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Thursday 23 October 2014

A new petition for Madeleine: 30 serious matters that need investigation

   
 By George Dunham
 
On 29 September 2014, a new petition on the Prime Minister’s website was launched. It called for:
 
 
“An independent public enquiry into the conduct of the various investigations into the reported disappearance of Madeleine McCann”.
 
    
I’m inviting all of you who read this article to sign this petition straightaway (if you’ve not already done so). It’s easy to do, just click on this link: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/69944
 
   
The Prime Minister’s website team will ask you to confirm your e-mail address before your signature is added to the list. Your name will not appear on the PM’s website.
 
 
  
 
Why is it important to sign this petition?
 
 
 
I have signed this petition and support it for the following reasons: 
 
 
 
We want a full, public, independent enquiry into the conduct of ALL the various investigations into the reported disappearance of Madeleine McCann. This means we want an enquiry into:
 
 
 
a) The conduct of Leicestershire Police, who were involved in working together with the Portuguese Police in 2007-2008
 
 
 
b) The conduct of the Metropolitan Police, whose Operation Grange has been investigating Madeleine’s disappearance since May 2011
 
 
 
c) The known involvement of MI5, Special Branch and other government security agencies in the investigations into Madeleine’s disappearance, and
 
 
 
d) The conduct of the McCann Team’s private investigations, led by wealthy Cheshire businessman, Brian Kennedy.
 
      
What are the main concerns?
 
 
 
Concerns about Leicestershire Police:
 
 
  1. Did they interfere with the Portuguese Police, as claimed by Portuguese police chief Dr Goncalo Amaral?
  2. Why did they delay sending two vital witness statements by GPs Dr Arul and Dr Katharine Gaspar to the Portuguese Police for 5 months?
  3. Why did they invite Dr Gerald McCann to a private tour of their investigation suite at Enderby?
  4. Why did they co-operate with the News of the World in promoting unlikely stories about possible suspects?
  5. Why did they have an over-familiar relationship with the McCanns and their friends?
  6. Who exactly was appointed to a secret panel, chaired by Leicestershire Police, of top police and government officials - set up days after Madeleine was reported missing
  7. Did this secret panel direct or advise Leicestershire Police on how to conduct their investigations?

 
 
Concerns about the Metropolitan Police
 
 
  1. Why exactly did the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, buckle to pressure from Rebekah Brooks, Chief Executive Officer of Rupert Murdoch’s News International empire, to set up Operation Grange?
  2. Why was the man put in charge of the operation, Detective Superintendent Hamish Campbell, a man with the appalling track record of having pursued the wrong man (Barry Bulsara) for the murder of Jill Dando?
  3. Why did the official remit for the investigation exclude the possible role of the McCanns in Madeleine’s disappearance – by insisting that the Met Police could only investigate an abduction
  4. Who actually decided the remit? - and why won’t the Met Police answer Freedom of Information Act questions about this?
  5. Why have there been numerous leaks about unlikely suspect abductors?
  6. Is Operation Grange anywhere nearer solving this crime after having spent £10 million over 3½ years?
  7. Were the much-filmed helicopter search and the two weeks of digging on a parch of wasts ground in Praia da Luz genuine attempts to uncover relevant evidence? - or just a giant publicity stunt?
 
 
 
Questions about known involvement of MI5, Special Branch and other government security agencies
 
 
  1. Why did Gordon Brown, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, speak so often on the telephone to Dr Gerald McCann during May 2007?
  2. Why did Gordon Brown lean on the Portuguese police in late May 2007 to release the highly dubious description of a man carrying a child given by McCanns’ friend Jane Tanner
  3. What was discussed between the top brass of Leicestershire Police and Gordon Brown, then Prime Minister, on Brown’s visit to Leicestershire Police immediately after the McCanns returned from Portugal?
  4. What were the reasons for MI5 to be involved in this case from the outset?
  5. Why was it necessary for the Head of the government’s 40-strong Media Monitoring Unit, Clarence Mitchell, to be sent to Portugal to become the McCanns’ public relations agent - and why is he still their main public relations officer to this day?
  6. What was the reason for the significant involvement in the case of the government-backed Control Risks Group? – and what was their role in the case?
  7. Why was Special Branch asked to help and support the McCanns?
  8. Why did Leicestershire Police and the British government frustrate the Portuguese police investigation by (a) refusing to give them information they needed about Madeleine’s medical records and the McCanns’ finances and (b) delaying their response to the Portuguese’s requests for rogatory interviews to be carried out in England?
 
 
 
Questions about the McCanns’ private investigations
 
 
  1. Why was Cheshire multi0millionaire Brian Kennedy put in charge of the McCanns’ private investigations?
  2. What relationship (if any) did he and does he have with Britain’s security services?
  3. Why did Kennedy appoint Gary Hagland, an expert in ‘financial compliance’ and money-laundering, as his main man in the search for Madeleine?
  4. Why did the McCann Team and Kennedy appoint a detective agency in Barcelona, Metodo 3, with an appalling reputation, to search for Madeleine?
  5. Why didn’t the McCann Team sack Metodo 3 after their Director, Metodo 3,lied about them knowing who held Madeleine, lying about where she was being held, and lying again by claiming that she would be ‘home by Christmas’?
  6. Did the McCann Team employ Antonio Giminez Raso, who subsequently spent four years in jail awaiting trial for serious theft, drugs and corruption charges, when they knew he was under active investigation for these charges?
  7. Why did the McCann Team go on in 2008 to employ Kevin Halligen, a serial fraudster and con-man, paying him £½ million plus expenses for less than 4 months’ work, while he was mostly living the high life in New York and London with his girlfriend Shirin Trachiotis?
  8. Why did the McCann Team mislead the media and the general public in 2009 by falsely claiming that two men they employed as private detectives, Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, were heading up a long-established and successful private investigation business, Alpha Investigations Group? – and did they create a bogus company, ALPHAIG, to perpetuate this deception?