Madeleine McCann: Foreseen Is Rewarded
KATE and Gerry McCann are in Madrid. Scheduled to appear on a Spanish TV show, the parents of Madeleine McCann will appeal for help in finding their daughter.
We wish them well.
And on the Madeleine McCann mystery the Mirror has news. In “IS MADELEINE SNATCHER POSING AS A PSYCHIC?” the paper hears from Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa. He says his department has received many calls from mediums claiming to know where Madeleine is.
“That is one of the reasons we cannot discard anything. We must check them all. If it was a message from the kidnapper, we feel it will offer us enough clues to lead us to a place,” says Sousa.
And the police have acted on information received. In what the Mirror calls a “sign of their willingness to clutch at straws” the Portuguese police have journeyed to a spot in Lagos. But it was for nought.
“We can’t put the messages in the bin. If we have some information about the precise location or co-ordinates, we go and look at that place and we will check it out,” says Sousa.
And what with a £2million reward on offer and the chance to appear on the end of the pier and daytime telly as “The Mystic Who Found Madeleine McCann”, the soothsayers are being treated seriously.
While readers may wonder why mystics didn’t foresee Madeleine’s disappearance, the Sun hears from June Hughes who stayed in the McCanns apartment days before the McCanns arrived in Praia da Luz.
And June sensed danger.
June tells us of that apartment: “It seemed very isolated and we felt vulnerable. It’s one of the first things we noticed. We thought we could get broken into. The apartment seemed almost back to front. The main door is at the rear. It was strange and we felt a bit out on a limb at the end of the building.”
Vulnerable?
June goes on: “We never saw anybody hanging about the apartment. But there were a few times when we came home and our garden gate was open. We did wonder who would have done that at the time.”
Was someone planning to steal June, aged 52, or her partner?
We can’t say. There are others who know more. Or not…
June 1st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I’m getting a bit fed up at all this sniping at the Portuguese police. If they investigate these claims, that’s wrong. If they didn’t investigate them, that would be wrong too. Stop belittling them. The problem in the investigation of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance came in the first hours and days because the Portuguese police did not tackle it as such head-on from the get-go. Nor would many police forces throughout Europe. I think we should have a specialist European-wide Child Abduction Task Force (based on Interpol) who would fly in with their own manpower, expertise and procedures in place to take over the situation immediately wherever a child goes missing. And our lawmakers should toughen the sentences for the crimes of child abduction, paedophilia and people-trafficking. These evil people must know if they indulge in such practices they will pay for it with their own lives. At the very least, life in prison - and life means LIFE. Make sure they never again see the light of day. We don’t want them living beside us and we don’t want them on the streets to do it again. If it was good enough for Myra Hindley, it’s good enough for them.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:03 pm
But Liz most child abuse is perpetrated by someone the child knows, a family member or family friend. They dont live live beside us, they live WITH us! They are people we trust and we welcome them into our homes without knowing!
June 1st, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Do we know if there is child abuse involved in this case?
June 1st, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I can’t see any sniping at the police going on by Anorak, the sniping is by the `news’papers, I’m sure Anorak is well aware that following up of ALL leads is in the best interests of everybody involved (in any investigation not just this one)
June 1st, 2007 at 3:35 pm
The McCanns actually believe that balloons will fly all over Europe looking for her…
June 1st, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Solving nearly all criminal cases involves a degree of luck
June 1st, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I don’t believe this is a case of child abuse by someone the McCanns know. Unfortunatley this may be a case of child abuse by a pedophile ring. edophiles go to places like Asia and Europe to buy or steal children to use them for sex. Here in the US most recently someone the FBI has been looking for for years was found in Japan.
Liz is right. The penalties have to be stiff for this type of crime. All countries need to agree that this perverse behavior is unacceptable and that whoever is found engaging in illegal sexual acts; swapping photos, having sex, soliciting sex, etc.. be locked up for life. Pedohpiles cannot be rehabilitated. Even castration doesn’t stop them. when released from jail they do even worse.
Here’s one for you. Even though this animal is in a Belgium jail the police in the UK should try to investigate his connections. One of his accomplices is no longer in jail, a “businessman”. He looks like the guy in the background in one the last photos published of Madeleine with her father and siblings.
Marc Dutroux, Jean Michel Nihou etc… http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/michel_fourniret/1_index.html
June 1st, 2007 at 5:15 pm
oops last post had wrong URL. this is the right one.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/dutroux/lost_2.html
June 1st, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Page 1 of the article….
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/dutroux/evil_1.html
June 1st, 2007 at 5:41 pm
I must be the only person who still that the child wasn’t kidnapped. I’m more inclined to think she got out of the apartment by herself looking for her parents. then she either was then taken or more likely wandered off and has either fallen in the sea or as the police suggested there was a lot of road building going on and she fell down a hole. It makes more sense than a man sees a child he wants, finds out where she was staying, watches and sees the patients left her at nights and crept in and took her without disturbing the other children. to me that’s a bit difficult to accept.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Frannyg,
There have been many cases where children have been kidnapped right from their beds and taken to other locations to be raped and murdered by their abductors. It has happened many times here in the US. We have fairly strick laws for these types of crimes and they’re getting tougher. I’m sure that in other parts of the world where the law and penalties aren’t as strick it happens more often. Do a search of articles in your part of the world and see. Portugal is a place where this type of crime happens more often than not.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Frannyg, no you’re not the only person thinking along those lines. I’ve had my doubts since day one and until someone can produce absolute proof that this child was snatched, I will continue to question the ’sources’ in the tabloids, hearsay of people who holidayed in the same apartment block (weeks earlier) and the lynch mob mentality present on this site that know without a shadow of doubt that Madeline McCann has been abducted by a paedophile/s and guess what, everyone knows who it is so why hasn’t he been hung drawn and quatered by the silly Portuguese police/ And, for the record Jan, the abduction, rape and murder of children in Portugal is no more prevelent than in any other European country - that is to say, it is a very, vevy rare crime.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Her mother knew from the start she wasn’t kidnapped because she was seen being carried from the apartment. something the police didn’t release until a couple of days ago.
She was kidnapped!!
June 1st, 2007 at 7:14 pm
My point exactly Pixie Girl. The police knew this information almost immediately but chose not to make it public until a few days ago. Anyhow, it just goes to show how many conflicting reports, opinions and theories this story has generated.
June 1st, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I think they didn’t release the info due to their privacy laws, which is a bit stupid really I think
incidentally ALL the parents in the group had left their children, and were taking it in turns to go back and check everyones children, because they felt this was a better arrangement than to trust the babysitting service who only put monitors in each room and alerted you if child was heard crying.
June 1st, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Instead of asking people to download pictures of Maddie, perhaps it might be a better idea to ask people to download her picture on their computer desktop.
On another note I read that the McCann’s believe that their daughter was likely taken by someone who does not have a child of their own. and is therefore well taken care of. If this is the case, they can never take that child out in public with the intensive publicity that this has received.
June 1st, 2007 at 7:40 pm
[[[I read that the McCann’s believe that their daughter was likely taken by someone who does not have a child of their own.]]]
I think that is just hope above all hope, that’s the easiest thing to think about, I wonder what they think in their darkest moments. It’s easier to believe that than to think she was taken by a peodophile ring i guess, and if she was taken by the latter then I almost hope she isn’t with us anymore. There are worse things to suffer than death
personally i think a childless couple would have taken the younger child
June 1st, 2007 at 8:25 pm
So can somebody tell me if this is true.
The Police now have power to obtain a search warrant based solely on superstition or an anon grudge?
June 1st, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Pixie_girl - I’ve said this before, and I’d said I wouldn’t bring it up again, but you’re annoying me now.
YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT THE LISTENING IN SERVICE.
Thank you.
The Mark Warner resort at Praia da Luz does not offer the listening in service. They provide a creche, free of charge and staffed by UK trained childminders holding full ECRB disclosure status. This service is for patrons of the restaurant the McCan’ts were dining in.
The resort also offers an in room service, where a UK trained childminder, again with full ECRB disclosure status babysits the children, in their own room. This is available for a small fee.
Once more, because you seem to have trouble grasping this : there is no listening in service at the Mark Warner Praia da Liz resort. OK? The McCan’ts had NO excuse whatsoever to leave two 18 month olds, and a three year old, in a room on their own, in a foreign country, without checking them.
Also - someone was seen carrying a small child in pyjamas. So what? It was evening, it was a family resort, kids get tired. Not necessarily her, but the thing is, we’ll probably never know. This is the price that has to be paid for criminal negligence.
The truth is, she’s almost certainly dead. Whether she got out and was hurt (quite likely), someone she knew hurt her/found her dead and disposed of her so no claims of negligence could be made (highly likely), or some shady, EuroPaedo Team made off with her (statistically? Almost impossible), she probably isn’t alive any more.
Still, Team McCann’t PLC have made a tidy sum out of it. Tell me again, why they’ve set up a company, and not applied for charitable status? Anyone?
June 1st, 2007 at 9:24 pm
sorry to be soooo annoying, i was mistaken and thank you for correcting me..
Tho it doesn’t change the fact that many hotels have a listening in service, I certainly remember the butlins listening in service as a child. and as you have so rightly pointed out the world is NO more dangerous now than it was then.
The fund was turned down for charitable status, see below
Tax blow for search fund
In addition, the fund will not benefit from gift aid, a form of tax relief that allows charities to claim from the government an additional 28p for every £1 they receive in donations. And tax will have to be paid on all interest accrued by the fund.
Last night the Treasury refused to intervene, insisting it was the preserve of HM Revenue & Customs to decide tax liability.
The development will embarrass Gordon Brown who told Madeleine’s family last week he would do all he could to help on “a practical and a personal level”.
The decision on charitable status could hit the family’s efforts to trace Madeleine. Her parents Kate and Gerry are considering hiring a private investigator amid concern over the way police have handled the hunt. A FUND to finance the international search for Madeleine McCann will be forced to pay Vat and denied tax breaks worth tens of thousands of pounds after being refused charitable status writes Mark Macaskill.
The Madeleine fund has already received almost £80,000 from the public and businesses. Madeleine’s parents had hoped for charity status for the fund but were turned down by the Charity Commission because the money raised is not for the “wider public good”.
Instead, the fund has been registered as a company, which means it is liable to pay Vat at 17.5% on advertising costs and goods designed to raise funds, such as stickers. Charities are eligible for “zero rate” tax relief on such expenses.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:26 pm
They tried for charitable status but were rejected because the fund didn’t meet certain criteria, something about ‘not being for the common good’.
Someone with a better memory than myself can probably dig up the exact quote.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Thanks for that
Had me puzzled.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:31 pm
YVW sorry i couldn’t come up with something more cynical for you to get your teeth into
June 1st, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Not cynical, just realistic. I’m usually full of optimism, but this whole case is so horribly wrong, public sympathy is entirely misdirected, and the whole thing smacks of grief-porn. Meanwhile everyone’s banging on about paedophile rings, and hysterically declaring anyone who doesn’t agree with them a ‘nonce’.
It’s like Brass Eye made flesh, right down to “Keep away from the guy with the funny eye, keep away from the funny-eyed guy” I keep expecting Chris Morris to pop up and say “Got you this time!”
June 1st, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Jane,
Rare or frequent (a matter of perspective isn’t it?), child abductions for human trafficking and use by pedophile rings exist. Some parts of Europe, as you can see by the article I’ve posted, take a very lacked attitude about it. So do some parts of South and Central America. In parts of Africa rape of young girls is common. My point is that many parts of the world put little value to children being used for sex. That’s a fact! The possibility that Madeleine may have been abducted “for order” by a pedophile is something that should not be discounted. It would not be in any childs “best interest” for the authorities not to investigate that avenue as well. It’s the ugliest and darkest of all places for most people to even think about, but it exists. I believe it exists more than we are made aware of and more than most care to know.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Appreciate your point Jan, I am aware of that child trafficking exisits. I don’t discount the fact that this child may have been ‘abducted to order’ however, it is less likely than any of the above scenarios as pointed out by Anti_idiot above. I am still awaiting any real evidence that this has happened on this occasion - all we seem to have is speculation. Portugal has one of the best records in Europe, possibly the Western world, for obtaining positive outcomes as far as child abduction is concerned, certainly far better than that of the UK. It almost seems that some people are wishing that a paedophile has snatched this child, so they can say ‘I told you so, I was right all along’ rather than face up to the facts; a middle-class, professional couple left three children alone whilst they ate dinner only to discover than one of them wandered off never to be seen again.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:59 pm
yeah maybe she wandered off and caught a bus?? sorry but I really think with the extensive search had she wandered off and had an accident her body would have been found by now.
And this, to me at least has nothing to do with class, like I have said already lots of hotels have baby listening services, I remember the ‘child crying in chalet 6′ at Butlins. and i would have just as much humanity for any one in this situation. rich/poor/black or white
June 1st, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I don’t hope Madeleines been snatched by baby rapers. I hope she was snatched by someone loving and careing. But how realistic is that? If she was snatched by baby rapers, I hope her suffering ended very fast.
How far can a 4 year old go in 30 minutes at a resort? What’s the likleyhood that if she did wonder off looking for Mom and Dad that she wouldn’t ask someone, anyone, if they’ve seen mom and dad? What’s the likelyhood that no one saw a child walking around at 9 something at night and would not ask her where her parents were? Sounds pretty far fetched to me.
Yes, the McCanns screwed up big time. There is no disputing that. They have to live with whatever the outcome is. The outcome that was based soley on their decision to leave their children alone…….
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:43 am
Pixie girl, I think this affair has a lot to do with class. You seriously think that this would still be in the news and the public would be donating hundreds of thousands of pounds to this couple if they were from a council estate? You think they wouldnt be investigated by social services and the twins taken into care if a single parent left her kids?? If so, you are seriously mistaken. The social services and judicial system in this country is so class biased towards the middle classes its ridiculous.
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:40 am
This is not a ‘resort’ as in the American idea of a resort. (I assume you are from the USA Jan, as your spelling may suggest?). It is a block of apartments, in a village, next to the Atlantic Ocean. It is not hidden behind high walls with a security guard at every entrance. It is quite possible that this child wandered out of the apartment - and I believe ‘check-up time’ was closer to an hour rather than 30 minutes - and fell down a well, as anti_idiot points out, or ended up rather too close to the Algarve sandstone cliffs. The land surrounding this area is remote and dangerous, with many un-used wells and abandoned farm houses - I know the area well as have a house there - I will say again, I am not convinced she has been ’snatched to order’ and I agree with Ben, had this been a Chav & Chavette from an inner city sink estate, the story would have been spun in an entirely different way