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Criminal Profiler Pat Brown
represented by prominent attorney Anne Bremner in freedom of
speech action Credit: Pat Brown/Anne Bremner |
Driven by her desire for truth and
justice for missing Madeleine McCann, Criminal Profiler Pat Brown is
planning a trip to Portugal Monday.
Madeleine is the British girl who went
missing from a resort in Portugal nearly five years ago.
Madeleine disappeared on the evening of
Thursday, May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday. She was on
vacation with her parents and twin siblings in Portugal and went missing
from an apartment in the central area of the resort of Praia da Luz. Her
parents claimed they left the children alone while they ate at a nearby
restaurant.
According to a news report by
Telegraph.co.uk,
the initial investigation into Madeleine’s
disappearance was based on the assumption she was abducted. The report
states Portugal police later determined there was a strong possibility
she may have died in her room.
In September 2007, Madeleine’s parents,
Gerry and Kate McCann, and local resident Robert Murat, were named
arguidos.
Their arguido [suspect] status was lifted
in July 2008 because there was not enough evidence to charge them with a
crime, Brown said Friday.
Telegraph.co.uk
reports
the case was archived but can be reopened if new evidence emerges.
Pat Brown said there are two camps over
Madeleine’s disappearance: one of a child who was abducted by a stranger
and the other of a child who died, possibly an accidental death. She
said there were suspicious circumstances surrounding Madeleine’s
disappearance and that it was never proven that Madeleine was abducted.
In recent years the McCanns have
instructed their solicitors, Carter-Ruck, to send numerous
cease-and-desist letters to people who have publicly questioned their
possible involvement in their daughter's disappearance.
While Pat Brown was not the recipient of
a cease-and-desist letter from the McCanns a 30-page, self-published
eBook she wrote detailing what she believes may have happened to
Madeleine was pulled from sale at the direction of the McCanns.
Fight for freedom of speech
Pat Brown's book, Profile of the
Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, was removed from sale by Amazon
following a claim by Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, that
the book was defamatory.
Carter-Ruck, one of the leading media and
defamation law firms in the world, acted on behalf of the McCann’s when
they sent a letter to Amazon requesting they pull Brown’s book.
Brown said Friday, “This is important
because Carter-Ruck is one of the most feared legal firms in the world
for their libel work and this is why Amazon pulled the book; it wasn't
worth it for them to have to go up against these legal giants.
"The overly strict libel laws of the UK,
along with Carter-Ruck's going after so many, has caused the press
to be afraid to print certain stories like this one about my
Cease-and-Desist letter.
"In fact, Carter-Ruck is such a force,
people say, 'Oh, you've been Carter-Rucked'.”
A press release issued Wednesday by Brown
and her attorney, Anne Bremner, said Brown is fighting back "for the
cause of freedom of speech and justice."
Anne Bremner is a high-profile attorney
with Seattle's prominent Stafford Frey Cooper law firm. She has issued a
cease-and-desist letter to the McCanns' on behalf of Pat Brown. Scroll
down to read Bremner's letter.
Brown alleges the McCanns have interfered
with her "right to conduct business" and have damaged her professional
reputation with their successful removal of her book from sale on
Amazon.
She joins the others who believe their
quest for truth and justice for Madeleine has been thwarted by the
McCann’s and their high-powered attorneys.
Women in Crime Ink,
a blog described as
“a well of thoughts on crime and media issues from women criminal
justice professionals and authors”, shared Wednesday's press release
that read in part:
“Next week, on February 8th, retired
solicitor Tony Bennett faces English prison as the McCanns’ fight to
shut down his efforts to bring focus to aspects of the missing child
case that point to the parents’ possible involvement.
“Also, the McCanns have sued the
detective on their daughter’s case, Dr. Goncalo Amaral, for libel and
have had his book, Truth of the Lie, pulled off the worldwide market.
The trial is scheduled in Portugal for April.
“Now, Pat Brown has fought back for the
cause of freedom of speech and justice, alleging that the McCanns have
interfered with her right to conduct business and have damaged her
professional reputation with their successful removal of her book from
sale. On Monday, Pat will leave for Portugal to continue her quest for
truth and justice in the case of Madeleine McCann.”
Last August, Brown said during an
interview on the Jim Bohannon Show that she contacted Amazon when she
realized her book was no longer listed for sale on their site.
One of the first questions Jim Bohannon
asked was, “What happened with Amazon?”
Brown responded that there has been
controversy over Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, over the
past four years. She said the controversy is, “Did the McCanns’ have
anything to do with the disappearance of their daughter, or, was their
child abducted by some predator or child sex ring, or somebody who
wanted a little child?” [Jim Bohannon Show, [
Part 1,
Part 2.]
She said there are two camps over
Madeleine’s disappearance, one of a child who was abducted by a stranger
and the other of a child who died, possibly an accidental death. Brown
said there were suspicious circumstances surrounding Madeleine’s
disappearance and that it was never proved an abduction took place.
Trip to Portugal
The press release states:
During her trip to Portugal, Pat Brown
will study the town of Praia da Luz and environs, reconstruct the crime,
and examine possible locations as to where Madeleine might have been
taken, dead or alive. If she discovers evidence to support a theory
other than the one that was the focus of her book, she will pursue that
information.
She is looking forward to meeting with
Dr. Goncalo Amaral, the ex-detective on the McCann case. Meanwhile, it
is her hope and that of her lawyer, Anne Bremner, that the McCanns
rethink their actions regarding the Profile of the Disappearance of
Madeleine McCann and instruct their solicitors to have Amazon return the
book to the market.
The book is available on Smashwords and
Barnes & Noble online.
Anne Bremner's letter to the McCanns
Cease-and-Desist Letter
Anne M. Bremner
Stafford Frey Cooper, PC
3100 Two Union Square
601 Union Street
Seattle, WA 98101-1374
February 1, 2012
Adam Tudor
Carter-Ruck
6 St Andrew Street
London EC4A 3AE
England
Dear Mr. Tudor,
In July 2011, American criminal profiler,
author, and television commentator, Pat Brown, released on June 15, 2011
a self-published book of thirty-pages on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and
Amazon.de, for the price of US2.99. It was titled Profile of the
Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, sold 850 copies over the next five
weeks and garnered 49 nearly all five star reviews on Amazon.uk alone.
Then, the book vanished from sale on all three sites. Upon questioning,
Pat Brown was informed by Amazon that they had received communications
from Carter-Ruck on behalf of their clients Gerald and Kate McCann that
the book was defamatory.
Mon 7/25/2011 7:27 PM
Dear Pat,
We have received a notice of defamation
from Carter-Ruck Solicitors that says the content of Profile of the
Disappearance of Madeleine McCann (UPDATED) B0055WYVCQ, contains
defamatory statements regarding their clients, Gerry and Kat (sic)
McCann.
Because we have no method of determining
whether the content supplied to us is defamatory, we have removed the
title from sale and will not reinstate it unless we receive confirmation
from both parties that this matter has been resolved.
Carter-Ruck can be reached at:
6 St Andrew Street
London EC4A 3AE
T 020 7353 5005
Best regards,
Robert F.
http://www.amazon.com
This was quite a surprise to Pat Brown as
she had never received any communications from the McCanns nor their
solicitors concerning any defamatory material in this book, nor had she
ever received any communication concerning any defamatory material in
her blogs on the case she has posted online at The Daily Profiler over
the last four years. As Ms. Brown is an analyst of evidence, she is
careful to not state anything as a fact that is not a fact and to
clearly state what is a hypothesis or a theory as opposed to proof. She
has publicly and repeated explained to anyone reading her analyses of
crime that criminal profiling is a methodology which explores the
possible and theoretical scenarios that might be considered as logical
based on evidence connected with the crime - forensic, linguistic, or
behavioral. Any findings resulting from investigative tools which are
not acceptable in certain courts of law (such as cadaver dogs or
polygraphs) are noted as suitable for speculation, but not as solid
proof of anyone’s guilt or involvement in criminal activities. Criminal
profiling itself is an investigative tool and not a finding of guilt as
Pat Brown clearly notes in her book.
Due to the speculative, if analytical,
nature of Deductive Criminal Profiling, the methodology used by Pat
Brown, she was careful to repeat numerous times throughout her
publication that she was not accusing the McCanns of being involved in
any crime or in the disappearance of their daughter, Madeleine. She was
clearly only “purporting a theory” and exercising “free speech,” both
manners of communication Gerry McCann stated he strongly supported under
oath at the Leveson Inquiry on November 23, 2011 in London:
"I would like to emphasize that I
strongly believe in freedom of speech, but where you have people who are
repeatedly carrying out inaccuracies and have been shown to do so, then
they should be held to account. That is the issue. I don't have a
problem with somebody purporting a theory, writing fiction, suggestions,
but clearly we've got to a stage where substandard reporting and
sources, unnamed, made-up, non-verifiable, are a daily occurrence.”
Gerry McCann
Pat Brown also believes in free speech
and the right to purport a theory, it would seem she and Gerry McCann
are in agreement that any work that purports a theory as opposed to
false statements of fact is acceptable under freedom of speech. Pat
Brown’s Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann opens up
discussion of what happened to the McCann’s daughter, further
stimulating interest in the case, and keeping Madeleine in the minds of
the public. As the McCanns claim this is what they want, Pat Brown’s
book is in accordance with this desire. In fact, it is the McCanns
themselves who have clearly encouraged massive interest and speculation
on this case. Pat Brown is in no way, therefore, infringing on any wish
to keep talk about the case to a minimum.
By speaking and writing out quite often
and in such a high profile manner, the McCanns have succeeded in making
Madeleine McCann the most well-known missing child in modern history
(since the Lindbergh baby in 1932). They have stimulated debate
worldwide as to what happened to Madeleine. They have publicly purported
their own theories; that someone took Madeleine because they wanted to
raise a child, that she is being held captive in a sex ring, and that a
pedophile had taken her. They have publicly disclosed many details of
the case and repeatedly told their version of what occurred before,
during, and after the disappearance of the daughter. They have discussed
their emotions, behaviors, and opinions. Pat Brown is carrying on that
discussion.
Utmost of importance in the entire
matter, is the handling and funding of child abduction cases, the
prevailing attitudes toward these crimes, and the future of catching
child predators. Because the victims are so young and innocent, missing
children are among the most publicized cases in the world. In the last
three decades with the increase of the Internet and the 24-hour news
cycle, awareness of child sex predators and stranger child abduction has
radically increased fears of parents that their child will be taken and
murdered. In reality, stranger abduction continues to be exceedingly
rare for children of Madeleine’s age. Regardless, the paranoia that is
engendered when a small child goes missing is a great stress to the
community, the police, and resources. Therefore, it is extremely
important that each and every case be properly analyzed and understood
so that wrong ideas aren’t promulgated and funding and efforts are
wasted investigating such crimes improperly. Each child that goes
missing is a terrible tragedy for the parents, siblings, relative,
friends, and community. Pat has great empathy for any family of a
missing child and, most of all, compassion for the innocent young person
who has suffered abuse, terror, sexual assault, and, possibly, an early
death at the hands of others.
We are requesting that you respect Pat
Brown’s right to free speech and to purport a theory as Gerry McCann has
stated is not a problem for him. We request that the claim of libel be
retracted for the Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann and
the book permitted to be returned for sale at Amazon.
Respectfully,
Anne M. Bremner |