Kate and Gerry McCann will launch their libel action against former police chief Goncalo Amaral in Lisbon on Friday.

They want a permanent ban on his book The Truth of the Lie, in which he challenged their version of events the night their daughter Madeleine vanished in May, 2007.

And they want around a million pounds in damages, money they say will go to the Madeleine Fund to support the continuing search for her.

I’m not expecting them to give evidence at the opening of a hearing that may drag on for several months.

In September, the McCanns got a temporary ban on the book, which they claim is hampering public support for the search.

Mr Amaral had many of his assets frozen and thousands of unsold copies of the book were returned to the McCann lawyers.

It sounds like a potentially explosive courtroom confrontation, but I understand Mr Amaral may not even be there.

Rumours on the ground suggest he may be across the city launching a new book.

http://blogs.news.sky.com/lifeofcrime/Post:c394f012-1141-4e1b-a361-51a2bb19ecb7

means it’s show time for the ultimate spin machine, oh gawd!

 

Excerpt

Kidnapped, impregnated and forced to live alone in a shed for 18 years

A WOMAN snatched from a bus stop as an 11-year-old child in 1991 has turned up at a California police station with her alleged kidnapper after 18 years, it emerged last night

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Woman-walks-into-police-station.5596995.jp

Not quite sure how this story can spun so that it becomes a tale chillingly similar to that of Madeleine McCann but if anyone can do it, Mitchell can!

I’m taking to my bed for the next week or 18 years  ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz, wake me up when it’s over

Still, what a fantastic end to years of torment for the Dugards.

EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com

 By Dr Martin Roberts 24 August 2009

THE RETURN OF THE NON-NATIVE

Kate McCann’s prior claim of ‘We’ll return to Portugal often’ was, as we now know, given tangible expression in the form of Gerry returning once to Praia da Luz, in the company of Jane Tanner and Matthew Oldfield, for publicity purposes only. Despite apparently asking his various collaborators to ‘observe radio silence’ in advance of the TV production Madeleine Was Here, so as not to create a media frenzy, Gerry still managed to say as much if not more about this project than he did in fulfilling his lead role within it. Never short of an answer when in front of the camera, Gerry McCann is equally and revealingly forthcoming in his April interview with Brendan de Beer of Portugal News.

The interview, edited here, progresses thus:

On his return to Praia da Luz and the absence of his wife Kate, Mr McCann explained: “Kate and I have been desperate to come back to Praia da Luz, but we haven’t done so due to the media exposure and the controversy such a visit would pose. We want to come back and meet the people, without it being highlighted. There is nothing bad about this resort, it is beautiful. In these difficult economic times we don’t want to worsen things.

There appears to be a fusion of ideas here. Controversy is created. Questions are posed. What question might a return visit have posed?

But I do hope people understand why we are doing what we’ve done. This is a key factor in an investigation strategy. Madeleine is still missing. We need to do everything reasonable to get any information. The best thing for everyone is that she is found and that whoever took her is caught”.

Yet another instance of conjoined ideas. Whether people understand what you are doing may or may not have a bearing on their understanding of what you have already done. Exerting oneself to acquire any information whatsoever is pointless. Specific information on the other hand could well be more difficult to come by. But, as is so often the case with Gerry McCann’s statements, contextual aspects are assumed rather than included. These almost habitual omissions are important, since the meaning of what is said varies with the context, and a context assumed by the listener might not be that which the speaker has in mind. Crocodile tears of self-pity are just as wet as tears of genuine remorse, and just as easily mistaken for them.

Mr McCann ruled out any other visits to Portugal in the near future and as for Madeleine’s mother, said: “She’d love to come back. But we will not be returning for the anniversary. We wanted to come here and do this as quietly as possible and not to disrupt”, with last weekend’s media attention not aiding this desire.

Gerry McCann seems conveniently unaware that his spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, had already declared to Portuguese journalists, on arrival in Praia da Luz, that Kate “is not ready to return to Portugal yet”. A situation seemingly further worsened by Gerry’s reception, the day prior to this interview, which led to the Daily Mirror’s 6 April announcement: Kate McCann vows never to return to Portugal as husband Gerry is heckled

“The reason we are doing this documentary is that it should be about Madeleine. I can understand why people don’t like it or that our level of child care was not to their standard, but the focus should be on an innocent child and that someone has taken her.

An innocent child. Gerry McCann’s recurrent reference to childhood innocence is curious. After all, any genuine victim of abduction is an innocent participant in the process. Here we have attention seemingly being drawn to Madeleine, but in reality Gerry is distancing himself from her. The focus is not on ‘our innocent child’ but ‘an innocent child’. Madeleine is missing. That much can be taken for granted. That someone has taken (i.e. abducted) her is conjecture, unless of course the taking in this instance is of a different nature.

“There’s one thing that has been revealed in the case files which is that there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead and there is no evidence to suggest that Kate and I were involved in any theories. It’s about Madeleine. As her parents, I hope people understand that we have to do what we are doing”, argued Mr McCann.

One thing is revealed. Gerry McCann cites two. Scrutiny of the case files has uncovered rather more than that, but it is indeed true that neither of the McCanns were involved in the construction of any theories pertaining to Madeleine’s death, for which Gerry tells us there is no evidence. (Would he point to evidence of Madeleine’s death under any circumstance?). Such apparent lack of evidence would, in Gerry’s view, also contribute to countering suggestions that the McCanns were involved in the execution of these theories. Is there really no evidence to suggest the McCanns’ involvement in developing other classes of theory, i.e. abduction? This statement clearly and deliberately overlooks all of the details which, singularly and severally, suggest that abduction, whilst theoretically admissible, was not feasible. It can only have been a theory. And who were its first and loudest proponents? The McCanns. The evidence for their involvement in the construction of that theory is now perfectly clear. Frankly, many people fail completely to understand why the parents of Madeleine McCann must ‘do what they are doing’. Far too many wonder why the McCanns are not doing what they should be doing.

But Gerry McCann refused to answer a question on whether or not Madeleine’s room has been left unchanged in the event she is found.

Maybe the fund has paid for its redecoration. Who knows?

What have they (the twins) been told about where Madeleine might be?

“They completely understand she is missing and they understand someone has taken her. There is not a lot more. We had counselling on how to cope with the twins, given to us by a child psychologist who has dealt with child abduction who said we should fill in the gaps as they get older. But, with us, the psychologist said the problem you have is that there is very little to fill in. The fact remains, she was there one minute and gone the next“.

Once again the McCanns are a special case, with a special problem. They have little to fill in. Madeleine was ‘there one minute, gone the next.’ Except that we have all been led to believe that Madeleine was there for a couple of hours at least before she was ‘gone.’ A characteristic of deceptive accounts is truncation of the story. Whereas a genuine tale will extend comfortably beyond the focal act, to describe events in the immediate aftermath, a deceptive account is much more likely to come to a relatively abrupt halt, the coda, so to speak, being shorter. Why then do the McCanns find themselves with insufficient material with which to ‘fill in’? Because, apart from describing irrelevant visits to the Vatican and various international press conferences, they cannot explain to their remaining children how they ’searched high and low that night, again the following morning, the next week and beyond.’ They have no such detail to confide as they did no such thing.

Mr McCann also admitted that their approach to raising their other two children has been significantly altered by Madeleine’s disappearance. “I am undoubtedly much more aware of potential danger or a threat to the kids now and things which we previously considered safe, and probably still are, are no longer.

Well, are they safe or not? Or are they safe, yet no longer (+verb), e.g. ‘practised’.

“It’s a horrible balance we as parents now face between being cosseting and allowing the kids freedom, and at what age. I grew up in a very child-orientated environment, playing in parks, with minimal adult supervision. I think that’s healthy”, he explains as he leads up to the question about regrets they have over their actions as parents on the evening Madeleine went missing.

“Obviously what we did (leaving the children alone while dining at the nearby restaurant) we thought was safe.

Here is yet another instance of the listener being called upon to provide the context. The interviewer assumes Gerry is referring to ‘leaving the children alone’. But how does he know that Gerry is not himself referring to something else entirely, such as ’sedating the children’? He does not.

“The whole aspect of a foreign child being abducted while on holiday never entered our thought process for even one moment, because if it had, we wouldn’t have done what we did,” he said.

Every parent considers their own child ’special’. It is perfectly natural, as on a personal level they clearly are. But individuals are only considered special by others when they merit such deference, for one reason or another. What Gerry McCann fails to appreciate is that, in elevating Madeleine’s misfortune to ’special’ status at every turn, he is describing something, in this case an abduction, that is ever more remote. And would the possible abduction of a Portuguese from a Portuguese holiday resort not also have influenced their thinking? Child abduction does not represent various degrees of felony each defined by nationality. If one has to ask why Gerry McCann’s view of abduction should exclude native residents, then one has to question whether it is ‘abduction’ per se which underlies his retrospective reservations about ‘doing what they did’. And what was that exactly? As is apparent earlier in the interview, when Gerry is referring to what was done, the precise topic is not at all clear.

On returning to the apartment last Saturday and how he felt re-entering it almost two years after last being there, Mr McCann said:

“The apartment doesn’t hold any bad karma. It was just a couple of thoughts really, it was about re-enacting (the events on the night of her disappearance) and it was where I last saw Madeleine. But actually, I felt more emotional at church this morning (last Sunday) with the support and seeing the photograph of Madeleine with the words ‘Help me’ along with the green and yellow ribbons around it was more difficult to cope with.”

Yet again, one would rather have the context clarified by the interviewee than substituted by the interviewer. Re-enactment societies exist to recreate historical events in which members were not actually involved. With the majority of ‘moving parts’ in the McCann production given to actors, it stood to be no more accurate than Mel Gibson’s ‘Patriot’ (a historical film notorious for its misrepresentations). Is it not strange that Gerry who, by his own admission is not especially religious, should be more affected by a visit to church than the scene of his daughter’s last known whereabouts?

Gerry McCann explained his involvement with the documentary, which will be aired next month and shown in several European countries including Portugal shortly afterwards, was purely aimed at finding Madeleine.

Which could just as reasonably be read as ‘aimed at consolidating the abduction hypothesis.’

He also recalled that failed attempts to stage a police reconstruction were not of their doing.

“In my mind, I am 100 percent certain I was on the other side of the road, though Jane Tanner and Jez Wilkins said I was on the side closest to the apartment. I can’t resolve that, I remember making a conscious decision to cross the road”.

Are we talking mind-body duality here? Which aspect of Gerry McCann’s own being is certain, the real or the imaginary? And since when was it standard practice for suspects in a crime to negotiate their response to Police requests for information, or assistance with their inquiries (which is what a reconstruction amounts to). Would Gerry consider it appropriate for nursing staff to evaluate his work as a cardiologist and advise patients accordingly?

Mr McCann also revealed that the family has made peace with the fact they might never see Madeleine again, but would never give up the search for her.

“We have always known that’s a possibility and that is why we have to rely on other people. And we have that incredibly difficult balance between doing this [filming the reconstruction] and the human interest aspect. While we also want our lives to be private and normal for the sake of Sean and Amelie, we also need to do as much as we can. It’s a possibility we might never see her again, but until we have absolute definitive evidence of what happened to Madeleine, we can’t stop searching.”

Can’t stop? They never commenced searching for Madeleine. Searching their hearts perhaps? Now that’s a different matter altogether. Again, because Gerry denies us the object phrase, the statement is ambivalent.

Do you think the Portuguese PJ police did everything within their powers to find Madeleine?

As for the role of private investigators and reconstructions, Mr McCann said it was a way of ensuring no stone is left unturned in the search for his daughter.

Just how presumptuous can a person get? Suddenly Gerry McCann is an expert on the history of the PJ. Imagine a hospital outpatient claiming that the doctors did more for them than for many others. A preposterous comment. The ‘many different pressures’, on the other hand, is a factor that Gerry would certainly have known something about, having introduced several of them himself.

The Find Madeleine Fund, which has received around 2.5 million pounds since it was set up shortly after Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007, now appears to be running out of financial resources.

“There’s still money in it”, says Mr McCann, adding: “I can’t give you the exact figure, but we have spent and continue to spend a lot of money with the aim of trying to enhance the chance of finding her.

Instead of ‘cutting to the chase’ (‘We continue to spend a lot of money trying to find Madeleine’) we are treated to weasels galore: ‘the aim of’ (we might miss the target) ‘trying to enhance’ (attempts at improvement not guaranteed) ‘the chance of finding her’ (the foregoing qualifications notwithstanding it is still a hit-or-miss affair)

On the chances of the Fund drying up completely he responded: “It won’t dry up in the next few months, but probably by the end of the year, at the rate we are running.”

He concluded that fundraising is presently being considered as an option to boost funds and thus ensure an ongoing interest in finding Madeleine.

Other options being law suits for libel no doubt.

 http://www.mccannfiles.com/id232.html

…think again

Fund pays for luxury hotel

by Sónia Trigueirão

Madeleine’s father and the English lawyer who accompanied him on the visit to Portugal, on Tuesday, were lodged at the D. Pedro Palace, a five-star hotel and one of the most luxurious ones in Lisbon. Everything, of course, financed by the ‘Find Madeleine’ Fund.

As far as CM was able to establish, one night at the D. Pedro, in a single room, may cost between 214 and 254 euros. This means that Gerry and the lawyer spent, at least, more than 400 euros for one night.

According to Clarence Mitchell, Madeleine’s parents’ spokesman, Gerry stayed in a single room and the hotel was chosen not for being five-star, but merely because it is located close to lawyer Rogério Alves’ office and because it is discrete. ‘We didn’t want to transform Gerry’s visit into a media show’.

Concerning the fact that the Fund payed for this, Clarence merely recalled the purpose for which it was created ‘This type of travel obviously fits into the search for Madeleine which is the Fund’s purpose. That was what it was created for and Madeleine’s parents will never use it for anything else apart from that’, he stated.

Beyond that, Mitchell guarantees that the fund to search for the child still has money: ‘We have 800 thousand pounds which are 880.170,36 euros. We don’t have money problems. People continue to help us’. The Fund, which was created in 2007, shortly after Madeleine disappeared from the resort at Praia da Luz, had two million euros at some point in time.

 

http://mccannfundfraud.info/

Excerpt from above site

Less than two weeks after Madeleine McCann disappeared, the family and friends of the McCann family set up a company called Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited. Without properly setting clear objectives and policies from the start, the company was set to become the vehicle for the “official” find Madeleine campaign—whatever that actually meant.It has become a typically British thing to have financial campaigns to assist people in well publicised times of need. Usually there is no specific company set up to do this. In this respect, the “Madeleine Fund” seemed far too sophisticated and if anything it appears to have been premeditated.

British banks are past masters of setting up and administering bank accounts for needy causes and tend to do so without intervention by outsiders. What made the Madeleine Fund and subsequent campaign so distasteful to many is that little of the money has been used for its stated purpose.

Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited is a type of company called a “Private Company Limited by Guarantee”. A company limited by guarantee is an alternative type of incorporation used primarily for non-profit organisations that require corporate status. A guarantee company does not have a share capital, but has members who are guarantors instead of shareholders. The guarantors give an undertaking to contribute a nominal amount towards the winding up of the company in the event of a shortfall upon cessation of business. It cannot distribute its profits to its members, and is therefore eligible to apply for charitable status if necessary.

The company has several family members on its board of directors and this and many other factors have helped to fuel rumours about the integrity of the management and disbursement of the donated money.

Our sister site “TRUTH For Madeleine” tried to contact the company for an update on its performance. Bates Wells & Braithwaite referred us to the Fund and stated that they couldn’t answer our questions due to confidentiality.

John McCann spoke briefly to us on the phone until he realised we were asking about the Fund. His response was to claim we had the wrong telephone number and that he was in fact a “Mr Jones”. This was interesting as he must in the extremely rare group of Scotsmen with a Welsh name!

A lot of donors to the fund would like to have actually seen some real stones turned over by the McCanns in the search for Madeleine. Instead, there has been no publication of the company performance or regular updates as to what actions have been taken in the so-called “search for Madeleine”.

If Madeleine died in May 2007 and the family knew about this then the whole fund is a fraud!

Serious Questions That Need to be Answered

• Madeleine was a ward of court when the fund was being set up. Why? Kate McCann refused to answer this most basic question along with 47 others when she was pulled in by the police prior to being given Arguida status.
• Madeleine’s medical records were withheld from the investigating police force in Portugal. Why? What was there to hide?
• Gerry and Kate McCann destroyed crucial mobile phone evidence on at least May 2nd and May 3rd, 2007. They did not offer any explanation why or who’s numbers they destroyed.
• The McCanns said they would return to Portugal if they had to. The police wanted them to return to do a reconstruction of the night of May 3, 2007. The McCanns refused to go. This was after they told donors they would cooperate fully with the police.
• 15 out of 19 genetic markers of Madeleine McCann were found in the boot of the car hired by the McCanns. Cadaver and blood dogs detected the scent of death in the vehicle. The McCanns have no rational explanation for this.
• During the time the McCanns were named as Arguidos, they hid behind that status as a way to refuse to talk to the media. Since that status was removed, the McCanns have not come forward to answer any damning questions about the events in April and May 2007 at the Ocean Club Resort where they stayed. Why?
• After contacting the company – Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited – several times in the past year, they have steadfastly fobbed us off and refused to give the any answers to questions about the fund. What have they got to hide?
• After fleeing back to England from Portugal, the McCanns told everyone they would take a lie detector test. Shortly after this they recanted that offer and said they would not now take a lie detector test.
• Captured on film when they didn’t know the camera was still rolling, the McCanns have found this whole situation to be a big giggle. Gerry McCann even sat sucking a lollipop and joked while the police were waiting to hear from a possible kidnapper early on in the investigation.

Who do you trust?

Eddie

Keela

or

You’ve got to be bloody kidding, right!

These people have searched for Madeleine

Not forgetting

and

Two years ago, on May 3rd, 2007, Madeleine McCann was abducted from the families holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

There has been little progress since the McCann’s were released and the charges against them dropped, and the files handed over by the Portuguese authorities had no clues to assist with the continuing investigation.

Earlier this year, the private investigators working on behalf of the McCann’s arranged to film a reconstruction of events in Praia da Luz. Gerry and Kate McCann went to Praia da Luz along with friends Jane Tanner and Matthew Oldfield who were also there on the night Maddie vanished without trace.

On May 7th at 9pm GMT, the reconstruction will be shown on UK TV and will include information that has not been made public as it was buried deep within the police files and given no significance. But there may be a clue in there somewhere to jog people’s memories.

The  programme will also feature interviews with Gerry McCann, Jane Tanner and Matthew Oldfield and will also be available on the Find Madeleine website. Negotiations are also underway to have the film broadcast across Europe and Portugal.

Missing Maddie in 2007

Madeleine was 3 years old when she disappeared shortly before her fourth birthday and this image is known worldwide as the picture of ‘Missing Maddie’.

Two years on and this little girl will have changed much in appearance and with the expertise of a forensic imaging artist from the United States’ National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children below is the ‘age progression’ photo created with computer technology and pictures of both parents at around the same age, but one thing will not have changed and that is the iris in her right eye.

Missing Maddie 'age progression' image

There is also a short video clip showing the ‘age progression on findmadeleine.com

There is also a new Poster of Support which can be downloaded from the Bring Madeleine Home website. Click the link or the image below.

Don't Give Up On Me - New Poster

This young child, along with many others, is still missing, there is no evidence to suggest otherwise and the search continues with sightings around the world but all have been false alarms.

Someone, somewhere, knows the truth of what happened on the fateful evening when Maddie disappeared. There has been no evidence to substantiate claims that the parents murdered their own daughter and what they did by leaving young children alone may have been morally wrong, but that does not mean that they were guilty as the press and prosecuters claimed at the time.

The prosecutors dropped the charges and the press payed out large sums in compensation for their wild accusations.

A Europe-wide alert system for missing children has received a £900,000 European Commission handout on the eve of the second anniversary of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

The Mccann’s campaigned for closer co-operation between EU States and took their case tothe European Parliament twice last year which gained support from MEPs for increased action to set up a US-style ‘Amber Alert’ early warning system.

In the US it has led to the safe return of hundreds of children when the alarm has been raised across state lines and a similar network across 27 European countries could have helped raise awareness faster about Madeleine’s apparent abduction.

The European Commission funding will be used to support work on several EU-wide projects aimed at improving joint child abduction procedures and to put into place a system in place that will transmit the pictures and details of an abducted child similar to the ‘Amber Alert’ used in the US.

European countries fail to cooperate effectively when a child goes missing and the first 72 hours are crucial.

This is still a search for a little girl who has disappeared and  the witch hunt against the parents has finished, although there are still those who maintain their guilt. Until there is proof of guilt then they are innocent, this is the way the law works and it is sad that they, along with other parents have to be put through such trauma when a child disappears.

The gross couple to your left are Kate and Gerry McCann.

While on vacation 2 years ago (this Sunday), these two Selfish parents left their kids in the hotel while they went blocks away to dine with friends!

The Selfish couple then returns to hotel to find their daughter Missing!

Police then confirm that their 4 year old daughter, Madeline McCann woke up and made her way out onto the street to find her Selfish parents.  

After 2 years of searching, Police indicate that a child predator most likely stumbled upon her and took her… and did not break into the hotel.  i.e… Those Moron’s of Parents should be held responsible for their child being in the hands of a child predator.

To date, there are no charges against these horrific parents.

But, they do still search for their poor, small, innocent child Madeline.

On Monday, they will appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show to dicsuss their case.

“My heart broke for them” Oprah recently Twittered after filming the episode.  She has been known to Never pay guest to appear on the show.  She is also known to get the truth from her guest in a non-judging format.

Look, there is a poor child that is having to go through God-knows-what.  She is innocent.  But I must admit, her parents have to had been two very Selfish parents to leave their 4 yr old sleep in a hotel out of the Country to go have drinks with friends.  And yet, their child suffers.  

Sick.

UPDATE: May 4, 2009:::

After watching Oprah today, I still see the parents at selfish people.  They are sticking to their claim that their daughter was taken from the room.  Police have said she stumbled outside herself to only be abducted.

I feel for the loss of the parents, but come on, what kind of person would leave a 4 year old and two 2 years olds asleep in a room Alone in a foreign country?  

The parents said that they did this for 5 nights in a row, checking up on the sleeping children in 30 minute intervals.  Sick.  Selfish.

My thoughts and prayers are with the small child still missing.