THAT OPEN WINDOW

 

I have to say I was very impressed by a recent Blacksmith blog where he has placed the entries in Kate’s book alongside the entries in Gerry’s blog. Something I have often pondered doing, but never quite got around to, due to it being quite a monumental task.  In a nutshell he has shown us a small sample of all the thousands of lies that can be proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Thanks JB, and thanks for the links, you clearly went to Uni, lol. I somehow wriggled through without ever understanding Harvard Referencing!  But thank you for showing it is OK to revisit old ground, to discuss those huge red herrings that seem to have bypassed all those diehard Gerry and Kate McCann supporters.

 

That open window.  Here’s what I think happened. Just an imagined scenario of course, not an accusation. Ok, that’s pathetic, I’ll go with ‘Some might say’.  Some, those who think like the first two policemen who responded to the call, that an ‘abduction’ scene had been staged. Some might say, the purpose of Gerry’s return to the apartment was to force open the car park window to make it look as though there had been a break in. Unfortunately, he bumped into Jez Wilkins and could not get to the window.  Kate was then left with no option but to open the window herself. Her’s were the only fingerprints found and the window had been opened from the inside not the outside.

 

After Kate raising the alarm, almost the first thing Gerry did was to tamper with check the window.  A strange thing for a doctor to do, especially if he suspected a break in and an abductor. In at least part of his medical training he must have learned about pathology and forensic science. That window, potentially contained the fingerprints and a direct link to whoever took Madeleine.  

 

Bumping into Jez Wilkins was not part of the plan, some might say it threw all their other plans awry.  And by ‘their’, I mean all those who took a collective decision.  Not only did it prevent Gerry from doing his bit, it left Jane Tanner loitering with intent and wearing purple.  

 

I think we all know by now that ‘breaking news’ is the news that sticks.  We are wiser now, but were we in 2007?  The McCanns were.  Not only did they tell the world their daughter was missing, they also told the world how innocent they were. They used the local church for photo ops, and they visited the Vatican. Not only were they displaying their innocence, they were displaying the support they had throughout the world. Well Morocco anyway. Kate’s deluded ‘Rome is preparing itself for our visit’ remains as it is. Deluded. Maybe all the more bizarre and grotesque 11+ years on.  It brings to mind that cringingly embarrassing oscar acceptance speech by Sally Field ‘you love me, you really love me’.  It grieves me to say that about Sally Field, because she should definitely play me should a film of my life ever be made (ok, I fantasize a lot, I also have an Oscar acceptance speech). Not only do I resemble her or she resembles me (especially when playing Sybil) and she can’t hide the crazy behind her eyes, lol.

 

But let’s get back to that window.  It was crucial to the abduction story, it was proof that someone had broken into that apartment with criminal intent.  The ‘break in’ was integral to the parents’ claim that a stranger/abductor had stolen their child.  After all, nobody would be stupid enough to leave 3 vulnerable toddlers alone in an unlocked holiday apartment, judy as they sure as hell wouldn’t leave their money and passports.

 

Gerry changed his statement. Err, alarm bells, major alarm bells.  He didn’t in fact enter the apartment via the locked front door using a key, he entered the apartment via the sliding doors at the back like, err, everyone else.  (how the feck did he get that essential detail wrong?).  Regardless, he later (10 days) remembered that he entered the apartment via the patio doors, no key was involved, but he ‘sensed’ the presence of an intruder, hiding behind the children’s bedroom door. A suggestion Goncalo Amararl demonstrated as ludicrous in his documentary.

 

Of course, had the abductor been in the apartment when Gerry returned to check on the children and use the bathroom, then that window in the bedroom would have been wide open with the curtains whooshing just as they did for Kate. And of course, the bedroom door would have slammed shut.  It didn’t, it remained open through Gerry and Matthew’s checks on the children, it didn’t slam until Kate arrived.

 

In one of their civil actions, I can’t recall just now which one, various witnesses appeared on behalf of Goncalo Amaral. They confirmed that the open window was not an entry or exit point. That is, they proved beyond doubt that the open window was a red herring.  Kudos to Team McCann on that one, they claimed the ‘red herring’ theory as their own. A cunning plan by the abductor to fool the investigators.  What a shame the McCanns don’t have a real enemy to blame for Madeleine’s abduction, there is so much they could project onto him.

 

They daren’t unleash any of their usual anti police spiel on the British detectives charged with investigating this case. It directly contradicts their British police good, Portuguese police bad message.  Up until 2011 the ‘only’ people searching for Madeleine were her parents.  The Portuguese police had given up searching for Madeleine and/or her abductor. The clear message being, they knew who was responsible but (at that time) did not have enough evidence to prosecute.  

 

Madeleine’s parents believe they are intellectually superior to the police, and yeah, it must be said, they believe they are ‘above’ most people.  You could not get a better illustration of that than looking at who they chose for their holiday companions.

 

They are nouveau riche of the worst variety. For me they bring to mind ‘the working class can kiss my ass, I’ve got the foreman’s job at last’ - an amusing little ditty from the 70’s that has become ageless. It pretty much sums up why tories still win elections in the 21^st century.  

 

I truly believe that Gerry, Kate and their intellectual equals, thought it would be a piece of cake to outwit the bumbling third world police forces of Portugal and to charm their way into the far reaching protection of Mother England. Sounds delusional, but kudos to them, they pulled it off.  And probably would have pulled it off if they hadn’t been so greedy as to return to the public again and again for donations.  The donations they had already received were beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, Certainly, no single family hit by tragedy has received the global response and financial aid that the McCann parents received.

 

Gerry and Kate are definitely of that demographic who believe ‘if we build it, they will come’.  They imagine what they want, then move hell and high water to get it. ‘We are finishers’ Kate said. And I believed her.  I’m a finisher too, thought I, I have climbed mountains, metaphorically, to tick off the boxes in my ‘things to do before I die’ list.  I attained a degree, tick. I had weekly column, tick. I had a play nominated for a Sony award (twice!) tick, I had a book published, tick, I have freedom of speech, tick, tick and a few Irish jigs!

 

Apologies for turning that into a tickbox list, but while I’m at it get drunk with Jack Nicholson in New Orleans and sleep under the stars in the Valley of the Kings remain blank :(  Oops, also coffee in the Seinfeld cafe :)

 

But back to that window. Was it a good idea for Kate to release that ‘red herring’ statement? Did it make them look more guilty or less?  I tend to think genuinely grieving parents wouldn’t give two profanities as to what the public thought about the finer details of the crime scene.  They wouldn’t give two profanities as to what the public thought of them period. Creating a viewer friendly public image is the last thing on the minds of parents and loved ones who are reaching out to the public for help. They don’t need image consultants, they don’t need to stage public events and invite the press. They appear on our TVs reluctantly, they are always close to tears, and we the audience want to reach out and hug them. Whoever advised Gerry and Kate to show no emotions is a moron. If it comes from the McCanns themselves, then it is chilling.

 

Again I digress, forgive me.  Imagine you (a generic you) wanted to create a scene from which a child was abducted, how would stage the room so it coincided with your story? If I held a poll I think we would all raise out hands for ‘open a window’. A stranger couldn’t just walk in an unlocked door could they? That is preposterous. The co-signatories to the collective decision also saw this as a complete distraction for the intellectually inferior Portuguese Judiciary. An open window and the word of six (British) doctors, case closed.

 

Unhappily for Gerry and the collective co-signatories, the police officers of the original investigation failed to give these God Complex doctors, the respect they believed they deserved. Literally no-one was taken in by the open window.  But it served it’s purpose on the first night.  That is, it enabled Team McCann and all their accomplices to spread the word that the apartment had been broken into.  The first news that hits the stands is the one that sticks.  Bizarrely, Team McCann knew that.  

 

Unfortunately for Gerry and Kate their past media exposure has not stood the test of time.  Perhaps, in a rare moment of clarity, that is something, Kate foresaw in the future when she declared her book ‘an account’ of the truth.  Some solace perhaps for her children, but still not the truth without the word ‘account’ in front of it. It’s halfway to an apology, the rest will follow later.

 

But back to the subject. That window does indeed deserve a blog of it’s own.  It cannot be used as evidence of a break in, because Kate, by her own admission, says it may have been a red herring.  Clearly that window had left Kate et all extremely vulnerable, enough for Kate to break her silence on the matter.

 

The open window was all the McCanns had to support a stranger abduction - that is, until Jane Tanner came forward with her sighting of a man carrying a child at the significant time.  Open window, JT sighting, parents in the clear, case closed.  Kate’s claim that the open window fooled them just as much as it fooled the watching world, didn’t work. Actually, on a scale of what didn’t work for Team McCann, it is right alongside Gerry’s interview with Paxman and pretence that he was invited to a media conference in Edinburgh. ‘Why are you here Gerry?’. Hmmm.  Who knows.

 

Had Gerry been a few moments earlier, or had Jez Wilkins not appeared, the state of the window may have been more convincing as the point of entry.  Instead opening the window was a spontaneous act by Kate who needed more than a missing child to cry abduction.  The McCanns have stated over and over that little Madeleine would not have been capable of opening that window.  Nor indeed, the patio doors and the two garden gates.  And of course, they accept without question that the abductor was courteous enough to close the patio doors and curtains, and the gates at the top and bottom of the staircase.  How thoughtful of him, particularly as he had a child in his arms at the time.  It is easy to see why the McCanns and their friends have been so reluctant to return to Portugal for a reconstruction.  

 

The staging, such as it was, was clumsy and ill thought out - the timeline written on a torn out page from Madeleine’s colouring book, shows how desperate they were. They were not armed with A4 writing pads, subject dividers and colour coordinated folders and post it notes.  They were right slap bang in the middle of a major disaster. All their careers and futures were at stake.  Unfortunately, their preconceived ideas that the Portuguese police were in some way backward soon hit them full frontal, and none have had the guts to return since.  For the record Operation Grange, filming the reconstruction in Spain (wtf?) with actors, screams you do not have the co-operation of the people you are assisting, ie. The parents of the missing child, and of course, those who were part of the holiday group.

 

That open window has of course, been lost in the sands of time. No-one, not even Kate and Gerry believe the intruder came in via the window.  Kate would of course never admit to opening the window herself, but has gone so far as to say, it may have been opened by the abductor as a red herring. Whilst I don’t wish to project any super powers onto this horrendous fiend, he does seem to have the ability to enter and exit buildings without leaving any trace whatsoever. And the two babies who shared the room with Madeleine carried on sleeping soundly.  Madeleine too slept on, even as she was lifted from her nice warm bed, and passed through a window, or carried off by a stranger.  The voice of her daddy close by, yet she did not scream or call out to him.  

 

Blacksmith has opened, or at least led us to the doors of perception.  The foundation lie was the first one we were fully aware of, but how many were there before?  What if, as we, or most of us, believe, it is all a lie, a great big hoax? Does the UK accept that it has been duped, or does it add a few more layers to the web of lies?

 

As a kid learning board games, we had a saying, ‘cheats never prosper’, I can’t say that turned out to be true, especially with Monopoly, but in the real world, karma is never far away.