Given Jim Gamble's more recent blatant display of agenda, edifying the authors, Summers and Swan and their failed
literary attempt, Looking For Madeleine. I thought it might be of interest, perhaps more so than ever, to re-up this post from 10 April 2010. Covering as it does, many of the issues surrounding the then head of the CEOP, Jim Gamble. Unfortunately I cannot guarantee all links, but there is still ample sufficiency, to hopefully hold your interest.
I think I can safely say that my previous article
Jim Gamble CEOP A Question If I May established the fact that Jim Gamble is a competent policeman of some twenty five years experience, well versed in the ways of the world.
With that in mind, I have to ask the question, does this statement by Gamble reflect that experience, or is it in fact, given Gamble's career accomplishments, totally anomalous?
Though it defies all logic, Gamble's unequivocal support of the McCann's is not unique, he has previously been vocal in support of another, the extremely suspect, if not indeed outright corrupt, Colin Port, Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset.
But that little nest of vipers I will address later in this article if not in a separate post altogether, because truth be told it makes my head spin. Everybody that is anybody is seemingly connected, from the disgraced Ronnie Flanagan, later to become Sir Ronnie, to Gamble, to Port, to murders and cover-ups, to you name it, everybody seems to coloured by the same brush. The hard part in all this, is trying to find the glue, if not to stick this shabby bunch together, then at least find enough cohesion to at least make an article out of it all. As I say, of this later, but don't be holding your breath.
The CEOP were active in this case from the very beginning, but before scrutinising that involvement, let me post a few relevant words, the rest of it being puff, from a Mirror article dated October 2007.
Cop hunts down net pervs
By Ros Wynne-Jones
EXCLUSIVE COP WHO HUNTS DOWN THE INTERNET PERVERTS PREYING ON KIDS
......And as head of the CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, missing Madeleine McCann is inevitably never far from his mind.
"We absolutely support the McCann family," he says, sitting in his glass-walled office in Pimlico, Central London.
"They are to be applauded for their tireless work to keep the campaign to find their daughter in the public consciousness. It is a case for every parent of 'There but by the grace of God, go I'." Mirror 7th October 2007
"We absolutely support the McCann family, they are to be applauded for their tireless work to keep the campaign to find their daughter in the public consciousness."
Well, there's no ambiguity in that statement, crystal clear, unequivocal support from, and I shall not use the CEOP acronym here, lets call it as it is, because to do otherwise would be somewhat diversionary; unequivocal support from Jim Gamble.
Now that is quite a statement coming from an officer of the law, I assume that's what he still is, that he holds a rank of some description. It becomes even more of a statement, considerably more, when we consider to whom it pertains. And to whom it pertains is the parents, and the last two people to have seen to have seen Madeleine McCann alive before allegedly being abducted.
I have little inclination to quote chapter and verse as to what evidence there was at the time in support of this allegation by the parents, quite simply, it is the same amount today as it was then, nothing, zero, zilch. Likewise I have no inclination to spend a week making a list of factors that point to to the contrary. What I am inclined to however, is to state quite categorically that this statement of support by Gamble should have had alarm bells ringing from one end of this country to the other.
But if we add to the equation that which I have so far left out, then what I previously described as quite a statement becomes something else entirely. It becomes astonishing, and given that it is issued by a man supposedly charged with protecting children it becomes more than astonishing, it becomes sinister, and more than sinister it becomes criminal, both morally and legally.
So what is the missing expression in our fore-mentioned equation, it is the date?
The date of publication which quoted Jim Gamble's "absolute support the McCann family" was the
Seventh of October 2007, a month to the day after the McCanns, quite understandably, had been declared Arguidos, persons of interest, suspects in all but name in the case of their disappeared Daughter.
Now you can call me old fashioned, you can call me whatever you wish, but I have a problem with this statement of support from Jim Gamble issued under the guise of the CEOP.
As much as he may like to think it is, the CEOP is not Jim Gamble's personal fiefdom, it is a Government organisation funded from the public purse. It's purpose, so we are told, is to combat child abuse via the internet. It is not platform for Jim Gamble to utter statements of support to suspects, period, no matter who they may be.
The CEOP was not conceived and brought into being in order that Jim Gamble may pursue his own agenda. The CEOP is not be vehicle from which to launch "Minute for Madeleine" video clips in an effort to legitimise the McCann's claim of abduction, when there is not one scrap of evidence to support this claim and there being much to indicate the impossibility of such an occurrence taking place.
Let us move on.
We know that the CEOP were on the ground in Portugal, "helping with the investigation" within two days, and what do we know of their activities there.
We know that they Profiled Robert Murat, this from Goncalo Amaral's book A Verdade Da Mentira. I include the rest of the passage for context and interest.
Members of the British agency CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre), take a close interest in Murat and work to develop his psychological profile. GA
With amazement the police officers discover a series of books and manuals exclusively intended for police services and government agencies.
Missing and Abducted Children: A Law-Enforcement Guide to Case Investigation and Program Management, National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children;
Training Courses, CEOP (Serious Organised Crime Agency - Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre);
Making Every Child Matter...Everywhere, CEOP (Serious Organised Crime Agency - Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre).
Mark Harrison himself wonders how Gerald McCann could have obtained these books.
Which led to, again from Goncalo Amaral.
FOR THE PROFILERS, MURAT IS THE GUILTY PARTY
Since Murat's first interview, which they attended, the specialists have continued to refine the profile of the suspect. They have heard about the statement from one of his so-called childhood friends, put on file by the police department: according to him, Murat had an affirmed penchant for bestiality.
He recounted his attempts at sexual relations with a cat and a dog, subsequently killed, he states, with cruelty. Moreover, he allegedly attempted to rape his 16 year-old cousin. This individual describes Murat as someone violent with behavioural problems, a sexual pervert, sadist, and misanthropist. We are somewhat sceptical.
All the same, according to the English profilers, there is a 90% chance that he is the guilty party. That seems to us to be a bit too easy. We think that drawing conclusions based essentially on the statement of an ex-convict is rather dangerous.
Yes it does seem a bit easy doesn't it, perhaps they had other reasons for reaching the conclusion they did.
Nevertheless Murat ended up as Arguido, but not before a little help from Jane Tanner, Lori Campbell and no doubt the odious one helping things along from under some nearby rock.
But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the expediency of Leicester Constabulary in forwarding to the PJ Campbell's suspicions of Murat. Pity they couldn't manage quite the same urgency when it came to forwarding the statements of possible paedophillic behaviour by Gerry McCann and David Payne. But never mind, they did manage to find the energy to fly out to Portugal to try and suppress the release of the documents when it be became apparent that the statements were to be made public.
It does make me beggar the question, I wonder how much time the CEOP spent profiling the statistically most likely persons to know her fate and the last persons to see her alive?*
The photo appeal; I don't want to dwell on too much, but suffice to say much was made of it by all concerned. Let me paste this from the Times, it being the shortest report I have but still includes all the players, Gerry McCann apart that is, for he was pleased as well. And you might want to remember herself from the NPIA, there being a chance she might pop up in the future.
May 21, 2007
Madeleine police appeal for holiday pictures
“We will then assess those pictures – at a rate of 1,000 pictures per hour – so that over a quick period of time we will pass meaningful information to the Portuguese authorities.”
The appeal was launched today by the UK law enforcement agencies assisting the Portuguese authorities – Leicestershire Constabulary, Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), CEOP and the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA).
Anne Harrison, Detective Chief Superintendent from the NPIA said that it was possible Madeleine was still in Praia da Luz but was being hidden and appealed for anyone that knew where she was to come forward.
“We do not know the reason why she was taken but the Portuguese authorities have searched extensively around Praia da Luz and she has not been found. It is possible she is being hidden or concealed in some way and if you know where then by now you may have realised it is in everybody’s interest that she is returned to her family”.
She also wanted anyone who took part in the initial search for Madeleine before the Portuguese police arrived to contact them on 0800 096 1233. Times
Now I might not be so cynical as to the reason for this appeal if the CEOP had actually sent a pic or two to the PJ. But they didn't and I remain just as cynical as ever I was.
And lastly, the blatant attempt by Gamble to whitewash the McCanns, legitimise the abduction theory, and as far as I am concerned, pervert the course of justice.
An attempt I might add, as crass as it is obvious, and as distasteful as it is illegal.
These screen shots taken from, and with a voice-over approved by hardened crime fighter of twenty five years experience, Jim Gamble, CEO of the CEOP.
She will now be six years old. It says it all.
Judgement or Agenda?
To round off, a few opinions of others that I have saved along the way, I concur with the writer's opinions, and the talking points the make do save me writing more at this ungodly hour.
No names no pack drill, but thank you all for your contributions and pray forgive me taking liberties with your words.
What evidence do the CEOP have that the mysteriously disappeared child has been abducted? What evidence do the CEOP have to support she has been abducted by paedophiles? If the CEOP have evidence to support that the mysteriously disappeared child was abducted and was abducted by paedophiles then why has this new evidence not been presented to the Portuguese authorities who have primacy in this investigation? If the CEOP have evidence to support abduction an abduction by paedophiles then this I believe is new evidence. New evidence that could re-open the archived case!
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And CEOPS merrily go along with age-progressed pictures of a child whose dead body has been scented by two recovery dogs? Purrrrrlease!
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Jim Gamble is being used to threaten any would be dissenters, letting everyone know that Gerry is still in total control of the UK police and all their investigations. How bizarre that given that Madeleine’s fate is still unknown senior policemen are sharing a platform with the statistically most likely person to know her fate and the last person to see her alive.* Even if one is convinced of the parent’s innocence it is an inexplicable way for a police officer to behave
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What is it about Gamble that instinctively seems to concern so many of us? I cannot put my finger on it and I cannot even fully justify the feeling I have. I just know that it does not sit easily in my mind at all that he is seemingly ignoring the findings of the dogs and statements of Martin Grimes , the Gaspars etc., etc., etc., and that there is an inordinate amount of information to be ruled out before he can sit at conferences with these people as if he is their friend and victim support aid.
I would feel much happier about Gamble if he took a more objective role in this case. Or at least come out publicly and told us why these currently ex-arguidos are totally innocent in the eyes of CEOPS.
If, like Kate McCann, he knows something that nobody else knows, wouldn't it be better for him to come out and tell the public and put us all out of our misery? Because, after goodness knows how long, Kate McCann is sure as Hell never going to tell us how she 'knew' Madeleine was abducted. Her just 'knowing' is absolutely no compensation for the millions of pounds and hundreds of thousands of hours spent.
Where is Gamble's shred of evidence of abduction? Just one will do!
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I have posted some additional reading below, because human nature being what it is, I have no doubt there will be visitors here from the CEOP, so in a way I could say this is for you.
Perhaps after reading these four articles, assuming you can be arsed, you might want to ask yourselves why the CEOP is involved in this case at all, but more particularly you might ask yourself a further question, why has the CEOP given, and continues give, it's categorical support to the McCanns and their abduction theory. A theory I might add that is so implausible that it becomes contemptible to any thinking person.
Please feel free to make use of the comments facility, particularly if you can argue the case as well as is done below.
Madeleine McCann Was Not Abducted: The Shutters Revisited
How did the alleged abductor snatch Madeleine in a time slot of no more than 3-4 minutes?
by Barbara Nottage
One of the curious aspects of the alleged abduction of Madeleine McCann is the extraordinarily tight timetable in which the abduction is supposed to have taken place. Dr Gerald McCann says he went to check on the children at about 9.05pm on 3 May 2007. He also said elsewhere that he had been an unusually long time in the apartment toilet, and that he had been inside all four rooms of the apartment. In addition, he told the world that he had had time during his visit to gaze down on Madeleine, whom he was to describe as ‘lying in the recovery position’, and think how lucky he was to have such a beautiful daughter. By this reckoning, He could not have left the apartment until around 9.10pm or several minutes later.............
.........The abduction scenario
So let’s examine this situation more closely.
The scenario put forward by the McCanns and their friends runs as follows:
· The abductor must have been watching the apartment for several days before snatching Madeleine on 3 May.
· The McCanns went down to the ‘Tapas bar’ at the Ocean Club at around 8.30pm that evening, with other members of the group arriving during the next half-an-hour or so.
· Dr Matthew Oldfield ‘checked the apartment from the outside’ at around 9.00pm to 9.03pm.
· Dr Gerry McCann returned to his apartment (5A) from the Tapas bar to check on his children at around 9.05pm. The walk to the apartment would have taken one to two minutes. So on his own timing, he would have arrived there around 9.07pm.
· Dr Gerry McCann was briefly in all four rooms of their holiday apartment, during which time he checked his children. He also says he spent an unusually long time in the toilet - maybe up to 5 minutes, though we have never been told why. He tells us that he paused briefly over Madeleine’s bed and thought to himself how very lucky he was to have such a beautiful child.
· Dr Gerry McCann says he noticed that the door to the children’s room was ‘wider open than before’. He says that at 8.30pm it had been open at an angle of about 45 degrees (half open). He remembers (he says) that when he went to check the children at 9.05pm, the door was now open at an angle of 60 degrees (two thirds open).
· The fact that the door - according to Dr Gerald McCann - was now (at 9.05pm) more open more than it was before (at 8.30pm), has been used by him to suggest the possibility that the abductor may have been already in the apartment when he checked on the children, although he says he only realised this possibility some months after the events of the day. Dr Gerry McCann has said that the abductor might have been hiding behind a door or in a wardrobe while he spent several minutes doing his ‘check’ on the children. more
.
Let's Not Concern Ourselves, They're Only Details
by Himself
Just what does it take to get arrested by the Leicester police?
The corner stone of this nonsensical abduction story offered by the McCanns has always centred around the window and the "jemmied shutters."
I have written about the shear impossibility of such a scenario here, and Dr Martin Roberts addresses the same likelihood and can be found at this link.
Below in black and white and on video tape are the accounts of McCann family members and friends, etched in stone as it were, and there is only one indisputable source for these accounts, Kate and Gerry McCann.
But firstly, prior to reading these accounts, we have to take a good look at the latest incredible words of Kate McCann.
This single paragraph is but one of many taken from the McCanns feeble effort to limit the fallout from what came to light in Lisbon. This latest blog entry written by Kate McCann? after their failed and misguided attempt to silence Goncalo Amaral and as such silence the truth.
The window: I described to the police officers exactly what I found that night, as it was and is highly relevant and I knew that every little detail could be helpful in finding my daughter which is our only aim. The window which is a ground floor window was completely open and is large enough for a person to easily climb through it. Whether it had been opened for this purpose remains unknown. It could of course have been opened by the perpetrator when inside the apartment as a potential escape route or left open as a 'red herring'
In the immortal words of John McEnroe, you cannot be serious, you really really cannot be serious.
Apart from a few lines by way of introduction, I have just posted the relevant parts of various articles.*
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Agony as 3-yr-old vanishes from holiday flat
A HUGE hunt was going on last night for three-year-old Maddy McCann, feared snatched from her holiday flat.
Maddy is believed to have been taken as she slept in the complex on Portugal's Algarve as her doctor parents ate at a bar 120ft away. Her scent was picked up by a police sniffer dog. But it petered out after 400 yards.
Yesterday, 24 hours after the young child vanished in quiet Praia da Luz, anguished parents Gerry and Kate, both 38, of Rothley, Leics, begged for her return.
A friend said: "Kate rang us totally hysterical, saying Maddy was abducted. They're devastated."
The appalling news that three-year-old Maddy McCann was feared kidnapped from her holiday flat came in a distraught phone call early yesterday from her dad.
Heart specialist Gerry McCann rang his sister Trish in Scotland after Maddy vanished from her cot placed between two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.
Trish revealed yesterday: "He was breaking his heart, saying 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted'."
Trish said: "When Kate checked, she came out screaming. Maddy had gone. The door was open and the window in the bedroom and shutters were jemmied open. Nothing had been touched and no valuables taken. more
The Rapidly Revolving Door
by John Blacksmith
Gerry McCann went back to the third version of his checking visit, the dodgy printed timeline which matched what he had told the police in his first witness statement, where he also mentioned the lavatory visit, timing his trip at 9.05. That document was never going to be accepted by either a judge or jury, not just because of these very changes but because the group had effectively colluding in preparing it after their first witness statements, so it was both worthless and suspicious, as the McCanns’ lawyers knew.
Never mind. Something had to be done, and so Gerry became the first ever victim of MMR syndrome – McCann Memory Recovery - when, four and a half months after the event, he suddenly recalled “sensing” an intruder’s presence in the apartment. To strengthen the story there was that wide-open bedroom door that Mathew Oldfield had seen. Gerry and Kate only ever left it ajar, never wide open or closed. That, surely, was clear evidence that someone was already there, in hiding, ready to leap into action as soon as the patio doors clicked shut. Now, with the actual approach and entry all having taken place before his arrival, the only time required as he walked down the back staircase to encounter Jeremy Wilkins, was fugitive exit time.
But this was like playing with a Rubik Cube because of what the Tapas 7 had already put in their witness statements: move one, you may have to move them all. If he’d done his check at 9.05 what had he been doing between 9.07, say, and when Jane Tanner saw him by the back gate about 9.20 at the earliest? A trip to the loo, a gaze down at his daughter – and then what? He must have been talking to Jeremy Wilkins, that’s where the unaccounted 10 -15 minutes had gone. But argh! Jane Tanner had said in her statement that, whatever time they had both gone, she had followed him only five minutes afterwards.
Shrug. That was another bridge that would have to be crossed if they ever went back to Portugal. For now it would be good enough: out went Clarence with the story that so enraged the Portuguese cop. more
Decisions, decisions
by John Blacksmith
The background to Mitchell's untruthful statement to the press lay in the problems that the defence team were uncovering in the abduction claim, problems that they patiently outlined at their offices to Gerry McCann one afternoon in September.
Mathew Oldfield confirmed that at just after 9.30, when he supposedly checked the apartment, while missing Madeleine herself, the children' bedroom door was open wider than Gerry McCann left it. So the abductor supposedly seen by Jane Tanner must have moved it, committed the crime and departed before Oldfield's arrival but after Gerry's departure, which was itself fixed in time by another witness, Jeremy Wilkins. Was there enough time for the abduction to occur within these limits?
In the famous “Let’s Dismember Noddy” timelines, the ones that the Tapas group insisted were truthful, there are two times given for Gerry’s visit. The first version says he checked at 9.10 – 9.15 PM.
On the second, the one with “Gerald” on it, Gerry, who was wearing a watch during his check, has corrected it to 9.15 exactly.
The same document, as can be seen, says that Jane, who was not present during the Noddy massacre, went for her check at 9.20, something she confirms in her witness statement, “five minutes after Gerry”.
So in that five minutes everything has happened. Gerry has made the two minute walk to his apartment, more
.
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NI police colluded with killers
Police colluded with loyalists behind over a dozen murders in north Belfast, a report by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland has confirmed.
Nuala O'Loan's report said UVF members in the area committed murders and other serious crimes while working as informers for Special Branch.
It said two retired assistant chief constables refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Special Branch officers gave the killers immunity, it said.
The officers ensured the murderers were not caught and even "baby-sat" them during police interviews to help them avoid incriminating themselves.
The Special Branch officers "created false notes" and blocked searches for UVF weapons.
They also paid almost £80,000 to leading loyalist Mark Haddock, jailed for 10 years last November for an attack on a nightclub doorman.
Responding to the report, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde offered an apology to the victims' families.
He said the report made "shocking, disturbing and uncomfortable reading".
NI Secretary Peter Hain said: "I am convinced that at least one prosecution will arise out of today's report."
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said republicans would "not be surprised or shocked by the revelations".
"We think that it's an incentive that the mechanisms which were put in place for accountability, which we put in place and which we have argued for, now need to be deployed, not only to make sure that this does not happen (again), but if it does, that those guilty will be dealt with properly," he said.
The report, published on Monday, called for a number of murder investigations to be re-opened.
But it is unlikely that any of the police officers involved will be prosecuted - the ombudsman said that evidence was deliberately destroyed to ensure there could not be prosecutions.
Nuala O'Loan said investigation was a lengthy task.
"What emerged during our inquiries was that all of the informants at the centre of this investigation were members of the UVF," she said.
"There was no effective strategic management of these informants. As a consequence of the practices of Special Branch, the position of the UVF, particularly in north Belfast and Newtownabbey was consolidated and strengthened over the years. How could this happen?"
Mrs O'Loan said former Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan was interviewed by her office, but was unable to assist the investigation.
The report said: "Others, including some serving officers, gave evasive, contradictory, and on occasion farcical answers to questions.
"On occasion those answers indicated either a significant failure to understand the law, or contempt for the law."
The ombudsman's investigation began more than three years ago when Belfast welder Raymond McCord claimed that his son, also called Raymond, had been killed by a police informer.
The former RAF man, 22, was a member of the UVF who had some involvement in drugs.
In 1997, he was beaten to death and his body dumped in a quarry.
Mr McCord has said he wants those who murdered his son to be put in prison.
He said he had received a death threat at the weekend from the UVF.
Among the investigations which could be re-opened are the murder in north Belfast in 1992 of 27-year-old taxi driver Sharon McKenna, who was shot at the home of an elderly friend.
The names of the police officers and the informers have not been made public.
However, it is known that the main informer at the centre of the investigation is Mark Haddock, who was named in the Irish parliament 15 months ago as a UVF killer.
Some of the Special Branch officers criticised in the report have rejected the ombudsman's allegations as "unfounded and incapable of substantiation".
In a statement, the Northern Ireland Retired Police Officers' Association said they had always acted in the best interests of the pursuit of justice and had nothing to be ashamed of.
The officers also challenged the ombudsman to disclose the details of any evidence of their criminal behaviour discovered during her investigation. BBC NI
