“not
abiding by the terms of his undertaking and was
continuing to spread false allegations against them”.
Tony Bennett
is a curious character. Unquestionably eccentric
and seemingly idiosyncratic, who cuts a
disheveled, unkempt figure.
His critics,
and there are very many, (mainly Kate and Gerry
McCann well-wishers), tabloid journos and
bloggers who refer to him, variously, as “perverted”,“sick”,
“evil”, “twisted”, “depraved”,
“weird” and “a liar” to name but a
few monikers they have coined.
I knew of Mr.
Bennett through a previous campaign which he was
involved in, and which the Media company I
worked for were investigating.
I have met
him, twice, and I thought him to have a very
good academic brain.
I also thought
him to be a passionate and driven man.
Having led a
fairly unspectacular Legal and Political career,
Bennett has involved himself with a great number
of campaigns; researching, representing and
offering legal advice to a variety of people
whom he has considered to have been ‘wronged’ or
for whom he believed justice had been denied.
It would be
easy to suspect that he is something of an
attention seeker or possessing delusions of
grandeur, were it not for the fact that much of
his efforts and work goes unrewarded financially
and, in a large number of the cases he has
involved himself with, has placed himself at
considerable physical harm, risk and potential
retribution from dangerous, criminal elements.
I am
categorically NOT seeking to put Bennett on a
pedestal here. Far from it. I personally believe
that he has undertaken a number of cases for all
the wrong reasons and has conducted himself
carelessly and unprofessionally, as well as
being overzealous in writing and reporting his
findings and opinions.
Especially,
with his actions and writings relating to the
Madeleine McCann case.
But I DO,
wholeheartedly, want to defend him and offer him
some support.
Not least
because, as already stated, not only do I SHARE
some of his opinions on the McCann case but I
have actually blogged, written and opined
similar material for which he now finds himself
in dire trouble.
And he IS, in
dire, dire trouble.
Like myself,
and many others, Bennett elects to believe that
the Portuguese Police investigation, their
dossiers, evidential documents and their
conclusions represent a far more accurate
picture of the truth relating to the missing
girl than anything propagated by the McCanns and
their vast, expansive, (not to say EXPENSIVE),
PR machine.
And it IS
important to note that, far from being the
fantasist and serial liar that he is frequently
accused of being, he has only ever really
concentrated on and repeated the sections and
details in the official Portuguese documents.
As I have
written previously, despite the McCanns repeated
claims to the contrary, Kate and Gerry, along
with their ‘Tapas’ friends were NOT “cleared” of
any involvement with the disappearance of
Madeleine in the final report by the Portuguese
Authorities.
I have blogged
elsewhere about the contents of this report and
do not wish to elaborate here, (it is also
widely available on the WEB from many other
sources).
However, the
documents DO make clear, to my mind, that there
was insufficient evidence to proceed with any
prosecutions and although the‘Arguido’ status of
both the McCanns and Robert Murat were lifted,
there is very clear and compelling evidence
detailed in the report that DOES suggest serious
wrongdoing by the McCanns and their friends;
that their testimonies were contrived and that
there WAS a cover-up relating to some of the
incidents that occurred in Portugal.
There are a
number of very successful and widely available
books on the European Continent, written by
academics, criminologists and psychologists, all
of whom utilise the Portuguese evidence as
research and all of which reach the same
conclusions as many other people, including Tony
Bennett.
NONE of these
publications are available in the UK, of course,
nor are they ever likely to be.
The ex-head of
the regional Polícia Judiciária in charge
of the Madeleine McCann investigation,
Gonçalo Amaral,
knows only
too well the
consequences of writing anything that differs
from the official version of events as
propagated by the McCann Machine and enforced by
Carter-Ruck, as he discovered when he penned his
own account of the case,
'A
Verdade Da Mentira', (The
Truth of the Lie).
The resultant
Court Action by 'Team McCann', (still ongoing),
seeks to
eradicate his
book from circulation, as well as to glean a
cool, one MILLION Sterling from the “Hapless
Senor”.
Despite the
fact that this Libel Trial is almost certainly
doomed to fail, Senor Amaral is in a no-win
situation.
Firstly, even
though the Courts have granted the recirculation
of his book , it will never be published
in the UK, (certainly not in the foreseeable
future), thanks to the obedient and sycophantic
British PRESS.
Furthermore,
thanks to the huge disinformation and SMEAR
campaign perpetrated by Team McCann, their
supporters and Press from the outset, Amaral
will forever be known as that “boozy”,
“corrupt”, “inept”, “Porto plod”.
For
his troubles, alas, he will at least probably get to
keep his family’s home and possessions.
Unfortunately,
there will be NO such luck for Mr. Bennett.
As I write
this, he is awaiting Judgement on his High Court
case, due in any day.
Officially,
the McCanns assert that their Action is being
brought against him because his writings are “harming
the search for Madeleine”.
Which makes NO
sense given that, as I have already stated,
there are HUNDREDS more bloggers, writers and
social networkers all opining and repeating the
same thing.
Which suggests
that Bennett must have some OTHER commodity
which they want.
Money.
Bennett is NOT
a rich man, but he does have life savings which
would, to some people, represent a tidy sum.
Certainly, to the McCanns, it represents a
USEFUL sum.
For despite
the fact that Kate McCann in her book,
‘Madeleine', suggests that Carter-Ruck do a
“vast
amount of work, unpaid” on their
behalf, documentation shows that their fees “To
Date” amount to over a quarter
of a MILLION Sterling.
And THAT sum,
as well as any punitive damages awarded to the
McCanns, will have to come from somewhere.
Mr. Bennett is
under no illusions as to the outcome of his
case, as he awaits the Judges findings.
There is a
strong likelihood that he is facing imprisonment;
unquestionably, he will be made
completely and unequivocally bankrupt.
It matters not
one iota whether what he has ever believed,
written or asserted turns out to be factually
accurate.
The laws of
Libel in the United
Kingdom
are very complex, complicated, draconian and
frequently unfair.
Libel Courts
are the playground reserved ONLY for the rich or
privileged.
Kate McCann
appears to have a very strange and nonsensical
manner of apportioning culpability and ill-will
sentiments to the people whom she deems to have
wronged her.
To the person whom
she alleges abducted Madeleine, the person
who potentially would subject her daughter to the
most vile, horrendous, tortuous deeds, as
suggested in her book, where she very lucidly and
disturbingly refers to “images”
where she imagines her daughters’ genitals “torn
apart”.
To THIS
person, both in her book and in subsequent
interviews, she speaks of “forgiveness”
and “PRAYERS”.
To anyone who
doubts that Madeleine was ever abducted, who
casts aspersions on what she, her husband and
her supporters insist is the truth, she wishes
only misery and fear:
“He
deserves to be miserable and feel fear”;
she wrote of
Gonçalo Amaral, who
clearly from the early stages did NOT believe
the McCanns or their friends’ testimonies.
So Kate shall,
no doubt, exact further comfort from the
knowledge that Tony Bennett is, unquestionably,
experiencing both misery and fear in abundance.
For in
addition to being a pensioner facing an
uncertain future, bereft of everything he owns,
he DOES share one misfortune in common with
Senor Amaral.
The long,
uncertain, legal threats, letters, Actions and
subsequent litigation, undertaken without any
legal representation, (Legal Aid NOT available
in such cases, Mr. Bennet represents himself),
has very much taken its toll on his family.
He and his
wife of almost 40 years, have seperated....
Despite her
unwavering support and loyalty, the tribulations
and stresses of the past few years have proven
too much.
So too,
OTHERS in his family, close members, who
have watched him fight his cause and lose,
despite their efforts in warning him of the
consequences;
relationships
strained, damaged
perhaps
irreparably.
Of course
there are many who will say Bennett is deserving
of such consequences, that he is merely reaping
what he has sown.
It is also
true, to a degree, that he is the architect of
his own misfortune.
We are all
free to make our own choices and to formulate
our beliefs.
Tony Bennett's
ardent belief is that Madeleine McCann was NOT
abducted and that the continued insistence by
the McCanns, their Press and their network of
supporters that she WAS, amounts to a cover-up.
And whether
you choose to loathe, love or pity him,
he has, in his own words, put his "head
above the parapet".
He has
assiduously and steadfastly fought for his
choice, his beliefs and his freedom of speech
and, in doing so, has made a stand for
the freedom of speech of others.
And that is
something immeasurably
more than most of us have ever done.
Not least
the multitude of faceless, nameless cowards,
sycophants and trolls who hide and haunt the
gutters of forums and social network sites,
spewing their scripted and orchestrated hatred
and venom, gleefully celebrating and
applauding his downfall.
But this is
NOT a blog
to
appeal for help for Bennett, financially or
otherwise.
Nor is this a
rallying cry to lambast the McCanns or those who
support and empathise with them.
This is a
simple appeal; a request; to all and
anyone who ever expressed an interest in what is
amongst the most perplexing and baffling missing
person cases of all time.
An appeal to
look BEYOND the innumerable, dubious reported ‘sightings’,
the ludicrous potential suspect line- ups of
dead or dying sex offenders,
“swarthy
foreigners”, Middle-Eastern
paedophile rings, Moroccan gangsters and clearly
contrived ex-pats and British tourists who
seemingly remembered, years after the event,
seeing Madeleine in a potentially precarious
situation with strangers.
This and
hundreds of other examples of fabricated garbage
that fills the Newspapers, and has done so with
alarming regularity ever since the McCanns
managed to accrue huge sums of money from
Express newspapers for printing nothing more
than what every other journal on the planet had
printed.
This is an
appeal to look BEYOND all that. Beyond the
writings of opinion columnists, Z-list
celebrities and day-time TV presenters.
Beyond the
writings, blogs and twitterings of all others,
INCLUDING my own!
It is
an
appeal, a PLEA; to read and research the
official Portuguese police files, the
Rogatoryfiles and interviews conducted by
British police forces and a host of other
official documentation, dossiers and transcripts
that
are
freely and readily available on the Internet.
An appeal,
above all else, for people to make up their OWN
minds.
Not to have
them made up for them by my words or
those of anyone else.
Certainly not
by those who would abuse, bully, vilify,
threaten and berate anyone whose opinion dared
to contradict theirs.
Bennett
isn't sick, twisted, evil, deranged,
perverted or deluded. Or any of the hundreds of
other things he is labelled.
He merely
believes, as I do, and as I have opined
previously, that the Madeleine McCann case is so
much more than a case of a missing child.
Tony Bennett
placed every single thing he ever owned and ever
cared about, on the cause he resolutely believes
in.
And lost.
Perhaps Kate will remember him in her
prayers.......
Godbless, Madeleine, wherever you may be.
