How The Aisling Symes’ Tragedy Became The Media’s Nightmare
How the media starting ticking boxes when Aisling Symes, went missing - the New Zealand child prayed for by the McCanns and watched by the world’s media.
POLICE looking for Aisling Symes have found the body of a child in a storm water drain.
“The immediate scene has been condoned off and treated as a crime scene,” says Insp Gary Davey.
Says Sky News: “There was speculation she had been abducted.”
This speculation is what made the missing child a global story.
A few kind words from Madeleine McCanns’ parents were seized upon by a voracious media, and the story became a yet more desperate hunt for a stolen child. It became the media’s “every parent’s worst nightmare”.
The excavation followed an offer of a $50,000 (£23,000) reward from British aristocrat Lord Ashcroft for information leading to Aisling’s safe return.
Lord Ashcroft cares. And the Sydney Morning Herald reports:
The last confirmed sighting of her had been at 5.15pm last Monday in Longburn Rd, Henderson, in the company of an unknown Asian woman who was walking a dog.
Dark foreigners. Missing child. Blue eyes. Blonde hair. A narrative builds. No evidence. No evidence required. Join the dots.
The Irish Examiner gave us this:
Girl snatched from tranquil home recalls tragic McCann case
That Madeleine McCann was snatched is not a proven fact. But journalist Dan Buckey knows all:
While child abduction is rare in New Zealand, paedophile rings work internationally and go for easy targets. In the United States alone, a child goes missing every 40 seconds, more than 2,000 a day.
All takes by paedophiles, right? Well, no.
3News (NZ) delivers: “Child abusers targeted as fears for Aisling grow - Video”
In the comments, armchair detectives are at work:
Asians do love little kids, and when my daughter was living overseas in an Asian country I did notice that they seemed to have a great fascination with small European children. Especially with their fair hair .
Herald (NZ): “Neighbours were last night asking how a child missing for a week and feared taken by kidnappers could be found only metres from where she disappeared.”
Maybe the police have been spending too logn with the media - they who come to look for tragedy and scream “paedo!”?
A child goes missing - and the international media uses it as a chance to add another chapter to its obsession.
Posted: 12th, October 2009 | In: Key Posts, Media Comments (24) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
October 15th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Just testing my link, doesn’t seem to work, but you can find it on the npia website!
October 15th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Bat E Bird and Cheryl, I believe the system they use for photo recognition is ViSOR. I once took a picture of somone acting suspiciously next to a kids’ pool and gave it to my friend who’s a copper, and they used this system to search for him (with no matches found). More details on http://www.police.uk/en/10510.htm if you’re interested.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Already passing the BUCK::::
xxx
October 14, 2009 Wednesday
2 Edition
NEWS; NEWS; Pg. A.1
625 words
‘It’s quite unbelievable that we weren’t alerted’; Council ‘knew’ about drain problem
FOX Michael; GADD David, FOX Michael GADD David
As the family of Aisling Symes prepare for her funeral, the Waitakere City Council could face prosecution over her death.
The body of the two-year-old was removed early yesterday morning from a stormwater drain just metres from the property in Henderson, West Auckland, where she was last seen.
An autopsy found her death was “consistent with drowning” and police believe she had been in the drain since the day she went missing, a week before her body was found.
Neighbours of the home from which Aisling wandered away said yesterday that they had repeatedly warned the council about problems with the drain and a manhole cover that Aisling probably crawled through, saying it blew off under water pressure when it rained.
Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey began an inquiry yesterday into those allegations, while a spokesman said the council had received four complaints about the manhole cover since 2004, most recently on September 11 and September 25.
Aisling disappeared about 5.15pm on October 5.
Tim Rainey, a lawyer who specialises in construction negligence, said it was “very much a live possibility” that the council could be prosecuted under the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
“If they were aware of a risk which could harm somebody then they would have been obliged to take all practicable steps to ensure that risk was either eliminated or minimised.”
Council staff visited the Longburn Rd property and inspected the drain on September 16 - five days after one complaint. They found it was blocked by tree roots, and were in discussions with the property owner about who would pay to clear the blockage.
“We were in the process of deciding how best to remove those when the tragedy occurred,” council spokes- man Wally Thomas said.
“There was a matter of days between us receiving the last complaint and acting on it, and before we could clear the problem this tragedy occurred.”
Harvey said he and other councillors were unaware of any problems with the drain, and wished residents and staff at the council-owned Eco Water company had told police about the problems during the search for Aisling.
“I’m bewildered that I am being told this after all the walking and searching, that a drain next to the house has been the subject of complaints,” he said.
“It’s quite unbelievable that we weren’t alerted to that.”
Police said yesterday the drain was searched at least five times, including twice by one of the first officers on the scene, not long after Alan and Angela Symes reported Aisling missing.
It was also checked by a search and rescue team, Symes himself, and council staff using special cameras. The full length of the drain could not be seen because of a blockage.
Police returned to the drain on Monday afternoon after failing to find any leads in the case, which was by then being treated as an abduction.
The drain was dug up, and Aisling’s body was found.
Inspector Gary Davey was “convinced police did everything they could that (first) night to find her,” he said.
“I’m sure we would not have been able to save her on the night.”
Stacey Baker, a landlord in Longburn Rd, said she had complained about the manhole cover several times.
“In the last few weeks I’ve complained heaps. When I rang the council last time they knew there was a problem.”
Neighbour Janet Neho said the drain “has always scared us”.
“They (the council) have been notified about it for a little while now.”
A spokesman for the Labour Department, which administers health and safety laws, said it had not been contacted by police.
“If they had any information that they want to pass on, we would be happy to consider it,” he said.
Waitemata police spokesman Kevin Loughlin would not comment on whether the council’s role in the tragedy would be investigated.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:48 am
No abduction, no boogy man and no Asian lady…An accident..I guess that means no more help for the Symes…
ABC Premium News (Australia)
October 14, 2009 Wednesday 10:49 AM AEST
147 words
Council faces prosecution over drain death
New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie
A local council in New Zealand is facing prosecution for not fixing a faulty stormwater drain, where the body of a missing two-year-old girl was found.
Locals say the council ignored at least four of their complaints about the drain.
Aisling Symes was missing in Auckland for more than a week.
Police thought she had been kidnapped, but she had wandered off when her mum turned her back to fix a washing machine.
The toddler’s body was found next door, in a drain with a loose manhole cover.
The girls’ father and police had earlier searched the drain but did not see her.
Neighbour Stacey Baker says the Waitakere Council knew the drain was blocked and unsafe.
“I had complained quite a number of times because the house I own was flooding practically every day,” she said.
The council had inspected the drain but were in discussions with the property owner over who should pay the repair bill.
October 14, 2009
xxxxxxx
Source,,,LexiNexis News
October 15th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Hi Cheryl
It wasn’t the server, my morning posts were in moderation until yesterday evening, which is why you couldn’t see them earlier.
There’s a new dark side. The address has the same beginning as before but .info at the end instead of .net.
October 15th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Bat E Bird, good morning.. I’m a night owl over here so usually up until wee hours. Truth is I’m hooked on NCIS and Criminal Minds and unfortunately stumbled across a late night channel that runs only their stories until 3 and 4 in the a.m. I just received your post with the article re the pictures. So, I don’t know if the hang ups are from your end or my server. However, thank you for that article, often wondered if that request was followed up on by the people and/or police.
I, as you, did not believe the posters and their sources. One in particular who kept saying ‘wait and see’ … well, I’m still waiting and haven’t seen.
Has the dark side reopened for all the fantasy writers?
October 14th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Now I look stupid cos I have two posts in moderation so you haven’t a clue what I mean by the last one.
Never mind.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Or maybe evening. Even tomorrow.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:13 am
When I say morning Cheryl, it will probably be afternoon when you get to read my previous comment.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Morning Cheryl
I found this about the photos
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1837778.ece
“Hundreds of holidaymakers have sent pictures featuring strangers to the operation by British police to identify known sex offenders who were in Praia da Luz in the two weeks before Madeleine was taken from her bed. The images have been checked using a biometric facial recognition programme to compare them against a database of known paedophiles and other criminals. ”
As for the tracking dogs, I’m sure it was a news report.
I tend not to believe the posters with “sources” until I see proof and it’s a good job I decided that early on because all of them have turned out to be false.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Bat E Bird, I recalled that being said but wasn’t sure if it was fact or a fantasy written by a poster. If she was abducted either inside the apartment or outside of it, it doesn’t make sense an abductor would permit her to walk at all. A child that age would get scared being taken away from the direction where her parents were and cry out and pull to get away. They could keep their hand over her mouth to keep her quiet carrying her but not walking her.
Bat E Bird, do you recall it being mentioned back then that a request was made for all those who stayed at the Resort at the time to please send all pictures they had taken so they could be reviewed? I wonder if that was ever done. It was a long shot but who knows one person may have shown up in different pictures at different times and days who didn’t really fit in in those pictures.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Bat E Bird, there have been problems on here. Yesterday, quite often I could not get onto the site or once on an error message would come on and I”d be looking at a blank white Error page. So, there may be still be a glitch in the system. Sort of like when you have the plummer come and he fixes one leaking pipe and no sooner does he leave than another one starts to leak.
October 13th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Dr Eggman, I suppose it would have been how well trained the search dogs were as to focus on just the child’s scent and follow it through the Resort, etc. A friend of mine has a search and rescue dog and it is so intelligent.
Dr Eggman, I for one will not give Portugal any kind of credit for why they don’t have the experience in finding missing children. Do some research on Portugal and their major scandal a few years ago and they also do not register paedophiles. IMO, they should be experts in finding a missing child quickly.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Moderator, I don’t like to keep whining but could you please tell me why my comments are all marked as awaiting moderation these days?
It’s started happening to every comment I post recently and it’s getting on my nerves. By the time they’re released, everyone’s gone
October 13th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Cheryl, I’m sure I remember reading in one report that the tracking dogs lost Madeleine’s scent at the supermarket. They said it could have been because she was bundled into a car or simply because she’d previously walked there with her parents.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Too right they would have. I’m sure that Gordon Brown offered that help, but Portugal said No. At least, that’s what I seem to remember reading about. It seems astonishing that, given we’re all supposed to be one big happy family in Europe, any help offered was not taken. Too much national pride perhaps? It’s perhaps to Portugal’s credit though that they have less experience in this field: sadly most of Britain’s Police forces are fully experienced in every type of crime you can think of. Ditto USA sadly I guess!
I always thought the problem with the dogs was how many different ways will the McCanns (and therefore Madeleine) have exited from the apartment during the course of their stay? Which scent do you follow? The strongest? All of them?
October 13th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Dr Eggman, I’ll wager a proper search such as you describe, as done in the UK and US, was not done.
I’m trying to recall didn’t the authorities use tracking dogs in attempts to follow her scent? However, we must keep in mind that case was a mess the first 4 months and Amoral blamed it on the fact that police had no procedures to follow in investigating a missing child case.
If they had just said from the very beginning to the UK we need help immediately the UK would have had their men on a plane the very same day they got that request. The outcome may well have been a whole different story. In fact, didn’t the UK offer to help right away?
October 13th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Cheryl you’re right that many people were out looking for her but how systematic and how thorough were the searches? Was it a case of people walking around calling her name or was it like a “proper” Police search where they walk in a line? I’m not criticising at all, I think it was fantastic that so many people gave up their time, but how well done was it?
October 13th, 2009 at 4:35 am
Dr Eggman, from what I recall many people were out searching for her that night as if she had wandered away. Kate McCann insisted she was abducted, which is understandable that would be immediately thought since she was no where in the apartment and how would she get out alone? The times the children were allegedly checked on they were asleep. When thinking about it, if she had gone out of the apartment on her own one would think a child would be calling for their Mother or Father trying to find them. Someone hanging around the Resort with evil intents could have seen her or heard her and taken her.
If she had fallen on her own into a storm drain the body wouldn’t be there now. If someone had evil intents and not to abduct her to take her away, I’ve always felt they would have put her in the ocean so she wouldn’t be found.
October 13th, 2009 at 3:07 am
I can understand them discounting the wandering off theory though as, if you thought for one moment your child had been abducted, you’d want everyone to know about it as soon as possible so the search for the abductor could begin.
Seem to remember a mention of storm drains around PdL and a question about if they were ever searched? Anyone know?
After all this time, if there’s no actual evidence to point to a crime, perhaps one could conclude that’s because there wasn’t one.
The mention of the Asian lady in the story of Aisling (RIP) reminds me of when Madeleine was alleged to have been seen with a Muslim lady and how some people seemed eager to believe that a blonde, blue eyed Western girl was being held by someone of that faith.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:55 am
3 Dr Eggman says:
October 13th, 2009 at 12:21 am
Totally agree with the wandering off theory, very possible
**********************
Parents dismissed that theory pronto didn’t they ?
At one point I was working on all of the apartment door openings and closings that were described by the checking members of the Tapas 9. This was in an effort to work out if M had been wandering about in the apartment.
The “interesting question” is WHO opened the childrens bedroom door wider ? after the alleged abductor had scarpered between 9.35 and 10.00pm.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:21 am
Totally agree with the wandering off theory, very possible. I found a <2 year old girl just weeks ago outside her home with car and house keys and returned her to her Mum who had probably only left her for a couple of minutes. She was trying to work out how to get in her car when I saw her and I had to turn my car round and come back rather rapidly…
Apologies if this post is a repeat of something I tried to post earlier, they seem to be floating around in cyberspace today.
I wonder about asking for (or paying for) another search of the area around PdL, was it ever done “properly”. I mean no disrespect to the PJ, but all I remember reading about was the locals and holiday makers searching for a week afterwards and the infamous dog searches. Whilst I know there were house to house enquiries,was the search for MM ever anything but a search for an abducted child?
October 12th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I remember another case where the police were persuaded there was definitely an abduction when the simplest explanation at the time was that she could have wandered off to look for her parents and had some sort of tragic accident.
However, the parents were adamant that she couldn’t have wandered off and that she had definitely been abducted.
There has been no trace of her to this day.
I could probably find one or two links if you’re interested.
October 12th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
If she was found only metres from the house in a storm drain she could have very easily toddled off and fallen in - two year olds can walk a short distance fast.
I thught I read in one article that an Asian woman was seen walking her dog near the house. Now it is being said the child was seen with her. Which is it? Public hysteria and imaginations at work again?
What were the police focusing on in their search? Finding an Asian woman, looking for paedos or immediately started searching the areas nearest the house the child could have toddled off to and possibly fallen into.