The purpose of
this site is for information and a record of Gerry McCann's Blog
Archives. As most people will appreciate GM deleted all past blogs
from the official website. Hopefully this Archive will be helpful to
anyone who is interested in Justice for Madeleine Beth McCann. Many
Thanks, Pamalam
Note: This site does not belong to the McCanns. It belongs to Pamalam. If
you wish to contact the McCanns directly, please use
the contact/email details
campaign@findmadeleine.com
Updates
29 November, 2012
I welcome
Lord Leveson's report today and hope it will mark the
start of a new era for our press in which it treats those in the
news responsibly, with care and consideration.
Needless to say, more time will be needed to read, digest and
understand all the implications of the report but my initial
impressions are positive (assuming implementation).
Some important points are worth labouring, especially when there is
an element of scaremongering (intentional or otherwise) through
the use of misleading language:
We, and the other core participant victims, are all totally in
favour of freedom of speech. Nobody is advocating a loss of this
basic human right. But freedom of speech does not equate to
freedom to slander.
None of us want, or is requesting, a government-controlled press.
We want a free press but one which is responsible,
accountable and independently regulated. This is not a big
ask. The press can do a lot of good -we’ve experienced this. But
it can also destroy lives -and we’ve had a more than a fair
share of that too. Any professional organisation or industry
which has the potential to do harm should be accountable for its
actions. Why should the media be exempt from this? Ensuring
responsible journalism and accountability is paramount.
It is important to keep in mind what the Leveson Inquiry is about.
We gave evidence to the inquiry last year because we don’t
want anyone else to suffer as we, our family and the search
for our missing daughter did at the hands of our press. It is
this need to prevent such harm to others in the future that has
driven the core participant victims to assist the inquiry. We
need a system such as that recommended by Lord Leveson to have
any hope of achieving this.
Legislative underpinning is not statutory regulation and
implementation of such is quite some way from ‘crossing the
Rubicon’.
I hope the Prime Minister, like the other party leaders, will
embrace Lord Leveson’s report and act swiftly to ensure
activation of his recommendations within an acceptable and
clearly defined time-scale.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Lord Leveson and the
legal team for their colossal efforts throughout the inquiry to
date. I truly hope it will lead to an historic and more
importantly, crucial achievement for all in our society.
Thank you to everybody who has supported our summer campaign
again. By displaying the new poster, car sticker or luggage tag
of Madeleine, awareness of her plight is maintained, as is our
appeal to the general public to keep looking for her.
We are constantly thinking of new ways to improve our search for
Madeleine: we don’t know what it will be, or what it will take
to bring us that vital call. It may even turn out to be a simple
case of ‘the right place at the right time’ which is why we need
to persevere in our efforts and to keep prompting people.
The Metropolitan Police are continuing with the investigative
review and we are really encouraged by their work. We continue
to hope that the case will be re-opened in Portugal in the near
future so that the investigation to find our daughter can be
resumed.
The nationwide campaign that I’ve been involved in, as part of
my ambassadorial role
for the charity
‘Missing
People’,
is now in its tenth week. This campaign has been possible thanks
to the generous help of the Outdoor Media Centre and its members
in partnership with the team at Missing People. Images of
missing children and adults have been displayed on huge
billboards in many cities throughout the UK, appealing to the
general public for help. Already many vulnerable have been found
since the campaign started which is obviously fantastic news.
Thank you to everyone who has supported this initiative and
responded to these appeals. Your help is invaluable. (More
updates in due course)
We continue to feel humbled but at the same time buoyed by the
amount of support we still receive from so many people. It helps
us enormously and undoubtedly helps our search for Madeleine
too. Thank you.
We have updated our online store to make it easier to purchase
items to help in the search for Madeleine. Please let us know if
you come across any issues when ordering.
Thank you for everything you do to help us in the search.
Thank you for not giving up on Madeleine
Madeleine is still missing and we continue to need
your help in finding her. Thank you for not giving
up on her and continuing the search.
Since the Metropolitan Police began their review of Madeleine’s
case in May 2011, thankfully the demands on ourselves and our
investigators have reduced. However we still have (and need!) a
small team of very committed and experienced people working hard
to help us find Madeleine and others available to step in and
assist should the need arise.
The 24-hour ‘hotline’ for people to call with information is
still functioning on 0845 838 4699 for people who would prefer
to contact us directly.
Along with a campaign coordinator and translators/interpreters,
the team has several individuals with invaluable marketing,
advertising and I.T. skills who help with the general campaign
to find Madeleine.
Of course probably the biggest and most valuable resource we
have in our search for Madeleine is the eyes, ears and minds of
the general public. Thank you to everyone who has, and continues
to help us with our efforts to find her. Please keep going!
day, 25th May, is
International Missing Children’s
Day (IMCD)– a day to remember the many thousands of
children who go missing every year from all around
the world.
We hope that this date will become ingrained in
people’s minds as we work together to tackle this
vast and devastating problem.
This year in the UK, IMCD has been marked by the launch of two
highly valuable initiatives:
1.
The charity ‘Missing People’
(www.missingpeople.org.uk)
have launched a new single telephone number, 116 000, as
the number to call for advice, help and support if you, or your
loved one go missing. It is free, available 24 hours a day and
confidential.
(NB: To report a missing child, call 999)
2. The ‘Child Exploitation and Online Protection’ centre (CEOP;
www.ceop.police.uk
) in association with 'Parents &
Abducted Children together’ (PACT;
www.pact-online.org ) have launched a brand new
version of the MissingKids website,
www.missingkids.co.uk . This website includes
information and appeals about the many missing children, in or
from the UK, and enables law enforcement agencies to disseminate
data and photographs of these children worldwide. The website is
an important tool for finding missing children and reuniting
them with their families.
Our appeal to you:
Every year in the UK alone, more than a quarter of a million
people are reported missing. An estimated 140,000 are children.
Behind every missing child or adult case is a family suffering
immensely through heartache and confusion.
Please remember the new number, 116 000. Store it in
your mobile phone and pass it on to others. One day, you might
just need it, and then it will be a lifeline.
Visit www.missingkids.co.uk and
circulate the web address to your contacts. Please spend ten
minutes looking through the different pictures of missing
children on the website. It has been estimated that one missing
child in seven (1 in 7!) is found because a member of the
general public has recognised them after seeing their
photograph. Every one of us can make a difference.
And finally, thank you to the Government, the charities and
organisations, the businesses and the general public for helping
to raise awareness, providing critical resources and for joining
the search. Let’s keep it going!
Kate
Find Madeleine Campaign Joins Big Tweet for Missing
Children
On International Missing Children’s Day 25 May, 2012 the Find
Madeleine Campaign will join Stephen Fry in helping to safely
reconnect missing children by taking part in the charity Missing
People’s
Big Tweet for Missing Children.
The charity will be tweeting a different appeal for a missing
child every 30 minutes for 24 hours. The Find Madeleine Campaign
is supporting this creative digital campaign by retweeting the
appeals that Missing People tweet to their followers.
Stephen Fry, a patron of Missing People said, “A staggering
130,000 children go missing in the UK every year. On
International Missing Children’s Day (Friday 25 May), I will
once again join the charity Missing People in harnessing the
power of Twitter to help find missing children via The Big Tweet
for Missing Children. You can take part too, by retweeting the
appeals for missing children that the charity will tweet every
30 minutes.
On this day, the charity will also be launching 116 000 – the
new hotline number to call or text for support if you or someone
you love goes missing. So please add #116000 to all your tweets
and help to spread the word about this important new number. You
never know when someone you love might need it.”
On the same day, the charity Missing People will also be
working with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
(CEOP) and Parents & Abducted Children Together (PACT) to launch
a new Missing Kids website.
If you would like to join the Find Madeleine Campaign in taking
part in the Big Tweet for Missing Children, you can find more
information at www.missingpeople.org.uk/bigtweet2012
It's hard to
define succinctly how it feels to have reached five years
without Madeleine. Impossible, heart-breaking, frightening,
exasperating, incomprehensible. Sometimes it feels like forever
and at other times, just like yesterday.
What is
certain though is that since the Metropolitan Police review was
commenced last May, the chances of finding Madeleine and
discovering what happened are now significantly greater.
Additionally, albeit less importantly, our lives and those of
our family have been much more bearable over the past year,
simply by knowing those stones are finally being turned.
We hope that
the investigation will be reopened in Portugal soon, as this
will give us the best possible chance of finding Madeleine and
the person who committed this crime - of solving the case. The
term 'mystery' (commonly used by the media) is not applicable
until all possible avenues have been explored. They haven't
been, and can't be until the case is reopened.
The
age-progression image of Madeleine released last week is an
important tool in the search for Madeleine. We believe this
image bears a strong resemblance to what Madeleine will look
like now. Please help us by distributing this image as far and
wide as you can. Someone might just recognise her.
Abducted
children have been found many years following their
disappearance.
We cannot
give up. We won't give up. Please keep looking for Madeleine.
And if you
know something, please do the right thing:
CONTACT:
OPERATION GRANGE on 0207 321 9251 (0044 207 321 9251 from
outside the UK) or Operation.Grange@met.pnn.police.uk
OR
CRIMESTOPPERS in confidence on 0800 555111;
www.crimestoppers-uk.org
We'd like to
take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us,
comforted us, battled with us, cried and laughed with us over
the past five years. We couldn't have made it this far on our
own. Your support has been amazing, invaluable and very, very
humbling. Thank you.
This is a new
age-progression image of Madeleine, commissioned by the
Metropolitan Police. It is a guide as to what Madeleine may look
like now, aged 9.
If you see a
young girl who looks like this, PLEASE CONTACT:
Your local
police force immediately, AND
Operation
Grange
on 0800 0906
1011 (in the UK free call)
+44(0)202 158
0126 (non-UK free call)
or
Operation.Grange@met.pnn.police.uk
OR
Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555111
Thank you.
If you know
where Madeleine is now or who was involved in her abduction, or
if you were in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's
abduction (3rd May 2007) and have not spoken to anyone in the
police, please contact Operation Grange or Crimestoppers using
the contact details above.
It's never
too late to do the right thing!
Home Page
DAY 1819
campaign Page 25/04/2012
campaign
Page
HAVE YOU SEEN ME?
This is a new
age-progression image of Madeleine, commissioned by the
Metropolitan Police. It is a guide as to what Madeleine may look
like now, aged 9.
If you see a
young girl who looks like this, PLEASE CONTACT:
Your local
police force immediately, AND
Operation
Grange
on 0800 0906
1011 (in the UK free call)
+44(0)202 158
0126 (non-UK free call)
or
Operation.Grange@met.pnn.police.uk
OR
Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555111
Thank you.
If you know
where Madeleine is now or who was involved in her abduction, or
if you were in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's
abduction (3rd May 2007) and have not spoken to anyone in the
police, please contact Operation Grange or Crimestoppers using
the contact details above .LINK
On Saturday,
Gerry and I, along with our friends and hundreds of other
runners ran in the 'Miles for Missing People' 10K event in
Regent's Park, London.
It was
greatly encouraging - judging from the brilliant turnout - to
see that the weather and resulting conditions (rain, wind and
mud!) didn't put any of us off. It was also fantastic to have so
many children there, participating in the fun run. Well done!
A huge thank
you to everyone who supported the event (including all those who
generously sponsored me and other runners). In doing so you have
contributed to the essential work done by the team at Missing
People, and thereby helped the many missing children and adults,
and their families left behind.
And finally,
thank you to
Missing People for all their
hard work and commitment, day in day out, to make the lives of
people like ourselves that bit more bearable.
It's
Christmas - again. A time of mixed emotions for our family and
many others in similar positions around the world. A time to
hold together.
Thank you to
all our supporters for your help throughout the year and for
remaining united with us in our longing and determination to
find Madeleine.
The year has
ended on a positive note. Our search for Madeleine and the
Metropolitan Police review of the case are progressing well. In
addition, this December saw a landmark event for the protection
of, and support for, missing children and their families left
behind. The
Government's Missing Children and Adults'
Strategy aims to reduce the number of people who go
missing; to protect the missing whilst they are away and to give
families access to support, similar to victims of crime. The
strategy follows 12 months of campaigning by individuals and
organisations like the charity
Missing People.
Thank you to
everyone who supported this campaign and influenced this
significant development.
This
Christmas, please keep Madeleine and all missing loved ones and
their families in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.
The support
you give enables us to move into 2012 with renewed energy and
continued hope.
