|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Family day again, apart from some packing and sorting. Our friends are heading home in the
morning and I picked up some family from the airport tonight. Our campaign manager has also flown in and we will be finalising
a few more events for the coming weeks.
|
|
|
|
We completed our move to the new accommodation today. It took
longer than expected as we moved the thousands of letters of suuport we have recieved
and all the new toys. These letters and messages of support have given us tremendous encouragement and we would like to thank
everyone who has taken the time to write to us and to those who have donated to Madeleines Fund,
helping us continue the campaign to find Madeleine.
Most of this evening was spent on the phone and answering e-mails
finalising forthcoming campaign events. There should be some stuff in the press in the next few days although we are very
aware that the recent terrorist activity will, quite rightly, continue to dominate the news.
|
|
|
|
We did a single interview today for the Portuguese media with a British journalist sitting
in. The interview marked the fact that it is two months to the day since Madeleine was abducted. We took the opportunity to
emphasise that we would be staying in Portugal for the immediate future and continuing the campaign to help find Madeleine.
We also want to work closely with the media here in Portugal and engage closely with the Portuguese people who have been so
supportive.
We were asked what was the hardest day since Madeleine disappeared and replied that every day has been
hard without Madeleine. We also stated that our determination to find Madeleine is matched by the Portuguese police and that
we have a good working relationship with them. Our frequent meetings with the police help us stay informed, allow us to feed
information into the investigation and let clarify information with senior officers conducting the investigation.
|
|
|
|
The England rugby team wore Look for Madeleine T-shirts at their open training session in the
Algarve today. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures tomorrow! We had a brief,
private meeting with the RFU management team last night to thank them for this unprompted show of support which helps keep
Madeleines disappearance high profile here in Portugal
and at home.
We also met today with SOS Crianca, which is the main child welfare non-governmental
organisation in Portugal. Similar to our
meetings with child welfare groups and ministers in other countries, they feel our campaign to keep Madeleines
profile high is correct. It was a very constructive meeting and they have offered to help support us in any way they can.
It is likely we will travel to Lisbon at some point to meet
with other agencies to see what advice they have for us and if we can help them. We hope the huge amount of goodwill that
has been generated following Madeleines abduction can be translated into tangible benefits for the
future and we very much want to work with the organisations trying to prevent child abduction and expoitation.
It was heartening for Kate and I to learn of the release today of Alan Johnston after almost 4 months in captivity.
Although the circumstances of his kidnapping are very different to that of Madeleines, it still
lifted us to see him being freed knowing he will be reunited with his family shortly. We also agree with the commentators
who have stated his family have acted with tremendous dignity throughout and Alan himself appeared incredibly resilient and
composed following his release. Our best wishes go to Alan and his family.
|
|
|
|
Heart wrenching to learn of the little British 3 year old girl who has been kidnapped in Nigeria.
We know more than anyone what ther parents are going through and we hope, that like most of the
kidnap victims in Nigeria, she is returned safely.
The pictures of the England rugby squad in their Madeleine t-shirts were excellent
as were the comments of the players supporting the campaign to find Madeleine. We hope and pray she will soon be able to thank
all of those who have helped us maintain such a high profile of her disappearance.
|
|
|
|
The major development today was the arrest of a 39 year old
Dutch citizen in Eindhoven for attempted fraud. The man had sent six e-mails saying he knew who had Madleine and where she was. He was demanding €2million for this information. After being arrested
he has admitted he did not have any information and was motivated by boredom and trying to extort the money.
This
arrest, after cooperation between the Portuguese, British and Dutch police forces, sends a clear message that this sort of
crime is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. It also encourages Kate and I that all information
about Madeleine coming through to the police in any European country will be taken seriously and rigorously evaluated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A small event took place in Porto, in the north of Portugal, today to remember missing
children. It was at a large schools end of year musical and the children and staff released balloons. It is good that local
communities are staging events like this and we thank them for remembering Madeleine.
We were glad to hear the young
British girl kidnapped in Nigeria was
returned safely today.
|
|
|
|
Kate and I both managed early morning runs today- it is definitely the time of day to it with
the high temperatures in the middle of summer. Getting some aerobic exercise certainly helps us feel better physically and
psychologically which helps maintain our positive attitude.
The investigation into Madelienes disapperance remains
very active and we note that the Portuguese police are conducting a series of interviews today and tomorrow.
|
|
|
|
No major news today but it was heartening to see both the British and Portuguese Prime Ministers,
Gordon Brown and Jose Socrates, publicly pledge they would continue to do everything to help find Madeleine.
|
|
|
|
This morning got off to a bad start when we were called, even before the twins were awake,
by a reputable press agency saying that a body had been found and asking if it was true. It is very disappointing that this
person did not check out the source of this rumour before contacting our representatives. Such calls and rumours are distressing
even though we know if it does not come through an official source not to place much emphasis on it.
The Portuguese police
interviewed three of our friends again today, to clarify points in their initial statements. As most of you will know, there
is a lot of misleading information being published, both in the press and on the internet, about the events leading up to
Madeleine's disappearance and the criminal investigation. We would like to give more information, especially about inaccurate
and hurtful reports, but cannot for fear of prejudicing any subsequent court proceedings. The Portuguese police have made
it clear to us that all witnesses should not divulge or discuss the information they have provided. Kate and I are, of course
not party to all of the information coming into the inquiry for sound operational reasons.
Similarly a lot of people have
asked to learn more about Madeleines likes and dislikes. This is information which we have been
advised not to distribute publicly because of the risk of it being used in potential extortion attempts. The arrests recently
in The Netherlands and Spain show that such information could be used negatively in the wrong hands.
|
|
|
|
It is ten weeks since Madeleine was abducted and every day has been incredibly hard for our
family. No child should be separated from their family in such circumstances. The overwhelming messages of support, thoughts
and prayers really help us stay strong. Somebody, somewhere knows where Madeleine is and it may take
a single phone call for her to be found. We will not give up searching for her.
I came to London
today to meet with the British police and will go to the Child Exploitaion and Online Protection
Centre tomorrow to learn more about their role. As I have said previously we want to work closely with the police and child
welfare organisations to help us keep awareness of Madeleines and other childrens
disappearance high.
I was also invited to attend the National Police Federation Annual Bravery awards tonight. The work
of the police is often taken for granted until you really need them. It was a humbling experience to see and meet so many
officers who have shown such outstanding bravery in the line of duty and protecting us all. It was a fantastic opportunity
to thank officers from all over the country who have been involved with the investigation to find Madeleine. The vast majority
of those that I managed to speak to are, like us, very optimistic that we will find Madeleine safe and well.
|
|
|
|
Spent a large part of the day at the Child Exploitation and Online Protecetion
(CEOP) headquarters in London. The work they are doing in the prevention and detection of child exploitation is
fantastic and I have no doubt they are world leaders in many aspects of their work.
The statistics of child abduction
in the UK, both attempted and sucessful
cases, are stagggering with over 1000 reported cases in 2003/4 and the figures show a year on year
increase. The scale of the problem is much larger than Kate and I ever imagined and worryingly there does not appear to be
reliable statistics for many countries in Europe. Clearly a lot of work has to be done to
tackle this growing problem.
Kate and I believe that someone, somewhere knows something about
Madleines abduction. The events of recent weeks and the high profile of Madeleine reassure us that
when the key piece of information comes in, to any law enforcement agnecy, it will be treated seriously
and fed into the inquiry quiickly and actioned.
|
|
|
|
Kate, the twins and myself attended a family baptism today in Yorkshire where we stood as Godparents.
At the end of the short service, which was lovely, prayers were said for Madeleine. It is the first time Kate has been to
the UK since Madeleine disappeared but we wanted to support our family the same way they have supported us over the last ten
weeks and it was great to see so many family members together. We have also taken a huge amount of strength from our faith
and of course the messages of support and prayers for Madeleine from people of all faiths around the world.
|
|
|
|
Travelled back to Portugal today on an early morning flight. It was heartening to see various
posters of Madeleine up at all the check-in desks especially with the busy holiday season underway. The flight itself was
quiet for Kate and I as the twins fell asleep shortly after take-off. My mum and sister have also come out to for a few days
so we managed to see a lot of family this weekend.
|
|
|
|
The campaign to find Madeleine received a a massive boost today from JK Rowling. The author
of the massive selling Harry Potter books has asked all retailers to display a specially designed poster of Madeleine when
the sixth and final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows goes on sale on Saturday 21st July. Ms Rowling, who lived in
Portugal for several years, has offered amazing support in the search for Madeleine. As well as offering a large reward for
Madeleines safe return she has also added information on Madeleines abduction on her own site with a link back to our homepage.
Try and find the information at www.jkrowling.com, I will give you a clue that it is under links! A huge thank you to JK Rowling and her publishers
Bloomsbury for their support.
The new poster of Madeleine has been designed in conjunction with the International
Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) and this is one of the things we have been working on in the last couple
of weeks. ICMEC promote awareness of missing children globally and aim to prevent child sexual exploitation and abduction.
The poster features 3 pictures of Madeleine with the advice to contact the local police if you see her. ICMEC, their logo
and both theirs and our websites are also on the poster. The distribution of this poster will enhance the awareness of Madeleines
disappearance, which we are advised increases the chances of finding her, and the plight of other missing children.
With
the announcement of the poster Kate and I also did a short interview for the press. A lot of photographs were taken of us
with the poster so I suspect some of these will make it in to the newspapers in the next few days.
|
|
|
|
Madeleine has been missing for 75 days today and last night Kate and I attended mass to pray
for her. On the back of the latest poster launch with Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, the extensive media coverage and
the millions of people who are desperate to find Madeleine, we are still very hopeful that Madeleine will be safely returned.
As parents, Kate and I cannot contemplate giving up the search for our daughter.
|
|
|
|
Pretty busy day. Started off with a few phone calls and answering e-mails. We had a longer
meeting than usual with the Portuguese police because I had gone back to London last week . We have a good relationship with
them and, as well as the British officers who are in Portugal, we can feed any information sent to us back in to the enquiry
through an English Speaking detective.
The investigation, as everyone has seen recently, is still very active. There
is also a lot of labour intensive detective work going on behind the scenes. Kate and I hope and pray every day for a breakthrough
and cannot consider going home without her.
|
|
|
|
I was glad to see the messages of support page updated today after a few days with some technical
hitches. Kate and I spent some time reading through them and your messages do help us, especially on days when we are feeling
particularly low. Our search for Madeleine is nothing without public support and we would like to give our thanks to everyone
who has helped us in any way over the last 77 days.
The kids are really enjoying spending time with their granny who
they have not seen for two months. They particularly enjoyed her mashed potatoes tonight which brought a big smile to my mums
face. The last couple of days we have spent an hour or two by a nearby pool and their confidence in the water has really improved.
|
|
|
|
Kate and I spent a few hours with our campaign manager discussing longer term strategies to
maintain Madeleines profile, in case she is not found soon. We had a long conference call with two organisations that are
keen to help us with the campaign but there is still quite a bit of work to be done before this venture can be announced.
We also managed an early morning run together, thanks to my mum supervising the kids breakfast. We made it to the
top of the cliffs overlooking Praia da Luz in 16 minutes although we did have to walk at the steepest part. I had my first
visit to a nearby beach for a while with the kids late on this afternoon whilst Kate took the opportunity to get through lots
of e-mails. The twins took great delight in burying me in the sand, building (well mainly knocking down) sandcastles and trying
to jump out of the waves, which were tiny although the water was certainly colder than I was expecting.
|
|
|
|
Relatively quiet day on the campaign front. Spent the day with the kids
and visited the Algarve ZooMarine which they really enjoyed, particularly the dolphins.
|
|
|
|
Spent the whole day travelling from the Algarve to Washington where
I will be visiting the National and International Centers for Missing and Exploited Children and
meeting politicians involved in recent legislation on missing children. The flights for our campaign manager and myself
were kindly donated by an airline.
There is a very upsetting story on the front page of
a British National Newspaper today. The headline suggests that Kate and I face prosecution for neglecting our children by
dining 50 yards away and checking on them regularly. We know that there has been criticism in some quarters of our actions
but at the time, we felt our actions were responsible. We were essentially performing our own baby listening service although
we have talked of the guilt we felt at now being there at the moment Madeleine was taken.
We
have been advised that legally our behaviour was well within the bounds of responsible parenting and subsequently been assured
that no action will be taken. These types of criticism, particularly at this stage, as well as being hurtful are extremely
unhelpful in the search for Madeleine. From the moment we discovered Madeleine missing Kate and I have done everything in
our power to try and help get her back.
Our opinion now is completely clouded by what
has happened to us and of course has sent shock waves through thousands of families. The real issue is that we should not
have a constant fear of abduction of our children from their bedrooms, gardens or streets for that matter. What Kate and I
did was at worst naïve and no one should forget that the real criminal is the predator who has taken a completely innocent
child in such a premeditated fashion. It is this act that has wreaked havoc on our family and affected millions of other people.
|
|
|
|
Very busy day and I was almost asleep by the time I got back to
the hotel so apologies for not posting the blog earlier. We started off by spending the morning
at the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). We had a tour of the NCMEC led by President Ernie Allen who has been there for 23
years and there is little he does not about missing children.
The work done at NCMEC is
extremely impressive. It coordinates information for all missing children and it was the center
that pushed for the implementation of the early warning missing child (AMBER) alert throughout the USA. The center was also instrumental along with the
founder, John Walsh, in getting the Adam Walsh bill passed on the 25th anniversary of the young boys
murder.
NCMEC officials organised a meeting with the US attorney general Gonzales at the justice department. He was already aware of
Madeleine’s disappearance and has made child protection a major concern for him. I explained in a little more detail
regarding Madeleine’s case and the fact that she is still missing after 81 days. He was very supportive of the campaign
to keep Madeleines profile high and of the work that we are doing with NCMEC and its International
division (ICMEC).
We went back to NCMEC in the afternoon and I had detailed discussions
with some of the experts there regarding Madeleines disappearance. We also had a board meeting with
ICMEC regarding working together on other developments in raising the profile of missing children particularly using internet
resources.
Finished the day off with an interview for Americas Most Wanted who have
been following Madeleines abduction almost since the beginning. The programme is actual |
