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.

solidarity with disabled people protesting at the BBC today

Disabled activists from grassroots campaigns Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Black Triangle and Mental Health Resistance Network have occupied the BBC building in London to protest against the role the media are playing in worsening attitudes towards disabled people and a complete failure to give space to the realities of what this government are doing to disabled people. Ironically just last week the BBC reported on a research report by Scope which highlighted how things have got worse for disabled people since the Paralympics, but the BBC themselves have contributed to this situation by a lack of balanced or accurate reporting. In fact their coverage of the research angered disabled people by spectacularly failing to draw any links between the worsening conditions disabled people are facing and government policy. Despite the fact that Iain Duncan Smith has been pulled up before the Work and Pensions Select Committee for misrepresentation and manipulation of figures and statistics, the BBC continues to report information released by the DWP as fact. This resulted in a situation over Easter weekend where disabled people, about to face an austerity armageddon with benefits and income essential for their survival brutally slashed away, also had to contend with national media coverage that encouraged a view of us as benefit scroungers and cheats. It has since been proven that information released by the DWP ahead of the changes in April such as the figures for all of those who had supposedly stopped ineligible claims for incapacity benefit due to the tightening up of the benefit system, were misrepresentations with no basis in evidence. Just the smallest amount of research would have revealed to the BBC that they were about to report lies as objective fact. In addition to the misrepresented figures and statistics which the BBC promoted, further weight was given to the government’s propaganda by the succession of government ministers who were then given air time to continue to peddle their falsheoods. Where people were invited on to present an alternative view, they were non-disabled people from national charities. Firstly these people do not represent us, and secondly there are many more informed disabled campaigners who could have exposed the lies and misrepresentations. Time and again the government and front bench Ministers have lied to justify policies which are causing the deaths of disabled people. Only last week the Disability News Service has had to raise formal complaints against the DWP press office for deliberately presenting false information about the level of spending on disability in the UK. Meanwhile the situation in the UK has gained international notoriety. The UN are currently in the UK to investigate and report on what the UK is doing through its housing policies. Solidarity protests outside the British Embassy have been organised by supporters in Canada. Yet time and again the BBC have not only failed to report on what is happening but to contribute to public ignorance of what is going and to inflame hostility with questions such as “Why can’t disabled people take their fair share?” It is well evidenced that disabled people are bearing the brunt of austerity measures with those with the highest level of support need being hit nineteen times harder than the average citizen. To even put the question why can’t we take our fair share is damaging and in contempt of disabled people’s basic rights to be treated with respect and free from hostility. For more information please contact Rosa Wilkinson on 07505144371. Notes for editors: 1) Disabled People Against Cuts was set up in October 2010 to oppose the government attacks on disabled people. Our week of action last year highlighted the hypocrisy of Atos’ sponsorship of the Paralympic Games and culminated in a protest of 700 people outside Atos headquarters and the occupation of the DWP building by disabled activists and a guide dog for 2 1/2 hours. We are now in the middle of our week of action for 2013: Reclaiming Our Futures, which is focused on the wide range of attacks that are pushing back disabled people’s rights be decades. 2) DPAC report on DWP abuse of statistics: http://www.scribd.com/doc/149776210/DPAC-Report-on-DWP-Abuse-of-Statistics-Final-22-June-2013 3) http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/08/ministers-silent-after-being-caught-pulling-lies-out-of-thin-air/ 4) Campaign for a Fair Society: how the cuts are targeting disabled people revealed the extent to which austerity is disproportionately impacting on disabled people with thanks to DPAC for the press release