Wednesday 16 September 2020

I'M NOT THE CRAZY ONE - AND MCCANN STUFF

 I look on the years I spent writing about Madeleine McCann as a journey, a journey I shared with hundreds of others.  Now it may seem an odd journey to embark on, but I and indeed everyone else who followed this real life reality crime were hooked. Gerry, Kate et al, caste their rods far and wide to entice a global audience and they succeeded.  That they weren't able to keep control of the global audience they attracted, was inevitable. As Gerry said, perhaps they were naive to think they could control the monster they created.  

Of course it was inevitable that the narrative the parents were putting out would be questioned because there were so many questions left unanswered.  The story simply didn't ring true and didn't make any sense.  People could see that, and many, including myself, who refused to accept the 'official' story became the enemy.

The 'official' story caste the parents as victims and heroes, whilst demonising the Portuguese detective who originally led the investigation.  It forgave, unconditionally, the fact that the parents had deliberately left 3 very young children on their own in a holiday apartment while they went to dinner.  And worse.  It implied 'all' parents did this, especially English ones and it wasn't a big deal. How could they (the clueless parents) know a child predator was on the prowl that night? The hotel didn't warn them about child predators nor did the local police, ergo, they and the predator were guilty and the parents were victims.

Those of us who have looked into this know that is a load of rubbish. Holiday resorts rarely advertise that they are plagued by child abductors, especially when they aren't, and not unreasonably, they expect parents to look after their children. Gerry and Kate were offloading blame from the very beginning. This I found odd.  From my own experience, I have blamed myself absolutely for every accident and near miss my kids suffered.  And I have cried along with every parent who has lost a child and blames themselves, I hear them, I feel their pain.  I remember seeing an interview with Sarah Payne talking about her murdered daughter.  Her agony was tangible and she made her sweet little daughter real to us in the loving way she spoke about her.  It was a very emotional experience, not just for myself, but for all who watched it.  If you read this Sarah, a big old cyber hug.

Now I know many people say, particularly in defence of the McCanns, that no-one know how they would react to the horror of having a child stolen.  Some admired the McCanns', err, stoicism, others were appalled and cried 'wtf is wrong with them'.  I, self admittedly, am a complete wuss, ergo I try not to judge other people by myself.  But I've seen bravery, heck there have even been occasions when I have been brave myself.  For some reason I equate bereavement with bravery, that is when we have lost someone we truly love, we can pull ourselves together for short periods of time, the funeral for example, to maintain some sort of dignity.  A little break from being a sobbing, vodka infused, weeping heap of jelly.  When I lost my beloved dad, I didn't leave my bedroom for days.  I watched 'Seinfeld' and 'Father Ted' back to back, together with old depression curer 'The Odd Couple'.  One of the best friends I have ever had in my life was there with me on the first night as I drank and talked and cried.  That is a kindness I will never forget.  She knows who she is :), we went to Uni together and I still love her for it.   

I have no shame in admitting that I suffer from manic depression, so it may be that my reactions are more extreme than others, I really don't know because most people don't talk about this stuff out loud.  But I refuse to accept the judgment of those who supposedly love me, and those who outright hate me.  I'm not the crazy one.  Unfortunately the whole McCann debate raised for me, a battle I have been fighting my entire life.  That is, my non acceptance of obvious lies, my refusal to conform to majority opinion, was yet another sign of my insanity.  And of course, this was the Achilles heel that the McCann supporters picked up on.  Added to which, I had a truth telling memoir published by Random House, so they had plenty of ammunition.  'Go take your meds', 'your mother never loved you' was the fodder of the trolls who pursued me.  Along with websites, photoshops (which were hilarious) and nasties telling me to 'hurry up and die'.  Incidentally, all deleted after the death of Brenda Leyland.

I didn't set out to go to war with the McCanns on social media, I responded after much provocation.  In my writing I have a golden rule, one that I have stuck to my entire life, even when I only scribbled into A4 notebooks in the middle of the night.  Honesty and Integrity.  I know how much words matter, ergo I sleep soundly because I know what my words mean to others, I know the effect they can have on other people.  Not because I personally am a wordsmith, but because I have seen the effects of words being used trivially and malevolently by ignorant people and believed.  

The McCanns and all those people pushing the abduction story were presenting a false narrative and that hurt my innate sense of justice, above all else.  I really, really, hate being lied to.  The disappearance of poor little Madeleine McCann, became 90% propaganda for a government seeking a national database of DNA, finger printing and micro chipping and a zealous cop who wanted a slice of Silicone Valley pie and the power to police the internet.  Included in that was the agenda of people who wanted to convince us that pedophiles were everywhere.  Lurking on street corners and of course, on the internet.  Convincing people the internet was a bad thing was always going to be an uphill battle, but suggest the internet was being used to enable child abusers, and they are halfway there.  Why wouldn't you hand over all your private and confidential information to the likes of Jim Gamble, what do you have to hide?

Jim Gamble and CEOP wanted, desperately, to link little Madeleine McCann (not yet 4) to internet grooming.  Their agenda, to prove that the internet, freedom of information and the ability to connect to others, was somehow dark and seditious.  Something that needed a specialist police force.  In a James Bond world, those seeking to seize power over the internet, as policemen, would be seen as the Drs Evil, but before 2010, everything regarding the world wide internet was up for grabs.  

It never ceases to amaze me how those, in the very short time they have of holding all the cards, are so swiftly brought back down to earth.  I would be a liar if I said I didn't enjoy it.  Where is your power now, Gerry, Clarence?  Can you go back to international fund raising?  How about 'Go Fund Me?'  Are you Clarence, held up to media students as the goal to aspire to?  Where is the support, the enthusiasm that you had in the early days?  Gerry, if he had had his way, would have built a world wide corporation on the back of his missing daughter.  It never came to fruition, nor his annual 'Maddie Day', when the public would be reminded to donate.  The unseemly focus on asking for donations offended my sensibilities at once, wtf?  Little Madeleine was lost the first night, when all the vultures got on the planes to PDL, but the Tapas group, stranded and alone in PDL, were already thinking that very same way.

I think I offered a couple of times, to cease the war with the McCanns, but they escalated it.  They went onto Amazon and trashed my book and followed me, literally everywhere, on social media.  Within moment of my typing something, it would appear on McCann supporters sites.  They were using my comments and blogs to get hits, lol.  Such is life, ha ha.  I can laugh, because I am the one in possession of the talent, the pro and anti sites might try to steal it, but it's still mine.  

I make no apologies for the media wars that ensued.  In fact, their hostility emboldened me, the more they attacked my mental health, my crazy childhood, the more they made me eternally grateful that I wasn't them.  Everything I have written, readers will note, is tinged with pity.  

Whilst it is true to say, that in the early summer of 2007, Gerry and Kate McCann held the world in their hands.  They were sympathetic victims (it could have been any of us), they were camera ready and erudite.  But that happy paradigm was never going to be sustainable. Most of the people Gerry and Kate were meeting were buying absolutely their carefully rehearsed, simplistic, story of how their daughter disappeared.  On paper, especially A4 sized and verified by every character in the drama, it was an open and shut case.  Especially, as every character was a doctor or a professional and beyond questioning or reproach.  It's not as if the Tapas 6, or is it 8, were in any way reckless chavs who left their kids to go out on the piss.  Let's get that distinction firmly in place, carved in stone, and beyond question as we go forward.

Now I am a single mum who spent many nights crying into my gin and listening to Diana Ross singing about no-one living her, while all my mates were out partying.  And there were times when I took my sleepy toddlers along with me to pub or restaurant and covered them in a blanket while they snoozed in a buggy.  Maybe I should, but I don't feel bad about that.  What I do feel bad about is the one time, I left my sleeping tot and drove to the shop that was literally at the bottom of the road and back.  I was less than 10 minutes but I have never been able to shake the guilt.

The Doctors McCann and their close knit group of friends made it OK and forgivable to leave small children on their own.  The callousness of their statements, especially one of the mothers of a baby, outraged me, especially the way she spoke about her small child's sickness and diorrhea, it chilled me to the bone.  

I was also appalled that the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was used to distort the general ideology of the masses.  Child abductions are extremely rare.  There is a Wiki page that lists child kidnappings going back decades, and kids who go missing globally, make headlines, due to the rarity!  Those pushing the story that Madeleine was abducted by a predator, was based more on fantasy than reality.  But they succeeded, they persuaded parents worldwide, that their babies were at risk of being abducted from their beds. 

So who was this frightening myth good for?  Police agencies based on protecting kids, charities for the missing, governments pushing for a national database, newspapers who love stories about bogeymen.  A win win all around.  Who was it ultimately not good for?  Hmm, the parents, strangely.  13 years on, they still do not have an answer as to what happened to their daughter.  That is, not an official answer that clears them absolutely.  The appearance of suspects from different parts of Europe these days, means absolutely nothing to old hands like me.  Seen it so many times before and know, beyond reasonable doubt, that there is no abductor.  See all my blogs.  So I guess the answer is no, I don't need to look any further.





35 comments:

  1. Keep telling yourself that you are not the crazy one and you may believe it some day. Others won't.

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  2. I see you have gone into full conspiracy/cover up mode now Ros. It's 13 years and you have not been proven right yet.

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  3. Readers will probably understand why I have no inclination to respond to the above two comments. Mostly, because my reaction was ah fuck 'em, I couldn't even be bothered to bin them.

    But in response. I've actually grown quite fond of the craziness as time has gone by, it makes me quite unique. It also means I spend a great deal of my time giggling and that can't be a bad thing.

    As for 19:46, I haven't gone 'full' anything, lol. My opinion remains the same as it ever was. I lost interest after I had solved the mystery to my own satisfaction. Think of it as an intricate crime novel where you HAVE to get to the last past before you can put it down. I had reached the last page. And that, for many is how the Madeleine story ends. There is nowhere else it can go once you accept that there was no abductor. Factually, 13 years on, there is still no abductor.

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    1. Is it a sign of madness when you stick your fingers in your ears and shout la la la la la la and stamp your feet and pretend that things you don't want to hear aren't happening.

      You never solved any crime you made a fool of yourself for years and years.

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    2. I only stick my fingers in my ears and shout la la la la when in the presence of rabid mccann supporter.

      I set out to discover the truth of what happened to Madeleine McCann, and in that I succeeded, to my own satisfaction. I reached the last page in the book. I wasn't a vigilante seeking retribution, I have no interest in the punishment side of law and order. I don't have it in my nature to punish anyone, that side of things I leave to those who can.

      On the other hand it is quite galling to see people being rewarded for bad behaviour, such as leaving small children on their own, blaming the police then refusing to co-operate with the police and of course raising money as if they were building a new Taj Mahal? Where did all those millions go?

      It's not true to say I never solved any crime, throughout those long, long years, I had many, hundreds if not thousands, of 'ah ha' moments where I stumbled on 'new facts' that took me beyond reasonable doubt. To start, see not the book of Goncalo Amaral, but Gerry's blog in the early days and Kate's book in 2011. Then of course, there was the release of the Portuguese police files and Goncalo Amaral's book, which of course matched the police investigation. That should have been end of story, but for the McCanns it was another front page opportunity. They succumbed to their vanity, their need to stay in spotlight didn't prove their innocence, it raised more questions as to their guilt.

      You can't blame me for being suckered in by the keeping up with the McCanns reality TV show. Team McCann were the ones chumming the waters, doing their utmost to keep drawing in public attention, problem was they could never keep control of the sharks. If you stand on an orange box at Speakers Corner and should 'hey everyone look at me', you can't then complain when everyone looks at you.

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    3. Gerry and Kate's very unrealistic demand was that they should be free raise awareness for Madeleine and raise millions for themselves without criticism from the tabloids or gossip about them on social media. They felt so strongly about this that they tried to bring legislation to enforce it.

      However, the initial shock, horror, outrage, that the parents of a missing girl, and indeed the girl's mobile phone had been hacked by a tabloid, was gradually replaced by the realisation that there should be no circumstances whatsoever where the press should be gagged. It took a while for some, but they got there in the end.

      I could sit here and write all the hundreds of reasons why I objected to the whole happy clappy Team McCann, but it would fill a book. Now, that's an idea, lol. People lying to me is one of my pet hates. People lying to me, to my face, thinking I will be stupid enough to believe them, irks even more. Because that has a huge dollop of disrespect. They actually don't care what you think, that's their story and they are sticking by it.

      Happily these days, I don't even have waste one moment of my time in the company of these people, but as usually happens with liars, is that they project their own lies onto you. That is, they accuse you of something they are guilty of. This is something I know, through and through, but I'm afraid when Team McCann put their dark forces into effect to label me a liar, I reacted. The older, wiser me, probably wouldn't have.

      But I'm a fighter. Have been since I was a little girl and learned how to make a fist. I'm even toying with the idea of having Chumba Wumba, I get knocked down but I get up again, as one of my funeral songs. I have never flinched at going to battle with McCann supporters, because I have always had truth on my side. It's a powerful weapon, it always wins in the end. I don't know what it's like fighting for something you don't believe in, because I've never tried it.

      Imagine the Team McCann War Room, when social media was ablaze with the unprecedented amount of information that was released by the Portuguese police? But truth be told, social media had been ablaze since the summer of 2007, because it was only on social media that you could see the other side of the Madeleine story via Portuguese journalists.

      Well I have just had a very delicious Vanilla Vodka drink, tastes like cream soda (I have a vodka drink, I have a lager drink....... p*****g the night away). I'm joking, only had one thus far but am now looking for music on Youtube.

      One last thing, on the 'sign of madness' front, where would you put people or person, who write poison pen missiles to strangers online for years on end? Asking for a friend.

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    4. Hi bell it's been a long time since the AOL boards. I see you have the bit between you teeth still about the madeline case lol. Was thinking about all the old posters today and remembered your blog. Hope you are OK and keeping that chin up x

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  4. Ros, 'I lost interest after I had solved the mystery to my own satisfaction' - This is exactly what happened to me. Once I had read the witness statements from the local supermarket owner and the Tapas Bar chef who started his shift shortly after 9.30 pm on 3rd May 2007, I felt I knew what had happened. Also, when I read Rachael Oldfield's statement where she said about her husband, Matt 'he wondered where she slept' and then he looked in the parents' bedroom, referring to him looking in on the McCann children and not being able to see Madeleine, that was enough. I don't puzzle over this case any more. It's not a mystery as far as I'm concerned. There are many other reasons apart from the few I've mentioned here.

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    1. Hi Jane, thank you for replying. I expect you and I are among thousands who know what we saw and remember how the story transpired. The mainstream British news telling us one thing, whilst intrepid and renagade Portuguese journalists were telling us something entirely different. For me it was an awakening, a realisation that news agencies were a zillion times more corrupt than I thought they were.

      You have reached the same conclusion as myself Jane, there is no puzzle, or there was a puzzle and it was solved years ago, the summer of 2007 to be exact. Everything thereafter, fuck knows, the main aim was to keep the threat of random child abductions in the headlines. The sinister 'they' wanted parents to be terrified, terrified enough to hand over their DNA, bank, medical, and every other confidential record. The incumbent Tony Blair government wanted control over every citizen's life. I thought Thatcher was bonkers when she started to refer to herself as 'we', but power mad Tony Blair, wanted complete autocracy. Information is power. With personal, private and confidential information on every British citizen, Blair could have remained in power forever. And how do you get every citizen to hand over every bit of their confidential information, you suggest they have something to hide related to paedophilia.

      It was an evil plan, and Blair put evil people in place to carry it out. Unfortunately for him, he and his proposed internet warriors who wanted to police the internet were not part of the cool kids gang. As much as they wanted a slice of Silicone Valley Pie, they were blocked. The new Masters of the Universe were never going to kow tow to Blair and his chief internet henchman, Jim Gamble. Nor were they ever going to give Blair et al a slice the profits. Blair had a semi victory with Operation Ore, a clear out of internet perverts, but was it really? Some might say it was a form of opposition research, a way in which to rid themselves of perceived enemies by detecting dodgy internet activity? Operation Ore doesn't stand up to scrutiny, an investigation that ends in 40 plus suicides and 200+ children seized and placed in care, should set off multiple alarm signals, not be the subject of praise. It was a horror show and I pray Jim Gamble is never given a position of power again. I myself was once a 'child in care' and I came across multiple 'Jim Gambles' and indeed 'Anthony Bennetts' during that time. Middle aged and elderly men 'devoted' to making my life better. But I was a 'street kid', even at the tender age I was when taken into care, they repulsed me. Fortunately, I was a rebel and a fighter, I had a look in my eye that said 'touch me' and I will pursue you until the end of days. I was battered, deprived of privileges, and locked in solitary confinement where no-one was allowed to speak to me for weeks on end, but I was never 'touched'. I don't know if they feared my wrath, or that of my 'mad' Irish mother's, but they never crossed that line.

      All my time in the convent, my head was battered, but unbowed. I would not give in to their insanity. Much like all the arguments I have put forward in my blog above, during my time in the convent, I swore then and I swear now, I was not the crazy one. They were feckin weird to me and they still are now.

      In the convent we had to go to mass nearly every feckin day of the week, basically because if we, the incarcerated kids weren't there, it was feckin empty. All we convent kids sat in the left hand aisle, and filled it up, but the right hand side was for the public. The only regulars on that side were a weird Stepford family, of father, mother, 5 kids standing in height order. They were dead smart of course, like us, all in their Sunday Best but even weirder than we were. We at least used to have all sorts of disrespectful and subversive banter going on behind the scenes, but they were pure zombies. Their lives were sadder than ours, wtf?

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    2. Forgive me for rambling, it is so rare to get a post these days that does not condemn to all hellfire and damnation, lol. The Madeleine story is not a great a mystery anymore I don't think. Rational, logical, thinking people have reached their own conclusions. Not for reasons of vengeance or retribution, for simply for the personal satisfaction of knowing that you have solved the puzzle.

      Very, very, few of us who discussed the Madeleine mystery were personally invested in the outcome of the case. Whatever the result, it made no difference to us whatsoever. Beyond 'yeah, that's what I thought' it was never a big deal. I was always, perturbed is the best word I can come up with, by the ferocity of the pro McCanns' arguments. I would always think, 'jeez man, I was just throwing it out there'.

      Looking back, I wish I had just ignored the lunatics, but such is life, you cannot turn back time. But I don't back down to no-one, and that began with the nuns. When they attacked me, I fought back. And worse, the smarmy Kate declared in an interview that she and Gerry were finishers. It was a like a challenge, not to me of course, I was a mere fly in the ointment at that time, but to all those who didn't believe the victim parents. I doubt mine were the only heckles riled up by that challenge.

      You see that is the bit that will pass almost unnoticed by the historians who record the Kate and Gerru story. They will bypass and overlook the amount of fun this pair of scammers had at the world's expense. Almost from the very beginning, Gerry and Kate were scamming and laughing. Replace I'm jamming with I'm scamming, and you will capture the moment.

      Put yourselves in their shoes for just a few moments, breathe it in, imagine having the world in the palm of your hand, devotees who will believe anything. It's something very few of us will experience, but something we have all have witnessed many times before. People thrown into the spotlight who believe they are God. Is it the atmosphere, is it the lighting, is it the crowd, or perhaps I really am God almighty! Who hasn't felt that way.

      Gerry and Kate reacted admirably, with lots of thanks and humble acceptance speeches for all the honours bestowed upon them, they met the moment. They believed their own publicity. Maybe they could have taken the lie detector test and passed, because they truly believed. We'll never know of course, because they didn't.

      to be continued

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  5. It is perfectly obvious that Ros and Jane have never bothered to read and understand the Portuguese Archiving Report. They and others do not recognise that not one piece of evidence has been uncovered against the Mccanns since the case was archived. There never was a smoking gun and there certainly never was an ace up amaral's sleeve that he was waiting to produce when the time was right.

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    1. Hello Anon 20 September 2020 at 00:17

      “They and others do not recognise that not one piece of evidence has been uncovered against the McCanns since the case was archived”

      So true, but, as it seems, the McCanns haven’t been investigated at all by the OG (ref. interviews with Mark Rowley and Colin Sutton) since the shelving of the case in Portugal 2008. They’ve only been pursuing the abduction hypothesis, while making it look as if the Portuguese PJ were actively supporting them in doing so.

      Nevertheless, there’s in fact additional evidence, which has emerged since then (in Kate’s book, in various interviews with the McCanns, in the Gaspar’s statement, on social media and everywhere, suggesting that the McCanns should be further questioned, but no police authority seems to be interested in dealing with those "suspects" anymore. Wouldn’t a complete failure in finding an abductor or Madeleine alive after more than 13 years compel both the Portuguese PJ and the OG to reinvestigate the McCanns properly???



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    2. Yeez, I am on vanilla vodka, but wtf are you on 00:17, you think I have not read the PJ files? That I have written in depth, debated multiple McCann loons and heard every, literally every, 'pro' McCann argument that I do not know what I am talking about? Here's a little test 00:17, why don't you go write, say, 100,000 words about a subject on which you know nothing. And 100,000 btw is the bottom end of the volumes I have written.

      You are actually showing your own ignorance by attacking me with such a stupid, inappropriate, easily disproved, accusation. Clearly I know what I am talking about, or I wouldn't still be here. I have devoted my life to education, I never reach conclusions without studying every side and every point of view. I wore my academic's hat as I studied every piece of evidence I could find. I was emotionally detached. If anything, I wanted to prove the parents innocent, the alternative was horrendous. It would destroy what little faith I had left in human nature.

      I think you really ought to put a little more thought into your attacks 00:17 - they only hit home when there is a grain of truth in them.

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  6. Hello Rosalinda

    You're undeservedly under attack every time you mention the Madeleine case Rosalinda or talks about yourself. Nasty people try to take down your blog. Don’t let it happen.

    As far as the Madeleine case is concerned, it seems to be taboo at least in the officially UK society to apply common sense to it, so I felt that I had to comment on the new absurdities in the ongoing investigation, in which German authorities are now playing a part.

    The public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig, are now trying to frame a German criminal, named Christian Brückner at a time when most people like yourself Rosalinda had almost lost interest in the case. This scapegoat has now become a prime suspect, but only in the fantasy world of British mass media in which the untouchable McCanns are leading a kind of languishing pseudo life, trying to keep the myth about the abduction alive and that about Madeleine still being alive, through a close friend of theirs, whose name we all know so well.

    Let us never forget the McCanns’ guilt, because there isn’t any thinkable crime scenario in which the McCanns can be seen as innocent victims. Whether Madeleine was abducted by a stranger (unlikely as I’ve said) or died in the apartment, either as a result of an overdose of sleeping pills (as I believe) or due to domestic violence of other kinds, it nevertheless was a consequence of their own actions and, as I see it. None of the mentioned scenarios that I’ve mentioned here gives them any kind of impunity.

    The only reason as to why they’ve not yet been prosecuted in Portugal has to do with all the ambiguities surrounding the case, which should’ve been sorted out many years ago, making it possible for the Portuguese PJ to charge them with one of the following crimes.

    -Child Neglect
    -Negligent Homicide
    -Involuntary Manslaughter (my choice)
    or
    -Criminally Negligent Manslaughter.

    Unfortunately, nothing will bring back poor little Madeleine, but justice will be done and all liars will eventually be exposed and that’s what motivates me not to lose interest in the case Rosalinda.

    Have a Nice day Rosalinda
    Björn



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    1. Hi Bjorn, to be honest I didn't even look at the latest German suspect, this is a scenario we have seen again and again over the years. If you have accepted, completely, that there was no abductor, as I have, stories like this have no interest for me. The whole story, timeline, statements, etc, etc, are carved in stone. There is no way, in a court room, that a dupe could be found guilty of Madeleine's abduction. There is no path to making the Mccanns officially innocent. I'm astonished anyone, let alone the German police are still pandering to the 'abductor' story. It's all very well saying there is no evidence against the McCanns, but there is also no evidence that there was an abductor. Beginning with the window in the kids' bedroom - it was not forced and Gerry tampered with it before the police even arrived. The only fingerprints on it, were Kate's. And, err, no sign of an abductor climbing in or out of the window. It was later claimed by Kate to have been a red herring, implying the abductor opened the window (from the inside) to suggest that was the means of entry. Not the open patio doors.

      Why does no-one want to investigate the parents and their friends? Who knows, Bjorn, that is a mystery. Goncalo Amaral once suggest that the McCann case wouldn't be solved until the 'political will' was there to fix it. - whatever that means. We have seen this case go on and on during both Labour and Conservative governments. Even under Theresa May, Kate McCann said the file was gathering dust and all she had been given was a platitude of fluffy words, or something like that.

      I think in the whole grand scheme of things Bjorn, the McCann story, myth, scam, tragedy, has sunk right to the very bottom of the news heap. So much has happened, so much is going on, in the real world, that even a touching story about a lost child, will never reach those heights of global response that Gerry and Kate achieved with missing Madeleine. It was the early days of the internet and a free way in which to connect with millions and get them donating to you. It was the right time, right place, right era. Such perfect storms only happen once in a lifetime. Sadly, as history shows, it's not always the best people who take advantage of them.

      Probably for the sake of all those of us who where were maligned, I would like to see the truth come out, but there are so many injustices all around us that are, imo, more important. I sleep well, I am ready to meet my maker and all those I love who have gone on before. No-one can ever accuse me of persecuting to the McCanns, I only ever responded to their attacks on me and others that were unjustified. I fought back, I didn't cower to the threats and viciousness of their campaign against me, which still goes on. I carried on writing, and my audience figures just went up and up. I was read not just by 'antis' but also by 'pros' and the curious. I countered and rebutted the McCanns lies in real time, I and all those who wrote in, put their press releases under scrutiny. I, a little lone warrior, was hurting their wholesome, perfect family on a perfect holiday narrative.

      continues

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    2. Hello Rosalinda,and thanks for comment.

      You discuss the Madeleine case logically and soundly,you always have, who can say otherwise.

      What I personally find so annoying about the latest allegation coming from the German police is that virtually all journalists, especially the British ones, so uncritically pass on highly improbable allegations about a new suspect to their readers/viewers, despite all the documented facts in the early Portuguese investigation, that points away from the McCanns’ “fairy tale” about an abduction.

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  7. Ros says - "it makes me quite unique".

    Ros says she is an English teacher, an expert on the written and spoken word. For God's sake how many times has she told us that her writing is the best even if she expects us to read between the lines rofl.

    Ros should know that "unique" can not be qualified - I learned that at school.

    Something or someone is unique or not.

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  8. I have been toying between publishing and binning your mini lecture on my diction. Thank heavens, say I, for those so devoted to the written word that will track down and reproach anyone who uses that which is sacred, so badly. Now that, was terrible writing, lol. Except perhaps in the land of P.G. Wodehouse, where it would go down splendidly.

    Tempting as it might be, my dear friend at 20:02, to police social media in search of a misused pronoun, it suggests, or dare I say, shows, that you do engage with the words you are reading. My fault, of course, as a writer, I should somehow be able to convey the inflections, the raised eyebrow, the fleeting Mona Lisa smile. I think with many I do. That is they can hear my school 'marm' voice as they read my words, but they can detect too, the twinkle in my eye*. That connection, that I am speaking to them personally.

    How many times have I told you I am the best? Lol, I can't think of any, but don't let that stop you. I speak mostly about writers and thinkers that I love, that I aspire too, I curse myself constantly that I am not good enough, I'm a tortured artiste, too vain and fecked up to release my work. The words of 'Boxer' ring in my head, I must work harder and beat myself up more often when I don't deliver.

    As for your dumb, jobsworth, correct of my work, imagine my voice in your head and put the emphasis on 'quite', not grammatically correct, but cute in a cocktail party situation.







    *I inadvertently typed 'ear' there which was hilarious, but changed everything, ha ha.

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  9. Hi, Cristobell, Wow, they still fear the TRUTH gets out.
    First 2 replies from attackers and Team McCann.

    Abduction? The PJ Files prove overwhelmingly that was not the Case.
    The contradictions and timelines from the McCanns and Tapas 7,8,9 statements.
    The ,"JEMMIED" window fed to the world, Falsely.
    Keela and Eddie , ignored.
    The failure to retest the DNA samples.
    Need I go on ?

    Question: Has OG been given more more Funds in 2020.

    Anyway, good to hear from you as always.

    (PS..I'm sure your aware of Paulumbo on YT who still studies the PJ Files and the many discrepancies in the original statements from the McCanns and T7,8,9 that have been ignored or not followed up on by OG)

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  10. This blog seems to be in a time warp. Is it really 2007 or 2008 again?

    Let me know me the Mccanns get arrested, charged and convicted.

    Guilty beyond reasonable doubt in the mind of a blogger is not really good enough for me and apparently 3 police forces agree with me.

    The crime is not solved and thank God the Police continue to investigate and not just get bored with it eh Ros?

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    1. Hi Anon 22 Sept 2020 at17:11
      "The crime is not solved and thank God the Police continue to investigate and not just get bored with it eh Ros?"

      Regardless of how many police forces there are involved, unless the McCanns are being investigated, the investigation will not progress. It's as simple as that!

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  11. Hello Rosalinda,
    If you think it's off topic, the subject can perhaps be published and discussed later.

    To Whom It May Concern

    Madeleine wasn’t abducted, but Julian Assagne was, and very regrettable I must say, on British soil by British authorities, in co-operation with the CIA.

    Through various freedom-fighting organizations and through Assagne's family and friends, and thanks to the so far free internet, it has become widely known that Assagne has been subjected to psychological torture of the kind applied to prisoners in totalitarian states, much like that which affected Otto Warmbier in North Korea. I never thought I’d ever say that, but unfortunately I have to, because it’s true. I really fear that Julian Assagne might be returned to his homeland by the UK in the same state of health as Otto Warmbier? There’s no doubt about his being psychologically tortured through the isolation in Belmarsh, although his only crime is his revelation of real crimes committed by the US government.

    Without, the publication of the Portuguese police files on the internet, without social media and without alternative media outlets, the Madeleine case would have been forgotten long time ago and the ongoing unfair trial concerning the extradition of a Australian citizen to the USA, where the victim is going to face a show trial staged by the CIA, would’ve been kept in the dark.

    The intent behind the indictment against Assange is to scare off and terrorise anyone who contemplate the idea of publishing anything based on American classified documents, even if such documents would expose the surveillance and torture of innocent citizens.

    Having said that, I’d like to emphasise the importance of supporting those who’re trying to expose lies and crimes committed by governments around the world, of which there are so many. Whether it’s a thoughtful or just an ill-conceived comment on a blog, it still contributes to the strengthening of freedom of expression and it makes it more difficult for the power to exercise power for its own sake. So keep on posting on Rosalinda’s blog, or on any blog, especially when subjects of justice and liberty are being discussed.





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    1. I have never fully understood the whole Assange case Bjorn, but my thinking was blurred by the fact that Trump liked and used him, which is probably a bit unfair.

      It is odd that he has never actually been put on trial yet is being held in Belmarsh on what looks like trumped up (forgive the pun) charges from the US. And I agree with you, the last time I saw him on the news, he looked in a bad way physically and mentally, broken. If we saw a prisoner in that condition in a third world country, the world be outraged, yet in England it's OK and he somehow deserves it.

      But I agree with your view Bjorn, Assange is a journalist and exposing the truth is his vocation. Unlike Reality Winner, also been held in prison, he is more than a whistle blower, exposing corruption was his job. Imprisoning journalists and whistle blowers should not be the new normal. How are we at the stage where people are being locked up for telling the truth? Such is the current political climate Bjorn, especially here where we have cast aside the human rights protections of the European Courts. Whatever it is they are doing to Julian Assange, the highest Court he can appeal to, will be British. Sadly, what is happening to Julian Assange will affect the choices of investigative journalists worldwide, perhaps it will even lead to 'no go' areas if exposing corruption leads to their own imprisonment. Effectively, it is a gag on the freedom of the press, brought in via the back door. Remember how hard Gerry and Kate McCann worked to bring in punishments for newspapers and reporters? Irony eh?

      You are right Bjorn, we should all keep talking. No matter the ups and downs of my blog, I am mightily happy that I can 'talk' to my hearts content and can say, like a dear departed old friend of mine ''ere, that's not right!' (imagine a big, booming cockney voice).

      Unfortunately, such are the times, there is so much 'not right' where do you begin? But I do thank all the Gods there may be that there are hackers out there, including the Anonymous group, who can always stay one step ahead of the Law. Now I know that makes me sound like a bit of a anarchist, but these hackers are pioneers in the same way as Watt Tyler*. I couple of years ago I saw a documentary about Aaron Swartz, genius or martyr? That's the wiki title and a question. I'd also throw in another, who watches the watchers?

      For me the McCann case raised a whole new series of worries and terrors. What if, thought I, there was a real life Bond villain, a Dr. Evil who would try to take over the world using the internet? OK, that's worse case scenario, but within the whole Madeleine canon, there was a strong element fighting the 'lawlessness' of the internet.

      continues







      *leader of peasant rebellion

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    2. Such were the times, media victims, Gerry and Kate were having their threadbare story of child abduction dismantled, deconstructed and torn apart on social media because literally thousands of people did not believe them. Those who did not believe them were categorised as 'haters', they did not believe Gerry and Kate because they were intrinsically evil, suffered from mental health problems (like moi) and were shut away in bedsits looking for strangers to attack on the internet.

      True, the missing Madeleine case attracted more than it's fair share of psychopaths and weirdos and I encountered most of them along the way, but the majority of those who disbelieved were just regular, normal people who could spot bullshit when they saw it. They weren't envious of Kate's good looks, the big house (with room for a pony) or the smarminess of Gerry, they just knew how they would react if they had had a child stolen, whilst of course still reeling from the knowledge that these two smart, polite, erudite doctors, had left 3 toddlers alone in an apartment! They were also outraged that fawning TV presenters and Daily Mail writers, were claiming they too did the same thing! It was like a '1984' moment, where you have to believe, by law, that 2 + 2 = 5. However, as I discovered, there were a lot of people like myself, left thinking WTF? The warped Madeleine narrative began with 'all British parents leave their kids alone while on holiday', WTF X 100.

      They were strange times indeed Bjorn, and I think I am now ready to write a book about it. Madeleine's disappearance coincided with the birth of the internet. They were the first parents of a missing child to have such contact technology available to them. One of the first things they did was to set off chain emails. They had access to every news outlet on the globe, which of course, is why they immediately extended their search beyond the shores of Portugal. But I'll save all of that for my book.

      There were a zillion factors that made this case unique, not least that 'perfect moment in time', good chapter title, lol. Did you know that Winston Churchill had those lines 'never has so much been owed by so many to so few' for years, and had even used them a couple of time, but they did not become iconic until the Battle of Britain.

      Bless you Bjorn, bless you, as always you are a joy to debate, discuss and muse with, and finally, after months, actually years, of being unable to focus, I finally KNOW what I must do. I have to write my own Madeleine book, in my own, unique way, ha ha. I want to overturn the ideology that non believers of Madeleine's parents are bad people. But sadly, it was the bad people who made the headlines. Deliberately so of course. Those driving the whole McCann movement, wanted to stifle freedom of speech and gag the media, cherry picking the 'badies' on social media as the face of the lawless, was an effective way of shutting down the subversives with platforms. Reasonable people are repulsed by attention seekers who use the bullying of others to make a headline. The McCanns had firmly established themselves as victims, not only of freaks online, but also from all and any news agency that disagreed with them. With, ahem, much assistance, they shut down criticism in the mainstream media, but they were unable to get that same level of control over social media. Social media is packed with free thinking people, who don't have to check with lawyers before they tweet or write a post on facebook. Social media is lawless, and I raise my overfilled cup of Vanilla Vodka in celebration of that! I blame all the Russian dramas I have been watching lately, hic.

      probably running out of words, so continues.....

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    3. I don't know why I have never thought of it (writing a McCann Battle book before) - just throwing a prospective title out there, ha ha, but now the time seems about right. There is no ending - which I was always waiting for before embarking on 80,000+ words, but there have been dozens of books and documentaries. None of which tell the story in the same way as I would. A middle aged woman, looking after her poor old (mad Irish) mum, waking up to the news that a child had been abducted on 3rd May 2007 in Portugal. Our squabbles began immediately. She 'yeah, they did it', me 'you're a terrible woman!'. We watched all the news. We were hooked, we scrutinised every detail with Agatha Christie precision. I was snobbily reluctant to give her credit for her 'oh yeahs', told you so nods, and gotcha grins! I took to the internet. Thousands, literally thousands, were way ahead of me! The distance between the Tapas Bar and the apartments - OMG!

      IF you are OK with me waffling, I have to confess, this confinement has led me to explore all sorts of new avenues, especially movie and drama wise! I kind of them my life was over, too old, too dull, no focus, no inspiration, kill me now. But I decided to google Stephen King movies, because, a)I love spookies and b)I can really identify with his 'writer' characters, I know exactly how they suffer, I feel his pain! lol.

      Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter how you get there, I have more than enough reasons to beat myself up. The biggest thing was, my acceptance that my life was over. I know! WTF? I have led a full and interesting life, more than most, some would say. I am sad that I did not recognise my soul mate when he came along, I think about how we would now be eating gourmet meals (I'm a great cook), discussing great books and sharing our love of the arts. I really miss what life could have been had he lived. He loved my 'chatterbox' side, most people don't, but he also loved that I was so interested in him, in his perspective, his wisdom. My favourite thing about him was his charm and good manners, he had gone to Eton and Oxford, and he treated everyone he met, be it a waiter or a knight of the realm, with the same level of respect. I once took him on a double decker bus and he wouldn't get off before he had personally thanked the conductor and the driver. So kind, he would say, and I loved that about him.

      But I have wondered. Today, tonight, I have been hit by a thunderbolt. 'Write what you know'. Great words and I wish I could remember who to credit for them. I am a great believer in fate, that is, maybe there is or isn't a God, or dead relatives who have the power of the Gods to throw you a good hand to help you along the way. I believe in the latter. Because, I have experienced times, down and out times, where 'fate' has thrown me a helping hand. Part of me believes it is my father and mother, who's love I never doubted, but also the love of those I loved and cared for, who are watching out for me still.

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    4. Everything I have ever done, from fighting the trolls on AOL and the various chatrooms that sprung up from the anti and the pro McCanns blogs and websites, was a unique experience, I went into into the kind of places that angels and sane people fear to tread. My experience of the missing Madeleine case is entirely different to those who have produced documentaries and written books. I have always looked on my blog as a journey, shared with others, a place in which to discuss the obvious glaring discrepancies between the official story and the story that was coming through, across borders, from Portugal. One aspect of the case quickly became the news we were getting in the UK and news the rest of the world was getting from Portugal. As much as the internet had a huge upside for Team McCann, the downside was that anyone who bothered to google the Madeleine story, was immediately met with all the 'wtf' stuff. Their flawless, cunning plan, had a lot of faults and unforeseen coming circumstances like the PJ file being released, and Goncalo Amaral's book. Oops!

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  12. Any attempt to dwell on what happened on 3 May 2007 is doomed to failure, it was all a well-rehearsed abduction hoax that night. So many lines of evidence now point to Madeleine having died, or been killed, on Sunday afternoon/evening. Is this blog willing to look at this evidence?

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    1. Beware agents of bennett and the hellhole cesspit that is haverns.

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    2. Hello Chink, thank you for your post, but no, I am not prepared to look any further into the assumption that Madeleine died earlier in the week. I think it unlikely, because it suggests a level of evil and malevolence that I am just not comfortable with. I am no fan of the tapas group, but I cannot believe this group, who are pretty dim, managed to put on a normal fascade for several days in a row. That's a really tough assignment, a deceased child, a cover up, keep going out to dinner, keep acting normally. These people are, give it to them, a pretty normal bunch of people, all of the above sounds like a pitch for a horror movie. Can 'regular' people do that kind of stuff?

      Err, well yeah. Hard as that is to believe, it could be true. Now I must stop waffling, and get me arse into gear. I have masses of material and memory prods, the time is right. I had hoped to write Kate's true story, I wanted to give her a lifeline, so that history would not portray her as a monster. She never responded, but she will probably be heartened to know that I do not see her as a monster. She was used, as much as she used, in her heart she may have seen herself as Mata Hari, or maybe even, in her own delusion, as a defender or protector of vulnerable children, but she wasn't. She was a subjugated woman who stood by a control freak, putting the love of her control freak over the protection of her children. It was an affront to every mummy tiger out there. Madeleine's disappearance began with the hostility between the mother and father. The mother resented the displacement in the father's affections. Kate, is a needy, only child, who needs extra special attention, she took to her bed whilst pregnant, having Gerry's sisters caring for her and waiting on her. The delicate Kate needed a lot a care, as GA had picked up on in his book.

      The volatile Kate lost control, many times, especially in the aftermath. The bruises that were predominent in the pictures of early May 2007, were said to be the result of Kate pounding her wrists and forearms on the metal rails outside their apartment and Kate kicking and destroying the bed within. The MSM made this normal, but all of those who have a nose for bullshit, cried wtf? Even those not familiar with the five stages of grief knew that the reactions and behaviour of the McCann family, at what what was, in the eyes of the rest of us, a tragic situation, was creepily bizarre.

      I must say farewell or the whole book will be written here. Take care my friend and stay safe.

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  13. Ros - your book will certainly be unique - it will never get written - you have been going on about writing your own Mccann book for years and years and years - yes it seems like forever.

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  14. Actually 20:32, I haven't been talking about writing a Madeleine book for years. In fact I have specifically written over and over again, that I would NOT write a Madeleine book because they case had no ending. I have discussed writing other books, which you are right did not come to fruition, to that I will put my hands up. Unfortunately, it's a writing thing and it's a depression thing. That is the inability to focus. When I am focussed I can write a book within days. My radio play Constance was written over the course of a long weekend, mostly while walking my do twice a day in a large country park. My book, published by Random House was written in a little over 3 months. My self published diet book, took about 3 weeks.

    That is the thing with writing, it is not a 9 to 5 occupation, it is something you do when you CAN. And I know writer's block sounds cliche, but it is very real and it is crippling. Occasionally however, there are glimpses of sunlight, as I found out in the past couple of days. The sunlight being 'phew, I haven't lost it'. And better, I have finally found a use for the knowledge I acquired during all those years I was squabbling with the McCanns. Then came the lightbulb moment, I have all this knowledge, people like reading my take on the story, even if they don't agree with me, so why not write a book about it. Ultimately, it is a fascinating story, and will be for the ages, there are so many unanswered and more importantly, questions that were unasked.

    I know this story still does not have an ending, in an official sense, but from all the intensive research and battling on social media that I have done, I have found answers to all those questions so many of us raised. To me no mysteries remain, ultimately it is a tragic story of a child who went missing as we were all discovering the miracle of the internet, and we weren't really sure what it could be used for. The parents of the missing child quickly discovered, by making the story global, they could raise millions (whatever currency you like) in cash.

    Why did they need so much cash? Because they wanted to take the search for their missing daughter away from the police. Now why would they want to do that? Hmm, I could go on and on and in my book I will :) And I have masses of material, nearly 800 blogs, many never published. Not that I would ever reuse the same material (as if!), but going back over nearly a decade, they will be great prods to my memory and a great way to isolate topics for chapters. Hmm, see, I am already in plotting mode, somebody stop me.......

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    1. Your negativity does not put me off 20:32, it inspires me. I will tell you what else inspires me. In the 500+ blogs that I have published, I have never been sued for libel, nor even accused. I may not have earned a fortune out of my published memoir, but I did learn, quite intensely, over a period of 3/4 weeks all the legalities of having a book published. That is, the draft is gone through and put under a magnifying glass by a team of the publisher's lawyers. I learned more in that 4 weeks than the 30+ years I spent as a legal secretary! Though to be fair, I rarely worked in libel departments. I mention that because I have seen all the books that gone before, especially when Pat Browne self published a book in the early days and was banned by Amazon.

      But stuff is getting through now, though none of the hundreds/thousands of Madeleine documentaries on Youtube. One 'big one' did get through on Netflex, but it had, what you will hear in writing classes, an unsatisfying ending. For the McCann watchers, for want of a better word, it told them nothing new, and it was biased towards the parents and tapas friends.

      Other books and writings, of which are many, focus on the crime, eg Goncalo Amaral's. Kate tells the story from her perspective, as a victim, ditto Gerry's blogs, how he suffered and what a trouper he was. Unfortunately too, this case attracted what I will refer to as 'weirdos' from hereonin. That is very strange people drawn to the case by the child abuse connotations and implications. Not surprising really, as it was initially claimed that Madeleine could have been taken by a gang of paedophiles. A narrative that continued throughout and the one on which the weirdos focussed.

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  15. Hi Rosalinda,
    Could it really be true the German police are the latest victims of a McCann conspiracy. It must be true because the Daily Mail says it's true! and nobody believes a story like this just because a parent says their daughter went missing. End of story.

    The fact is, the instant Madeleine disappeared 13 years ago the McCanns were responsible for their own criminal actions.

    A tragic story indeed but until the McCanns accept their own responsibility they will have to live with it.
    jc


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  16. It seems to me very few people can admit go themselves that they have done wrong. I believe many people do leave their kids alone, as many of the arguments I have heard in support of the McCanns involve a vehement denial that there is anything wrong with what they did.
    And, once they've defended them on that, there is no question whatsoever that they could have done anything else.
    No neglect, no abduction.

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    1. Oscar Slater

      “And, once they've defended them on that, there is no question whatsoever that they could have done anything else.”

      Can you please explain what you mean?


      “No neglect, no abduction.”

      You mean if the kids were not left alone, there was no abduction?

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