LATEST SIGHTING(S), HO HUM

Re: Gary Hagland - The ‘mysterious seventh man’ in the McCann Team private investigations
Tony Bennett Yesterday at 8:40 am

STATEMENT RE GARY HAGLAND

I'm glad that someone has researched Gary Hagland in depth, and as a result I now feel free to share what I know about Gary Hagland.

It was towards the end of the 2008-9 football season, as I was listening to the final stages of a Premier League match on Radio 5 Live on Saturday, 25 April 2009, at around 4.30pm, that the 'phone rang.

The caller did not give his name at first, but towards the end of a call that lasted around an hour-and-a-quarter, he did so. His name was Gary Hagland. I made detailed notes of the call immediately afterwards.

He told me that he had been working for the McCann Team from September 2007 to March 2008, a key period in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Throughout the conversation, he used the words: "I am under a great burden". He was keen to talk. It was he for example who disclosed to me that the McCann Team's HQ was a house that Brian Kennedy had bought in Knutsford, Cheshire.

Those of you who were on the old 3 Arguidos forum may recall that I began posting in July and August 2009 some of the disclosures made by 'a McCann Team insider'. I did so by claiming that I was receiving information 'from a female McCann Team insider'. The leaker was not female. It was Gary Hagland. At that time, I did what I could to disguise his true identity.

Since then, I have spoken to Gary Hagland a number of times. In our most recent conversation, he confirmed to me once again that he had retained extensive notes on his period with the McCann Team and was writing a book about his experiences with the McCann Team. He has even sent me extracts of his book.

In 2011, he disclosed to me that he had spoken to a senior member of the Scotland Yard Review Team, Operation Grange, and was prerpared to make a full sttaemnt to them. I have no doubt in my mind that DCI Andy Redwood would have seized the opportunity to talk to him in depth and make a full witness statement.

The last time I spoke to Gary he told me that he had 'approached several publishers with a synopsis' of his book, but that none of them had so far been willing to publish his material.

I will post further information given to me by Hagland later.

Re: Gary Hagland - The ‘mysterious seventh man’ in the McCann Team private investigationsTony Bennett Today at 1:23 pm
No Fate Worse Than De'Ath wrote:Is Mr Hagland in agreement with having this information published, Tony?

No, he is not in agreement. I have however told him of my plans to reveal more details about him other than his known involvement as an agent of the McCanns in interviewing (together with Julian Peribanez) Jayne Jensen and Annie Wiltshire.

He has given me a lot of information both verbally and in writing about his six months with the McCann Team.

As he will undoubtedly confirm, I have urged him at all times to speak to the proper authorities about what he does and does not know about the search for Madeleine McCann.

I urged him again to do so after the announcement by David Cameron that he had acceded to demands by the McCanns and Rebekah Brooks for the current £5 million-plus Scotland Yard Review, Operation Grange.

By way of response, he told me that he had been in touch with a senior officer at Operation Grange and had told them of his involvement with the McCann Team and that he was willing to be interviewed.

Once he told me that, and with his consent, I sent a file to DCI Andy Redwood containing all the information that Gary Hagland had ever disclosed to me. For a number of legal reasons, I cannot disclose the contents of that dossier.

I do not actually know whether Gary Hagland has been informally or formally interviewed by anyone from Operation Grange, but I am confident that any police officer following normal procedures on a thoroughgoing cold case review would have made sure not only to interview Gary Hagland but also all of the other McCann private investigators: Francisco Marco, Antonio Jimenez Raso, Julian Peribanez, Kevin Halligen, Henri Exton, Dave Edgar, Arthur Cowley and...yes...Noel Hogan as well.

I will just add one thing for the record.

A few weeks ago I contacted DCI Redwood and told him I was planning to release information about Gary Hagland and some at least of what he told me. I asked him if he had any objection at all to this information being made public.

A response was received and he has raised no objection.

Gary Hagland was very much involved in the early days in close liaison with Market Harborough-based Maxine Harris, founder of 'Helping to Find Madeleine'.

John Naylor

Posts: 2
Join date: 2013-06-27

Gary Hagland - The ‘mysterious seventh man’ in the McCann Team private investigations
Post John Naylor Today at 9:56 pm

Gary Hagland - The ‘mysterious seventh man’ in the McCann Team private investigations

Felicity Hathaway

Following the Madeleine Foundation meetings I attended back in 2009/10, where the name of Gary Hagland was brought up, I have done some investigations into him. I’m sorry it’s taken me a while to come back to you.

I am calling him the ‘mysterious seventh man’ because what I regard as the six other main private investigators in the case have been clearly (if not exactly prominently) publicised. They are:

Francisco Marco, boss of Metodo 3 (made bogus claims that Madeleine would be ‘home by Christmas)..........and on and on for a very long read

On the evening of 14 August 2009, Gary Hagland wrote a letter of complaint to BBC TV East Midlands, on behalf of the then Chairman of The Madeleine Foundation, Debbie Butler.

Two days earlier, a leaflet about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann had been circulated in different parts of Leicestershire, including some in Rothley. Earlier that evening, BBC TV East Midlands had transmitted their interview of Ms Butler, about what became known as 'The Rothley Leaflet Drop'.

Gary Hagland kindly copied the letter to me, and did not stipulate that it was sent in confidence.

To: The Editor,
BBC TV East Midlands

14 August 2009

Sir,

During your East Midlands Today broadcast of 6:30pm Friday 14th August 2009, the show’s anchor, Anne Davies , presented an item on the activities of The Madeleine Foundation (‘TMF’). The item covered the recent, lawful, activity of TMF in distributing a leaflet in, amongst other locales, the Rothley Village area of Leicestershire, the content of which, inter alia, relates to the urging for a re-opening of the formal enquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine Beth McCann.

Ms Davies opted to interrogate, as opposed to interview, the on-camera TMF representative, and Ms Davies presented such a biased and subjective ‘report’ on this event as to relegate journalism to the sewers.

I strongly object to the gross lack of professional performance of Ms Davies in this matter, and I earnestly recommend that, in light of her plastic reporting, she revert to her founding secretarial crammer course as a more viable, certainly more honest, career path.

(blah blah blah)

What I do know is that organisations such as TMF, and their related acts, have a proper and rightful place in society’s search for the truth as to Madeleine ’s situation. This child was: (1) betrayed by her parents; (2) let down by a retarded EU host state; and now (3) dealt further injustice by the likes of the stance of Ms Davies and your public broadcast organisation. As a viewer, licence fee payer, and founder-investigator for Gerry and Kate McCann from September 2007 to April 2008, I find such reporting abhorrent, puerile, and reprehensible.......??????

.......I expect higher standards of and from the BBC, entrenched dumbed down cheap and simplistic regional reporting or not. It seems all Ms Davies has perfected in her career to-date is, and I quote her “...the art of carrying a tray of teas and coffees, all the newspapers and a great pile of tapes - at the same time”.

Re: Gary Hagland - The ‘mysterious seventh man’ in the McCann Team private investigations
Post Tony Bennett Today at 8:39 pm

(Very interesting points, loopzdaloop.)

If we examine what is now known about Gary Hagland, he can hardly be described as a publcity-shy shrinking violet.

If we go back to the article about him in the Financial Times magazine (2001), it is clear that the article is very much focussed around him and his role as a consultant for law firm Wragge and Co.

In the central body of the article, we read this:

"Gary Hagland is a consultant with law firm Wragge & Co advising clients on the active management of compliance risks, including money laundering.

He works with the Institute of Directors' board consultancy department on the 'Compliant Board' initiative that aims to guide company directors through the labyrinth of regulations and procedure that successful compliance demands. Mr Hagland paints a broad picture of the type of non-financial services businesses that may well be targets for the money launderer. These include auction houses, expensive car dealerships, property agents and developers - indeed any business that is used to handling high-value assets.

According to Mr Hagland, a problem for companies in complying with anti-money laundering initiatives is that their prevailing culture and ethos does not lend itself readily to accommodate scepticism about prospective customers. Rather, the opposite is likely to be the case. "To tackle the possible threat of being unwitting accomplices to a money laundering scheme, the challenge for non-financial businesses is to change their mindset, their core attitudes. The reputational focus of most businesses is clearly not on money laundering," says Mr Hagland".

The article begins with the two words: 'Gary Hagland'. It features his work. It quotes him in person. It almost suggests that he may have approached the FT and invited them to write about him.

Another major clue comes from the article in the Nottingham Post about him, dated 15 March 2010 - nine years after the FT article.

Consider these points:

* A 'neighbour' was hospitalised due to stress from the all-night antics of nearby Nottingham Trent University...
* But it is Hagland who makes representations to the University...
* It is Hagland who approaches the Nottingham Post and makes a series of comments, and...
* He is perfectly happy to be photographed.

Next, consider his actions in relation to his 7-month stint with the McCann Team.

He...

* Keeps notes and diaries of his time with the McCann Team
* He twice discussed his experiences inside the McCann Team with journalists from The Times, who visited him at home
* He shared a great deal of information with me when he 'phoned me in April 2009
* He was happy to go on the record - name, qualifications, e-mail address etc. - and to openly dicclose that he was a former McCann Team insider to the editor of BBC TV East Midlands
* He was happy to send me a copy of that e-mail with no confidentiality restriction
* He has sent me various extracts from his book, again with no confidentiality restrictions, and
* He has since given me further details, over the 'phone, about his actions within the McCann Team investigations.

It seems unlikely now, over 5 years after he left the McCann Team (he resigned), that he will have any useful information about the whereabouts of Madeleine McCann.

But he seems the kind of man who wants to talk about what he is doing, and he clearly believes, in writing a book about his experiences in the McCann Team, that he has an interesting, and maybe marketable, story to tell the world.

e: Gary Hagland - The ‘mysterious seventh man’ in the McCann Team private investigations
Post Tony Bennett Today at 9:11 pm

DIBarlow wrote:
Presumably though, from information that TB received from Hagland, he has information that might be counter-productive for TM?
Presumably too, TM might have a court restriction on him?

Understandably this might be information that should not be aired in advance of any developments in the case?

According to Gary Hagland, he has shown at least a synopsis of his book to several publishers. I doubt he could have done that if he had had to sign a watertight confidentiality agreement before working for the McCann Team.

Also, by the sound ot it, after Metodo 3 folded and sacked most of its staff earlier this year, some Metodo 3 staff were 'singing' to the authorities about what really went on in the McCann Team investigation - there were even some reported quotes, which I won't repeat here. They were generally slagging off their former Metodo 3 bosses, as some people tend to do when thrown out of work without warning - especially in today's Spain with 20% unemployment.

As Hagland actually visited Metodo 3's offices in Barcelona and discussed the Madeleine McCann case with Metodo 3 staff in Brian Kennedy's Knutford investigation HQ as well, most probably he knows many of these now-disgruntled ex-Metodo 3 men?

GARY HAGLAND on the McCann Team's preparations to look for Madeleine in Morocco, and how the King of Morocco gave permission for Metodo 3 to enter his country
Post Tony Bennett Today at 8:59 pm

Here is a short extract from Gary Hagland’s manuscript. It deals with the preparations of the McCann Team for their search for Madeleine in Morocco. The events described by Hagland occurred in late September 2007. I add a note below of events occurring around this time:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

QUOTE Gary Hagland

It was with the support of Helping to Find Madeleine in mind that I first began to research and analyse Morocco as a realistic target destination for Madeleine. This was against a backdrop not just of limited investigative resource but fading resource.

The September 2007 sighting of a white, fair-haired small girl seen being carried papoose-style on the back of a Moroccan peasant woman near the town of Zinat, whose snatched photograph by Clara Torres, a tourist form Albacete, Spain, was splashed across British newspapers with the strap-line: ‘Could this be the face of Madeleine McCann?’, focused attention that fair-skinned, blonde offspring are not unusual in this region, and that Madeleine could more easily be assimilated and absorbed, than not. It also triggered Brian Kennedy flying to the area in the belief the sighting was Madeleine.

It wasn’t Madeleine; the child, Bouchra Ben Aisa, was a relative of the woman who was carrying her. The sense that Madeleine was there remained with me, however. This was reinforced by a report from another Spanish woman who was convinced that she saw Madeleine in the town of Zaio in northern Morocco at the end of May. The woman said that she saw a girl she believed was Madeleine being led by a Moroccan woman in Muslim dress. Allegedly, a gust of wind blew the child’s hat off, exposing her blonde hair underneath. Then there were two sightings of a blonde girl matching Madeleine’s description in Marrakesh on May 9th.

The Kingdom of Morocco, with Rabat being its capital, is located in North Africa. With the large main cities of Fes, Sale, Agadir, Marrakesh, Tangier, Meknes, Oujda and Tetouan, it has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Spain to the north, Algeria to the east, and Mauritania to the south.

The King of Morocco holds not inconsiderable powers, although executive power is exercised by the government, while legislative power is vested in both the government and two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of Representatives and Assembly of Councillors. The 442,000 square miles of country are divided into grids that encompass villages. The mayors of these often small villages are known as moquadem; they are they eyes and ears of the King. Nothing gets by their attention.

Supporting the moquadem is the village Association charged with making decisions in the village. These associations are composet exclusively of men; in Muslim Morocco, men are undeniably in control of government and woman are confined to affairs of the home, ideal for bringing-up young children.

Getting Metodo 3 on the ground operationally in Morocco was going to be difficult. It was clear the moquadem structure could not be clandestinely circumvented or subverted without running a very real risk of interdiction and punitive reprisal. This meant Morocco had to be worth the effort and the risk.

I called a friend who used to work the Moroccan desk for MI6. We met for lunch in the bowels of the Institute of Directors for lunch. It was to be a revelatory meeting.

PART SNIPPED

I briefed Brian Kennedy and Metodo 3 and Brian set about his contacts in an effort to pave the way to seek permission from the King of Morocco, King Mohammed VI, to enter the Kingdom to look for her. The King’s consort, Princess Salma, was already sympathetic to Madeleine’s plight. Eventually, with the help of the British Embassy in Rabat, a deal was struck.

On a strict understanding that the King’s approval was unofficial and immediately deniable; on the proviso that nothing would be done to the detriment of the sovereign standing and good reputation of the Kingdom, and on the unequivocal basis that any arrest or interdiction be undertaken in collaboration with the office of Director General of the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire - the Moroccan Secret Service - and that we were escorted at all times by a representative of the Royal Guard, we were in.

Secretly, with Brian Kennedy’s jet to be located at Rabat on standby, on the first confirmation of a sighting of Madeleine she would be quickly removed straight to the jet, diplomacy and bureaucracy taking a back-seat.

Brian Kennedy and I selected the Metodo 3 agent to be on the ground, undoubtedly their best. Quiet, unassuming, with a poor grasp of English, nonetheless he was good at undercover work and discrete surveillance. Synchronised with the infiltration, Helping to Find Maledeine had agreed to produce a poster of Madeleine in Arabic to be delivered and distributed by the moquadems at the King’s direction.

Military-grade maps of Morocco, new satellite communications, medical equipment, gold sovereigns, and field kit, were all assembled for Paddy [= Patrick Kennedy] and me who were to join Metodo 3’s agent on the ground for a month. The single Royal Guard representative, Mohammed, had ben introduced to us via the British Embassy in Rabat by ’phone; he spoke excellent English and came across as being both confident and knowledgeable. As we planned our route, based on the more ‘quality’ of sightings of Madeleine in Morocco, Mohammed briefed us as to the more dangerous of areas we would traverse and the protocol we were to adopt when in these higher-risk locations. At least he would be armed.

We received [information from a person purporting to be] a Moroccan English teacher who said s[he] knew that Madeleine was being held by a family of fisher folk by the shore of the Massa Lagoon, about an hour’s drive south of Agadir…the message described how the fisher-family was being paid to hold and look after Madeleine until she had physically aged and matured…During this time Madeleine was being dressed in traditional Moroccan child’s attire, was being taught Arabic, and had her hair cut and dyed…
Popular with tourists and ornithologists alike, birds visiting the Lagoon include flamingos, spoonbill, avocets, ducks, black and spotted sandgouse, godwit, turnstone, dunlin, snipe, black-headed bush shrike, little crake, white stork, black-winged stilt, marsh harrier and osprey. As far as cover for Metodo 3 was concerned, armed with binoculars, this ornithologists’ paradise was an excellent plume of cover.

While Paddy went to see his doctor to get the necessary inoculations for the trip, I busied myself co-ordinating the ground operation with the ladies of Helping to Find Maledeine who were going to pre-empt our arrival with a poster distribution.

Brian Kennedy walked in to Knutsford late in the afternoon…

REST SNIPPED


Other events around this time

Sat Sep 8 McCanns made arguidos

Mon Sep 10 McCanns return to England

Weds Sep 12 Dr Kate McCann says Edward Smethurst first contacted them

Fri Sep 14 Kennedy and Smethurst attend meeting with McCanns and several lawyers in London

Sat Sep 15 Gerry McCann blog entry:

“To that end I would like to announce that the Fund will finance a broad range of initiatives in advertising to remind everyone that Madeleine is still missing. These adverts will focus on Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe and will consist of billboards and other media. This financing of advertisements will complement previous efforts by the Fund and many motivated individuals – family, friends and people touched by our cause”.

"I hope that the general public will continue to support us in this.

"It is so important that we remember: ‘don't you forget about me’- our lovely wee Madeleine.”

John McCann issues a statement along similar lines

Sun Sep 16 Matt Baggott, Leicestershire Police Chief Constable, writes to the media ‘urging restraint’

Mon 17 Sep Clarence Mitchell officially resigns as Director of Tony Blair’s Media Monitoring Unit and begins to work full-time for the McCanns

Thurs Sep 20 McCanns say they meet five lawyers in London

Fri Sep 21 Kate & Gerry McCann publicly offer to take lie detector tests

Sun Sep 23 Press report announcing that Brian Kennedy will help to pay for legal expenses. There is absolutely no mention of him setting up an investigation HQ in Knutsford.

The press reports say:

“An Edinburgh-born tycoon has emerged as the mystery backer of the family of Madeleine McCann. Brian Kennedy, who is estimated to be worth £250m, broke his silence to explain why he is supporting the couple. His money is helping Gerry and Kate McCann have access to some of Britain's leading lawyers as well as the backing of a full-time media liaison officer.

He said: ‘I felt compelled to offer, along with other like-minded businessmen, financial support and the full logistical support of the Latium team. The support is principally our in-house lawyer, Ed Smethurst, and the official spokesman, Clarence Mitchell’

He continued: ‘This will relieve the McCanns of the daily pressure of coordinating the legal teams which will expedite the clearing of Gerry and Kate's names, allowing all the parties to refocus on finding Madeleine’.”

Mon Sep 24 Forensic Scientist from Control Risks comes to take hair samples from Dr Kate McCann, Sean and Amelie. They produced ‘negative results’.

Gerry McCann blog entry:

“Kate and I have been very busy with our legal advisers as we want to be eliminated from the inquiry as soon as possible and start concentrating wholeheartedly again on the search for our daughter. We are very confident this will happen when all the facts are presented together. We are very grateful and thankful to have several businessmen who have pledged financial support to cover legal costs and we were delighted Clarence Mitchell agreed to help us as an official spokesman. It is scary and daunting to imagine how we could have managed to deal with these latter ‘developments’ without such offers of support and commitment. Clarence will try and minimise the impact of the huge media interest in Madeleine’s disappearance on us, as we try and return slowly towards as normal a life as is possible”.

Tues Sep 25 Received a photograph from a Spanish tourist of a girl resembling Madeleine being carried on a peasant’s back. Brian Kennedy calls the McCanns and says he is flying out to Morocco to see if it is Madeleine

Tues 2 Oct Goncalo Amaral removed from the Madeleine McCann case

Fri 5 Oct Gerry McCann blog entry:

“The investigation will have a new coordinator appointed to replace chief inspector Amaral. We are happy to continue cooperating with the Portuguese authorities and in fact as arguidos, we can request that certain investigations are carried out”.

THE BARCELONA CONNEXION: From prosecuting Tony Bennett to winning damages for Elsa Pataky - ISABEL MARTORELL in action
Post Tony Bennett Today at 9:46 pm

New facts are coming to light about the strong links between Isabel Martorell (formerly Isabel Hudson) of Carter-Ruck and Barcelona.

For some time, her Facebook page has made reference to one of her favourite pursuits being 'spending long weekends in Catalonia'. Catalonia is a region in eastern Spain; Barcelona is its capital.

During the proceedings against me, Isabel Hudson, now Martorell, was throughout Carter-Ruck's lead Solicitor. She has been a Partner of Carter-Ruck for several years.

Just as it so happens, 'Martorell' happens to be a district of Barcelona, and indeed there is a court there - Martorell Court, a Court of 'First Instance'. As coincidence would have it, the criminal proceedings against McCann Team investigator Antonio Jiminez Raso and 26 others accused of various criminal offences including fraud, violent conduct, drug-dealing and theft of drugs began in February 2008 in the Court of Martorell, Barcelona.

Isabel Hudson changed her surname to Martorell in 2011.

Metodo 3 is based in Barcelona.

Further evidence of her close connexion with Barcelona is provided at this link:

"Privacy and the paparazzi: The Spanish Supreme Court view", by Eduardo Zamora and Isabel Martorell" (Translated from the Spanish)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I'd like to thank a friend in the West Country for drawing this particular article to my attention.

In case there is any doubt, let me make it clear that the above matters are no more than a collection of facts - and no imputation of any wrongdoing by Ms Martorell whatsoever is implied by the recitation of these facts.

THE ESSEX CONNECTION: Tony Bennett and Serious Criminal Activity in Essex

New facts are coming to light about the strong links between Tony Bennett the disgraced solicitor and very serious criminal activity in the county of Essex.

For some time it has been evident that there are links between Bennett and criminal activity in Essex. Simply type the three separate words Bennett, Crime, Essex into Google’s search box and the very first entry with which you are presented is the Wikipedia page of Anthony Bennett (Politician). One’s eye is immediately drawn to the label ‘politician’. This is clearly a falsehood because this man is not a current politician.

During Contempt of Court proceedings against Tony Bennett, Mr Justice Tugendhat was throughout most of the case the senior legal person involved. He is the senior media judge in England and Wales and has been for several years. One of the learned judge’s most important statements within the trial was, “I find that he [Anthony Bennett] was deliberately flouting the undertakings, and that his apology is insincere.”. In sentencing Bennett for his breaches of his undertakings to the High Court, Mr. Justice Tugendhat said, “Your conduct in this case has been so serious that I am satisfied that nothing less than a custodial sentence would reflect the seriousness of your breaches and the harm that you have done. The sentence will be one of three months custody.”

Just as it so happens, this was by no means Anthony Bennett’s first brush with the law. His Wikipedia page states the following in connection with his criminal actions in defacing and damaging public property. “Up to September 2004, Bennett was arrested six times as part of the group's campaign to remove metric signs which they claim are illegal. He was charged three times, but received only the one conviction in 2002.”

And just as it so happens, as coincidence would have it there is a connection between Mr Justice Tugendhat and Anthony Bennett which many may not know exist. Both have a parent who we are told come from Austria. Beyond that connection there is little similarity between the man who has been very successful in his career in the law and the man who has not.

Anthony Bennett changed his career once in 1987 from welfare advisor to solicitor and at some point after 2003 (when he was found guilty by a tribunal of “conduct unbefitting a solicitor” he changed from being a solicitor to being a person who takes it upon himself to interfere in legal cases which have next to nothing to do with him.

Anthony Bennett happens to come from a district of England called Essex. His former home in Harlow lies only 13 miles from the former home of a fellow Bennett. And at some time within the last year he has moved to Ongar which is only four miles from the home of this Billy Bennett, 22, of Great Fox Meadow, Kelvedon Hatch, an unemployed builder who kidnapped and repeatedly raped a young woman while high on cocaine was jailed last year for nine years. This trial also happened within the last year.

Further evidence of Anthony Bennett’s interest in s.e.x abuse in Essex is provided at this link. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... ue-service

I would like to thank former editors of the New Statesman and Spectator magazines who over the years provided me with wonderful competitions which got me interested in this style of article (and who bestowed upon me three prizes).

In case there is any doubt, let me make it clear that the above matters are no more than a collection of facts - and no imputation of any wrongdoing by Mr Anthony Bennett whatsoever is implied by the recitation of these facts.

Post Tony Bennett Today at 14:07
Chris Spivey is right about some things but wrong about many others.

I have read portions of his blog. He has good knowledge of certain things, but only some things.

He is very opinionated and the langauge (sic) is truly appalling.

IMO Spivey is flattered because Stephen Birch has rung him personally - and has fallen for Birch's absurd claims about his machine having found a 'space' under Murat's driveway. None of Birch's claims make any sense whatsoever. Spivey has blundered into the Madeleine McCann case without really knowing a thing about it.

Birch still rings me from time to time. He announced just a few days ago that he was about to be interviewed live on TV somewhere (I think he said in Europe) and wanted me to help him get his facts straight over the FSS handling of the body fluid/blood analysis. He couldn't properly follow why there were 15 out of 19 markers the first time round and then 15 out of 37 the next time. I patiently explained all this to him. He usually rambles on for 20 to 30 minutes about the case but this time I was on the point of going out so my answers were brief.

IMO neither Birch nor Spivey warrant anything but a brief mention on this forum.

Neither of them have anything new or helpful to offer CMOMM