Kevin Halligen. McCanns and the Conman. Ch5 documentary.

[jassi]

Thank you. I hadn't seen that.

[Benice]

The Times apology:

Kate and Gerry McCann and Madeleine's Fund

The Sunday Times Published: 28 December 2013
Comment (1) Print
In articles dated October 27 ("Madeleine clues hidden for 5 years" and "Investigators had E-Fits five years ago", News) we referred to efits which were included in a report prepared by private investigators for the McCanns and the Fund in 2008. We accept that the articles may have been understood to suggest that the McCanns had withheld information from the authorities. This was not the case. We now understand and accept that the efits had been provided to the Portuguese and Leicestershire police by October 2009. We also understand that a copy of the final report including the efits was passed to the Metropolitan police in August 2011, shortly after it commenced its review. We apologise for the distress caused."

This is the same article in which the following was claimed.

Quote
There was also an uncomfortable complication with Smith’s account. He had originally told the police that he had “recognised something” about the way Gerry McCann carried one of his children which reminded him of the man he had seen in Praia da Luz.

Smith has since stressed that he does not believe the man he saw was Gerry, and Scotland Yard do not consider this a possibility. Last week the McCanns were told officially by the Portuguese authorities that they are not suspects.
Unquote

No retraction or apology was issued to Martin Smith - who as the following shows was quick to threaten legal action against newpapers who misrepresented him.  It would seem that he had no objection to that statement.

QUOTE
Detective Branch
Drogheda
County Lough

Re – Investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

I took an additional statement from Mr Smith as requested. His wife does not want to make another statement. I showed him the video clip and he stated that it was not the clip that alerted him but the BBC news at 10 PM on 9th September 2007.

He has been contacted by numerous tabloid press looking for stories. He has been contacted by Mr Brian Kennedy who is supporting the McCann family to take part in a photo fit exercise. He has given no stories or helped in any photo fits. He sent a solicitor’s letter to six papers in relation material that was printed that was misquoted. The Evening Herald paid his solicitor's fees and all papers printed an apology. His photograph appeared in another tabloid paper and this matter is being pursued at the moment.

I do not believe that Martin Smith is courting the press and my view his is a genuine person. He is known locally and is a very decent person.

Forwarded please

Sergeant
UNQUOTE

[stephen25000]

1. Doesn't that contradict your statement re Grime using human remains to train his dog in the US where it is legal -  thus breaking no laws - and then employing those dogs to work in countries where such training is illegal? The McCanns did not break any UK laws when they employed PI's who then worked in countries where it was illegal to employ PI's.  Isn't that the same principle?
 
2.  They were Arguidos and not allowed to refuse.  In fact IIRC they confirmed dates on which they could attend. It was the PJ's stipulation that unless everyone attended the recon would  not take place.  So once Jez Wilkiins - an independent witness, said 'no' it was dead in the water anyway.  Personally I think that the PJ knew the chances of the group agreeing to return were practically nil from the beginning.   In fact I wouild speculate that they were banking on that being the case.

3. The McCanns are not responsible for or control what the Press decide to print.  Their campaign from the beginning was to keep their daughter's profile as high as possible in the public eye - in accordance with the recommendations from experts on missing people who clearly state that doing that would give Madeleine the best chance of being found.   And that is what they've done.

1. They broke Portuguese law.

2. They was no excuse for not going back. Trying to pretend there was is irrelevant. All their employers would have allowed this to happen.

3., The mccanns, clarence mitchell, etc., having been feeding the press one way or the other from the start. Don't kid yourself in this regard.

4. Not ONE trace of Madeleine has been found after 7 years, and it is not hard to work out why.

[Benice]

1. They broke Portuguese law.

2. They was no excuse for not going back. Trying to pretend there was is irrelevant. All their employers would have allowed this to happen.

3., The mccanns, clarence mitchell, etc., having been feeding the press one way or the other from the start. Don't kid yourself in this regard.

4. Not ONE trace of Madeleine has been found after 7 years, and it is not hard to work out why.

1. Martin Grime broke UK law when he trained his dogs in the US using human remains.

2. The group had plenty of reasons for not going back.  A total and very understandable lack of the trust in the motives of the PJ for starters.

3 Anyone who thinks that hardnosed UK newspaper editors and their legal teams are under the control of the McCanns/Clarence Mitchell is living in cloud cuckoo land IMO. 

4. So what exactly is it that ...'is not hard to work out why'?...   Please clarify.

[John]

1. Martin Grime broke UK law when he trained his dogs in the US using human remains.

2. The group had plenty of reasons for not going back.  A total and very understandable lack of the trust in the motives of the PJ for starters.

3 Anyone who thinks that hardnosed UK newspaper editors and their legal teams are under the control of the McCanns/Clarence Mitchell is living in cloud cuckoo land IMO. 

4. So what exactly is it that ...'is not hard to work out why'?...   Please clarify.

Benice, do think carefully about your first point.  UK Law only prohibits the use of human cadaver for dog training purposes in the UK. Its like saying that anyone who uses cannabis in Amsterdam will be prosecuted on their return home or that someone who accompanies a person intending to practice euthanasia in a Swiss clinic will be prosecuted on their return home.

[jassi]

Unless the document cover has been tampered with  >@@(*&)
Wait for it, wait for it 

What a ludicrous and hurtful suggesting.  There is aaabsolutely no evidence to suggest that this report has been harmed altered in any way.

[Carana]

Why would the McCanns be so keen to  spend huge amounts of cash on satellite imagery of that night if all it showed was their alleged illegal activity?

Quite.

[jassi]

Quite.

 Pre-warned would be pre-armed and a ready excuse could be prepared ?

[Carana]

Alright, I'll try to answer as honestly as I can.

It's really , really hard for me to 'get over' them leaving the kids alone, so my first thought is that I'd never have been in that position. I immediately jump to 'how could they do that'? I find it almost impossible to put that to one side and start from the point that you and others seem to, which is not why Madeleine went missing in the first place, but that she is missing.

What would I have done if my child was missing in a foreign country and I thought I was about to be fitted up?
Beg probably. Beg and plead. I think I would've cooperated fully in the hope that doing so would eliminate me from their inquires.

 

They had fully cooperated up until they were advised by their lawyer not to answer the arguido questions.

If I had good reason to believe that I was being stitched up, including being advised to "confess" that my child had died in a domestic accident, when I knew that that was not the case, I'd take the option to remain silent.

[Carana]

... and of course, once the guilty plea is in the bag the foul fiends then need to show remorse by spilling the beans on where the body is to get their two year sentence.

Difficult one that ~ if you didn't kill your daughter ~ if you didn't cover up her accidental death ~ if you have absolutely no idea where her body is.

Even more difficult if you firmly believe your daughter is alive ~ and with the crime conveniently 'solved' ~ absolutely no one would be looking for her.

Even at that stage of the investigation no official search was being pursued for Madeleine, that had been replaced by efforts to implicate her parents in her disappearance.

Exactly.

[Carana]

Well for starters by...

1. Breaking the law by commissioning a private criminal investigation on Portuguese soil.

2. Refusing a reconstitution in terms of that required by the official investigation.

3. By engaging in a media campaign to discredit the official investigation.

1. Yes, OK. That was illegal, but someone had to be actively searching for her. ETA: Actually, I'm not sure that a private investigation per se is illegal. What article in the penal code sets this out?

2. The McCanns never refused to attend. Legally, they couldn't if they'd wanted to.

3. They engaged in a media campaign to help find their child. Discrediting the official investigation was not in their interest at all, on the contrary. There was simply no way of controlling the UK tabloids which often have a xenophobic tendency and which somehow thought that inserting "according to the latest ridiculous claims" based on half-baked leaks from the PT tabloids would get them off the hook for libel.

[Carana]

That's because to be brutally frank, SY can't even confirm the time he passed by.

No one knows what SY have been able to verify. Crimewatch was an appeal for witnesses, not a running update for armchair sleuths who feel they have a right to every detail of an ongoing investigation.

[Alfred R Jones]

Pre-warned would be pre-armed and a ready excuse could be prepared ?

Utter nonsense.  Anything the satellite may have shown up that didn't correlate with the McCanns' version of events and showed suspicious behaviour by them could not be excused in any way, shape or form.  This is a very lame bit of spinning on your part.  No criminal that I have ever heard of has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds employing a large team of people to try to uncover photographic evidence of their own wrong-doing - it's utterly absurd.

[icabodcrane]

This programme showed what was billed as the first ever interview with 'key witness'  Gary Williams

It was this fellow, Gary Williams,  we were told,  who had helped compile the efit of the suspect commonly refered to as  'Cooperman'   (  he of the straggly hair, buck teeth, and Yosemite Sam moustache )

I thought it was Gail Cooper who provided the details for that e fit  ...  isn't that what the McCanns said  ?

Is it only me who has never even heard of this 'key witness'  Gary Williams  ? 

[jassi]

Utter nonsense.  Anything the satellite may have shown up that didn't correlate with the McCanns' version of events and showed suspicious behaviour by them could not be excused in any way, shape or form.  This is a very lame bit of spinning on your part.  No criminal that I have ever heard of has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds employing a large team of people to try to uncover photographic evidence of their own wrong-doing - it's utterly absurd.

I just love the way you discard everything that doesn't suit