This is incredible. Now excuse me, but if a murdered body was found in your backyard, do you really think the police would immediately rule you out of any suspicion? Does it mean that the Royal Family are exempt from prosecution in homicide cases? When did that law come to pass?

Haven’t we encountered a similar situation with the McCanns? Weren’t the McCanns impervious from prosecution and surrounded by similar blind-support of innocence?

The New Year’s Day story came at an appropriate time for Truth for Madeleine. Late in 2011 an alleged, credible source in British intelligence communicated information that would seem to finally explain why the McCanns were given assistance from the highest echelons of the Establishment.

For almost five years, followers of the Madeleine McCann mystery have debated back and forth wondering why the British Establishment stepped in to assist the Tapas 9 in a way never seen before. There have been many missing British children. There have been missing British children abroad. Many Brits have found themselves in legal pickles abroad but they have never had the red carpet treatment. Not, that is, until the McCann Roadshow came along.

A vast array of former policemen spoke of the McCanns’ innocence without having full knowledge of the circumstances. Murdoch owned newspapers like the Sun and the News of the World fawned over Kate and Gerry. Private planes were brought in to ferry the McCanns around like they were superstars. Gerry was nominated for “Scot of the Year” and both he and his wife were on first name terms with two successive British Prime Ministers.

None of it made sense.

When the police file became public in the summer of 2008 we learned that the Portuguese Police were far from the bungling Keystone Cops they were made out to be. They were diligent, thorough, and they were hampered because of an interfering British Government. Evidence was withheld from the Portuguese. A semen sample suddenly turned into a saliva sample after the British Forensic Science Service looked at it. The samples were, in turn, destroyed by the FSS so the investigators have no chance of a second opinion. The McCanns’ financial and medical details were withheld by British government intervention. Bombshell testimony implicating Gerry McCann and David Payne as potential paedophiles was deliberately withheld from Portugal for about five months.

The investigation was never botched by Portugal. Moreover, it was an investigation that was controlled and steered in one direction from day one by the British Establishment. This has never been in doubt as the Portuguese confirmed the presence of MI6 throughout their enquiries in 2007 and 2008.

Forum debaters and amateur sleuths spent hours trying to figure out what was so special about the McCanns. McCann benefactors were scrutinized and their backgrounds explored in an effort to find out why these child-neglecting parents were being let off the hook so easily. There were obvious Freemason connections, pharmaceutical connections, paedophilia connections and hundreds of other possible reasons why the McCanns and their friends were not being investigated properly.

Despite all this, one thing was certain: Gerry McCann had the British Establishment over a barrel. He had some kind of explosive information that was ensuring freedom for him and his wife Kate. This information was so damning that it was to create a gross miscarriage of justice.

Poor little Madeleine was forgotten. The case became a battle against prosecution for Kate and Gerry.

The information received here at TFM is damning but credible. It explains a lot about the case but it requires more study. I can’t reveal the name or contact details of the source and the reader will have to take it for what it is.

The gist of the bombshell information received here is this: Gerry McCann is privy to information implicating the Royal Family in the murder of Princess Diana. This was his leverage.

Let’s look at this chronologically:

Madeleine dies in the first week of May 2007. Reputations and careers would be in tatters, not to mention jail terms for child abuse and possibly murder.

Frantic phone calls and text messages are made back to England and Gerry has his famous “tunnel vision” incident in the church in Praia da Luz. Disclosed later in an interview with Catholic Magazine “The Tablet”, the “tunnel” was his cryptic reference to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. Gerry said “I had this mental image of being in a tunnel and instead of the light at the end of the tunnel being extremely narrow and a distant spot, the light opened up…That is when I really felt I had a clear path.”

Gerry did have a clear path. A path that resulted in the British Government assigning Clarence Mitchell to the case on Monday, May 7, 2007.

Sir Tim Bell (now Lord Bell) offered one of his lackeys to assist the McCanns for two weeks until Mitchell was ready to go out to Portugal. This was a pressure time for the McCanns. Daily interviews were taking place and Praia da Luz had become an overnight media circus. In addition, the police were conducting interviews with those present at the time of the disappearance.

Assurances that the Establishment were taking the McCann threat seriously were already coming in. British diplomats in Portugal were being manipulated. Pro-Royal, Murdoch started to spin pro-McCann stories on Sky and in his newspapers. Former cops were drafted in as pro-McCann spin-doctors who blindly asserted that Madeleine’s parents were innocent of anything.

By the time Mitchell arrived in Portugal three weeks after Madeleine’s disappearance, Gerry needed assurances from the Establishment that he was being taken seriously. To this end, Prince Charles and Camilla made a press release that came out of Clarence House on May 27, 2007. They were giving their full support. The single sentence press release said

“The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall said they had been following the case of missing Madeleine McCann “closely and with deep concern” and “fervently hoped” she would be reunited with her family.” Another indication of Royal influence came from McCann in his blog when he wrote “The rest of us attended mass which was very emotional as a priest from RAF Lossiemouth was visiting and further prayers were said for Madeleine.”

RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland is a significant location for Prince Charles having been flown there as a boy when he attended school at Gordonstoun which is just a mile from the military base.

June was when the McCanns did the bulk of their Grand European Tour and a plethora of Sirs and Lords appeared on the scene. Sir Richard Branson, Sir Philip Green, Sir Tom Hunter, Sir Christopher Meyer, Lord Stevens and not forgetting that Lord Tim Bell had already given his support the previous month. The connection between these people is that they were all endorsed by the Royal Family. They were knighted by the Queen. While the credentials of these people were discussed on the Internet, everyone overlooked the fact that the benefactors had all been honoured by the Royal Family.

Gerry McCann making his speech at the Police Bravery Awards attended by Prince Charles and Gordon Brown.

July proved a difficult month for the McCanns. Three of their Tapas friends were reinterviewed in Portimão on Wednesday July 11, 2007. Gerry McCann returned to London the same day as a guest of Gordon Brown and Prince Charles at the Police Bravery Awards sponsored by the Sun Newspaper. Gerry tried to disguise this because in his blog he didn’t mention who had invited him and he entered the blog entry on Thursday July 12, 2007. The event took place on the evening of July 11 – the previous night. Gerry’s presence there was to meet with Brown and Prince Charles. Note: Many websites have repeated this error and reported Gerry’s presence in London as taking place on the Thursday.

In early August, the British police took the cadaver dogs to Portugal and arranged to search properties occupied by the McCanns. This resulted in some incriminating finds that were subsequently disclosed in the media in the first week of September. This was a time of maximum heat for the McCanns. Press coverage was at fever pitch and the case had turned on its head. Now the McCanns were public enemy #1 and the Establishment spin looked like it wasn’t working. Upon fleeing Portugal on Sunday September 9, 2007, we saw signs of the Establishment’s influence on British soil. Special Branch escorted the McCanns home from East Midlands Airport and the Masonic big gun lawyers enter the scene. Kingsley Napley had represented General Pinochet and HRH Princess Michael of Kent. The press speculated that Kingsley Napley’s Michael Caplan QC was helping the McCanns because he was successful in defending Pinochet against extradition to Spain although the real reason was that they were ordered by the Establishment.

The heat didn’t die down in September. The McCanns feared prosecution and they were looking for some monumental change in direction. For all the power plays shown in the previous four months, the Portuguese police were diligently carrying out their homicide investigation. The damning witness statements from the Gaspars had been deliberately delayed [after ‘internal’ directives] and Portugal was still unaware that McCann and Payne had been described as possible sexual perverts by their doctor friends from Birmingham. The main problem with the case from the McCanns’ point of view was their adversary: Inspector Gonçalo Amaral.

While the McCanns were sweating out the summer of 2007, something was developing in England: the Inquest on the death of Princess Diana. The spotlight was about to turn on the British Royal Family once again. Al Fayed and the Daily Express was adamant that Diana had been murdered by the Royal Family. The Inquest was set to start and the Royals could not have Gerry McCann upset the apple cart. On October 1, Prince Charles entered the fray once again. A press release claimed:

AN anonymous tip-off to the Prince of Wales has sent UK police on an urgent hunt for a new suspect in the Madeleine McCann case.

The email – sent via Prince Charles’ website – claimed a disgruntled former employee of the Portuguese resort where the toddler went missing, could be behind her disappearance. It claimed Madeleine was abducted from the Praia da Luz apartment in revenge against the complex’s owners.

It is understood police have confirmed the woman named in the email did work at the resort when Madeleine was last seen 150 days ago. Royal aides have passed the email on to Scotland Yard, which is now trying to trace the author.

A police source told London newspaper The News of the World: “There have been hundreds of Madeleine theories, sightings and tips sent into UK cops from members of the public. But this one is different. “It’s incredibly detailed and so far, from the inquiries being made in Portugal, it appears to be based on factual events.”

Police believe that the tipster entrusted the information to Prince Charles because he and wife Camilla came out in support of Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry.

In the biggest power play of the Establishment so far, their next move demonstrated to Gerry just how far they could operate. The British Establishment arranged for Gonçalo Amaral to be sacked on the day the Inquest on the death of Princess Diana commenced.

Unknown at the time, the public waited for months in expectation of a result from the Forensic Science Service. It never came. It was buried and destroyed. Once the investigation was on British soil there was no way the Establishment would allow the incriminating evidence to see the light of day. Not until the public could see the police file in the summer of 2008 would we realize that the FSS participated in a monumental cover up. But then this was par for the course. The same forces that manipulated the Princess Diana evidence were at work here.

The McCanns were all smiles come April 2008. They were not part of the rogatory interviews and instead of staying close to home and Leicester, they set off for the European Parliament on their pretendy Amber Alert campaign. The key date here is April 7, 2008. This is the day that the Princess Diana Inquest returned a verdict:

Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed by the “grossly negligent driving of the following vehicles and of the Mercedes” adding that additional factors were “the impairment of the judgment of the driver of the Mercedes through alcohol” and “the death of the deceased was caused or contributed to by the fact that the deceased was not wearing a seat-belt, the fact that the Mercedes struck the pillar in the Alma Tunnel, rather than colliding with something else.

17-year old Alisa Dmitrijeva found dead at Sandringham on New Year's Day.

Beyond April 2008, the Royals were under no more significant threat from Gerry. They had played their part in helping to keep the McCanns from prosecution and the threat hanging over their heads vanished once the Inquest returned that famous verdict. It is sad but true that the power of the British Establishment can cover up death as easy as it can take a life.

Today, the dead girl found on the Sandringham Estate was finally identified as 17-year old. Sadly, there will be little help from the Royals. USA Today reported

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment saying it is a matter for the police.

R.I.P. Alisa Dmitrijeva, Princess Diana, Madeleine McCann.

Links:

• Gerry’s Blogs (here).
• Prince of Wales’ Website (here).
• Lord Stevens claim that the McCanns are innocent (here). Stevens led Operation Paget – the whitewash investigation into Princess Diana conspiracy theories.
• Madeleine “Sighting” near Montpellier, France. CCTV analysed by same French Forensic lab involved in Princess Diana case (here).
• Clarence Mitchell was heavily involved in post-Diana Royal stories for the BBC as reported (here). Mitchell is an MI6 agent.
• Sir Alec Jeffreys – DNA Pioneer, ironically also from Leicester who blindly supported the McCanns (here). He has several Royal affiliations: Royal Society Member (here), honoured by Prince Charles (here), Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (here).
• Clarence Mitchell flew to Sydney Australia to cover the death of former INXS singer Michael Hutchence. Ironically, Hutchence died shortly after Princess Diana in a hotel where Diana stayed the year before her death. Hutchence also performed for Prince Charles and Princess Diana. What did he know about Diana’s death? (read more here).

I recently learned from a trusted police source that the Metropolitan Police had officially taken up the Madeleine McCann investigation in London. This new line of enquiry is called Operation Grange.

Today I phoned the Metropolitan Police to ask about their taking over from Leicestershire Constabulary and had this interesting telephone conversation.

SM: Hello, I’d like to speak to someone in connection with Operation Grange please.

Police: I’m not aware of that Operation…just give me one second.

A minute later the operator returned and gave me another phone number to call.

SM: Hello, I’m just calling to ask a few questions about Operation Grange.

Police: What’s the name of that operation again?

SM: Operation Grange.

Police: Ok, what was that?

SM: It’s the Madeleine McCann disappearance.

Police: Oh, alright ok, fine, yeah, we don’t usually use operation names here, what do you need to know?

SM: There doesn’t seem to be anything in the public domain so when did the operation start and what’s the scope of the operation? I just wondered if you can give me some background on Operation Grange.

Police: We haven’t very much talked to the media about the case at all. What we’ve said is we’re providing expertise to the investigators of the case. The Portuguese Authorities, the Portuguese Police retain lead. We’ve not made any suggestion that they’re not capable of investigating but we are assisting them and we have not given any details on it. It’s unusual for us to do that as it’s abroad and another police force is taking the lead on it.

SM: Is there any reason why the Met took over from Leicestershire Constabulary?

Police: I’m not sure we said anything about it at the time – for various reasons. We can’t be seen to criticize any other force. On the 12th of May the Home Office requested that the Metropolitan Police service bring their expertise to the case and on that evening we said that we would.

SM: And is this a full time operation and what size team is working on it?

Police: As I said we wouldn’t provide a running commentary but at the very beginning we said there were 30 officers who would be deployed, er, not continually but various tasks along with workload they have on other cases, er, but we have deployed 30 officers.

SM: In a normal case in Britain it’s not unusual for the police to give an ongoing commentary as to how it’s progressing so what…

Police: …I’ve only worked here 11 years but I would say it’s not common. We give information whilst it’s appropriate to produce but whilst there’s an investigation going on and where it’s potentially murder, we say very little, we say very little. You read a lot in the press but that doesn’t come from us. We deal with about 250 murders a year and all of them are dealt with in exactly the same way in terms of how we deal with the media.

I also discussed the fact that all FOI requests made to Leicestershire Constabulary under Operation Task were coming back with a blanket “no comment” and a wall of silence. The police officer I spoke to at the Met told me to put in FOI requests to them and do not assume that they would treat them the same [as Leicestershire Constabulary].

For anyone wishing to put in new FOI requests under Operation Grange, email them at: SCDFOIArequests@met.pnn.police.uk

I have to say that it was reasonably reassuring to hear that the Metropolitan Police are treating the case as “potential murder” instead of the McCanns’ nonsensical talk of abduction.

It is probably premature to expect miracles but for the first time in a British Police force we can just about hear the cops singing in tune with Goncalo Amaral.

In Portugal, policing doesn’t operate like that.

The logo of the Policia Judiciaria - the Portuguese Police who are analagous to the British CID. This branch of the Portuguese police force became the main investigators in the Madeleine disappearance.

Their laws call for a strict judicial secrecy. This means that the police will not make the same kind of public updates that we are accustomed to in the UK. As the Madeleine disappearance unfolded in 2007, these laws seemed draconian at the time because not having updated information seemed to allow rumours and false stories to fester in the public domain.

Of course, the Portuguese judicial secrecy was not foolproof and for whatever reason, we had several leaks of information throughout that summer of 2007 and in 2008 before the case was shelved as a cold-case. The McCanns used those leaks to criticise the PJ. Their main complaint was that they themselves couldn’t speak out in public so why were unknown persons within the PJ leaking information from the ongoing investigation?

This criticism was a valid point by the McCanns but was it entirely true? More importantly, did it make any real difference?

Despite Kate and Gerry hiding behind the judicial secrecy veil in interviews, they didn’t exactly keep their mouths shut either. In Kate Healy’s latest book “madeleine”, she describes how she and Gerry met up with Freemason solicitor Ed Smethurst and their soon to be benefactor, Brian Kennedy. Kate goes on to describe her meeting in London with Scottish tycoon Kennedy on Friday September 14, 2007:

Brian was much younger than I was expecting, very relaxed and personable. He told us a little about himself. Originally from Edinburgh and married with five children, he was wealthy, obviously, but a self-made man: he had started out as a window cleaner. Then he asked me to give him an account of what had happened on the evening of 3 May. I talked for a couple of minutes before he stopped me. ‘OK, that’s enough. I’ve always believed you. I just wanted to hear it from you. That’s fine.’

So in Kate’s own words, four years down the line she reveals that she deliberately broke the laws of judicial secrecy by describing what happened on the night of May 3, 2007 to a man she had only just met that day – a comparative stranger. That’s funny: when Kate appeared on many interviews, she would refuse to tell the interviewer how she knew that Madeleine had been abducted because Kate would claim that she was prohibited from doing so because of “the investigation”.

In the BBC’s Panorama documentary aired on November 19, 2007, Smethurst appears in the documentary and he effectively reveals that Kate and/or Gerry have broken the judicial secrecy laws:

…part of the reason why we’re here disclosing evidence to you today as opposed to keeping our powder dry is a recognition that there were two strands to this case…

Whether Smethurst was officially hired by the McCanns as their attorney, Smethurst had no right to disclose anything his clients or acquaintances had revealed to him, and certainly not to a television programme aired in public to millions of viewers.

There are other examples of the McCanns’ double standards in respecting the judicial secrecy laws but the general point is that Kate and Gerry used those laws in ways that suited them. If a negative leak came out they would jump all over the PJ. Clarence Mitchell served as their amplifier in this regard and we can famously remember him claiming “the gloves are off” after a leak in 2008 when the McCanns visited the European Parliament. Leaks about Murat and Malinka didn’t seem to evoke any responses from the McCanns. Of course it wouldn’t – the heat was off them in those kind of leaks!

A Leicestershire Constabulary badge. This county police force in England is entrusted with the so-called continuing Madeleine McCann investigation. Four years after the disappearance the public is none the wiser as to any kind of progress in the case. Is it really a long term cover-up being dragged out while it masquerades as a bona fide investigation?

On the whole, the Portuguese system doesn’t seem so bad. In the UK, a veil of silence descends on a case when someone is charged and the case is declared sub judice. Even in prolific crime cases, the police will only divulge what they want the public to know and there really isn’t that much difference between the two systems.

But what then of the British police with the responsibility of investigating the Madeleine disappearance? Leicestershire Constabulary are entrusted with that task, and, quite literally, the case file at police HQ in Enderby, Leicestershire is called “Operation Task“. The Leicestershire police were the obvious choice of investigating law enforcement because that is the county where the McCanns live.

Have Leicestershire Constabulary fared any better with public liaison and handling the media with regular updates on progress in the case?

That has to be a resounding NO! To date, Leicestershire Constabulary have:

• Allowed the key suspects (Kate and Gerry McCann) to be on first name terms with the investigators.
• Allowed MI5/MI6 to accompany them in meetings with the Portuguese police.
• Allowed the key suspect (Gerry McCann) to retrieve unknown DNA from his home to send to Portugal for DNA testing.
• Allowed Kate’s aunt to retrieve DNA samples (and who knows what else!) to send to a quack in South Africa (Danie Krugel) with a Heath-Robinson contraption that he imported to Portugal without passing through customs (Was this part of the charade used to send an item or items to the McCanns that would have been intercepted had it gone straight to Portugal from the UK? Krugel could quite easily have been a mule…)
• Advertised the commercial money-making website “findmadeleine.com” on their own website.
• Met with Gordon Brown 3 days after the McCanns returned to England from Portugal under the pretext of a Community/Neighbourhood Policing smokescreen.
• Hidden a vital police interview from Portuguese Police after 2 doctors who alleged that David Payne and Gerry McCann were possible paedophiles only 13 days after Madeleine was reported missing.
• Not publicly mentioned the aforementioned interview where Payne and McCann were suspected of paedophilia by their doctor friends who went on holiday with them to Majorca in 2005.
• Given a police escorted ride to the McCanns from East Midlands Airport to Rothley in September 2007. (West Yorkshire police also gave Kate McCann, Michael Wright and the McCann twins an escorted ride from Leeds/Bradford Airport to Skipton in 2007).
• Refused to properly reply to legitimate Freedom of Information requests citing exemptions of either National Security or that this is an ongoing investigation.
• Never given proper updates typical of a major crime to the British public.
• Performed an abysmal job with the rogatory interviews of the various witnesses and the Tapas friends of the McCanns. In Russell O’Brien’s interview, the DVD recorder was not functioning properly and large chunks of his interview were not recorded on video. They also asked many leading questions and they did not seem to interview witnesses with a view to finding out the real truth.

Given the above, which police force has been the most secretive? Quite clearly Leicestershire Constabulary is running Operation Task like some Cold War era Stasi (German Secret Police) investigation. After four years, the public knows little about Operation Task apart from information in the Portuguese police file released in 2008 and the associated financial costs of the investigation. Given the lack of feedback it makes one wonder whether Operation Task is really a Government cover-up masquerading as a real investigation.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone because it has happened before. Former Leicester MP Greville Janner QC was implicated in a paedophilia scandal in the city of Leicester back in the early 90s. That scandal was hushed up swiftly and efficiently by the same police force. The Greville Janner case even involved the same freemasonic law firm that the McCanns used and is the location where they met Ed Smethurst and Brian Kennedy in September 2007: Kingsley Napley.

Apparently there is a law for the public and there is a different set of laws for the McCanns.

And then we have the suspected influence by Freemasons within the ranks of Leicestershire police. Another example of how freemasons in the British police reek of corruption came to light after two Leicester businessmen were awarded £85,000 compensation after being beaten up by Lancashire police. Their story illustrates the depth and depravity of the “Brotherhood” within the UK police:

…what happens to others who have run-ins with Freemasonic officers? Two Leicester businessmen found out when they decided to have a late night drink at the Goat Moat House Hotel in Blackburn where they were staying in April 1988. Sidney and Shaun Callis (father and son) were unaware they had walked into the ‘Ladies night’ organized by the Victory Lodge of Blackburn. Two Masonic Lancashire police officers approached the pair and ordered them out of the hotel bar. After refusing to leave, the couple were beaten up and then charged with assault by other Masonic police officers also present. When the two men were released on bail the following morning, they found that the hotel management had seized the Callis’ belongings demanding compensation for damage to the bar. The Hotel manager was later found to be a Mason and a member of the Victory Lodge. The Callis’ also found that the tires of their car had been drained of air and the hubcaps removed.

When their assault charge reached court the following year, the jury rejected police evidence and acquitted the pair. The Callis’ subsequently sued Lancashire Police for malicious prosecution and won £85,000 in compensation. The total pay out, including court costs, came to £170,000. However, the retribution did not stop there. Since 1989, unknown police officers put phony criminal records for Sidney and Shaun Callis on the police national computer. Another unnamed person wrote to police suggesting that Sidney Callis was responsible for murdering two people, shot dead on the Pembrokeshire Coast in 1989. He was arrested for murder and interrogated at Hinckley Police Station before being released. Leicestershire Police also made efforts to revoke Sidney Callis’s 12-bore shotgun license. As Callis told Private Eye magazine in April: “I’ve never had so much as a parking fine.”

The Home Affairs Select Committee was told that the Victory Lodge in Blackburn, whose members triggered this catalogue of retribution, is a lodge set up for police Masons.

Stasi logo. Notice the Freemasonic compasses in the centre of the wreath.

Anyone thinking that Stasi is an exaggerated term for Leicestershire Constabulary, think again. Look at the logo for the Stasi and see the Masonic influence in the compasses at the centre of the wreath. This part of the logo is derived from the flag of the former East Germany.

The Metropolitan Police have been requested to investigate the Madeleine disappearance at a cost of millions to the British taxpayer.

Back in the summer of 2007, a media conveyor belt churned out a succession of former Scotland Yard detectives offering their expertise on the Madeleine disappearance.

A few days after the media juggernaut started rolling, former Flying Squad commander, John O’Connor appeared—initially it would seem as a supporter of the Portuguese Police—on Sky TV. His words offered some great encouragement to the police in Portugal when we saw him on May 12, 2007. O’Connor began…

“First of all I would like to pay tribute to the Portuguese police. I think they’re doing a good job…”

Five days later, he was interviewed by the Algarve’s expat newspaper the Portuguese Resident on May 17.

… O’Connor spoke of the high quality detective work in Portugal and believes that they will solve this case. He spoke of the competency and professionalism of the Portuguese police, dismissing any accusations they have faced. He outlined that they were initially responding to a missing child and not a crime and, therefore, did not think that their initial response should be criticized.

However, months later when the McCanns became suspects, John O’Connor changed his tune when giving an interview to the CBS Early Show in Los Angeles in mid-September 2007.

“You don’t have a body, you don’t have a cause of death, you don’t have any witnesses, you don’t have a confession, you don’t have a murder weapon and you don’t have a motive…
“I think all they’ve got is some arguable forensic evidence…
“If anybody thinks they can bring a murder charge with all those ingredients missing…
“The first crime scenes were not properly sealed…
“Lack of professional activity by the Portuguese investigators…
“What they have is this arguable evidence which in itself does not mean a thing…”

Former Flying Squad commander John O'Connor couldn't make up his mind whether he supported the Portuguese Police or not. In the end he toed the 'official' line and criticised the PJ with a hypocritical interview with CBS.

Considering that Mr. O’Connor did not know any more about the case than the public, he suddenly seemed to be able to deduce many facts from nothing more than rumour. Why then did O’Connor do a complete u-turn with his attitude towards the Portuguese Police? He did not say that the crime scene was not sealed off properly on May 12 or May 17 when he was so supportive of the Portuguese police. O’Connor had actually visited Praia da Luz in those early days to pound the beat so who or what influenced this man to join in the attacks on the investigators?

Next up we saw former Scotland Yard commander Mike Hames and former police dog handler John Barrett. Regarding Barrett, he appeared purely to discredit the results of Martin Grime’s dogs when they discovered the scent of death and traces of Madeleine’s blood in apartment 5A at the Ocean Club Resort in Praia da Luz. Barrett’s disinformation was amateurish and a blatant piece of spin. Hames described the investigation as a “bit of a shambles“.

In late September 2007, Dai Seaborn Davies—a former Chief Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police—chimed in with his own brand of attacks:

“They remain convinced of her parents’ guilt, apparently unwilling to consider another scenario, even as their “house of cards” case collapses around them. Another fresh revelation that undermines the Portuguese effort is that police also failed to take DNA samples from Madeleine’s little brother Sean, two, and his twin sister, Amelie, until their parents were made “arguidos”, or suspects, just over two weeks ago. This failure has seriously undermined the whole forensic case against the McCanns. It means early forensic work is flawed and needs to be re-examined. A process that could take months.

“Evidence gathered by the Portuguese police against the McCanns which we have learned about in the past couple of weeks depends entirely on forensic tests, including DNA evidence, so-called bodily fluids and hair. Yet I have found that evidence has been fatally flawed through their own incompetence. The apartment was also not sealed off properly, meaning any evidence was contaminated from the outset.

Dai Seaborn Davies shot himself spectacularly in the foot when he stated that the Portuguese Police did not take samples of Sean and Amelie's DNA until a couple of weeks before the McCanns were made arguidos. The PJ had taken samples months before this and we would find the details in the police files released publicly in August 2008.

Dai Davies’ comments were not short, off the cuff comments. These were carefully crafted segments on TV that were designed to bolster Team McCann’s cause while, at the same time, ridiculing the “blundering” Portuguese Police. Always relying on the public’s lack of diligence in checking whether what they said was true or not, Dai Davis was proven wrong when the police file was released in August 2008. The Portuguese Police did take DNA samples from Sean and Amelie months before the date alleged by Davis.

As we have seen, four clowns—Hames, O’Connor, Barrett, Davies—had already made their minds up that the Portuguese Police were inept before they knew the details of the investigation. All were ex-Metropolitan Police.

But the clowns weren’t all from 10 Broadway. Some were from the most famous part of Westminster: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Miliband and others.

Now we have the incumbent Prime Minister—David Cameron—making a personal request to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, to investigate the Madeleine McCann disappearance at a cost of millions to the British tax payer. The Home Office are describing this move as “ludicrous” in the next stage of the “keep-the-McCanns-out-of-a-trial-at-all-costs” charade.

It is well past the time that this charade must stop.

These games are purposely engineered by the government, MI5/6, and the police, and a new investigation will achieve nothing. The column inches devoted to alleged infighting between these groups is nothing more than a smokescreen. The prospect of a new investigation makes for a great sound-bite in 2011, but Until Kate and Gerry McCann and the rest of the Tapas Seven are forced to answer important questions in front of a jury, we may never find out what happened to poor Madeleine.

We may have a new set of clowns but it’s the same old circus.

Kate Healy/McCann launched her book in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2011—4 years and 9 days after Madeleine McCann was reported missing. Simply called “madeleine“, the book is Kate’s account of the events of that fateful day in May 2007 with a potted history of the McCann family and the events of the 4 years since the alleged abduction.

Eagle eyed followers of the Madeleine case have no doubt been dissecting every sentence of the book in the search for yet more clues as to what happened to the tiny 3-year old tot.

Meanwhile, Faked Abduction by Steve Marsden is back on sale after a second edition has recently been printed in the USA.

So how do the two books fare in terms of unraveling the mystery of Madeleine McCann?

To answer this question, it is essential to understand that the Madeleine disappearance revolves around a set of important facts that have not been satisfactorily dealt with by the McCanns and their friends who accompanied them on the holiday to Portugal. The main body of reliable evidence consists of the 11,300+ page, Portuguese police file that was released in August 2008. Additional evidence was provided by the chief investigating officer—Gonçalo Amaral—through his own personal account in his book Maddie: A Verdade Da Mentira (The Truth of the Lie.)

These important facts are the focus of Faked Abduction and are also dealt with by Kate in madeleine. Some of these issues are:

• Mrs Fenn hearing Madeleine crying for 75 minutes on May 1, 2007
• The status of the patio doors
• Madeleine’s whereabouts during the day on May 3, 2007
• The Smith family (nine people) who saw a man looking like Gerry McCann shortly before 10pm on May 3, 2007
• Jane Tanner’s sighting and the associated detail of that account
• The Yvonne Martin encounter on May 4, 2007
• The McCanns did not physically search for Madeleine on the night of May 3, 2007
• The David Payne/Gerry McCann paedophile allegations from the Gaspars

Mrs Fenn

In Kate’s book she was quite disparaging towards Mrs Fenn. Not mentioning her by name, she described the elderly tenant of the flat above apartment 5A as a woman with a “plummy voice“. Kate also admitted that she and Fiona Payne abused Mrs Fenn because of her reaction to the reason for the commotion in apartment 5A on the night of May 3.

Considering that Mrs Fenn’s testimony blows a big hole in the McCanns’ insistence that they checked their children every half hour or less, there is little wonder that Kate was so demeaning in madeleine. The Mrs Fenn issue is dealt with simply in Faked Abduction—there is a full copy of Mrs Fenn’s witness statement to police.

The Patio Doors

Early stories from the McCanns claimed that they entered the apartment through the front door adjacent to the car park and opposite the poolside tapas bar. This alibi subsequently changed when observers noticed that this would have meant the McCann children were all locked inside apartment 5A and therefore would be at risk if a fire broke out inside the apartment. The change in alibi was that the McCanns switched to claiming that they entered the apartment through the patio doors.

This aspect is not without problems and it doesn’t seem to be logical. The patio doors only lock from inside the apartment. On page 45 of madeleine, Kate claims “after the first couple of days we barely used the front door, coming and going through the patio doors and up and down the steps.” Is Kate really suggesting that each time the family left the apartment they left it unlocked with all their possessions inside? Who goes on a holiday and leaves their room or apartment unlocked like that? It makes no sense and this change in the alibi seems to be another part of Kate’s revisionist history.

Madeleine’s Whereabouts on May 3, 2007

The author of Faked Abduction is unconvinced that Madeleine was alive and well all day on May 3, 2007 and there is no cast-iron evidence to prove otherwise. Three weeks after the disappearance, a photograph—the so-called Last Photo—appeared in a blaze of glory to prove that Madeleine was alive in the middle of the afternoon on May 3. However, Faked Abduction provides evidence that the Last Photo was probably faked. Interestingly, on page 65 of madeleine, Kate stated “Fiona told me she’d spotted Ella there but not Madeleine” in reference to Fiona seeing the children from the creche at a beach activity on May 3.

The Smith Sighting

The sighting of a man carrying a small girl through the streets of Praia da Luz just before 10pm on May 3 is an important sighting because it also blows a huge hole in the alibi of Gerry McCann. For newcomers to the Madeleine disappearance, the story goes like this: A family—Martin Smith and eight others—were leaving a bar in Praia da Luz and walking back to their apartment around 9:45pm. They encountered a man hurrying through the streets carrying a small girl and their reaction was that it was a man and his daughter. 4 months later when Martin Smith was watching television back home in Ireland, he noticed Gerry McCann disembarking the Easyjet plane at East Midlands Airport while he carried his sleeping son, Sean. The sight of McCann carrying his son in the exact same way he remembered the man carrying the girl in the streets of Praia da Luz jogged his memory to the extent that he realised the man in the streets was Gerald McCann. This bombshell evidence was kept quiet from the press back in 2007 and until Amaral’s book and the police files were released in 2008, this aspect of the case was publicly unknown.

Faked Abduction discussed the facts about the Smith Sighting whereas madeleine deals with this by claiming it to be another encounter with the same man allegedly seen by Jane Tanner. A casual reader of the case could interpret Kate’s version of the Smith Sighting as being a logical extension of the Tanner Sighting. The reality is that the Smith Sighting always was a sighting of Gerry carrying Madeleine and it is something never addressed by the McCanns.

Jane Tanner’s Sighting

The detail of Jane Tanner’s sighting has changed numerous times and is flawed because of its inconsistency. One detail that has emerged in the past 4 years is that Tanner and fellow holidaymaker Jeremy “Jes” Wilkins claim to have encountered Gerry McCann in the street outside apartment 5A on the same side of the pavement as the apartment. However, McCann claims this 3-way encounter happened on the other side of the street. In madeleine, Kate addresses this but fobs it off by saying “…exactly where they were standing is not crucial” (page 71).

The Yvonne Martin Encounter

On page 86 of madeleine, Kate describes an encounter with British social worker Yvonne Martin on the morning of May 4. Only, she doesn’t mention Ms Martin by name. Again, this is another vital issue in the case that has been dismissed by the McCanns. Ms Martin thought she recognised David Payne from another case back in England and both Payne and Kate Healy refused any assistance from Ms Martin despite her professional credentials in social work. Why did Kate Healy not wish to elaborate on why this helpful lady made her feel uncomfortable? More to the point, why did Kate claim to not know “who she is or what she was really trying to achieve?” Kate has read the police file and she will therefore know who Ms Martin is and why she tried to help. Why did David Payne try to usher this lady away from lending her assistance?

No Searching by the McCanns

It is a well established fact that the McCanns never searched for Madeleine on the night of May 3, 2007. Instead, a small army of fellow holidaymakers and locals were out looking for the missing tot. This aspect is covered in Faked Abduction but in madeleine, Kate is not exactly truthful when, on page 83 she writes “As soon as it was light Gerry and I resumed our search.” The plain fact is that they never searched the previous night so how did they resume a search?

The Gaspar Allegations

On May 16, 2007 Savio and Katherina Gaspar were interviewed by British police in England in connection with concerns they had about Gerry McCann and David Payne. The Gaspars, Paynes and McCanns had all been on a previous holiday together on the Spanish island of Majorca in September 2005. What happened during that holiday caused the Gaspars to approach police with their concerns. Katherina told police when talking about David Payne:

I remember questioning whether looked at my children or the others in a different way. I imagined that he maybe visited Internet sites related to small children. I thought that he may be interested in child pornography on the Internet.

The Gaspar statements (included in Faked Abduction) are absent from madeleine. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, Kate did not want these allegations from their doctor friends, the Gaspars, to be revealed in her book.

Obtaining the Books

Buy madeleine from major bookstores in the UK and online from Amazon (here).

Buy Faked Abduction online from fakedabduction.com (here).

The handwriting in the creche records for the days that Madeleine was signed into the child care facility at the Ocean Club resort offer many clues to suggest that the records are forgeries.

Prior to the McCanns’ holiday in Portugal in that ill-fated first week of May 2007, we seemed to have no independent records of Kate and Gerry’s handwriting to compare with the creche records.

However, two known examples of handwriting exist and both were supplied by the McCanns courtesy of their home videos.

The first example comes from the Christmas 2007 video where we see Madeleine handing Kate a present that bears a card with the text:

To Sean

Merry Christmas

Love from

Madeleine

& Amelie

Here is a still from the Christmas 2007 appeal video.

The card on the Christmas present at Christmas 2006 and shown in the McCanns' Christmas 2007 appeal video. The video is clearly from a time that predates the fateful trip in Portugal.

This is the word 'Madeleine' magnified from the previous picture.

There are four examples of the word “Madeleine” in the creche records where Madeleine was allegedly signed in and signed out. The four examples do not look like faithful copies all written by the same hand but it is worthwhile looking at them together.

Four versions of the way Kate Healy allegedly wrote 'Madeleine' in the creche records.

The other example of the name “Madeleine” comes from the Madeleine Was Here documentary made by Mentorn Media. This video was also used, in part, by Oprah Winfrey on her interview with the McCanns two years after Madeleine’s disappearance (May 2009). We catch a glimpse of Kate’s handwriting when she shows us some pictures that Madeleine drew after the family trip to Donegal in April 2007.

A section of the picture on the wall in the McCanns' kitchen in Rothley. Kate shows us a picture that bears the text 'Madeleine - Donegal / Easter 2007'.

The picture of the train on a track may have been contemporary to the trip in Donegal in April 2007. However, there is no way to reliably know the date when Kate wrote “Madeleine – Donegal / Easter 2007″ at the foot of the picture.

As the word “Madeleine” here is clearly different to the handwriting on the Christmas 2006 gift, it is a mystery as to which version of the handwriting is the natural one.

What is interesting is that the version on the kitchen wall looks more like the four versions in Praia da Luz but even that has some basic differences. Look at the lower case “a” for example. It is consistently written the same way in “Madeleine” and in “Donegal” but it is written completely different in the word “Easter”. If anything, the handwriting looks like it has been made to match the strange writing in the creche records whereas the Christmas 2006 version looks the most natural of all.

The word 'Madeleine' magnified from the Donegal/Easter picture.

While the creche records and handwriting analysis may not solve the mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, it is almost certain that there is some falsification of one or more of the entries in the creche records.

A doctor’s handwriting is notoriously bad to read but in this case the writing is perfectly legible – it just lacks authenticity due to poor repeatability.

Read more about this topic in “Interesting Details From the Files” in Faked Abduction.

The McCanns made a televised appeal that was broadcast on Sky TV on May 7, 2007.

The appeal shows Gerry McCann and his wife Kate both sitting and facing the camera. Kate is to Gerry’s left and on the right side of the screen as we look at the pair. Initially we see both Madeleine’s parents and can notice that Gerry has his left arm around Kate’s shoulders with the fingers of his hand gripping the top of  her left arm.

Gerry is staring right at the camera. His eyes are gazed at you the viewer. He barely moves his head and the main discernible movement is from his rapid eye movement as he blinks more often than anything that would seem natural. Kate on the other hand is not gazing at anything in particular. One thing we can say for sure is that she is never giving us eye contact. Her eyes are focused on anything but the camera facing her. Every so often she quickly glances down and we can assume that she is reading from a crib sheet.

The appeal lasts for 54 seconds and it is spoken exclusively by Kate Healy. Here is a transcript of the appeal:

We would like to say a few words [pause] to the person who is with Madeleine, or has been with Madeleine.

Madeleine is a beautiful, bright, funny and caring little girl.

She is so special. Please, please, do not hurt her.

Please don’t scare her.  Please tell us where to find her or pla… put her in place of safety and let somebody know where she is.

We beg you to let Madeleine come home.

We need our Madeleine. Sean and Amelie need Madeleine and Madeleine needs us [long pause].

Please give our little girl back.

Por favor, devolva a nossa menina.

Now let’s observe this in detail.

• At the start of the appeal, the camera is zoomed out so we can see  Gerry and Kate from the chest up.
• At 5 seconds, Kate seems to stumble with a slight deviation from the script. She says “…to the person who is with Madeleine” and as she does so, Gerry is visibly troubled by this slight change. He grips her arm and at the same time he glances down and to the side in a brief but obvious show of dissatisfaction. Kate almost immediately changes the sentence and says “…or has been with Madeleine.”
• As Kate talks, the camera slowly zooms in so that her face is filling the left hand side of the frame.
• By 18 seconds, Kate is saying “please, please….” and the camera has now cut off Gerry from view.
• Just as Kate finishes the Portuguese words at the end of the appeal, the camera stays fixed on her for about 6 or  7 seconds.
• The camera now zooms out rather quickly so that by 62 seconds, we can see Gerry starting to flop his head on Kate. Kate doesn’t move or alter her position as Gerry rocks his head slightly and closes his eyes.
• At 67 seconds, Gerry, with bowed head opens his eyes to look up at Kate momentarily before closing them again and resuming the bowed head position.

Anyone following the Madeleine disappearance will have seen this scene many times. The main talking point back in 2007 was that the pair could be so devoid of emotion. Their reactions seemed fake and the absence of tears and typical involuntary facial expressions associated with the loss of a close family member were some of the main reasons that people did not believe their story. Looking at the video four years later, the impression is the same.

During a recent review of this video clip, the volume was turned up beyond a reasonable sound level and at 64 seconds a slight click could be heard. It coincided with the time that Gerry had bowed his head on to Kate. Watching this section a few times revealed that the sound was not a click. It was Gerry McCann telling his wife in barely a whisper “Don’t Talk”. This was then followed by that opening of his eyes and the sneaky look upwards at her face.

Hear the audio of the full appeal here:

Hear the “Don’t Talk” whisper here:

This is reminiscent of the video in November 2007 where Gerry told his wife at the end of an interview in Brian Kennedy’s home “don’t speak to whoever is calling…”

This new bombshell evidence demonstrates once again how the Madeleine disappearance was staged and in those early days how Kate Healy was controlled.

The start of the appeal. Gerry and Kate are centred on the frame.

As the appeal continues, Kate occasionally looks down as if reading from a script.

When Kate seemed to stumble with a few words, Gerry had a look of disdain and at the same time he gripped Kate's shoulder while blinking as if dissatisfied.

For most of the appeal, the camera zoomed in close on Kate's face and kept her to the left of the frame.

6 or 7 seconds after the appeal ended, Gerry flopped his head on Kate unconvincingly. As he did so, he whispers 'Don't talk'.

Just after telling his wife to not talk, he opens his eyes with head bowed. Kate catches a glimpse of his eyes open and then she looks toward her husband. He immediately closes his eyes again.

UPDATE July 13, 2011

One commenter to Truth for Madeleine on July 9, 2011 (Gazz below) has slowed down the speech and he thinks that Gerry said “Don’t Tell Them…”

Here is his processed audio file:

Coroner Richard G. Taylor recorded an open verdict on Colin Sahlke's death due to morphine poisoning.

The inquest into his death recently revealed that he died from a morphine dose on top of alcohol in the form of approximately 12 cans of beer. The real mystery is that there was no evidence on his body of a morphine injection and his family were bemused by the cause of death.

The story was reported in Pendle Today (here) on October 11, 2010. Interestingly the Coroner Richard Taylor could find no evidence of suicide.

For convenience, here is the article repeated:

Tragic death of ex-para who joined in hunt for Madeleine McCann

Published on Mon Oct 11 16:29:52 BST 2010

FRIENDS and relatives of a Nelson man who died from a combination of morphine and alcohol poisoning said they were mystified how the drug got into his system.

Mr Colin Sahlke (48), of Carr Road, was found dead in his flat by his landlord on April 19th.

Ex-paratrooper Mr Sahlke and another ex-soldier, Stephen Taylor, flew out to Portugal three years ago to help in the search for missing British four-year-old Madeleine McCann.

An inquest at the Coroner’s Court in Burnley heard from his partner of three years, Christina Ellis, who said it was clear Mr Sahlke had been drinking too much.

She said: “He tried to keep it hidden but it put a huge strain on our relationship. He’d spent time in hospital and found life very difficult.

“I ended the relationship three weeks before he died. The last time I saw him was the day before, when he was drinking in the Station Hotel. He would drink all day but only took prescribed drugs.”

A post-mortem examination carried out by pathologist Dr Zuhair Twaij found a very high level of alcohol in Mr Sahlke’s system plus morphine in his blood. He gave the cause of death as morphine toxicity exacerbated by alcohol consumption.

Miss Ellis added: “Colin never took heroin or morphine so I don’t know how that got into his system. He’d made threats to harm himself in the past and once threatened to throw himself off the multi-storey car park in Nelson.”

Recording an open verdict, East Lancashire Coroner Mr Richard Taylor said: “Somehow this drug got into his system. The normal way would be by injection but there was no evidence of a needle site.

“However, we can’t avoid the fact it was in his system. I have no evidence, though, that his death was related to an intention to take his own life.

“I’ve no doubt he had a huge tolerance to alcohol and his drinking was not accidental. The presence of morphine is unexplained and we will probably never have an explanation. When people are depressed they do things they don’t normally do.”

Colin Sahlke in Praia da Luz, May 2007.

According to the British press in May 2007, a former British paratrooper, Colin Sahlke, went to Praia da Luz to search for Madeleine McCann. He sold his possessions and gave up his job and his rented home to finance the search.

Under strange circumstances almost 3 years later, Sahlke suddenly died in bed on April 19, 2010. His death is a mystery and the traces of what caused his death are gone forever—Sahlke was cremated in Skipton on April 29, 2010. At the time of writing in early June 2010, the family still do not know the cause of death.

Background

Days before Faked Abduction was printed, 3 chapters were removed. One of them “The Trojan Horse” was a controversial chapter detailing the operation of the inflatable billboard sent to Praia da Luz.

According to Gavin Hollywood, the managing director of Posterplus Media—the company who sent the billboard—the entire operation took 13 days in May 2007. From press stories released on Monday May 28, 2007, there is a consistent claim that the two drivers left Scotland on Friday, May 25, 2007. This also tallies with Gavin Hollywood’s communication to the author that the journey from Scotland to Portugal took 3 days.

The two van drivers were lauded by the press as a couple of ordinary guys who had been moved to pay for the venture out of a genuine, heartfelt concern for the plight of Madeleine. Nothing was further from the truth. The entire venture was set up after John McCann—Madeleine’s uncle—had approached Posterplus Media. The two men were employees of Posterplus Media and were just doing their job.

When we peel back the layers, we find that one of the drivers—Les Harley—lives very close to John McCann in the Temple/Partick area of Glasgow. Posterplus Media is located in Kilmaurs and is a good 25 miles away from where Harley & McCann live. It is a fair bet that John McCann knew Les Harley as a fellow brethren in one of the local lodges in that district—perhaps in the Galen Lodge located at the torched Ardery Street Freemason Hall that was burned to the ground in an arson attack in January 2008. No doubt the membership records of the various lodges using the Ardery Street hall disappeared into smoke along with many other interesting historical records.

Kate and Gerry McCann looking at the inflatable billboard that was driven to Praia da Luz for a couple of days at a cost of over £20,000.

The 2000+ mile trip to Portugal with an 800 sq.ft. inflatable “bouncy castle” with a poster stuck on the side made no sense at all. Gavin Hollywood’s estimated cost of £20,000 ($30,000) could have been done for thousands less by flying the two men to Portugal and sending the inflatable as air freight. A glance at the accounts and financial status of Posterplus Media makes the story even more fantastic. Deeply in debt for several years and with at least one county court judgment recorded against them, what on earth was the company doing by spending such a vast sum of money for very little—if any—reward? The newspaper articles touted the drivers, Chris Lennox and Les Harley as the brains behind the venture and at no time was the name Posterplus Media mentioned in those articles. It wasn’t as if the company gained by some press exposure and if anything, the company remained completely anonymous. When you are so deep in the red, it isn’t as though those expenses can be used as a tax right-off. If you’re not making money then you won’t be paying tax anyway.

Now switch our attention to a story that came out a day or two before the “bouncy castle” story.

Posterplus Media balance sheet. Click the image to view it larger.

Steve Taylor and Colin Sahlke were two former British Army soldiers who are reported to have met while working in a shower company in Nelson, Lancashire. The fantastic stories about Taylor and Sahlke have a vibe that is incredibly similar to the story of Harley and Lennox. Taylor and Sahlke didn’t take any fancy equipment to Portugal but if we are to believe the news reports of the time, we are told that they both gave up their jobs and at least one of them gave up his rented home and possessions to raise £5,000 ($7,500) to go and find Madeleine.

John McCann, the Madeleine Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited Chairman, is said to have given up his job with AstraZeneca so he could concentrate full time on the search for his niece. It is staggering to think how four people gave up their careers to focus on the search for Madeleine: Kate Healy, John McCann and two former soldiers in Lancashire.

The dates and times that Taylor and Sahlke were in Praia da Luz are pretty much the same as Lennox and Harley’s. All four men left the UK on Friday, May 25, 2007. Apart from a few staged photographs of Taylor and Sahlke decked out in clothing more suitable for Operation Desert Storm, we saw nothing more of the two former soldiers. We saw nothing more of the inflatable sign either. After a photo session on the beach in Praia da Luz, the sign was not seen again despite Gavin Hollywood’s claim that the sign was to be set up at sites around the Algarve.

And what incidentally was it that cost Taylor and Sahlke £5,000? Two return low-cost airline tickets to Faro, Portugal, from Leeds/Bradford or Manchester Airports would typically cost about £150 or less. Accommodation for a week or even a cheap package holiday including flights would have cost the two men no more than £500 each. May is not high season in the European package holiday trade.

The two stories of Taylor/Sahlke and Lennox/Harley really make no sense whatsoever. Keep in mind that these men came onto the scene 3 days after Clarence Mitchell’s public arrival on the Madeleine McCann disappearance.

North East Lancashire/West Yorkshire

For those not familiar with this part of England and its involvement in the McCann case, it is a location that has had an ever increasing list of coincidental involvement. To date we have:

• Ed Smethurst, a Madeleine Fund director, a lawyer and a prominent Freemason in the East Lancashire Lodge in Manchester. It appears that Smethurst has lived and worked in the Bury/Rochdale/Clitheroe area for most of his life.
• Michael Wright, Kate Healy’s cousin’s husband. Wright was the named driver on the Renault Scenic where the cadaver dog smelt the scent of death in the trunk. Wright made numerous trips to Portugal in 2007, including one trip where he literally flew to Portugal to accompany Kate and the twins on a flight back to England the same day.
• CCP—the Centre for Crisis Psychology—are based in Skipton. CCP were dispatched to Portugal in the middle of May 2007 to assist the McCanns with trauma counselling.
• Colin Sahlke and Steve Taylor were work colleagues at a shower company in Nelson. Presumably this was Manhattan Showers Ltd.
• Raymond Hewlett, the deceased former paedophile lived in Todmorden and was linked to the Madeleine case for various reasons. Suspected to have been the real killer of Leslie Molseed in 1975, Hewlett passed away in 2010 after contracting throat cancer.
• David Payne, one of the Tapas Nine, has family in Rochdale. Payne is the doctor who was reported to Leicestershire police by Katerina and Arul Gaspar when they made statements about the behaviour of Gerry McCann and David Payne when they were all on holiday together in Majorca in 2005.

The area of north east Lancashire and west Yorkshire discussed in this section. A: Clitheroe, B: Skipton, C: Nelson, D: Keighley, E: Todmorden, F: Rochdale. To give an idea of the scale of this map, it is about 27 miles from Clitheroe to Keighley and 40 miles from Skipton to Rochdale.

A well known blogger in the Madeleine McCann case is “Blackwatch”. His blog—The Sargeant’s Inn (here)—is like a curio shop full of fascinating connections between the hundreds of characters involved in the story. Intelligently written, it is a great repository of trivia on the Madeleine story.

The detail in his blog is what makes it a compelling read but although he supplies many names and their relationships between each other, he reaches few conclusions and he actually states by way of a disclaimer:

The site offers no explanation for what might have occurred prior to the event, only for the Press, PR and lobbying activity that erupted in its wake. The intent is to dispel any notion of an elaborate conspiracy and to propose a more prosaic but no less compelling account of the Madeleine Franchise and how it came almost accidently into shape: a story of commercial and political improvisation.

Blackwatch also goes on to state:

Here are a few things we won’t tolerate:

• Any crazy stuff about Roslyn, Roswell, Freemasons, the Bilderberg Group, Crop Circles, the Illuminati, Opus Dei, New World Order and fat bald blokes

Phil Johnson, the owner of JJ Associates International based in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

While the Madeleine case may not involve crop circles, the Bilderberg Group, Roslyn Chapel, the Illuminati, Opus Dei and a New World Order, it certainly does involve Freemasons. As Faked Abduction clearly demonstrates, there is a large network of Freemasons involved in the founding of the official fund. Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited has their registered office at one of Britain’s largest law firms to represent Freemasons and Freemasonic charities. Ed Smethurst is one of the directors of the Madeleine Fund and is a long time Freemason.

Blackwatch recently wrote an article about JJ Associates International (here). This private firm of investigators are also located in the East Lancs/West Yorks area and their mailing address is in Keighley (D on the map above). In typical “Blackwatch” style, he connects the players and in the context of this article he refers to Colin Sahlke:

Readers might recall that Colin Sahlke a former Keighley paratrooper and his friend flew to Praia da Luz in the first weeks of her disappearance. I am assuming he may have been a member of JJ Associates or at least someone on their books.

The owner of JJ Associates International is Phil Johnson. Phil has a long and detailed entry on the business networking site “Linkedin” (here).

Freemason involvement

Ed Smethurst has made no secret of his affiliation with Freemasons. For most of his life he has been involved with the craft in the Manchester area.

Phil Johnson lists 'The Virtual Lodge' in his group affiliations on his Linkedin page.

For all Blackwatch’s denial of Freemason involvement in the Madeleine disappearance, when we look at Phil Johnson’s Linkedin entry, we see that he belongs to a group called The Virtual Lodge. As Blackwatch surmises, perhaps Sahlke was on the books of JJ Associates International. Who knows?

According to Colin Sahlke’s sister, she is of the opinion that if Colin was a Freemason then that was “in his dreams” because her brother liked to exaggerate his achievements. In point of fact, when the British press reported that Colin was a former paratrooper, his sister said “…that was the first we knew of him being a former paratrooper!”

But were Sahlke and Taylor Freemasons or were they chosen by Freemasons to go over to Portugal?

The Midas Award logo (left) is suspiciously Masonic in design. Compare to the compass and squares (right), the well-known symbol of Freemasonry.

Here’s a clue: Manhattan Showers in Nelson have their registered office in Glossop, Derbyshire at a firm of accountants called Crossley Lomas. Back in 2004, Crossley and Lomas won a financial services award called a Midas Award. The company behind this are located (here). Look at the Midas Award logo. Crossley Lomas are the registered office for many companies and they also advised a Manchester company called the Brownsword Group Ltd. Brownsword Group Ltd are the parent company of Mike India 5 Ltd—clearly a play on the term “MI5″.

The reader is probably bewildered now by an ever increasing list of company names and more people loosely connected by Freemasonry in the Manchester area.

Look no further. The connection comes back full circle to tie in Freemasonic Madeleine Fund helpers Brian Kennedy and Ed Smethurst.

In October 2008, it was announced that Brian Kennedy’s rugby club Sale Sharks had a new sponsor.

From sportindustry.biz (here):

Sale Sharks sign up new sponsor- 27 Oct 2008

Guinness Premiership side Sale Sharks have signed a one-year sponsorship deal with insurance specialists Mike India 5.

Prior to the deal being signed, the Cheadle Hulme based firm, specialists in investigating integrity for the insurance industry and general commerce, completed an investigation into the benefits of an association with the Guinness Premiership club.

The investigation has concluded with Mike India 5 signing a one-year deal to become official partners of Sale Sharks.

The Sharks will wear the Mike India 5 logo for all their remaining Heineken Cup matches this season.

The deal also provides Mike India 5 with perimeter signage, corporate hospitality to entertain key guests to Sharks matches and the opportunity to network with other club sponsors and partners through membership in the Sale Sharks 500 Club.

Freemason sponsors of Sale Sharks - Mike India 5 Ltd - an east Manchester based investigation and surveillance firm with links to Chartered Accountants Crossley Lomas. Click image to see larger version.

Conclusion

This is yet another proven Freemasonic link in the Madeleine McCann case and one that ties in the key players Brian Kennedy and Ed Smethurst to Colin Sahlke and Steve Taylor—two men sent to Portugal on May 25, 2007.

Did Sahlke and Taylor help to repatriate Madeleine?

Sahlke liked to talk too much. Was this his downfall and did it ultimately cost him his life?

Orders are coming in fast for the 526 page paperback, published this week in the USA.

It seems that the public will at last be able to read for themselves the key evidence in the Madeleine McCann case. This book—the first of its kind in English—will carry the baton forward after Goncalo Amaral’s book was banned in Portugal. The former inspector’s book was never translated to English and so the British and American public were unable to read about many aspects of the case.

The Book Contents

Here is the chapter listing:

• British Establishment Cover-ups
• Maddie: A Name the Media Invented
• The Police Conclusions
• How the Story Unfolded
• Experts in Propaganda
• The Locations and People
• A Neighbor Hears Crying
• An Obsession with Lawyers
• The Five Photographs
• Payne & McCann Allegations
• Dogs Don’t Lie
• The Weekend of June 9 – 10
• McCanns on the Oprah Show
• Letter to the Madeleine Fund
• Gerry’s Blogs and Kate’s Diary
• The Official Fund
• The Arguido Interviews
• Dealing with a Corpse
• Flaws in Gonçalo Amaral’s thesis
• Interesting Details from the Files
• The Author’s Conclusions

APPENDICES

• Appendix A: Timeline 2007-2010
• Appendix B: Timeline May 3, 2007
• Appendix C: Tavares Almeida’s Report
• Appendix D: Mark Harrison’s Report
• Appendix E: Martin Grime’s Profile
• Appendix F: Documentaries & Interviews
• Appendix G: Kate Healy’s Bible
• Appendix H: Justice Hogg’s Judgment

A few book Highlights:

• Copious footnotes and cross references to verify sources
• Correspondence from Peter McCann of Castle Craig about his relationship with Gerry McCann
• The statements deliberately held back from the Portuguese police by Leicester Constabulary
• The blatant discrepancies in the Tapas Nine witness statements
• Jane Tanner’s conflicting statements
• Did Kate falsify legal documents?
• Where did Gonçalo Amaral go wrong?
• Correspondence from the Masonic law firm entrusted with setting up Madeleine’s Fund
• Gordon Brown’s wife and the fellow Bristol University graduate behind the Madeleine Fund
• Information about other appalling British Establishment cover ups including Dunblane, Omagh and the recent shock Hollie Greig case