Kevin Halligen is now set to stand trial in the US accused of defrauding a London law firm.

It is claimed he took the money to secure the release of Dutch business executives arrested in the Ivory Coast but instead spent it on a mansion.

The 49-year-old’s company, Oakley International, was employed in 2008 by Allerton-born Kate and Gerry McCann to find their three-year-old daughter, who disappeared in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.

But after six months, his contract was cancelled by the Find Madeleine Fund after he delivered little to the investigation.

Halligen, whose firm was based in Washington, was arrested in 2009 after months spent evading police.

He was found staying at the plush Old Bank hotel in Oxfordshire, where he was known under a number of aliases.

Halligen would spend most of his evenings getting drunk in the bar, witnesses said, and caused consternation over unpaid bills.

In December last year, Home Secretary Theresa May ordered his extradition to stand trial in America, but lawyers for Halligen challenged the move at London’s High Court.

However, his case fell at the first hurdle yesterday when top judges ruled he had left it too late to lodge an appeal against the extradition order.

They also dismissed claims that the tight time limit violated his human rights.

Mr Justice Stadlen concluded: “The court has no jurisdiction to entertain Mr Halligen’s appeal.”

Kate McCann this month said she was confident that her daughter can be traced after Scotland Yard was called in to review the investigation.

Read the original article in the Liverpool Echo (here).

MADELEINE McCann’s grandmother today spoke of her pride in daughter Kate as they faced this evening’s first anniversary of the youngster’s disappearance.

It was the milestone no-one wanted but in a bid to keep their four-year-old daughter in the headlines, Liverpool-born Kate McCann and husband Gerry put themselves back in the glare of publicity with a series of TV interviews.

And Kate’s mother, Susan Healy from Allerton, told the ECHO: “I know the person Kate is. I know how self-effacing and shy she is as a person. She’s been thrust into this public role, but she has carried it out admirably.

“I was very pleased that Kate and Gerry were given the platform to say what they wanted to say.”

“I am just so very, very proud of Kate.”
Madeleine McCann’s grandparents, Brian and Susan Healy

A special mass for Madeleine will be held at 6.30pm today at Our Lady of the Annunciation, Bishop Eton, Woolton Road, Childwall.

Kate and Gerry were married at the church in December 1998 and it is where Kate’s mum prayed before Madeleine, an IVF baby, was born.

Mrs Healy said: “Everyone is welcome. There will be special prayers and songs for Madeleine and the bidding prayers will be read by children.”

The mass will be taken by parish priest Father Des Keegan. He will be assisted by Father Paul Seddon, the priest who married Kate and Gerry at Bishop Eton and baptised Madeleine at the Holy Name church in Fazakerley. The readings will be given by ministers from local churches.

In keeping with the low-key nature of the anniversary, Kate and Gerry are spending the day in Rothley, Leicestershire, with three- year-old twins Sean and Amelie. People are invited to light candles at their own homes this evening.

Everton Football Club is to light up the sky for Madeleine by switching on its floodlights between 9.30 and 10pm – the time the youngster went missing.

But it is again being stressed that the stadium will remain closed when the gesture is made.

ECHO essentials

0845 838 4699

KATE and Gerry have asked people to call a new dedicated phone line if they have any information about Madeleine’s whereabouts

In the concluding part of his series marking the first anniversary of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, chief feature writer Paddy Shennan hears how her grandmother is still struggling to come to terms with the bitterly regretted decision taken by nine people on that fateful night.

“I COULD shake all of them, every single one of them,” says Susan Healy, the mother of Liverpool-born Kate McCann.

It all comes back to that night. That fateful, nightmarish night of Thursday May 3, 2007 – and that fateful decision.

The night that Kate and Gerry McCann have relived and regretted time and time and time again. The night their daughter, Madeleine, was abducted while they dined in the tapas bar of their holiday complex in the Algarve with seven friends.

No one needs to tell them they made a mistake. And no one could possibly punish them more than they have punished themselves.

The anguish and sheer frustration surrounding their fateful decision continues to be painfully felt – by both Kate and Gerry and others, including Kate’s parents.

Mum Susan says: “I can read articles that say Kate and Gerry should never have left their children and I can accept that. You find yourself over and over again in your head thinking: ‘Why did they think it would be all right?’

“Why did they think – ALL of them – it was OK to do this?

“I think they were misled into thinking it was OK – but there was no CCTV, no security.

“There is this acceptance among couples with young children, like Kate and Gerry and their friends, that these are good resorts and safe environments.

“I could shake all of them, every single one of them.”

She adds: “I understand Kate and Gerry and the others ate in a restaurant without their children. It’s something we had to address and Kate and Gerry have had to address it every single day.

“But at the end of the day they thought they had taken adequate provision . . . no one looks after their children better than Kate and Gerry. That’s why it’s so amazing they can be in this situation.”

And yet, fuelled by some bizarre behaviour by the Portuguese police and some wildly unsubstantiated reporting by some Portuguese newspapers (happily repeated by some British papers), the hate brigade has had a field day.

Lurking on websites and often hiding behind pseudonyms, these pathetic and cowardly cretins have acted like judge and jury, after first putting the boot in on Kate and Gerry McCann – Kate, especially.

Their casual, callous cruelty and almost-gleeful responses to various developments in this heartbreaking and horrifying human tragedy have been outrageous, breathtaking – and utterly depressing. A little girl is missing, but all some pathetic excuses for human beings want to do is bitch and gloat and goad.

Kate and Gerry McCann don’t read the newspapers any more, but their families do and, sometimes, they see what has been posted on the internet by poisoned minds, simple minds and sick minds.

“It gets me upset from time to time, when I’m stupid enough to read it,” says Kate’s mum, Susan.

“But I just think these people don’t care about Madeleine, so they are not of any significance.”

Kate’s dad, Brian, adds: “We’ve had a couple of nasty letters here. I can’t believe they would actually bother their backsides to buy a stamp and post the letter. They must be warped.”

Why do they bother? Susan, sadly, probably hits the nail on the head when she says: “I think they just get a certain pleasure out of it. But it worries me that we have these people in our society – no wonder the world is the way it is.”

And how does it feel when you see sneering journalists and internet hate merchants trivialising the case of a missing four-year-old girl by using the term “Tapas 7” to describe Kate and Gerry’s friends, or “Tapas 9” to describe the whole group.

Susan says: “It’s awful. This is a group of friends who have all suffered a terrible trauma. They all did the same thing and what happened could have happened to any one of them. It’s changed all their lives.”

Then there’s the derogatory phrase “Team McCann”. Susan says: “That’s horrible. It makes it sound like an organisation without feelings or something that can’t be hur. Kate and Gerry may appear to be professional, but they are no different to any other family.

“And Clarence Mitchell (who acts as Kate and Gerry’s spokesman), who is vilified very often in the internet forums, is a genuinely nice guy and a family man. Without him, I don’t know how they would have got through this year. He’s always there to talk to the media on their behalf.”

From being portrayed as victims to villains and victims again, the McCanns have been given a rollercoaster ride by some newspapers. At one point, they appeared to be sinking in a sea of defamatory, fact- free fantasy reports – but the tide turned when Express Newspapers issued an apology and paid £550,000 into the Find Madeleine Fund.

Regarding damaging headlines, Susan says: “Every time it happens it’s like a slap in the face. You have to stop to think ‘Do these people not know what they are doing?’ – not just to us, but to other people. The headlines can be very bad”

As can the tone and content of certain columns. Brian says: “I rang a writer on one newspaper and asked ‘Have you ever met my daughter?’ After being told ‘no’, I then asked ‘Then how can you write this about Kate?’”

Susan stresses that while she doesn’t feel she has changed in the past year, she has seen other sides to some other people: “I have seen lots and lots of good in people, but I think I always knew people are basically very kind, good and supportive.

“But I have seen a side of a certain amount of people – hopefully a small minority – I wouldn’t have believed prior to this. I don’t know what makes them tick; they must have very sad lives.”

Regarding the overwhelmingly positive side, Susan says: “People have shown us so many little kindnesses. As one small example, Brian took my shoes to be heeled and the cobbler wouldn’t take any money – so we put it in the fund.”

Brian adds: “We get an awful lot of support when we walk down Allerton Road, while people I’ve not seen for years have got in touch.”

And Susan has a special request to make of those thousands upon thousands of ECHO readers who have been behind the family from day one: “Please keep praying for us and keep supporting us . . . stay with us.

“I’d also ask your readers to remember what this is all about – a little four-year-old child who was loved and cherished and cared for, whose every need was met until this time by her parents.

“She was the greatest gift anyone in our family ever had. She is somewhere and she may be frightened and unhappy.”

Oct 16 2007  by Paddy Shennan, Liverpool Echo

KATE McCann’s parents today hit out at the “scurrilous rubbish” being printed about their daughter – and said she feels she is being persecuted because of her appearance.

“She said last night ‘If I weighed another two stone, had a bigger bosom and looked more maternal, people would be more sympathetic’,” Madeleine’s grandmother, Susan Healy, told the ECHO today.

“I think it’s terrible that she’s having to think like that.

“She does feel persecuted, not by the general public who have been extremely supportive, but by some sections of the media, and I just feel it’s important I let people know she is not this person who is in control all the time.

“Kate is a very sensitive, caring person and one of the most maternal people I know – she puts me to shame. Her life revolves around her children but now she’s got to the point where she feels she is being persecuted, in her mind, if her twins, Sean and Amelie, cry in public – it’s absolutely crazy.”

She adds: “All this stuff is going on inside my poor daughter who’s not done anything wrong. She and Gerry went to a restaurant which was just metres away from their apartment and part of the holiday complex – it was a terrible mistake but they did it out of naivety.”

Although Susan and Brian Healy still cling to the hope that their four-year-old granddaughter will be found alive, they dread their worst nightmares coming true amid reports that police in Portugal are trawling a reservoir.

In a wide-ranging, often emotional and tear-filled interview, the couple, who live in Allerton, also reveal that a meeting of family and friends is taking place in Formby today to discuss the next stage of the campaign to keep the search for Madeleine in the public eye.

It’s now 166 days since Madeleine was last seen alive and Susan and Brian admit that the enormous strain is telling on all the family.

Kate’s health and well-being has given particular cause for concern, and her mum reveals: “She and Gerry do have counselling – Kate saw a counsellor at the end of last week. It’s the same person they saw in Portugal and I know it does help them.

“But I think they continually go back to the feeling that they can’t afford to go to pieces because they have to keep trying to get their daughter back – that overrides everything else they are feeling.”

Susan cannot say how, or if, any of the family will cope if there remains no news – or the worst possible news arrives. But she stresses: “Anyone would crack eventually. It’s like having a perfect family and seeing it torn to shreds.”

There have been concerns about Kate’s appearance and apparent weight loss, and her mum says: “She’s always had that kind of build and has never carried any weight. But she does look very traumatised. It must be unbearable for her to think about the possibility of never seeing Madeleine again, or that it’s going to be another six months before she sees her again.”

Regarding reports that police are focusing on a reservoir around 15 miles from Praia da Luz, Susan says: “It is scary and if it really is going on, I’ll be holding my breath.”

But the couple are hoping that the appointment of Paulo Rebelo, Portugal’s second most senior police officer, to lead the investigation in place of the much-criticised Goncalo Amaral, will give fresh impetus to the hunt.

And Susan says: “We’ve no idea when Kate and Gerry may have their suspect status lifted, but we hope it will be soon. Until it is, they are not allowed to defend themselves in public – and that is dreadful.

“They need to be exonerated as soon as possible and there are people who will then need to apologise to them – but whether that happens in the real world, I don’t know.”

Susan says she has had difficulty sleeping, while Brian reveals: “Anger keeps me going, so I’m doing pretty well because there has been a lot to be angry about.”

But despite all the agony and anguish, Susan says: “We need people to realise that nothing has changed since day one. Madeleine is still missing and the police haven’t found anything to indicate she isn’t alive, so we have got to go on looking.

“Kate and Gerry are as innocent as you or I, or anyone reading this. The perpetrator or perpetrators are still out there. We still pray that someone will open a door and say ‘Here she is – it’s all been a terrible mistake’.

“In my heart of hearts I still feel we will get Madeleine back, although I naturally get scared when I hear about the police carrying out searches.”

Brian adds: “I’ve heard nothing yet to convince me that Madeleine isn’t alive and I am clinging onto the hope that we will get her back.”

But he and Susan are realistic enough to accept that some people are not only convinced that their granddaughter is dead, but that Madeleine’s own parents were responsible.

Susan says: “Strangers are still coming up to us and saying ‘We don’t believe a word of what we’re reading, you know’ – that happens again and again and it’s important for us to hear that.

“I also know that if you throw enough muck at people, some of it can stick. But you’ve got to credit people with having the intelligence to work out that there has been a lot of scurrilous rubbish written.”

Each new claim or accusation aired in the tabloids – the majority emanating from Portugal – appears more outrageous than the last. They include:

“Gerry McCann isn’t Madeleine’s real dad”.

“It’s total rubbish,” says Susan. “We just don’t know where this sort of thing comes from. It would be simple for Kate and Gerry to go to the clinic where they had the IVF and prove this is a lie but I think they feel it would be demeaning, while it would also put the clinic under enormous media pressure.”

“Kate and Gerry drugged Madeleine – and their twins, Sean and Amelie – with sedatives.”

“They don’t like taking tablets themselves and the only thing they have ever given their children, if they were teething or had a temperature, is Calpol. They didn’t give them anything that night.”

“Seven children were sleeping in Kate and Gerry’s apartment on the night Madeleine went missing.”

Susan says: “Again, it’s nonsense and I don’t know where this has come from – or why it’s only now it’s been suggested.”

Although not backed up by any hard evidence, stories first printed in Portuguese newspapers – which include quotes from alleged “sources” – are picked up by the British press and then dissected on the internet.

Susan says: “I don’t go onto the internet, but I know some people will get pleasure from picking up on, and discussing, the negative side of things – however, it’s hard enough for us to read that people are convinced Madeleine is dead.”

She adds: “There are obviously different types of people in the world, but I think the good outweigh the bad.”

While Brian reveals: “When we have been with Kate and Gerry in Leicestershire, I have opened the boxes of mail. There would be hundreds and hundreds of items and while there would be the occasional crank letter, 99.5% of them would be from well-wishers.”

Such support has been worth its weight in gold, but still the nightmare which began on the evening of Thursday May 3 continues . . .

When will it end?