The Madeleine McCann case

Back in 2005 a young girl on holiday with her parents and two other children went missing in Praia de Luz on the Algarve in Portugal named Madeleine McCann. Ever since there has been search's for her and appeals made by her parents. In new revelations a day before Madeline’s parents Kate and Gerry are due to go live on TV to make an appeal; the Metropolitan Police said it has identified 41 persons of interest including 15 Britons. British police have taken over from the Portuguese investigation, and are combing an extensive backlog of phone records and interviewing people who were present in the town at the time of the three-year-old’s disappearance in Praia de Luz in 2007. The police will outline the progress of their case during an hour-long programme on BBC’s Crimewatch, in which there will be a 25-minute reconstruction of the fateful night Madeleine went missing. Detective chief inspector Andy Redwood said: ‘The timeline we have now established has given new significance to sightings and movements of people in and around Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance. ‘Our work to date has significantly changed the timeline and the accepted version of events that has been in the public domain to date. ‘It has allowed us to work with Crimewatch to build the most detailed reconstruction as yet, and highlight very specific appeal points.’ Detectives say they have now interviewed 442 people as part of their new research and have issued 31 international letters of request (ILOR) to largely European countries in order to obtain more information on a particular person of interest. Pictures of men seen in and around the area are also expected to be released by police during the programme, while Kate and Gerry will speak to presenter Kirsty Young live in the studio. The show will air on Monday night at 9pm. This will be very interesting to see how it is put across. I have thought there are so many things that don’t sit right with me with this case for a long while now. Clearly the girl’s life has been sidetracked with funds appeals and libel cases and all sorts by the parents. Why has this case gained far more media coverage than others for example About 700,000 British children have been reported missing since Madeleine McCann disappeared. Why is her coverage so disproportionate? A team of British crime specialists who have scrutinised the Madeleine McCann case claim there are inconsistencies in her parents' version of events. The retired experts believe there is a question mark over Kate's response when she discovered the four-year-old was missing. Forensic scientist Professor David Barclay, part of the four-man team who reviewed the case for Channel Four's Dispatches show, said: "We examined all of the available evidence and the conclusion we came to was that there appeared to be some significant inconsistencies. "One thing we looked for was any sign of 'staging', the term we use for the actions of someone who has committed a crime and wants to 'stage it' to appear someone else has done it. "The first words apparently spoken by Kate McCann when she discovered Madeleine had vanished were significant. She is supposed to have said 'They've taken her, they've taken her' - which seems a strange choice of phrase. "I don't think that would have been my first reaction if my child had gone missing." Prof Barclay also questioned the McCanns' claims that an abductor got into their Praia da Luz holiday flat through the back shutters. He said: "We checked the scene of the crime and it struck us immediately how unlikely it would be for anyone to try and access the apartment through the back windows. The shutters there were firmly shut and couldn't be opened and the car park behind the flat was overlooked. "We're not saying it was impossible to have gained entry that way, but with all of our collected years of experience to us it seemed highly unlikely and a very implausible scenario. "It could be that claim is consistent with staging, but without full knowledge of all of the facts in the case it would be impossible to say for sure." Prof Barclay visited the crime scene along with ex-Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, the man who caught Soham killer Ian Huntley and psychological profiler David Canter. Prof Barclay, 62, added: "There has been a tendency to criticise the Portuguese police but on the whole they did a pretty good job. "However, they made two big mistakes. Firstly, they did not seal of the crime scene anywhere nearly quick enough. Secondly, in my opinion they were not aggressive enough with the McCanns in the first stage of the investigation. "It is actually for the parents' benefit in cases like this that the police tackle them robustly and demand a comprehensive account of their movements during the relevant In my opinion there is far more to this than we have been told why the parents haven’t been done for neglect at the very least. A lot of people on twitter this morning are questioning why they are so blameless despite the fact they left their young children alone for a number of hours. Isn’t this irresponsible for any parent to do let alone two highly qualified doctors? Tonight’s crime watch should be interesting to see what angle it comes at it from. One of the longest unsolved missing person hunts needs answers will we ever get any about this poor young girl who has so tragically been forgotten in all this.

Police and Trade Unions implicated in blacklisting scandal workers still need justice!

So new evidence has come to light in recent weeks on the disgraceful act of blacklisting workers in the construction industry mainly but no doubt it does and has gone on elsewhere too. In a Observer piece this morning “Police officers across the country supplied information on workers to a blacklist operation run by Britain's biggest construction companies, the police watchdog have told lawyers representing victims. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has informed those affected that a Scotland Yard inquiry into police collusion has identified that it is "likely that all special branches were involved in providing information" that kept certain individuals out of work. The IPCC's disclosure confirms suspicions voiced by the information commissioner's office last year that the police had been involved in providing some of the information held on the files, as revealed by this newspaper. The admission has been welcomed by campaigners for the 3,200 workers whose names were on the blacklist that was run for construction companies as "absolute evidence" of a conspiracy between the state and industry that lasted for decades. Dave Smith, an engineer who had a 36-page file under his name and was repeatedly victimised for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos, said he was delighted that the IPCC had revealed "the truth". He added: "For the past five years, when we have been saying the police were involved, we were told we were talking nonsense and it was a conspiracy theory. They wanted it to go away. Now we have the absolute evidence and this is no longer about industrial relations but is a major human rights scandal involving a conspiracy between the police and the industry." The blacklist, run by a company called the Consulting Association, funded by 40 major firms in the construction industry including Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine, was discovered in 2009 after a raid by the information commissioner's office. Since then, the victims have fought to find out who was providing information against them. The IPCC's correspondence is regarded as a major breakthrough. However, the watchdog's disclosure has been disputed by a subsequent letter to the victims' solicitors. This was sent by a recently appointed senior investigating officer for the inquiry into the activities of undercover police officers, known as Operation Herne. In a letter, seen by the Observer, detective inspector Steve Craddock insists that the IPCC's statement is incorrect and that he has seen "no conclusive evidence" that Scotland Yard shared information with the blacklisters. The IPCC is standing by its correspondence, which it says was informed by discussions with the Metropolitan Police and that "developments since that ... are a matter for the Metropolitan Police". In response, a spokesman for Craddock said Operation Herne's investigating officer was "aware of the apparent contradiction and is looking into how that may have arisen". She added: "Operation Herne will report on the 'blacklisting' matter to the Metropolitan Police commissioner in due course." The developments come as the group fighting for justice for the blacklisted workers has received confirmation of a meeting between undercover police officers and those running the blacklist in November 2008. The information commissioner's officers have confirmed in a freedom of information response that they hold notes from a meeting between the Consulting Association and officers from the police national extremism tactical co-ordination unit, which runs undercover officers. The notes of the 2008 meeting are part of a haul of documents seized by the information commissioner's office when it discovered the existence of the secret blacklist during a raid on an office in Droitwich, Worcestershire. Sir Robert McAlpine, which was allegedly a major player in the establishment and funding of the blacklist, is currently being sued in the high court over an unlawful conspiracy to amass a database of information against thousands of people. Last week, in a dramatic twist, eight major construction companies, including Sir Robert McAlpine, announced that they would compensate some of the 3,213 workers whose names had been on a blacklist. A statement said: "The companies – Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O'Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci – all apologise for their involvement with the Consulting Association and the impact that its database may have had on any individual construction worker." Sean Curran, a solicitor representing 69 victims in the high court, said he cautiously welcomed the announcement but raised concerns over the involvement of the unions, which are also suspected of providing information to the blacklist operation in some cases. He said: "We note that there has been reference to the consultation of Ucatt and Unite in the formulation of the proposed compensation scheme. We express serious concern about the involvement of those organisations. "We have seen evidence that implicates Amicus (which evolved into Unite) and Ucatt officials in the supply of negative commentary about the suitability of their members for employment. That commentary frequently made its way onto the Consulting Association database and was no doubt one of the factors that led to denials of employment. "It is also worthy of note that those unions refused to support their members in bringing a High Court claim so that they could seek redress for the hardship that they suffered. Many of those that we represent are firm that they object to Unite or Ucatt playing any part in negotiations with the relevant companies for these reasons." Claire Windsor, solicitor for the victims in regard to the complaint over police collusion, said her clients had lost any faith in the ability of the police to investigate themselves and that the blacklist support group was now calling for a judge-led independent inquiry into blacklisting. “ Article in Observer is here http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/12/police-blacklist-construction-workers-watchdog?guni=Keyword:news-grid%20main-1%20Main%20trailblock:Editable%20trailblock%20-%20news:Position2