DO I BELIEVE YOU OR MY LYING EYES

As many of my regular readers probably know, I am a great fan of the classic one liner.  I have millions of them stuck in my head, but one that stands out above all others was a killer line from Sue Ellen Ewing when she caught her cheating husband JR in bed with his secretary. In full drunken drama Queen mode she screamed 'who do I believe, you or my lying eyes'?

In the case of missing Madeleine, we have seen the 'lying eyes' scenario played out over and over - with Kate, Gerry, our Government and our mainstream media telling us we all need to go to Specsavers.  I think JR said something similar to Sue Ellen, but far more eloquently. Who can forget Kate telling Piers Morgan how they didn't make too much of the fleck in Madeleine's eye, or when Scotland Yard were digging up PDL, Martin Brunt fumbling to create a believable story about an abductor, a shovel and all the time in the world.

When you see what a nice respectable couple Kate and Gerry are, it is hard if not impossible, to believe that they are capable of parking on a yellow line, let alone do anything dishonest.  Nice couples don't do things like that do they? Criminals are usually scruffily dressed low lives who take drugs and live on benefits. They are not smart professionals with great expectations.

Both Gerry and Kate can slot into the 'establishment' in a way that Karen Matthews couldn't. They are PLU, (People Like Us), snobby in the Mrs Bucket sense,  the first generation of their families to go to university, their peers among the media recognised and empathised with them, they know how hard it is to have young kids and a career!  Karen Matthews didn't have a government spokesman, personal calls from the Prime Minister and a multi million pound Fund.  And I don't recall CEOP or Missing People rushing to her aid, strange really, because at Shannon's age, the internet actually was a threat.  The stark difference in the way in which the McCanns have been treated compared with others, will have to be a factor in any future Inquiry. 

But back to those PLU. Gerry and Kate have no problems whatsoever with self esteem, their self confidence puts them within the God Complex Zone.  It is common in some doctors and pretending it isn't, is just naïve.  Doctors are among the few left in society who are held in esteem for their profession.  We all address them with their full titles, and we have all witnessed the way in which hospital staff jump to attention when a doctor walks onto a ward.  The McCanns and their friends didn't expect their word to be questioned, especially by minions and those they consider below them on the evolutionary ladder (most of us) and Gerry and Kate loved Leveson because they were getting the respect they believe is rightfully theirs. 

Unlike 'normal' parents, they didn't fall to pieces when Madeleine disappeared (though they put on a good act), they were compos mentis enough to formulate a plan.  They didn't waste their time searching, they stayed in Apartment A and drew up a timeline that they would all stick with.  A timeline that proved they were not endangering their young children and they were not negligent.  When news of Madeleine's disappearance broke, it was accompanied by straight from the horse's mouth detail that would establish an abduction had taken place.  It's the breaking news we remember every time, and to this day people still believe the apartment was broken into and the poor response of the Portuguese police allowed the abductor to get away.   

Their plan included blaming the police - it began by stating they took an inordinate length to time to respond to the emergency call.  Omitting the fact that they themselves took an inordinate 40 minutes to make that emergency call - despite the fact that Kate knew 'Madeleine had been taken'.  The first policemen who arrived on the scene, Kate nicknamed Tweedledum and Tweedledum - her way of saying, they were thick country bumkins and first in line for the accusations she would make later.  'No-one's doing anything', Kate and Gerry screamed down the phone to their family, friends and handy contacts, we are alone they claimed, as Portugual launched the biggest missing person search in their entire history. 

Don't contact the press, the police advised the parents.  We got NO advice Gerry told Leveson. If you release details of Madeleine's coloboma, the abductor may do something to her eye, or murder her the police warned, but it was a good marketing ploy said Gerry.  Gerry took control, he's that kind of guy. 

To get an understanding of what Kate and Gerry are up to and to remind ourselves of the serious abnormalities in this couple's motives, it is good to go over the old interviews - I'm sure the police have, and I'm sure psychologists will, for years and years to come.  At the Leveson enquiry for example, we see Kate and Gerry at their confident best.  As the whole Enquiry was about finding ways in which to restrict press freedom, they were naturally treated as  traumatised victims and VIP guests.  Gerry is positively beaming as he gleefully puts forward his ideas to punish individual journalists. Unfortunately, before he could get into full Dr. Evil mode, Lord Leveson pointed out a couple of the principles of Free Speech.  It was a shame really, because the 'punishments' intrigued me, what did Gerry have in mind?  Thumbscrews?  Kneecapping?  It was a mere tiff however, because the look they share at 11.24 is pure love.  Kate probably wishes Gerry looked at her like that. 

The body language of Kate and Gerry always intrigues me.  I think if I had someone clinging on to me like that all the time, I would give them a good slap. I actually find their closeness a bit creepy, and, erm, suspicious, in that it is a good way to send unseen signals.  Gerry of course dominated most of the mike time at Leveson, answering the questions with a confident front, but a twitchy ear and quite possibly a few ants in his pants.  It was the Gerry show with Dr.McCann on peak misogynist form.  Would you like a little break Lord Leveson asked him, telling him how special he was and how he was willing to make an exception. 'No, I'm fine, carry on' says Gerry, thrilled with the 'Head's approval, then as an afterthought, he whispers to Kate 'how about you?'.   Ouch, that wasn't just thoughtless, it was disrespectful.  As too was the way in which he made a hasty exit, gathering his own possessions and kicking his chair out of the way without so much as a helping hand or word of comfort for his wife. 

Kate spends much of her book making excuses for him.  So he played tennis all day and left her to cope with the 3 toddlers on her own!  So what, that's just Gerry being Gerry, she tells us.  While the staff and holidaymakers of Warners and the all locals desperately search the surrounding areas for her daughter, Gerry had a nap!  He needed his sleep she said, she had seen her poor husband hysterical on the floor, his needs were her priority. 

Actually, his needs and her needs, seem to be leitmotif for her entire book.  She always speaks about her loss, the time she has not had Madeleine with her. Neither she, nor Gerry can bring themselves to speak about the future Madeleine might have had.  Perhaps it is emotional or even a sense of guilt? Or maybe it is a mental block, they know that future ended on 3rd May 2007 and to go beyond that is too big a lie.  They can't speak directly to Maddie either, every time they are offered the opportunity to speak into the camera in case Maddie is watching, they become very self aware and nervous. 

The interviews tell us so much about the many facets of Kate and Gerry that it is incredible that this case still drags on.  The Oprah interview is a prime example, and one I defy lie expert Sharon Leal to watch and again, state definitively that they are not lying.  If they had been hooked up to a lie detector, we would have been able to link the peaks in the polygraph to their shifty body language.   'If your happy and you know it' is a song, not a story.  And it's the last thing you would sing to children you were trying to get off to sleep.  Even Kate is aware of the faux pas she made with that one. 

At some point, Kate is going to face the fact that it will soon be every man (and woman) for themselves.  Gerry will only protect her so far, and if it fits in with his own protection.  The look on Gerry's face as Kate clutches onto his arm already says get this woman off me.  I have no doubt the families will return to their own clans when the chips are down, plans are no doubt afoot. Gerry is the kind of guy who plans his future and his wider agenda and he is somewhat lacking in the compassion department. If Kate is half the woman we think she is, and not still completely under his spell, she should be making plans of her own.  I wonder who will get custody of Clarence?