Tuesday 17 May 2016

WHO WILL FUND THE BOOKBURNERS APPEAL?



In 2009/10, Goncalo Amaral's book, The Truth of the Lie, was removed from the bookshelves, seized from the printing press and stockpiled in a warehouse ready to be shredded or placed on a bonfire.  It might just as well be a bonfire in a public square, because it would effectively be a warning to all detectives and authors, that the Law of the land will not tolerate their right to have an opinion.  I know the urge to peep out the window and check we are indeed still in the 21st century, is irresistible, but bizarrely, tis true.  As a writer and libertarian, I always find history's bonfires of the vanities the most disturbing and sinister when new 'regimes' take over.  The banning and burning of books should have no place in this century. 

And before we go castigating the old fashioned value system of the Portuguese Justice system, the Libel Laws in the UK are more antiquated than most.  So antiquated in fact, that the media giants have been dancing to Kate and Gerry's tune for 9 years for fear of having to write them out another cheque.   

Unfortunately, 'controlling the press', doesn't come cheap, Kate and Gerry have employed an army of specialist lawyers, PR Agencies and a small group of psychos/saddoes to patrol social media 24/7.  It is difficult to estimate their monthly outgoings, other than, 'a lot'.  As a former legal secretary I know that lawyers charge hundreds of pounds per hour, per letter written, per phone call made or received - phoning a sex line would be cheaper. 

We have seen the phenomenal rate at which Kate and Gerry have got through the millions donated to them when Madeleine first went missing.  They were spending like lottery winners, confident that their futures were secured. Sandra Felgueiras' interview with Kate  and Gerry in Autumn 2009, when they were going broke, is revealing*.  The very direct Sandra, lists all the Fund's payroll and outgoings and asks them how they could afford to pay for it all.  'It's not ideal' says Kate, but 'we can't stop'.  Gerry scathingly mentions an auction at the twins school (have they no shame?), but they were planning much, much, bigger things for the future. 

In those days, the McCanns had no qualms about asking the public for money.  They sent out letters to their supporters and they created a campaign poster telling the public what their donations would be used for.  £10 for a helpline for one hour, £50 for prayer cards, to be honest distaste makes it difficult to remember the details, but they were confident the public still believed they were searching for their daughter.  They did not ask for cash shyly, they came straight out with it.

This time their cause is quite clearly themselves, and no-one cares.  Even when they were hop, skipping and jumping for Missing People, they were hard pushed to get sponsors. And 'help us take the family home and all the assets and future earnings of the Detective who investigated us', just doesn't have the same popular ring as 'Help Search for Madeleine'. 

If they truly believed they had been wronged by Goncalo Amaral, they would be complaining about the injustice of it all to anyone who would listen. They would be appealing to the Hacked Off lobby and similarly minded book burners for their support.  They would be knocking on doors brazenly, as they did when they were in full fund raising mode, and they would take every opportunity to put forward their case.  This time, there is no passion behind their pledge to carry on, no zest, no oomph, no banners declaring they are right, dead right, no 'victims of the Portuguese police' photographs of the couple appealing for public sympathy.

They have milked the public sympathy vote to its natural conclusion and then some. The tap's run dry. Whining about how hard done by you are for 9 years is not endearing. Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep, and you weep alone.

Unfortunately for Kate and Gerry, as their coffers run dry, their nemesis, Goncalo Amaral goes from strength to strength. Presumably, he now has access to the royalties from his book, but if his assets remain frozen, the public will happily fund him again. The recent 'honourable' troll article in the Daily Mail and all the other papers that picked it up, has opened floodgates.  Not only would those who contributed to Goncal's legal fund, contribute again, so too will thousands more as the full extent of the McCanns' spiteful vendetta against the former detective becomes public knowledge. The tables have turned, the public are on Goncalo's side and they will happily fund him all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. 

To take a case all the way to the ECHRs, you need a powerful lobby behind you. You need to prove that the way you have been treated has the potential to affect hundreds, if not thousands, in the future.  A ruling by the ECHR will be used as a precedent in every future libel case throughout Europe.  The three Appeal Court Judges could not have made it any plainer.  Goncalo Amaral has a right to have an opinion, and a Court of Human Rights will not take that away from him.   








https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e_H5n1CB78

36 comments:

  1. It seems with every blog you write you become more nasty and spiteful. Your true colours show more and more - just a hateful blogger who gets a kick out of trying to hurt the parents of a missing child.

    You should try reading the recent newspaper articles properly - they were certainly not writing about 'honourable' (your quotation marks) trolls.

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    1. You are seeing my comments as spiteful because you are deeply in denial. I am pointing out the harsh reality of what going to the ECHR will entail, and God knows, someone needs to.

      Those encouraging the McCanns to carry on with this civil claim, are doing them no favours whatsoever and should hang their heads in shame. Since when is it worth losing everything to prove a point?

      The McCanns cannot win, and I would question the motives of those who are telling them they can. They need to concentrate on a strategy that will allow them to accept the latest Judgment with some sort of honesty and dignity.

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    2. Face it justice was served. The papers continue to libel those who seek truth, Goncalo Amaral in particular.

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    3. Being pedantic for a minute - it isn't going to the ECHR. It is, allegedly, being appealed to the Portuguese Supreme Court, although there has been no confirmation of that as yet

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    4. Name, please! Then we'll listen to what you say!

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  2. There's nothing nasty or spiteful in Cristobells blog 19:45 in fact I think she's been more than generous with her remarks about the most vindictive pair of self obsessed hypocrites walking gods earth! I'm sure there's harsher references elsewhere to describe them and what they did to Sr Amaral now that's what I call spiteful and vindictive, trouble is they can't stand people retaliating and fighting their corner. They can criticise everyone else but as soon as they get a taste of their own medicine It's we're the victims! Well the only victim is their daughter and hopefully she will get justice, sooner rather than later.

    Fantastic blog Cristobell a pleasure to read your thoughts, hope you are keeping well.

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  3. I see your little hater is back again, Ros, faithfully sniping at you the minute you finish a blog. We hear so much about trolls and haters from the McCann camp. Perhaps they feel inspired to write on the subject whenever they look in the mirror?

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  4. Great blog cristobell. Don't you just love Sandra.... So direct in her questioning. It's a pity more of our own journalists didn't stand up to the mark. When this is all over I wonder how the public will react to the sofa queens who openly supported them in degrading the memory of an innocent child. I suppose like the smacks they are they will crawl under some rock and hope nobody remembers.

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    1. Never been said Goncalo Amarals book was lies though has it even by the gruesome twosome only that it caused upset etc

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  5. I rarely post on blogs but am an avid reader of all the opinions on this sad case. This is one of my favourite blogs. Cristobell is not nasty or spiteful in her comments,on the contrary she is well balanced and fair. She demonstrates great insight and reasoning. I love this blog and always look forward to reading it. If you 19.04 find it nasty in content then don't read it. Simple. Keep up the good work Cristobell you have many dedicated readers.

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  6. Why are you all commentating on this case?
    A child is missing and all you can do is make up stories about what happened to her. No one knows. No one. Move on with your lives.

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    1. What a stupid thing to say, of course someone knows what happened to her.

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    2. Why are you here 22:38? I don't need any constables telling people to move along, thank you very much!

      We are here because this case intrigues us 22:38. If you have never had an interest in your life I can see why you are confused. For some of us, we can't put a puzzle down until we have solved it.

      The genius of Team McCann's 2007 campaign is still paying dividends 22:38, they have managed to keep Madeleine's profile high for almost a decade. Why are you complaining? You can't put out 'the greatest story ever told' and then tell the audience to go away.

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    3. Wouldn't it be nice for the residents of Rothley Towers if we all moved on.

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    4. Well said Cristobell......I, for one, certainly won't be "going away".

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    5. How can we move on when K and G are continually in the papers , bleating ?

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  7. Therein lies the $64M question, Ros - I don't believe for one second that their 'fund raising' has sustained them for all this time. IMO, we're talking much richer than that (save the billionaires who were backing them in the early days). I also reckon that this is precisely what fed the duo's arrogance, where literally no obstacle could even hint at deterring them. Such conceit has to have a primary source, and although I wouldn't put that past Gerry, I can't help but think there are greater forces at work here - but hey, perhaps that's just the conspirator in me.

    As for the hilarious castigators of your great blog, I see their desperation continues, lol. Pathetic.

    Very happy to put my name to my comment,
    Regards to you and all your readers, Ros
    James Haydon

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    1. Hi James, I'm interested as to the primary source of conceit. Whilst I agree Gerry and Kate were basking in the protection of the 'big boys', their sense of entitlement long preceded the disappearance of Madeleine.

      I think the family dynamics of both Gerry and Kate play a huge part in their behaviour now. Gerry, the doted youngest sibling of a family of 5, and Kate the precious only child of upwardly mobile parents who have given her everything. When the police arrived to search the rented villa, Kate's first angry retort was 'what will my mother think?'. She cannot let her parents down, they have her on a pedestal.

      The same can be said of Gerry. 'How can anyone do this to a DOCTOR', weeps his mother, thus clarifying his saintly position within the McCann clan. The boy dun good, how could anyone do this to HIM! I'm not mocking, my working class Dundonian Dad was equally proud of mine and my brother's achievements but he was never blind to our faults.

      In many ways we cannot blame some Doctors from developing the 'God Complex'. As a society, they are among the few professions we address by their title and we are indoctrinated to 'ask a doctor' and then believe everything they tell us. It is too easy to forget that they are human beings with the same failings as the rest of us.

      I imagine this pair had the God complex long before they went to medical school, lol. Whilst the best gift we can give a child is confidence, it should also be tempered with morality and compassion for others.

      It is clear that for Kate, healing others was not her lifelong vocation, if it had been, she would have returned to work and using her training and skills now.

      I get the impression that Gerry too, is a reluctant Doctor. His true ambitions seemed to lie in the glory of the sports arena, not the world of science. Until that was, he stumbled upon his true vocation, his ability to create and sell whoppers to the gullible public. He can barely contain his glee as he poses on the Whitehouse Lawn, move over John Walsh, there's a new kid in town!

      Ooooh, I could muse about these two for hours. They are endlessly fascinating

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    2. It is certainly worthy to hold that thought about DOCTORS, in particular NHS Doctors, GIs!! Government trained & Government paid (read tax payers).

      One mantra of the NHS is not to bring it, or your profession in to disrepute.

      Now just image the reaction of a gaggle of Doctors on holiday, exhibiting, admitting, documenting that they left their children, night after night UNATTENDED, of course within the bounds of responsible parenting & a few baby alarms - never knew they we designed for remote distance purpose.

      This might account for the exceptional support this group was afforded, from their pay masters, i.e. the tax payer. Did anyone of them work outside the public sector?

      At the time of the MET funding £12m+, just look at the people \ networking, the names that inter-connecting, how this had snowballed. Just look at all the links, McEvey, no less a junior minister, even C Mitchell, now boasts on his latest CV of being an adviser to the MET. The list and networking is so extensive, it would seem impossible to consider the ring of confidence and ACCEPTANCE will ever be questioned.

      For what? To agree that leaving three children, for four nights, with some ad hoc checking was NORMAL ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR.

      Nine years on, in the cold light of day, how could this really been sold as acceptable. What a PR trick. Bullsh*t battles brains - triumphs again.

      Whatever happened to little Madeleine McCann that night, no one really knows. But what the 'establishment & PR gurus' brain washed us with, allowed this circus to thrive and the McCanns to play to the gallery for all this years. Instead of answering 48 questions and insisting their friends participate in the re-enactment of that night, which they would then have had to take part in. The McCanns may have been at least to carry on a positive life supporting the twins in the loving knowledge, they did all they could do, to forward the investigation.

      The ambiguity of what took place outside apartment 5A at the time of McCanns check, whilst chatting to JW, could have been resolved - instead many years of promoting this was the EXACT time Madeleine was abducted as seen by Jane Tanner. DCI Redwood's crèche-dad, exonerates JTs mistake, if this is correct\accepted, then all those wasted years of the T9's failure to have demonstrated this with a reconstruction. Many other issues - but you have to draw a line somewhere in a post.



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    3. 12:48 - the fact they were doctors is probably crucial to the whole scenario that played out that evening. If, as most here probably believe it was a simple accidental death, why not just report it. Accidents happen all the time. So no, it must have been an accident that would have looked bad on them at a post-mortem. Either...
      a) She was being illegally drugged to help her sleep
      b) She bore evidence of physical abuse due to Gerry's tantrums
      c) She was being used for some more abhorrent group ritual which went wrong - hence the willing cooperation and silence of the rest of the group.

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    4. Very true, Ros, I'm sure that sense of entitlement long preceded poor Madeleine's death. :(

      I did use the phrase 'fed the duo's arrogance' in the sense that it most certainly already existed, and boy do they know how to bask in the holiest benefactions of numerous corrupted states/bodies!

      And yes, they are indeed endlessly fascinating.

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  8. Ros,
    You can't put a puzzle down until you solve it?What sort of person are you to treat a missing child like this.
    Shame on you.

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  9. Oh dear, you are a shrinking little violet aren't you. I used 'puzzle' as a metaphor, a lot of people do, including Kate who often refers to 'the missing piece of the puzzle'.

    Such is human nature, murder and mystery intrigues us. You may have noticed it is a fairly popular genre in literature and film. High profile crimes intrigue more than most, look at the audience for the OJ Simpson trial. Go back even further, and correspondents worldwide were discussing the disappearance of he Lindbergh baby. As human beings we are puzzle solvers. If we weren't we would still be swinging among the trees with our hairier cousins.

    And to be fair Gerry and Kate have worked bloody hard to keep their audience. Not a year has passed without updates and instalments. When the public drift away, they come back with a new headline, a sighting, a suspect or a collection bucket.

    How do they not get that whenever they appear in the media spotlight, there will be comment. Sulking, throwing hissy fits and suing people will never change that. If anything, as they have discovered, it will increase the criticism and make them more unpopular. They should have followed the wisdom of the Windsors, 'Don't Explain, Don't Complain', or words to that effect.

    Gerry and Kate's constant complaining is now putting people's backs up. Week in and week out, they are moaning about something or someone. They are the kind of people we avoid in the real world, because they are always shoving sponsorship forms in our faces or making plans for ways in which we can do favours for them. I bet all the donors to the Madeleine Fund rue the day they ended up on the McCanns mailing list.

    Anyway, if you change the word puzzle to mystery does it make it sound any better? The truth is, we are detached from the reality, we are not connected to the characters involved.

    We do however, know that we are being lied to and as you are probably aware by now, lies just add to the mystery - because we want to know why we are being lied to.

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  10. What a pathetic reply.
    Think of the missing child.
    A child called Madeleine.

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    1. Why don't you think of the child? Why not respect Madeleine's short life and memory, by giving her a dignified burial and creating something good (for others) in her name? This pretence that she is still alive is creepy and grossly unfair to her younger siblings.

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  11. @ Rosalinda, Cristobell Hutton19 May 2016 at 22:43

    you are sick.

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  12. Cristobell have you been watching the secret. Its a local story to us showing lies deceit and murder while they posed as respectable middle class church goers. Every part of the 4 part series is fact. None of it has been sensationalised for TV. When that case came to light in 2011 it convinced me that there are people like the mccanns who can lie without any fear or guilt of the awful things they done. I'm sure you would have a field day analysing those 2. If you ever get time I would like to hear it some day

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    1. I haven't 19:39, but have now looked it up and will try to see it - many thanks, I'm sorry I missed it.

      It's estimated that 1 in 10 of the population are psychopaths! They are all around us. Most function normally, in fact they are essential to keep the cogs of society turning smoothly.

      This case however has been a real eye opener. It has been scary to see how easily the public can be manipulated to believe anything! Gerry and Kate were in the company of their own kind when the master plans were drawn up, and scarily these were people in position of great power.

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  13. Maybe in the interests of transparency you would like to tell people how much income you generate from this hate blog?

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  14. This is a blog you eejit, it is not a charity or a 'not for profit' pretendy search. It is none of your business, so take your elongated supersnout and poke it elsewhere.

    And if you want an example of a 'hate blog', take a look at the dossier that resulted in an innocent woman's death.

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    1. 'Elongated supersnout' - love it, Cristobell!

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  15. I'm not publishing your anonymous hate filled rants beaky, You demand details of me, yet you don't even have the guts to ask in your own name! Do you not see the irony?

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  16. I see no adverts, hence I see no income...or am I being naive?

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  17. Keep up the great work Ros,enjoy reading your blog and love the media fed morons who comment

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  18. Twitter user AdirenM would make a good interview subject for a blog. Apparently, this person was there on the night the alarm was raised and took part in the searches.

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