A more senior officer had also counselled him and Kate not to use Madeleine’s eye defect, the coloboma, in any publicity, begging the McCanns to realise that if that were publicly disclosed, an abductor might realise that Madeleine was much too easily recognisable, and then decide to kill her. Gerry McCann recalled how he had contemptuously dismissed that advice when he spoke to his public relations advisers, who had agreed with him.

They all had realised that the Portuguese police simply had no understanding whatsoever of how important it was to publicise a unique logo and brand image. Besides that, Madeleine’s coloboma was almost miraculously aligned with the logo of the Child Exploitation Centre, which had greatly boosted the marketing value of their ‘LOOK’ logo. It had been yet another example of Portuguese police incompetence.

Then there were the discussions with news teams, journalists and camera crews. The incessant ’phone calls and requests for interviews. The interminable discussions about where the cameramen should be situated and exactly where and how he and Kate should ‘come on stage’ as it were, to capture the best shot. Remembering to put Cuddle cat in a prominent position. It all took so much time that they scarcely had even a moment to look for Madeleine, though Gerry did recall that Kate had posed for the camera for a couple of moments while handing out some posters near the beach at Praia da Luz.

Having tried to unravel the mystery that was Alex Woolfall, Gerry’s mind wandered back to all the onerous campaigning work they had undertaken to promote the world-wide search for Madeleine. The decision to set up the Helping to Find Madeleine Fund, the emotive addition of its subtitle: ‘Leaving No Stone Unturned’, the discussions about its aims and objectives, the creation of the website, and so on. It had all taken a great deal of time and thought.

One thing that had been essential during these early weeks had been to ensure that the twins were not able to interfere in any way with their campaigning work. Their focus on the publicity, meetings with famous people, the posters, the interviews, the photo shoots, meant that, for a while at least, the twins would have to take second place. Mark Warners had been brilliant in helping to look after the twins in the creche and even extending the hours they were cared for on busy days when their campaigning prevented them from collecting them at the normal time.

Within days, kind relatives had flown out to Portugal to help mind the twins while they had had to fly out to meet the Pope and arrange othere photo opportunities. It would have been terrible if they had had to waste precious time caring for the twins during the day. Their campaigning would have had to take a back seat.

Besides that, with Madeleine gone, the twins would have benefited by having so many different people looking after them – something to take their mind away from the sudden loss of their elder sister.

As he meditated on all the different people who had kindly cared for the twins whilst hey were engaged in campaigning, a white butterfly flickered to and fro for a few seconds against the gorgeous deep purple of the bougainvillea, joining the multitude of bees who were buzzing busily, hunting their daily supply of pollen. It took Gerry’s mind instantly to that wonderful moment when, just as they were being introduced to the Holy Father, a butterfly had briefly nestled on his wife Kate’s lapel.

Gerry had been pleased to note how so many British journalists had interpreted that butterfly as a hopeful sign that Madeleine was still alive – a tradition apparently with a long history. It was unfortunate, he reflected, that others had suggested the sign should be interpreted as meaning that someone close to them had died, and was now in heaven.

But whatever the meaning of the butterfly, the visit to the Pope had been like manna from heaven. For a start, it had made him and Kate really famous. The Pope had blessed their precious photo of Madeleine. And on top of all that, it had led dozens of British journalists to describe him and Kate as ‘devout Catholics’. A touch exaggerated, he had to admit, as he hadn’t been anywhere near a church for about a decade. But, on the other hand, the message: ‘Grieving devout Catholic parents distraught over child stolen by evil paedophilic abductors meet Pope’ was about as good as it gets.

by ‘Montmorillonite’ – COPYRIGHT