Vultures circling

(image from here)

1. Introduction

As we have shown in our past 2 posts, Kate has recently decided that Madeleine is likely to be in the Praia da Luz area. We have stated the reasons why we think she has said that.

However, a vociferous and prolific twitter supporter seems to agree wholeheartedly that she really means what she says.

The abductor is a Portuguese paedophile, according to Mr Twitter.

Not only that, but the authorities and the vile residents of PdL have hidden sex crimes to protect their tourist industry!

Thanks to Scotland Yard, he says, these crimes have been uncovered.

Residents of Praia da Luz, do you see vultures circling overhead?  How do you feel about this slur on your community?


2. Kate McCann & the Algarvian paedo

Returning to our post “Paradise Lost?”, Bill Henderson, former consul, told Kate of a meeting with tour operators in 2006, sharing their concerns about paedophile activity, but wanting this to be kept confidential because of possible repercussions for the trade.

Bill Henderson seemed remarkably lacking in curiosity or concern about what had allegedly occurred and didn’t consider the incidents relevant enough to come forward and make a statement to the PJ.

Kate, on pages 323/4 of her book, describes looking through the released PJ files. She must have had access to material not available to the general public because information about sex offenders was withheld.

“One of the most concerning and upsetting pieces of information to emerge quite early was the record of sexual crimes against children in the Algarve… I read of 5 cases of British children on holiday being sexually abused in their beds whilst their parents slept in another room. In 3 further incidents, children encountered an intruder in their bedrooms, who was presumably disturbed before he had chance to carry out an assault. I guess these were the reports that Bill Henderson, the British consul at the time of Madeleine’s abduction had told me about.

These incidents had occurred within an hour’s drive of Praia da Luz over the three years prior to Madeleine’s disappearance. The PJ had never mentioned any of them to us. In fact, I gathered from the files, some of them hadn’t even been recorded by the authorities at the time they were reported (evidently, they were not considered to be actual crimes). So they might never have come to light if the parents of these children hadn’t been brave enough to come forward to the British police after Madeleine was taken…  What these cases do demonstrate, however, is that British tourists in holiday accommodation were being targeted..” 

Kate says “some” of these attacks weren’t even recorded in the “files”, which we gather are the PJ Files. If “some” weren’t, then the others were. And if only “some” weren’t, means most were.

We fail to see any of these attacks registered in the PJ files.

Are they part of the pages that were removed from the files and placed in an Appendix still under the secrecy of justice?

As we showed in our “Debunking urban myths: the unpublished PJ Files”, it was written down the reason for every single page to have been removed.  The pages removed fell into the following 3 categories:

- Category A, relate to people identified during the inquiry whose possible link to the events is extremely unlikely (the most tenuous) and whose right to privacy would be infringed if their personal information were left on file (basically the 'pervy percy' list);

- Category B, relate to crimestopper data with respect to sightings, the TV program having guaranteed anonymity;

- Category C , relate to information from people - often criminals or having a criminal history - that was volunteered by them and they should not be put at risk for having come forward.

If the registry of these sexual assaults were ever in the Files and were removed from them, they would have to be in Category A. Let’s look at the details of the pages removed from this category:

“Taking into account the content of erudite dispatch of fls 4655/4657, and materialising, comes the MoPo (Ministério Público – Public Ministry) to make to Your Honour know the following:

A - In the inquiry there are passages that contain information that can contend with the right to private life of people, not only British citizens, about which there was not found the faintest hint of implication in the present files as presented:

Volume I, fls. 211/212: reference to an individual with a past linked to crimes of a sexual nature against children.

Volume II
- Fls. 293/297: constitutes a list of individuals connected with the practice of sex crimes against minors and teenagers.
- Fls. 298/300: reference to an individual linked with the practice of acts of paedophilia and exhibitionism;
- Fls. 473/474: reference to an individual linked with the practice of acts of exhibitionism.

Volume III, fls. 754/757: information and bibliographic record of a citizen in connection with acts of paedophilia.

Volume V, fls. 1246/1254: list resulting from the search carried out in the PJ Database related to individuals of foreign nationality and linked with child sexual abuse and paedophilia.

Volume XV
- Fls. 4085/4100: reference to a Portuguese citizen having physical similarities to the e-fit, with a police record showing convictions for robbery, rape and kidnapping.
- Fls. 4102/4110: identification of an English individual having physical similarities to the e-fit.
- Fls. 4116/4127: diligences done with an individual referenced with the practice of one crime of sexual abuse against minors, with a police record and convictions for that same crime.

Volume XVI, fls. 4130/4132: reference to a French citizen with physical similarities to the portrait e-fit.

Regarding the matter contained in the referred pages and for the reasons given, because it’s our understanding we believe that it should remain in the secrecy of justice, thus their removal, replacing them with a summary of what was contained there [in each removed page] and the constitution of an Appendix to remain in the custody of an entity considered competent for its keeping, with the single purpose of demonstrating its existence, in the terms expressed in Article 86 nº7 of the CPP.”

Is it plausible to believe that PJ would consider “the record of sexual crimes against children in the Algarve… I read of 5 cases of British children on holiday being sexually abused in their beds whilst their parents slept in another room” not having “the faintest hint of implication” to a case involving a girl allegedly abducted from her bedroom? We think it’s not.

Even if they were recorded, and they're not, in these removed pages, Kate wouldn’t be able to see them because they remain in the custody of the Portuguese Public Ministry under the secrecy of justice.

It couldn't have been from the PJ Files that Kate read about these sex attacks. She could be referring to the “Edgar Files”. These were the files shown to Kate by Dave Edgar as can be seen in the 2009 Mockumentary:

It can clearly be seen that a second statement from JW made in April 2007 is shown and there is no such statement in the PJ Files.

Also, it must have been from the “Edgar Files” that Kate has read what she says on page 56 of her book:

“It wasn’t until a year later, when I was combing through the Portuguese police files, that I discovered that the note requesting our block booking was written in a staff message book, which sat on a desk at the pool reception for most of the day. This book was by definition accessible to all staff and, albeit unintentionally, probably to guests and visitors, too. To my horror, I saw that, no doubt in all innocence and simply to explain why she was bending the rules a bit, the receptionist had added the reason for our request: we wanted to eat close to our apartments as we were leaving our young children alone there and checking on them intermittently.”

Kate is getting her files confused, There is no such “staff message book” with such a “note requesting our block booking” in the PJ Files. 


3. Scotland Yard & the Algarvian paedo

 
In our post “Blackmail”, we wrote about the alleged sex attacks in the Algarve and the role/act being played out by Scotland Yard in 2014. Not for a minute did we believe this was a serious attempt to solve the case as the result of some revelatory moment for Scotland Yard. The fact that Portugal was denied to right to screen Crimewatch was enough to convince us.

What we failed to do, however, was revisit old articles, as so much of this case is recycled and re-spun news. What Kate’s words do demonstrate to us is that Redwood and his team were highly unlikely to be investigating any cases, they had uncovered themselves.

Let’s first remind ourselves of the remit of Operation Grange in 2011.

“The focus of the review will be material held by 3 main stakeholders (and in the following order of primacy)

- The Portuguese Law Enforcement agencies

- The UK Enforcement agencies

- Other private investigation agencies/staff and organisations”

The removal of boxes from Metodo 3 offices in Spain must be related to the third category.   M3 get a positive comment from Kate in her book - although this was before the recent revelations of Peribanez and Tamarit and their allegations of fraud by M3.


4. Dave Edgar & the Algarvian paedo

Halligen gets a very negative review, as would be expected, but of Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley… not a single mention by name, unless this counts.

Page 284

“For the most part though, our experiences with independent investigators have been good. Our current tried and tested team has more or less been in place, with a few modifications, since October 2008. It is spearheaded by a former police officer with input from strategic advisers and specialists in various fields as required.”

There is no mention of the embarrassing Victoria Beckham look-alike episode in Barcelona; which Edgar failed to investigate other than in the most cursory fashion.

Scotland Yard, however, have a brief to investigate Edgar and Cowley and  Alpha Investigation Group (1). And therein may lie another clue to the Sex Offenders in the Algarve episode.

In the Belfast Telegraph of September 13 2009, “Madeleine McCann is in a secret lair” is said:

“And despite fresh leads taking his probe to Australia and Barcelona, the east Belfast man insists the golden-haired youngster is being held just 10 miles from where she was snatched in Praia da Luz two years ago.”

Edgar proposes 2 years before Operation Grange was put in place that Madeleine is being held in a dungeon or cellar, just 10 miles from where she was snatched, in a sprawling wilderness. Very specific, but based on what information?  

Andy Redwood’s introduction of  Crèche-Dad on Crimewatch undermines Edgar’s other assertion that Madeleine was taken by the man seen by Jane Tanner, seen carrying a little girl in a blanket. Dave says this in the article:

“Jane is a very reliable witness and there were other sightings of this man, who Jane saw carrying a little girl in a blanket, in the days leading up to the disappearance.”.

According to Redwood on Crimewatch, the man was taking his daughter home from the night crèche, albeit seen walking in a different direction to that which would be logical by someone coming from said crèche (Discrepancy 11 of our post “UK Crimewatch - Discrepancies II”).

Edgar also adds a touch of xenophobia by referring to the “lawless villages” in the area, as if the Algarve was the equivalent of the Wild West. No investigation would be complete without a negative inference directed towards the PJ.

He then gives two very different scenarios: a paedophile or a desperate family. So desperate they were willing to risk taking a child and then hiding her in a cellar!   Even daft Dave must have realised how absurd that must have seemed, so he elaborates on the paedophile angle.

“He added there were as many as nine child sex attacks in the area round Praia da Luz from 2005 to 2007 and the victims included British kids.

Some happened as close as 20 miles from Praia da Luz, and six of them were on girls between the ages of three and 10”.


5. Conclusion

When Redwood mentioned investigating sex attacks on girls, was this merely following the “leads” Scotland Yard found in the “Edgar Files”? If it was, then why hadn’t Edgar report these attacks to the PJ, if not already reported?

Scotland Yard announced their investigation into the sex attacks as if they had discovered this spree themselves. Someone on Twitter should stop being lazy and do some research.

Given Kate’s description of what she found in the files and Edgar’s investigation, did they really find anything that hadn’t been known up to 2009?

Mr Twitter will, of course, assert that they did. He knows it was a Portuguese Paedophile wot did it!

Scotland Yard circled Praia da Luz in 2014, in helicopters. Do the vultures now detect their prey in Praia da Luz? Mr Twitter and Kate are certainly pointing in that direction.

Our opinion, and we’re sure shared by many; it’s not a Portuguese paedophile in a lawless village the vultures should be circling.

They should instead circle some so called normal people, not paedophiles who don’t exist, of that small beach village in Portugal and many locations throughout the UK.

We have said up to now that there were only 2 options for the conclusions of Operation Grange. However, we have come to realise that there’s a third option. We will speak about that option next week.

(1) actually called Alphaig and dissolved in November 2011. Only Cowley’s name was given as a director. Edgar’s company we believe was Emerald Investigations Sept 2009- July 2014.

Post Scriptum 07Mar16:

Our post “Carman” explained how private forensic tests were allegedly done in the property of John Garaghty, someone who had been confused to be another man all these years.

This was followed by our “A Triumph of Tycoons” in which we showed how “Mr [Stephen] Winyard revealed he has already paid for DNA tests carried out on the Renault Scenic hire car used by the McCanns.”

Stephen Winyard was one of 3 tycoons which we referred to in that post. The other 2 were Sir Richard Branson and Brian Kennedy:

“The businessman agreed to offer an initial sum of £100,000 - a figure matched by Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson.

Double-glazing magnate Brian Kennedy is also donating money to help the McCanns clear their name.

Mr Winyard said the three were sharing the costs between them. "I think the McCanns are entitled to the best legal defence they can muster to refute these scurrilous allegations.”

In our post “Tide Change” we spoke again of Mr Winyard, this time because Kate McCann received an award with his name given by Missing People.

On this post we added a Post Scriptum because an Anonymous reader provide us with a link that took us to a swingers website page where a swinger asked the following: “A swinger, saying the following “Hi we are staying at stobo castle 19th feb looking for some company. Anyone around or can point us in the right direction? Cheers”

As we all know by now, Stobo Castle is owned by Stephen Winyard.

Today, we received another comment from another (or maybe the same one?) reader sending a link to an article from The Independent.

“Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Vultures circling":

Hi Textusa,

Not sure if you have seen this before but if you haven’t I think you will like it!

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/adultery-wife-swapping-and-the-complicated-sexual-mores-of-today-1196693.html

;)

Posted by Anonymous to Textusa at 7 Mar 2016, 13:47:00”

The link was to the September 7 1998 article from the Independent “Adultery, wife-swapping and the complicated sexual mores of today”.

In this article, these two paragraphs:

“And we could take as our text for worrying about it no less an authority than that Sixties marvel, Richard Branson himself. As his wife Joan says about him, the Virgin boss has always had weaknesses for "sticky cake and beautiful women" (with Bill Clinton it is, of course, the other way around).

In his autobiography Branson tells how he lost his first wife, Kristen, to the rock star Kevin Ayers, as the result of a wife-swapping party. Described, inevitably, in yesterday's Adultery News, the setting was his "romantic houseboat in London's Little Venice. Cushions were scattered on the floor. The scene was set for swapping and seduction." And, apparently, alliteration. Nevertheless, all readers of Adultery News now know to avoid houseboats with floor cushions.”

Like we did with our Post Scriptum on “Tide Change” post we will simply ask readers: what do you make of this?

On our part, an autobiography is always an autobiography.

To our Anon(s), thank you!