Madeleine McCann’s Kidnapper Calls Police
TO mark the two-year anniversay of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, the media is cranking up its coverage. It’s all about the hunt for Our Maddie, isn’t it?
Well, no. After much chatter, lives ruined and censure in the courtroom the single-thread story that spun out of control is once more invites us to watch the parents and speculate.
Sky News: “Madeleine: ‘Major Flaws In Police Probe’”
Madeleine McCann may never be found due to major flaws in the police investigation into her disappearance, according to a leading child protection expert.
Let’s have the facts:
The report claims the police strategy could have led to major evidence being lost
Says..?
Mark Williams-Thomas, a former police detective, has written a damning report, which highlights several police failings in the hours after Madeleine went missing.
Can this be the same Mark William-Thomas who back in October 2007, opined:
Mark Williams-Thomas, a former Surrey Police child protection officer who worked on the Sarah Payne murder inquiry, says the new approach was ‘textbook’. Says he: “For a long time now the investigation has lacked direction and impetus and [Paulo] Rebelo has brought that back. You wonder why they didn’t bring him in earlier”
Now, with new report to write:
There was no perimeter set up around the crime scene and no immediate search of the surrounding area which could mean vital evidence was lost.
Mr Williams-Thomas is sticking to the facts.
“Crime scene analysis and a finger-tip search would have revealed significant clues. They may not have ended up finding her but these factors would have had a major impact on the situation.”
Whjat is new about this report, other than the date. Much has already been said on the failings of the Portuguese police.
And then the best bit:
“The media plays a significant role because it’s the best way to communicate information to a mass audience. The police rarely solve cases on their own, they rely on public information to piece it together.”
Who knew that after two years of media sensation and the McCanns speaking through a PR, the media had a role to play? And has the medai helped find the child they called “Our Maddie”?
The Sun: “Maddie ’seized looking for parents’”
Now this is progress. At last a lead. A fact:
MADELEINE McCann was probably abducted as she went looking for her parents, an expert claimed yesterday.
Claimed? What happened to that opening statement of fact?
Criminologist Mark Williams-Thomas said it was unlikely that an abductor entered Maddie’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
Such are the facts.
Belfast Telegraph: “Questions still unanswered two years after Madeleine’s disappearance”
Two years after Madeleine McCann vanished, the world is hardly any closer to learning the truth about what happened to her on the night of May 3 2007.
But what about what Williams-Thomas just told us?
Despite a massive police investigation that spanned the globe and huge media and public interest, the fate of the little girl who disappeared while on holiday with her family in the Algarve remains unknown.
More facts…
Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, treat this lack of concrete evidence positively and insist they have not given up hope of finding their daughter alive.
They say they take strength from cases like that of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian woman who was kidnapped aged 10 and held hostage for eight years before escaping in 2006.
Chat-show host Natascha Kampusch? She went missing in Austria, land of celllars.
This is followed by two paragraphs that highlight those headline-making questions:
As the McCanns mark the sad anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance, to be followed by her sixth birthday nine days later, there are still many unanswered questions.
Such as?
It remains to be seen whether the next 12 months will bring any more answers.
That report was brought to by Maddie Industries - keeping hacks in work since 2007!
Sky News – Martin Brunt: “A Statement Of The Obvious?”
Madeleine McCann’s parents had nothing to do with her disappearance, she was probably abducted after she left the apartment, the Portuguese police did a poor investigation and the dogs’ evidence was dodgy.
Martin Brunt has the facts:
No, not my conclusions, but those of British criminologist and ex-cop Mark Williams-Thomas.
So the part about Kate and Gerry McCann’s innocence is not your conclusion, Martin?
His findings, on the second anniversay of her disappearance, are based on the translation of 10,000 police documents, including witness statements, DNA reports and photographs.
Findings? Since when is an opinion a “finding”?
He says he was helped in his review by criminal profiler Professor David Wilson and a woman who speaks Portuguese.
Impressed? Hard not to be. Martin Brunt thinks on:
Is this:
a) Critical analysis which “throws new light on the disappearance”, as Mark claims?
Or
b) A statement of the bleedin’ obvious?
Please discuss.
New lows in journalism: Module 546b.
Daily Star: “COPS FAILED TO PROBE £1M MADDIE RANSOM”
Police hunting Madeleine McCann ignored a £1million ransom demand from a man who said he had her, a shock report claimed last night.
Maybe he was lying?
The man asked for the money in a call to a staff member at the Portuguese holiday apartment where the four-year-old was last seen nearly two years ago.
He left the message on a phone belonging to a worker at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz – with a child’s voice speaking English in the background.
And?
Police put a trace on the phone but the caller never rang back.
…because he lost all interest in money?
The bombshell was revealed yesterday in a new report by criminologist Mark Williams-Thomas, a former UK detective who has worked on the case since Maddie vanished on May 3, 2007. “The demand was received via a voicemail,” he said. “Although an intercept was placed on the line, no further calls were received.”
How many other false leads were there that were follwoed up?
Remember the letter to a Dutch newspaper. And a map showing where her body can be found. It was credible. And what about her, she who saw Our Maddie in Morocco? And the “hoax“? And this hoax? And tabloid journalists pointing the finger at innocent men.
Mr Williams-Thomas believes Madeleine was snatched after waking in the apartment and going to look for her parents. But his report concludes that the girl is probably now dead.
Who needs the Portuguese police when we have a ritired British copper with such facts at his fingertips?
Metro: “Ex-Maddie officer launches own hunt”
A detective who was sacked from the hunt for Madeleine McCann is launching his own investigation into the youngster’s disappearance. Goncalo Amaral said he wanted justice for the missing girl.
Says he who believes the child died in the family flat:
“This investigation is not aimed at finding evidence against (parents) Gerry and Kate McCann or persecuting anyone. We want to help make sure the truth comes out and justice is done. The criminal investigation ended prematurely and there’s a lot that still needs to be investigated.”
Well, yes. Much to be investigated. For instance - where is the child?
The father of three has written a book which claimed Madeleine died in a ‘tragic accident’ at the McCanns’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, the day she was last seen in May 2007.
And after two years of speculation and libel the media is still speculating…
Posted: 1st, May 2009 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Media Comments (40) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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May 2nd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
everyone searched for 9 months from my school
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
maddie come back i hope god finds her all of my luckxxx
May 1st, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I like the new look Birdy…it adds a bit of magic & anarchy to Anokrak…..
May 1st, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Wonder if there was a can of opened ‘Chum’ in the boot of the scenic…
May 1st, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Right, now the numbering’s returned. Still topsy turvy but in the correct order.
Trouble is, some of the posts have disappeared again.
That’s me for the evening, please get your geeks to sort it out ASAP.
Moderator - new software teething problems
May 1st, 2009 at 7:59 pm
What on earth has happened to your numeracy skills Anorak? I don’t think 110 comes straight after 19.
Have you been hitting the bottle already?
May 1st, 2009 at 7:32 pm
we pray every day for little maddie , were she is alive or with the lord in heaven , she is IN GODS HANDS?…PRAISE THE LORD
May 1st, 2009 at 7:15 pm
If the dogs gave false positive indications, why go to the trouble of making excuses for what the scent in the car could have been? Going to great lengths to explain away something is bound to raise suspicion.
Dirty nappies? Rotting pork? In a hire car on holiday? Where there are plenty of bins around?
Why not just say the dogs were rubbish and there was nothing untoward in the car?
May 1st, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Hi lone pigeon
Yes, I must qualify as any guess work is consistant with all other ‘experts’ on the case.
May 1st, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Garth (the old fart)
Thanks for making me laugh today.
May 1st, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Can I repeat my point - the dogs DID fin something in Portugal. That is surely beyond dispute as is the total lack of evidence indicating abduction. I do not
know what did happen and try to keep an open mind but the continuing
criticism of the dogs and what they turned up togther with the reaction of the good doctors on hearing of the discoveries, is strange to say the least
May 1st, 2009 at 6:14 pm
The Real Stig
As I understand it , cats have staff…..
But on the topic of the dogs, there may have been blood scented, but whose?
Too much weight was given much too soon (more media hype) to the dogs findings, they only sniff out what they sniff out, and I’m sure there’s many a human who has been dug out of somewhere alive and are intensely grateful to a dog.
Remember the blood split could be by another human, not by the dog.
May 1st, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Clive says:
May 1st, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I am fed up with these dogs getting a bad press. They did actually find something in both sites and this allowed sampling to be made.
The problem is that there was insufficient evidence to connect this to Madeleine, apparently, but the dogs did their bit.
Compare this to a total lack of evidence relating to abduction or alternatively
a lot of evidence showing abduction most improbable.
Give the dogs a pat and a big bowl of Chum.
——————————
I don’t think anyone blames the dogs, moreover their handlers and the way the search was conducted and, the way the Portuguese muppets jumped on the bandwagon as if it were fact that she died in the apartment. So if anyone gave the dogs a bad press - it was Amaral and his muppets. Infact, to answer Pat (the old bat) it was the Portuguese who fed the Press fairy tales and who hindered the investigation - supported by easily led prats, some of which we have witnessed post on this forum.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I agry maddie should be found SAVE MADDIE PLEASE
IF SHE WAS FOUND …………………..:):) FOR EVERYONE X
May 1st, 2009 at 5:35 pm
I think everyone should try and find madeleine if it was your child or someone close to you you would save them so save her please and im not her mum or dad or her family im just glad its not me are you? 12 year old girl xx
May 1st, 2009 at 5:27 pm
June
Cats have arguably done more
May 1st, 2009 at 5:25 pm
The dogs found nothing in Jersey.
They are supposed to detect the scent of ‘death’ and blood, but even the most hardened believer in their abilities would have their credulity strained to believe the dogs could detect such scents that were centuries old - because that’s what the radiocarbon dating suggested. The material that was found was as the result of a major archaeological excavation that cost £4.5m which, because it occured on a long inhabited site and was so extensive, was bound to turn up something.
There was no instance during that months long dig, of the dogs indicating there being something in a particular spot and then something of significance being found at that spot.
We were initially regaled with the example of the dogs indicating strongly, there being something of significance in a basement. They dug up the entire concrete floor and found a piece of Victorian era coconut shell - good doggie!
The dogs indicated blood - no blood was found. The dogs indicated human remains - none were found where the dogs indicated. Some human bone fragments were found, but not by the dogs, just hard thorough work by the archaeologists.
“• Most of the 170 pieces of bone found in the search came from animals. Three were human and two of these dated from between 1470-1670 and 1650-1950 respectively.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/jersey/7724622.stm
Remind me again what evidence of human remains the dogs found in PDL, I forget.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:21 pm
If she wondered out, and some person took her, then I wonder what he did to Maddie to get her to lay down seeing that one of their friends said she saw Maddie being carried away and the image she gave was a child lying down. If an abductor took her away and maybe said to her ” Okay, I will help you find Mommy and Daddy ” she would probably be sitting up in his arms or maybe walking holding his hand.So do you still think this friend of theirs saw a man walking away with a child lying down or sitting up ? I do hope she will be brought back but like Kate and Gerry thinks alive and well, I do no think the WELL part will be all that well.
May 1st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Clive
So am I, one of the first sniffer dogs had to be put to sleep as he developed nasal cancer purely due to the drugs he sniffed out.
Dogs do a lot for humanity, lets be thankful to them
May 1st, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I am fed up with these dogs getting a bad press. They did actually find something in both sites and this allowed sampling to be made.
The problem is that there was insufficient evidence to connect this to Madeleine, apparently, but the dogs did their bit.
Compare this to a total lack of evidence relating to abduction or alternatively
a lot of evidence showing abduction most improbable.
Give the dogs a pat and a big bowl of Chum.
May 1st, 2009 at 4:22 pm
“Martin Brunt has the facts: EDIT
He says he was helped in his review by criminal profiler Professor David Wilson and a woman who speaks Portuguese.”
The big question for me here is whether she also spoke English.
May 1st, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Perhaps then it would be better to let dogs just be pets or guide dogs , or as with mine PAT dogs, and keep them away from scenes of crime?
May 1st, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Sure June. When dogs are used for drug detection, their false-positive rate is about 74%.
“The only substantial body of research was conducted in Australia. The Privacy Ombudsman of New South Wales reported its review on the use of drug-detection dogs to parliament in 2006. His research revealed that 74% of those searched following an indication by a dog were found not to be in possession of illegal drugs.”
May 1st, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Hi Patricia
And you’re the expert are you?
May 1st, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Sorry I posted the same thing (ish) twice, thought the first one had been “lost”. I’ve seen the WT website and he also works for or advises a firm called mediava (or summat close to that). Like I said, we have a world of “experts” who don’t actually do anything! Mad, or what.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:26 pm
BTW that picture above is totally bloody awful
May 1st, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Everyone tries to be the expert in what they believed happened to her without thinking clearly- who would ever believe a three to four year old would wake up, discover her parents are not there, and set about calmly to neaten her bed and toys before setting off to find them- but instead of finding them she is pounced upon by the nasty monster, sounds more like a fairy tale to me. Especially since nobody else reported seeing or hearing her call for ‘mummy’. Incidently the dogs are supposedly as incompetent as the police are reported to be. This case is constantly being hindered by fairy tales.
May 1st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Perhaps just use dogs for drug smuggling searches and finding live people after earthquakes?
May 1st, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Julia
The next time after the McCann case those dogs were used - Haut de la Garenne; Jersey - they gave false positive indications, leading to a hugely expensive waste of time.
May 1st, 2009 at 11:13 am
From WT Associates
http://www.wt-associates.co.uk/?page=2
May 1st, 2009 at 10:47 am
I can’t help thinking why are we interested in what Mr Willimas-Thomas and Professor David Wilson have to say? They make a very good living out of crime without really actually solving it, and it does their respective careers the power of good to see their names pop up now and again. A bit like football pundits, who can tell the managers how they’re going wrong but they don’t actually do the job themselves? That’s my opinion, anyhow!