Colin Sahlke in Praia da Luz, May 2007.

According to the British press in May 2007, a former British paratrooper, Colin Sahlke, went to Praia da Luz to search for Madeleine McCann. He sold his possessions and gave up his job and his rented home to finance the search.

Under strange circumstances almost 3 years later, Sahlke suddenly died in bed on April 19, 2010. His death is a mystery and the traces of what caused his death are gone forever—Sahlke was cremated in Skipton on April 29, 2010. At the time of writing in early June 2010, the family still do not know the cause of death.

Background

Days before Faked Abduction was printed, 3 chapters were removed. One of them “The Trojan Horse” was a controversial chapter detailing the operation of the inflatable billboard sent to Praia da Luz.

According to Gavin Hollywood, the managing director of Posterplus Media—the company who sent the billboard—the entire operation took 13 days in May 2007. From press stories released on Monday May 28, 2007, there is a consistent claim that the two drivers left Scotland on Friday, May 25, 2007. This also tallies with Gavin Hollywood’s communication to the author that the journey from Scotland to Portugal took 3 days.

The two van drivers were lauded by the press as a couple of ordinary guys who had been moved to pay for the venture out of a genuine, heartfelt concern for the plight of Madeleine. Nothing was further from the truth. The entire venture was set up after John McCann—Madeleine’s uncle—had approached Posterplus Media. The two men were employees of Posterplus Media and were just doing their job.

When we peel back the layers, we find that one of the drivers—Les Harley—lives very close to John McCann in the Temple/Partick area of Glasgow. Posterplus Media is located in Kilmaurs and is a good 25 miles away from where Harley & McCann live. It is a fair bet that John McCann knew Les Harley as a fellow brethren in one of the local lodges in that district—perhaps in the Galen Lodge located at the torched Ardery Street Freemason Hall that was burned to the ground in an arson attack in January 2008. No doubt the membership records of the various lodges using the Ardery Street hall disappeared into smoke along with many other interesting historical records.

Kate and Gerry McCann looking at the inflatable billboard that was driven to Praia da Luz for a couple of days at a cost of over £20,000.

The 2000+ mile trip to Portugal with an 800 sq.ft. inflatable “bouncy castle” with a poster stuck on the side made no sense at all. Gavin Hollywood’s estimated cost of £20,000 ($30,000) could have been done for thousands less by flying the two men to Portugal and sending the inflatable as air freight. A glance at the accounts and financial status of Posterplus Media makes the story even more fantastic. Deeply in debt for several years and with at least one county court judgment recorded against them, what on earth was the company doing by spending such a vast sum of money for very little—if any—reward? The newspaper articles touted the drivers, Chris Lennox and Les Harley as the brains behind the venture and at no time was the name Posterplus Media mentioned in those articles. It wasn’t as if the company gained by some press exposure and if anything, the company remained completely anonymous. When you are so deep in the red, it isn’t as though those expenses can be used as a tax right-off. If you’re not making money then you won’t be paying tax anyway.

Now switch our attention to a story that came out a day or two before the “bouncy castle” story.

Posterplus Media balance sheet. Click the image to view it larger.

Steve Taylor and Colin Sahlke were two former British Army soldiers who are reported to have met while working in a shower company in Nelson, Lancashire. The fantastic stories about Taylor and Sahlke have a vibe that is incredibly similar to the story of Harley and Lennox. Taylor and Sahlke didn’t take any fancy equipment to Portugal but if we are to believe the news reports of the time, we are told that they both gave up their jobs and at least one of them gave up his rented home and possessions to raise £5,000 ($7,500) to go and find Madeleine.

John McCann, the Madeleine Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited Chairman, is said to have given up his job with AstraZeneca so he could concentrate full time on the search for his niece. It is staggering to think how four people gave up their careers to focus on the search for Madeleine: Kate Healy, John McCann and two former soldiers in Lancashire.

The dates and times that Taylor and Sahlke were in Praia da Luz are pretty much the same as Lennox and Harley’s. All four men left the UK on Friday, May 25, 2007. Apart from a few staged photographs of Taylor and Sahlke decked out in clothing more suitable for Operation Desert Storm, we saw nothing more of the two former soldiers. We saw nothing more of the inflatable sign either. After a photo session on the beach in Praia da Luz, the sign was not seen again despite Gavin Hollywood’s claim that the sign was to be set up at sites around the Algarve.

And what incidentally was it that cost Taylor and Sahlke £5,000? Two return low-cost airline tickets to Faro, Portugal, from Leeds/Bradford or Manchester Airports would typically cost about £150 or less. Accommodation for a week or even a cheap package holiday including flights would have cost the two men no more than £500 each. May is not high season in the European package holiday trade.

The two stories of Taylor/Sahlke and Lennox/Harley really make no sense whatsoever. Keep in mind that these men came onto the scene 3 days after Clarence Mitchell’s public arrival on the Madeleine McCann disappearance.

North East Lancashire/West Yorkshire

For those not familiar with this part of England and its involvement in the McCann case, it is a location that has had an ever increasing list of coincidental involvement. To date we have:

• Ed Smethurst, a Madeleine Fund director, a lawyer and a prominent Freemason in the East Lancashire Lodge in Manchester. It appears that Smethurst has lived and worked in the Bury/Rochdale/Clitheroe area for most of his life.
• Michael Wright, Kate Healy’s cousin’s husband. Wright was the named driver on the Renault Scenic where the cadaver dog smelt the scent of death in the trunk. Wright made numerous trips to Portugal in 2007, including one trip where he literally flew to Portugal to accompany Kate and the twins on a flight back to England the same day.
• CCP—the Centre for Crisis Psychology—are based in Skipton. CCP were dispatched to Portugal in the middle of May 2007 to assist the McCanns with trauma counselling.
• Colin Sahlke and Steve Taylor were work colleagues at a shower company in Nelson. Presumably this was Manhattan Showers Ltd.
• Raymond Hewlett, the deceased former paedophile lived in Todmorden and was linked to the Madeleine case for various reasons. Suspected to have been the real killer of Leslie Molseed in 1975, Hewlett passed away in 2010 after contracting throat cancer.
• David Payne, one of the Tapas Nine, has family in Rochdale. Payne is the doctor who was reported to Leicestershire police by Katerina and Arul Gaspar when they made statements about the behaviour of Gerry McCann and David Payne when they were all on holiday together in Majorca in 2005.

The area of north east Lancashire and west Yorkshire discussed in this section. A: Clitheroe, B: Skipton, C: Nelson, D: Keighley, E: Todmorden, F: Rochdale. To give an idea of the scale of this map, it is about 27 miles from Clitheroe to Keighley and 40 miles from Skipton to Rochdale.

A well known blogger in the Madeleine McCann case is “Blackwatch”. His blog—The Sargeant’s Inn (here)—is like a curio shop full of fascinating connections between the hundreds of characters involved in the story. Intelligently written, it is a great repository of trivia on the Madeleine story.

The detail in his blog is what makes it a compelling read but although he supplies many names and their relationships between each other, he reaches few conclusions and he actually states by way of a disclaimer:

The site offers no explanation for what might have occurred prior to the event, only for the Press, PR and lobbying activity that erupted in its wake. The intent is to dispel any notion of an elaborate conspiracy and to propose a more prosaic but no less compelling account of the Madeleine Franchise and how it came almost accidently into shape: a story of commercial and political improvisation.

Blackwatch also goes on to state:

Here are a few things we won’t tolerate:

• Any crazy stuff about Roslyn, Roswell, Freemasons, the Bilderberg Group, Crop Circles, the Illuminati, Opus Dei, New World Order and fat bald blokes

Phil Johnson, the owner of JJ Associates International based in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

While the Madeleine case may not involve crop circles, the Bilderberg Group, Roslyn Chapel, the Illuminati, Opus Dei and a New World Order, it certainly does involve Freemasons. As Faked Abduction clearly demonstrates, there is a large network of Freemasons involved in the founding of the official fund. Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited has their registered office at one of Britain’s largest law firms to represent Freemasons and Freemasonic charities. Ed Smethurst is one of the directors of the Madeleine Fund and is a long time Freemason.

Blackwatch recently wrote an article about JJ Associates International (here). This private firm of investigators are also located in the East Lancs/West Yorks area and their mailing address is in Keighley (D on the map above). In typical “Blackwatch” style, he connects the players and in the context of this article he refers to Colin Sahlke:

Readers might recall that Colin Sahlke a former Keighley paratrooper and his friend flew to Praia da Luz in the first weeks of her disappearance. I am assuming he may have been a member of JJ Associates or at least someone on their books.

The owner of JJ Associates International is Phil Johnson. Phil has a long and detailed entry on the business networking site “Linkedin” (here).

Freemason involvement

Ed Smethurst has made no secret of his affiliation with Freemasons. For most of his life he has been involved with the craft in the Manchester area.

Phil Johnson lists 'The Virtual Lodge' in his group affiliations on his Linkedin page.

For all Blackwatch’s denial of Freemason involvement in the Madeleine disappearance, when we look at Phil Johnson’s Linkedin entry, we see that he belongs to a group called The Virtual Lodge. As Blackwatch surmises, perhaps Sahlke was on the books of JJ Associates International. Who knows?

According to Colin Sahlke’s sister, she is of the opinion that if Colin was a Freemason then that was “in his dreams” because her brother liked to exaggerate his achievements. In point of fact, when the British press reported that Colin was a former paratrooper, his sister said “…that was the first we knew of him being a former paratrooper!”

But were Sahlke and Taylor Freemasons or were they chosen by Freemasons to go over to Portugal?

The Midas Award logo (left) is suspiciously Masonic in design. Compare to the compass and squares (right), the well-known symbol of Freemasonry.

Here’s a clue: Manhattan Showers in Nelson have their registered office in Glossop, Derbyshire at a firm of accountants called Crossley Lomas. Back in 2004, Crossley and Lomas won a financial services award called a Midas Award. The company behind this are located (here). Look at the Midas Award logo. Crossley Lomas are the registered office for many companies and they also advised a Manchester company called the Brownsword Group Ltd. Brownsword Group Ltd are the parent company of Mike India 5 Ltd—clearly a play on the term “MI5″.

The reader is probably bewildered now by an ever increasing list of company names and more people loosely connected by Freemasonry in the Manchester area.

Look no further. The connection comes back full circle to tie in Freemasonic Madeleine Fund helpers Brian Kennedy and Ed Smethurst.

In October 2008, it was announced that Brian Kennedy’s rugby club Sale Sharks had a new sponsor.

From sportindustry.biz (here):

Sale Sharks sign up new sponsor- 27 Oct 2008

Guinness Premiership side Sale Sharks have signed a one-year sponsorship deal with insurance specialists Mike India 5.

Prior to the deal being signed, the Cheadle Hulme based firm, specialists in investigating integrity for the insurance industry and general commerce, completed an investigation into the benefits of an association with the Guinness Premiership club.

The investigation has concluded with Mike India 5 signing a one-year deal to become official partners of Sale Sharks.

The Sharks will wear the Mike India 5 logo for all their remaining Heineken Cup matches this season.

The deal also provides Mike India 5 with perimeter signage, corporate hospitality to entertain key guests to Sharks matches and the opportunity to network with other club sponsors and partners through membership in the Sale Sharks 500 Club.

Freemason sponsors of Sale Sharks - Mike India 5 Ltd - an east Manchester based investigation and surveillance firm with links to Chartered Accountants Crossley Lomas. Click image to see larger version.

Conclusion

This is yet another proven Freemasonic link in the Madeleine McCann case and one that ties in the key players Brian Kennedy and Ed Smethurst to Colin Sahlke and Steve Taylor—two men sent to Portugal on May 25, 2007.

Did Sahlke and Taylor help to repatriate Madeleine?

Sahlke liked to talk too much. Was this his downfall and did it ultimately cost him his life?

Orders are coming in fast for the 526 page paperback, published this week in the USA.

It seems that the public will at last be able to read for themselves the key evidence in the Madeleine McCann case. This book—the first of its kind in English—will carry the baton forward after Goncalo Amaral’s book was banned in Portugal. The former inspector’s book was never translated to English and so the British and American public were unable to read about many aspects of the case.

The Book Contents

Here is the chapter listing:

• British Establishment Cover-ups
• Maddie: A Name the Media Invented
• The Police Conclusions
• How the Story Unfolded
• Experts in Propaganda
• The Locations and People
• A Neighbor Hears Crying
• An Obsession with Lawyers
• The Five Photographs
• Payne & McCann Allegations
• Dogs Don’t Lie
• The Weekend of June 9 – 10
• McCanns on the Oprah Show
• Letter to the Madeleine Fund
• Gerry’s Blogs and Kate’s Diary
• The Official Fund
• The Arguido Interviews
• Dealing with a Corpse
• Flaws in Gonçalo Amaral’s thesis
• Interesting Details from the Files
• The Author’s Conclusions

APPENDICES

• Appendix A: Timeline 2007-2010
• Appendix B: Timeline May 3, 2007
• Appendix C: Tavares Almeida’s Report
• Appendix D: Mark Harrison’s Report
• Appendix E: Martin Grime’s Profile
• Appendix F: Documentaries & Interviews
• Appendix G: Kate Healy’s Bible
• Appendix H: Justice Hogg’s Judgment

A few book Highlights:

• Copious footnotes and cross references to verify sources
• Correspondence from Peter McCann of Castle Craig about his relationship with Gerry McCann
• The statements deliberately held back from the Portuguese police by Leicester Constabulary
• The blatant discrepancies in the Tapas Nine witness statements
• Jane Tanner’s conflicting statements
• Did Kate falsify legal documents?
• Where did Gonçalo Amaral go wrong?
• Correspondence from the Masonic law firm entrusted with setting up Madeleine’s Fund
• Gordon Brown’s wife and the fellow Bristol University graduate behind the Madeleine Fund
• Information about other appalling British Establishment cover ups including Dunblane, Omagh and the recent shock Hollie Greig case

The filing deadline is the end of January.

The big question today is whether the accounts ending March 31, 2009 will deliberately be filed late.

The fact that January 31, 2010 falls on a Sunday is irrelevant. As the law states, the accounts have to be in by that date or else the company will face a financial penalty according to this table:

Any tax liabilities on the March 31, 2009 accounts will also become due on January 31, 2010. H.M. Revenue has their own set of penalties for late payment of tax.

As we keep checking with Companies House, we have to wonder if they will make it in time.

“Some of you may have seen on the news the huge inflatable billboard which has travelled all the way from the West of Scotland to Portugal which will be used near busy roads/motorways to keep Madeleine’s disappearance high profile. We had a brief chat with Chris and Les, who drove almost non-stop from Glasgow to get here. The extraordinary length ordinary people are going to help us is truly overwhelming. We thank everyone for their efforts, no matter how small, and we know this will make a difference in our search for Madeleine.”

Sky News on May 28, 2007 wrote;

Also, the McCanns have met the men responsible for the 800sq-ft inflatable poster which will be taken around the Algarve and set up in prominent places.

It was the brainchild of advertising workers Chris Lennox and Les Harley from Glasgow – the home town of Madeleine’s father Gerry – who drove 2,200 miles from Scotland to help.

Mr Lennox, 35, from Prestwick said: “My heartstrings have been pulled on this and I want to help.

“I have a family with small kids and my wife has been following this from day one.”

The Guardian went further and said that Mr Lennox and Mr Harley paid for the venture;

Yesterday the McCann family visited a 75 sq metre (800 sq ft) inflatable poster of Madeleine that will be taken around the Algarve in an attempt to publicise her plight further. The poster, which highlights a £1.5m reward being offered through the News of the World, was paid for by Chris Lennox and Les Harley, two advertising professionals from Glasgow, who drove it 2,200 miles from Scotland to Praia da Luz.In a statement read out near the poster, the McCanns said they were amazed by the support they has received. “We have thanked everyone on several occasions but, you know, some people are just going to absolutely extraordinary lengths to help us,” the statement said.

McCann Spin

The story sounds like Chris and Les drove all the way to Portugal through their own efforts to help the McCanns. It really does sound like they went to extraordinary lengths to help.

But what really happened?

We can reveal on TRUTH For Madeleine that Chris and Les were simply doing their job. The inflatable billboard was not the brainchild of Mr Lennox or Mr Harley and the pair of them didn’t pay for it either.

So how did it come about?

No surprises for guessing but it was engineered by John McCann – Gerry’s brother.

Mr Amaral has already exposed the McCanns for manipulating the politicians and media and here again is a prime example of a story that was presented to the world in a completely different way to the reality of the situation.

Posters Plus Media

Gavin Hollywood, Managing Director of Posters Plus Media informed us of the details of the venture;

“I supported the McCanns with some digital advertising in the UK and was approached by Gerry’s brother John about the possiblity of helping with a high profile campaign at the height of the situation where time & awareness was essential. Within 5 days we had arranged the trip, logistics, printing and arranged staff to travel to Portugal (Chris & Les) with Carol-Anne Thomson our Campaigns Manager co-ordinating the campaign from our office and communicating with various authorities.

“The van, drivers and all equipment left from Posterplus Head Office in Kilmaurs Ayrshire. The trip took 3 full days travelling across the UK into France, Spain and finally Portugal. Various drivers change overs were made over the 3 days along with an overnight in France. Actual travel & campaign specific dates we would need to look back but it was May 07 and the full trip lasted 13 days in total.

“We used a standard transit van with lots of spare equipment in case of any difficulties in a foreign country, the set up & inflation for the Megasite is just over 1 hour.

“The billboard, Chris & Les the operators, travel, logistics, permits etc were all paid for and donated by Posterplus Media Group, the large printed poster with the reward details was kindly donated by Tayprint in Dundee. The News of The World was approached to use the copy details only of the reward and no funding or sponsors were involved in the trip, it was a donation & media facility offered by Gavin Hollywood Managing Director of Posterplus Media Group.

“The media cost for this type of campaign in the UK would have been £20,000+”

Lori Campbell isn’t the brightest hack at the Daily Mirror. For being an amateur sleuth instead of a journalist, she cost her paper probably more in damages than she earns in salary.

Campbell’s “souped up” stories about Mr Murat were distasteful and as clear cut a case of libel as you could ever witness. Not content with the libel and slander, she persists in writing about the McCanns as if they are related to Mother Teresa.

Ms Campbell may be related to the Fairy Godmother. Her stories bear no resemblance to true journalism. It’s surprising that her articles don’t all start with “Once upon a time…” In the Madeleine McCann case it’s a blessing that she doesn’t write like that. A lot of people certainly won’t be living happily ever after.

Let’s analyse her latest piece in the Daily Mirror on July 27, 2008. Entitled Kate and Gerry McCann: Portuguese cops’ hunt for Maddie “pathetic”, she makes various futile claims and here we expose her own pathetic attempts to discredit the police involved in the Madeleine McCann mystery.

1. There are 7,000 homes in Praia da Luz, the resort where four-year-old Madeleine was snatched – but police went to fewer than one in 10 doors, says a report into the investigation.

REPLY: Ok, it would appear that Ms Campbell has looked into the demographics of Praia da Luz and worked out that there are 7000 homes. She has then taken the number of homes checked and worked out that this is less than 10 percent. Erroneously she makes out that the report [police report] says that police went to “fewer than one in 10 doors”.

The police report mentions how many homes were visited. The police report does not make any claims as to what percentage of homes were checked.

2. In stark contrast, British police probing the disappearance of Shannon Matthews earlier this year knocked on 5,000 doors and searched 2,000 houses.

REPLY: So the British Police ignored 3,000 homes then Ms Campbell? Using your own stupid analogy, there are over 398,000 people living in the borough of Kirklees where Shannon Matthews lives. This means that the UK police only contacted a potential maximum of about 20,000 people (assuming 4 inhabitants per house). This means the UK plod contacted no more people than the Portuguse police did in percentage terms. Do your math properly Ms Campbell!

3. Nine-year-old Shannon was found in 24 days, whereas Portuguese police have stopped looking for Madeleine after 14 months.

REPLY: Wrong on two counts Ms Campbell. Nine year old Shannon was found after a tip-off. Portuguese Police haven’t stopped looking for Madeleine. They would very much like to know what happened to Madeleine and why cadaver scent and DNA matching Madeleine was found in Apartment 5A.

4. A friend of the McCanns said: “The 443 doors would barely cover 500 yards from the apartment where Madeleine was taken. That is shocking and unacceptable.”

REPLY: Why would police bother looking in other homes when they know what happened in Apartment 5A?

5. “The report shows Portuguese police clearly didn’t do a thorough job from day one. It is immensely frustrating for Kate and Gerry.” Former chief superintendent Dai Davies, who was head of the Royal Protection Squad, slammed the Portuguese detectives’ efforts as shameful.

REPLY: How about wheeling out a current policeman? How about asking the police involved in the case why cadaver scent was found? How about finding the “passenger” that Gerry McCann helped on the flight from Faro to Gatwick?

How about getting off your backside and doing some real investigative journalism Ms Campbell?

Less than two weeks after Madeleine McCann disappeared, the family and friends of the McCann family set up a company called Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited. Without properly setting clear objectives and policies from the start, the company was set to become the vehicle for the “official” find Madeleine campaign—whatever that actually meant. It has become a typically British thing to have financial campaigns to assist people in well publicised times of need. Usually there is no specific company set up to do this. In this respect, the “Madeleine Fund” seemed far too sophisticated and if anything it appears to have been premeditated.

British banks are past masters of setting up and administering bank accounts for needy causes and tend to do so without intervention by outsiders. What made the Madeleine Fund and subsequent campaign so distasteful to many is that little of the money has been used for its stated purpose.

The company has several family members on its board of directors and this and many other factors have helped to fuel rumours about the integrity of the management and disbursement of the donated money.

Also, it is unknown who the shareholders are as they have never been publicly declared.

TRUTH For Madeleine tried to contact the company for an update on its performance. Bates Wells & Braithwaite referred us to the Fund and stated that they couldn’t answer our questions due to confidentiality.

John McCann spoke briefly to us on the phone until he realised we were asking about the Fund. His response was to claim we had the wrong telephone number and that he was in fact a “Mr Jones”. This was interesting as he must in the extremely rare group of Scotsmen with a Welsh name!

A lot of donors to the fund would like to have actually seen some real stones turned over by the McCanns in the search for Madeleine. Instead, there has been no publication of the company performance or regular updates as to what actions have been taken in the so-called “search for Madeleine”.

If Madeleine died in May 2007 and the family knew about this then the whole fund is a fraud!

THE COMPANY

Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited registered number 06248215 is registered in England at 2/6 Cannon Street, London, EC4M 6YH. Their VAT number is GB 243 8054 69. That address is where the company’s solicitors Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP (BWB) are based. In addition to providing legal services for the company, BWB also provides the role of company secretary. The company is classified as a “PRI/LTD by GUAR/NSC” Company which expanded means “Private, limited by guarantee, no share capital” and its nature of business is defined as (SIC(03)). The company accounting reference date is 31/March and the first accounts are due on 31 January 2009. The first Company Return is due on 12 June 2008.

The company auditors are Haysmacintyre, Fairfax House, 15 Fulwood Place, London,WC1V 6AY. Instead of using local firms to perform the legal and auditor duties, the directors have chosen to use expensive, high-end, London based firms. In a situation where members of the public have donated small amounts of money, it is not unreasonable to question whether or not it is prudent to be having such a lavish infrastructure in the running of what is essentially a very small company. In line with most things set up by the McCanns since May 3, their penchant for spending vast sums of money seems normal to them.

Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited is NOT a charity. It is a private company and as such, the directors can pay who they like without having to follow any rules or guidelines. What donors may not fully understand is that their money has effectively little or no regulation on what or how it is spent. Yes, the company has published policies dictating how the money can be used, but the directors are not regulated by any outside body so they can create and modify any policy to suit themselves. Apart from satisfying legal requirements in terms of running a limited company, the directors and company are answerable to nobody – especially the people who donated good money to find Madeleine.

FIRST BOARD OF DIRECTORS

1. Peter Hubner, a retired consultant
2. Brian Kennedy, a retired head teacher
3. John McCann, a medical representative
4. Esther McVey, managing director of a public relations & communications company
5. Doug Skehan, clinical director in cardiology at Glenfield Hospital
6. Philip Tomlinson, a retired solicitor and former coroner in Leicestershire
7. Michael Linnett, a retired accountant

The company secretary is also a company – BWB Secretarial Services (see above).

CURRENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS

According to the FindMadeleine website, the current board of directors (as at July, 2008) is;

1. Peter Hubner, a retired consultant
2. Brian Kennedy, a retired head teacher
3. John McCann, a medical representative
4. Jon Corner, owner/proprietor of River Media in Liverpool
5. Doug Skehan, clinical director in cardiology at Glenfield Hospital
6. Edward Smethurst, one of Brian Kennedy’s solicitors at the Latium Group
7. Michael Linnett, a retired accountant

Of the current description of this board, the site says;

They have appropriate legal, business and charitable experience. An experienced Fund Administrator has been appointed to ensure the highest standards of transparency and accountability. This should enable the Directors to maintain an appropriate governance distance in the day-to-day operations of the Fund.

Reference: (click here)

WRISTBANDS & MERCHANDISE

The Madeleine Fund accepted donations to help find missing Madeleine. One vehicle used to advertise and raise her profile were the yellow wristbands pictured on the left. The wristbands went on sale soon after the company was formed and are still on sale via the company website for a whopping £2 each.

This may not seem like a lot of money but considering custom silicone wristbands can be bought in bulk for less than 14 pence each, it is scandalous that the Madeleine’s Fund are selling them at a profit of over 1000%.

McCANN’S MORTGAGE

At the end of October 2007, Clarence Mitchell confirmed that the Fund paid for two of the McCann’s mortgage payments saying on the Sky News site, “The fund has always had the ability to assist the family financially if necessary, and they’ve only used it to pay for two mortgage payments earlier this year. The story continued; the use of donations had previously been called into question after it was revealed about a third of the money had been used to meet the McCanns’ living costs, publicity fees and to pay staff.

Considering the McCanns are believed to earn in excess of £120,000 a year it seems inconceivable that two high-earning doctors should be so strapped for cash that they had to raid the fund to make two mortgage payments reported to total £4,000. (Click here to see the Sky News article).

Why were two supposedly wealthy doctors so hard up that they needed donations from the public to pay for their mortgage and living expenses?

MADELEINE TRADEMARK

Three days after the company was set up, a trademark was registered with the UK Intellectual Property Office. The trademark (number 2456061) is type “WO” and is in classes 09, 16, 36 and 41. (Click here to view the trademark details and click here for the FindMadeleine website).

The registration of a trademark based on Madeleine’s eye disorder seems distasteful to many. It seems inconceivable that a few days after your daughter goes missing, you would be in the frame of mind to want to turn your daughter’s eye defect into a trademark.

Portuguese police advised the parents against revealing this detail but the parents went against this advice and made it known that Madeleine had an eye coloboma.

POLLS

How can such an organisation operate properly when there are clear conflicts of interest?

Their motto says “fast, free, fair”.

Agreed, their service might be free and fast but is it fair?

They had a record number of complaints about the xenophobic article by Tony Parsons in the Daily Mirror. Almost 500 complaints were received on that one article and the article is repeated in TRUTH For Madeleine (here).

Considering record complaints for a single article, the PCC ruled that it did not breach its code of practice.

Maybe that was because the Mirror Group are represented on the PCC Board by Tina Weaver of the Mirror Group? Or was it because Dianne Thompson CBE of Camelot PLC is on the board? Either way, the two have a recent business partnership which calls into question their inclusion on the PCC Board.

There’s nothing like a good old scratch

Camelot and the Daily Mirror have a recent partnership (here). On April 28, 2008, Camelot and the Mirror ran a promotion for its scratch cards. With all these business partnerships and affiliations, how can the PCC possibly adjudicate fairly and at arms length?

Camelot and the Mirror haven’t always been business pals. Rewind to 2001 and there was the famous scandal of Camelot denying a lottery win to the Totts – a couple who should have been paid out £3,500,000. The Mirror gave Camelot a battering in that story and Camelot’s stance was that they couldn’t break the rules and pay the Totts their money. Hmmm, so why do Camelot regularly break the rules in paying out winnings to under 16s?

If we look at the 17 PCC Board members in detail we see that the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, DC Thomson, The Daily Mirror, South Wales Evening Post, Kent Messenger, Johnston Press and The National Magazine Company are all represented. Most people are unaware of the papers owned by these companies. DC Thomson publishes more than 200 million newspapers and magazines annually. Johnston Press owns 140 papers up and down the UK and is one of the top 3 publishers of local newspapers.

Adjudications

A close examination of adjudications reveals that there are few, if any, decisions against publications where they have board member representation.

Ian Nichol is an interesting character to have on board. He is also a commissioner on the CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission). Ian’s Bio at the CCRC says “Ian Nichol…

is a chartered accountant and the Commission’s specialist in finance and fraud cases. Throughout a career working with many of the major accountancy firms Ian gained specialist experience of complex financial and tax investigations. From 1992 to 2001 he was a partner in the business advisory firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Latterly he ran his own consultancy business before joining the Commission in 2003. He has been co-author and editor of a number of books in the taxation and finance areas. Ian is also a Commissioner of the UK Press Complaints Commission, and has a particular interest in media coverage of crime and justice issues.”

Considering the type of reporting on the McCann case and Ian Nichols’ interest in miscarriages of justice, is this another reason why the McCanns are befriended by the British press?

If Ian isn’t all that interested in the McCanns, perhaps his CCRC colleague, Julie Goulding is;

Julie Goulding: is an experienced lawyer and was also an NHS Trust Chief Executive and clinical practitioner for many years. Julie trained at Hempsons a firm specialising in health care matters where she was involved in defending doctors, dentists and NHS Trusts in both civil and criminal cases. Julie continues to undertake pro bono work in civil cases. She joined the Commission in January 2007.

Of course, these are just the commissioners. The chairman of the PCC is Sir Christopher Meyer. His wife Catherine has strong connections to NCMEC, Ernie Allen, and Amber Alert. Defending the McCanns in March 2008, Lady Meyer said “A Europe-wide missing-child alert system would have “without doubt” saved Madeleine McCann”.

Peter Hill of the Daily Express did not stand a chance at the PCC. The die was already cast after the £550,000 payout to the McCanns. This is the strongest indication to date as to why the other newspapers have escaped the wrath of Team McCann. It would appear that they are being protected by the PCC along with all the other benefactors.

Early reports and many since May 2007 have described how Kate McCann “knew” that Madeleine had been taken. When questioned about this on her Woman’s Hour interview, she declined to elaborate on how she knew that Madeleine had been taken and hadn’t wandered off.

A recurring part of this story is that Madeleine’s favourite toy—CuddleCat—was placed on a high shelf in the room and was therefore out of reach of Madeleine.

Ex Metropolitan Police boss, Lord Stevens said to the News of the World in 2007;

“Meanwhile, the police investigation that started so disastrously has turned to farce. Every apparent stream of evidence has been either missed, fatally compromised or is simply ludicrous.

For instance, Mrs McCann being allowed to hang on to Madeleine’s favourite toy CuddleCat. Consoling for her, of course, but that’s not the point—it had gone to bed with Madeleine, been taken from her and placed on a high shelf, presumably by the abductor.

CuddleCat was therefore vital evidence. Even a rookie detective should know it was highly likely an abductor’s DNA would be on it.”

Lord Stevens’ comments were made in 2007, before the News of the World published the photos in May 2008. Had Lord Stevens looked at the bedroom, he may have had something different to say about it:

There is no shelf in the bedroom!

Some analysts think that he is lying because of the tell-tale touching of his ear during the answer to that question.

Make your own mind up about it by looking at the video shown here on Youtube.

Kate’s mother Susan Healy said in response to the Liverpool Echo claim “Kate and Gerry drugged Madeleine – and their twins, Sean and Amelie – with sedatives.” (click here)

“They don’t like taking tablets themselves and the only thing they have ever given their children, if they were teething or had a temperature, is Calpol. They didn’t give them anything that night.”

The Liverpool Echo Story contained many claims and counterclaims and the story is reproduced here:

Kate McCann: ‘If I weighed another two stone, had a bigger bosom and looked more maternal, people would be more sympathetic’

Oct 16 2007 by Paddy Shennan, Liverpool Echo

In an EXCLUSIVE interview, the grandparents of Madeleine McCann tell Paddy Shennan of the terrible toll on their family as their daughter remains a suspect in the toddler’s disappearance

KATE McCann’s parents today hit out at the “scurrilous rubbish” being printed about their daughter – and said she feels she is being persecuted because of her appearance.

“She said last night ‘If I weighed another two stone, had a bigger bosom and looked more maternal, people would be more sympathetic’,” Madeleine’s grandmother, Susan Healy, told the ECHO today.

“I think it’s terrible that she’s having to think like that.

“She does feel persecuted, not by the general public who have been extremely supportive, but by some sections of the media, and I just feel it’s important I let people know she is not this person who is in control all the time.

“Kate is a very sensitive, caring person and one of the most maternal people I know – she puts me to shame. Her life revolves around her children but now she’s got to the point where she feels she is being persecuted, in her mind, if her twins, Sean and Amelie, cry in public – it’s absolutely crazy.”

She adds: “All this stuff is going on inside my poor daughter who’s not done anything wrong. She and Gerry went to a restaurant which was just metres away from their apartment and part of the holiday complex – it was a terrible mistake but they did it out of naivety.”

Although Susan and Brian Healy still cling to the hope that their four-year-old granddaughter will be found alive, they dread their worst nightmares coming true amid reports that police in Portugal are trawling a reservoir.

In a wide-ranging, often emotional and tear-filled interview, the couple, who live in Allerton, also reveal that a meeting of family and friends is taking place in Formby today to discuss the next stage of the campaign to keep the search for Madeleine in the public eye.

It’s now 166 days since Madeleine was last seen alive and Susan and Brian admit that the enormous strain is telling on all the family.

Kate’s health and well-being has given particular cause for concern, and her mum reveals: “She and Gerry do have counselling – Kate saw a counsellor at the end of last week. It’s the same person they saw in Portugal and I know it does help them.

“But I think they continually go back to the feeling that they can’t afford to go to pieces because they have to keep trying to get their daughter back – that overrides everything else they are feeling.”

Susan cannot say how, or if, any of the family will cope if there remains no news – or the worst possible news arrives. But she stresses: “Anyone would crack eventually. It’s like having a perfect family and seeing it torn to shreds.”

There have been concerns about Kate’s appearance and apparent weight loss, and her mum says: “She’s always had that kind of build and has never carried any weight. But she does look very traumatised. It must be unbearable for her to think about the possibility of never seeing Madeleine again, or that it’s going to be another six months before she sees her again.”

Regarding reports that police are focusing on a reservoir around 15 miles from Praia da Luz, Susan says: “It is scary and if it really is going on, I’ll be holding my breath.”

But the couple are hoping that the appointment of Paulo Rebelo, Portugal’s second most senior police officer, to lead the investigation in place of the much-criticised Goncalo Amaral, will give fresh impetus to the hunt.

And Susan says: “We’ve no idea when Kate and Gerry may have their suspect status lifted, but we hope it will be soon. Until it is, they are not allowed to defend themselves in public – and that is dreadful.

“They need to be exonerated as soon as possible and there are people who will then need to apologise to them – but whether that happens in the real world, I don’t know.”

Susan says she has had difficulty sleeping, while Brian reveals: “Anger keeps me going, so I’m doing pretty well because there has been a lot to be angry about.”

But despite all the agony and anguish, Susan says: “We need people to realise that nothing has changed since day one. Madeleine is still missing and the police haven’t found anything to indicate she isn’t alive, so we have got to go on looking.

“Kate and Gerry are as innocent as you or I, or anyone reading this. The perpetrator or perpetrators are still out there. We still pray that someone will open a door and say ‘Here she is – it’s all been a terrible mistake’.

“In my heart of hearts I still feel we will get Madeleine back, although I naturally get scared when I hear about the police carrying out searches.”

Brian adds: “I’ve heard nothing yet to convince me that Madeleine isn’t alive and I am clinging onto the hope that we will get her back.”

But he and Susan are realistic enough to accept that some people are not only convinced that their granddaughter is dead, but that Madeleine’s own parents were responsible.

Susan says: “Strangers are still coming up to us and saying ‘We don’t believe a word of what we’re reading, you know’ – that happens again and again and it’s important for us to hear that.

“I also know that if you throw enough muck at people, some of it can stick. But you’ve got to credit people with having the intelligence to work out that there has been a lot of scurrilous rubbish written.”

Each new claim or accusation aired in the tabloids – the majority emanating from Portugal – appears more outrageous than the last. They include:

“Gerry McCann isn’t Madeleine’s real dad”.

“It’s total rubbish,” says Susan. “We just don’t know where this sort of thing comes from. It would be simple for Kate and Gerry to go to the clinic where they had the IVF and prove this is a lie but I think they feel it would be demeaning, while it would also put the clinic under enormous media pressure.”

“Kate and Gerry drugged Madeleine – and their twins, Sean and Amelie – with sedatives.”

“They don’t like taking tablets themselves and the only thing they have ever given their children, if they were teething or had a temperature, is Calpol. They didn’t give them anything that night.”

“Seven children were sleeping in Kate and Gerry’s apartment on the night Madeleine went missing.”

Susan says: “Again, it’s nonsense and I don’t know where this has come from – or why it’s only now it’s been suggested.”

Although not backed up by any hard evidence, stories first printed in Portuguese newspapers – which include quotes from alleged “sources” – are picked up by the British press and then dissected on the internet.

Susan says: “I don’t go onto the internet, but I know some people will get pleasure from picking up on, and discussing, the negative side of things – however, it’s hard enough for us to read that people are convinced Madeleine is dead.”

She adds: “There are obviously different types of people in the world, but I think the good outweigh the bad.”

While Brian reveals: “When we have been with Kate and Gerry in Leicestershire, I have opened the boxes of mail. There would be hundreds and hundreds of items and while there would be the occasional crank letter, 99.5% of them would be from well-wishers.”

Such support has been worth its weight in gold, but still the nightmare which began on the evening of Thursday May 3 continues . . .

When will it end?

The arguments continued and 24 Horas claimed that Madeleine’s real father was located in Birmingham, England. Gerry McCann threatened to sue the paper and 24 Horas response was to tell Gerry to “bring it on”. For a newspaper to be so forceful and adamant that their story was true and Gerry was mistaken is very interesting.

Madeleine was born as a result of IVF treatment. Could there have been some mistakes made in the fertility treatment that even Gerry himself was unaware of? How could a newspaper have found out this kind of information?

Speculation in Internet forums is that perhaps the DNA testing of bodily fluids found in the back of the McCann’s hire car revealed this bizarre paternity mix-up.

Here is the story as described in an article in the Daily Telegraph (Click here for story)

The story is reproduced here below:

McCanns deny reports that Gerry is not Madeleine’s father

By Aislinn Simpson in Praia da Luz Last Updated: 1:16AM BST 15/10/2007

The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have issued a furious rebuttal to an “offensive” report claiming Portuguese police believe Gerry is not her father.

Kate and Gerry were “horrified and devastated” by the latest “absolutely untrue” slurs in the Portuguese press claiming Madeleine’s DNA was different to that of her twin siblings – all three of whom were conceived by In-Vitro Fertilisation – because she has a different father.

The tabloid 24 Horas claimed British police visited a sperm bank the couple used and tracked down the four-year-old’s natural father to rule him out of any involvement in her abduction.

But family spokesman Clarence Mitchell described the reports as “unwarranted, unsubstantiated and totally inaccurate”.

He said that the couple planned to sue 24 Horas over the allegations about Madeleine’s paternity as soon as their official suspect status was lifted.

“We have up to a year to sue and we will do. Gerry and Kate want to concentrate on the case involving Madeleine and don’t want to do anything that may compromise that while they are official suspects,” he said.

“But they plan to sue 24 hours and any other media outlets that print these claims as soon as the official suspect status is lifted.”

He added: “For the record, Gerry McCann is the biological father of his daughter Madeleine. A report in the 24 Horas newspaper suggesting otherwise is nothing short of lies.

“It is indeed absolutely untrue. It is offensive to suggest that Gerry is not her natural father.”

Gerry McCann’s mother Eileen said the 24 Horas claims were “utterly ridiculous”.

“Madeleine is my natural granddaughter,” she said.

“She looks like Kate and she looks like me too. Her eyes and nose are the same as mine.”

A friend of the couple’s said they had reacted to the unexpected attack with “complete horror and total distress”.

He said: “How could a sperm donor have been eliminated when there isn’t one? Gerry is the father.

“He damn well knew, because of the IVF process, that he was 100 per cent the father.

“To say it caused huge distress is an understatement.”

Portuguese police apparently believe Madeleine’s paternity is “very significant”, because, according to a Portuguese police source quoted by the newspaper: “It explains why Madeleine’s DNA profile is so different from her twin siblings DNA profiles.”

This would mean that samples of hair and bodily fluids taken from the McCann’s Renault Scenic, which they hired 25 days after their daughter went missing on May 3, and in their rented apartment in Praia da Luz, can only be Madeleine’s, the newspaper claimed.

Yesterday, 24 Horas co-editor, Luis Fontes, said he stood by the story, which he claimed was confirmed by both Portuguese and British pathology sources as well as Leicestershire and Portuguese police.

“It’s absolutely – our sources are rock solid,” he said. “If they think they can sue us, bring it on.”

A spokesman for the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham, where scientists are still testing samples sent to them from Portugal, insisted the story had not come from them.

“As with any ongoing case, it is not possible to comment on matters that could jeopardise the investigation,” she said.

“Our inquiries are ongoing.”

A spokesman for Leicestershire Police said that they had refused to comment when contacted by 24 Horas on Wednesday.

“Leicestershire Police will not comment on any aspect of this investigation,” she said. “That is a matter for the Portuguese Police as it is their investigation.”

Nor would Policia Judiciaria comment further: “At this moment in time, we cannot and will not deny that news.”

A source close to the family said they have been told forensic results are back on Monday. Portuguese police are hoping they will prove Madeleine’s body was in the hire car.

Speaking after a meeting with the new head of the investigation, Paulo Rebelo, PJ director Alipio Ribeiro said Kate and Gerry could only be ruled out as suspects when the FSS results were back.

He said: “All lines of investigation are open and will continue to be open until we have more clarity on this case.

“The investigation will continue to proceed along the lines it’s proceeded on until now.”