BENNETT ON THE NEW BOOK SECTION ABOUT THE HATERS

Re: A VERY QUICK FIRST SCAN OF 'LOOKING FOR MADELEINE'
Post Tony Bennett Today at 7:56 pm

MORE ABOUT 'THE HATERS' (CHAPTER 17)

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Some nasty letters from people are quoted.

Murderer John Hirst gets a mention on pp. 205-6 for his opposition to the McCanns.

Steve Marsden’s book ‘Faked Abduction’, written under the pen-name of Brian Johnson, gets a mention on p. 206.

‘Pamalam’, named as ‘retiree Pam Watson’. Is accused of ‘creating an illusion that the site was Gerry McCann’s’ (p. 207). Anonymous translators ‘Ines’, ‘Albym’ and ‘Luz’ get mentioned.

Nigel Moore’s ‘mccannfiles’ site gets a mention on pp. 207-8. Both Pam Watson and Nigel Moore ‘did not respond to requests by the authors to discuss their work’.

Nigel’s site is referred to as ‘a vast compendium of McCann-related press reports and videos’ and includes ‘Moore’s own take on the case’. Moore is criticised (p. 208) for having the following caption - The Blue Fairy speaking to Pinocchio - under a photograph of Gerry McCann: “A lie keeps growing and growing until it’s as plain as the nose on your face”. This, say Summers and Swan, is contrary to the stated purpose of his site, which proclaims it exists: “To find out what really happened to Maddie and bring her home”. Summers and Swan moan about Nigel’s ‘Donate’ button: “The donate button was still there in 2014”.

Joana Morais gets the Summers & Swan treatment on pp. 208-9: ‘A prominent online dissenter’. Morais “is another of those who did not reply to the authors’ correspondence”. Joana is allowed to speak, however, with an 11-line direct quote from her, in which she says: “I’m very proud of ,my small and beautiful country, and even prouder of my people and history, and though by writing my blog and using my real name I’m running a risk, I’ll keep on defending my country”.

Next up is ‘Bren Ryan’ (pp. 209-210), summed up as ‘an Englishwoman in her mid-fifties’. The chapter concludes with Ryan’s repentance. “I took time to read he files carefully…I started to think that Kate and Gerry and their friends are innocent in all this…a forum like ‘The 3 Arguidos’ should never in this world have been given an inch of cyberspace…there was no evidence to support the many allegations pertaining to the theory that Kate and Gerry McCann were involved in their daughter’s disappearance”. Ryan wrote to the authors earlier this year and said: “I did something that that was morally wrong…I apologised to [the McCanns] in an open letter…”

More later