West Yorkshire Police to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann: A good thing or a bad thing?

West Yorkshire Police to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann: A good thing or a bad thing?

On Friday 12 March this year, The Madeleine Foundation wrote to the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, making a number of points in relation to any proposed review of or re-investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

One of our key points was that any review or re-investigation should not be carried out by Leicestershire Police, as we believed them to be wholly discredited in terms of their failure to investigate Madeleine’s disappearance without fear or favour. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph last week: “A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that the Home Secretary had a private meeting with Kate and Gerry McCann. Leicestershire Police stand ready to co-ordinate and complete enquiries if further information comes to light in the UK; or if requested to do so by the Portuguese authorities, who continue to lead on the overall investigation’.” We strongly advised the Home Secretary to select an independent police force to carry out any review or re-investigation, not Leicestershire.

The Daily Star report

Yesterday's [18 March] Daily Star carried this report (below), announcing that West Yorkshire Police had been approached by the Home Office to carry out some kind of re-investigation into the Madeleine McCann mystery.

SHANNON MATTHEWS COPS DRAFTED IN TO SEARCH FOR MADDIE

18th March 2010 - By Jerry Lawton

THE police team who found hoax kidnap victim Shannon Matthews are to probe Madeleine McCann’s disappearance. West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team (HMET) will study Portuguese police files.

Madeleine’s doctor parents Kate and Gerry, both 41, are said to be “delighted’’ at the move. It follows a meeting with Home Secretary Alan Johnson at which they begged him to relaunch the official search for their daughter.

He asked the Child Exploitation Centre And Online Protection Centre to appoint a new investigating force. They have called in HMET, whose officers found Shannon, then aged nine, alive 24 days after she vanished in Dewsbury, West Yorks, in February 2008. Detectives worked out her disappearance was a plot to claim reward money dreamed up by her mum Karen, 34, and stepdad’s uncle Michael Donovan, 40, who were jailed for eight years.

Portuguese and British police forces have been at odds since Madeleine vanished from her family’s Algarve holiday apartment in May 2007, days before her fourth birthday. A source told the Daily Star: “It’s hoped we can clear the decks and start over again.”

The case was archived as unsolved in July 2008, and the McCanns, of Rothley, Leics, have had to hire private detectives to search for her.

[ Source: http://dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/126788/Shannon-Matthews-cops-drafted-in-to-search-for-Maddie/ ]

Is this move to be welcomed?

After all, a source is quoted as saying: “It’s hoped we can clear the decks and start over again”

The report in the Daily Star included this quote: "The Home Secretary Alan Johnson…asked the Child Exploitation Centre and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to appoint a new investigating force. They have called in the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team of West Yorkshire Police".

The relationsip between the McCanns and Jim Gamble of CEOP

It’s clear from this, if the Star report is accurate, that the decision to appoint the West Yorkshire Police Force was made by CEOP. And that means it was made by its Chief Executive, Jim Gamble.

CEOP is an unusual type of organisation. It has the powers of a police force, yet is not subject to the usual types of regulations covering the actions of a police force. Notably, CEOP is exempt from the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. It is something of a law unto itself, though answerable, certainly, to the Home Office, who appointed Mr Gamble.

There appears to be an unusually close relationship between the McCanns and Jim Gamble.

Most recently, Jim Gamble invited Dr Gerald McCann to speak at a CEOP-organised conference on abducted children. Held on 26 January at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Bloomsbury, London, the closing speech of the conference at 4.00pm was given by Dr Gerald McCann. The welcome address was of course given by Jim Gamble himself. The press release about the conference hailed its purpose as: “To explore the issues associated with a variety of child abduction cases, predominantly focussing on sexually motivated stranger abductions”.

Mr Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ chief public relations adviser, admitted on 19 February in a Channel 4 interview that the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was ‘a complete mystery’. In addition, the final Portuguese Police report in July 2008 said that they had been examining two alternative theories side by side: (a) abduction and (b) death in the McCanns’ holiday apartment. Given the absence of any compelling evidence of an abductor, still less an abduction by a ‘sexually motivated stranger’, it is reasonable for us to ask: “Why was Dr Gerald McCann chosen to make the final address to this conference?"

Late last year, Jim Gamble featured in the worldwide dissemination of what was called a ‘viral video’, titled ‘A Minute for Madeleine’ which, once again, drew attention to the fact that Madeleine was still missing, and urged people to search for her. Speaking at a news conference to launch the video, Gamble said:

“The person we are looking to reach is likely to be a partner, family member, friend or colleague of the person or people who were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance. The video is a message aimed at prompting the conscience of the individual to remind them that it’s never too late to do the right thing.”

He went on to compare the disappearance of Madeleine to the snatching off the street at the age of 11 of Jaycee Lee Dugard case, who then spent 18 years in captivity in a Californian backyard before being found by officials. The commentary in the video is by Gamble, who asserts that ‘Madeleine is now six’ and then shows an artist’s impression of what she might look like now. He went on in the video to emphasise that ‘someone out there’ is holding a secret and should come forward.

Incidentally, the ‘Minute for Madeleine’ viral video brings out the uncanny resemblance between the CEOP logo and the coloboma defect in Madeleine’s right eye. This similarity can be seen very clearly towards the end of the video as the CEOP logo is seen to move ever closer to Madeleine’s right eye ( Link: Home page on http://ceop.police.uk/ ).

At the same time, he toured TV studios with the McCanns giving interviews on SKY NEWS and on ITV’s ‘Good Morning’. The McCanns and he had clearly pre-arranged what each would say, as Dr Gerald McCann parried a question and said ‘Jim will be answering that”.

On the ‘Good Morning’ programme, Gamble came out with a strange statement: “It is the first time [a viral video] has been done…it has the potential to get to the person we are looking for. We are not looking for someone who has seen this girl particularly. We are looking for the person who knows or strongly suspects the individual or individuals involved in Madeleine's disappearance - the person who for a long time has perhaps struggled with their conscience keeping a terrible secret”.

Why did he not want the person who has ‘seen’ Madeleine, only the person who might ‘know something’ about those involved in Madeleine’s disappearance?

Will the West Yorkshire Police conduct a fully independent re-investigation into all possible explanations for Madeleine’s disappearance?

We’ve seen that there is a close nexus between the McCanns and Jim Gamble, who has personally selected the West Yorkshire Police to carry out this re-investigation, We question therefore whether that police force will truly be given a remit to ‘start from scratch’ and be permitted to examine not only the abduction scenario but also the possibility that Madeleine died in her parents’ holiday apartment. For example, will the West Yorkshire Police talk to Goncalo Amaral, the original senior investigating detective in the case, whose book ‘The Truth of A Lie’, which outlines the evidence that Madeleine died in Praia da Luz, has sold half a million or so copies throughout Europe?

Before taking up his current job as the head of CEOP Gamble was a superintendent in the Police Service of Northern Ireland and then became Head of the National Crime Squad. Whilst there, he set up the National Crime Squad's specialist response cell - the Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT) - and was involved in the creation of the first international law enforcement partnership to combat child abuse online - the Virtual Global Taskforce.

As head also of NCIS (the National Criminal Intelligence Service), he headed the highly controversial Operation Ore investigation into those downloading images of child sexual abuse. Operation Ore is a topic we may revert to in a future article. It was criticised by some for wrongly accusing individuals of downloading child portnography just because they had accessed a certan website with a credit card, whilst others were certain that Operation Ore had discovered a number of prominent people who had been viewing extreme child sexual abuse but was refusing to prosecute them.

Mr Gamble says he first became involved with the McCanns as a result of receiving a letter from them which ‘deeply moved’ him and prompted him to offer to help. But his views have been controversial. He has suggested a number of times that even people viewing extreme images of child sexual abuse should not be sent to prison, which prompted this response from Michelle Elliott, director of the childrens’ charity, Kidscape. She told the BBC: “They are just as guilty as the people taking the photos. If they didn't view, the child wouldn't be abused. Therefore I think those people deserve prison”.

Conclusion

The fact that Jim Gamble has an extremely close understanding with the McCanns, actively promoting the theory that Madeleine was abducted by a paedophile at every opportunity, and is the person who has recommended West Yorkshire Police Force to carry out any review or investigation, is of very great concern.

Whoever is entrusted with re-investigating this difficult, sensitive and highly controversial case must be given a full brief to go wherever the evidence leads, and not simply adopt the abduction theory and continue merely to follow up a procession of claimed ‘sightings’ of Madeleine.

I should think any force taking an interest would be a good thing.

As long as they are not retired Pretendy cops .and are not friends of the Child Neglectors,Then i think this might look promising,who will be paying the fee for this ,That tax man or the fund ?

there is a close nexus between the McCanns and Jim Gamble, who has personally selected the West Yorkshire Police to carry out this re-investigation,


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Ignore my last comment ,It doesn`t look promising at all now that i have noticed .Jim Gambles name selecting the policemen ... he`s a free mason ...

The long letter Tony Bennet sent to the home secretary,much mocked by mccann supporters across the internet,means that the current Home Secretary cannot claim to be unaware of the close relationship between Jim Gamble and kate and gerry mccann which renders Mr Gambles intervention highly inappropriate in my view,its there in black and white ,painstakingly spelled out for him and excerpts from that letter can be reproduced at any subsequent hearing ,court case or enquiry,no living patsy can therefore be stitched up, their defense lawyers would have a field-day.

How reliable is this article in the Daily Star ? Usually at the tiniest whiff of anything McCann, sky news slip into constant reporting mode, but this morning, nothing. I have done a google and can't find anything anywhere else either.

I consider it to be most important for us to keep an eye on Gamble's recommendations with any regard to this case.

The preferred route would be for the PJ to be given the information they required when Madeleine was first reported to be missing, rather than allow any other police force to continue in muddying the waters.

justagrannynow 1 wrote:How reliable is this article in the Daily Star ? Usually at the tiniest whiff of anything McCann, sky news slip into constant reporting mode, but this morning, nothing. I have done a google and can't find anything anywhere else either.

Point taken, but I think this is an important clue to its authenticity:

"Madeleine’s doctor parents Kate and Gerry, both 41, are said to be 'delighted’ at the move".

I fully expect a formal announcement any day that West Yorkshire Police has been tasked with come kind of review - no doubt headed by 'Jim Gamble's man in West Yorkshire'.

This would be terrible news for the case and I fear muddy waters.
(I do not mean the musician )

Is there ANYBODY not in on the conspiracy?

Confirmation (of sorts) of the West Yorkshire Police story in the Dewsbury Reporter.

http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/Shannon-search-police-39will-help.6166070.jp

My brother was born in Dewsbury and and my mother was shot with an air rifle there when I was about two (teenagers larking about one evening with nothing better to do). I was fostered out for a couple of weeks with a local vicar and his wife (my father was Headmaster of Heckmondwike Grammar School at the time). I am told I was very unhappy those two weeks.

How was it for them?

Rainbow wrote:Is there ANYBODY not in on the conspiracy?

Yes, Madeleine. No one in the 'campaign' seems to care about her, possibly because they know she's already dead and can't be helped.

NB: for details about the 'campaign' ask Mr Gunnill, but he say's it's 'early days in the campaign' so probably won't give out much, if any, information.

ufercoffy wrote:NB: For details about the 'campaign' ask Mr Gunnill, but he say's it's 'early days in the campaign' so probably won't give out much, if any, information.

But plenty of, er disinformation

It is beginning to look as though this is going to be exactly the sort of review the McCanns wanted. As much as possible reported in the media about how the parents are searching, but no prospect of discovering what has happened to Madeleine.

No wonder they are delighted.

justagrannynow 1 wrote:It is beginning to look as though this is going to be exactly the sort of review the McCanns wanted. As much as possible reported in the media about how the parents are searching, but no prospect of discovering what has happened to Madeleine...

Plus a whole lot more unjustified dissing of the incompetent 'Keystone Cops' Portuguese Police.

More confirmation that the West Yorkshire Police story is correct - today's 'Sun':

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2899889/Cops-who-found-Shannon-Matthews-join-Maddie-McCann-hunt.html

Morning all, this can only be a good thing if it achieves the right result, I personally trust noone that is seen to be friendly with this disgusting pair, Gamble seems to fawn over every word GM says, very unhealthy.

guilty2 wrote:Morning all, this can only be a good thing if it achieves the right result, I personally trust noone that is seen to be friendly with this disgusting pair, Gamble seems to fawn over every word GM says, very unhealthy.

Good Morning to you guilty2 :flower:

I am not at all hopeful that a review carried out by West Yorkshire police will achieve anything very much for Madeleine, though it might strive, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to portray the parents as a couple desperately searching for their daughter.

justagrannynow 1 wrote:

guilty2 wrote:Morning all, this can only be a good thing if it achieves the right result, I personally trust noone that is seen to be friendly with this disgusting pair, Gamble seems to fawn over every word GM says, very unhealthy.

Good Morning to you guilty2 :flower:

I am not at all hopeful that a review carried out by West Yorkshire police will achieve anything very much for Madeleine, though it might strive, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to portray the parents as a couple desperately searching for their daughter.

Do we have to actually believe the papers? Neither Home office or West York Police has confirmed it. One would have thought any review to be taken seriously would be publicly annouced by the authority. What is the purpose of such a Review when no complete files is available (as I don't believe the PM will meekly just hand over the files), and no witnesses are going to be summoned for authenticising their accounts.

Merely going over the released dvd papers (with translation coming from team mccanns no doubt) and the thousand sightings are just going over old ground. What good would be the outcome of WYH? If their findings go against mccanns, then the mccanns games would have reached an impasse. If the verdict is a white wash, and later the PM were to re-open on new evidence then the white wash outcome would become a joke. Unless the West York Review has the approval and cooperation of the main investigator, the PT public ministry, can any verdict not in accord with PM and not taken in line with criminal investigation be considered legally valid?

If the mccanns hope to be exonerated by the West York Police, they are in for a shock. Maybe the review is merely to determine what the PJ could have done with the evidence. If that being the case, and if the WYH should reach the same verdict as the PM ie no abduction, all avenues exhausted and Maddie probably dead, then what do the UK authority plan to do with that?

Anyway I doubt Home office would undertake something like that close to change of political party leadership. Which party is going to take the cane should this blow up.

Its more like another of the mccanns publicity stunt without substance. WE shall see.

Conclusion

The fact that Jim Gamble has an extremely close understanding with the McCanns, actively promoting the theory that Madeleine was abducted by a paedophile at every opportunity, and is the person who has recommended West Yorkshire Police Force to carry out any review or investigation, is of very great concern.

Whoever is entrusted with re-investigating this difficult, sensitive and highly controversial case must be given a full brief to go wherever the evidence leads, and not simply adopt the abduction theory and continue merely to follow up a procession of claimed ‘sightings’ of Madeleine.





A police force undertaking a review will undertake a review.

They won't undertake a review but ignore anything which points to certain outcomes.

I am sure it isn't the case, but sometimes it seems that people don't actually want to know what happened to Madeleine, in case there is a risk that her parents aren't actually guilty of disposing of her body.

If a police force is drafted in to review the case then that's what they'll do.

aiyoyo wrote:
Do we have to actually believe the papers? Neither Home office or West York Police has confirmed it. One would have thought any review to be taken seriously would be publicly annouced by the authority. What is the purpose of such a Review when no complete files is available (as I don't believe the PM will meekly just hand over the files), and no witnesses are going to be summoned for authenticising their accounts.

Merely going over the released dvd papers (with translation coming from team mccanns no doubt) and the thousand sightings are just going over old ground. What good would be the outcome of WYH? If their findings go against mccanns, then the mccanns games would have reached an impasse. If the verdict is a white wash, and later the PM were to re-open on new evidence then the white wash outcome would become a joke. Unless the West York Review has the approval and cooperation of the main investigator, the PT public ministry, can any verdict not in accord with PM and not taken in line with criminal investigation be considered legally valid?

If the mccanns hope to be exonerated by the West York Police, they are in for a shock. Maybe the review is merely to determine what the PJ could have done with the evidence. If that being the case, and if the WYH should reach the same verdict as the PM ie no abduction, all avenues exhausted and Maddie probably dead, then what do the UK authority plan to do with that?

Anyway I doubt Home office would undertake something like that close to change of political party leadership. Which party is going to take the cane should this blow up.

Its more like another of the mccanns publicity stunt without substance. WE shall see.

Sorry, but as each day each day passes with nothing being reported on sky, or any of the newspapers, even the tabloids from what I can see, I am beginning to think this is yet more spin from the McCanns.
Until such time as there is an official announcement from a government department, I reckon this should be filed under 'Not relevant' along with the report by Dave Edgar that Madeleine was being held in a lawless village. The press printed that rubbish too didn't they?

justagrannynow 1 wrote:Sorry, but as each day each day passes with nothing being reported on sky, or any of the newspapers, even the tabloids from what I can see, I am beginning to think this is yet more spin from the McCanns.

justagrannynow1, please see my post further up this thread (on the same page) where I give the link for an article in The Sun on this topic.

This may not be 'spin' from the McCanns, rather a carefully timed 'leak' to chosen media. The government probably prefer it that way - look at how much of their activities in this case they have been reluctant to put on the record

But this is slightly different? No? Without putting this on record, how do they expect to publicise the outcome without appearing stupid?

Is a secret review supposed to beget result(secret) to be made known to the mccanns only? If so, the mccans would have been warned of the need to keep the covert review confidential, then why were they allowed to announce it? How can anything involving more than one party be covert if all parties involved are not in accord to keep it so?

If the publicity was cleverly timed 'leak' by mccanns to chosen media, then what's to stop them leaking the 'privileged to them only ' verdict, if it were in their favour. Doubtless if the verdict is to the contrary, then the public wont hear about it (at least not from the mccanns).

Maddie case, albeit no longer active, is still an unclosed criminal investigation awaiting solving, and mccanns are archived arguidoes until the case is solved and closed for good. Anything HMG do for the case, if not overtly, would have hugh repercussion for them. Why would HMG undertake a secret review only to suit the purpose of mccanns.

Even if WYP were only given latest sightings dossier or files from LP to review, it is not a review in totality in the true sense of the word, because it simply isnt feasible or legal for obvious reasons.

We shall see what pens out.

More coverage in the Yorkshire Evening Post:

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Shannon-cops-join-hunt-for.6165495.jp

TB, do you think there 's really a secret review going on? What are your thoughts on that?

aiyoyo .............. I rather suspect that 'secret reviews' have been going on for the past three years.

The fact that the loose-lipped McCann has seen fit to mention it himself would lead me to believe that he already knows the conclusions of any 'future' review.

Indeed he probably chaired it whilst his wife was taking the minutes.

aiyoyo wrote:TB, do you think there's really a secret review going on?

Yes, and in view of the intense international interest in the case, I am trying by my Freedom of Information Act queries to make this review process a little less secret than it is at the moment

You've become a sticky on the MM TB

http://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net/main-maddie-thread-latest-news-f1/re-the-proposed-review-of-mccann-case-by-yorkshire-police-please-read-and-forward-this-letter-t9343.htm

Whoops! Think I might have put this in the wrong place

ufercoffy wrote:You've become a sticky on the MM TB:

http://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net/main-maddie-thread-latest-news-f1/re-the-proposed-review-of-mccann-case-by-yorkshire-police-please-read-and-forward-this-letter-t9343.htm

Whoops! Think I might have put this in the wrong place

Thanks for your comment ufercoffy on MM.

Maybe the atmosphere on MM will improve after the recent disruption there.

By the way, The Madeleine Foundation's original letter to Alan Johnson is now with the Head of the PPPU at the Home Office. That's the 'Police Powers and Procedures Unit'. They have a tracking system at the Home Office for e-mails and letters received, so a bureaucrat there was simply able to check where my letter was and what was being done. A bit like tracking a Recorded Delivery letter or a UPS parcel. I was told that 'They are preparing a reply to you'.