The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann: Kate and Gerry McCann

Jill Havern - CMOMM

A discussion document issued by the Madeleine McCann Research Group, 14 February 2012

On 20 October 2010, the Portuguese Appeal Court made a historic decision in the long-running case of Dr Gerald McCann and Dr Kate McCann -v- Dr Goncalo Amaral.

After a lower Portuguese Court had banned his book for 13 months, the Appeal Court decided, having regard to the right to freedom of speech and expression, that it was not libellous for his book, once again, to be freely sold in Portugal (and other countries, such as Brazil), where Portuguese is spoken.

We reproduce relevant extracts of the judgement below.

Not only has Dr Amaral’s book on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, ‘The Truth About A Lie’, been freely available in Portuguese-speaking countries for the past 16 months, it has also, since various dates from September 2008 onwards, been available in no fewer than eight different languages, and all the countries that speak those languages.

We’ve done a calculation as to which countries have Dr Amaral’s book on sale in their main language. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

Andorra

Argentina

Austria

Belgium

Bolivia

Chile

Cuba

Denmark

Ecuador

France

Germany

Guatemala

Holland

Honduras

Italy

Luxembourg

Mexico

Nicaragua

Norway

Paraguay

Peru

San Marino

Spain

Surinam

Sweden

Switzerland

Uruguay

Venezuela.

We estimate that around 1,100,000,000 people live in those countries: 1.1 billion, or nearly one-sixth of the world’s population.

Madeleine McCann was a British girl, born and bred in England, a land famed the world over for its freedoms, including the right of free speech. Yet Dr Amaral’s book cannot be published and sold in this country. Indeed, not only that, former Madeleine Foundation Secretary Tony Bennett currently faces a term of imprisonment for, amongst other things, referring to that book. In July 2010, for example, the Madeleine Foundation published a leaflet about Dr Goncalo Amaral, in which this statement appeared:

“In ‘The Truth About A Lie’, Dr Amaral explains why he and his team had good grounds for believing Madeleine had died in her parents’ apartment and covered up her death”.

That was and is a true - 100% factual statement. Yet as The Madeleine Foundation reported last year, the McCanns believe that the British public should not even be able to read that sentence. Carter-Ruck told the Madeleine Foundation that that sentence in their leaflet was libellous.

The world has turned upside down. Over a billion people worldwide can read the account by the initial senior detective in the case of the history of, conclusions arrived at, in his investigation.

But the people in the land where Madeleine was born, so the McCanns say, should not be allowed to read it.

There are in fact translations of Dr Amaral’s book available on the internet. Such is the power of the McCanns’ lawyers, Carter-Ruck, however, that we are not sure if we can give you the links here. So we won’t.

But what we can and will do is reproduce those parts of the Portuguese Appeal Court’s judgement which explain just how widely in the world Dr Amaral’s book can be bought and read:

EXTRACTS FROM THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF APPEAL

IN PORTUGAL - IN THE CASE OF McCANNS -v- AMARAL

On 24 July 2008, the defendant Dr Goncalo Amaral first published his book, through publishers Guerra e Paz.

In that book, Dr Amaral put forward the following hypothesis:

That the child Madeleine McCann died in the Ocean Club apartment G5A in Vila da Luz, on the evening of 3 May 2007

That the McCanns and their friends fabricated an abduction

That Dr Kate Healy and Dr Gerald McCann are suspected of involvement in the concealment of their daughter’s body

That the death may have been the outcome of a tragic accident

That there are indications of neglect of the care and safety of the children.

Dr Amaral’s book was published in four editions by the end of July, a further nine by the end of August, and another 12 by end of September. Each edition was of around 10,000 copies. [Thus, in all, around 250,000 copies were printed]. At the time of our decision, the book had been sold out at practically all points of sale.

When the book was published, Dr Amaral gave an interview to the newspaper Correia da Manha, published on 24 July 2008. In that interview, he explained his analysis of the case. He also gave interviews later to all other media that asked him for an interview, each time defending the book’s thesis.

At the beginning of May 2009, Dr Amaral published his book in France, this time under the title: ‘Maddie, L’Enquete interdite: Les revelations du commissaire portugais charge de l’enquete [The revelations of the Portuguese co-ordinator of the investigation].

Dr Amaral also gave countless interviews to several media in France, including the one that was published by Le Parisien newspaper in both its paper and online editions. In those interviews, Dr Amaral continued to promote his hypothesis on the case. The book’s French edition was, and continues to be, systematically and prolifically promoted on the internet, for example on the following websites: [a long list of websites follows] .

Between the date when the Portuguese edition was published [24 July 2008] and the date of the book’s French edition [May 2009], Televisao Independente (TVI) broadcast a TV programme produced by Valentim de Carvalho for the company Filmes, Audiovisuais, SA [FASA], who hold the copyright of the documentary.

The first transmission of that programme was on 13 April 2009, the second on 12 May 2009. This programme was essentially based on the contents of Dr Amaral’s book: ‘Maddie: The Truth About A Lie’. In that documentary, Dr Amaral appears and continues to advance his theory (a) that Madeleine is no longer alive (b) that her death occurred within their Ocean Club apartment, and (c) that her parents, the McCanns, concealed their daughter’s body.

At least 2,200,000 people viewed the first screening of this programme.

At the end of April 2009, a DVD of the programme was made, with the following title and subtitle: ‘Maddie - The Truth About A Lie: A powerful documentary based on the best-seller ‘The Truth About A Lie’ by Goncalo Amaral. Already, 75,000 copies of this DVD have been distributed for sale. The DVD is published on FASA’s website.

All the actions within the investigation that Dr Amaral reports in his book are documented within the investigation file. Not only that, but the investigation documents were also made available in electronic format, not only to the national media, but to international media. These media proceeded to divulge the contents of the reports and statements from the investigation file. This publication of the electronic reports naturally enabled knowledge of the facts of the investigation to be circulated. Public comments were made and soon there was universal discussion of the contents of the investigation file. Any individual in the world can have access to these facts and to the documents of the investigation which enabled the facts of the investigation to be verified. All of this was only a click on the mouse away.

The friends of the McCanns did not make themselves available in Portugal to attend a reconstruction [of the events of 3 May 2007]. This is all documented on pages 4,636 to 4,638 of Volume XII of the ‘Investigation Processos’ files, complied by the Prosecutor’s office.

Dr Amaral’s book was published, through other editors, in several countries, as well as in France, as we referred to above.

The publications occurred as follows:

In Spain, September 2008, titled ‘Maddie - La verdad de la mentira’

This was distributed in the Spanish/Castilian language in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries

In Denmark, in November 200, titled ‘Maddie - Sandheden on Lognem’.

This Danish edition was then published in the Nordic countries of Norway and Sweden

In Italy, December 2008, titled ‘Maddie - La Verita della Menzonga’.

That edition was distributed in Italian-speaking countries all over the world

In Holland, April 2009, titled ‘Maddie - De Waarheide Achter de Leugen’.

That was distributed in Dutch-speaking countries throughout the world

In Germany, in June 2009, with the tile: ‘Maddie - De Wahrheit uber die Luge’

This was also distributed in German-speaking countries, including Austria and Switzerland.

There is also an English version circulating on the internet, on the web site http://goncaloamaraltruthofthelie.blogspot.co.uk/ , where a Portuguese version can also be found.

Published by the Madeleine McCann Research Group, 14 February 2012
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For discussion, please visit this thread on the CMOMM forum: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t4381-the-billion-people-who-can-buy-read-and-discuss-the-truth-about-the-lie-versus-the-free-speech-nation-which-cannot?highlight=billion

Jill Havern - CMOMM

RAY WYRE AND THE MCCANNS

What was the connection between the McCanns and the late paedophilia ‘expert’, Ray Wyre?

by Tony Bennett, Secretary of The Madeleine Foundation
filed 10 October 2010

This article is copyright, but copyright is waived if the source is given
when reproducing or quoting from it: Berne Convention rules apply

In early 2008, the McCanns met Ray Wyre and his wife. The People told us about a meeting the four of them had, at the Wyres’ Buckinghamshire home, probably in January 2008, though the date of the meeting was not given.

Less than six months after meeting the McCanns, and aged only 56, Ray Wyre died, apparently from a stroke.

Summary of Wyre’s career

As a Guardian obituary on 8 August 2008 noted, he was famous as a ‘sex therapist’ for sex offenders, including paedophiles. Edward Marriott, who wrote the Guardian obituary, stated: “He was one of the world's leading experts on sexual crime. He pioneered the treatment of sex offenders in residential therapy settings, believing that the potential for change existed within every criminal and, most importantly, that this work was crucial in reducing the risk of further offending”. That is certainly how many people saw him. But as to whether it is an accurate summary, this article will explore. The full article can be found in an Appendix below (Appendix 3). The headline to the article ran: “Trailblazing therapist with a unique approach to sex offenders”. That is perhaps much more correct, as we shall see in more detail below. But in ‘blazing a trail’, did he start not a few forest fires which proved difficult to put out?

He was best known for setting up his Gracewell Clinic for Sex Offenders, in 1988, having for many years previously been employed by the prison service as a Probation Officer to work with sex offenders, notably in Albany Prison from 1981 to 1986. However, the Gracewell Clinic closed in 1993, partly through local objections to so many paedophiles being housed under one roof. His successor clinic, the Wolvercote Clinic in Surrey, also closed, in 2002.

After this, he set up Ray Wyre (UK) Ltd., based in Milton Keynes, where he lived with his second wife, Charmaine. He claimed to provide services to ‘accused sex offenders and their families’. He and his associates were regularly called in to provide ‘expert evidence’ in criminal cases in the U.K. and beyond. He had become an internationally recognised expert on sex offences and treatment methods.

Wyre frequently gave TV interviews, where he was described as a ‘sexual abuse consultant’, and was so much sought-after that he commanded huge fees for speaking at conferences and giving lectures to police officers, government policy-makers and diplomats, among many others. Whether he can realistically be called an ‘expert’, however, is one of the issues we explore in this article.

‘Paedophiles can be treated’

Wyre was a fervent believer - contrary, one must say, to the preponderance of the evidence - that paedophiles could be turned into non-paedophiles by therapy. He once said: “People say that abusers don’t deserve therapy and that they should be locked up and the key thrown away. But these people are forgetting the children. We are not working for the offender but for the children, because they never defend themselves”. His comments were much later echoed by Jim Gamble, the man who for four years headed up the newly-established Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), until he controversially handed in his notice on 4 October 2010. Despite heading CEOP for four years, and purporting to be a fervent opponent of child pornography on the internet, Gamble once notoriously pontificated that some offenders who viewed child pornography could be effectively ‘let off’ by accepting a formal police caution.

Ray Wyre’s interest in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Ray Wyre’s connection with the McCann case began no more than days after the McCanns reported Madeleine missing.

Madeleine was reported missing at around 10.00pm on Thursday 3 May 2007. Less than a week later, the Daily Telegraph published a lengthy article penned by Ray Wyre on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. It contained the remarkable statement that, quote: “It was clear from the beginning in Portugal that we were dealing with an abduction…” He thus echoed the statement of Dr Kate McCann - which she has never explained - that she knew ‘instantly’ that Madeleine had been abducted. Pressed by interviewers to say how she could be so sure, she answered, in terms: “I can’t say because the strict judicial secrecy laws surrounding an investigation will not allow me to”. But since the investigation has been archived, she has never clarified what made her so certain that Madeleine had been snatched by an abductor. One is reminded also of the statement of Clarence Mitchell, on being asked why he agreed to be sent from his post as Head of the government’s Media Monitoring Unit to Praia da Luz to manage the McCanns’ public relations. He said he had been ‘assured’ that this was truly a case of abduction. He didn’t say who assured him. But that assurance was good enough for him to rush out to Praia da Luz in May 2007.

Wyre, having in his mind established that it was ‘clear’ that this was an abduction, then launched into an immediate attack on Portugal and its criminal justice system for harbouring paedophiles.

He wrote: “What was [the abductor’s] motivation? How would he initiate contact and target the child? How would he control the environment to evade discovery? Portuguese police cannot ignore the UK's experience in such cases. In the early '90s a British paedophile group filmed the sexual abuse of Portuguese boys. At one stage the Americans were so concerned about the role of British paedophiles in Portugal that I was approached about the targeting of schools there. International co-operation should be part of police thinking. However, there is no culture of community policing in Portugal and they have laws that prevent the discussion of cases. This is clearly the wrong way round”.

Once again, Wyre appeared to be echoing the line put out by the McCann Team right from the word ‘go’ - namely, that Madeleine had been snatched by a predatory paedophile. Equally, and again in tune with the message from the McCann Team, Wyre took an early opportunity to have a dig at the Portuguese police.

The article (reproduced below) by Wyre appeared in the Telegraph on the morning of Thursday 10 May. When was the article actually written?

The article would have to have been commissioned by the Telegraph editor. Then Wyre would have to write it. He would have to send the article to the Telegraph editor - and one of his staff would have to check it. No doubt it would have been slotted into the paper by a sub-editor during the previous day, Wednesday 9 May, if not before.

It is quite possible therefore that Wyre wrote this article only two or three days after Madeleine was reported missing. At that time, hundreds of Portuguese residents and tourists, and hundreds of police officers, were combing the area looking for Madeleine. There were suggestions that she could have ‘wandered off’. There was hope that she could be found.

We might well ask why Wyre was so adamant that Madeleine had been abducted, and why he was already speculating that Madeleine had been taken by a paedophile. It almost seems like he was in a rush to get his ‘take’ on the situation across, despite how soon it was after Madeleine was reported missing.

The article is important and I’ll now reproduce the full Telegraph article:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What the Portuguese police must do

Daily Telegraph - By Ray Wyre - 10 May 2007

Last Updated: 2:06am BST 10/05/07

I have worked with men who have abducted and killed children. Often, their capture has failed to save the child and has not come about through good police work.

The planning needed to take the child cannot be overestimated. It was clear from the beginning in Portugal that we were dealing with an abduction and the need to "think offender" was essential.

What was his motivation? How would he initiate contact and target the child? How would he control the environment to evade discovery?

Portuguese police cannot ignore the UK's experience in such cases. In the early '90s a British paedophile group filmed the sexual abuse of Portuguese boys.

At one stage the Americans were so concerned about the role of British paedophiles in Portugal that I was approached about the targeting of schools there. International co-operation should be part of police thinking.

However, there is no culture of community policing in Portugal and they have laws that prevent the discussion of cases. This is clearly the wrong way round. The media are essential in passing co-ordinated and directed information to the community.

In this case, speculation is rife, confused messages are likely to be given.

The parents will be feeling guilty for leaving the children and even a half hour is a long time if a child wakes up and starts to cry immediately after one leaves the room.

This could, possibly, lead to a woman on her own, who has lost a child, saying to herself wrongly that the parents did not care for this child and deciding to take the girl home. No paedophile, no conspiracy - just a lonely woman.

The window of opportunity for the abductor means that the information given by the parents has to be very accurate. Police must help them to say exactly how long it was since they last saw their child.

The parents need to know that if this was an offender who planned the abduction then there is probably nothing they could have done.

I once asked an abductor who had killed girls how we could stop him. He said: “I suppose you would have to chain a child to the mother”. But he added: “No, that would not work. I would take both”.

Ray Wyre is an expert in sexual crime who worked in the UK Probation Service in the 1970s before specialising in programmes for sex offenders.

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Wyre quoted in The Times, 7 May 2007

Three days before this, Wyre had also been quoted in an article in The Times, by Dominic Kennedy.

The article, titled: “Nothing can stop a determined abductor, but there is a chance the child is still alive”, opened with this paragraph:

“If Madeleine McCann was abducted by a paedophile, there is a chance that she is still alive and can be saved by sensitive policing, according to Ray Wyre, a sexual crimes consultant. ‘Lately, there have been more and more cases where there has been an element of planning and an attempt to keep the child alive’, he said. Wyre added that: ‘To maximise the possibility of finding Madeleine alive, police must avoid doing anything to make the kidnapper panic. If he believes that they are about to move in and catch him, he may become so alarmed that he kills the child to stop her being a witness’.”.

Wyre was also quoted in the same article in relation to the activities of paedophiles in Portugal. He continued:

“Portugal is known to attract British paedophiles. A ring of 20 Britons set up there around 1990, filming sex acts with local boys and sending the tapes to Belgium and the Netherlands. Some were later jailed in England. The case helped to persuade the British Government to make it illegal for Britons to have sex with underage children abroad”.

The Times article concluded: “Mr Wyre went to Lisbon and became involved in the aftermath of that investigation. ‘There were still lots of connections and other things going on’, he said. ‘There have always been British paedophiles operating in Portugal’.

The McCanns meet Ray and Charmaine Wyre

Now let’s move to The People article of 27 January 2008, and, before commenting, I’ll reproduce that in full as well:

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QUOTE:

EXCLUSIVE: MCCANNS ARE 'TOTALLY INNOCENT'

EXCLUSIVE TRUTH ABOUT THE McCANNS: BY TOP UK CRIME CRACKER

The People - By Marcello Mega and Daniel Jones

Daniel.Jones@People.Co.Uk
27 January 2008

Kate and Gerry played NO part in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, one of the world's top crime experts declared last night.

Ray Wyre - who has given Cracker-style testimony to courts since the 1970s - said: “It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for them to have been involved”. He insisted the grief-stricken parents were incapable of doing anything to harm their children.

He told how the couple feared Maddie was dead in the hours after she vanished - the first time their initial anguish has been revealed. And he heaped scorn on claims the McCanns are being torn apart by the tragedy, adding: “They are a close and loving couple”.

Wyre spoke out as it was revealed Portuguese cops now believe four-year-old Maddie may have been abducted - as Kate and Gerry have always claimed.

The couple met Wyre, 56, to discuss setting up an international taskforce to help cops trace missing children.

They poured out their hearts to him and his wife Charmaine over dinner at the ace criminologists's home in Milton Keynes, Bucks.

Wyre - who's helped nail a string of monsters including child-killer Robert Black - said: "I was with them for several hours and I could not help but apply some of the practices I use when I'm carrying out assessments of suspects for police and the courts.

“I can state categorically there is no way they were involved in their daughter's murder or disappearance. They would be incapable of such an act. I have more than 30 years' experience in this field and am used to people trying to hide dark secrets.

“There was NO sign of any such deceit. It is absolutely impossible for them to have been involved”.

And Wyre paid a moving tribute to the way the 39-year-old couple manage to think of other people even though their hearts are broken.
He said: “It was humbling and moving to meet the McCanns. They brought flowers for my wife, which brought tears to our eyes. You consider what they've been through and they still bring flowers when they come to your home”.

Wyre hit out at shocking claims of eating disorders and marriage rifts made about Kate and heart specialist Gerry, whose twins Sean and Amelie have just turned three.

He said: “It can't have helped while they've had this massive tragedy on their hands. Days before we met I was reading an ill-informed article saying they were growing apart. But they are a close and loving couple who are certainly united in their roles of being good parents to the twins and maintaining momentum in their quest to find Madeleine.

“There is no doubt they are a couple - they are together and they support and comfort one another. They were very warm and friendly to each other and there was no sign of dispute between them. During the meal, Gerry often put his arm round the back of Kate's chair. They were affectionate to one another all the time. They looked very much together. As for any suggestion Kate might have an eating disorder, it's nonsense. She sat down to my wife's home-made lasagne and garlic bread with a smile and really enjoyed it. And she tucked into the banoffee pie for pudding like the rest of us”.

Wyre told how for 72 hours after Maddie vanished in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year the McCanns were certain their daughter was dead.

Their despair has never been made public before - and Wyre blasted critics who insist they have not expressed enough grief.

He said: “For three days, all they could see in their minds was Madeleine lying dead. They were in complete agreement she'd been taken by a predator, abused and killed.

“They were certain they would never see her alive again. The image of her lying murdered hardly left them and they expected at any time to receive the news that her body had been found. When three days passed and that had not happened, they began to feel the stirring of hope.

“They reasoned it was most likely that if someone had seized her to abuse and kill her, her body would probably have been nearby and would have been found. They continue to cling to that hope - but they are also prepared for the worst. However, as long as she remains missing I know they will not rest in their efforts to find her”.

Wyre also told The People how GP Kate is so dedicated to answering the flood of emails she gets every day about Maddie she sometimes gets up at 4am to deal with them all.

His tribute came as detectives in Portugal finally admitted they could be WRONG in their belief that the McCanns - from Rothley, Leics - were involved in Maddie's disappearance. Prosecutors had named the couple as official suspects in September.

And since then police have been hellbent on trying to prove Kate and Gerry had hidden their daughter's body after the youngster died in their Algarve holiday apartment.

Investigators even claimed they had enough evidence to charge the couple just three weeks ago. But yesterday police sources admitted the McCanns may have been telling the truth all along. And detectives are now set to review the case and quiz all the witnesses again.

The amazing about-turn comes after a British laboratory said DNA tests carried out on blood samples found in the Praia da Luz flat and the couple's hire-car had been inconclusive.

The theory Maddie had been kidnapped was also given another boost last week with the release of a sketch of a possible suspect. A source told Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas: “There are now two hypotheses on the table - abduction or accidental death. There are no concrete proofs to charge the current suspects. No line of inquiry can be discounted - but the first hypothesis is the most credible”.

The McCanns' family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told The People last night: “We welcome any movement on the part of the police that accepts Madeleine was abducted - because that's what happened.

“It’s ridiculous we've had to wait this long for any indication they believe Kate and Gerry are telling the truth.

“The sooner the police realise they don't have a case against them, the sooner they focus on finding Madeleine - which is what this investigation should be about”.

UNQUOTE

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Analysis of The People article - The context in which it came to be published

Let us first examine the context of this article and try to understand how it came to be written and published. We will start with a recap of what had been happening during the previous months.

In August and early September there was a spate of stories, especially in the popular British press, about the evidence of the cadaver dogs, and about forensic reports from the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham that were said to confirm that Madeleine’s DNA had been found in blood and body fluid samples in the McCanns’ holiday apartment and in the car they hired three weeks later. The cadaver dog Eddie, trained by one of the world’s leading dog handlers Martin Grime, was said to have identified 10 locations connected with the McCanns where a corpse had lain. The McCanns came up with at least five different version of how this scent of a corpse might have been detected by the springer spaniel.

Then, on 7 September 2007, the McCanns were taken in for questioning and made ‘arguidos’, or suspects. Three days later a senior detective, Tavares de Almeida, issued a damning interim report which pointed clearly to the main line of enquiry being that Madeleine had died in Apartment 5A at the Ocean Club, Praia da Luz, and that the McCanns or others must have hidden her body. Just three weeks after that report was issued, the detective inspector in charge of the case, Goncalo Amaral, was removed from his position by fax and ordered to report to another location.

The McCanns and members of their team, especially after the trauma of being questioned under caution, were understandably engaged in an active campaign to win the support of the media, and to progress the investigation in what they felt was the right direction. Their fervent supporter, Cheshire businessman Brian Kennedy, who had made his pile from selling double glazing, appointed the highly controversial Spanish detective agency Metodo 3 to investigate Madeleine’s disappearance. They said the Portuguese police were not looking for her properly. The McCanns and Brian Kennedy, using publicly-donated funds paid to their trust, Find Madeleine Fund, had handed Metodo 3 a contract reputed to be worth at least £50,000 a month.

The involvement of Metodo 3 led to stories just before Christmas from its Director, Francisco Marco, that his men were ‘closing in on’ Madeleine’s kidnappers and that Madeleine would be ‘home by Christmas’. These stories were complete and utter fabrications - being perpetrated by Metodo 3 who were in turn being funded by donations from a generous British public.

Metodo 3 were not finished. In January and March 2008, still under contract to the McCanns, they appear to have been behind some highly-publicised searches for Madeleine’s body in the Arade Dam. These were organised amid a fanfare of publicity and media photographers by Madeira-based Portuguese lawyer, Marcos Aragao Correia. Correia later admitted to being paid by Metodo 3, claiming, unconvincingly, that he had ‘only been paid expenses’. This at least made a change from his original story, which was that he was doing it ‘out of the goodness of his own heart’.

Whilst on the subject of Correia, we should note the following. He was also the lawyer who acted against Goncalo Amaral, accusing him of taking part in or authorising a beating of a convicted murderess, Leonor Cipriano. Moreover, he came up with two sick stories about what had happened to Madeleine. When he first came to public notice, he told the world that within three days of Madeleine being reported missing, ‘underworld sources’, whom he could not name, had told him that Madeleine had been abducted, raped, killed and that her body had been thrown into a lake. Several months later, he admitted that this was a lie. He changed his story, replacing it with an equally unconvincing account that on Saturday 5 May, two days after Madeleine was reported missing, he had attended his first-ever Spiritualist meeting. After that meeting, he said he had a disturbing vision of a very large man strangling Madeleine. Such a man was the pursuer of the detective Goncalo Amaral, and employed by the McCanns via Metodo 3.

Meanwhile Brian Kennedy had been busy. He had been contacting various witnesses. According to an article by Mark Hollingsworth in the Evening Standard in August 2009, he even intimidated some of them into keeping silent and not talking to the Portuguese Police. He found two witnesses, however, who were willing to talk. They were Paul Gordon and Gail Cooper. Both claimed they had seen a strange, ‘creepy’ man when they had been in Portugal in the weeks before the McCanns were there. The stories about these two ‘sightings’ of a creepy man were released by the McCann Team on different days to achieve maximum press coverage, in a blaze of front-page publicity, on 7, 8 and 9 January - round about the time the McCanns were meeting with Ray and Christine Wyre.

The Daily Mirror first of all reported: “A Brit who stayed in the same holiday flat as Madeleine McCann has told how he spotted creepy strangers lurking nearby BEFORE she vanished. Paul Gordon said he was worried the dodgy-looking people had no business to be at the Portuguese complex. His shock evidence could mean child-snatchers had been staking out the complex before four-year-old Maddie's family even arrived there. Brewery executive Paul, 34, and his family rented the Ocean Club flat in Praia da Luz for a fortnight last April. The McCanns took it over from them and Maddie went missing five days later on May 3 - sparking a global hunt”.

Two days later, the Mirror filed a new story: “A second British tourist has reported seeing a mystery man hanging around Madeleine McCann's holiday flat just days before she vanished. Gail Cooper, 50, said she was confronted by the ‘creepy’ stranger at her holiday villa in Portugal. He claimed he was collecting for an orphanage in the next village of Espiche. She spotted him again two days later on Praia Da Luz beach.

“Gail, from Newark, Notts, said yesterday: ‘He was a horrible-looking man, really creepy, unkempt and dirty. He definitely wasn't Portuguese. He scared me’.”

To assist Gail Cooper’s recollections of what this man looked like, Brian Kennedy had in the previous weeks paid for an ‘F.B.I.-trained forensic artist’, Melissa Little, to help her mock up a sketch of him. The media blitz of 7-9 January had been well planned. The decisions of both Paul Gordon and Gail Cooper to talk to the McCanns’ private detectives seems to have originated in meetings between them and Brian Kennedy.

As we have said in our major article on Robert Murat (see under ‘Articles’ on our website, www.madeleinefoundation.org.uk ), these stories had a dubious origin and content. And in the end the Portuguese Police dismissed these claims, especially Gail Cooper’s as she changed her story about how many times she had seen this man. The Portuguese Police published this conclusion about Gail Cooper’s unreliable evidence in their final report, a full copy of which is reproduced in our latest book, ‘The Madeleine McCann Case Files, Volume 1’ (ISBN 978-0-9563351-1-1), available via our website.

Kennedy had also been busy having secretive meetings in Portugal. He took staff of Metodo 3 to meet the Portuguese Police in Portimao on 13 November. The same day he met with the leading suspect in the case, Robert Murat, each flanked by their respective lawyers, Edward Smethurst and Francisco Pagarete. Around this time, Jane Tanner was gradually - and in public, via the press - shifting from her earlier identification of Robert Murat as the person she said she had seen carrying a child outside the McCanns’ apartment on the day Madeleine disappeared. Now, she was saying, she was no longer sure.

Ray Wyre praises the McCanns

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ chief public relations officer, was busy promoting stories about Madeleine day after day. Without a shadow of a doubt, he will have been behind the appearance of that article on 27 January 2008 in The People which featured the meeting between the McCanns and the Wyres.

He would have known about the meeting, if not actively arranged it. He would have known that Ray Wyre would be willing to talk to The People and that The People would publish details of their meeting. The People’s circulation, in common with many other parents, had been falling. They would have jumped at the chance of an ‘exclusive’ on Madeleine McCann – which is exactly what they got, probably at a price. Mitchell would no doubt have ‘vetted’ the final content - and, as we have seen, he was actually quoted in the article. He may even have drafted the article himself.

Against that background, let us summarise the content of the article about the McCanns’ trip to the Wyres’ home in Buckinghamshire.

First, we note that Wyre doesn’t refer to the McCanns’ children. Presumably they were left at home for the day with a relative or child-minder.

Then we observe one of the most striking features of this article: the insistent, repeated and total certainty of Wyre that the McCanns were 100% innocent and knew absolutely nothing about what had happened to Madeleine. Wyre is quoted as saying, in quick succession:

"it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for them to have been involved"

"they are incapable of doing anything to harm their children"

"I can state categorically there is no way they were involved in their daughter's murder or disappearance"

"they would be incapable of such an act".

We notice also in The People article how Ray Wyre is elevated to near divine status by a series of hyperbolic statements about him:

‘top UK crime cracker’

‘helped nail a string of monsters including child-killer Robert Black’

the ‘ace criminologist’.

Then we hear of the claim that the real purpose of the meeting was ‘to set up an international taskforce to help cops trace missing children’. Given that we have had INTERPOL for decades, it is reasonable to ask whether the purpose of the get-together was a lot more about getting a very helpful front-page article in a national Sunday newspaper than to set up a rival organisation to INTERPOL. Was this meeting, indeed, arranged by Mitchell solely to produce a great newspaper headline?

The article says: “Wyre also told The People how GP Kate is so dedicated to answering the flood of emails she gets every day about Maddie she sometimes gets up at 4am to deal with them all”. Only months later, though, as we now know from Johan Seend of Virginia-based company iJet, the McCanns set up a telephone information hot-line intended to field calls from the general public. We now know that the McCanns did not follow up even one of those calls (see our article on Kevin Halligen on our website) - one of many issues which we say should be addressed in a full public enquiry into all aspects of Madeleine’s disappearance.

The People article also neatly linked into the recent fanfare of publicity about another suspect. They wrote: “The theory Maddie had been kidnapped was also given another boost last week with the release of a sketch of a possible suspect. There are now two hypotheses on the table - abduction or accidental death. No line of inquiry can be discounted - but the first hypothesis is the most credible”.

This enabled Clarence Mitchell to have the final say: “The McCanns' family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told The People last night: “We welcome any movement on the part of the police that accepts Madeleine was abducted - because that's what happened”.

One detail The People omitted, however, was whether Ray Wyre had ever met either of the McCanns before.

The controversial career of Ray Wyre

It is time now to examine the career of Ray Wyre. We have seen how in articles in The Times on 7 May and the Daily Telegraph on 10 May, he spoke forthrightly in the British press of his conviction that this was ‘definitely an abduction’, just days after Madeleine disappeared. Then, months later, as we have just seen, he went on to say that he was sure from his experience that it was ‘absolutely impossible’ for the McCanns to have been in any way involved in the disappearance of their daughter. The People described him in their article as a ‘top UK crime cracker’ and ‘ace criminologist’. Was he?

There is a fair amount of material on the internet about this controversial sex therapist-cum-consultant. Readers are referred for example to these four links or sources:

]http://www.achillesheel.freeuk.com/article13_2.html

]http://www.redguitars.co.uk/fbga/aLiveWyre.php

THE "NOTTINGHAM, UK" RITUAL ABUSE CASES by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance

‘The Making of a Satanic Myth’, http://www.smwane.dk/content/view/189/28/

http://www.faascotland.co.uk/A%20live%20Wyre.htm

CONTINUED...

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Rahni Sadler interviews Kate and Gerry McCann: "Did you kill your daughter?" (Full response)

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Madeleine McCann: The 1,100,000,000 people who can buy, read and discuss ‘The Truth About A Lie’ - and the ‘free speech’ nation which cannot

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Kate and Gerry McCann: THIS WAS NOT TRUE

Friday, May 10, 2019

What was the connection between Kate and Gerry McCann and the late paedophilia ‘expert’, Ray Wyre?

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