More McNiggles...

The missing Madeleine McCann case seems to be a web of intrigue which makes one question thoughts previously held and taken as 'gospel'.  Nearly 4 years on, there are many more questions than answers, otherwise knows as the McNiggles.  Little things that stick in the mind and no matter what, they just can't be explained.  From day one I've had these niggles, starting with the news that all these children were left to fend for themselves in empty apartments.  Were they really left alone?? That little niggle intensified as I waited for news of the missing child and watched her father read a plea to the waiting press, not appearing to speak from the heart but reading from a sheet of paper.

More recently I read an article from yesteryear in This is London, and discovered that the journalist shared my niggle about certain points raised on Portuguese TV. I'm certainly not naive and believe that there is nothing wrong with swinging amongst consenting adults, but is this what this holiday camp is all about, to those in the know?  Who knows what goes on behind closed doors?  Or closed, open or partially opened windows? Or even those damn shutters?  Anyway, I had hoped for some niggle relief, but me oh my, that little niggle just got bigger...

"Several Portuguese lawyers and journalists, along with a uniformed police officer from the National Republican Guard I spoke to outside the Ocean Club apartment, told me solemnly not only that the McCanns and their friends were "swingers" who had taken their holiday together to indulge in group sex (an assertion made repeatedly by the Portuguese Press), but that "everyone knows" that its tolerance of orgies is the Mark Warner Ocean Club resort's main selling point"
This is London 16.09.07

(I should like to make it clear to those guilty of skimming that the above quoted paragraph was taken directly from the aforementioned This is London article.  I have not had any private or personal conversations with the GNR, although I really would like to.)

Next is the well publicised flouting of apparent religious devoutness of the couple. This is a couple who have partaken in IVF with wonderful consequences - not one, but three successes. Nothing is more precious than the birth of a child, and what a reward that child is after carrying and nurturing for all those months. And especially after the worrying first few weeks of IVF. A joyous outcome, yet the Catholic church opposes all kinds of in vitro fertilisation.  We have also seen the religiously devout mother in the act of receiving holy communion from an Anglican priest (an act frowned upon by the Catholic Church, some would deem this as sinful!?) whilst a Catholic priest watched from the sidelines.  A devout Catholic knows this is forbidden and would never receive it.  This niggle grew into the even huger niggle of... have they been excommunicated?  I recall Mrs Healy's confusion in the early days as to why her daughter had even asked for a priest because they weren't really religious?

The niggle of the book.  Yes Goncalo Amaral's Maddie - The Truth of the Lie... currently available at all major bookshops in Europe as a result of the recent overturning of the ban.  I quote Kate McCann yet again from yesteryear...

"Our main worry was people believing that Madeleine was dead and then stopping looking for her."

Fair enough, I totally understand and agree with that comment.  Yet why no attempt to stop the book from being published in the first place?  Why no attempt to block the sale of the book once it had been released?  Why wait for months and months before taking any action, while in the meantime the book is selling out all over Europe, being translated online into English and being read by all and sundry. The Team weren't so concerned about the search being impeded or hampered during these months.  Were they waiting for the sales tally to mount or were they spurred into action because an English version to be sold in the UK was in the offing?

Another little niggle that has been awakened in the last few days has been the phone and text messages that the parents and their friends reportedly deleted from their mobile phones.  This irked me initially because surely on discovering their child missing they should have done the obvious - looked for her?  Instead, deleting their calls became a priority rather than searching alongside the population of Praia de Luz and the police  After reading the ruling of the three Portuguese judges who overturned the ban on Snr Amaral's book, my niggle surfaced and grew...

"What is certain is that since the start of the investigation there were incongruent and even contradictory situations concerning the witness statements; the telephone records of calls that were made and received on mobile phones that belonged to the couple and to the group of friends that were on holidays with them; the movements of people right after the disappearance of the little girl was noticed, concerning the state in which the bedroom from where the child disappeared from was found (closed window? open window? partially open window?) etc., and the mystery would only become even thicker due to the clues that were left by the already mentioned sniffer dogs."

And finally, a real niggling niggle that just won't go away no matter how I try to explain it.  Eddie the Cadaver Dog who, according to the experts, is infallible.  Eddie marks what he's trained to mark, nothing else.  He does not lie.  This dog was taken to various locations in and around Praia de Luz, yet the only place places marked were in relation to the family of missing Madeleine.  In their apartment, clothes, car and sadly on Madeleine's favourite cuddly toy, Cuddlecat.  To me that is a momentous discovery, and I just can't explain that other than the obvious - the dog was simply doing what he was trained to do, so who was he signalling?

With the ease of online browsing and a wealth of information at our fingertips, we are so much more informed than we would have been 10 or more years ago.  A huge thanks should go to the many translators and foreign posters, without whom we would certainly be in the dark, following the inconsistent version of events of the parents and their friends.  Should we believe them, can we believe them? Surely they do not have the definitive right to insist that we believe their version of events and nothing else?  The police believe more questions need to be answered, indeed the mother refused to answer any questions... questions need to be answered but these answers just pose even more questions.

There are, of course many more niggles from Timbuktoo and beyond which could be collated and turned into one big niggle.  Fact is, it's already been done and sadly it is what it is - the Case of Missing Madeleine McCann.  Cobbled, nobbled and wobbled into one enormous McNiggle and I ask myself if this is just the simple case of a missing child, then why am I so irked?  Now more doubts have been cast after reading the latest ruling in this sticky web.  Perhaps the most important niggle of all... what really happened to Madeleine and where is she?  

The Great Hampering Debate... Who's Hampering Who??.

After the startling news (not for UK readers) regarding the overturning of the ban on Goncalo Amaral's book, Maddie - The Truth of the Lie, great claims have resurfaced here, there and everywhere that the said book could actually be hampering the search for a live child.  

To quote Kate McCann from yesteryear...

"Our main worry was people believing that Madeleine was dead and then stopping looking for her."

Rather worryingly, these claims prompted a terrible, annoying ringing in my ears.  I felt compelled to type three little words into my search engine - Dave Edgar McCann. Try it, you'll come across a myriad of reports, all indicating that the search is actually going rather well despite the book being in publication... despite the dvd being viewed, and despite Snr Amaral occasionally giving his personal opinion in public.  The search seems to be going well,  although the sad fact is that none of the many leads investigated have actually led anywhere remotely close to finding Madeleine.

Here are a few snippets, although there are many more reports.  Unfortunately I don't have my waders handy...

The family of missing youngster Madeleine McCann have been given new hope after more than 50 people have come forward with information about her disappearance.

"It gives the family hope that we have had more than 50 calls following Thursday night's programme.  "This is in addition to hundreds of calls we received following the McCanns' appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show in the United States."

Renowned for leaving no stone unturned in his UK murder investigations, Dave now spends his days with a four-strong team probing every lead that comes in to his office.  His partner Arthur Cowley has more than 30 years' policing experience in north-west England and the pair are backed up by a translator and an ex-police administrator.  They have sifted through thousands of emails, answerphone messages and letters to get that one breakthrough lead.

"Our investigators received approximately 1,000 e-mails and phone calls following this appeal and have been busy working through this information. Thank you to everybody who passed information on."

"There has been a good response in the wake of the video. Kate and Gerry are very pleased."

So it appears that in one hand, the private eyes are being inundated with phone calls, emails and other titbits of information to keep them and the four-man team busy, busy, busy.  Yet on the other hand they're redundant, nothing to do... no phones ringing... no leads... yawn.  That damn book?  Hmm, maybe not or simply justification for the cost of employment and fruitless investigations?

I'll leave you with Mr Edgar for the final word...
"We could still be sitting here in 10 years."

The real truth of the lie?

For the sake of truth and justice for Madeleine McCann, I hope not.

The Harbinger...

"Sooner or later you'll go up for it.

In this town you probably could have gotten away with it.

And you didn't even have the guts to do it alone.

You put your trust in guys like these... not the most dependable of God's creatures.

Sooner or later they'll get the idea you're playing them for saps.

What'll you do then? Peel them off, one by one?

And in the meantime if any one of them breaks, you'll go down hard. 

Because they got something on you. 

Something to use when things get tough."

A Very Bad Day at Rocha Negra

The above words were taken from the 1955 movie Bad Day at Black Rock and were spoken by the late, great Spencer Tracy.


Apply to whom and whatever you will...

Goncalo Amaral and the Silence of the British Media

The silence of the British media in the missing Madeleine McCann case has always been a bone of contention for many knowledgeable people.  They failed to report extensively on the important negative aspects of missing Madeleine's case.  Negative aspects affecting Madeleine's parents, that is.


Not reported in much detail was a witness sighting who identified Mr McCann as the possible 'abductor'.  Yet reported extensively was Ms Tanner's unreliable sighting of a person walking this way, that way and carrying a bundle, a child or maybe she was looking at her own reflection?


Not reported in any detail were either of the Gaspar statements or Leicestershire Police's failure to forward them to the Portuguese authorities until 6 months down the line.  Yet reported extensively were false sightings, balloon releases and urges for more, more, more money.


There is a myriad of press that the media have failed to report, instead they have chosen to paint the sunny side of the saintly parental 'victims'.


They failed to question why the Portuguese AND British police had suspicions of the parents.  And they failed to question just what that cadaver dog marked in Apartment 5a, on Mrs McCann's clothing and on Madeleine's favourite toy, Cuddlecat.


The British media failed.  They failed to remember that Madeleine McCann is the only victim in this case and should have reported accordingly.  The only victim in this case is still missing, the British media should be seeking the truth instead of simply reporting the parents' and their friends' differing and contradicting version of events.


We have been purged with inacurate articles about Keystone Cops, failures in investigations and corrupt policemen.  One in particular was lead investigator, Goncalo Amaral.  The British media encouraged their readership to believe that Senor Amaral was sacked, disgraced, took two hour lunchbreaks and drank more wine than a night out at the Tapas.  This was all untrue.  The man was truly smeared in the worst possible fashion.


It seems now that it's Goncalo Amaral's turn to silence the British media.  Almost 12 hours after the news surfaced about the overturning of his book being banned, only one British paper carries the news... The Guardian.  Even this report is misleading in relation to the Attorney General's statement... please point me to the part where he says the McCanns are 'entirely innocent'.   Several other media sources all over the world have been reporting for hours that the books are to be back on the shelves, dvds can be viewed and Senor Amaral can openly speak again about his views on the case.  Yet only a squeak from the great British media - has no-one called Sky?  They claim to be 'first for breaking news'... another massive fail.


What a travesty that in this case, 8 parents can go out to a restaurant for the night, leaving all their children alone in empty apartments to fend for themselves.  This results in one child going missing and cadaver odour being detected left, right and centre.  Yet the one person to appear in court is Goncalo Amaral.  For what?  Seeking the truth?


I sincerely hope that Senor Amaral sees this silence as a green light and takes a leaf from the Book of McCann... the British media certainly owe this man an apology at the very least.

Zahra Clare Baker

I've been following this case briefly on Twitter with the hope of news that the child was found.  Call me naive, but I was shocked to hear that the Amber Alert for Zahra had been cancelled and a homicide investigation had begun.  And also that Zahra's father and step-mother may be involved in her disappearance.


The latest news is that the police have no idea where to search, as they have no idea how long Zahra has been missing.  Outside her parents, no-one else has seen her for a month.


I'm normally a level-headed, caring person but this case has affected me surprisingly badly.


What a tragedy that this little girl, who not only survived bone cancer but also coped daily with her disabilities, has possibly had her life ended at the tender age of 10 years old.


Zahra has already escaped the clutches of death once - she deserves a medal and the right to a long life ahead of her, certainly not death at the hands of others.