WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT?

: SOLVED
Post Tony Bennett Today at 12:38 pm

Mapleleaf wrote:
Who ever said they went to Brazil. I found them by accident when investigating another couple.
It was Lagos they left from and P. 854 of the PJ McCann files was the key to all of this.
After four days I feel It best to extracate myself from the Forum ...best to all and remember where you heard this first.
I supplied this line of inquiry stupidly to Jim Murray at the Sunday Express who promised not to print without clearing it with me first in a frustrated state due to no feedback from Grange or PJ whom have it all......Maple Leaf.

'Mapleleaf' sent a message to the forum-owner yesterday.

I e-mailed him this morning.

He asked for my 'phone number.

I gave it to him.

He 'phoned me. He told me he had found out about Madeleine's abductor at an informal meeting at 33 St. James's Square, London in the summer of 2007. A person who spoke to him there said that his brother was 'involved' in Madeleine's abduction, and gave him some details.

On the strength of this information, he says he spoke to Leicestershire Police and then flew to Lisbon where he met with top officials 'from the DCCP' including 'Pedro Felicio'. He claimed to have met with staff from Operation Grange three times, including 'well before 2011', and says that he met Gary Hagland there on one of his visits. He read me out an e-mail said to be from D.I. Tim Dobson dated 4 July 2013 inviting him to meet with DCI Redwood so that he could give 'further information' about the Brazilian couple. He also said he had very recently spoken to the current Portuguese investigation co-rdinator. He says he was spoken to personally by two members of Control Risks Group. He claimed to have been the source for James Murray's story in this week's Sunday Express. He said that he was '95% certain' that 'his contact' knew where Madeleine was now living. When I asked him for some checkable details about his story, he said: "I'm sorry, I can't, it's all too long and complicated".

At the start of his conversation, he gave his name, ******* *****, and described himself as 'well known in the City' and a former 'Oil and Gas Consultant'.

He then added: "I'm not a crank, you know"

Re: SOLVED
Post Mapleleaf Today at 1:14 pm

Just spoke with Tony whom is addressing a number of mistakes he made.
By the way Spluregun the boat was at Lagos..See p. 854 of Mccann PJ Files as suggested,

Best Maple Leaf

Re: SOLVED
Post Mapleleaf Today at 5:29 pm

Be comfortable in the knowledge that the the relevant authorities have all facts both PJ and Grange. I met with Ana Rito at Portimao a few weeks ago to ensure PJ were totally up to speed.

That couple were never found to this day though PJ tried to question them and found them and the boat Tropics gone.Correct or not.They were never questioned.

There was a solid reason Tropics was not on either list by the way. I showed PJ and Grange why.The boat was subsequently re-registered and named. Grange and PJ have a photo supplied by myself of it. Jim Murray was itching to see it. I only showed it to him from a few feet away when we met last Friday at 3.oop.m. at his offices for two hours.

Grange and PJ have everything on this couple but cannot act directly with the country in question. Both Rito and senior Grange Offficer confirmed directly to me they have to go via Liason officers in a completely different part of the continent in question I have been there more than once to confirm my findings.
It all fits I promise you.

Best Mapleleaf...This Forum stuff is addictive I must cut back as I felt I was going to earlier.

TWO MARTIN SMITHS - response by Tony Bennett
Post myositis Today at 6:26 pm

TWO MARTIN SMITHS

I’m responding to an article by your member ‘tigger’ on her blog which has apparently been reproduced and discussed on one of your threads.

The central allegation she makes is that I falsely claimed that a Martin Smith in Dundalk, an inventor who has golfing business interests, is one and the same as Martin Smith from Drogheda who, 13 days after allegedly seeing a man carrying a blonde girl clad in pyjamas on 10pm on 3 May 2007, reported his sighting to the police.

I admit to having made an honest mistake. I think the Drogheda Smiths are Martin and Mary. A Martin and Mary Smith are also shareholders in the golf companies. It was not only a mistake, it was a bad mistake.

In correspondence with the Dundalk Martin Smith in October this year, I admitted the mistake and apologised for it.

In his initial e-mail to me (9 October), the Dundalk Martin Smith wrote: “I, personally, fully appreciate that what you wrote was done in good faith and with the best of intentions and I think your interest in getting to the truth of Madeleine's disappearance is admirable in the extreme. But I should advise that the other people you mention in the post may not be so understanding”.

Despite doubts about the authenticity of this e-mail, I decided to accept it as genuine.

In my post about the Dundalk Martin Smith’s business interests, I had referred to my doubts about his golfing company’s listed Directors, who included CEOs of international businesses. These were set out in an application for funding he’d made to ‘BES Opportunities’. He explained this to me as follows:

“The information that you found on BES Opportunities in Maynooth, County Kildare (link: http.www.besopps.com) was scraped by the owner of that site without my consent. Hence the inaccuracies, mis-spellings, typos and sketchy information. It was gathered willy-nilly from several sources and could be nothing but incomplete. However unlikely it may seem, it is accurate in some regards. John Coleman (ex-Bose) is a partner and substantial shareholder. We served together as army officers many years ago. Count Andreas Faber-Castell is a long-standing, close personal friend and is a board member”.

I replied the same day: “Clearly if I have mistaken you for the Martin Smith whose claimed sighting is now at the heart of the Madeleine McCann investigation, then I have made a genuine error and will take steps to correct it”.

The following day, Dundalk Martin Smith replied:

“Thanks for your prompt response. You obviously appreciate my position and concern”. He then gave details of what posts he wanted removed from the CMOMM forum, ending: ”Again Tony, thank you for your prompt response. It is really appreciated. Best regards, Martin”.

On 11 October, he wrote and said: “Thanks a million Tony. Much appreciated. Good luck with your continued search for the truth. Martin”.

And after all the posts were removed, he replied: “Tony, It would seem that you were as good as your word. So all's well that ends well. Many thanks.
And I really do hope you get to the truth of the affair”.

I had of course suggested that it was the Drogheda Martin Smith who had concocted details of his Directors. That was wrong and I have apologised for doing so.

The Drogheda Martin Smith has been variously described as ‘a retired businessman’ and ‘a former Unilever Director’. I have no information to contradict this.

It is not the first honest error I have made whilst researching matters relating to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann over the past 7 years. But along the way I believe I have also contributed some worthwhile new facts and insights.

So far as my doubts about the claims of the Smiths regarding their sighting of ‘Smithman’ are concerned, and about the two e-fits, and other matters surrounding the man whom DCI Andy Redwood asserted on Crimewatch was now his ‘central focus’, these doubts all remain.

I do not intend to enter into any discussion about the above statement. I would also point out that the poster named as ‘russiandoll’ has repeated on your publicly-viewable forum the errors I made about the owner of the golf businesses. You may wish to reconsider whether you wish that (and similar) material to stay on your forum.

I suggest that now that I have responded to the claims made on your forum you may wish to now deactivate my membership as I do not intend to post here again.

Tony Bennett
16 December 2014, 6.30pm

Mapleleaf again
Post Tony Bennett Today at 11:07 am

I had another 'phone call from 'Mapleleaf'.

He asked me on his behalf to correct a few things in my report yesterday. I'm not sure why he couldn't do this himself.

So here goes:

1. It wasn't him that went to see Leicestershire Police. It was the abductor's brother

2. The department he visited when he flew to Lisbon was the DCCB not the DCCP. He didn't actually see the Director, Felicio, but two of his detectives

3. It was a text-message from Tim Dobson on 4 July 2013 summoning him to a meeting with Andy Redwood, not an e-mail. He ended up seeing Tim Dobson, not Andy Redwood

4. When he was interviewed by Control Risks Group, they had just been 'dropped' as the investigators; they were not in a very good mood when he saw them and he walked out of the meeting with them saying: 'Forget about it'.

But there was one topic of note in what he said.

He claimed that he made an appointment with James Murray of the Express and went to see him at the Express's offices, last Friday (12th), which he said were at 'Northern and Shell' on Lower Thames Street. He said he arrived at 3.00pm and spent 'two-and-a-half hours' with Murray talking about the Brazilian couple etc. I'm not sure if the Express offices are there, but if his account is true, then it would shed light once again on the barrel-scraping that goes on in the tabloids to put anything at all about Madeleine on their front pages, even if it is the most utter tosh.

Oh, and Mapleleaf clarified one other point...

He is 95% sure Madeleine is alive and 95% certain who she is with - but he's not exactly sure where she and the abductor might be - except that 'it's a long way away where the authorities can't reach them'

Re: TWO MARTIN SMITHS - response by Tony Bennett
Post Poe Today at 9:00 am

Well done Tigger for getting an admission of error, however grudging, from Mr Bennett.

As an added bonus, you've probably put the McCann media monitoring unit into complete turmoil - one of their mortal enemies has been targeting the wrong person, however the misinformation cast doubt on several major witnesses against Gerry McCann. So, instead of whooping for joy and plastering the details all over twitter, they have remained strangely silent on the matter.

IMO of course.