The Vanished of the Invisible! How Madeleine McCann Has Highlighted Them!

When Madeleine McCann was abducted from her bed on Thursday May 3rd 2007 in Praia da Luz, Portugal, no one thought that things would end up like this, some 2 years 8 months later, still waiting for news about her, still hoping she is well and refusing to give up on her. I doubt if any "ordinary" person could have possible envisaged what the abduction of one little girl could invoke. As time has passed, what on the face of it looked to be an abduction under slightly unusual circumstances, has grown into something major and it is highlighting a whole plethora of wrongs, both in Portugal and in the UK. If you believe in fate and believe in all things happen for a reason, then you may be forgiven for thinking that little Madeleine was taken to highlight some of the most terrible miscarriages of justice that have occurred and that are still occurring in Portugal. In fact remember that sentence, it could prove to be a lot more truthful than we may at first realise!

Who would have thought that the abduction of that little girl could flag up as many wrongs and "deep seated corruption" as it has? Because of that one little girl, the world now knows about; Rui Pedro; Rachel Charles; Renee Hassee; Joana Cipriano, the world knows that in the case of;

• Rachel Charles tragic murder. Michael Cook was arrested and tortured and undoubtedly served time for something he did not do. (This blog has highlighted the plight of Michael Cook many times in the past and makes no apologies for doing so again) The amount of totally unfounded and unsubstantiated hearsay, that was allowed in the courtroom and then used to actually convict Michael Cook, was staggering, but when you realise that this kind of NON-evidence was also used to convict Leonor Cipriano of the murder of her daughter, it actually sends a chill down the spine. How many other times has this happened? Read about the case of Hugo, recently highlighted on this blog, remember the common denominator in the case of still missing Joana Cipriano; Leonor Cipriano; Hugo and Madeleine McCann and her parents, is the disgraced former police coordinator of the PJ in Portimao, Goncalo Amaral. For those of you who do not know, in May 2009 Goncalo Amaral was found guilty in court of concealing evidence of the torture of Leonor Cipriano and is now serving a laughable 18 month suspended prison sentence for that heinous of crimes. (Leonor was tortured over two days into confessing to the macabre murder of her own daughter - again highlighted on this blog many times).

Of course people who have lost their beloved children want justice, I cannot even begin to understand what they are going through, however, they need the correct justice though, they need to know that the *CORRECT* person has been been found guilty and incarcerated for their heinous crime. Justice for children actually killed by their own parents or by another family member must also be rigorously sought on behalf of the child. However, true and meaningful justice is not served at all when the wrong person is locked up or the wrong people are vilified and persecuted, not only because of the total injustice of the situation to all concerned, most of all the victims, but because this means that someone who can do something as unspeakable as this, is actually free to do it again!

The world now also knows about the kangaroo court trial of Leonor Cipriano. We know about the Portuguese state run children's home, Casa Pia. We know about the 6 year old little German boy Renee Hessee' on holiday with his parents, happily running along the beach with them one minute and inexplicably vanished the next! When his frantic parents reported this to the police, they were fobbed off and just coldly and inhumanely told that their child had probably drowned! Of course this is not true, if he had drowned in such circumstances then tragically, his little body would have been found and it never was, to this day he is still missing, to this day his parents like the McCanns, are going through all kinds of hell wondering what has happened to their child and no doubt waiting that wait and hoping against hope that their child will be found. I often wonder, if Renee's parents had been "lucky" enough and managed to get as much publicity for their child as the McCanns managed for Madeleine, would their name too have been dragged through the mire by now? Would they also have stood falsely accused? So little is known abut Renee', but how often is a child in full view of his parents one second and then disappeared for good the next, totally ignored by the Portuguese police? Did the German government, like the British government, hide behind protocol and red tape, saying they could not get involved as it was a Portuguese police matter, so nothing, NOTHING was done about a little boy lost? Just like Madeleine McCann?

Yes we now know all about these children and the wrongly accused, but one question we must ask and we must keep asking for there is very good reason to ask it; "of all the children and cases that we know about, how many is there that we do not know about?" Portugal has a street children problem, it has a problem with child prostitution, under circumstances like this, how many Portuguese children, or children of illegal immigrants, have vanished without trace, yet gone unreported? It is chilling and fills us with terror and dread, but to deny this very real problem, is to deny adequate protection for all children, especially those that no one knows are there in the first place.

Referring back to that sentence I highlighted earlier, could it possibly be that the reason Madeleine McCann was taken, was because some group somewhere wanted to highlight what was actually going on in Portugal? How many times have you heard (with very good reason) the disgruntled relatives of other missing children complaining that their child never received as much attention as Madeleine? That the only reason Madeleine was given so much publicity was because she was blonde, fair skinned and the daughter of middle class British parents? These pressure groups seemed to resent the McCanns because they managed to get media coverage for their daughter. Now I am not saying that Madeleine was taken to use as some kind of bargaining publicity chip and that it all went horribly wrong and people became terrified as the slow realisation of what they had done began to register with them. I do not actually think this, but none the less, it may be a reason, no matter how tenuous it is and it should be kept in mind. If this by some remote chance the reason why Madeleine was abducted, then the chances of Madeleine being found safe, well and very much alive, increase dramatically.

I believe that the Portuguese government has turned a blind eye to Madeleine McCann's abduction and some of the other cases before her, I also believe that the Portuguese government knows very well what is happening in the case of street children and the trade in underage prostitution and the trade in the disappearance of children of illegals. "The Vanished of the Invisible"! It knows, but does nothing, because it is simple economics and I believe that all governments everywhere have one thing in common they all weigh everything up in simple terms of economics.

For those that sit comfortable in the UK, the US or France, Spain or Germany, Belgium or Holland or anywhere in the modern world and think it cannot happen "here", think again! If children are not registered and they go missing 1) are their illegal immigrant parents going to report them as missing? 2) If the governments of such country's do not even know they are in the country, how is the system going to flag their disappearance up?

Non attendance at school is usually picked up by Educational Welfare Officers and non shows for immunisation programmes and child development clinics is usually a good indicator to there being a problem, but of course children of the "invisible" do not have this luxury of being tended and cared for, they are some of the ones that slip through the net!

Thinking about this makes me wonder how big and how widespread this problem may be across Europe and Eastern Europe? How big could this child trafficking problem actually be?

When I read how people on the Continent all take their children out to bars and restaurants with them and they all react with horror at the McCanns for leaving their children unattended, it is as if they are all walking around with a paper bag over their heads, they are so complacent, so ridiculously complacent, if they think that this never happens in their country because children are taken out with their parents. Stuff and complete and utter nonsense, it happens in their countries, it happens all the time, the difference between some countries, is that some countries do endeavour to keep some kind of record of child abductions, while some other countries are so anally retentive about the effect that this could have on their number one economy, the tourist industry, that they completely sweep it under the carpet. Some countries are so screwed up about democracy and freedom of speech that they are willing to go to any lengths to say they have it and protect it, not realising that keeping things like child abductions under the carpet and simply blaming the parents of the abducted child, is a bigger threat to their fledgling democracy, than almost anything they could think of in recent history.

Freedom of speech is not freedom to slander and defame the vulnerable.

I blame the Portuguese government for a lot, but I also blame my own government, the British government, for being spineless and for their inactivity and lack of insistence that something is done about the abduction of a British minor.

The British government could have insisted on liaising with the Portuguese government and when it quickly became obvious that the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance was not going well, the British government could have strongly suggested that in order to avoid the things apparent now from occurring, that a team from Scotland Yard be allowed to take over the investigation and the technology that Scotland Yard has for just this kind of case, (HLOMES) be put to use for the good of Madeleine, this in the end would have been worth the slight embarrassment to Portugal at the time and it would have saved the huge embarrassment they now endure. Alas the British government failed and in so doing they too failed Madeleine McCann and there is no escaping this fact.

Madeleine McCann is a British citizen, a minor and not only this the British government has a duty of care towards her, as Mrs Justice Ede made Madeleine a ward of court, this means that parental care was passed to the British government. So why hasn't the British government been doing all they could to find her?

Meanwhile the vanished of the invisible goes on in Portugal, just how many children who are unaccounted for have vanished in Portugal since Madeleine was abducted? How long will it be until the next "order" for a particular child goes out and another Madeleine case is born? If there are any inevitability's in life, sadly this has to be one of them. Meanwhile those that refuse to believe poor little Madeleine McCann was abducted, sleepwalk on like some kind of blinded zombies of the night, all repeating their mantra of free speech and worshipping at the Temple of Goncalo Amaral. However, "False idols" will fall, they always, always do, without exception!