Gary Hagland's seven months, Sep 2007 to April 2008, close to the heart of the private Madeleine McCann investigations

Gary Hagland’s time with Kennedy and Metodo 3

We saw earlier from the letter sent by Gary Hagland to BBC TV East Midlands that he described himself as a ‘founder-investigator’ for Gerry and Kate McCann, adding, just as he told me originally, that he worked there ‘from September 2007 to April 2008’.

In his e-mail to the BBC, in which he gave his real name, his qualifications and of course his e-mail address, he added: “Even the most basic and preliminary questions about this matter remain, after all, not only unanswered but also unasked. I should know”.

At the end of this post I will give a summary of Gary Hagland’s role and actions, as far as he has told me about them, that is, during his 7-month work for the Directors of ‘Madeleine’s Fund’

But first, what was happening generally within the McCann Team investigation during this 7-month period?

September began with the McCanns being made arguidos on 8 September, their return to England on 10 September, a ’phone call from Edward Smethurst, the man who was to become their co-ordinating lawyer, on 12 September, and two big meetings with lawyers on 14 (at Kingsley Napley) and 19 September. Two members of Control Risks Group were present at the meeting on 14 September.

So far as the McCann Team’s investigations were concerned, these were some of the reported highlights – with other important dates slotted in:

On 16 September, John McCann announces an £80,000 advertising campaign to be spent on publicising Madeleine’s disappearance in Morocco, Spain and Portugal,

On 17 September, Clarence Mitchell officially resigned from the Civil Service and began to be employed full-time by the McCanns.

On 22 September was the first public announcement, in the Liverpool Daily Echo, of Brian Kennedy’s involvement in helping the McCanns.

On 23 September the McCann Team said that Control Risks group was only brought in ‘recently’.

On 25 September, nearly all Britain’s media carry photos of Bushra Bishina taken by Clara Torres. Bushra is a pale-skinned girl being carried by a Moroccan peasant. Headlines asked: ‘Could this be Madeleine?’

On 26 September, Brian Kennedy flew out in his private jet to Rabat and met Ali El Bouazaout, who becomes one of Kennedy’s investigators in Morocco. He said he flew out there to see if Bushra Bishina was Madeleine.
In early October, Antonio Jiminez Raso from Metodo 3, formerly Head of the Catalonia Kidnapping Unit, and now, according to Francisco Marco, ‘Head of our Madeleine McCann investigation’, contacted the then current Head of Unit to ask for help with the Madeleine investigation.

On 2 October, Goncalo Amaral was removed from the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.

On 9 October, the media reported that ‘the McCanns have hired their own forensic team’.

In mid-October, Antonio Jiminez Raso of Metodo 3 travels to Morocco with a Moroccan ex-pat living in Spain, Naoual Malhi, to research her claimed sighting of Madeleine in Fnideq, Morocco.

On 17 October, Clarence Mitchell addressed a meeting at Coventry University on the topic: “Madeleine McCann: The Perfect PR Campaign”.

On 19 October, the Head of the Catalonia Kidnapping Unit contacted Portuguese Police saying they wanted to arrange a meeting between the Portuguese Police and Metodo 3 - as Metodo 3 have relevant evidence for the Madeleine McCann investigation. He informs the Portuguese Police that ‘Brian Kennedy, not the McCanns’, is funding Metodo 3.

In late October, a Daily Mail journalist flies out to Morocco to follow up Naoual Mahli’s claims of Madeleine being held ‘high up in the Rif mountains’.

On 24 October, the McCanns announced the setting up of a 24-hour hotline ‘to be manned by our private investigators’.

On 25 October, the approved sketch of the man Jane Tanner said she hads seen was published. On the same day, Clarence Mitchell formally acknowledged for the first time on behalf of the McCanns that the abductor had not broken in by jemmying open the shutters but had gained entrance by other means and opened the apartment window ‘as a means of escape’.

On 29 October, Metodo 3 issued a formal statement saying they are ‘convinced that Madeleine is in Morocco’.

On 2 November, there was a flurry of newspaper reports of another alleged sighting of Madeleine in Morocco, namely the one by Naoual Mahli, a 30-year-old Spanish resident visiting relatives in Fnidek, northern Morocco. But the actual ‘sighting’ had actually occurred on 21 August.

On 4 November, a ‘source close to the Moroccan security services’ told the News of the World: “The [Mafia] gangs [in Morocco] can put the word out and will be able to find out things through the underworld network connecting every city, town and remote village [in Morocco]. When they want to find out information, they can”.

On 12 November, Marcos Aragao Correia’s court case against the Portuguese postal service is heard. He alleges they failed to deliver a recorded delivery letter to the McCanns. He loses his case and has to pay 100 euros costs.

On 13 November, Brian Kennedy, and Francisco Marco and Antonio Jimenez Raso, met with the Portuguese Police in Portimao. The two Metodo 3 men gave the Portuguese Police three new leads. Later that day, Kennedy and his in-house lawyer Edward Smethhurst met with Robert Murat and family members in the company of his lawyer, Francisco Pagarete.

On 17 November, Spanish TV station Antena3 claimed that the ‘Tapas 9’ had met that day at the Rothley Court Manor Hotel in the UK. They claimed that this meeting was ‘set up by the Metodo 3 team’ and lasted from 10am until 4pm. The said that the purpose of this meeting was to ‘aclarar donde están las contradicciones’ (clear up any possible contradictions in their statements). On the same day, Metodo 3 claim they are ‘closing in on the abductor’ and are ‘100% sure she is alive’. This is not reported in the British press until two weeks later.

On 19 November, Panorama transmitted a documentary on Madeleine’s disappearance.

On 27 November, Robert Murat’s lawyer refers to Metodo 3 disparagingly as ‘mercenaries’. Around this date, Gary Hagland and Julian Peribanez of Metodo 3 talk to the sisters Jayne Jensen and Annie Wiltshire. Six weeks later, their statements about two blonde men and about Robert Murat are published in the British press.

On 28 November, a statement on behalf of the McCann Team clarifies that ‘Madeleine’s Fund’ is meeting Metodo 3’s bills, and that they are being paid £300,000 ‘on a six-month contract’. Metodo 3 claims it has ‘40 detectives’ working on the case.

In early December, Spanish TV company Antena stated they had Metodo 3’s permission to reveal that they were ‘receiving their payment from Brian Kennedy not Madeleine's Fund nor from anyone else’. This was later contradicted by the McCann Team.

On 8 December, Kirsty Maryan, 19, ‘ key witness in the case’ according to the McCanns, Emma Wilding, 22, and other nannies from the Ocean Club, Praia da Luz, are featured in photos posted on Facebook ‘in lurid poses’. One of them is seen wearing one of the yellow wristbands sold to raise funds for the ‘Find Madeleine’ campaign.

On 10 December, there is a meeting at the Arade Dam, Portugal, between Madeira lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia, who later admits that he is paid by the McCanns via Metodo 3, and Metodo 3 man Antonio Jiminez Raso.

On 12 December, Mrs Jenny Murat, Robert Murat’s mother, in a TV interview publicly accuses Metodo 3 of ‘bribing witnesses into changing their stories’.

On 15 December, Francisco Marco, boss of Metodo 3, said: “We are closing in on the four-year-old’s abductor and preparing to hand over evidence to police…God willing, I hope she will be back with her parents before Christmas”.

On 26 December, Metodo 3 announce that they have received ‘347 calls’ following the McCanns’ Christmas appeal.

On 28 December, British newspapers begin reporting an alleged ‘sighting’ of two blonde men by sisters Jayne Jensen and Annie Wiltshire, who were interviewed in November by Gary Hagland and Julian Peribanez of Metodo 3.

On 3 January 2008, the McCann Team announces that they have, additionally, hired private detective Noel Hogan of Hogan International.

On 5 January, publicity is given to a series of ‘sightings’ of suspicious characters seen in Praia da Luz, all reported to ‘Metodo 3 detectives’.

On 9 January, the McCann Team said they expected ‘Madeleine’s Fund’ to ‘dwindle to £346,000 by the end of March’.

On 10 January, a ‘McCann family source’ is quoted as saying: “We will carry on the search for Madeleine but not necessarily with Metodo 3. We are stuck with them to the end of the contracted period. The question of whether it is renewed or not has still to be decided. They have faced not having their contract renewed ever since Francisco shot his mouth off. It was made clear what they were doing was foolish and unhelpful”. At around the same time, Antonio Jiminez Raso was said to have taken several British journalists to meet witnesses who, it was claimed, had apparently been paid in advance to say that they had seen Madeleine in Morocco.

On 12 January, nearly five weeks after the meeting of Marcos Aragao Correia and Antonio Jiminez Raso at the Arade Dam on 10 December, Marcos Aragao Correia claims that underworld sources told him that ‘Madeleine McCann was raped, murdered and her body dumped in a remote reservoir within 48 hours of her disappearance’. The media report that ‘Metodo 3 is now investigating’. He says: A paedophile ring may have abducted Madeleine and dumped her body in the Barragem do Arade reservoir’.

On 25 January, Mark Williams-Thomas, described as ‘a former detective and Managing Director of child protection consultancy WT Associates’, was reported as saying: “It is an astonishing amount of money that is being spent focusing on Morocco. There is a big difference between a sighting and information. Unless you have definite information that suggests she is in Morocco then it seems pointless. The likelihood of Madeleine being taken out of Portugal is very slim. I would be concentrating more on Portugal than anywhere else. To me, it holds the key”.

On 27 January, Metodo 3 is reported to be seeking to interview Joaquim Agostinho, a man said to look like a suspicious man seen by Gail Cooper. The same day it is reported in the press that: “A 10-strong squad of investigators mounted an undercover operation finding ‘strong’ proof that Murat was in the vicinity of the Ocean Club after Madeleine’s disappearance. Several witnesses were said to have given statements to Spanish detectives from the Metodo 3 agency, claiming they had chatted with Murat after the alarm was raised by Kate at 10pm. The couple’s lawyers sent petitions to senior Portuguese police to re-interview him”.

On 4 February, newspapers report the search for Madeleine’s bones in the Arade Dam by Marcos Aragao Correia. The search had started a few days earlier.

On 6 February, Portuguese Police investigation co-ordinator Alipio Ribero hints that the ‘arguido’ status of the McCanns may be lifted soon.

On 9 February, the Daily Telegraph reports that the McCanns ‘expect to be cleared shortly’.

On 10 February, the Sunday Times publishes an article by Christine Toomey: ‘Madeleine McCann and Metodo 3: Private eyes, public lies’ which is highly sceptical of the work being done by Metodo 3.

On 14 February, the McCanns launch their ‘Don’t You Forget Valentines Day’ campaign in Spain.

On 15 February, amid reports that the Madeleine McCann investigation is about to be shelved, Clarence Mitchell says: “If the case really is to be shelved then obviously we will ask that Gerry and Kate should have their arguido status lifted first. And we would also ask that our private detectives should have access to the police files so that they can continue working on the case, even if the police will not. It would obviously help our detectives to have access to all the police information in the case. There could be some forgotten clue in there which could still solve this case. Surely it is only right and proper that information that the police aren't acting on should be given to people who can continue the investigation”.

On 18 February, Antonio Jiminez Raso, named as being ‘a Metodo 3 detective working on the Madeleine McCann case’, is arrested and remanded in custody in a case involving serious allegations against him of involvement in the theft of cocaine from a boat in Barcelona harbour and ‘misconduct in a public office’. It emerges publicly that he was formerly an inspector in the Catalonian Regional Drugs Squad. Clarence Mitchell responds by telling the press that Antonio Jiminez Raso is ‘nothing to do with us’.

On 21 February, Metodo 3 detectives were described as being ‘back in Praia da Luz last night. They were seen studying aerial photos of the area’.

On 24 February, the Sunday Express apologised for remarks it had made on 13 January about Noel Hogan.

On 5 March, the Directors of ‘Madeleine’s Fund’ had a Board meeting. On the agenda, it is said, was the matter of ‘whether or not to renew Metodo 3’s contract’. They decided to renew it.

On 7 March, newspapers reported that a second search for Madeleine’s bones by lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia and his team of divers would begin in three days’ time.

On 9 March, the McCanns were reported to have pledged support for the search for missing Shannon Matthews. The disappearance of Shannon was later exposed as a scam.

On 10 March, the second search for Madeleine’s bones in the Arade Dam began.

On 11 March, the McCanns react ‘with fury’ to the news that Marcos Aragao Correia, whom they describe as ‘a fantasist’, is carrying on searching for Madeleine’s bones. They refer to it as ‘a distraction’.

On 12 March, an Express journalist says that all journalists of Express Newspapers are forbidden to write about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. At the same time, the McCanns announced through a spokesman that they were preparing to sue various media, including the Express group. Clarence Mitchell says that the McCanns hope for £4 million damages.

On 13 March, the McCann Team announce that they are retaining the services of Metodo 3.

On 14 March, Marcos Aragao Correia and his team of divers find ‘a small bag of bones’. The media report that “Gerry and Kate McCann were informed immediately by a private detective who was observing the search”. And Clarence Mitchell adds that “Investigators from their Metodo 3 agency were at the scene along with police”.

On 15 March, it is reported that the bones were from ‘a brood of kittens’.

On 18 March, several newspapers publish front-page apologies to the McCanns who announce a £550,000 agreed damages settlement.

On 5 April, there’s a report of a ‘sighting’ of Madeleine in Tenerife. A tourist, Margaret Jones, thinks she saw Madeleine at the airport - and then ’phoned Metodo 3, after returning to her home town of Cardiff.

On 8 April, Marcos Aragao Correia is allowed by the Director of Odemira Women’s Prison to interview child murderess Leonor Cipriano – and becomes her lawyer in a criminal
case against Goncalo Amaral.

On 15 April, Robert Murat announces that he will sue for damages. He later secured £600,000 agreed damages.
During April it is thought that Kevin Halligen and Henri Exton of Oakley International were engaged to help find out what happened to Madeleine. This was around the time that Gary Hagland resigned from the McCann Team.

SUMMARY OF WHAT GARY HAGLAND TOLD ME ABOUT HIS WORK WITH THE MCCANN TEAM

[NOTE OF A TELECON WITH GARY HAGLAND: I asked him if he was required to sign any confidentiality agreement with Brian Kennedy. He replied: “No confidentiality clause, no contract, nothing on paper, he just asked me to work for him and said he would pay my expenses”].

Gary Hagland

• Was appointed personally by Brian Kennedy

• Worked for him and the McCann Team from a house in Knutsford, Cheshire, said to have been bought by Brian Kennedy in his daughter’s name

• Kept a diary of his time there

• Had previous experience of working ‘in intelligence and security’

• Was not paid a wage during his time there - only ‘expenses’

• Gave an account of his time in the McCann Team to journalists from The Times. He says that the editor of The Times declined to use his material

• Wrote a draft of a book on his involvement in the case in 2008 and 2009

• Met with Metodo 3 investigators at Knutsford

• Met with an old friend in MI6 at the Institute of Directors in London to discuss the McCann Team’s plans to search for Madeleine in Morocco

• Interviewed the sisters Jayne Jensen and Annie Wiltshire together with Julian Peribanez in November 2007

• Travelled to Barcelona for a ‘summit’ meeting with Metodo 3 staff at their offices in Barcelona ‘in early 2008’; there he met with three staff and a Spanish-English translator was also present

• Researched and analysed the various statements of Jane Tanner

• Was told that Jane Tanner was helped to make her statements by members of the International Family Law Group

• Spoke, on his own initiative, several times to D/Supt Stuart Prior

• Travelled to Praia da Luz, accompanied by Brian Kennedy’s son Paddy (Patrick), whom he says ‘shadowed’ him

• Met with Gerry McCann twice in ‘a park near Rothley’ to ‘discuss operations’

• Travelled to Morocco with Paddy and a Metodo 3 investigator to search for Madeleine

• Said that ‘someone from MI6 took over the McCann Team private investigations after Kevin Halligen left’

• Sought immunity from publishers if his book was published and ‘someone sued’, but to date no publisher has given such a guarantee.

Tony thank you for that summary . 

 I once was associated [ not directly] with a charity ,i used to help them out , it was exposed to have being only passing on a fraction of what it raised to it's intended clients . the fraction being around 10 percent . [ Most new charities today operate a none directorship way of operating , as too many ' Charities " pay staff tens of thousands PA , people have wised up ] 

  Charities / Funds, or in the McCann case " Limited companies " when it comes to the donated receipts, the true figures can be very sketchy indeed , especially where donors were initially encouraged to post cash directly to the source !!!!, or throwing coins into buckets en route during a fun run etc . [ i attend 30 plus high profile charity events PA, my last one was last Sat  in Knutsford , over Peover to be exact , Btw !! ]

 The point is IMO if the Fund says it has raised say 3 million , it could well have raised many many more times that [ especially during the time scale Tony outlines above . 

 When a company is doing that well with unaccountable cash ,it is only natural that the cash cow , needs to be protected at all cost . 

This is clearly IMO  the main reason why so many high rollers got involved , and is another reason why we are where we are today . the old phrase again Follow the Money .

That is an impressive break down.
If the world knows all that, think what Hagland knows !
It doesn't take a huge intellectual leap to se what might have been going on with the Moroccan adventure.

Did we not have a report of someone being chucked out of Morocco for paying for sightings ? I cant put my finger on it at the moment.
If so, who paid him ?

PeterMac wrote:That is an impressive break down.
If the world knows all that, think what Hagland knows !
It doesn't take a huge intellectual leap to se what might have been going on with the Moroccan adventure.

Did we not have a report of someone being chucked out of Morocco for paying for sightings ?   I cant put my finger on it at the moment.
If so, who paid him ?

This is it:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
@umweltbuerger We know from the #Leveson document release that Naoual Malhi was paid £500 for her sighting of 'Maddie' in Morocco. #McCann.

I've kept it with a related quote from the Amazon discussion forum on the book 'Madeleine'.
quote:

Cyr Jimenez Says:
February 8th, 2012 at 12:06 pm

I have said that the McCanns NEVER looked for Madeleine because, while their friends were knocking on doors waking up the dead that evening asking everybody to look for the little girl that ‘had been abducted’, it was later established that her parents never moved from their apartment but were busy deleting compromising calls from their mobiles. (This is on record too).
When it was generally felt that the McCanns were not doing enough to find Madeleine and no Portuguese detective agency would touch them, they resorted to a well-known Barcelona Agency to which they paid a substantial sum (€50,000 from memory. It was not their money, was it?). The Agency immediately made a big song and dance of informing the world that they knew Madeleine was being held in Morocco and they were going to get her. I was furious.

It took me a while but in the end I managed to speak to the Managing Director in clear Spanish. I asked how was it that a Detective Agency of their standing could make such a ridiculous assertion making it known ‘they knew Madeleine was held in Morocco and they were going to get her’. He tried to wriggle out of it but in the end he said ‘DON’T ASK ME. THAT’S THE PARENTS STRATEGY’.
I am in no doubt that the truth will be known and Justice will be done IN THE END. It is doubly unfortunate that the ‘incident’ took place at the start of the Algarve tourist season so crucial for the Portuguese economy. Otherwise the Judiciária would have cut out all the pussyfooting from the outset.
unquote

Lots of interesting new (to me) information being revealed on this forum recently.

Thanks everyone

Well done for saving that info Tigger.

I`m now wondering (if that`s true) why TM would instruct M3 to tell the media that Maddie was in Morocco and they were going to get her back (by Xmas was it?).

With any luck SY would have gleaned this info from the M3 files.

I would hope that SY have been given, or would have demanded access to Hagland's diaries.
If he was working so closely with Kennedy is it likely that he also met KM and GM ? Other than in the car park ! Why there - bugging fears ?
That would be fascinating, since he sounds the sort of chap who would make a fairly contemporaneous note of what was said, and of what was not said, but implied.
I wonder why he left ?

Tony Bennett wrote:

PeterMac wrote:
That would be fascinating, since he sounds the sort of chap who would make a fairly contemporaneous note of what was said, and of what was not said, but implied.
I wonder why he left ?
REPLY: I can't say. That's for GH to explain.

Did he leave or was he sacked ?
Did he find too little, or too much ?
The whole GH story is very tantalising, the more so because it has been revealed so late in the day.
May this be the piece which completes the jigsaw ?

PeterMac wrote:

Tony Bennett wrote:

PeterMac wrote:
That would be fascinating, since he sounds the sort of chap who would make a fairly contemporaneous note of what was said, and of what was not said, but implied.
I wonder why he left ?
REPLY: I can't say. That's for GH to explain.

May this be the piece which completes the jigsaw ?

No, but it might add a good few new pieces. particularly because so little is known about what really went on inside the McCann investigations - and, moreover, three of their investigators have actually been inside recently, if you catch my drift

hopefully all being checked now extra millions given.if not why would even more millions be spent ! UK

ShuBob wrote:Lots of interesting new (to me) information being revealed on this forum recently.

Thanks everyone

Seconded.


I also am wondering why he would meet Mr. in a park? This info. also makes me wonder if that is why, as has been suggested before, that they went out running together, nobody about to listen.

If I were Mr. whether I was in a park or not, these days it would be so easy to tape a conversation and I would not trust anybody.

Who knows what is on tape and what notes were contemporaneously made?

If something does break on this with the SY investigation, it will be huge I believe.

Let's hope that something is reported soon from Kitten Heels or from Portugal.

Can't wait.

Go Kitten Heels Go. 

And more that this, they now know that we (by which I mean almost the entire literate world - the great internet "we") know.
Not even C-R can cram the genie back into the bottle.

Entropy tends to increase.

PeterMac wrote:Entropy tends to increase.

That's one very good reason why I don't believe in the theory of evolution