Monday, August 10, 2009

Madeleine McCann: Circus Aus

David Edgar, the latest in a long line of unproductive private investigators hired by the McCanns, spent over thirty years in the British police force. During an unremarkable three decades working some of Britain's toughest streets, he failed to learn that "daughter" or "farmer's daughter" is street slang for a quarter of an ounce of drugs.

Demonstrating more loyalty to his paymasters Team McCann, than he does towards the principles of justice he once swore to uphold, PC (Pretend Cop) Edgar, with no authority or jurisdiction in any country (which is why he and his cohort were sent packing from Germany when they tried to harass a dying man), has sparked an international media circus that once again has caused the private lives of innocent people to be splashed over the front pages of Britain's sensationalist, short-of-facts newspapers.

People such as Judith Aron, identified as the Victoria Beckham Look-alike, who was unwittingly roped in as a star turn in the McCann three-ring-circus on the basis of "evidence" by a man described by PC Edgar as "credible".

The unidentified male witness (odd how so many McCann friendly witnesses are unidentified, yet the innocent victims of their so-called evidence are always named) was on a stag party in Spain, and by his own admission flitting from bar to bar at 2am.

While his wife was tucked up in bed back home in Britain, he struck up a conversation with an agitated woman wearing what he described as "expensive jeans". Not just any jeans you may note - expensive jeans. Perhaps he is a fashion designer, as not too many men looking through the bottom of a glass at 2am would be able to recall such fine detail over two years later. After all the "swarthy" "not nice" suspects we have become accustomed to over the past two years, Team McCann obviously decided it was time to go up-market and call in Posh and Armani.

This agitated woman who we later learned was waiting for a courier, asked the alleged witness "Are you here to deliver my new daughter?"

Let me see. We have an agitated woman, waiting for a courier at 2am, asking the witness if he is there to deliver her daughter - a word which is also street slang for a quarter of an ounce of "hey man, let's all get stoned".

If you were a hardened detective with over 30 years experience, which scenario would you consider more likely?

1. The agitated woman waiting for a courier in a bar in the early hours of the morning was expecting a delivery of something white and powdery

2. Three days after the high profile alleged disappearance of a photogenic little girl with a rare eye deformity, she was waiting in a crowded bar area to take delivery of her new three year old daughter.

From what I can see the only thing that makes this witness "credible" in the eyes of PC Edgar, is the fact he is apparently a "professional" something that seems to make all the difference to Team McCann. It is not the first time a McCann friendly witness has been described as credible because they are "professional". Obviously being a professional such as Dr Harold Shipman, the Glasgow Airport bombers, Burgess, Mclean, Anthony Blunt and Lord Lucan, sets such people aside from what Gerry McCann once famously described as "ordinary people". It must take a person of substance to get into Gerry's handy little Address Book.

Ms Aron now has a sign outside her house asking media to stay away. Kate and Gerry McCann have no need for such a sign as they do all their talking through a highly paid media spokesman - the rapidly aging Clarence Mitchell. The McCanns only deal with the media when it suits their agenda, preferring to avoid masses for Madeleine in their home town, as well as refusing to participate in anything resembling an official police reconstruction of the night Madeleine allegedly vanished.

The last two years we have seen how easy it is to become the innocent victims of a relentless PR campaign to defend the McCann's reputation. Perhaps Kate and Gerry realised before others how easy it is to become unwitting targets in a hunt for a missing child. Maybe that is why they spent so little time in the company of their children during a family holiday - preferring instead to spend their days and nights in the company of other young couples.

Update An article in the Daily Mail dated August 16, 2009 entitled So why did Madeleine McCann detectives ask so few questions after major breakthrough? asks even more questions of the private, unofficial investigators and their failure to comply with commonly accepted standards of professionalism.