Important Update: 08.03.2010:
It looks like the Swansea number was just a call centre number. Full story here:
http://www.thesargeants.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=282
Given the rather complex (if coincidental) genealogy of the Murats and the Symingtons (co-owners of the Ocean Club complex), can we really be sure that Ruth McCann's step-daughter Donna Aldred (nee McCann) is not a distant cousin of Gerry? Or was someone just determined to create that impression? From fake-diaries to YouTube videos of Gerry McCann 'showing his true colours', there's a certain body of people out there (not least the McCann advisors themselves) who have done their level best to arouse suspicion. But with so much money to be made in litigation, thesedays, perhaps its hardly surprising that the press are now constantly being baited in this way (the Stalinist New Labour government is also finding a way of using the case as a pretext for imposing even more restrictive laws on press freedom. The government intends to use the case to apply the same kind of 'discipline' to the press as it has done the banks if this report from The Guardian is anything to go by)
Is Ruth McCann just another coincidence in an already heaving addendum of case coincidences, or a deliberate false-trail?
Contrary to the 'dignified' behavior of other people involved in the case, Ruth McCann (53) put the apartment up for sale at 300.000 euros - more than double that of similar properties in the area. A similar property, only 1 minute from the beach is reported to have been on the market for just €127,500.
In another twist it appears that Ruth McCann sold pictures of the inside of Flat 5A to the News of the World in May 2008. The Diário de Notícias reported that Ruth McCann arrived in Praia da Luz and requested the key from the reception at the Ocean Club. It is then alleged that the retired teacher entered the apartment with a photographer from the English tabloid newspaper, The News of The World (NOTW).
The photos and the footage taken that day from inside the apartment are reported to have cost the British Newspaper a total sum of €40,000 Euros ($61,000 U.S. dollars/£31,000 British Pounds). The figure quoted was made by a Portuguese Newspaper. One can only speculate how accurate this figure is.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with the owner of the apartment putting the property up for sale. Nor is there anything criminal about the owner of the apartment grabbing the keys from the Ocean Club reception and letting a News of the World photographer take pictures of the room where Maddie vanished. It's a little macabre, yes. Perhaps her behaviour is even curiously mercenary and exploitative for a retired school-teacher. What's more curious, however, is that it's the same woman who was 'not available for comment' when reporters called to discuss the sale of the apartment.
Ruth's deceased husband Michael William McCann was born in Plymouth, Devon in the UK - home of the Murats, the Eveleighs, the Gorrods and O'Briens. Michael McCann's daughter Donna Aldred (nee McCann) owned a 25% share of the apartment with her husband Daniel Aldred. Interestingly, Donna boarded at the exclusive Catholic Convent School, Tremough Convent in the late eighties (making her roughly the same age as Tanner, Oldfield and O'Brien). The convent school was at this time owned and run by a group of nuns: Les Filles De La Croix (Daughters of the Cross). Although this convent school was handed over to Plymouth and Exeter University in recent years, the sisters now run the Stoodley Knowles - an independent girls school set in 65 acres of wooded headland, overlooking the sea at Anstey's Cove (a name that recalls James Gorrod's 'Foot Ansteys' solicitors who also have their second office in Plymouth). The school takes in children from nursery school age to senior ages (Maddie-spotters might note that the date Madeleine disappeared - May 3rd - was the Feast Day of the Finding of the Cross on the original liturgical calendar).
It might be remembered that it was Plymouth architect, Des Taylor who built Murat's villa, Casa Liliana in 1993 (not to be confused with the architect, George Robin Crosland who co-owned the Ocean Club complex - although the name Crosland is also popular in the Plymouth and South West area).
What industry Michael McCann was in is unclear.
After graduating from Cardiff University (1991) and working for Plymouth's Sunday Independent newspaper, Donna McCann (38) moved to Kent. She now works in advertising in London, where her partner Danny Aldred is Sales Manager at the Financial Times. Former solicitor, Rachael Oldfield (37) on the otherhand recruits Financial Directors at EquityFD in London. Rachael and her younger sister, Ruth (a nurse) were schooled at the Private Day School, Rougemont in Newport, South Wales - about 25 mins drive from Cardiff - where Donna McCann attended university until 1991.
At Rougemont, Rachael was in the same year as London-based journalist, Caroline Davies. I don't know if this is the long-time royal correspondent axed by The Telegraph in August 2007, but it might be. Interestingly, it was The Daily Telegraph who were one of the first of the British Newspapers to break the story in a report published at 12.01am on 04/05/07. Caroline Davies also trained in law.
41-year old TV Psychic, Diana Lazarus lives in the Cross Hands area (about a 25 minute drive from Swansea and an hours drive from Cardiff and Newport) with her solicitor husband, Peter. Diane told The Daily Star that she flew out to Praia da Luz 'at the request of a friend of the family'. Given that it was Oldfield who called her friends at the BBC on the morning of May 4th - it's possible to speculate that this 'friend' may also have been Rachael Oldfield - or one of Oldfield's media friends. Diane Lazarus lived in Swansea until the late-1990s when she and her daughter Lisa Lazarus moved to Cross Hands. Lisa Lazarus won the Miss Universe UK 2008 title and is studying 'radiography' at Hertfordshire University (interestingly, Gerry McCann specialises in Cardiac Radiology)
In her autobiography, 'Mixed Blessings - A Frightened Child' Lazarus (nee Preston) - an ex-Social Worker and Clinical Psychologist - describes how her cruel father had colluded with another woman in having her adopted illegally - and against her mother's will. The plot was not successful.
In a report written since this post was made last week, Paulo Reis queries 'a misrouted call, from Swansea, to Kate McCann at 11.21 on Wednesday 2nd May 2007' - the day prior to Madeleine going missing. How reliable the information is though remains uncertain (as the report is clearly not written in Reis' signature style1). Whilst Reis appears keen to dismiss the Swansea message at the expense of the 'more important' ones Kate deletes, there may be another reason for her retaining the message (I often retain a message if the caller is not already in my address book. Similarly, I sometimes keep a message if it is one I have failed to respond to sufficiently well. Who knows, perhaps Kate wanted to make this call less suspicious by retaining it. Attention is naturally given to the ones she deletes. It could be sleight of hand trick, or it could be that she (like me on occasions) quickly scrolled through deleting as many as possible without really giving any of them much attention - just to free-up message space 2.
Is it possible these people have crossed paths before?
Swansea's favourite charlatan shaman
(it might be noted that Tanner (37) and O'Brien (37) had only moved to Exeter in recent years. Gorrod (a solicitor in Property Law and Construction Law) appears to have been brought up in Leicester before enrolling at Exeter University in the mid-90s. What's interesting though are the clusters: Plymouth/Exeter, Building and Construction industries, Financial sector, Peter Lazarus and Rachael Oldfield both at one time solicitors by trade, Lazarus, Oldfield and Donna McCann all living within at one point within an hour of each other. Like Lazarus, Oldfield will have gone to law school - that much is certain - it's just finding out if and where all these people have crossed paths - whether it is university or early employment. Also: the man who started all the witness reports of Madeleine in Malta - Raymond Roberts - also lives in Cardiff, although originally raised in Anglesey. It was Raymond who related the preposterous story of Madeleine in a jet-black wig with two Arabs. Clearly, some of these things will be coincidences, but it's unlikely they all are. However I will continue exploring the possibility that John Barrowman is in fact Gerry McCann's second cousin and that Kevin Bacon will inevitably feature in it somewhere along the line).
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The Ocean Club was put up for sale in 2006. Mark Warner had only just took over 27 apartments when Madeleine went missing.
Does the Ocean Club deal and property hold a clue to what happened to Madeleine McCann?
1 I'd take a guess that Reis's report was compiled and submitted for pulication by several Three Arguidos 'personas' who have regular mail contact with Reis and that the byline was shared (perhaps Memeber IDs like Miffed, Bomaris, JennyComeLately, Keesdebees, Spudgun or LaffinAssasin - as they all use similar idioms) Large chunks of the text appear to have been copied and pasted from other Three Arguidos posts:
compare:
'Could it be that their timings are wrong by 24 hours and that Kate McCann’s nocturnal shenanigans took place on the night of Tuesday 1st May 2007? It would fit, but why be untruthful about it? A possible reason is that they wanted to conceal both Kate McCann’s state of mind and the fact that she had returned to Apartment 5A, just before Madeleine’s cried for help'.
http://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/
with ...
'Could it be that their timings are wrong by 24 hours and that Kate McCann’s nocturnal shenanigans took place on the night of Tuesday 1st May 2007? It would fit, but why be untruthful about it? A possible reason is that they wanted to conceal Kate McCann’s “tizzy fit” when she returned to Apartment 5A just before Madeleine’s cried for help from her father. And isn’t it rather strange that Russell O’Brien heard absolutely nothing'?
http://www.the3arguidos.net/forum/
There are many other examples too (especially about mobile activation and antennae - which reproduce content orginally supplied in posts by the forum's leading Levy and Reis apologist, Miffed).
Sadly, this phrase sounds like complete nonsense.
"This report is a result of cooperation with a leading international investigative firm that is in the closing stages of an 18 month intensive investigation that is expected to reopen the case in Portugal and to start new proceedings in the UK"
So why give them ample warning? Why would anyone undermine the covert activities of those mounting an 'intensive' challenge to the McCanns? Especially just prior to those challenges being deployed. It would be a little like shouting a warning to prepare for an imminent strike. Perhaps it is warning. Maybe that is the intention of this hugely suspicious report (it is also possible that Reis and whoever he is working with has got wind of certain developments and is attempting to claim the victory for themselves and to force attention on false criteria). On the otherhand, this might be a desperate and rather amateur attempt to ruffle their opponent's feathers. An empty threat giftwrapped in wishful thinking.
However, what is certain is that the report is a complete sylistic departure for Reis. Even if the report has been compiled with his approval, he is likely to have retained editorial authority. That he's agreed to release it in its present state is remarkable in itself. There are likely to be some major developments in the New Year, but not the ones that Reis and friends are banking on.
One also has to question the motives of sites like the 3arguidos and Gazeta Digital. Afterall, what assurances do we have about any of the alleged owners? Is Brenda J. R. really behind the 3arguidos forum or just somebody using this person's name? Identity theft is rife on the internet and a simple name and address on paypal and whois searches offers no firm guarantee - so members must be careful when submitting their details and or making judgements based on what these sites allege (especially when they offer no source or no links). The site owners may be on the level, so it is really just a case of being cautious.
2 Reis writes:
"At 11.21 Kate received a call from what appears to be a landline in Swansea ( xxxxx0023). The report by Inspector Dias researched this call in detail (Page 21 in his report of 9th November 2007) and discovered that it had not activated any of the Luz antennae. But digging deeper, he found that another UK mobile (xxxxx 1583) had triggered the Luz antenna when connecting to the same Swansea number at 14.01. He dug even deeper, tracked all of the calls made from Luz by xxxx1583 and established it had no connection whatsoever with any of the “Tapas 9”. The Swansea call to Kate McCann was simply a “wrong number”, misrouted and thus not logged by the Luz antennae."
Inspector Dias established that it had no connection whatsoever with any of the “Tapas 9". However, these same detectives failed to established that Donna and Ruth McCann hail from the same area as the Murats or that Tapas member, Rachael Oldfield has friends and family in the Cardiff and Newport area. Perhaps they simply didn't find the relevant link. Or perhaps their British Counterparts failed to provide it. It really depends on what kind of link they were looking for and whether not the person making the call was using their own landline or a friend or neighbour's. The area code might yield more clues than the actual number. It may be the call was dismissed too early. On the otherhand, it could just be a coincidence.
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14.01.09 Update: RE: Gerry's Portugal Trip
Gerry seeks diplomatic clearence before jetting off to Portugal for 24 hours only to meet up with more diplomats from the British Embassy? If he was in touch prior to the trip with Home and Foreign Officials, then why was his trip so necessary? What kind of questions could Embassy staff answer that Home and Foreign Office Staff couldn't? Was it someone he had to talk to in person, eavesdropping and surveillance being what it is? The need to bring forward certain 'arrangements'? Whatever it was, it certainly necessitated his physical presence in a way that everything else had failed to do in the last 16 months. It seems that not even Brian Kennedy was able to represent him this time around. Given that Gerry must have spoken to his Portuguese lawyers several times over the last 16 months on the telephone what prompted the change of tack? Was his lawyer's mobile turned off?
Talking of Embassies and British diplomates, I'll take this opportunity to remind readers that the Ocean Club has links to the British Embassy. The British Honorary Consul in Porto is Johnny Symington - nephew of David Symington, co-owner of the Ocean Club Complex and distant cousin of Robert Murat. Johnny is a former colleague of John Buck and close ally of new British Ambassadoir Alexander Elllis (whom Gerry met yesterday in the presence of his lawyers). Full details here
Good to see that Gerry is eating well. His appearence on Portuguese TV suggests he put on a few pounds over Xmas. Obviously not a testing time.
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