THE CUDDLECAT CONNECTION

Below a collection of information on the godfather (possibly of Madeleine although there are conflicting reports which state that JC is godfather to Amelie) . He is reported to have given Cuddlecat to Maddie and to have been in charge of the  distribution of photographs.

Liverpool Echo May 6 2007: 

[..]

Jon Corner, founder of Liverpool-based River Media, is godfather to the McCann’s twins and his wife has known Mrs McCann since they were both threre.

The co-founder of city centre-based River Media, and a father-of-three himself, said: “Kate phoned me in the early hours totally devastated .(Kate had in fact 24 communications with JC starting at 02.53 on the 4th May until 06.59)

“She just told me that Maddy had been abducted, that the shutters of the apartment had been forced and someone had taken her.

[..]

Mr Corner said he saw the couple when they brought the family up to Merseyside for the christening of his last child at the end of March

 From KH1: 'madeleine': Chapter 6: (4th May)

Around 8am, I started to receive text messages and calls from friends back in the UK who were seeing and hearing news bulletins –

[...]

(Kate talks on in general terms but relates the meeting with Yvonne Martin around 10.00 am long after the following extract, so I presume the time that Jon Corner was busy with the photographs was well before 8.00 am since at that time Kate was receiving reactions to news bulletins.This leads me to believe that Jon Corner already had the photoshopped images on his computer ready 'to go').
Chapter 6:

The texts and phone calls kept coming. By this time our friend Jon Corner, a creative director in media production in Liverpool, was circulating photographs and video footage of Madeleine to the police, Interpol and broadcasting and newspaper news desks. (One call  from JC at 09.33 lasting 5.35 min would probably have been about the above information).This was in accordance with the standard advice of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the US, which advocates getting an image of a missing child into the public domain as soon as possible.(Is this giving a little too much information? How and why on earth would JC have known about US strategies and why US? UK strategy I can just believe, but this information was already available to JC on the night of the 3/4 May as indeed were the photographs.)

Chapter 8:

Jon Corner had opened up the file transfer protocol he’d set up on 4 May to circulate Madeleine’s image to family, friends and other supporters. [...] basically, it provided access via a password to a repository for photographs and other material, allowing people to share their resources. Helpers could post their material on a dedicated server via the FTP and use that supplied by others to create flyers, posters and so on. The press already had the password, which gave them access to pictures and video footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz8l1q2ZdwU The Snow White video 

Jon Corner was the one who gave this description of Maddie: 

'“So beautiful, astonishingly bright, and I’d have to say very charismatic. She would shine out of a crowd, ”family friend Jon Corner says of the child. “So—God forgive me—maybe that’s part of the problem. That special quality. Some bastard picked up on that.” (Vanity Fair febr. 2008)

BBC news on 4th May and the home video of Madeleine dressed as Snow White was shown.

Remark from JD on JH:

Even though technically it can be done to send a video so quickly to the BBC, its less than 24 hours that someone thought of this video and then to make the arrangements to get it to them, when they should have been concentrating on latest pictures for the world to know who exactly to look for. 

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/01/jon-corner-funny-guy.html

Jon Corner - the friend and filmmaker who rather strangely videoed the parents in June - some footage of which was shown on the unflattering BBC Panorama programme - is now officially on the Fund's board of directors following the resignation of Kate's old school-friend Esther McVey, and one other.

Jon Corner's contribution included the most bizarre footage of Kate shown to date, and the odd shot of Gerry hunched over his PC with the voice-over explaining that he was 'searching for Madeleine'.

Now why would this good friend of the family and godfather to the twins choose to release to Panorama these rather eye-opening scenes? In the light of yesterday's revelation of discussions with a 'proper' film production outfit, (the ones who made Touching the Void) maybe he is a little miffed. If they burned his company in search of a better offer, he might have decided that "we were so into each other, you know?" and "whoosh, cluck" should be put out there. On the other hand if he is as lacking in self-awareness as G and K themselves, perhaps he didn't see any harm in any of the content of his viral video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N47AUYhD4Dg The Whoosh clunk video

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This is the list of companies of JC. Link: http://companycheck.co.uk/director/906034713

Company Name Company Status Appointed Resigned
THE LANDING AT MEDIACITYUK LIMITED Active 05/02/2013 -
ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY(THE) Active 03/12/2012 -
RIVER RICH MEDIA LLP Active 24/07/2012 -
DIGITALIVERPOOL LIMITED Active 28/06/2012 -
MEDIASTILL LTD Active 07/07/2010 -
RIVER DIGITAL LEARNING LIMITED Active 26/05/2010 -
RIVERMOTION GROUP LIMITED Active 25/05/2010 -
MADELEINE'S FUND: LEAVING NO STONE UNTURNED LIMITED Active 09/01/2008 -
LIVERPOOL VISION LIMITED Active 19/02/2010 29/11/2012
RIVER-DIGITAL (UK) LIMITED In Liquidation 28/04/2010 -
RIVER MEDIA LTD. In Liquidation 03/03/2003 -
RIVER MEDIA LTD. In Liquidation 20/08/1998- 08/06/2012
KEEKOSCENE LIMITED Dissolved 27/07/2004 -5/6/2007
GREATER MERSEYSIDE ENTERPRISE LIMITED Dissolved 03/11/2005 31/03/2007


Ms Sarah Jane Chinnaraja (present on Keekoscene ltd) had four current directorships and three previous. She is also at present with Parsons at Keeko Kids ltd.
Only Jon Corner has not continued with Keeko Kids ltd. after resigning/winding up Keekoscene.
Keekoscene's applications for striking off:
GAZ2 Second notification of strike-off action in London Gazette (Section 652).
01-06-2007 GAZ1 First notification of strike-off action in London Gazette (Section 652).

His partner in Keekoscene David Warwick Parsons then set up a company called Keeko Kids Ltd. I have some details on that. DWP has 26 dissolved directorships and 13 active ones. He was born in 1944. Link for DWP: http://companycheck.co.uk/director/909901860

Jon Corner  - at the time of M’s disappearance he had 10 current appointments
2 resigned appointments
2 dissolved appointments

Seems it was Jon Corner who did at least one website so not all the Madeleine websites were set up in a garage in Ullapool by a very well paid schoolboy (£ 30.000,- +for first year) .

Domain ID:D145995330-LROR
Domain Name:FINDMADELEINE.ORG
Created On:14-May-2007 14:31:24 UTC
Last Updated On:14-May-2009 16:18:36 UTC
Expiration Date:14-May-2010 14:31:24 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R11-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:tubK7bbqRl4gUa27
Registrant Name:Jon Corner
Registrant Organization:Jon Corner
Registrant Street1:82 Wood Street
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Liverpool
Registrant State/Province:Merseyside
Registrant Postal Code:L14DQ
Registrant Country:GB
Registrant Phone:+44.1517080807
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:jon@river-media.comJon registered the findmadeleine.org domain - but doesn't use it. 

IN POLITICS STUPIDITY IS NOT A HANDICAP Napoleon

'Too much politics, that's what there was, too much politics and not enough policing.. '

Goncalo Amaral de Souza.

A memo was leaked in December 2007 and it contains much of interest. For myself, I am convinced this has Blairite fingerprints all over it, however the wording understates the problem. The  Ambassador - in all probability - wrote  in Mandarin and I would translate the memo as: 

His Excellency asks : are those who must be obeyed absolutely sure it’s a good idea to carry on? Especially in view of the McCann's  attitude to the PJ?

December 3, 2007

A memo was leaked to the Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure regarding a diplomat's concerns about the case. 

Questions have been raised as to whether the memo may have been written by Ambassador Buck or someone in his office, although diplomat's name was not published in the newspaper articles.

The leaked memo was routed through the British diplomatic mission in Brussels

The leaked memo was sent "just days" after Madeleine disappeared.

The leaked memo warned the Foreign Office of concerns regarding the McCanns and warned of the risks of siding with the McCanns in public.

The diplomat immediately had doubts after being sent to Praia da Luz due to what he considered to be inconsistencies in their testimonies and "confused declarations" as to the whereabouts of the McCanns and their friends on May 3.

The memo mentions instructions "from London" that consular staff "overstretch their authority and put pressure on Portuguese authorities."

The memo refers to orders sent the previous day from the Foreign Office in London commanding embassy staff to provide all possible assistance to the McCanns and that the McCanns "had to be "accompanied at all times during any contact with the Portuguese police" by a member of consular staff or by British police officers sent out from the UK.

He also mentioned their lack of cooperation with the Portuguese police

The memo was sent *from the Algarve* to the Foreign office days after Madeleine "went missing"

Quote: "With the greatest respect, I would like to make you aware of the risks and implications to our relationship with the Portuguese authorities, if you consider the possible involvement of the couple. "Please confirm to me, in the light of these concerns, that we want to continue to be closely involved in the case as was requested in your previous message."

The Belgian report also stated that Portuguese detectives believe it is possible Madeleine died as the result of an accident on May 3 in the family's holiday apartment and that her parents hid and later disposed of her body with the help of their friends. 

They said it is highly significant that almost all of the diplomats involved at the outset have now been taken off the case.

December 12, 2007

Reports emerged that British diplomats had been ordered by the Foreign Office to "avoid offering support" to Robert Murat.

The claim was made that an internal Foreign Office memo had sent the instructions three days after Murat was made an arguido (Note: May 15 is the date Murat was made an arguido.)

According to Spain's El Mundo newspaper, the order was justified due to the "specific nature of the case".

The internal memo allegedly stated that British diplomats were to "avoid offering support" to Murat unless charges were pressed against him.

http://www.newsoutlines.blogspot.com/p/ambassador-john-buck-timeline-madeleine.html

So what lead up to the above memo? 

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Friday May 4, 2007

Ambassador Buck drove from Lisbon to Praia da Luz. (Distance is approximately 3 hours by car.) Arrived mid-morning. PJ staff overheard earlier that morning, at 10 AM the British Consul reporting that nothing was being done by the Portuguese police. 

Saturday May 5, 2007

Drove in from Lisbon "to be with the family after they begged him for help."

Ambassador Buck and 3 "family liaison officers from Leicestershire police held a private meeting with the McCanns "at the resort" on the afternoon of May 5th.The 3 "family liaison officers were flown out "at the request of the Foreign Commonwealth Office.

Sunday May 6, 2007

Ambassador Buck attended church service officiated by Father Jose Manuel Pacheco. 

Tuesday May 8, 2007

Ambassador Buck travelled to the Algarve and met the McCanns. Reports were that the meeting lasted an hour.

He gave a television interview in which he said he had been in touch with Portuguese ministers and the prime minister Jose Socrates, and senior police chiefs. 

Wednesday May 9, 2007

An email between Portimao and Lisbon of 9 May 2007 was the subject of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request asking for Ambassador Buck's communications related to the McCanns. This email (or a portion of it) was withheld based on "Personal Information" exemption: Section 40 (2) and (3) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Further information emerged regarding the 2 additional experts Buck had announced on Tuesday May 8th.

Ambassador Buck said they were "kidnapping experts" and had joined the 3 other British investigators who had been in Portugal since Saturday

"... two 'Cracker-style' criminal behaviour experts from Britain flew into the Algarve yesterday to join investigators..."

They were from CEOP and their dispatch had been organised by the British Foreign Office.

"A spokeswoman for the CEOP said the move was unprecedented and had been organised by the Foreign Office."

(In  the intervening period  up to September there were numerous communications for which FOI requests were refused. Quite a long list)

September 10, 2007

Ambassador John Buck was replaced as the British Ambassador to Portugal by Alexander Ellis. It was announced that Buck had "left the diplomatic service". 

September 21 2007 (Source: Guardian/Wikileaks)

On September 21, newly-arrived British Ambassador Alexander Wykeham Ellis informed US Ambassador Hoffman that "it was the British police that developed the current evidence against Madeleine McCann's parents."

Ellis informed the Ambassador that former British Ambassador John Buck had accepted a private-sector position at a UK gas company and that his departure had nothing to do with bilateral issues.

CUDDLE CAT

Cuddlecat.co.uk and Cuddlecat .org.uk

Going through old files it occurred to me that Cuddle Cat had quite a lot to say but it seems to have been lost in the ocean of information.  So back to the beginning:

Trade mark: Filing date for Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned

Case details for Trade Mark 2456061 – Intellectual Property Office

Status: Registered.

Filing date: 18 May 2007

Day 26 / 29/05/2007

4th Official website registered as :

www.cuddlecat.org.uk  linked to: (registered on 26/5)

www.cuddlecat.co.uk  (registered on 23/5) linked to

www.findmadeleine.com  linked to

www.bringmadeleinehome.com.

Provenance:

Cuddlecat’s  provenance is  unknown. It has been suggested that it was a toy made by https://b2b.russberrie.com  , however, although this firm does produce similar items  it appears to be a US firm and the toys were selling for  $ 39.99 which seems a little steep. As far as I know, an exact copy of this toy has not been seen on sale in the UK.  

If it was made by an established firm it does  not explain why the McCanns registered two websites  for a toy brand which they did not own. The sites were still active (cyber squatted) in 2012, I believe they are now defunct.

A close friend of the family however, Jon Corner,  had a company called Keekoscene which  I believe produced  toys and other items for children.  https://opencorporates.com/companies/gb/05182391 This firm was dissolved on 5th June 2007.

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­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Testimonies to the importance of Cuddlecat:

David Smith TIMESONLINE  16 December 2007: (random comma’s are DS..)

‘Gerry paused over Madeleine, who – a typical doctor’s observation, this – was lying almost in ‘the recovery position’with Cuddle Cat, the toy her godfather, John Corner had bought her, and her comfort blanket up near her head, and Gerry thought how gorgeous, how lovely-looking she was and how lucky he was.’

KH1: ‘madeleine’: Page 147, Chapter 10.

On Sunday 20 May, Gerry left for the UK. […] In the end he spent both nights with friends [..] I was fine, too. Trish and Sandy were there and I had Amelie and Sean. And Cuddle Cat

Chapter six (the first time they were to face the press)

..So Gerry sat down and drafted a statement on a piece of scrap paper. [..] I accompanied him downstairs. As we left I grabbed Madeleine’s Cuddle Cat. Keeping her beloved toy close was the nearest I could be to her.  (Which means she did not hold on to CC indoors, but he had to make a press appearance – may be pushing it a bit but read on..)

Goncalo Amaral:  The Truth of the Lie:

These first observations are not the only ones that lead us to consider a set-up. The way the bed sheets were arranged but also the child’s soft  toy equally raise doubts. [..]

-          And the soft toy she slept with? That’s not in a natural position either. How would she have found it, along the pillows like that? [..]

-          Which means that the little girl slept without holding it? Children normally clutch their security object to fall asleep.

David Smith from Timesonline:

Jon Corner on Cuddle Cat and DNA, 09 September 2007

Jon Corner, a godfather of one of the McCanns’ children, said: “The Cuddle Cat was reeking with Madeleine’s DNA. That easily explains why DNA has been found in the hire car and on clothing that Kate bought after Madeleine disappeared.”

Right we got all that – from the pictures as well, including some of Kate all alone with CC, many of the innocent young mother with Cuddlecat  including one of CC peeking out of the top of her rucksack. Shame they didn’t take it to Rome to be blessed by the Pope.

___________________________________________________________________________

Enter the dogs.

The cadaver dog reacted to Cuddlecat  but not to the bed or the mattress on which it had rested. Cadaverine contaminates textiles very quickly. I came across an old exchange with Monkeymind – who as an ex-policeman should know what he’s talking about.

If  the bed was clean according to Eddie, then Cuddlecat was also clean on the night of the 3^rd of May 2007. Therefore the contamination must have occurred at a later date. Remember that the blanket disappeared as well and had left no trace of cadaverine on the bedding either.

Fibres (probably of the blanket) were however found in the barn some 25 km distant from PdL and the same fibres were found in the car. G. Amaral has stated in an interview that when the blanket is found the case is solved. I think the suggestion is that she was buried in the blanket or had been wrapped in it at one stage. Which must also have been after 3/5.

Now the check trousers Kate wore must be the clothing that Jon Corner referred to. If she bought those in Portugal after 3/5 – which may be true, logic then dictates that the kitchen photo is fake – having been taken some months earlier.

But it gets more interesting. Kate wore jeans to travel in. Had any of her clothing been contaminated by six corpses, all her clothes would have been contaminated in the suitcase. But Eddie only alerted to trousers, t-shirt and Cuddle Cat. Blanket and CC were not contaminated on the night of the 3^rd. Kate’s clothing must have been contaminated after arrival in PdL.

Washington Post:  7/9/2007

Two British Newspapers on Saturday reported that a dog trained to sniff out corpses reacted strongly to Kate McCann’s clothing and to Madeleine’s favorite toy, a pink “Cuddle Cat”that Kate McCann now carries with her regularly.

Various media reports said Kate McCann, a general practitioner, told investigators that she had come into contact with six dead bodies shortly before her one-week family holiday to Portugal.’

Cuddle Cat found!

I found Cuddlecat again when a search brought me to: http://www.ethicalkidz.co.uk/

A company run by Tara Gold – married to Stuart Gold, both on holiday with the McCanns in Mallorca in 2005.

Cuddlecat was there – I was overjoyed to find him after a long search. However, I was posting on the Fund at the time and wrote that the charities listed on the website erroneously  included findmadeleine.com complete with the charity number. This turned out the company registration number as one might expect.  

Within days – well done TM MMU – not only had the listing of the site under charities been changed but Cuddlecat had once again disappeared. Forever this time.

However, it seems clear that he was never alone, indeed,  some forty  cuddlecats  were hard at work: Daily Mail: 25 January 2008

Método 3, whose contract expires in March, has 40 investigators working on the case, here and in Portugal and Spain.

Each has a replica of Cuddle Cat, Madeleine's favourite toy, which they are encouraged to squeeze when they feel demotivated at the size of their task.Unquote

Two websites dedicated to cuddlecat. 

A close friend connected to a company Keekoscene and the toy.

Cuddle Cat promoted from day one.

Forty Cuddle Cats given to Metodo 3.

Cuddle Cats appearing for sale some years later on website on friend of McCanns which lists amongst charities who will benefit from sales the Ltd.Co Both wrong information and Cuddle Cat disappear. This time forever it seems.

One could almost think that a stock of Cuddlecats were ready to be sold on, if not before the 3^rdof May 2007.

What may have happened is that the 50 million hits on the Madeleine  website made Cuddlecat redundant before he was launched. Or that Clarence had a moment of sanity and prevented the launch just as he did when he prevented Gerry organising a photo opportunity of Kate in a swimsuit. 

The Amber Alert connection

From: http://thelostmarketingploy.blogspot.

Grooming the McCanns: Amber Alert, the Prüm Treaty and Government Interference in the McCann Case

Author Blackwatch (of 12/08/2009 @ 11:30:48, in Madeleine McCann - Political Dimensions, viewed 6541 times)

How The Madeleine Case Supported the Extension of Amber Alert System and the EU's Prüm Treaty To The Remaining 27 Member States - And How Downing Street Obliged

In response to the question, how will the McCanns be remembered, one Mirror Forum member wrote:

“they will become a leading force in the world to get rid of the hidden evil in our society, and to out those who try to cover up for the tragedies these criminals can cause”.

For a couple who were at this time suspects in their daughter's disappearence, the statement brokered something of a paradox; just how could these two ordinary individuals who had been openly pilloried for their routine negligence transform themselves into credible figureheads for law-enforcement overnight? Within the time it took to finish one glass of wine and discover one of your children missing, the McCanns exchanged their prison-issue denims for outfits tailored to a more 'practical' design.

And what at first had sounded like a most absurd suggestion by one deluded forum member steadily acquired some semblance of authority.

GERRY IS HONOURED AT POLICE BRAVERY AWARDS FOR A LIFETIME (WELL 6 WEEKS OR SO) OF SERVICES TO … MISSING KIDS AND STUFF ... JULY 2007

Retracing our steps to mid-July 2007 and we find ourselves standing alongside hundreds of dumbfounded uniformed officers at the Dorchester Hotel, invited from our seats by senior personnel to applaud one Gerald P McCann at the Police Bravery Awards. First we’d had the poignant video of his daughter, then the speech praising both UK Officers and the Polícia Judiciária, now we had the standing ovation. And for what? Just what were we honouring? Gerry’s contribution to ‘what’ exactly? One of the serving South Yorkshire officers receiving an award there that night described it as one of the most surreal events of his life. Sitting at his table was none other than Gerry McCann, 1500 metre junior running medallist and celebrated kidnap personality. And he wasn’t just down onthe guest-list; Gerry was guest of honour. It was like having Mark Stanley - the man responsible for shutting the doors on the Herald of Free Enterprise as it left Zeebrugge - guest-of honour at the annual Maritime and Coastguard awards.

Naturally, not even this prepared us for what was to come. But just how did we get to this stage?

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

HAVE A DREAM – GERRY’S EPIPHANY – FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN THEN WE TAKE BERLIN

In mid-June, in an interview given to the Catholic newspaper, The Tablet, Gerry McCann told of an "extraordinary experience" inside the church in Praia da Luz just days after Madeleine's disappearance:

"I had this mental image of being in a tunnel and instead of the light at the end of the tunnel being extremely narrow and a distant spot, the light opened up and the tunnel got wider and wider and went in many different directions .... I can't say it was a vision because I am not clear what a vision is but I had a mental image and it certainly helped me decide. I became a man possessed that night. The next day I was up at dawn, making phone calls."

At this point in time Madeleine has been missing, presumed abducted, for little more than 3 weeks. But in what can only be described as an epiphany or profound breakthrough, Gerry McCann is sufficiently inspired and transformed enough to pursue a totally new direction. At a time when most people in his position are coming round from the effects of a mild sedative Gerry decides to resign his position at Glenfield Hospital and spearhead a campaign on behalf of missing and exploited children everywhere. His mission starts modestly enough; a meeting with SOS Crianca, the main child welfare non-governmental organisation in Portugal and then to London for a meeting at the Headquarters of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. And then things start getting a little giddy. Gerry visits the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children in Washington, bonds with the US attorney general Gonzales at the justice department, grapples at the White House with the First Lady's deputy chief of staff, Sarah Armstrong and follows it up with a mid-afternoon jog up Capitol Hill for meetings with Democrat congressman Nick Lampson and Republican Senator Robert Shelby.

And then, of course, we have that ill-timed appointment in Edinburgh with Kirsty Wark who interviews Gerry at the Edinburgh International TV festival, shortly before he and his wife are declared formal suspects.

Not bad for a couple from Leicester who were presumed reckless enough to leave their daughter unattended for several nights of the week on a jolly old Summer Holiday with their mates in Portugal.

THE TONY AND GORDON SHOW – WITH GUESTS THE FORENSIC SCIENCE SERVICE AND THE SUSPECT NATION

In comedy, timing is everything. Get to the punch line too quick, too slow, don’t weight it right, don’t say it right – and the whole collapses. And it’s much the same in politics. Get the audience on your side and they’ll pretty much laugh at anything. Sometimes you have to wait for the right time and sometimes you have to adlib. But if you get them when they’re laughing already you ‘re as good as home and dry.

And it’s in this way we might look at Gerry and Kate as warm-up artists for the Tony and Gordon Show.

Gerry's timely statement that 'Portugal has no DNA database of known sex offenders' also coincided with Blair and Brown's plans for extending the UK's National DNA database and creating a single European-wide database - from those that drop litter to those with traffic offences. The DNA database, they argued 'should include all'. His statement also coincided with Britain's plans to join the controversial, Prüm Treaty on June 12th - a decision widely criticized by opposition parties, human rights groups and a good proportion of the British Public, who had begun to foster concerns of sleepwalking into a 'Big Brother Europe'. The Prum Treaty, first signed in May 2005 by Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Austria, allowed the police forces of those countries to compare and exchange data more easily.

On June 12 2007, the 27 member states passed a slightly revised version of the treaty into EU law - a move which - had it not been for the emotional furore surrounding the McCanns and Madeleine - would most likely have dragged Blair and New Labour even further into the mire, and upsetting no end Blair's final lap of honour: his farewell tour of Africa and the Middle East.

In 2006 The Guardian ran the headline: “Suspect Nation” and was duly followed up in September 2007 with the headline, Judge wants everyone in UK on DNA database when it was announced that Lord Justice Sedley, one of England's most experienced appeal court judges, expressed the view that every UK citizen, 'guilty or innocent' should be on the DNA database. The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent and BBC News followed suit.

Whilst Brown and the Home Office distanced themselves comfortably from Sedley's remarks, they did not rule it out entirely and the Home Office continues to guage public reaction on the issue using a number of high profile cases as a catalyst for debate (and, let's face it, as a means of testing and building consensus concurrently. See how the whole issue is again now being framed within the Sally Anne Bowman and Ipswich Murder cases, The Press Association, Feb 23rd 2007)

From the very first moment Tony Blair visited the Forensic Science Service's London headquarters in October 2006 he and Downing Street began to extol the DNA Database as a major crime-busting tool. He called for the national DNA database to be expanded to include every citizen. While at the centre, he heard how advances in DNA technology are not only boosting detection rates in current cases but also helping police in reviews of so-called cold cases - some several decades old - where there was no new evidence.

In the months immediately following Blair’s visit to the FSS, debate on the issue increased. Noise was produced on both sides of the fence; from the Association of Chief Police Officers (who backed the expansion) on the one side and civil liberties groups and partisan newspaper columnists on the other, attracting the greater volume of headlines in Summer 2007.

And in July 2007 the shit really hit the fan. In light of issues discussed in the context of the Madeleine McCann investigation and Gerry’s statement about ‘no known sex-offenders’ database in Portugal, the EU drive to produce the world's largest criminal DNA database gathered pace. Naturally it was deeply unpopular and controversial. It always had been. Even when the issue had first been broached in February 2007 broadsheets ran the headline: ‘DNA data deal 'will create Big Brother Europe'. The proposition from the EU was that Police across Europe would be given free access to every other member’s DNA, fingerprint and car registration databases.

SOMETHING FALLS INTO THEIR LAP – NEVER LOOK A TROJAN GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH

At a meeting in Brussels, the Home Office agreed to a deal that would set up a network of national crime records across 27 states. All member states would have access to other countries' DNA and fingerprint data, as well as direct online access to vehicle registries. The exchanges would eventually lead to the creation of a single Euro-wide database - produced under the aforementioned, Prüm Treaty. The treaty had been drafted originally by then holders of the EU Presidency, Germany.

Signed initially by Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands in May 2005, the treaty was extended to all Member States in June 2007. The move was hugely unpopular. Brown was to be placed under the same considerable pressure to ditch the treaty as Blair had been under to veto it. The deal - signed by Home Office Minister Joan Ryan in Luxembourg - also paved the way for police from different EU states to set-up joint patrols. (Britain's initial sluggishness in backing the treaty was made all the more ironic by the fact it has the biggest DNA Database in the world - clocking in at around 3.5 million people - but given that access to this information would yield no small amount of embarrassment to the UK, hesitation seemed somewhat inevitable).

The Tories described the so-called "Prüm Convention" as a "sell-out", but such was the attention whipped up by the Madeleine case that it didn't meet with quite the same level of objection from the British Public - who - contrary to expectations - seemed quietly philosophical (and needless to say, compromised) about the whole issue.

All that Blair and the original Prüm signatories had really needed was the public on their side, something to trigger a climate of anxiety about the issue, a pan-European ‘catalyst’ event, a gateway, a prelude. Let's face it, any politician worth their salt thesedays needs a good 'catalyst event', something that greases the wheels of contentious, unpopular policies and legislature both at home and on foreign soil. Just as politicians are accused of hijacking the terrorist attacks in New York and London in the first half of this decade, politicians in this country and in Europe hijacked the Madeleine tragedy for dubious political gain.

It was political opportunism with a compassionate expression, a bunch of flowers and a cuddly toy. Just as 9/11 provided the right moral pretext for war, the Madeleine investigation provided the right moral pretext for extending the Prum Agreement to all 27 member states.

Madeleine’s abduction arrived in rather a timely fashion for Blair and the original member states - helping them negotiate a rather tricky passage, especially if the PM was to hold onto his dreams of bagging the future EU presidency. What better way to rally support for extending the UK DNA Profiling Database and building support for the contentious Prüm Treaty than monopolising the crisis engendered by a missing pre-schooler. It cut through the demographics like a knife through butter, appealing to everyone regardless of age, regardless of class, regardless of gender. It was something children could identify with. It was something grown ups could identify with. Even famous authors and football celebrities. And more importantly (much more importantly) it crossed all geographical boundaries.

Those insensitive 'Where's Wally' lampoons at least highlighted an uncomfortable truth: Madeleine was popping up everywhere, and so too were her alleged captors: if ever we had needed access to other countries' DNA and fingerprint data and cross-border cooperation it was now.

It was the trigger that would launch a fleet of vessels:

"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"

Historians might be interested to note that Ilium is modern day Turkey: gateway to the 'diabolical Middle East’. Did we envisage Madeleine, just like Helen, being bundled onto a boat by a swarthy looking arab called, Paris?

Had New Labour (and ultimately, the orginal EU states: Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands) just been waiting for this accident to happen? Another 'catalyst' event?

Is this what the McCanns were being groomed for: ambassadorial duties for Prüm and Prüm-related declarations like the much touted, Amber Alert System? But who had initially applied the pressure and had drafted the original blueprint for this consensus build? Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain? New Labour? All five? Were the McCanns aware of it or were they just unforunate, unwitting pawns caught up in an elaborate psychodrama staged by Europe’s crafty elite, the purpose of which they could only guess at?

As the Daily Telegraph quite rightly points out: " When Labour took office in 1997, it held only 700,000 samples. By next year, it will hold the samples of some 4.2 million people – seven per cent of the population – and is growing by about half a million a year.”

That’s a lot of bums on seats. And a hullva lot of bumprints.