and Snuff Films

Let us now examine the extraordinary and close association that a woman known as ‘Sally Smith’ (who has never been identified so far as I am aware) had with Ray Wyre and his Gracewell Clinic. An article in the Birmingham-based Sunday Mercury tells the story, and I reproduce the full article below:

QUOTE

‘I've fallen in love with 200 killers’

Sunday Mercury - by Caroline Wheeler, 24 August 2003

A middle-aged psychology student is dedicating her life to helping notorious child killers, sex offenders and murderers - by falling in LOVE with them.

Sally Smith regularly writes to 200 dangerous criminals and counts paedophile killer Sidney Cooke and Robert ‘The Cannibal’ Maudsley among her close friends.

In the past the spinster, who claims to have been sexually abused as a child, has corresponded with Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

More recently she wrote to Ian Huntley, who is charged with killing Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Yet Sally, 56, sees nothing wrong in the bizarre relationships. She claims instead that they could help the rehabilitation of the monsters behind bars.

“I love the men because of - not in spite of - what they have done,” said Sally, adding that it started when she fell in love with her own abuser.

“I was sexually abused by a serious sex offender as a child over a number of years,” she explained. “He was in a position of authority and I was assaulted within what I would call a loving environment.

“When he dumped me several years later, I thought if I couldn’t love him, I would love men like him. I began to write to some of Britain’s most violent sex offenders.”

Sally, who is studying for an MA in criminal psychology, claims that she wants to help rehabilitate the men by offering them her close friendship. She first began work in the field of sex offenders in the 1980s when she volunteered at Ray Wyre’s controversial Gracewell Institute, in Moseley, Birmingham.

When the clinic closed in 1993 she branched out on her own and set up the Michael and Ray Snowy Trust in Stourbridge, West Midlands, to continue her controversial psychological techniques.

“My work begins with the question of not what I can do for these men, but what they need,” she said. “I offer them emotional and financial support while they are in prison and I am developing links with other organisations who can help them once they are released.

“I send cards and letters and make prison visits. I also send them money for things like phone cards and trainers”.

Sally, who is hoping to get her semi-autobiographical book ‘Forwards With Hope And Love’ published, says that her desire to help the men is motivated by love. “Everybody needs love,” she explained. “If these offenders are given back some self-respect and self-esteem it is my hope that they might begin to change. By using these techniques we could all eventually enjoy a safer society.”

Sally claims that her methods have already had a positive impact on several high-profile criminals, including serial killer Robert Maudsley. The 50 year-old murderer, currently in HMP Wakefield, once ate part of a victim’s brain with a spoon.

“Robert Maudsley has been improving since I began writing to him,” she said. “And Sidney Cooke and I have been friends for years - I’ve been to prison to visit him. I’m not as interested in women but I have also written to Rose West and the late Myra Hindley. She once sent me a Christmas card and a letter, in which she said she wanted to get to know me better.

“I’ve also written to Rose West and sent her a small cheque for Christmas. She cashed it but she has never written back.”

Leading sex crimes expert Ray Wyre confirmed that Sally had been a volunteer at the Gracewell Institute - but said that he had serious doubts about her methods. “Our approaches are very different,” he added. “I know where her heart is but in the end we just had to agree to disagree on her methods. I think that some of the work she does is extremely dangerous and could leave her open to attack.”

• Anyone who wants to contact Sally about her work should write to PO Box 1782, Stourbridge, DY8 1WZ., sending an SAE so that a newsletter can be sent out free of charge. Sally’s name has been changed at her request.

UNQUOTE

Some of the names of the criminals ‘Sally Smith’ was associating with are well-known. Sidney Cooke was surely one of the most evil of all, leading a gang rape of a 10-year-old boy at a flat in Hackney, which killed him, and then dumping his body in a wood near Ongar, Essex.

It’s clear that ‘Sally Smith’ is a lonely attention-seeker who cannot find anything else to fill her life apart from corresponding and ‘falling in love with’ some of the most evil men in society. It was clearly a most unhealthy obsession. The crucial point in the article is that she began her infatuation with these evil criminals whilst working alongside Ray Wyre in his Gracewell Clinic. Indeed, as the article says, she remained closely alongside him until its closure. Wyre’s attempt to distance himself from ‘Sally Smith’ is unconvincing. Wyre clearly knew about and tolerated ‘Sally Smith’s correspondence with these killers. Did he also approve of and encourage her in this work? Why, for several years, did Wyre have as his associate and close colleague a woman who was obsessed with writing to murderers?

One more point: once again we see the media hagiography of Wyre; here the Sunday Mercury refers to him as a ‘leading sex crimes expert’.

Finally, we might note Wyre’s claims of having ‘viewed snuff films first-hand in America’. When challenged about this, however, he denied having seen a real snuff movie, claiming instead that what he had seen was ‘merely a sophisticated simulation’.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So, is it possible that Sally Smith, the ‘middle-aged psychology student’ as she was described back in 2003, is the person who has been visiting Ian Brady and knows where Keith Bennett’s body is hidden?

by Guest 17.08.12 9:58

Tony, the person has been named in the BBC news article it is not Sally Smith...............

17 August 2012 Last updated at 09:52

Ian Brady 'may have revealed' Keith Bennett burial place

The McCanns, Ray Wyre, Ian Brady and Sally Smith _62332344_62332343

The McCanns, Ray Wyre, Ian Brady and Sally Smith _62332344_62332343

Ian Brady was jailed for life in 1966
Moors Murderer Ian Brady may have revealed information about where one of his victims, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, is buried, detectives believe.
Police are investigating whether Brady gave details to his mental health advocate, Jackie Powell, during a visit to his psychiatric hospital.

Ms Powell was arrested in south Wales on suspicion of preventing the lawful burial of a body and has been bailed.

[snipped from article, more on link below.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19292164

by Guest 17.08.12 10:01

If it is correct that she was 56 in 2003, she would now be 65 and cannot be the 49-year-old referred to in the current story.

by **Tony Bennett** 17.08.12 10:04

candyfloss wrote:Tony, the person has been named in the BBC news article it is not Sally Smith...

17 August 2012 Last updated at 09:52

Ian Brady 'may have revealed' Keith Bennett burial place

Ian Brady was jailed for life in 1966
Moors Murderer Ian Brady may have revealed information about where one of his victims, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, is buried, detectives believe.
Police are investigating whether Brady gave details to his mental health advocate, Jackie Powell, during a visit to his psychiatric hospital.

Ms Powell was arrested in south Wales on suspicion of preventing the lawful burial of a body and has been bailed.

[snipped from article, more on link below...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19292164

'Sally Smith' was not the real name of the person (see my article) who admitted to corresponding and 'falling in love with' 200 killers, and who worked in close association with the late Ray Wyre, who was friendly with the McCanns. It looks from the above, though, that the person named above, Jackie Powell, may not be the same person as the woman known as 'Sally Smith'