Times - clues hidden for five years, (according to convicted conman)

The Times are carrying a story about the clues that were hidden for five years.

The Star appears to have taken leave of its senses:



Not a lot you can say about that bit of barrel-scraping really.

I hope someone has a subscription to the Times:

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/National/article1332689.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_10_26

Madeleine clues hidden for 5 years

The new prime suspect was first singled out by detectives in 2008. Their findings were suppressed. Insight reports

THE critical new evidence at the centre of Scotland Yard’s search for Madeleine McCann was kept secret for five years after it was presented to her parents by ex-MI5 investigators.

The evidence was in fact taken from an intelligence report produced for Gerry and Kate McCann by a firm of former spies in 2008.

It contained crucial E-Fits of a man seen carrying a child on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, which have only this month become public after he was identified as the prime suspect by Scotland Yard.

A team of hand-picked former MI5 agents had been hired by the McCanns to chase a much-needed breakthrough in the search for their missing daughter Madeleine.

Rest is subscription.

Gosh darn it. It sounded very good too.....

I've read it now, and personally, I am surprised the Times has been suckered again - you'd think they would have learned after the Hitler Diaries.

Didn't they look at the names involved before they published that tosh? Oakley? Exton? FFS! Why didn't the Times buy the 24 photos from Levy while they were at it?

I really would have expected better of the Times after they've had their fingers burned in the past by fraudsters.

Exton speaking to Halligen now, is he?

The Times would have been well advised to check their own back issues:



http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/31NOV9/TIMES_22_11-09.htm

A BUSINESSMAN who pretended to be a secret agent has allegedly pocketed up to '300,000 from funds intended to pay investigators working on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Kevin Halligen, a British security consultant, was paid to find Madeleine but allegedly failed to pass the money on to the private detectives who did the work on his behalf. A friend of Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents, said they had become increasingly concerned about Halligen.

'He had this sense of cloak and dagger, acting as if he were a James Bond-style spy,' said the friend. 'He promised the earth but it came to nothing.'

Halligen's company Oakley International, which is based in Washington DC, was paid '500,000 after being hired by the Find Madeleine fund.



Sources close to Halligen say he offered to provide the McCanns with satellite images and lists of telephone traffic on the night Madeleine disappeared. The data were supposed to come from contacts in Washington but, one source claimed, 'all he came up with was a Google Earth image'.


The Madeleine fund was provided with further reports from teams of investigators who found it increasingly difficult to obtain their fees from Halligen. One of them, Henri Exton, a former national head of undercover operations for the British police, is owed more than '100,000 by Halligen for work he did on the Madeleine case.

Documents show that while Halligen's company was receiving the fund's cash, he was withdrawing large amounts of money for his personal use. He had been using company funds to finance first-class flights, expensive hotels and chauffeur-driven cars.

His contract with the fund was not renewed in October last year. Halligen left Washington for a holiday in Rome but never returned to Oakley's offices. He was last seen staying at the Royal Crescent hotel in Bath under an assumed name.

Halligen, 50, often pretended to have served in the intelligence services to impress business and social contacts, according to those who knew him well.


Two years ago he allegedly faked his own wedding to a lawyer in Washington, watched by former agents, a CIA station chief and an adviser to Barack Obama. Halligen told his bride that his spy masters would not allow his real name to be on wedding documents. He was, in fact, already married and the priest was an actor.

A wider financial investigation has found Halligen bought a '1m mansion with money allegedly defrauded from Trafigura, the company accused of dumping toxic waste in Africa. Last week the US Department of Justice issued an indictment seeking his arrest over the alleged Trafigura fraud.


Stephen Dorrell, the McCanns' MP, said: 'This man clearly saw a vulnerable family going through a terrible ordeal and the only thing he was focused on was that there were people offering money to help find Madeleine.'


And this is the source of the Times exclusive? It makes the Star look intelligent...

They were led by Henri Exton, MI5’s former undercover operations chief.

MI5? Are they sure they don't mean, Greater Manchester Police?

Is this a Levy production?

Halligan just got out of jail in the US, didn't he, and was last spotted in Ireland looking for a new scam? Looks like he found one.

I suggest anyone who thinks this is DYNAMITE!!!!!! reads up on the Hitler Diaries, and the last time the Times was taken for an expensive ride:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries

Might be an idea if the forkers currently making remarks like:

You notice it's not in a redtop but a better class off paper.


It's more believable in the times.

=======

'm thinking, that the time is up, cat out of bag,
The Fat lady is about to sing, payback time and
many a worm is about to turn!
Old optimistic me..... R Brookes trial this week?
Tick Tock

=======

s your head spinning, Clarrie?
How's your monitoring, Mikey?
Have you missed this one, Missing People?
Are you even more hacked off, Hacked Off?


read the piece very carefully. Note the factual errors, and that it doesn't actually make any logical sense. Which tends to happen when conmen are involved.

Incidentally, that piece is behind the Times paywall, so on their own heads be it if people choose to ignore copyright and reproduce it in public.

Not that I care, personally, I am enjoying watching them being taken for a ride again. Along with the Sunday Times.  

I wonder, did the tick-tockers, monkey-catchers and tide-turners even bother to find out who wrote the piece:



Peter Cruddas, Chief Executive of CMC Markets and former Treasurer of the Conservative Party, has today won a resounding victory against The Sunday Times in his libel action against the newspaper and two of its Insight journalists, Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake.

The newspaper has been ordered to pay Mr Cruddas £180,000 in damages (including £15,000 for aggravated damages) and his legal costs. This is one of the highest libel awards in recent years and reflects both the seriousness of the allegations and the damage and distress they caused to Mr Cruddas.

In a damning judgment of The Sunday Times and the two journalists following a two-week trial, Mr Justice Tugendhat found the newspaper report had been untruthful, misleading, vindictive and malicious in its reporting of a meeting that took place between Mr Cruddas and Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake, who had posed as international financiers interested in making a large donation to the Conservative Party. The meeting was covertly filmed and recorded by the journalists with edited clips sent-out to all the major broadcasters on the eve of publication.

To read more about this from Slater & Gordon see: http://www.slatergordon.co.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2013/07/peter-cruddas-wins-his-libel-and-malicious-falsehood-trial-against-sunday-times/#ixzz2iv0EgZ7V
Follow us: @slatergordonUK on Twitter

The Sunday Times defended the action by maintaining that the articles it published were true. However, Mr Justice Tugendhat today rejected The Sunday Times’ defence and castigated Mr Calvert and Ms Blake for being malicious, stating: “Mr Calvert and Ms Blake did know that the articles were false… They did have a dominant intention to injure Mr Cruddas and they expressed delight when they learnt that they had caused his resignation.”

http://www.thelawyer.com/news/practice-areas/litigation-news/times-newspapers-ordered-to-pay-180k-damages-500k-costs-in-libel-battle/3008085.article

Times Newspapers ordered to pay £180k damages, £500k costs in libel battle

Ouch!

Rosalinda V. Hutton ‏@RosalindaHu
@EmRiverHasney they may well be in meltdown today Em, Times has revealed #mccann 'Search' was a scam!

Something's a scam, and I do believe it's the Times article.  

You know, the one written by the dodgy journos with previous form for making up malicious crap, who have been in contact with a conman with a grudge.

Didn't they even notice the factual errors in the piece? No? Too busy tick-tocking, no doubt.  

Rosalinda V. Hutton ‏@RosalindaHu
@jonathansmith_9 this will stick, its in The Times!

So were the Hitler Diaries.  

Born in Belgium in 1951, Exton had been a highly effective undercover officer for the Manchester police. A maverick and dynamic figure, he successfully infiltrated gangs of football hooligans in the 1980's. While not popular among his colleagues, in 1991 he was seconded to work on MI5 undercover operations against drug dealers, gangsters and terrorists, and was later awarded the Queen's Police Medal for 'outstanding bravery'. By all accounts, the charismatic Exton was a dedicated officer. But in November 2002, the stress appeared to have overcome his judgement when he was arrested for shoplifting.

While working on an MI5 surveillance, Exton was caught leaving a tax-free shopping area at Manchester airport with a bottle of perfume he had not paid for. The police were called and he was given the option of the offence being dealt with under caution or to face prosecution. He chose a police caution and so in effect admitted his guilt. Exton was sacked, but was furious about the way he had been treated and threatened to sue MI5. He later set up his own consulting company and moved to Bury in Lancashire.

While Exton, however flawed, was the genuine article as an investigator, Halligen was a very different character. Born in Dublin in 1961, he has been described as a 'Walter Mitty figure'. He used false names to collect prospective clients at airports in order to preserve secrecy, and he called himself 'Kevin' or 'Richard' or 'Patrick' at different times to describe himself to business contacts. There appears to be no reason for all this subterfuge except that he thought this was what agents did. A conspiracy theorist and lover of the secret world, he is obsessed by surveillance gadgets and even installed a covert camera to spy on his own employees. He claimed to have worked for GCHQ, but in fact he was employed by the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) as head of defence systems in the rather less glamorous field of new information technology, researching the use of 'special batteries'. He told former colleagues and potential girlfriends that he used to work for MI5, MI6 and the CIA. He also claimed that he was nearly kidnapped by the IRA, was involved in the first Gulf War and had been a freefall parachutist.


Yet here he is in the Sunday Times as.....

Henri Exton, MI5’s former undercover operations chief.

Wonder how much this little lot is going to cost the ST?

Incidentally, I must apologise to the Star for referring to their porn star story as 'barrel-scraping':

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/347514/Crimewatch-actor-in-Madeleine-McCann-case-is-a-porn-star

In comparison to today's effusions from The Thunderer, the Star's report on the showbiz career of Mr Mark Sloan is the epitome of restrained reporting, accuracy and attention to detail.

And as far as I know, Mr Sloan has neither previously cost his employers a fortune in a libel case, nor done time for fraud.

From the Mirror:

Labour MP John Mann demanded that the BBC answer questions about their choice of actor.

He said: “They’ve clearly made a mistake on this. This is not the standard we expect from the BBC.”

A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann said: “This is a matter for the BBC and their production values. We do not wish to comment on it.”

The BBC yesterday declined to comment.

So, he's a 'porn star', so what? John Mann got nothing better to do? LL

He said: “A letter came from their lawyers binding us to the confidentiality of the report.”

Hardly a 'threat'. The haters may not know this, as many of them don't appear to work for a living, but that is fairly standard practise, especially when dealing with people who may be tempted to sell information to tabloids.

It isn't clear whether it's Halligen the convicted conman, or Exton the perfume-stealing fantasist, who had a tete-a-tete with the convicted libellers, and it doesn't really matter.

It might be a good idea for the tick-tockers to take all this with a bucket of salt, however. Whatever really happened, the whole business has long since been sorted out to the satisfaction of the Yard and the PJ.

Have the tick-tockers forgotten that the REAL police know the truth of this matter? That's the Yard, who have no interest in the McCanns, and the PJ who have likewise made it clear they are not suspects.

Don't take my word for it, see what the head of the PJ had to say:

Mr Exton seems to have forgotten his previous shyness where publicity is concerned:

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/11/censurable-censure.html

Hallelujah, a hounder gets it - or at least part of it:

Excuse me - this is the biggest missing person case ever. And that missing person is a child - which makes it even bigger still.
So this detective agency uncovered information about this childs disappearance, gave the information to the parents who dismissed it
and told them to be quite otherwise.......

Now I don't know about any of you but if you tell to be quite when I know I actually stirred to action then nothing will keep my silence.
So this man had extra information, which he gave to the parents - who then decided not to act on it - and then waited a considerable time until the story leaked.

Please. Please this is becoming stupid now.
The biggest case in the world and he did not have the humanity, the balls, the conviction to go to someone else with this information to save a child.
He should be arrested on the spot for obstructing justice.
I again call bullshit.

And rightly so. But let's leave the rest of the currently-celebrating McCann-haters to find out for themselves.

This is how dumb they are:

Re: WOW A MUST READ -Madeleine clues hidden for five years - Sunday Times Full article now on Page 1
Post cass7 Today

i hope that all papers print this - i hope any forums that anyone is on gets linkys to this - i am useless so i cannot post this on forums i belong to

Let's hope they are all stupid enough to post the entire article, as it's behind a paywall, and about as copyrighted as it's possible to get.

Just remember it's your own fault if NI kicks up Hell.

Knew something about Oakley International had been published recently:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/kevin-halligen-madeleine-mccann-parents-1895650

By Christopher Bucktin
Kevin Halligen: Madeleine McCann parents may sue fraudster accused of £300,000 fund con
18 May 2013 00:00
It is understood that Kate and Gerry McCann are now considering suing Halligen for allegedly fleecing their fund

A dodgy “detective” accused of conning £300,000 from the Madeleine McCann fund is being kicked out of the US – and could now face justice in Britain.

Kevin Halligen was extradited to America five months ago over claims he cheated former business partners out of £1.3million.

Yesterday the 51-year-old admitted wire fraud in a deal with prosecutors in Washington DC.

He will be freed from jail next month, due to time he has already served, then deported.

It is understood that Kate and Gerry McCann are now considering suing Halligen for allegedly fleecing their fund.

He could also be arrested if the couple make a formal complaint.

In 2008, Halligen’s company Oakley International signed a £500,000 deal to help find missing Madeleine.

But the Surrey-based Irishman’s contract was terminated early without full payment after fund organisers decided he had failed to fulfil the agreement.

He was then arrested in Oxford in November 2009 after fleeing Washington when the US government began seeking an indictment over the wire fraud.

A source said: “Halligen would con his own grandmother he is that ruthless.

"The fact he gave the McCanns false hope and took so much money is unforgivable.”

In Washington federal court yesterday Halligen admitted persuading the Dutch company Trafigura to send £1.3million to his personal account in 2006.

Halligen told the court he bought a luxury six-bedroom house with some of the money.

It was supposed to be used to help free two of the company’s executives who were being held in the Ivory Coast on charges of dumping toxic waste.

Halligen will be sentenced on June 27 and, under the deal, freed and deported.



Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/kevin-halligen-madeleine-mccann-parents-1895650#ixzz2iwyLdZVC
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook

Last spotted in Ireland, I believe?

Oakley’s six-month investigation included placing undercover agents inside the Ocean Club where the family stayed, lie detector tests, covert surveillance and a forensic re-examination of all existing evidence.

ORLY? Not just set up phone lines then? When did all this skullduggery happen? Indeed, did it happen anywhere except in Walter Mitty's head?

Nick ‏@xxxxxFernxxxxx 2h
@WAWinter1 @19Barbara57

I fail to understand why the Antis have worked themselves up in to such a frenzy about this. #mccann

Snap - and I also suspect the reason that one of the Oakley people being quoted hasn't been named is that it's Halligen the Walter Mitty fraudster.

Someone on Justice with their wits about them:

Quote from: imustpointout on Today at 05:26:17 PM
I can't believe what I am reading - I thought the clocks only went back by an hour today - things like:

If they don't sue - it must be true

If they don't deny - it cannot be a lie

If they are not Rucked - they are not f---d

Were repeated with so much glee and back slapping years ago.

Doe anyone remember the old has been duffer from Essex who used to use those phrases and permutations of them?

He spent many a happy hour in the High Court making a complete fool of himself.


Frankly, the more you look at it, the more it sounds like the kind of bollox Levy used to cook up.

https://twitter.com/WAWinter1/status/394520424299495425/photo/1

And they call this suppressed. Dated 2007

That, Tony, is one of the many strange things about this - it wasn't 'suppressed'. Though that probably doesn't make for such an exciting headline.

Actually, there's a very obvious reason why one of the 'Oakely investigators' was 'stunned' when he saw Crimewatch.

He's been in the nick for the last few years and missed the Smith sighting being publicised by the McCanns in the past.