Chapter 56
STILL NO UPDATE
I started writing this chapter a long time ago during the ‘silly season’ with an observation about the total lack of any ‘news – invented or otherwise’ – since the failure of the search at the Charade Dam to produce anything of interest to the Gutter Press. Cleary the publicity machine had been negligent because suddenly, out of the blue came several stories, invented or exaggerated.
They include:
The rape of Hazel Behan in 2004
A painting of what Madeleine might look like today.
More details or inventions about the reason for the search of the Charade dam
News that Neflix and Amazon are competing with new versions of a Madeleine film
And perhaps more
It will surprise no one that Jon Clarke, Owner and Editor of the Olive Press features heavily.
Ms. HAZEL BEHAN
The story is that Ms Behan was a holiday rep. in Portugal, went out with some friends to a club, walked home alone, and was then attacked in her flat by a masked and black lycra-clad man who climbed in through her window, addressed her by name, threatened her with a “huge” knife, tied her up, raped her for four hours [sic], filming the whole event [sic], and then climbed out of the window, or onto a balcony depending which “version of the truth’ you prefer to read.
A dreadful event by any standards.
Ms Behan has waived her right to anonymity and has spoken to the press, who have repeated her story, the details varying across different outlets as they are altered to make it sound convincing.
Nevertheless the Press, led by Clarke, is apparently convinced - on NO credible evidence at all - that her assailant was none other than Christian Brückner. [qv. passim, ad naus.]
Alleged witnesses to the events include a man who saw the assailant climb in through the window, and another or possibly two who saw him running away.
It is not clear whether either took any steps to intervene, or reported the matter at the time, except to the German police 18 years later.
REF 1
The Olive Press helpfully posts photos of the outside of the building, and pinpoints the window of the first floor apartment
Olive Press Photo My Annotation with measurements
Whether this was the window in question is in some doubt, as to enter the flat he would have had to climb first onto the concrete “box” with the tap below the window, then hoist himself up and through the very small opening, probably no more than 80cm square, though if 2 of the three panes could have been opened it might have been 1.5m side.
REF 2
Other sources speak of a balcony and a sliding door, which is slightly more credible
In any event we note that he MUST have been carrying at the very least
A Huge Knife
A length of rope
A fully charged VHS camcorder and tape(s). [another ‘witness’ is clear that Tapes were involved]
NOTE: It is not clear whether the whole event, including the tying up, and threatening with the knife was included in the film, or if that was preparatory to the scene being set.
Many will remember that in the early 2000s VHS video recorders were large unwieldy items which often needed two hands to operate. Given that Brückner is a known and convicted thief it is also likely that it was stolen, and thus from the late 1990s, when they were largely shoulder held and weighed even more. [HDV models came out in 2003, and the mini-DV even later]
REF 3
There is no mention of a bag of any sort in which the necessary equipment including the knife and the coil of rope would be contained, nor of how this was taken through the window, which on any test would itself require both hands free and considerable athleticism to negotiate.
Did he for example go through head first, and if so on what did he land ?. Or feet first and trust he would not injure any important part of his anatomy as he jumped down into the dark room
Did his equipment perhaps include a torch ?
The assailant is reported to have been wearing a black spandex suit and mask. His footwear is not specified.
The witness who came forward to say he observed all this activity apparently did not think to alert the authorities, neither does he mention any of the equipment reported by Ms Behan.
The witness who saw the assailant running away also makes no mention of any equipment or bag.
Brückner has been charged with this offence. Neither the extent nor the detail of the evidence against him is known.
Newly released Painting of what Madeleine might look like today
Most of the Tabloids covered this - though strangely not the Olive Press, perhaps on the not unreasonable grounds that Clarke’s current belief relies on Madeleine having been murdered.
It turns out to be little more than a re-hash of yet another article from 2021, by the same self-publicist, but this time with a bit more nonsense copy attached.
Details in the refs. but here is sample of the nonsense
“An artist has created pictures of what she believes missing Madeleine McCann would look like now - and says she thinks she looks like her sister, who was recently pictured for the first time.
Simone Malik has created the portraits in a bid to help track down the missing child, who she believes looks like her younger sister Amelie, who is now 18. Amelie was pictured for the first time since being a toddler in May this year, when she attended a vigil for the 16th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.”
A glance at the photo in question next to one of the ‘artist’ may give us a clue
This is from 2021 and this from 2023
As someone commented. “She has done a self-portrait. Badly.”
Quite why she did not simply draw a picture of Amelie is not clear.
. 
There follows a lot of guff about the shape of the tip of the nose - assuming that 3 year olds have “shaped noses” - and how it ‘matches that of her aunt Philomena’s “wide nose and square tip”
To remind people of how wide and square Philomena is … and of the shape of her nose.
But the whole nonsense serves to remind us that there are two distinct and warring factions in the “Abduction“ believers.
Alive - v - Dead
The first faction is further split into two sects. In the one sect are the “living like a princess with an “Arabian Nights” Sultan; OR living with childless parents who have looked after her as their own child for 16 years”…, and in the other are the more sinister “Sex slave; paedo sex ring; Red Shoes; International traffickers; Freemasons; Catenians; Knights Templar; Podesta brothers; Clement Freud, …” school.
The second faction is currently represented by Herr Wolters, Staatsanwalt [State prosecutor] for Niedersachsen, and his abject acolyte and publicist Jon Clarke who is apparently convinced that Madeleine was abducted and then murdered and disposed of very shortly after, and keeps telling the world through Clarke that letters to this effect have been sent to the McCanns and the Met Police Operation Grange. Both have denied ever receiving any such letter.
For them therefore the picture of what Madeleine might look like today might be
OR 
And in case anyone thinks that is tasteless, let us remind ourselves that one of the reported aims of the search at the Charade dam was for Madeleine Beth McCann’s REMAINS in the area so helpfully identified by Clarke himself with his ‘secret camp’, the table hewn from a log, stone arrows and the wonderful “Druidic circle”, even down to the detail of the flat area of ground Brückner used as a secret campsite - which turned out to be a car park.
CHARADE DAM “SEARCH”
a.a. 3 Feb 2024
It has now been EITHER 255 days since the end of the “search” operation at the CHARADE Dam – according to the Mirror, which reported its ending on 25th May, OR 262 days – according to Clarke’s favourite paper, The SUN, which said it ended on 18th May. As always you can choose whichever “Version of the Truth” suits your standpoint. You are unlikely to find the truth or the facts in any of the newspapers.
REF 6, 7
It actually makes little difference to the fact that nothing of significance seems to have been found. Even Jon Clarke’s ‘mole’ [qv.] in H. Wolter’s office seems to have gone underground.
We repeat the eternal question – For what were they - allegedly - looking ?
REF 8
Various clearly invented stories spoke of looking for Madeleine’s body, or her body parts; for a gun; for video tapes [qv]; for clothing; for her pyjamas; even bizarrely for a single fibre from the pyjamas to be compared with the pyjamas they had already found in Brückner’s Van [I am not making this up ! © J Tanner]. All very clearly pure fantasy written to fill the spaces between the adverts in the gutter press.
Frankly no one seemed to know, except we must suppose the officers in charge of writing the Operational Order, securing the funding, the permissions, organising the logistics, the transport, the accommodation, the equipment, the commissariat, the toilets, the Press liaison, and everything else involved in a Police operation – not to mention the more senior officers and officials in the Finance Department who authorised the considerable expense.
The final “full on-cost” bill for that number of officers and equipment for a whole working week will run into tens of thousands. Assume 1 x Det Insp, 2 x DSgt, plus 10 x DCon, or Special Ops PCs
Full annual on-costs are £95,000, £76,000 and £62,500 (Met. 2021 figs. FOI answer)
A total of £865,000 pa, or £16,000 for one week. PLUS of course all the rest, Hotel, vehicles . . . meaning we can reasonably double that to £30,000. [And also PLUS of course per diem and out-of-pocket expenses claiming for which for Police Officers has become almost an Art form ]
My informed guess is no less than £50,000 so far as the Force Finance Departments were concerned
Add flights and other travel and it could be nearer £/€ 80 - 100,000
REF 9
Perhaps a little known publication, the Pop Culture Press, ‘a music magazine founded in 1986 in Memphis, Tennessee that covered the local Memphis underground scene as well as touring bands and underground music of the era ‘– got it right when they reported . . .
“It has been a while since Madeleine McCann's ongoing disappearance grabbed headlines. In the months since a hoax involving a woman claiming to be the missing girl happened, police have also raced against time to make the connections with their key suspect …
According to Sky News, German authorities took a final stab at connecting prime suspect Christian Brueckner to the missing girl's case. The authorities searched the Barragem do Arade Reservoir…”
REF 10
My emphases serve to show how perspicacious this might be. The implication is clear.
“Make the connections . . .; Connect the suspect . . . to the missing girl’s case . . “
They were apparently doing what several unscrupulous journalists have been doing; something which is warned against and avoided by professional police officers.
In layman’s terms,
Decide on your suspect, and then find anything you can to pin on him or to fit him up, whilst studiously ignoring anything which does not help. And if that doesn’t work, invent something.
Only a few months after [August/September 2023] one of the most dreadful miscarriages of justice in modern times in the UK was been revealed – that of Mr Andrew Malkinson who served 17 years for a rape which he did not and could not have committed – the first 7 years as laid down at sentencing, the second 10 years because he refused to admit his Guilt and was therefore ineligible for release on licence (!) – it is surely right to consider what is being attempted in the case of the “Reported Disappearance of Madeleine Beth McCann”, both by gutter journalists and apparently by the State Prosecutor of Niedersachsen, Germany.
REF 11
They have a convenient suspect. He is Foreign = not Portuguese. He is itinerant. He has a criminal background, some of which involves sexual offences. He was in Southern Portugal at the time of the ALLEGED events . . . . . .
and I stop there.
It is the “ALLEGED-nature” of the events which should cause all decent and thinking people to stop.
There is STILL – after a more than a decade and half – no evidence in the public domain nor known to any of the detectives or other professional persons who investigated to support the contention that Madeleine was “Abducted from her bed in Apartment 5A of the Ocean Club, PdL, between 2120 and 2125 hrs on Thursday 3rd March 2007”
Not a single bit, scrap, jot, tittle, iota, smidgin, fragment, speck, grain, shred or crumb, except the endlessly repeated insistence from the two Prime Suspects that it was so.
The two principle suspects have been aided and abetted in their insistence that their “Version of the Truth,” the “official story” is the only one permitted, by several organisations. Some, like PR specialists Bell-Pottinger did it very openly and purely for the money, reporting that they were paid half a million pounds Sterling to keep the “Official Story’ on the front page of every newspaper for a year, which they very successfully did. Others like Libel Lawyers Carter-Ruck by aggressively threatening penury and imprisonment on any who think for themselves and come to a contrary conclusion.
The result everyone can see. The Media, TV News included, now NEVER deviate from the format – “Abducted from her bed on Thursday 3rd March 2007 whilst her parents dined a few yards away”
– and begin their discussion of whatever nonsense has just been published from that starting point. The results are always the same. They get nowhere because the premiss is almost certainly false.
We have covered Jon Clarke’s egregious role in this style of investigation over several chapters showing his propensity to latch onto one person, to decide he is the Prime-Suspect-of-the-Week, and only then to cast around for anything which might add to that suspicion.
We remember the sorry sagas of Robert Murat - eventually awarded over £600,000 in libel damages after two British newspapers published Clarke’s (and Lori Campbell’s) story, and the long succession of other suspects and stooges, culminating – for the time being at least – in the identification of Christian Brückner.
A MUSING ON CONSPIRACY THEORIES
In all the abuse heaped upon and thrown at researchers and seekers after the TRUTH, chief amongst the invective is the accusation that they/ we are Conspiracy Theorists.
But the Abduction Cult is in itself a perfectly formed Conspiracy Theory,
I QUOTE
“Definition:
Conspiracy theories are generally designed to resist falsification and are reinforced by circular reasoning: both evidence against the conspiracy and absence of evidence for it are misinterpreted as evidence of its truth, whereby the conspiracy becomes a matter of faith rather than something that can be proven or disproven. Studies have linked belief in conspiracy theories to distrust of authority and political cynicism.
Some researchers suggest that conspiracist ideation—belief in conspiracy theories—may be psychologically harmful or pathological, and that it is correlated with lower analytical thinking, low intelligence, psychological projection, paranoia, and Machiavellianism"
REF 12
“Sometimes it’s amusing to poke fun at conspiracy theorists. After all, most of them believe irrational stories with little to no evidence, and attempt to fit contrasting evidence to their theory – as opposed to actual scientists, who realise their theories could be wrong in the face of evidence to the contrary.”
REF 13
Gerry McCann used this most blatantly in his reply outside the court in Portugal to a persistent and therefore irritating reporter who asked what evidence there was for an Abduction
GM: “What other explanation is there, Where is… where is… where is the child. . .?”
He had no other way of getting out of the question. There was and is no evidence of abduction, and plenty suggesting other explanations, but he could not admit that.
They had already decided that “Abduction from bed by Paedo***” was to be the final Version of the Story, and that they would stick with it forever.
FURTHER MUSINGS
We covered some time ago the issue of the Absence of Evidence being definitively capable, in some cases, of being Evidence of Absence. Chapter 17-some-philosophical-thoughts
REF 14
And as researchers, using the scientific method, we have to acknowledge that we do not have all the details of the case, we are not party to all the details of the PJ’s evidence, nor of whatever the BKA may have found during the search of the Charade Dam, and certainly not what evidence H. Wolters has in his prosecution brief.
We surely must acknowledge that as open-minded reasonable and disinterested observers (to use its correct meaning) -
It MAY BE that H. Wolters does have concrete evidence that Brückner murdered Madeleine
It MAY BE that H. Wolters already knows how Brückner managed to abduct Madeleine
It MAY BE that H. Wolters and his team already know and can explain how all this was done without leaving any forensic trace
It MAY BE that H. Wolters has managed to collect all this evidence without any of the world’s media becoming even dimly aware of it, without a single police officer or civilian having ‘leaked’, and crucially WITHOUT H. Wolter’s having notified the defence lawyer, H. Fülscher, as he is BY LAW compelled to do under the rules of Disclosure . . .
If any of the above were objectively true, we might also expect Clarke’s ‘mole, spy or snout’ in H. Wolters’ office to have reported something which Clarke could then have published and sold to his usual sources of lucre, and we would also have expected one or more BKA officers to have leaked something to the German Press.
If this is the case it leaves open the question as to why H. Wolters has not already charged Brückner with the offences revealed, nor why, apparently, he has not even moved to have him interviewed under caution with his solicitor present, a stage in the process which will have to be completed before he can be charged.
In English and German law the rules are very simple.
6,121 days have now passed since Madeleine Beth McCann was Reported Missing
16 years, 9 months and one day
The world waits . . . and waits . . . . . . . . . . . . and waits
REFERENCES:
1 https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/24217791/maddie-suspect-christian-b-reported-running-alleged-rape/
3 “By the early 2000s, digital camcorders had become the norm, and VHS camcorders were gradually phased out of the market. The last VHS camcorders were produced around 2008, marking the end of an era for this once-dominant format.”
https://www.kentfaith.co.uk/blog/article_when-did-vhs-camcorders-stop
4 https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1812296/Madeline-McCann-artists-impression
5 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/artist-draws-what-missing-madeleine-30928637
6 https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22476473/madeleine-mccann-search-end-cops-silent-dam/
8 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/madeleine-mccann-police-reveal-results-30119434
11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_conviction_of_Andrew_Malkinson
12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory
13 https://www.iflscience.com/apollo-astronaut-says-aliens-prevented-nuclear-war-earth