Paedophilia
and paedophiles are words from which we naturally recoil. It is by no
means a new phenomenon. There are many other words we use to refer to
paedophiles: kiddie-fiddlers, nonces, child sexual abusers, child sex
offenders and so on. Some of the crimes committed by paedophiles are
scarcely believable in their brutality; other offences by them are
mercifully less serious. One thing seems certain, such crimes are on the
increase and are often severe in their long-lasting effects on those
abused. There is widespread agreement that the internet is a major cause
of any increase in this vile crime.
It is an unpleasant fact
that the subject of paedophilia has frequently been associated in some
way with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, very regrettable though
that is. Here, for the record, we give a brief summary of some of these
references:
1. Dr Gerry McCann said on the day Madeleine was reported missing that Madeleine had been taken by a paedophile
Leaving
aside for a moment the lack of direct evidence that Madeleine was
abducted at all, there clearly is also no direct evidence whatsoever
that, if Madeleine was abducted, that it was a paedophile who took her.
Yet the McCanns themselves, on the very evening that Madeleine was
reported missing, claimed she had been snatched by one or more
paedophiles. That was a remarkable thing for them to say right from the
first minute they reported Madeleine as missing. She might for example
have wandered out of her room and out of the flat.
2. The McCanns and their team repeatedly said that Madeleine had been taken by a paedophile or a gang of paedophiles
In
the months that followed her reported disappearance, the McCann Team
made numerous references, counted in dozens, to the probability that
Madeleine had been abducted by paedophiles.
3.
One of the McCanns’ close friends, a General Practitioner, said that on
a previous holiday together, one of Dr Gerald McCann’s best friends, Dr
David Payne, had made sexualised remarks and gestures about Madeleine
On 16 May 2007, just 13 days after Madeleine disappeared, Dr Katarina Gaspar made this statement:
“One
night, when all the adults, that is, from those couples I have
mentioned above, were all sitting around on a patio outside the house
where we were all staying. We had been eating and drinking ‘Berbers’. I
was sitting between Gerry and Dave and I think both were talking about
Madeleine. I can't remember the conversation in its entirety, but they
seemed to be discussing a particular scenario. I remember Dave saying to
Gerry something about ‘she’, meaning Madeleine, ‘would do
this’.
“While
he mentioned the word ‘this’, Dave was doing the action of sucking one
of his fingers, pushing it in and out of his mouth, while with his other
hand he was doing a circle around his nipple, with a circular movement
around his clothes. This was done in a provocative way. There seemed to
be an explicit insinuation about what he was saying and doing. I
remember being shocked by that. I always felt it was something very
weird and that it was not something anyone should say or do. I looked at
Gerry, and also at Dave, to gauge their reactions.
“I
looked around as if saying: “Did someone else hear that, or was it just
me?”. The conversations stopped for a moment, then we all began
conversing again. Moreover, I remember Dave doing the same thing on
another occasion. In saying this, I want to mention once again that it
was during a conversation in which he was talking about an imaginary
scenario, although I’m not sure.
“He
again stuck one of his fingers in and out of his mouth and with the
other hand he once again drew a circle around his nipple in a
provocative and sexual way. I think he was referring to the way she,
that is, his daughter Lily, would behave or what she would do. I think
he did this later during this same holiday, but I'm not sure.
“The
only time since then that I have been in the company of Dave and Fiona
was several weeks after the holidays, when Savio and I met Gerry, Kate,
Dave and Fiona in a restaurant in Leicester. I’m sure that he said what
he said and made the gestures I have related, but [the second time] it
could have happened in the restaurant in Leicester, although I do think
it was in Majorca that I heard Dave say and do this for the second time.
After the second occasion [when he made these gestures] I took it more
seriously.
“I remember thinking whether
he would look at my daughter and other little girls in a different way
than I or others do. I imagined that he had perhaps visited internet
sites related to little children. In a word, I thought that he could be
interested in child pornography on the web. During our holiday in
Majorca, each parent would bath the children in turn. I was keen to stay
near the bathroom if Dave was bathing the children.
“I
remember I said to Savio to be careful and to be close by if Dave was
helping to bathe the children and my daughter in particular…”
4. Dr Katarina Gaspar’s husband, also a General Practitioner, Dr Arul Savio Gaspar, confirmed this event:
“During
the period we stayed at the villa I remember a gesture made by David
Payne. I do not remember the context of the conversation between David
and Gerry, but I do remember seeing David use his left index finger to
rub his nipple, using circular movements, whilst he put his right index
finger into his mouth, touching his tongue. This happened during a meal,
at the end of the day, in the villa. I do not remember the time or the
date, but we would usually dine between 7.30pm and 9.00pm every day. I
think this happened in the middle of the holiday.
“I remember
that when I saw this gesture, I immediately thought it to be in very bad
taste, independently of the context of the conversation they were
having. We were sitting around a white plastic table in the villa. I
don’t know if anyone else saw the gesture, apart from my wife
Katherine”.
5. One of the suspects in the case, Robert Murat, was accused by two witnesses of having paedophile tendencies
A
couple of days after Robert Murat was taken in for questioning by the
Portuguese Police and formally declared a suspect, Dr Gerald McCann was
asked: “Did you already know Robert Murat?” Dr McCann brushed the
question aside impatiently and said: “I am not going to comment on
that”. That led many to consider that the two men did previously know
each other. It is a very reasonable inference to draw from his evasive
comment.
Two witnesses claimed that
Robert Murat had paedophile tendencies. One of them, who knew Murat
well, made a detailed statement with some very graphic comments about
Murat’s sexual preferences. The links for these statements are given on
our website in a lengthy feature article about Robert Murat. The
Portuguese Police discovered encrypted material on Murat’s computer
after they seized it. Encryption is often used by those who view,
download or exchange child pornography. Murat said he had ‘no idea’ why
there was encrypted material on his computer.
6. Murat’s friend Sergei Malinka was also said to have child
pornography on his computer
A
witness told Portuguese Police that Sergei Malinka, a friend of Murat
who had worked on Murat’s website, also had an interest in child
pornography and had child pornography on his computer. But the police
found he had wiped all the data on his hard drive before the police
examined it.
7. Jim Gamble, the
Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
(CEOP), used the Madeleine McCann disappearance to highlight the danger
of paedophiles
Despite the high degree
of uncertainty about what really happened to Madeleine, highlighted by
their own spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, saying in March 2010 that her
disappearance was ‘a complete mystery’, Jim Gamble, head of CEOP,
relentlessly associated Madeleine with CEOP. This was despite the
obvious fact that the McCanns on their own admission had left three
young children, all aged under four, in a vulnerable situation - for six
nights in a row - and clearly failed to protect them. Many questioned
why an organisation with the words ‘Child Protection’ in its title
should feature the McCanns so heavily, given their failure of child protection.
Gamble,
from 2007 onwards, heavily featured Madeleine on the CEOP website and
in various CEOP publications. Around the time of the second anniversary
of Madeleine’s disappearance (17 months previous to the date of this
article , he appeared together with the McCanns in a so-called
one-minute ‘viral video’, strongly emphasising that Madeleine was still
alive and needed to be found.
Later he also appeared on morning news shows side by side with the McCanns.
Still
more significantly, he invited Dr Gerald McCann in January 2010 to be
the keynote speaker at a conference on the abduction of children by
paedophiles. Why Dr McCann was considered by Gamble to be qualified to
contribute to that conference, never mind being the ‘keynote speaker’,
given the raft of uncertainties about the circumstances in which
Madeleine disappeared, has never been explained either by the McCanns or
by Jim Gamble.
Furthermore, it was
reported - and confirmed by a Home Office Freedom of Information Act
request - that in October 2009, the McCanns had a private interview with
the McCanns. Following that, several press reports (not denied)
indicated that the Home Secretary asked Jim Gamble to recommend a new
British police force to carry out a review and possibly a
re-investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
Some
reports suggested that he had recommended West Yorkshire Police to
carry out such a review. But the Home Office was unwilling to confirm or
deny this. It was baffling why the Home Secretary, knowing Jim Gamble’s
extreme closeness to the McCanns, should choose him to recommend who
should carry out any review into Madeleine’s disappearance.
8.
In the days before this article was written, Jim Gamble told the Home
Secretary, Theresa May, that he was resigning from his post as CEOP
Chief Executive, a resignation she swiftly accepted. The McCanns put out
statements strongly supporting him, thanking him for his work on their
behalf, and querying the Coalition government’s decision to incorporate
CEOP within the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). They described
his departure in graphic terms as ‘a huge loss to child protection’.
These comments pointed inexorably, once again, to the conclusion that
there was a very close ‘tie’ between the McCanns and Jim Gamble.
The
McCann Team in conjunction with Jim Gamble of CEOP published a video
about Madeleine and circulated it round the internet which many believed
showed her inappropriately posed in heavy make-up
In
2010, Jim Gamble once again co-operated with the McCanns to make a
another video about Madeleine. The video in question featured three
images of Madeleine. One very striking one shows her in an unusual pose,
shot by the photographer from well below her face, wearing make-up,
including much blue eyeshadow, lipstick and jewellery, and looking
unhappy.
The McCanns publicly claimed
that ‘the photo shows her when she was three after a raid on the
dressing box’. However, it is very unlikely that Madeleine could have
put the necklace on herself, nor applied eyeshadow in the manner shown
in the photograph, nor applied the pink bow to her hair.
The
evidence from the photograph suggests that an adult made her up and of
course an adult was on hand to take that particular image of her. The
McCanns did not say who took the photograph. Even if Madeleine had
‘raided the dressing box’, as claimed, it is one thing to take a photo
of something like that for your family photo album, but altogether
another matter to release it for millions to see.
The
McCanns explicitly approved the very public release of this video and
the images on it. As one newspaper reported: “Parents of Madeleine
McCann, who went missing three years ago, have released a new video and
photo of their missing daughter to mark the third anniversary of the
girl's disappearance”. The photo the McCanns specifically chose to
highlight in the video was the one with Madeleine wearing heavy make-up,
apparently applied by an adult and not by herself.
There was
strong adverse reaction by many members of the public to this image
being used in connection with a missing child. Not least was the opinion
of Mr Mark Williams-Thomas, a former police detective and now leading
criminologist and child protection expert, who has often in the past
spoken with strong sympathy and understanding for the McCanns. His
unambiguous reaction to this particular photograph, promoted on his
‘Twitter’ blog, was that it was ‘so inappropriate’ and ‘so damaging’. We
agree with him.
The McCanns have from the day Madeleine was
reported missing claimed explicitly and on many occasions that Madeleine
must have been abducted by a paedophile, or paedophiles, often
described by them as ‘predatory’, ‘evil’, or ‘monsters’. Yet the photo
of Madeleine featured by her parents shows a child looking much older
than her actual three years, due to the make-up and jewellery, as all
the news media quickly picked up the following day.
The McCanns
said a number of times that they were advised by the police ‘not to show
any emotion’ in front of the cameras. One newspaper reported, around
the time the McCanns appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show: “The couple
also admitted they had been advised not to show any emotion while in
front of the media, because any potential abductor ‘may get a kick out
of it’.” It was all the more surprising, therefore, that the McCanns
should use this short video to project and promote an image of Madeleine
which might well appeal to certain paedophiles, some of whom are
unfortunately attracted to young children.
One person
commented on ‘Twitter’ about the direct promotion of this video by CEOP
Chief Executive Jim Gamble, writing: “If CEOP endorse this type of
public relations for a supposed missing child, then their role in child
protection has to be questioned!”
9. The
McCann Team have highlighted the possible involvement of a named
paedophile, Raymond Hewlett, in the disappearance of Madeleine
First
they suggested that Hewlett was involved in Madeleine’s disappearance;
latterly they have claimed that he gave an account of his knowledge of
Madeleine’s disappearance in a letter he dictated to hospital staff in
the weeks before he died. The claims made about this letter are highly
improbable and we suggest that they are a complete fabrication. They
have however been deliberately promoted by the McCann Team for 18
months.
10. The connection between Ray Wyre, paedophile ‘expert’ and the McCanns
We’ve
highlighted the connection between the late Ray Wyre and the McCanns in
another article on our website, titled ‘Ray Wyre and the McCanns: What
was the connection between the McCanns and the late paedophilia
‘expert’, Ray Wyre?
There are at least four questions we would ask about this connection:
- Why was Wyre so keen, in two articles
published four and seven days after Madeleine was reported missing, to
insist so adamantly that she had been abducted?
- Why, in addition, did he emphasise the possibility that she had been snatched by a paedophile?
- Why did the McCanns agree to meet the Wyres at the their Buckinghamshire home?
- Was
that meeting really much more about producing a helpful Sunday
newspaper article than, as was claimed, about starting a new
organisation for missing children?
11. (NEW - UPDATED 15 June 2016) The McCanns’ friend, Sir Clement Freud, exposed as a serial paedophile
Following
the reported disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the McCanns had dinner
with the late Sir Clement Freud and his wife, Lady Freud. They had a
villa in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where the McCanns had been holidaying.
They became friends with each other. There had been strong rumours for
years that Clement Freud was a paedophile. These have now been confirmed
in an article for the Daily Telegraph
on 14 June 2016, in which it was stated that Lady Freud apologised for
her husband;s conduct and that Operation Grange would now investigate
links between Sir Clement Freud and the McCanns. Sir Clement died in 2009.
Article filed by Tony Bennett, Secretary, The Madeleine Foundation, 10 October 2010 and updated by a Moderator on 15 June 2016
