On the same day in Leicester at the Walkers Stadium, the official Madeleine Fund (Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited) was being launched in a blaze of glory featuring professional rugby player Martin Johnson. The nucleus of the first directors of the company were in attendance – Kate’s uncle Brian Kennedy, John McCann, Esther McVey and Doug Skehan.

The following day in the McCanns’ village of Rothley, Gerry McCann’s mother Ellen stood by the War Memorial that was awash with flowers and messages of support for the McCann family. Ellen applauded the help given by Gerry’s boss Doug Skehan and she added that Gerry had been uplifted in Portugal because the fund had started.

Brian Kennedy also gave an interview at the Rothley War Memorial on May 17, 2007. This time he was eager to tell us how to donate money to the “Fund” via two banks – the Nat West and the Royal Bank of Scotland. He also told us what the money would be used for:

“Mainly for legal expenditure”

As this was the first raison d’etre for the Madeleine Fund, and confirmed nationally by one of its directors, we can conclude that the Madeleine Fund was set up to provide legal funds for the McCanns.

At no time at all did Brian Kennedy state that the money was to be used to finance the search for Madeleine.

Quoted in the Daily Record (here), Patricia Cameron said:

“It is so hard to watch Kate and Gerry push themselves constantly. When Madeleine first went missing, family and friends had to step in to help them pay the mortgage.

“Money is constantly tight but they have to keep going. They will never give up looking and that costs money. Families of the missing still need to pay bills while they search but there is no right to any financial help.”

Back at the end of October 2007, it was revealed that the McCanns had used the fund set up to look for their daughter to pay mortgage payments on their home. This, understandably caused an outrage and their spokesman Clarence Mitchell clarified the situation in a BBC article (here). Mitchell said:

“The fund has always had the ability to assist the family financially if necessary. Kate and Gerry McCann stopped using the fund in September when they were made formal suspects in the case.”

Money, or lack of it, is always a motive in a homicide case. Why did the British Government deny the Portuguese police the necessary financial information on Kate Healy and Gerry McCann? Surely in a homicide case this information was crucial to the investigators in trying to establish if there was a motive behind Madeleine’s disappearance. Patrica Cameron has revealed what a lot of people believed at the time – that Madeleine McCann’s parents were in financial difficulty.

Here is the full article as published in the Daily Record on December 23, 2010:

Madeleine McCann’s aunt explains why she has joined charity for missing people.. and how search for little girl goes on

Dec 23 2010 Exclusive by Annie Brown

IN the window of Patricia Cameron’s porch is a photo of her niece Madeleine McCann with the caption, “Still missing, still missed, still looking.”

Another Christmas is about to pass, the fourth since Madeleine disappeared in May 2007, leaving only pain and longing behind.

Patricia said: “Christmas is one of the toughest times. But every family occasion is marred because there is a little person who is not there.

“It doesn’t get any easier. If anything, it gets harder.”

This week, Patricia became a family representative for the charity Missing People, who help with searches and support those left behind.

She wanted to take on the role to highlight the plight of the many left with a void in their life – the parents, the children, the sisters, the brothers, the uncles and the aunts of the missing.

The organisation are asking the Government to give families of missing people the same rights as victims of crime, access to legal and financial assistance and emotional support.

It hurts Patricia deeply to watch her little brother Gerry and his wife Kate grow emotionally and physically weaker because of the loss and endless searching for Madeleine.

Patricia said: “Gerry is the baby of the family. I feel very protective and it hurts me to see him looking so tired. They are both just exhausted. They have so much on their plate.

“They are overwhelmed by trying to be breadwinners, investigators and parents. That’s why I support the Missing Rights campaign. People need all the help they can get.”

Madeleine was snatched from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3, 2007, as Gerry and Kate dined nearby.

For the McCanns, there was a desperate need for funds to pay for legal advice and a worldwide search.

Patricia said: “It is so hard to watch Kate and Gerry push themselves constantly. When Madeleine first went missing, family and friends had to step in to help them pay the mortgage.

“Money is constantly tight but they have to keep going. They will never give up looking and that costs money. Families of the missing still need to pay bills while they search but there is no right to any financial help.”

After Madeleine disappeared, Patricia took on the role of babysitter for Kate and Gerry’s twins, Sean and Amelie, now five, while their parents searched.

As a result, there is a close bond between Patricia and the children.

She bathes the twins when she visits the McCanns and chats to them about Madeleine and her memories of her.

Patricia said: “Kate listens sometimes. It is always nice for her to hear someone else’s memories of Madeleine, something more of her little girl.”

There are treasured photos of Madeleine as a toddler, with her aunt holding her in her arms. Patricia was Madeleine’s godmother and there was a special bond between them.

When Patricia and her mum, Eileen, visited her son, Paul, who was studying medicine at Cambridge, she would pick Madeleine up from the nearby McCann family home and take her on a special day out.

Patricia said: “She would say to the twins they were too little to come and so it was just her. That made her feel grown-up. We would have lunch and feed ducks in the park. Not expensive things, just precious memories.

“There were times she had my mum and I in stitches. She was so sharp and funny.”

And Patricia remembers vividly a holiday in Ireland with 46 extended family and friends, and playing rounders on the beach.

Patricia said: “Madeleine was a little daredevil. She was the only one who would go in the water. It was the Atlantic and it was freezing. She was a determined little thing.”

Madeleine’s grandparents suffer terribly. Eileen and Kate’s parents, Susan and Brian Healy, fear they’ll never see her again.

Patricia said: “My mum and Kate’s parents have become very close. They understand each other and what they are going through.

“It is hard for them. They think about Madeleine all the time and have some terrible days. A friend of my mum’s died recently. When she was sick, she told my mum she would send her a sign from heaven to let her know if Madeleine was there.”

Eileen calls the twins her bonny lassie and bonny laddie, and carries one under each arm.

Patricia added: “They are crazy about their granny.”

Christmas cards from the McCanns are still signed with the names of all three children.

And there are still Christmas presents in Madeleine’s room ready for her to come home.

In the meantime, Kate is exhausted juggling family life with writing a book she hopes will help finance the continued search for her daughter.

It is expected to be in shops next April, to coincide with the fourth anniversary of her disappearance.

Patricia is a nurse and the hands-on carer in the family.

Perhaps that’s why it is unusual for her to take on a task like this for Missing People. The lobbying and the campaigning have always been roles for Gerry and Kate.

But they are just too busy. Patricia spent a few days with them last week to give them a break before Christmas.

She said: “Gerry has changed. He is more serious and is always exhausted. It breaks my heart to see him like that.

“Kate has always been thin but they have just had the cold and she looks even thinner now.

“They are both drained emotionally, psychologically and physically.

“They are on a treadmill. They are trying to do their best for their wee daughter who is missing and they are trying to do their best for the wee twins in front of them.

“That’s why organisations like Missing People are vital. I wish at the beginning we had used the kind of support they offer.”

Patricia will never give up hope that Madeleine will be found.

She said: “There are cases of people being hidden and kept for years and those cases give you hope. You have to think like that.

“She could be alive. We just haven’t found her.”

There were over 40,000 incidents of people going missing in Scotland last year.

Missing People have caring, highly skilled staff and volunteers working around the clock all over the UK.

The role of Family Representative is the first of several planned new volunteer opportunities available in Scotland, and involves acting as a spokesperson to the media and local community.

See www.missingpeople.org.uk

Three years of heartbreak

TIMELINE

May 3, 2007 Madeleine disappears from Praia da Luz, days before her fourth birthday.

May 7, 2007 Police release a description of the kidnapper.

May 10, 2007 Police question Kate and Gerry about why their kids were alone in the apartment.

May 11, 2007 Search of local area called off.

May 12, 2007 Madeleine’s fourth birthday.

May 15, 2007 Local resident Robert Murat is named as an official suspect.

Late May 2007 McCanns enlist help of private investigators.

May 30, 2007 McCanns meet the Pope in Rome.

June 17, 2007 Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa claims vital clues may have been destroyed.

September 7, 2007 Gerry and Kate named as suspects.

September 9, 2007 Gerry and Kate return home.

September 16, 2007 Sir Richard Branson donates £100,000 for McCanns’ legal bill.

October 2, 2007 Policeman in charge of inquiry is removed from case and demoted.

November 1, 2007 Gerry returns to work as surgeon.

July 21, 2008 Robert Murat and Kate and Gerry McCann have official suspect status lifted.

July 21, 2008 Portuguese attorney general archives the case. It can be reopened if new evidence comes to light.

May 1, 2009 A projected photo of Madeleine aged six is released.

May 22, 2009 Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett denies anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.

December 21, 2009 Facebook page claiming to be created by Madeleine’s kidnapper is removed.

January 28, 2010 On 1000th day since disappearance, McCanns host a £150-a-head fundraising dinner.

November 2, 2010 McCanns launch online petition calling for joint review of the case by Portuguese and UK governments.

November 3, 2010 McCanns appeal for cash as Find Madeleine Fund, which once topped £2million, runs dry.

Hear the interview at this link: http://content.mediaworks.co.nz/radio/radiolive/Marcus/Sept/070920_LUSH_mccann.mp3

Near the end of the interview Clarence says this:

I’d stress as well that the money that people have donated from around the world is only being spent on that campaign and Kate and Gerry’s legal costs and media management in the shape of me that’s all coming from the financial benefactors who are contributing quite separately so that anybody who has given money to help find Madeleine need have no fear that their money is being spent on lawyers fees or anything like that.

This statement is quite clear. “No money will be spent on lawyer’s fees or anything like that.”

After reviewing the money spent on lawyers in the Madeleine Fund accounts, it is quite obvious that Mitchell’s statement is a bare faced lie.

Clarence Mitchell - McCann Spokesman

Here is the message to the site;

Hi from Germany!

I paid 5 GBP by PayPal. At this point of time I really thought, they were actually interested in searching for Madeleine and not just to collect money and hoard it for a good life to fourth. It is their moral obligation to all donors, to open the expenditure of funds.

This is the PayPal proof of payment. It is not much but it came from the heart and unfortunately landed directly in their wallets.

So, if you need my help to get them, tell me what I can do.

The person responsible for “wheres-madeleine.info” is clearly miffed at the lack of replies to his messages to the official Madeleine Fund. No wonder – the fund is a scam, fraud and the administrators have no intention of responding to legitimate requests for information. Even the “McCann Supporters” are being duped. Here follows the article:

IT APPEARS THAT THE McCann’s CAN’T BE BOTHERED

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this article.

This web site is paid for, designed and updated by me to aid awareness of little Maddie, I do this because I want to help in her search.

All this takes up a lot of time and of course I need to be factual in what I put on my site.

This of course can only be done by checking the information I have obtained, this then means I need verification about the information I intend to place on my site from the McCann’s themselves.

Well since my site went live on the internet it has been a constant battle to get the McCann’s web site to answer any of my mails. I have even sent a letter to there home address (No reply to this either). This lack of cooperation with me is not unique to my site; other sites that I am constantly in contact with say they do not have replies either.

Time and time again I have to send mails that go un-answered. Occasionally they do reply with the briefest as possible reply they can get away with, though this does not happen very often at all.

As my site supports them I would have thought that they would be eager to give me information that is not going to hinder there investigations ect, clearly I accept that there will be information that they could not give me but the information that I ask for is things like Photos of Maddie, or if they have any new information that might help.

Well here we go again, I found such an article on the internet and mailed them for conformation and yet again I have been greeted by utter silence, below are the dates I sent the mails of this most recent request…sent to there investigation@findmadeleine.com address…

14 December 2008, 05 December 2008, 02 December 2008

I even told them that I was thinking of closing my site down because of it, which made no difference, still nothing.

I wonder if their financial backer knows how they treat their supporters! if he does not perhaps if he was to find out he might not be so eager to help.

If it was my child and people were trying to help, I would go out of my way to help provide them with as much information as I could, but this does not seem to be the way they are looking at it.

A friend of mine keeps saying to me “I do not know why you even bother, they are not interested, he then states a few reasons why he says this, but I will not state what they are here”.

So I ask you for your views, do you think I should close the site down or not, or do I carry on regardless and possibly put inaccurate information on my site as a result of it.

Please take the time to visit my guestbook and let me know your views.

> From: reply@findmadeleine.com
> To: pamalam@hotmail.co.uk
> Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:09:28 +0000
> Subject: RE: Reward
>
> Dear Sir/Madam,
>
> In answer to your questions:
>
> As far as I know the rewards offered by the ‘News Of The World’
> and other benefactors are still available.
>
> However, we have had varying advice about the possible benefits
> and problems of rewards.
>
> So after consulation, a decision was made not to push the rewards
> on our website – although the situation is constantly being reviewed.
>
> In the meantime, if anyone has any information that may help our
> Investigation Team, they should contact:
> Email investigation@findmadeleine.com
> Tel +44 845 838 4699
>
> Sandy Cameron
>
________________________________________
From: pamalam [pamalam@hotmail.co.uk]
Sent: 12 December 2008 09:54
To: Campaign – Find Madeleine
Subject: Reward

Dear Sir/Madam

Could you answer 3 questions for me please?

[1] Why is the reward not shown on the official site?
[2] Is the reward no longer available?
[3] If it is no longer available what is the reason?

Many thanks

Pamalam

www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk<http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/> By Pamalam

Processos, Volume 12, Page 226:

Snippets from Statement made by José Maria Batista Roque, GNR Officer about the events of the night of the 3rd May.

During the search he did not find anything strange apart from the bedclothes on Madeleine’s bed, which were too tidy, it appeared that she had been picked up of had left the bed with great care. There was a mark on the sheet that appeared to be made by a child’s body.

After the search, he noticed a situation that seemed unusual to him, when at a determined moment, the girl’s parents kneeled down on the floor of their bedroom and placed their heads on the bed, crying. He did not notice any comments or expression from them, just crying. Upon leaving from the main reception the father also knelt down, placing his head on the floor and crying. He did not hear the father say anything.

He never heard the parents ask to see a priest.

He found the parents to be nervous and anxious, he did not see any tears from either of them although they produced noises identical to crying. He did not feel that this was an abduction, although this was the line indicated by the father.

Processos, Volume 12, Page 231

Snippet From the Statement by Nelson Filipe Pacheco de Costa about the events of the night of 3rd May.

GNR Officer

One of the group contacted Sky News and the Embassy that night. He does not know if the parents made the call.

Upon leaving the apartment he saw various photographs of the little girl printed on normal A4 paper which had been printed at the reception as well as other photos printed on 10 x 15 photographic poster paper which could not have printed at the reception. This seemed unusual to him and he later confirmed that they could not have been printed at the reception.

Processos, Volume 11, Pages 190 – 191

Miguel Goncalves Da Costa Palma

Date/Time: 2007/05/07 18H45

G.N.R. Military Personnel

• Concerning the issue of the process said;
• In the sequence of facts, he was with the patrol of the GNR that went to the Ocean Club Gardens establishment (situated in Para da Luz) on night of May 03, 2007, with the goal of investigating the circumstances that surrounded the disappearance of a minor, of British nationality, that was installed there temporarily, together with the rest of her more direct family – knowing these to be, the respective parents, and two siblings, twins, minors, whose name do not need to be clarified;
• Clarifies that the occurrence in question was transmitted to the above referenced patrol via radio, at time when they were located in Odiaxere;
• The patrol of which he took part, and now as a witness, went immediately to the principal reception of the aforementioned establishment, where there was encountered the father of the missing child;
• Following, this patrol went to the residence where the family of said minor was staying in the ‘Ocean Garden’ together with the father;
• At reaching the location, the two elements that made up the patrol , the current witness and his colleague, Nelson Costas, proceeded into the interior of the apartment, with the goal of investigating the contours which eventually surrounded the disappearance of that minor;
• In this sentiment, the deponent states that they searched al the dependencies of the residence and all the pieces of furniture, in order to confirm the disappearance — effectively confirming that that she was not in the interior;
• The questioned made, the deponent states that the access to interior of the residence was accessed through a principal door- this is, a wood door which is placed facing north;
• Inside, the deponent encountered the mother and two siblings of the missing minor;
• The deponent stats that he is unable to specify if that entrance door was found open or closed when he reached the apartment during which he was taking in the facts with the witness is now clarifying;
• In the sequence of confirming the facts of the effective disappearance of that minor, he states that this has been communicated prior, for the reason of helping the Policia Judiciara;
• Urged to reveal other details that may be considered relevant to the investigation, the deponent reveals that he has no other knowledge of any elements that may help contribute to that end;
• And nothing more said, having read the statement, finds it in conformity and signs it;

The document is duly signed by me …

Pedro Varanda, an Inspector with this Polícia Judiciária.

Processos, Volume II, Pages 192 – 194

Nelson Filipe Pacheco da Costa

Date/Time: 2007/05/07 18H45

G.N.R. Military Personnel

• Concerning the issue of the process said;
• In the sequence of facts, he was with the patrol of the GNR that went to the Ocean Club Gardens establishment (situated in Para da Luz) on night of May 03, 2007, with the goal of investigating the circumstances that surrounded the disappearance of a minor, of British nationality, that was installed there temporarily, together with the rest of her more direct family – knowing these to be, the respective parents, and two siblings, twins, minors, whose name do not need to be clarified;
• Clarifies that the occurrence in question was transmitted to the above referenced patrol via radio, at time when they were located in Odiaxere;
• The patrol of which he took part, and now as a witness, went immediately to the principal reception of the aforementioned establishment, where there was encountered the father of the missing child;
• Following, this patrol went to the residence where the family of said minor was staying in the ‘Ocean Garden’ together with the father;
• At reaching the location, the two elements that made up the patrol , the current witness and his colleague, Jose Roque, proceeded into the interior of the apartment, with the goal of investigating the contours which eventually surrounded the disappearance of that minor;
• In this sentiment, the deponent states that they searched al the dependencies of the residence and all the pieces of furniture, in order to confirm the disappearance — effectively confirming that that she was not in the interior;
• The question made, the deponent states that the access to interior of the residence was accessed through a principal door- that is, a wood door which is placed facing north;
• Inside, the deponent encountered the mother and two siblings of the missing minor;
• The deponent stats that he is unable to specify if that entrance door was found open or closed when he reached the apartment during which he was taking in the facts with the witness is now clarifying;
• In the sequence of confirming the facts of the effective disappearance of that minor, he states that this has been communicated prior, for the reason of helping the Policia Judiciara;
• States that other details that may be relevant to the investigation concerns that they were directed to a citizen, of British nationality, who made up the group of tourists together with the family, name of Jane Tanner, and who detected the presence of a suspicious movement of an individual in the immediate area above identified, in the discourse of which was seen transporting a child of an early age;
• And nothing more said, having read the statement, finds it in conformity and signs it;
• The document is duly signed by me …

Pedro Varanda, an Inspector with this Polícia Judiciária.

Her email details are being withheld for privacy.

Here is her message;

Hi, I paid by PayPal on 21st May 2007. On news reports the Fund had been described as a charity. Also in the event of Madeleine being found alive or otherwise, the money would help other missing children.

I would not have donated if I had had any thoughts that Fund money would be used towards mortgage payments or private investigaters, in view of the fact the McC’s have not fully co-operated with the PJ/police.

£10.00 was not a lot but I had intended to give monthly that ammount. Luckily I became aware of Sky and Mirror forums where I learnt there was more to the Case than first thought….

I will do whatever I can to help towards justice for Madeleine or to show up thie Charade for what it is