Can this saga be realistically thought of as anything but an
unbelievable story without end. Every good well written book should be
approached in three phases - the introduction, setting the scene so to
speak, followed by the meaty core and finishing with a well thought out
conclusion.
Does Kate McCann's autobiographical novel 'madeleine' fit in with the ideal? No I don't think it does. It lacks substance, it lacks evidence, it lacks truth - even a novel is expected to draw the reader into a false reality, this book however is claimed to be an account of the truth but falls short in every respect. In short - factuality!
This book, I believe, is a team McCann work of outrageous cunning, a compendium of deception to provide that 'innocent explanation for anything and everything the police may or may not find' (my words). No shortage of time between the release of the PJ files in the summer of 2008 and the release of the book in May 2011, time enough to work on the detail.
Here is a well thought-out and well presented summary of the book content written and published here on CMOMM back in the year 2011.
Special thanks to Tony Bennett for all his time, effort and patience striving for justice in the name of Madeleine McCann.
Does Kate McCann's autobiographical novel 'madeleine' fit in with the ideal? No I don't think it does. It lacks substance, it lacks evidence, it lacks truth - even a novel is expected to draw the reader into a false reality, this book however is claimed to be an account of the truth but falls short in every respect. In short - factuality!
This book, I believe, is a team McCann work of outrageous cunning, a compendium of deception to provide that 'innocent explanation for anything and everything the police may or may not find' (my words). No shortage of time between the release of the PJ files in the summer of 2008 and the release of the book in May 2011, time enough to work on the detail.
Here is a well thought-out and well presented summary of the book content written and published here on CMOMM back in the year 2011.
Special thanks to Tony Bennett for all his time, effort and patience striving for justice in the name of Madeleine McCann.
-------------------
Prosecution Exhibit 1: 'madeleine' - What's in the book?
Unfortunately perhaps but early comments have been focussed on these three sentences on page 129 of the book:
"I asked Gerry apprehensively if he'd had any really horrible thoughts or visions of Madeleine. He nodded. Haltingly, I told him about the awful pictures that scrolled through my head of her body, her perfect little genitals torn apart".
The events of 3 May up to including the alleged 'discovery' that Madeleine was missing are dealt with fairly sketchily on pages 62 to 72. In summary, Dr K McCann has made an attempt to 'square' all the discrpancies about that day's events that we have been discussing, I would say not very successfully...I am sure there'll be much discussion about this in the ways to come. The way the complete contradiction between the evidence of Dr D Payne and Dr K McCann about his visit to the apartment has been dealt with is crafty i.e. well crafted, but really only papers over the series of sharp contradictions about this event (if it ever really happened).
There's not much about their private investigations, though Kevin Halligen gets a mention.
Dr Kate writes (p. 283):
"We had one particularly bad experience with a man named Kevin Halligen (or Richard, as we knew him). Halligen was the CEO of a private-investigation foirm calld Oakley International which was hired by Madeleine's Fund for six months from the end of March 2008..."
She then refers to three 'phases' of the Halligen investigation, saying only that during the third phase, "...we began to have concerns".
Later (p. 284), she admits:
"Several months later, one of the investigators subcontracted by Oakley contacted us to demand paymet for his services. We had already settled Oakley's bill for this work months before, but apparently the company had not paid him. He was not the only one...We were upset..."
There is no mention whatsoever of any attempt by wither the McCanns or by the Find Madeleine Fund to sue Halligen for his obviously fraudulent conduct.
~~~
SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE OF KATE'S BOOK
I will try and post a 'summary of critique' of each chapter of Dr Kate's book over the next few days.
I'll begin with Chapter 12, titled 'Morocco':
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE
Chapter 12 ‘ Morocco’
p. 179
The chapter begins with the McCanns flying out to Rabat, Morocco, on Sunday 12 June.
Dr Kate was ‘terrified’ flying in a small ‘pre-war propeller plane’ because the jet for Morocco had broken down.
At a hotel in Rabat a camera crew was waiting for them.
p. 180
They had questions about a statement by Mari Olli, a Norwegian who swore she’d seen Madeleine in Marrakesh and had rung the Spanish police. Dr Kate explains how the Spanish and Portuguese police did nothing about it. The CCTV camera in the shop wasn’t checked in time. Dr Kate insists in the book that the girl Mari Olli saw could really be Madeleine.
They spent that night at the British Ambassador’s Morocco residence.
The following day the McCanns met several ‘important and powerful figures’, the Chief of Police and two government Ministers among them - they ‘must have had permission from the King of Morocco’.
p. 181
Later that day the McCanns met a ‘crowd of children’ who were waving placards with Madeleine on them; this had been organised by the government. The McCanns met with some Muslim leaders and asked them to pray for Madeleine which they agreed to do. Telling a slight white lie, they said they ‘lived in Leicester’, where there are a lot of Muslims. (There aren’t many Muslims in Rothley).
p. 182
Clarence was out there with them and they had to say goodbye to Clarence who had to go back to his job at the Media Monitoring Unit for a while.
p. 183
On 22 June Justine McGuiness arrived. Dr Kate recounts the story of the Dutch newspaper publishing a report of how Madeleine might be buried at Odiaxere, which turned out to be false.
In one of many passages in this book about Dr Kate’s emotions, she says: “…cold hard reality was hitting me with a sickening thud” and she goes on to refer to her “suffocating fear”.
p. 184
On 17 June there was a report in the Portuguese press claiming that the PJ said that ‘the crime scene was contaminated by the McCanns and their friends’. Dr Kate says: “I was livid” and “…this hurt badly”. (In fact, around 16-18 people tramped round the alleged scene of the crime - their apartment - before the police arrived).
Dr Kate reports how Gerry reacted with fiery indignation and rang John Buck, the Ambassador, Bill Henderson, the Consul, Bob Small from leicestershire C.O.D. and Ricardo Paiva demanding ‘an explanation and redress’.
pp. 185-6
Alex Woofall told them all not to talk to any reporter because ‘there was nothing to be gained’ by doing so. That led to the ‘Pact of Silence’ story which Dr Kate says was the first negative story about them. She complains that someone had given all their friends their mobile ’phone numbers, Dr Kate says it could only be someone in the PJ.
pp. 186-7
The McCanns are approached by Danie Krugel who speaks of his ‘matter orientation system’. He needs some of Madeleine’s hairs to establish where she is. The McCanns are ‘excited’ and arrange to get five hairs and two eyelashes from Madeleine pillow and clothing and they are duly despatched to Mr Krugel. He comes back soon and pinpoints Madeleine as still in Praia da Luz, but says he needs to come to the Algarve to get a more precise location. The McCanns agree. Krugel doesn’t let anyone examine his machine ‘to protect my trade secrets’.
p. 188
Dr Kate raises with police inspector Luis Neves the significance of her friends Fiona, Rachael and Russell all saying they reported seeing Robert Murat hanging around the Ocean Club on the night Madeleine was reported missing. Luis Neves reacts and gets agitatated, snapping: ‘No, Kate!’
The chapter ends with more emotion: “There were so many unanswered questions going round and round my brain; so many days when all I wanted to do was pull the duvet over my head and for it all to go away”.
~~~
SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE
Chapter 13 ‘ The Tide Turns’
p. 189
On 5 July the McCanns discuss with Inspector Luis Neves their outrage with the ‘Pact of Silence’ article and the leaks of their friends’ mobile ’phone nos. to the police.
p. 190
Dr Kate agonises over the press involvement: “No longer was it about our lovely missing daughter; it was becoming the Kate and Gerry show”.
p. 191
We hear how the McCanns suddenly learnt about all the world’s ‘missing, exploited and trafficked children’ and started campaigning: they felt “…a moral obligation to try to do something to make Europe a safer place for all children”
p. 192
Gerry spent almost an hour on the ’phone to important people in Washington and afterwards Dr Kate says Gerry was ‘almost radiant’ (but obviously not quite) at the prospect of a trip to Washington.
p. 193
The attempt by a Dutch man to extort money, his arrest and prosecution is covered in some detail.
pp. 193-4
The McCanns get an invitation to lunch from Sir Clement Freud, who has a house in Praia da Lyz. The McCanns accept and all go along with Trish and Sandy Cameron and Justine McGuiness. They all go along at mid-day. Clement Freud opened the meeting by asking Dr Kate: “Can I interest you in a strawberry vodka?” Dr Kate says: “Er, OK then, That would be nice” She enthuses about the lunch: “Lunch was bloody marvellous: watercress and egg salad followed by a chicken and mushroom risotto - the best risotto we’ve ever tasted before or since. Clement cheered us up with his lugubrious wit…” They later kept in touch by e-mail.
p. 195
Dinner at Ricardo Paiva’s house: “…it was a good evening, though I found it hard to allow myself to really relax and enjoy it. Ricardo made us a great martini and his wife had prepared a fantastic meal”.
The McCanns move to the villa on 2 July.
p. 196
Dr Kate writes of the ‘confrontation’ between Robert Murat and Fiona, Rachael and Russell on 11 July at Portimao Police Station as to whether he was outside the Ocean Club the night Madeleine was reported missing. Dr Kate says they were sitting so close their knees were practically touching each other; Murat eyeballed each of them intently as they were speaking.
pp. 196-7
Gerry gets invited by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper to a ‘Bravery Awards’ police ceremony in London. He is applauded there. Before that, he spends the afternoon having a tour of CEOP HQ.
On July 15 and 16 Danie Krugel is in town with his ‘matter orientation system’ which he claims is ‘80% successful’. They are not sure about him but want to make sure ‘no stone is left unturned’. Dr Kate says she is “…so destroyed, so consumed by our pain and fear…we felt our role as [Sean and Amelie’s] parents had been compromised’.
pp. 198-9
Dr Kate: “Maternal guilt often weighed heavily on my shoulders…I was so engulfed by Madeleine that I worried I might not have enough love left over for Sean and Amelie. Something else to beat myself up about”.
Wednesday 18 July marked ‘a turning point’. Speaking of the PJ investigation, she writes: “…their lack of progress whipped up a storm of fury in me that was completely out of character. It seems to me now as if for several months I was possessed by some demonic alien that infiltrated my thoughts and filled me with anger and hatred. I needed a face on which to pin all this rage, someone to blame. And although, as I now know, the PJ had no case against Murat, they handed him to me on a plate. Since they had insinuated throughout that he might be the person responsible for the unimaginable fear and pain suffered by our little girl, is it any wonder I felt as I did?”
Later in the meeting the PJ said that Danie Krugel’s machine had come up with a ‘static signal’ that suggested that Madeleine might be dead and buried on the beach, close to the Rocha Negra cliff. This ‘plunged me into despair’. “There would be endless tears, out-of-control hysteria and feverish sessions of prayer. And there would be several visits to ‘my rocks’ - a quiet part of the beach away from the promenade...here I would simply sob to a friend on the ’phone for hours on end…I still go back there on my visits to Praia da Luz to be on my own”.
p. 200
On 20 July the PJ asked the National Policing Improvements Agency for ‘advisory assistance’. A Serious Organised Crime Officer, Jose de Freitas, who was bilingual, came over to Portugal to help with the enquiry. “We found out later (much later) that the UK team had been instructed by the PJ to proceed on the basis that Madeleine had been killed and her body dumped”.
p. 201
Dr Kate: “At this stage, I was also still giving some credence to the information [sic] we were receiving from psychics, some of whom were suggesting that we should scour nearby territory again”.
On 22 July the Sunday Express ran the headline: ‘MADDY’S PARENTS TO FACE INQUIRY’. It was “incredibly hurtful…”
Dr Kate: “However unwittingly, we’d given this predator an opportunity”.
p. 202
“We had not been there for Madeleine. And, as I’ve said before and will say again, our guilt over that is a heavy cross we will bear for the rest of our lives…the abductor must have been smiling smugly to himself and thinking: ‘Keep blaming the parents, just leave me out of it, hidden and anonymous, to carry on doing what I do - stealing children”.
Unfortunately perhaps but early comments have been focussed on these three sentences on page 129 of the book:
"I asked Gerry apprehensively if he'd had any really horrible thoughts or visions of Madeleine. He nodded. Haltingly, I told him about the awful pictures that scrolled through my head of her body, her perfect little genitals torn apart".
The events of 3 May up to including the alleged 'discovery' that Madeleine was missing are dealt with fairly sketchily on pages 62 to 72. In summary, Dr K McCann has made an attempt to 'square' all the discrpancies about that day's events that we have been discussing, I would say not very successfully...I am sure there'll be much discussion about this in the ways to come. The way the complete contradiction between the evidence of Dr D Payne and Dr K McCann about his visit to the apartment has been dealt with is crafty i.e. well crafted, but really only papers over the series of sharp contradictions about this event (if it ever really happened).
There's not much about their private investigations, though Kevin Halligen gets a mention.
Dr Kate writes (p. 283):
"We had one particularly bad experience with a man named Kevin Halligen (or Richard, as we knew him). Halligen was the CEO of a private-investigation foirm calld Oakley International which was hired by Madeleine's Fund for six months from the end of March 2008..."
She then refers to three 'phases' of the Halligen investigation, saying only that during the third phase, "...we began to have concerns".
Later (p. 284), she admits:
"Several months later, one of the investigators subcontracted by Oakley contacted us to demand paymet for his services. We had already settled Oakley's bill for this work months before, but apparently the company had not paid him. He was not the only one...We were upset..."
There is no mention whatsoever of any attempt by wither the McCanns or by the Find Madeleine Fund to sue Halligen for his obviously fraudulent conduct.
~~~
SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE OF KATE'S BOOK
I will try and post a 'summary of critique' of each chapter of Dr Kate's book over the next few days.
I'll begin with Chapter 12, titled 'Morocco':
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE
Chapter 12 ‘ Morocco’
p. 179
The chapter begins with the McCanns flying out to Rabat, Morocco, on Sunday 12 June.
Dr Kate was ‘terrified’ flying in a small ‘pre-war propeller plane’ because the jet for Morocco had broken down.
At a hotel in Rabat a camera crew was waiting for them.
p. 180
They had questions about a statement by Mari Olli, a Norwegian who swore she’d seen Madeleine in Marrakesh and had rung the Spanish police. Dr Kate explains how the Spanish and Portuguese police did nothing about it. The CCTV camera in the shop wasn’t checked in time. Dr Kate insists in the book that the girl Mari Olli saw could really be Madeleine.
They spent that night at the British Ambassador’s Morocco residence.
The following day the McCanns met several ‘important and powerful figures’, the Chief of Police and two government Ministers among them - they ‘must have had permission from the King of Morocco’.
p. 181
Later that day the McCanns met a ‘crowd of children’ who were waving placards with Madeleine on them; this had been organised by the government. The McCanns met with some Muslim leaders and asked them to pray for Madeleine which they agreed to do. Telling a slight white lie, they said they ‘lived in Leicester’, where there are a lot of Muslims. (There aren’t many Muslims in Rothley).
p. 182
Clarence was out there with them and they had to say goodbye to Clarence who had to go back to his job at the Media Monitoring Unit for a while.
p. 183
On 22 June Justine McGuiness arrived. Dr Kate recounts the story of the Dutch newspaper publishing a report of how Madeleine might be buried at Odiaxere, which turned out to be false.
In one of many passages in this book about Dr Kate’s emotions, she says: “…cold hard reality was hitting me with a sickening thud” and she goes on to refer to her “suffocating fear”.
p. 184
On 17 June there was a report in the Portuguese press claiming that the PJ said that ‘the crime scene was contaminated by the McCanns and their friends’. Dr Kate says: “I was livid” and “…this hurt badly”. (In fact, around 16-18 people tramped round the alleged scene of the crime - their apartment - before the police arrived).
Dr Kate reports how Gerry reacted with fiery indignation and rang John Buck, the Ambassador, Bill Henderson, the Consul, Bob Small from leicestershire C.O.D. and Ricardo Paiva demanding ‘an explanation and redress’.
pp. 185-6
Alex Woofall told them all not to talk to any reporter because ‘there was nothing to be gained’ by doing so. That led to the ‘Pact of Silence’ story which Dr Kate says was the first negative story about them. She complains that someone had given all their friends their mobile ’phone numbers, Dr Kate says it could only be someone in the PJ.
pp. 186-7
The McCanns are approached by Danie Krugel who speaks of his ‘matter orientation system’. He needs some of Madeleine’s hairs to establish where she is. The McCanns are ‘excited’ and arrange to get five hairs and two eyelashes from Madeleine pillow and clothing and they are duly despatched to Mr Krugel. He comes back soon and pinpoints Madeleine as still in Praia da Luz, but says he needs to come to the Algarve to get a more precise location. The McCanns agree. Krugel doesn’t let anyone examine his machine ‘to protect my trade secrets’.
p. 188
Dr Kate raises with police inspector Luis Neves the significance of her friends Fiona, Rachael and Russell all saying they reported seeing Robert Murat hanging around the Ocean Club on the night Madeleine was reported missing. Luis Neves reacts and gets agitatated, snapping: ‘No, Kate!’
The chapter ends with more emotion: “There were so many unanswered questions going round and round my brain; so many days when all I wanted to do was pull the duvet over my head and for it all to go away”.
~~~
SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE
Chapter 13 ‘ The Tide Turns’
p. 189
On 5 July the McCanns discuss with Inspector Luis Neves their outrage with the ‘Pact of Silence’ article and the leaks of their friends’ mobile ’phone nos. to the police.
p. 190
Dr Kate agonises over the press involvement: “No longer was it about our lovely missing daughter; it was becoming the Kate and Gerry show”.
p. 191
We hear how the McCanns suddenly learnt about all the world’s ‘missing, exploited and trafficked children’ and started campaigning: they felt “…a moral obligation to try to do something to make Europe a safer place for all children”
p. 192
Gerry spent almost an hour on the ’phone to important people in Washington and afterwards Dr Kate says Gerry was ‘almost radiant’ (but obviously not quite) at the prospect of a trip to Washington.
p. 193
The attempt by a Dutch man to extort money, his arrest and prosecution is covered in some detail.
pp. 193-4
The McCanns get an invitation to lunch from Sir Clement Freud, who has a house in Praia da Lyz. The McCanns accept and all go along with Trish and Sandy Cameron and Justine McGuiness. They all go along at mid-day. Clement Freud opened the meeting by asking Dr Kate: “Can I interest you in a strawberry vodka?” Dr Kate says: “Er, OK then, That would be nice” She enthuses about the lunch: “Lunch was bloody marvellous: watercress and egg salad followed by a chicken and mushroom risotto - the best risotto we’ve ever tasted before or since. Clement cheered us up with his lugubrious wit…” They later kept in touch by e-mail.
p. 195
Dinner at Ricardo Paiva’s house: “…it was a good evening, though I found it hard to allow myself to really relax and enjoy it. Ricardo made us a great martini and his wife had prepared a fantastic meal”.
The McCanns move to the villa on 2 July.
p. 196
Dr Kate writes of the ‘confrontation’ between Robert Murat and Fiona, Rachael and Russell on 11 July at Portimao Police Station as to whether he was outside the Ocean Club the night Madeleine was reported missing. Dr Kate says they were sitting so close their knees were practically touching each other; Murat eyeballed each of them intently as they were speaking.
pp. 196-7
Gerry gets invited by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper to a ‘Bravery Awards’ police ceremony in London. He is applauded there. Before that, he spends the afternoon having a tour of CEOP HQ.
On July 15 and 16 Danie Krugel is in town with his ‘matter orientation system’ which he claims is ‘80% successful’. They are not sure about him but want to make sure ‘no stone is left unturned’. Dr Kate says she is “…so destroyed, so consumed by our pain and fear…we felt our role as [Sean and Amelie’s] parents had been compromised’.
pp. 198-9
Dr Kate: “Maternal guilt often weighed heavily on my shoulders…I was so engulfed by Madeleine that I worried I might not have enough love left over for Sean and Amelie. Something else to beat myself up about”.
Wednesday 18 July marked ‘a turning point’. Speaking of the PJ investigation, she writes: “…their lack of progress whipped up a storm of fury in me that was completely out of character. It seems to me now as if for several months I was possessed by some demonic alien that infiltrated my thoughts and filled me with anger and hatred. I needed a face on which to pin all this rage, someone to blame. And although, as I now know, the PJ had no case against Murat, they handed him to me on a plate. Since they had insinuated throughout that he might be the person responsible for the unimaginable fear and pain suffered by our little girl, is it any wonder I felt as I did?”
Later in the meeting the PJ said that Danie Krugel’s machine had come up with a ‘static signal’ that suggested that Madeleine might be dead and buried on the beach, close to the Rocha Negra cliff. This ‘plunged me into despair’. “There would be endless tears, out-of-control hysteria and feverish sessions of prayer. And there would be several visits to ‘my rocks’ - a quiet part of the beach away from the promenade...here I would simply sob to a friend on the ’phone for hours on end…I still go back there on my visits to Praia da Luz to be on my own”.
p. 200
On 20 July the PJ asked the National Policing Improvements Agency for ‘advisory assistance’. A Serious Organised Crime Officer, Jose de Freitas, who was bilingual, came over to Portugal to help with the enquiry. “We found out later (much later) that the UK team had been instructed by the PJ to proceed on the basis that Madeleine had been killed and her body dumped”.
p. 201
Dr Kate: “At this stage, I was also still giving some credence to the information [sic] we were receiving from psychics, some of whom were suggesting that we should scour nearby territory again”.
On 22 July the Sunday Express ran the headline: ‘MADDY’S PARENTS TO FACE INQUIRY’. It was “incredibly hurtful…”
Dr Kate: “However unwittingly, we’d given this predator an opportunity”.
p. 202
“We had not been there for Madeleine. And, as I’ve said before and will say again, our guilt over that is a heavy cross we will bear for the rest of our lives…the abductor must have been smiling smugly to himself and thinking: ‘Keep blaming the parents, just leave me out of it, hidden and anonymous, to carry on doing what I do - stealing children”.