Breaking Down The Wall of Silence: to join the waiting child

I began to write this blog post some time ago. I had decided that while talking about breaking down the wall of silence for all those adults who are now coming forward and naming their abusers as well-known and trusted people in the media, the time had come to break down my own wall of silence and describe the abuse I suffered as a child. That's when I truly realised how hard it must have been for those people to speak out, to finally break down those walls and name the abuse, name the abusers because this blog post has been sitting here as a draft for weeks, during which I struggled with the decision about leaving my wall in place or talking about it. I shall talk about it later...!

Some years ago, my very dear friend Frances Ommanney gave me a book to read, "Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence: To Join the Waiting Child," by Alice Miller. In this book, Miller explores the suffering of early childhood and writes that the first stage in the healing process is to feel the truth of our experience. The truth of a child's experience of abuse is very often denied and so children learn not to talk about it. Physical abuse is much easier for the child to report and for adults to believe. Here are the bruises. This is what was done to me. Emotional and sexual abuse are much harder for a child to show and adults to believe: what can a child show you to prove emotional abuse? No bruises, but often children whose behaviour is disruptive are victims of emotional and/or sexual abuse. We just need to look for and listen for the clues those children are giving us. It's easy for those children just to be labelled as trouble-makers. Easy because we then don't need to do anything other than impose sanctions: school exclusions rather than patience, time and expensive therapeutic intervention. Or, we can remove them to 'a place of safety,' in the 'care of the local authority,' where they can be reminded constantly that they are there because they have proven difficult for schools and social workers to deal with. They're just bad! Job done! Move on! 

Sexual abuse in particular often hides behind a wall of silence: the child who remains silent, often because threatened by the abusing adult; the adult who chooses to discount the child's experience. And so, within the adult who was an abused child, I believe there is that child waiting for the pain to be acknowledged and for just one person to say, "I believe you and that shouldn't have happened to you." That child is still there, waiting to be heard. 

The waiting child needs to feel the truth of her or his experience. And for that to happen, the child's pain needs to be acknowledged and the abuser(s) named. The wall of silence must be broken down. 

Sexual abuse of children is, of course, not a new phenomenon, but it's only in the past twenty years or so that we have been using the word 'paedophile,' and facing the reality of just how prevalent is the abuse. Does every family have its very own paedophile among its ranks? Our family did! Of course, when I was a child, we didn't use the word 'paedophile.' We had 'kiddie fiddlers,' and 'dirty old men.' My uncle Henry (real name for the b*stard!) was our very own 'kiddie fiddler.' He zoomed in on us female cousins when we began to look pubescent with developing boobs. If we were unlucky enough to have to sit in the back of a car with him, the hand would go over the shoulder and he would try to get under the clothing to the breasts. At a New Year's Eve party, my older sister was told to go with Henry to fetch something from a neighbour's house. She didn't want to go, but didn't want to have to explain why she was reluctant. She came back a few minutes later, crying because Henry had dragged her into an entry and tried to remove her clothing. Nobody believed her. Uncle Henry (the b*stard!) was a respected member of the family and my sister was held to be a liar. It was never spoken of again, but I reckon most of my family knew what Henry was like, but chose to ignore it. Years later, when Henry retired from his job in the Glasgow shipyards, he took up a job as a 'lollipop man.' A bleedin' 'lollipop man,' guiding children safely across busy roads. Nobody said anything: the wall of silence remained intact. 

Maybe our family is unusual. Or maybe not. Speaking some years ago to a woman called Liz, who had interviewed thousands of women about their experience of childhood sexual abuse, I am inclined to believe, based on findings she described to me, that most of us adults either experienced sexual abuse personally or know of someone within the family or close circle of associates who had. 

Paedophiles are in the news big time at the moment. Did we really have to wait until Jimmy Savile was dead for there to be public disclosure about the hundreds of accusations against him? Did people at the BBC really just ignore it because in those days it was just accepted that that was to be expected of people like Savile? For those children and young people who were abused by him, it's tragic. Who would they tell when there were incidents such as the one where a BBC producer walked in on Savile with a young girl on his lap and she closed the door and did nothing?

The time has come to break down those walls of silence and listen to those people who were abused.  

In 1997, the conclusion of the inquiry into allegations of abuse at children's homes in North Wales, chaired by Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC, was that the allegations against named social workers and prominent public figures were fantasy. Children's Commissioner for Wales Keith Towler has said there is a need for a fresh inquiry But he says the Waterhouse Inquiry report, which looked into the allegations and came out in 2000, uncovered just a fraction of the abuse. So, how much more is there? How many children were abused in those homes that were supposed to be 'a place of safety.'? How many children were taken from their families 'for their own good' and thrown into a pit of evil, just captive subjects in what must have been like sweet shops for vile paedophiles? 

And if this happened in children's homes in North Wales, where else did it happen? Surely North Wales cannot be an exception? I know that in one area, which I shouldn't name, several children's homes were closed amid allegations of institutionalised abuse. Perhaps that area will come into focus now that the curtain is being raised on the true extent of the hidden abuse. 

The abuse that I suffered is probably nothing compared to what all those children suffered in so-called 'care,' but who can quantify suffering? Actually, I never saw myself as a victim, probably because, although there were no adults to believe us, all of us kids talked about it and tried to protect each other and we were not trapped within a system of care and protection. We had choices that children in care never had and I would say don't have. But, yes, who can quantify suffering? Well, a prominent Tory can. His suffering, even though he was never named by that BBC programme, is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

What is the value placed on the ruined lives of those adult survivors of childhood abuse while supposedly in 'the care of the local authority.'? Seemingly not a great deal when certain aspects of the media are all too willing to label people like Steve Messham as some kind of fantasist because of a case of mistaken identity of one of his abusers while he was in care. It almost seems like while the media can focus on this one case of mistaken identity and give front page news to a man who was wrongly named as an abuser and the BBC can publicly flog itself, certain people can breathe a sigh of relief now that the attention has shifted from the true extent of sexual abuse. 

Almost daily, there is news of some other high profile person being arrested in connection with 'historic abuse.' And the obvious question is - how deep and how high does this all go into the realms of people in public life? People in the entertainment business? Politicians? Do perverts somehow manage to get themselves into positions of power through their own wiles/skills/talents/influence or does power corrupt in ways the rest of us would never imagine? 

Let's name the abusers. And let's also hear those people who were abused. Let's now, once and for all, help those children within to be heard. Those walls of silence must be broken down and we must join those children who have been waiting for a very long time for someone to say, "That shouldn't have happened to you." 

Two Banking Scandals - Three Tragic Events

The Aurora Shooting

On Friday, July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred in a Century Movie Theatre in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the film "The Dark Knight Rises," during which a lone gunman is alleged (alleged because there are witness statements that report more than one shooter) to have killed 12 people and injured 58. The only suspect is James Eagan Holmes, who was arrested outside the cinema shortly after the shooting. 

Of interest here is that James Holmes' father, Robert Holmes was due to testify before a US Senate Panel on the Libor banking scandal.

"Most important to note about James Holmes, however, this report says, is that his father, Robert Holmes, was said to have been scheduled to testify within the next few weeks before a US Senate panel on the largest bank fraud scandal in world history that is currently unfolding and threatens to destabilize and destroy the Western banking system. Robert Holmes, whose “blueblood” family links go back to the Mayflower, is known throughout the global banking community as being the creator of one of the most sophisticated computer algorithms ever developed and is credited with developing predictive models for financial services; credit and fraud risk models, first and third party application fraud models and internet/online banking fraud models."
Godlike Productions

Sandy Hook Elementary School, Connecticut

On the morning of Friday December 4th, a lone gunman, (once again initial witness reports of more than one shooter) alleged to have been a 20 year-old man named Adam Lanza, armed with two pistols and a rifle, shot and killed 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The guns belonged to Lanza's mother, whom he is reported to have shot and killed before busting his way into the school and embarking on his deadly rampage in which the children were shot together with teachers who tried to protect them. Adam Lanza then shot himself.

As a mother I recall walking up the road to my children's school and waving to them at the gate. It's what parents all over the world do and we assume that once inside the gate, under the supervision of school staff, our children are safe. We collect our children, safely, at the end of the school day. That's what's supposed to happen: we stand at the gate with other parents, looking out for our own little ones running towards us and we all go home. For 20 families of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, an ordinary day when they left their children at the school gate became a day when their children would not be running to meet them, they would not be going home. I can only imagine, as a mother and a grandmother, what that must be like: the individual and collective loss and grief is almost beyond what most of us can imagine. Somewhere in my consciousness as I go about my day, there is a lingering sadness for those children and their families.

Embedded in that sadness is a little voice that says: hang on, Adam Lanza's father is reported to have been due to testify before the US Senate Panel on the Libor banking scandal. What kind of coincidence is that? Two young men go on a shooting rampage, killing lots of innocent people, and both their fathers were due to testify about the Libor banking scandal?

Libor scandal grows as the fathers of two mass murderers were to testify

Both fathers of the shooters were allegedly expected to testify in the Libor scandal that rocked the banking world in June.
The father of Newtown Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza is Peter Lanza who is a VP and Tax Director at GE Financial. The father of Aurora Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes is Robert Holmes, the lead scientist for the credit score company FICO. Both men were to testify before the US Sentate in the ongoing LIBOR scandal. The London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor, is the average interest rate at which banks can borrow from each other. 16 international banks have been implicated in this ongoing scandal, accused of rigging contracts worth trillions of dollars. HSBC has already been fined $1.9 billion and three of their low level traders arrested.

And

For similar events on the magnitude of both Aurora and Newtown to hold a connection to one of the greatest financial scandals in the history of finance is astronomically slim in regards to coincidence.
...While the coming days will bring forth more pertinent information on the motives, access, and failures of both community and family to diagnose the events leading up to Adam Lanza's killing spree, one thing is becoming disturbingly clear. The connections between the Aurora massacre, and the one that took place in Newtown on Friday, may have far more ramifications to the people involved in the Libor scandal than anyone could imagine.

The Examiner

So, there we have it. Two mass shootings with an apparent link to the Libor banking scandal, the fathers of the two killers both reported as having been due to testify on the scandal. The chances of this happening, if true, would appear to be rather slim. 

Then we have another tragic murder case that appears to have a link to a banking scandal.

The Krim family

On October 25th, Marina Krim returned to her Upper West Side apartment in New York to find her children, Leo aged 2 and Lucia aged 6, dead in a bathtub. She then found the children's nanny, Yoselyn Ortega stabbing herself in the neck. The nanny has been charged with the murder of the children.

Kevin Krim, the children's father, is a senior vice president for CNBC Digital. The Krim children were murdered one day after CNBC reported on a $43 trillion banker lawsuit.

 October 25, 2012 – CNBC Publishes article from PR Newswire Press Release: Major Banks, Governmental Officials and Their Comrade Capitalists Targets of Spire Law Group, LLP’s Racketeering and Money Laundering Lawsuit Seeking Return of $43 Trillion to the United States Treasury
October 26, 2012 – CNN Reports that the two children of Kevin Krim, a senior vice president for CNBC Digital and former Yahoo executive were murdered.

Krim’s children: Leo, who had recently celebrated his second birthday with “Pinkalicious-inspired cupcakes;” and his 6-year-old sister, Lucia, who had performed “beautifully in her ballet recital” in May.
Both children had been repeatedly stabbed, police said.
October 27, 2012 – CNBC removed article from their website and archives
Godlike Productions

is this another coincidence? Is it just coincidental that CNBC carried a report about a $43 trillion banking fraud and the following day two children of a CNBC Vice President were murdered? And why then did CNBC remove the report from its pages? All just coincidence?

My father had a little song he would sing at times like this: "And the band played believe it if you like. Ting ting!" 

I'm afraid I don't know what to believe. The thought that planned and co-ordinated evil might exist in my world fills me with horror. I'm sure this is the same for most ordinary people, in ordinary jobs, just living in an ordinary world where these things do not happen. 

Yet, they do happen to ordinary people. Many miles away from my little town, in a small town in the USA, 20 families have lost a child to a gunman. And of course, we now have the expected calls for tightening of gun control in the US. I'm truly grateful that we in the UK do not have this problem. I know a man who has a collection of antique guns (all working) which he keeps in a locked cabinet. He has to re-apply on a regular basis for his licence to hold those guns and the requirements he must meet are very strict. Apart from that, the thought that any of my neighbours might possibly have a handgun in a bedside drawer would horrify me. 

The right to keep and bear arms and form well-regulated citizen militias is enshrined within the Constitution of the United States of America and I cannot see that right being surrendered willingly by a great many of the people of that nation for whom the right to carry is almost God-given. 

I have seen comments today that an attempt to take guns from the citizens of the USA will result in civil war. That may sound extreme, but not beyond the realms of possibility, in my opinion. Since the Sandy Hook massacre, gun sales have been booming. 

I will end here quoting a few 'tweets,' from the American broadcaster, Max Keiser.

Max Keiser ‏@maxkeiser

I don't think these are random shootings as such, I think America just entered a new civil war: the banksters stole it all, now it's payback

Max Keiser ‏@maxkeiser

US can't change pro-massacre gun laws the same way they can't change pro-bankster finance laws.

Max Keiser ‏@maxkeiser

Coroner: Conn. gunman shot mom multiple times in head; shooter killed self with shot to head. The apple pie and American flag were untouched

And finally

Max Keiser ‏@maxkeiser

HSBC's money laundering and terror financing killed more kids than all 7 mass shootings in America this year

Jenny Murat: Kate McCann Printed Such Awful Things About My Robert In Her Madeleine Book

According to James Murray in today's Sunday Express Robert Murat's mother Jenny has hit out at the way her son is portrayed in Kate McCann's book "Madeleine." Kate McCann wrote:

"Two officers talked openly about Robert Murat, who remained an arguido [suspect] and drip-fed us snippets of 'evidence' linking him to Madeleine"

However, later in the book, Kate McCann added:

"Nothing we were told by the police indicated Murat took Madeleine or was in any way involved in her abduction."

There appears to be a contradiction there. How could the police have drip-fed 'evidence,' that linked Murat to Madeleine but none of that 'evidence,' indicated any involvement? Maybe Kate McCann just needed to blame the police for her initial belief that Robert had been involved. 

On July 18th 2007, Kate McCann wrote in her personal journal (for the publication of which by the News of The World she was awarded substantial damages) 

"I had lots of hope that there would be progress in Murat's situation. I'm sure that he is involved and I feel like killing him, but I can't" The McCann Files

A reasonable question to ask is what made Kate McCann sure that Robert Murat had been involved in her daughter's disappearance. Surely not all that 'evidence,' that linked Robert to Murat but did not indicate any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance. 

Well, there were her friends, who stated that they had seen Robert on the evening of May 3rd soon after the alarm was raised that Madeleine had disappeared.

Three of the Tapas group (Russell O'Brien, Rachel Oldfield and Fiona Payne) claim to have seen Murat on the streets of Praia da Luz during the aftermath of Madeleine's disappearance. The McCann Files

That same trio returned to Portugal for a face-to-face confrontation with Robert Murat on July 11th 2007.

Three of the Tapas group (Russell O'Brien, Rachel Oldfield and Fiona Payne) are re-interviewed by police to clarify points in their initial statements. Robert Murat is then brought into the questioning by police to 'confront' the 3 members of the Tapas group. The police apparently allow them to argue over the inconsistencies in their statements. The police later say that this was a valuable exercise.The McCann Files

Rachel Oldfield, Fiona Payne and Russell O'Brien on their return to Portugal

in July 2007

And let's not forget Jane Tanner's crucial evidence in identifying Robert Murat as the man she had seen carrying a child away from the direction of apartment 5A, from where Madeleine had disappeared. On the night of May 13th 2007 the Portuguese police obtained a warrant to search Robert Murat's property where he was living with his mother.

JANE TANNER FORMALLY RECOGNISES ROBERT MURAT

 Before the search, we want to assure ourselves that Jane Tanner recognises him as the individual she saw on the night of the disappearance. She is sitting inside an unmarked car, whose tinted windows allow her to see out without being spotted. The vehicle is parked at the exact spot where she was on the night of May 3rd. Robert Murat, anonymous amongst plain clothes police officers, goes up the road in the same way as the alleged abductor. Jane Tanner is adamant: it certainly is Robert Murat that she saw that night. She definitely recognises his way of walking. But does he resemble the description she painted previously? (Chapter 7 "The Truth of the Lie," by Gonçalo Amaral)

So, it wasn't just the two police officers drip-feeding Kate McCann snippets of evidence about Robert Murat that led to her being convinced or trying to convince others, in my opinion, that Robert was involved in Madeleine's disappearance. Kate McCann was aided by four of her friends in her quest to implicate Robert. Jane Tanner identified him as the man she had seen carrying a child on the evening of May 3rd and another three of the group, known as "The Tapas Nine," stated that they had seen Robert outside the McCann apartment soon after Madeleine was found to have disappeared. 

Oddly enough, there happens to be a strong resemblance between Robert Murat and Dr David Payne, but surely David's own wife wouldn't make such a mistake? 

None of the residents of Praia da Luz who knew Robert Murat identified him as having been there, outside the apartment. So, why did those friends of Kate and Gerry McCann make statements that they had seen him? It is my opinion that Robert was just an easy patsy, someone who turned up on the morning of May 4th, offering to interpret for the English group who spoke no Portuguese. Memories of Ian Huntley and the Soham case were still strong in the minds of the public and Robert Murat was likened by Lori Campbell of Sky News to Huntley as appearing to help, but hanging around in a very suspicious  manner. 

It's not just Kate McCann, as far as I am concerned, who should bear the responsibility for the awful things said about Robert Murat. Kate McCann's four friends, Jane Tanner, Rachel Oldfield, Fiona Payne and Russell O'Brien also carry a load of responsibility in that direction. 

I am still hoping that as part of their review the Scotland Yard team will call for a reconstruction of the events of May 3rd 2007 surrounding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Do those four people still believe it was Robert Murat they saw? Perhaps the three who were adamant that he was there outside the apartment should indicate where they were and where they "saw," Robert Murat. But since Robert gained substantial damages from several UK news outlets, perhaps their conviction will not be so strong. 

And back to Kate McCann's book and her comments about Robert Murat. Jenny Murat adds this to her statement in today's Sunday Express:

“Surely it would have been wiser not to mention the allegations from the outset if there was ‘nothing relevant’.”

Yes, might have been a good idea. Might also have been a good idea not to refer to the Portuguese Family Liaison Officer as a f*cking t*sser, but that's another story from Kate's bewk! 

From Frank Beck to Lord Janner of Braunstone to Kate and Gerry McCann

Apart from reclusive people living deep inside the Amazon jungle or anyone who has been in a coma for the last five and a half years, most of the world knows about Madeleine McCann.

"Jamais auparavant dans l'histoire, autant de monde s'est intéressé au sort d'une petite fille." Duarte Levy

At the end of April, 2007, Madeleine McCann went on holiday to Praia da Luz in the south of Portugal with her parents, Kate and Gerry, and her twin siblings, Sean and Amelie. Madeleine was a few days short of her fourth birthday and the twins were two years and three months old.

With the exception of the first night of the holiday, when the whole family went out to dinner at the Millennium restaurant, the three children were all tucked up in bed, we are told, in an unlocked apartment, while their parents dined at the Tapas Bar. Gerry McCann may think it was like "dining in your own back garden," and maybe their garden is very different from mine, but the bottom of my garden is not 120 metres from my house and I don't have to walk round a swimming pool, through a reception area and along a public footpath to get to the back door.

Madeleine vanished as though into thin air. She was abducted, her parents say, by someone who must have been wearing a Tyvek suit because no trace of an intruder was found: no footprints; no fingerprints; nothing of any forensic value. Imagine this stranger in his white suit with night vision goggles to negotiate his way around a room crowded with two single beds and two cots. Imagine him as Jane Tanner described him: a man carrying a bundle that could have been a child; a man carrying a child wearing pyjamas just like those Madeleine had been wearing; a man with long hair, short hair, didn't see his face, spotty-faced, stubbly, clean-shaven face. Add to this the amazing array of discrepancies and contradictions between statements from the group known as "The Tapas Nine," and I begin to feel like the figure in the image above, feeling my way around in Antony Gormley's "Blind Light"

OK, so how do we build links from the disappearance of Madeleine McCann to Lord Janner of Braunstone to Frank Beck, who was sent to prison in 1991, found guilty of abusing children in his care in Leicester children's homes?

Greville Janner, Lord Janner of Braunstone, knighted by Tony Blair, was a Labour MP for Leicester North-West from 1970 - 1974 and then for Leicester West until 1997, when he was knighted by Tony Blair. He now sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.

Frank Beck was manager of three of Leicester's children's homes until 1991 when he was charged with and found guilty of sexually and physically abusing children in his care for 13 years.

The link between Greville Janner and Frank Beck concerns an allegation that came out at Beck's trial, of Janner's sustained sexual abuse of a 13 year-old boy in care. Paul Winston, who was a married man with children at the time of the trial, gave evidence for Frank Beck, stating that Beck had counselled him about the relationship with the MP.

According to Winston’s evidence, he was invited to Janner’s home near Golders Green, whilst Janner’s wife was away, and this led to his sharing Janner’s bed where they “cuddled and fondled each other”. Thereafter Winston testified that, over the next two years, he was regularly sodomised by Janner.

Beck discovered what had been going on after Winston was put into his care, at which point, he informed his superiors at Leicester Social Services. At one point, Janner visited the care home with a new bicycle for Paul but Beck denied him entry and would not allow the gift to be passed on. This was confirmed by another witness at the trial. (http://chris-ukorg.org/cover-ups/)

Lord Janner denied the charges and the case was dropped for "lack of evidence," even though Winston could describe certain features of Janner's home, by the then DPP, Sir Alan Green - who resigned shortly thereafter as a result of a kerb-crawling incident. 

The link from Greville Lord Janner to Frank Beck is an allegation that Lord Janner had abused a boy who had been admitted into the care system in one of the homes of which Beck was manager. 

There is also a link from Greville Janner to Kate and Gerry McCann. Immediately following the accusation at Beck's trial, Janner went to a police station in Leicester, accompanied by his solicitor, Sir David Napley, of the law firm Kingsley Napley. Michael Caplan QC of Kingsley Napley represented the McCanns soon after they fled from Portugal in 2007, just after being made arguidos. Michael Caplan defended Augusto Pinochet against extradition: an interesting choice for Kate and Gerry, who had just been made arguidos (formal suspects) in the case of their daughter's disappearance and had returned to their home in England. 

So, why did Kate and Gerry McCann choose a firm of solicitors who had defended such illustrious folks as General Pinochet and Lord Janner? Kate McCann gives an explanation in chapter 17 of her book "Madeleine." She had been made an arguida on Friday September 7th 2007.

Saturday 8 September. We were on tenterhooks all day, waiting to hear whether we would be allowed to go home. Rachael had found a couple of criminal lawyers in London she was sure could help us. Michael Caplan and Angus McBride of Kingsley Napley had worked on several high-profile cases, including the Pinochet extradition proceedings and the Stevens inquiry. Gerry gave them a call. They discussed Madeleine’s case in detail, what had happened so far and how Kingsley Napley might be able to assist us

Rachael Oldfield had found Michael Caplan and Angus McBride of Kingsley Napley and Gerry gave them a call. This was a Saturday. Two solicitors, working for what is thought to be the most expensive law firm in the UK were available on a Saturday for a chat with Gerry McCann? I guess they may have thought the case was high profile enough to make it worth their while, but maybe there is yet another connection here and a reason other than that Rachael had just happened to find Kingsley Napley.

"Michael Caplan and Angus McBride of Kingsley Napley had worked on several high-profile cases, including the Pinochet extradition proceedings." (Kate McCann).
Indeed they had. So too had the barrister instructed to argue Senator Pinochet's case before the House of Lords: Clare Montgomery QC. Miss Montgomery is an associate with Matrix Chambers of Gray's Inn, London, a founding member of which is Cherie Booth QC, otherwise known as Cherie Blair QC, who we are told was in telephone contact with Kate McCann personally. ("As we were walking up from the beach at about 5pm, I had a call from Cherie Blair, in her final days as wife of the prime minister." - 'Madeleine,' chapter 8).

(Credit for the above to Dani at SteelMagnolia)

The connections here make my mind boggle somewhat. Frank Beck, Lord Janner of Braunstone, Tony Blair, Cherie Blair and the McCanns. Of course those connections may be tenuous. We could say that because one of my nephews once played for a football team of which Gordon Brown was honorary chair of the supports' club that I am therefore linked to Gordon Brown in some way. However, I have never spoken to Gordon Brown and I'm sure we have never been clients of the same expensive legal firm.

When Ben Needham disappeared, his mother Kerry eventually had to leave the Greek island and abandon her search for her son when she could no longer afford to eat. She didn't have a British Ambassador rushing to her aid or the private phone number of a Prime Minister. Perhaps we still need to be asking why the British Prime Minister felt the need to involve himself in a Portuguese police investigation, why the Foreign Office helped the McCanns out of Portugal and why the British police left Portugal at the same time as the McCanns.

And finally, although the Children and Young Persons Act (1932) does not lay down a minimum age at which it is acceptable to leave children alone, it remains the case that if children are left alone and serious harm comes to them, parents/carers should be prosecuted under that act. However many times Gerry McCann repeats the mantra that there is no evidence that Madeleine has been harmed, if she was abducted, she has been harmed. 

The Green Fields of France

Frank Beck? Time to revisit the case of abuse in Leicester children's homes?

Frank Beck was manager of three Leicester children's homes. In 1991 he was sentenced to five life sentences, found guilty of sexually and physically abusing around 200 children in his care over a 13 year period. 

Frank Beck was a bully of the worst kind. Although he was capable of enormous charm, he was also physically threatening. He beat up the children in his homes, allowed a colleague to run a torture regime, and intimidated his staff to such an extent that they were not just terrified of him but were actually moulded into believing that Beck was acting in the best interests of the children in care.

(Community Care May 10th 2000)

Beck's managers knew of his unorthodox methods, especially his "regression therapy," where children were dressed in nappies, given dummies and bathed by staff. Most of the managers ignored the welter of complaints received about Beck. He apparently took on the worst children in care: child prostitutes,  drug users, children with criminal records, and managed to control them. So, complaints were ignored.

It is thought that Beck murdered 12 year-old Simon O'Donnell by wrapping a towel round the boy's neck while he was being raped. A verdict of suicide by hanging was passed on the boy at the time.

Why did Frank Beck get away with the abuse for so long? Managers and police ignored complaints by outsiders, temporary workers, students etc and by children who ran away, but was this just the culture of the time or was something else behind this willingness to ignore?

At the time, Leicestershire's chief executive, chief constable, several chief officers, the Conservative group leader and other senior Tory councillors were all masons, giving the impression that some council decisions were made at lodge meetings. It should be stressed, though, that the United Grand Lodge of England says that there is no record of Beck ever being a mason.

(Community Care May 10th 2000) 

Should someone be asking how many of those people in power knew about Frank Beck's activities? At least one person in a position of power appears to have known.

Enter Greville Janner QC, later to become Lord Janner of Braunstone, knighted by Tony Blair. 

According to C.H.R.I.S (Children Have Rights In Society)

In 1991, after accusing LORD/MP Greville Janner of paedophilic behaviour with a teenager, Frank Beck was arrested and charged with the sexual and physical abuse of children in his care over a thirteen-year period.

 At his trial Beck stated that: - “One child has been buggered and abused for two solid years by Greville Janner“...

.....Shortly afterwards, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alan Green, let it be known that “for lack of evidence”, Janner would not be prosecuted, even though Paul Winston, who was just thirteen when he and Janner first met, was able to describe Janner‘s home, the hotel rooms they had shared, and Janner’s habits and person in detail.

 The Director of Public Prosecutions, himself, was arrested for kerb-crawling in Kings Cross a little while later.

Green had come to the attention of the police previously for this same misdemeanour and was quietly given a formal warning. The scandal prompted his resignation from public office...

 ..Beck discovered what had been going on after Winston was put into his care, at which point, he informed his superiors at Leicester Social Services. At one point, Janner visited the care home with a new bicycle for Paul but Beck denied him entry and would not allow the gift to be passed on. This was confirmed by another witness at the trial.

So, if I am understanding what is written in the above article on the C.H.R.I.S web site, Frank Beck was arrested after accusing Greville Janner of child abuse. Are we to assume a connection, that Greville Janner pointed the finger at Frank Beck after Beck accused him of abuse and that was why, after 13 years of abusing children in his care, Frank Beck was eventually charged? Accuse the accuser of worse crimes? 

JANNER used the device of a ‘Personal Statement’ to deny all the accusations against him. Statements to the House of Commons of this kind, apart from being covered by Parliamentary privilege, are exempt from the usual interjections *and questions* from other MPs. After making his statement JANNER was invited by the press to answer their questions *outside* the privileged confines of the House. He refused to do so, and refused to explain why. (C.H.R.I.S Link above)

Janner then claimed that he had been cleared by parliament, which isn't true. He simply used a parliamentary rule to give his side of the story where he couldn't be questioned. 

Thus it may be seen that his subsequent claims to have been “cleared by Parliament of all accusations” is utterly untrue. JANNER ducked a genuine opportunity to clear his name by taking legal action against his former victim who, as a grown man, has re-iterated his evidence outside the protection of the witness box. (C.H.R.I.S.)

I ask again: how did Frank Beck get away with abusing children in his care for 13 years? Was he a Mason and did his Masonic brothers make sure he was never brought to task? And how come Greville Janner, with accusations of child abuse, for which he was never cleared because never charged, was knighted by Tony Blair? 

Frank Beck died on 31st May 1994, apparently as the result of a heart attack while playing badminton in prison. His body was cremated on June 9th 1994. At the time he was said to have been a fit man and other inmates suggested that he had been poisoned with methamphetamine in his food. At the time, Beck had been working on his appeal, repeating his claims against Greville Janner.  

Time to revisit this case, I think. It appears that at least one person, Lord Janner of Braunstone, has some questions to answer. See Cover-ups? for a long list of proposed questions. 

Vaccines and Dementia - Part 2

Andrew Moulden starts this video talking about ill and damaged children: autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Asperger's, the rising numbers of which may be linked to vaccines. 

Gardasil, a vaccine to protect girls from certain types of human papillomavirus,  linked to cancer of the cervix, is reported to have caused 20 deaths and over 12,000 adverse reactions. A new report (1) states that certain constituents of the vaccine cross the blood brain barrier. 

The non-specific immune system (2) is our first line of defence against invading organisms. Vaccines, which hyper-stimulate the immune system cause too many white blood cells to be rolling along inside the blood vessel walls. Since white blood cells are larger than red blood cells, hyper-stimulated white cells can block the access of red, oxygen carrying cells, to the tiny capillaries, causing impaired oxygen delivery. 

Dr Moulden refers to the work of Professor Rudolf Virchow on the factors that lead to clotting of blood. One of those is "stasis," an interruption in the flow of blood. Since every part of the body needs oxygen, interruption to the flow, creating tiny clots in the microscopic blood vessels can lead to ischaemia or "stroke," in any part of the body. 

When potentially harmful organisms invade the body via natural routes - nose, mouth, ears etc, the immune system should kick into action to control them and this would be referred to as a "normal immune response." When organisms, live, attenuated or killed, are injected into deep muscle, the body produces an abnormal immune response, which is thought to hyper-stimulate the action of white blood cells. This, according to Dr Moulden, can lead to impaired oxygen delivery to any part of the body. Consider this in relation to particularly vascular dementia where damage to small blood vessels in the brain leads to areas of the brain being cut off from essential oxygen supply and I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that at least some of the vaccines we are receiving play a role in the development of dementia. 

Notes:

1) The HPV-16-L1 protein is one of the antigens used in both Gardasil and Cervarix. An antigen is a toxin or other foreign substance that induces an immune response in the body. Theoretically, these antigens are not supposed to cross the blood brain barrier. However, according to a recently concluded case study this may not be the case. (http://sanevax.org/breaking-news-gardasil-fingerprints-found-in-post-mortem-samples/)

2) We are constantly being exposed to infectious agents and yet, in most cases, we are able to resist these infections. It is our immune system that enables us to resist infections. The immune system is composed of two major subdivisions, the innate or non-specific immune system and the adaptive or specific immune system (Figure 1). The innate immune system is our first line of defense against invading organisms while the adaptive immune system acts as a second line of defense and also affords protection against re-exposure to the same pathogen. (http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/ghaffar/innate.htm)

Dementia: Is there a causative link to vaccines?

I think those children who were born in the years immediately following WWII were the first generation to receive multiple vaccines. Barbara Loe Fisher of the American National Vaccine Information Center records that the average American child now receives 49 doses of 14 vaccines by age 6. Looking at the list on the above link, children in the UK probably receive a similar number of doses of the same vaccines.

The theory of how vaccines are designed to protect against disease is well known: the introduction to the body of an attenuated (weakened) or inactivated (killed) form of the disease-causing organism stimulates the body to produce antibodies and so the body is protected when it comes into contact with the live organism.

Edward Jenner is credited with inventing vaccination against disease when, in 1796, he noticed that people who had had cowpox rarely contracted smallpox. In an effort to investigate, he scratched the skin of an 8 year-old boy and introduced some material from a cowpox pock on a dairymaid's arm. The child became mildly ill and recovered within a week. About six weeks later, Jenner infected the child with smallpox and was relieved to find that the child did not develop the disease. 

Jenner's method worked with smallpox, but his method of immunisation did not include all the adjuvants (things added) found in modern vaccines, which are mostly designed to further stimulate the immune system. Those adjuvants can include mercury, monosodium glutamate and squalene (a natural organic compound) For an in depth look at adjuvants see Swine flu - looking more closely at Pandemrix

Dr Andrew Moulden (MD PhD) has done considerable research on the effects of vaccination. I'm sure his work, like that of Dr Andrew Wakefield, is very controversial, but I find it very interesting and Dr Moulden's qualifications and experience give him quite considerable credibility in speaking on the subject, in my opinion.

Dr Moulden states that this talk is intended to describe in physiology, across multiple areas of medicine, how the brain and the body has been damaged by the processes that are now considered to be a type of 'stroke,' in the body when small end blood vessels are temporarily or permanently blocked off when the blood starts to 'sludge.' He adds that blood will 'sludge,' in small blood vessels as a consequence of many things, including infectious diseases, changes in viruses and as a result of some vaccines which we may receive and particularly as some vaccines contain heavy metals. Specifically, he states, that aluminium in vaccines is contributory to the things he discusses in these videos. 

(Aluminium, of course, is thought by many researchers to be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's Disease.)

Dr Moulden refers to the theory of 'herd immunity,' that 95% of the population needs to be vaccinated to confer immunity to the whole herd. The problem with this, he says, is that it's a 'one size fits all vaccine,' which does not always suit individuals. By this, I am guessing that he means that some individuals will be sensitive to some of the ingredients in a vaccine, which does make sense to me, especially when several vaccines are given on the same day to an individual who has such a sensitivity. Squalene in particular seems to have been shown to produce an abnormal response from the immune system. (For details see the above link for Pandemrix vaccine) 

When Dr Moulden started in clinical practice, he says, he began seeing children and adults exhibiting the equivalent of 'strokes' and he recognised that the problems he was seeing could only come from damage to the small blood vessels going to the brain. He states that he was seeing damage that was not there before individuals were vaccinated, but were showing up shortly thereafter. Adults and children were losing their language and becoming withdrawn. Some of those children were receiving diagnoses of autism down the road. 

In the following videos, Dr Moulden describes the physiological response to vaccines that cause the blood to 'sludge,' and block the small blood vessels. With this first video, however, I began to wonder about damage to the brain caused by vaccines in sensitive individuals, adults who have received countless vaccines over the course of their lives and who are now exhibiting symptoms of dementia, particularly those diagnosed with vascular dementia, where damage to small blood vessels in the brain starves areas of the brain of oxygen. 

I am also wondering if it is advisable to be giving flu vaccines to older people who have been diagnosed with some form of dementia when those vaccines contain adjuvants like mercury and squalene. Squalene is necessary for a range of biochemical processes in the body. When it is absorbed through the digestive system in food products like olive oil, it is assimilated readily. However, when injected into deep muscle tissue, the body can produce antibodies to squalene, which can attack all of the squalene in the system. Many soldiers who have been diagnosed with 'Gulf War Syndrome,' have been shown to have antibodies to squalene in their blood. 

   

Dementia: A National Crisis.

Year on year the number of people in the UK diagnosed as suffering from some form of dementia is reported to be growing and will continue to grow. It's said to be a "national crisis," but it's also an individual and very personal crisis for those who develop dementia and for their families, who are often their primary carers.

According to The Alzheimers Society, there are over 800,000 people in the UK who have been diagnosed with dementia. Of that number, 17,000 are "younger people."

Dementia affects mostly older people, but is not a natural consequence of aging.

In this and subsequent blog posts I shall look at what dementia is, how it affects individuals and ask a few questions about what causes it. At the moment, my thinking is that there is possibly a genetic tendency with environmental triggers: I shall describe what I think may be some of the environmental triggers. I shall also examine some ideas, currently being put forward, for preventing the onset of dementia and at least one idea for improving current symptoms and delaying the progression of dementia.

What is dementia?

Dementia is a an illness that usually occurs slowly over time, and usually includes a progressive state of deterioration. The earliest signs of dementia are usually memory problems, confusion, and changes in the way a person behaves and communicates. (Alzheimer's Reading Room) 

Common Types of Dementia and Their Typical Characteristics (From Alzheimers Reading room: link above.)

Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common type of dementia; accounts for 60 to 80 percent of cases.
Difficulty remembering names and recent events is often an early clinical symptom; later symptoms include impaired judgment, disorientation, confusion, behavior changes and trouble speaking, swallowing and walking.
Hallmark abnormalities are deposits of the protein fragment beta-amyloid (plaques) and twisted strands of the protein tau (tangles).

  Vascular Dementia is considered to be the second-most-common type of dementia.

Impairment is caused by decreased blood flow to parts of the brain, often due to a series of small strokes that block arteries. (More on this in a later post)
Symptoms often overlap with those of Alzheimer’s, although memory may not be as seriously affected.

 Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Pattern of decline may be similar to Alzheimer’s, including problems with memory, judgment and behavior changes.
Alertness and severity of cognitive symptoms may fluctuate daily.
Visual hallucinations, muscle rigidity and tremors are common.
Hallmarks include Lewy bodies (abnormal deposits of the protein alphasynuclein) that form inside nerve cells in the brain.

Five more less common types of dementia are described on The Alzheimer's Reading Room web site. (Link above)

My Auntie Bessie was one of those "younger people," to have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in her 50s. My cousin, Jessie, looked after her mother for as long as she could personally cope, while Bessie's illness progressed. Bessie would get up in the night and try to escape from the strange place where she was being held, though she had lived there for many years. She would get out of the house if she could and would wander the streets looking for her home: Jessie had to make sure all doors and windows were locked day and night. Bessie had always been fond of baking and was renowned for her good cakes, but once dementia set in, she lost any concept of how gas has to be lit and the gas cooker became a major risk factor for the family. 

Jessie looked after her mother until Bessie became progressively more violent. (As far as Bessie was concerned, she was surrounded by strangers and being held in a strange place against her will.) Eventually, Jessie agreed to have her mother taken to reside in a residential home and, like many carers in a similar situation, Jessie felt she had failed her mother. I believe this is fairly common among people who live with and care for someone with dementia, but in residential care, the staff go home at the end of a shift: family carers live with dementia, 24 hours a day.  

Alzheimer's Society:

Two thirds of people with dementia live in the community while one third live in a care home.
Family carers of people with dementia save the UK over £8 billion a year.

Next blog: Vaccines - Is there a link to dementia? 

Villain - A Very Clever Canine

Bill Whitstine, of the Florida Canine Academy, trains dogs for arson detection work. Through over 600 hours of training, the dogs are trained to detect over 40 different fire accelerants. They are able to detect parts per trillion. 

Villain was a dog that Whitstine found at an animal sanctuary and he worked with her for over 13 years. The work they did together led to over 200 convictions in arson trials. 

At 4.25 on the video, Bill refers to a specific case where a very badly burned woman accused her partner of having thrown lamp oil over her and setting her on fire. She told police that she had run around trying to escape, while he threw the lamp oil. The police arrested the boyfriend, who claimed that the woman had set fire to herself.

In an effort to establish whether the lamp oil was confined to one place, the police brought in a mechanical sniffer, which detected not a drop of lamp oil anywhere. 

Then the police brought in Bill Whitstine and Villain. Villain immediately started "hitting on," spots all over the place and alerting to the presence of lamp oil residue. All of the samples collected tested positive for lamp oil residue at the state crime lab. One of the technicians at the lab stated that Villain could detect samples at levels lower than their best equipment could analyse.

Bill testified in court. To demonstrate Villain's skills for the jury, Bill placed single drops of gasoline on the floor and then brought in Villain, who went straight to those spots. Villain's work led to the conviction of the accused man because a dog's nose proved to be better than a mechanical sniffer. 

As one dog handler has said, sometimes the difference between solving a case and allowing a criminal to go free is a cold, wet nose. 

Cadaver Dogs and Other Clever Canines

A couple of times a week I have the opportunity to go walking with my lovely canine friend, a beautiful long-haired German Shepherd dog called Flora. Flora lives with two people who obviously love animals as they have four rescued cats as well as Flora, who came from a dog rescue centre. As a puppy, Flora was thrown from a car window by people who couldn't be bothered to find a proper new home for her. She has grown into a lovely, gentle, intelligent doggie, often sharing her big doggie bed with the cats.

Out walking, Flora will constantly look at my feet to make sure she is keeping pace with me. When we reach the park and her lead comes off, then she knows that I will throw the ball for her. Flora will fetch the ball and bring it back, but she won't drop it right away. She will wait, then drop it and as soon as I go to pick it up, she will grab it. She will also run behind me, darting left and right and showing me the ball, darting away when I reach for it. Such a clever dog. Flora would possibly have made a good sniffer dog as one of the qualities looked for is playfulness:   Flora invents games and loves interacting with people.

I'm convinced that Flora also senses things about other dogs. Mostly, she ignores them in the park or walking through the streets. There is a little Westie we often meet on our travels, with whom Flora gets on really well and the two dogs greet each other in a happy canine way with waggy tails and sniffy noses. However, occasionally Flora will bark at another dog. Coming out of the carpet shop the other day, where Flora had insisted on going in to see the man she knows, she suddenly started into her big bark. And Fora's big bark is very big! She was barking at a rather large brown dog that looked like a Staffie cross. The odd thing was that, to my eyes anyway, the other dog wasn't showing any signs of aggression. My guess is that Flora sensed something about that dog and that dogs like Flora can sense things that we humans cannot observe with our ordinary senses.

Dogs in criminal investigation

Dogs have been used for a very long time now in criminal investigation. They are trained and used, successfully, to detect drugs, explosives, contraband at airports, as well as missing people and dead bodies in disaster zones and in cases of suspected murder.

The newest area of work undertaken by dogs in criminal investigation is that of the "cadaver dog," also referred to as an Enhanced Victim Recovery Dog. These dogs undergo rigorous training by organisations like the FBI and many are trained in the USA at the place known as "The Body Farm."

This is from Illinois Search and Rescue Dogs 

Like all search dogs, cadaver dogs go through extensive training before they can become certified and operational. Cadaver dogs are first trained to recognize a wide spectrum of odors associated with human remains, depending on their specific use. Cadaver dogs for use in a disaster situation focus on more recent decomposition odors, while cadaver dogs that work with law enforcement are also trained to recognize older decomposition odors and smaller odor sources. Only actual human remains are used to train the dogs, no pseudo scent is used in the training process. 
All K-9s are first taught to give a trained final response or indication upon detection of the odor. They are taught to only give this response when they locate the strongest source of the odor. A large amount of time is spent on making sure that the indication is solid before the K-9 is ever taught to actually search for the odor in a scenario-based problem. Cadaver dogs that are trained in water recovery are taught to give this final indication while working from a boat on a body of water.

And yet, Gerry McCann, father of missing Madeleine McCann has stated on several occasions that cadaver dogs are unreliable.

In this video, Kate and Gerry are being interviewed by Sandra Felgueiras. At 4.50 Sandra asks about the sniffer dogs, Eddie and Keela and their alerts. Kate McCann launches into a spiel about people being helpful, but Sandra brings them back to the subject of the dogs. Gerry states that evidence shows that the dogs are unreliable, that when they are scientifically tested....

Now, does Gerry seriously think that the FBI does not train or test these dogs scientifically? Or South Yorkshire police? Eddie, cadaver dog, was trained by Martin Grime of SYP and also completed training at "The Body Farm." in the USA. They don't train or test scientifically at "The Body Farm."?

Elsewhere, as in the following video, which doesn't want to embed, at 0.50, Gerry McCann states "..when the dogs came that was actually something that happened at our request."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOXenTtj26E 

Well, no actually, it wasn't. When the British investigator Mark Harrison arrived in Praia da Luz, he made extensive searches of the local area, read through all the files and concluded that the police should be looking for a body. He then recommended bringing in Eddie and Keela and showed the PJ a video of the dogs at work. (See Chapter 16 of Gonçalo Amaral's book on this site)

The book "Death Scent," is a work of fiction by S.V. Wolf, based on the work of her own dog, Titan.

The real Titan, Wolf said, was responsible for the recovery of a 12-year-old who had been abducted and murdered, an Austin man who had committed suicide and had been missing for two years, a baby who had been buried for more than 30 years, and a murdered woman who had been buried in her own backyard for seven years, just to name a few.

A baby who had been buried for more than 30 years! Well, that puts paid to another of Gerry McCann's utterances, that cadaver odour is only detectable for up to 30 days! You see, those dogs are unreliable!

When Gerry was searching for ways to discredit the findings of the two dogs in  the holiday apartment and various other places and on items only related to himself and the missus, the McCanns' lawyers attempted to use the case of Eugene Zapata, as an example of someone wrongly incriminated by cadaver dog evidence. Unfortunately Zapata confessed and admitted that the dogs had alerted in the right places. 

Until Eddie and Keela went to Praia da Luz, it was said that Eddie had never given a false positive alert. In Praia da Luz, Eddie and Keela only alerted to places and items related to the McCanns apartment, their rented car and their possessions.

Video by HiDeHo4 on her YouTube channel.

And finally, now that Jimmy Savile is being seriously investigated for sexually abusing children, it may be time for there the investigation into abuse at the Haut de la Garenne children's home in Jersey to be re-opened. Jimmy Savile had denied ever visiting the home, but not only has a photo been produced of Savile at the property, but at least two adults, who spent time there as children, have come forward alleging abuse by Savile. 

Watch this video and remember that Eddie dog had never given a false positive alert prior to these two cases, Madeleine McCann and Haut de la Garenne.

Haut de la Garenne may have closed its doors many years ago, but we know from other cases, such as that where cadaver dog Titan (mentioned above) found the remains of a baby who had been buried for 30 years, that cadaver dogs can detect the smell of death many years after the event. 

Cadaver dogs are trained to detect the odour, which indicates that a dead human body has been in that place at some time. The odour lingers long after the body has been moved from that site. When an odour is detected it means that particles of the substance have entered the airways. Those particles can persist in an environment for years, becoming embedded in any porous surface, such as floor boards. 

Jimmy Savile visited Haut de la Garenne children's home and is alleged to have abused children there. If this is true, how did he get away with it and how many of his friends and associates used that children's home as their play-away island resort with a captive selection of children available, like choosing goodies from a sweet shop? 

Time to have a very close look at Haut de la Garenne and its list of visitors. For the sake of the children who lived there and survived and those who died there, the truth must come out. It is never too late to do the right thing by the victims. 

Exposure The Other Side of Jimmy Savile

I felt sickened watching this video: Jimmy Savile, the man who 'fixed it,' for so many children to fulfill a dream had abused so many young women. 

As a teenager, I watched Jimmy Savile on Top Of The Pops and enjoyed watching his "Jim'll Fix It," shows. It was great seeing those children having something fixed for them and Savile was a good choice to host that show: he was already known for his charity work and his being presenter almost guaranteed a good viewing audience for the programme. 

I can hardly believe what I'm reading now and hearing about. As far back as the 1970s there were complaints about Jimmy Savile. An ex-police officer, on BBC Radio 4 the other evening, said he'd taken a report in the 1970s from a nurse who stated that Savile was abusing children at the hospital where he worked. The police officer passed this on to his superior officer, who did not believe what was said. End of the story on that one. No investigation. 

This week I've seen a woman from Leeds talking about how she walked into Savile's dressing room and found him with a girl on his lap who looked about 14 years old. Savile's hand was up the girl's skirt and his tongue down her throat. Yuk! 

There's more and more and more. Every day there are more revelations: Savile had keys to Broadmoor and could enter any of the bedrooms; Savile abused a brain-injured patient; Savile picked girls out from the audience at TOTP; nurses told children to pretend to be asleep when they knew Savile was coming;  Savile raped under-age girls in that traveling bed of his. 

The worst of this obscene story about an obscene life is that it seems that there were many people at the BBC who knew what Jimmy Savile was like and they did nothing. They made Jimmy Savile an icon and a champion for children when they knew he was abusing children. 

Savile was feasted and feted by the BBC, who continued to use him as front man for so many TV shows, even as they knew what he was doing under cover of his charity work and how he was using his popularity to groom under-age children. 

Next question? How many more are there like Savile? How many of his contemporaries not only knew what he was up to, not only colluded by staying silent, but were actually involved in the same kind of crime themselves? So far, according to ITV News, the number of names being put forward is five: five people who allegedly knew Jimmy Savile and were engaged in grooming and abusing children. 

Jimmy Savile hob-nobbed with the rich and famous, with politicians and royalty. He was given a Knighthood by the UK government and a strange kind of Knighthood by the Pope. Did none of those people have any idea? Now that the dam has burst and more and more victims are coming forward and more and more people are telling us they either had their suspicions or actually knew what he was up to, is it reasonable to ask if any of those people who lauded him also knew what Savile was like? Seems like the whispers were very loud, loud enough for nurses to be warning patients of Savile's impending arrival. 

Dear God how much more? How many more cover-ups? Hillsborough and Savile and who/what else? Should there be some kind of serious public enquiry now into the Madeleine McCann case? Is that subject to a cover-up too? No evidence of an abduction, cadaver odour detected only on property belonging to the McCanns and in the apartment and the car they rented, enough inconsistencies and holes in official statements for even me to drive a bus through - and believe me, when I park the car sometimes, I have to consider getting a taxi to the pavement! 

Martin Grime, who trained the two sniffer dogs who alerted to blood and cadaver odour in the McCann case, is presently giving evidence in a similar case in the USA, where a child disappeared and no body has been found. The evidence of the dog's alerting to cadaver odour is being allowed into court. 

Sniffer dogs Eddie and Keela had an unblemished record of over 200 cases before they worked the McCann case and yet Gerry McCann can state that sniffer dogs are unreliable.

There is so much about the McCann case that gives cause for concern, in my opinion, starting with the fact that three small children were left alone in an unlocked apartment in a foreign country, that I think it's reasonable to ask why the McCanns were not at least charged with neglect leading to serious harm. It's also reasonable, in my opinion, to ask if there is some kind of cover-up in this case. Remove Jane Tanner's story about the man who initially was carrying a bundle that could have been a child, that metamorphed into a spotty/clear-skinned/clean-shaven/bearded man of indeterminate height and build, and the case falls apart. As it should. As it will one day hopefully. 

When that particular dam bursts, how many more names will be added to those of the Tapas Nine? Now that one public icon has been knocked off his pedestal, isn't it time that a few others were too? Let it begin with justice for Madeleine McCann.