TRIPS HOME AND ABROAD - THE EARLY DAYS 

This will probably end up as a two- or three parter so I will post it in bits over the week.


Comment  posted on Pat Brown’s blog just before  she visited Praia da Luz herself  on 6th February 2012.

Anonymous said...
Pat. Please follow this clue. Gerry Mccann returned to the UK just 3-4 days after Maddie was abducted. All evidence to this has been erased from the internet. He returned ostensibly to get a good photo of Maddie for publicity purposes (they had a camera full of photos with them!!). Internet forums discussed this but it has been erased and people have short memories. Gerry came back alone, was met at the airport by local police, they drove him to the house, he was there for about 30 mins and went back to Portugal immediately. To reiterate this was 3-4 days after the disappearance. What did he do at home? who was with him to ensure that nothing incriminating in the house was flushed down the toilet? Was there a cupboard full of children’s sleeping medication. or something else?? Please investigate
unquote

The next trip (if this first trip did happen) was from 20th May: 
Daily Mail 20 May 2007
Seventeen days after his four-year-old daughter disappeared, Gerry McCann flew back to an empty house that is still fresh with her memory.
[..]
He will trawl through four years of family albums and videos to select new pictures of her for his 'Find Madeleine' website. Then he will prepare to return to the Algarve to continue the search.
The visit was the first time Mr McCann has been apart from his wife Kate and their two-year-old twins since Madeleine vanished from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3.
unquote

Madeleine's father returns to UK BBC News  Monday, 21 May 2007, 11:12 GMT 12:12 UK

A spokeswoman for the family in the Algarve, said Mr McCann was returning "to deal with some personal matters and he will be talking to the people who are organising the fund".
She emphasised he was returning to Britain for "very practical reasons" and would return as quickly as he could.
Mr Kennedy said Madeleine's relatives were aware of Mr McCann's "brief, private visit home" which "was mainly regarding legal matters".
Unquote

Madeleine police appeal for holiday pictures Timesonline
Adam Fresco
May 21, 2007
British holiday makers who were in Portugal at the time Madeleine McCann was snatched from her apartment are being asked to send their pictures to police in case they have caught the abductor on camera.
Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre, said that the latest technology will allow them to "build a larger intelligence picture". [..]
"These are the pictures we want and we want you to upload them onto a new website. [..]unquote
Madeleine's father returns to UK Guardian Monday May 21 2007
[..]
Holidaymakers in the town and Portuguese people across the country stood silently today in solidarity with Madeleine's family.
The one-minute silence, initiated by an anonymous chain email circulated around Portugal at the weekend, was observed at midday. In Praia Da Luz shoppers and workers stood still to think of Madeleine. [..]
Gerry McCann, a consultant cardiologist, arrived back last night and was visiting the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, before returning to Portugal, said his brother, John McCann. "I think he's flying back tonight," Mr McCann said’. [..]
Madeleine's great uncle, Brian Kennedy, who is heading a fund launched last week to help find the girl, said today he did not know what Mr McCann would be doing in Britain.
"We were informed yesterday that Gerry intended to make a brief, private visit home but we were not told the reason, other than that it was mainly regarding legal matters. It is probably concerning the fund we have set up," he said.
"We have no information as to Gerry's present whereabouts and we are not sure whether we will see him before he returns to Portugal.
The press was allowed closer to the family over the weekend, as Mr McCann and his wife appeared to accept that a certain loss of privacy was a price worth paying to keep Madeleine's case in the public eye. A press photographer was allowed to take pictures of them playing with their twins. unquote

To recap: the Mail gives his arrival as the 20th, which means Gerry McCann was in the UK for up to three days if he returned on Tuesday 22nd May. Not exactly a ‘lightning trip’. Moreover, I find it hard to believe he did not meet up with his brother, or with Brian Kennedy, as the reason for his visit was given as legal matters, private matters and trawling through 4  years of photographs for the website (which by that time had had 100 million hits). 
Several other points of interest: 
an anonymous email to organise one minute silence. 
the information in several papers that it is his first visit 
 
On the 24th Sky reports: 
:: A large-scale projection on Marble Arch of a new yellow ribbon symbol was due to mark the rebranding of the Missing People charity, formerly the National Missing Persons Helpline.
- and here is Gerry on his 'first' visit back in Rothley: surrounded by yellow ribbons. So when exactly did those green and yellow ones appear? 

Missing Persons - On May 24th 2007, Paul Tuohy re-launched the charity, 'Missing People' (previously known as the National Missing Persons). The event is alleged to have been instigated at the behest of the European Commission, spearheaded by former EC Vice-President and self-appointed 'Guardian Angel of Children', Franco Frattini. The event was attended by John McCann. Paul Tuohy is an ex-colleague of Ester McVey. Tuohy says it is peculiarly ironic that they should launch at the time Madeleine McCann went missing. Patrons include Lorraine Kelly (ITV).

Three weeks after 3/5/07 and they're all there, McVey, Kelly and a political drive to promote the charity - European Commission's former Vice president and Guardian Angel Franco Frattini.  

Possible first trip to UK: between 5th May and 9th May 2007. (Statements to PJ were given on the 4th and the 10th May 2007).
Sunday 20th May - return to UK 
Monday 21st May - family have allegedly not seen him during this trip, neither his brother nor Brian Kennedy profess to know where he is or why exactly he is in the UK
22nd May - return to PdL with Clarence Mitchell - the new spokesman lent to the McCanns by the Foreign Office
23rd May Last photo sent to French Agency 
24th May Last photo released to the world's Press with the mention of the wrong time set on the camera. 
24th May also incidentally the day Missing People launched. (see above) and the date they made a pilgrimage to Fatima. The European trips were already a reality it seems. Clarence must have been working very hard or have been on the job rather earlier than the 22nd of May.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FATIMA

Telegraph:

By Richard Edwards in Fatima

12:01AM BST 24 May 2007

Surrounded by the faith and prayer of thousands of pilgrims, the parents of Madeleine McCann lit candles of hope yesterday at Portugal's most holy site.

Gerry and Kate McCann made a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fatima to pray. [..]

The McCanns are launching a series of trips across Europe to help widen the search for their child.

The couple, both devout Catholics, started their "mission" yesterday in Fatima, north of Lisbon. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552516/Parents-seek-solace-at-shrine-of-Fatima.html