Alone, the father of Madeleine McCann began the saddest journey of his life Daily
Mail - Online link has been removed
20 May 2007
Seventeen days after his four-year-old daughter disappeared, Gerry McCann flew back to an empty house that is still fresh
with her memory.
Madeleine parents
[Photograph appeared here] with accompanying text:
Taunt: Kate McCann with an armful of Madeleine's toys, and husband Gerry walk from church
past a shop window poster that apparently blames them for the disappearance of their child
Her room is
as she left it when the family set off on their holiday to
Portugal last month. Her toys are still there on the bed, her
clothes in the wardrobe.
But with remarkable fortitude, the 38-year-old consultant embarked on a heart-rending mission
in his ceaseless campaign to find his little girl.
He will trawl through four years of family albums and videos to
select new pictures of her for his 'Find Madeleine' website. Then he will prepare to return to the Algarve to continue the
search.
Madeleine 'sightings'
The visit was the first time Mr McCann has been apart from his wife Kate and their
two-year-old twins since Madeleine vanished from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3.
He volunteered to
make the journey alone to spare Mrs McCann the ordeal.
Last week the 38-year-old GP said she "couldn't even consider"
leaving Portugal while Madeleine was missing.
The prospect of returning without her daughter to the home where they
shared so much happiness would have been "too painful to contemplate", according to a relative.
Madeleine's parents will search the whole world for her
Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann revealed: "They're both finding it so incredibly difficult. They can't grieve but
they can't be normal. They're just focused on finding Madeleine, because that's all that matters.
"Gerry wants to go
through all the photographs and pick some to put on the website. The more images there are, the more she will be in people's
minds."
Mr McCann who has been spearheading the Find Madeleine Internet and publicity campaign from an apartment in
Praia da Luz, will meet lawyers and UK organisers during his brief stay in Rothley, Leicestershire, where he and Kate live.
The
family's website www.findMadeleine.com has received 100million 'hits'.
Madeleine McCann: Missing since May 3
A spokesman for the couple in Portugal said Mr McCann was returning
to Britain "to do positive things".
"He's very focused," the spokesman added. "He is going out there for very practical
reasons and he's going to get back here as quickly as he can."
The trip will also give him the chance to deal with
the routine domestic matters that have been neglected during their extended stay abroad and allow the two doctors to make
arrangements for staying away for the foreseeable future.
For the last 17 days they have been trying to keep some sort
of routine in their life, on the advice of trauma counsellors and for the sake of their other children, Sean and Amelie.
When
they are not working from their campaign 'nerve centre', or praying in church for their daughter's safety, the couple are
steeling themselves to create little pockets of comparative normality.
At the weekend Mr McCann played tennis and the
couple sat on the beach with the twins. Mrs McCann is trying to clear her mind by exercising and jogging against the clock.
And
the couple have again sought solace at Mass in the tiny church in Praia da Luz - their third Sunday service since Madeleine
disappeared.
During their walk they passed a poster apparently blaming them for the disappearance. Stuck in a shop
window, it consists of four pictures of their child arranged around the words: "Mummy help me".
Workers in the car
hire shop - Auto Rent III - refused to take it down.
Saleswoman Maria Rocio said: "Whose fault is it that the girl has gone missing? It's the family's. They should never
have left the children on their own."
*
Why is this report, which does not appear on any online search engines, so significant to the investigation?
Because it clearly states that Gerry went home to collect photographs and videos of Madeleine.
But why is that so significant?
Other reports, related to this trip, vaguely stated that Gerry made the flying visit home to attend
to "personal matters" and to meet organisers of Madeleine's Fund. If the trip was as described in this report and confirmed
by Philomena McCann, to innocently collect some more photographs of Madeleine, then why the veil of secrecy?
Gerry released his first blog that day and there was no mention then, or afterwards, that he had been home to collect
more photographs of Madeleine. Surely, that would have been information he would have been only too happy to pass on - the
release of new photographs is always of great interest to people.
Perhaps he kept it quiet to avoid association.
For just 2 days after arriving back in Praia da Luz, from this trip back to the UK to collect photographs
and videos, the 'last photograph' of Madeleine suddenly appeared - 21 days after Madeleine had been reported missing.
We know that Alex Woolfall sat with the McCanns on May 5th and went through the images on their digital camera to find
good pictures of Madeleine for publication.
The Times reported:
'The McCanns had photographs of Madeleine on their digital camera, which Mr Woolfall began transferring to a laptop computer.
"I said to Kate, 'Let’s try to identify pictures where her face is visible'. Downloading the images was a very difficult
process for them. It was upsetting.
"They were trying to do two things at once: one, emotionally deal with what was actually, really happening to them; two,
operate in some sort of logical way to help get her back."
Mr Woolfall transmitted the photographs to the Press Association in London, from where they were distributed to the media.
The portfolio included the now famous image of Madeleine wearing a hat on a tennis court.'
It is surely extraordinary that the 'last photograph' of Madeleine, showing her full face, should not have been chosen
for release at that time. Even if the photograph had been grainy and indistinct, its significance to the investigation, as
the last 'living' picture of Madeleine, cannot be overstated.
That is, unless it wasn't there.
Within another 4 days of the 'last photograph' being released, two more photographs showing Madeleine
at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, and two mobile phone video clips, were produced.
The video footage appeared to show Madeleine and the family setting off on their holiday - one showing them
all on the shuttle bus and the other showing Madeleine stumbling on the steps as she boards the plane.
So, given that these images took a significant time to suddenly appear, could it be possible that these
were actually 'old' images, collected by Gerry from the family home in Rothley and subsequently presented as being
of the current holiday?
If they were, then it would have a massive impact on the investigation because it would destroy the photographic evidence
that Madeleine was still alive at 2:29pm on May 3rd.
With that 'evidence' gone, there are no independent witnesses to Madeleine being alive on May 3rd - beyond the apparent
statement of Charlotte Pennington, who has already changed her story once before.
Miss Pennington, speaking originally to dispel the story that there was a missing 6 or 7 hours leading up to Madeleine's
disappearance, said: "I was helping give the children high tea. The twins were there and Madeleine and both parents.
"It was supposed to finish at 5.30pm but because they were a big group and really social, it didn't finish until about
6pm. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all."
Yet, speaking on the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary 'Searching For Madeleine', the following month, she said:
"On May the third, it was just Madeleine I was reading a story to. I later saw them around lunchtime. That's the last
time I saw them together as a family."
It should also be remembered that Charlotte Pennington was not Madeleine's nanny. That was Catriona Baker, who has refused
to comment on the investigation, saying: 'I don't want to go through it again.'
We know Bridget O'Donnell, Jeremy Wilkins partner, was at the tennis courts that day. She writes:
'Earlier that day there had been tennis lessons for the children, with some of the parents watching proudly as their
girls ran across the court chasing tennis balls. They took photos. Madeleine must have been there, but I couldn't distinguish
her from the others. They all looked the same - all blonde, all pink and pretty.'
So, she cannot confirm that Madeleine was there. In actual fact, it is unclear from her article whether she had
actually even seen Madeleine. In an article entitled 'My Month with Madeleine', it is perhaps surprising that there
is no description or anecdote about Madeleine at all.
That only leaves one person to positively confirm that Madeleine was alive that day - the McCanns friend, David Payne.
It is claimed that Mr Payne was asked by Gerry McCann to pop by and look in on Kate at the apartment, whilst Gerry was
on the tennis courts.
David Payne has said nothing publicly to confirm or deny this. In fact, he has said virtually nothing throughout
the investigation but has been quoted by Portuguese newspaper, Sol, as saying: "We have a pact. This is our matter
only. It is nobody else's business".
But is there is a fatal flaw in this line of thought? The 'last photograph' clearly shows Gerry, Amelie and
Madeleine sat around the kiddie's pool in the Ocean Club. How could Gerry have collected that photograph from home if
this was the first time they had holidayed at the resort?
But was it their first time? The Sunday Times doesn't seem to think so. They printed on 13 May 2007 that:
'The McCanns are believed to have stayed once before in Praia da Luz and had returned because they considered it a safe
resort.'
In the MSNBC documentary, Richard Gaisford said, when talking of Praia da Luz: "It's a very warm welcoming friendly place.
And it was a place the McCanns knew well. They'd been to the resort before."
So, is the 'last photograph' not a forgery, as has been widely speculated, but a simple press misunderstanding
or, more disturbingly, an act of deception?
Did Gerry go home in order to collect photographs/videos from a previous trip, in order to deceive the Policia Judiciaria
into believing the photographs were from the current trip? The purpose being to provide 'evidence' that Madeleine was
alive and well at that particular time on that particular day?
Only the McCanns and their close family can answer that question.
But, if it should be the case, then it would appear to imply that no photographic evidence exists of Madeleine that day
- despite Bridget O'Donnell stating that the children were all running around the tennis courts being photographed by their
parents.
The need to deceive suggests there is something to cover up. The obvious conclusion being that Madeleine was not
there to be photographed.
That is a very disturbing thought.
It would be interesting to know whether Alex Woolfall is one of the people the Policia Judiciaria intends talking
to when they arrive in the UK to begin their questioning.
If Mr Woolfall confirms the 'last photograph' was not on the digital camera he examined in Praia da Luz on 5th May, then,
it would appear, Kate and Gerry will have a lot of explaining to do.
The McCanns made no statement at the time the photograph was released to the press, but Kate was quoted in the
Sunday Telegraph, published 27 May 2007, confirming that this was the last photograph of Madeleine. She went on to say
that she has since been unable to use the camera.
Curiously, Gerry makes no mention of either the photograph or the trip home to Rothley in his blog yet does feel it important
to mention that Sean and Amelie had managed to 'squeeze in a haircut!'
So, the idea that this is the 'last photograph' would appear to have emanated, at the time, solely from the media,
who were, we must assume, working from a press release which accompanied the photograph. A press release almost certainly
constructed by the McCanns' press officer at the time, Clarence Mitchell.
What is crucial is the wording that was used on that release document.
If it said, as The Times headline suggested, that this was the family's last photograph, then clearly it
does not neccessarily follow that this was the last photograph of Madeleine.
It could be argued that all photographs since the so-called 'last photograph' were simply of Madeleine or Madeleine
with one parent - therefore not really qualifying as a 'family' photograph, which we would normally expect to include at least
3 people.
So, did a clever use of words mislead the media into believing they had read something they hadn't?
Without view of the original press release that question remains unanswered, However, it is interesting to note that
in Martin Brunt's blog posted in September 2007, the photograph was repoduced and referred to in the same terms as The
Times headline: 'The family's last photograph'.
