Some interesting thoughts from a correspondent on the Raymond Hewlett matter

I’ve received the following email from a correspondent that, with her permission, I reproduce in full hereunder:

As I don’t know where in particular I should put this comment, I’m sending you my musings this way (feel free to put it somewhere else, if you want). I must say that said musings were triggered by an extremely interesting research by poster bestbefore at 3arguidos, and some of other comments of theirs, on the background of this Thomson couple re:Hewlett (admittedly, you should keep away from the 3arguidos if you want to protect your virginity, but there is no way to beat their collective research skills!). Anyways:

I see you are keeping an eye on the UK press’ latest spin on the Madeleine McCann case. The Mail’s article by David Jones (that, incidently, has written in a very cogent way about the Jersey story, although I can’t vouch for the veracity of the thing) is quite interesting, especially the opening sentences:

“Addressed to an internet agency which peddles stories to low-brow media outlets, the email seemed absurdly far-fetched. [Editor’s note: hyperlink inserted and url removed from article to preserve page formatting]

During a road-trip through Pakistan a decade ago, the woman informant wrote, she and her husband had stumbled upon the secret lair of Osama bin Laden.

When they tried to report their sensational discovery to U.S. authorities, nobody would listen.

Oh yes, she added almost as an afterthought, and while travelling through southern Portugal more recently, the couple had become friendly with a British man whom they later discovered to be a serial child sex attacker.

What’s more, they now suspected him to be the monster who abducted Madeleine McCann. ”

Which, of course, begs the question, where does this latest whirlwind about Hewlett comes from: the McCann investigation? the press? And, a related question: where did this information arrive: now? months ago?

One thing I’ve learnt following this case is that timing is everything: many seemingly innocent faits divers in the PT press were stored for future (or immediate) use by the UK press and/or the McCann PR arm, like for example, these 7 cases of child sexual molestation that supposedly happened recently in Algarve. (To be more precise, there is only one that I can certify by tracking the precise story published in Diario de Noticias, plus the version of the UK press, both published in 2006 or 2007; maybe I could do the same with the other 6, but that one contains often details, like the name of the mother of the child, and incensed me in such a way at the time that I remember it without effort). So, knowing if someone sat on this information for better use in the future would be a most important piece of knowledge.

So, what have we got here: a couple that decides to cash in on the Maddie story, or would like the attention? A more elaborate thing a la Jane Goodwin, where a dying man decides to provide for his family with the help of some friends (against, check bestbefore’s research that seems to suggest that the Thompsons and Hewlett are probably closer than we know)? The result of the investigation of either the PR or the “police” arms of the McCann campaign?

The last possibility opens interesting perspectives:

1) a genuine investigation on the whereabouts of Madeleine McCann

2) the ace up the sleeve of a convicted paedophile in his dying bed, as you have already mentioned.

If 2 is the correct answer, are we approaching the endgame?

Oh, and in a (slightly) unrelated matter, did you realize that one of the great chroniclers of the Maddie saga at the height of its media value was Vanessa Allen for the Daily Mail… the same Vanessa Allen that received a medal from MoD for her work as an embedded journalist during the Iraq war?

Makes you kind of wonder, isn’t it…

Isabel

Notes by mike:

• I first encountered some of the concerns raised above on this blog, a reference to which I then added as an update to this post.
• The 3 Arguidos forum is here.

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The latest “suspect”

It is good that another candidate for Madeleine’s abduction should have been found (trying to avoid cynically muttering to myself “Oh yes, another ‘suspect’ “) following from the recent flurry of media activity prompted largely by the McCanns’ visit to America, their interview on the Oprah Winfrey show, and that updated speculative image of Madeleine as she may now look were she still alive.

But I’m not without some reservations, not least of which is the concern about the possibility that Raymond Hewlett is little other than a scapegoat, absent finding the real culprits.
And what better candidate for being such!

A convicted paedophile… unlikely then that many people would believe much he has to say in his defence.
One apparently suffering from an illness that could prove terminal… what to lose by “confessing” in exchange for what inducement I wonder?
British… thus conceivably avoiding even further antagonising the already majorly upset Portuguese population that “discovering” a new suspect native to, say, Praia da Luz might achieve.
One could almost argue that Hewlett’s a “tailor made” suspect.
But possibly the most serious aspect of this so far (and one that causes me the greatest concern) is that of images of him having already been published… I wait interestedly to see whether that will now spark numerous reports of “sightings” of him at the time, and in the right places, by folk that had hitherto “forgotten”.

He does of course bear something of a resemblance to one of the many (oh, so many) different images that have been created of potential suspects. And there have been so many different images produced that in fairness it’d be difficult to not find someone who looked like one of them. Here’s a typically representative collection.

More on this latest development here.

Update 27 May 2009 16:55- Here’s an interesting take on the Raymond Hewlett… er… perhaps “farce” is putting it too strongly so let’s just say “situation”… that curiously echoes several of my own concerns.

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