Monday 9 November 2009

Gerry McCann: The Dogs Are Unreliable? Not according to police forces and courts all over the world!


This is from chapter 16 of Gonçalo Amaral's book, "The Truth Of The Lie." It is verifiable simply by going to any search engine and looking up the cases specifically mentioned.


THE ENGLISH SPECIALIST DOG TEAM

The heat is scorching on this thirtieth day of July 2007 when two Springer Spaniels, Eddie and Keela, get off the British Airways plane, accompanied by their trainer, Martin Grime. An air-conditioned vehicle is waiting to take them to their accommodation. A vet, who will be on hand during their stay, has been brought in to intervene in case of illness or if the dogs get bitten by a snake. Their mission: to find Madeleine's body and expose those responsible.

Eddie has been involved in a great number of cases, helping the police to resolve a good many riddles, thanks to his sense of smell. Even if the body has been moved, objects the body has touched have been contaminated by its odour, especially porous materials, fabrics, the upholstery in cars, etc. And that odour, Eddie knows how to recognise out of a thousand.

Keela, a scenes of crime specialist, is capable of locating particles of blood even after a place has been cleaned with chemical products or bleach. Sometimes, the residues are so microscopic they are missed by the instruments of the forensic police, as sophicticated as they are, and it's impossible to harvest them without taking all of what they are on.

Eddie is always the first to be brought onto a site. Once he has discerned the odour that he knows so well, it's Keela's turn to go into action, on the lookout for the slightest whiff of blood. The simultaneous presence of the two elements in a given place - blood and cavaver odours - is taken to indicate that a body has been there and that it's probably there that the death occurred.

The dogs' CV is impressive. Besides collaborating in hundreds of investigations, they passed the practical tests brilliantly at the FBI's "Body Farm," the only place in the world where human cadavers are used to simulate homicide scenarios and concealment of bodies.

Amongst the most media-covered cases, which they contributed to resolving, is that of the disappearance in Northern Ireland of Attracta Harron, who was last seen when she was returning home on foot, after having been to church. All searches carried out by the police were unsuccessful. The main suspect's car having been totally burnt out in a mysterious fire, couldn't be examined. They called in Eddie, who examined the charred remains of the vehicle and immediately picked out the characteristic odour. Human tissue was found amongst the debris, the DNA of which corresponded to the missing woman. Later, the dog indicated the place - close to a river - where the victim's body had been abandoned. At the home of the suspect, where the police were searching for incriminating evidence, Eddie identified cadaver odour in one of the bedrooms. The man confessed to having killed the woman then moving her body to the banks of the river.

The case of Amanda Edwards, reported missing, is also very impressive. The police, who conducted a search of her ex-partner's home, found small bloodstains there, but no trace of a body. The dog, who was brought in for the examination of the man''s vehicle, alerted to cadaver odour on the tools stored in the boot (a shovel, a level and a compactor). The police went to the building site where the suspect had worked a few days before and discovered the body, buried in a garage. The murderer had made efficient use of his tools to carry out his task.

It's also thanks to the help of the dogs that the case of Charlotte Pinkley, a missing British woman, who had been imprisoned by her ex-partner, was resolved. The police requested the help of the specialist dog team to try to find the young woman's body. Eddie picked out a place where the abductor had provisionally left his victim. In the surrounding area, the investigators found the button from a dress that had belonged to Charlotte. That clue exposed the murderer, who ended up showing the police the place where he had hidden the body.

More recently, it's Eddie who helps to find a body buried under a flagstone at the former orphanage, Haut-de-la-Garenne, in Jersey, setting for a terrible case of paedophilia and child murder.*

The achievements of the dog detectives are the result of a very long apprenticeship. It all starts with the selection of the best puppies when they are only a few months old. The most talented breed for this unusual "profession," is the Springer Spaniel. The trainer, Martin Grime, and his pupils undergo aptitude tests every year in order to obtain certificates proving their capability. In Great Britain, the police have no hesitation in calling in the specialist dog teams to assist in certain criminal investigations. Their skills are nowadays recognised by journalists, police and courts all over the world.


* Note: I would just add this addendum to the information about the Haut-de-la-Garenne case. Eddie can detect cadaver odour where a corpse has just rested and been moved. The fact that Eddie alerted to an area at the childrens' home and no body was found, means only that at some point a body was probably in that place. Look at some of the other cases, where Eddie alerted to the odour he is trained to detect, but there was no body in situ.

Sunday 8 November 2009

Madeleine McCann: Her Parents Use Psychologist To Help Tell Twins About Madeleine

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Mail Online Sunday November 8th.

"The parents of Madeleine McCann have revealed how a child psychologist is helping them to tell their two other children about her disappearance.

Kate and Gerry McCann said they would be ‘frank and open’ with their four-year-old twinsSean and Amelie when they ask why their sister is still missing.

Mrs McCann, 41, said experts have said the youngsters will ask about Madeleine’s disappearance when they are ready.

‘We’ll be led by them,’ she said. ‘We’ve had advice from a child psychologist and they’ve said Sean and Amelie will lead the way.

‘If they ask a question, we’ll answer them honestly. I’m not going to rush them, but if they ask something then I’ll answer them.’

I'm slightly confused by the use of the conditional, "if," here. If they ask a question? Does that mean that they have not yet asked a question? And, "Sean and Amelie will lead the way." Does that mean they haven't yet done so?

The reason I pose these questions is that in January 2008, several news media, including The Metro, reported that the twins played a game called, "Find the monster that took Maddie." Now where did they get that from? Why did they believe that Maddie had been taken by a monster? Do you think they came up with that all by themselves?

Although there is a disclaimer at the foot of The Metro story, which adds that a source close to the McCanns said they denied the story, the game was reported by Ray Wire, said to be a "top criminologist," after meeting Kate and Gerry McCann, it was also repeated in The People, on January 20th 2008.

"By Daniel Jones

Maddie's little brother and sister are learning to cope with their devastating loss by playing a game called Find The Monster Who Snatched Her."

"Wyre went on: "Kate and Gerry told me they were sitting together the other day when the twins rushed into the room screaming and shouting.

"They asked what they were up to and the twins told them they were going to go and find the monster that took Maddie.

"Then they dashed off to play the game."

This article in the Scottish Daily Record Scottish Daily Record appeared later in April 2008, but it seems to demonstrate that members of the family were not exactly guarded about what they said around the twins. Eileen McCann, the twins' Scottish grandmother was interviewed, while Amelie was sitting on her lap. It doesn't say where the interview took place.

"LITTLE Amelie McCann clambered on to her grandmother's knee, gently touched the chain around her neck and whispered: "That's Madeleine. She's lost."

Later in the interview Eileen McCann says: "It's unimaginable. Whoever did this is a monster."

She also describes at length what she was told had happened that night, how Kate and Gerry left the children asleep, checked half-hourly, and how Kate found that Madeleine was gone. And all this with Amelie clambering onto her lap, but now Kate and Gerry say they will wait until the twins ask questions?

Another thing I picked up from that Daily Record article was that Eileen McCann, stressed each time she referred to Madeleine's being taken from her bed, that she had been taken, "in her pyjamas." I wonder why she kept stressing that? I think most people would assume that if a child had been left in bed asleep and they were taken from that bed, that they'd have been in pyjamas. No need to keep reinforcing that, surely?

In today's Mail Online article, Kate McCann is quoted as saying, "If they ask a question, we’ll answer them honestly. I’m not going to rush them, but if they ask something then I’ll answer them." Well, Kate, do you think your children don't actually listen to conversations going on around them?

Going back, once again, to that Scottish Daily Record article, I noticed that Eileen McCann talked about Madeleine's having spent Christmas at her house when she was two. (That would be Christmas 2005, when the twins were 10 months old.) She doesn't say that Madeleine was there with her parents and twin siblings. She just says, "When she was two, Madeleine spent Christmas at my house and it was lovely."

"The next year, the family came up for New Year but on Christmas Day Madeleine called and said she'd got a kitchen from Santa. She was very excited and said 'I'm going to make some tea'."

And differentiates the next year by saying that the family came up. I wonder why Madeleine was not part of the family Christmas that year, but instead spent it with her grandmother in Scotland? If Christmas with three children, all under three years old was difficult, surely Eileen, or some other member of the family could have stayed in Rothley to help out? In that way, Madeleine would have been part of the family celebration, especially as it was the twins' first Christmas.

I seem to have discovered a few extra puzzles there as I was looking for items about the twins and their search for Madeleine. The other reference to "monster," that occurs to me is that I recall Kate, I think, being quoted as saying that, "the only monster out there is the one who took Madeleine," but at the moment, I haven't found any link to that quote.






Friday 6 November 2009

Intellectual Property

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It has come to my attention today, that someone is seeking to publish an English version of the book by Gonçalo Amaral, English title, "The Truth Of The Lie." That person has views of opened pages of the book on his web site and it can be read easily. The wording is identical to my translation. Now, since no two people translate exactly word-for-word, I suspect that the contents of this book are my translation.


If this is my translation, I have not been approached for my permission to use this version, which I have spent months working on.

I hereby state that everything on this blog is my intellectual property and that I have not given anyone permission to transmit any of it in printed form.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Maddie: Video Reveals An Image Of Her Looking North African

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http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

madeleine-mccann-pic-pa-image-3-772173650.jpgThe new campaign includes an appeal video and interviews with Kate McCann

Portugais - Español

A video with unpublished images of Maddie, at age six, tanned, with dark hair, as if the child had spent two years in North Africa or in the south of the Iberian peninsula, is the focal point of a new appeal for witnesses which the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) launched yesterday in England in connection with Kate and Gerry McCann's campaign.

This new instrument of the campaign presents a series of already known photos and video images of Madeleine, but also three images of what the child might look like now, if she were still alive.

(Video can be viewed here)

The video, translated into seven languages - English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish - and specially produced for the internet, claims to appeal to the conscience of a potential witness, "who knows what happened to Maddie".

With the assistance of Jim Gamble, a CEOP's officer, the video was produced with the help of psychologists and aims to convince, "a friend or a relative of the person responsible for the little girl's disappearance," that they would be, "doing the right thing". "The person we are trying to reach out to is probably a partner, a family member, a friend or a work colleague of the person or persons who were involved in Madeleine's disappearance," the CEOP's officer said, stressing that it, "was more than likely that they, or someone close to them used the internet to find all news items that might suggest that the police were very close to discovering the truth."

This latest video includes new virtual images of Maddie which have just been added to the photo previously presented in the United States by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and which showed Maddie with a, "more American," appearance.

CEOP is banking on the internet to disseminate the new appeal - the first of its kind - and hopes the message will reach the whole world through blogs, but also via social network sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The Judiciary Police (PJ) is excluded from the campaign.

CEOP is not working with the Judiciary Police, although they are the authority responsible for the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance, but promises that all relevant information received will be handed over to the Leicestershire Police, "who will coordinate with the Portuguese detectives."

"I have no knowledge of this new campaign or of the appeal," a PJ source said, showing some hesitation about collaboration with CEOP: "that's the organisation that in 2007 asked tourists for photos taken in Praia da Luz and which subsequently we received none of," the same inspector said.

After Maddie's disappearance, that organisation asked tourists who visited Praia da Luz to send photos from their holidays so that they could be compared with a data bank of images of UK paedophiles and other criminals.

The new campaign, according to the CEOP officer, has the support of police around the world, in particular Interpol, Europol, Australian, North American, Canadian and United Arab Emirates police. The new appeal launched by CEOP, with Jim Gamble - known in England for his involvement in Operation ORE - claims to respond to Kate and Gerry's frustration with the lack of new evidence and leads.

"We are extremely grateful to CEOP for launching this new message world-wide in such an effective way. It's vital that it's seen as widely as possible," the couple said in a press release.

By Duarte Levy

Monday 2 November 2009

Maddie: The New Campaign Kicks Off Today.

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SOS Madeleine McCann

2/11/09

By Duarte Levy
.......>>>>>>>>>

Kate's time has come.

Kate McCann, mother of the little English girl who disappeared in the Algarve two years ago, is the face of the new campaign which the couple launch today jointly with the English police in London and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)
Now that the twins Sean and Amélie are in full-time education, Maddie's mum is taking on a more active role in the campaign which the couple launched nine days after the disappearance and which is now entering, "a new phase."

The new campaign, with the assistance of Lift Consulting, Portuguese PR specialists, is targeted at our country, where the McCann couple say they believe that someone could still hold information on the subject of what, in fact, happened to the child on the night she disappeared.

The launch of the new campaign kicks off today in the British capital where the press is invited to two briefings - "because of a time difference," as confirmed by Claudia Nogueira of Lift Consulting, the first meeting will only involve English journalists, the second being scheduled for the Portuguese press.

The two ex-police officers hired by the couple, David Edgar and Arthur Cowley, believe that the answer to Maddie's mysterious disappearance lies in a radius of 10 miles around the Ocean Club, from where the child disappeared on May 3rd 2007. With the new campaign they say they expect that someone will come forward who will lead them to the answer.

For the moment, Kate and Gerry McCann will not be returning to the Algarve and will see journalists in England, but they say they are in the process of organising a private trip back to Praia da Luz, probably before the end of the year.

"Imagine if it had been your daughter. Imagine the sadness and suffering. Imagine someone like yourself never coming forward. If you remain silent, you are as guilty as those who have taken her," the couple write on the internet site for the private fund which they created after the alleged abduction.

The campaign, launched almost simultaneously with legal action against the former coordinator of the PJ who investigated the disappearance, Gonçalo Amaral, includes interviews which Kate MCann will give this week to the English and Portuguese press.