The Steeple Times

Category: Bungled Investigations

  • Justice For Jeremy Bamber – Could A Chance Of Such Be Back On The Pitch?

    Justice For Jeremy Bamber – Could A Chance Of Such Be Back On The Pitch?

    Matthew Steeples exclusively speaks to the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign as they call for the whole-life tariff prisoner’s case to finally be reviewed by the Court of Appeal in the wake of the hapless and hopeless Criminal Cases Review Commission being shockingly shaken by scandal-upon-scandal after the departure of Helen Pitcher

    Last week, in two separate articles, The Guardian’s senior crime and legal affairs reporter Emily Dugan shockingly shared: “For the wrongfully convicted, watching the years disappear from a prison cell, the miscarriage of justice watchdog represents their final hope. But some staff at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) say its leaders appear divorced from that reality, using public money for executive training retreats in France and networking over fine wine and steak.”

     

    In the wake of this statutory body responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland’s chairwoman, Helen Pitcher KC OBE, resigning after “an independent panel decided she was no longer fit to stay in the post,” have come yet further revelations about trouble-and-strife at the CCRC. Pitcher had been forced to vamoose after the scandal of “the case of Andrew Malkinson, who spent who spent 17 years in jail for a 2003 rape he did not commit after the CCRC missed multiple opportunities to help.”

     

    Aside from Pitcher being slammed for conducting “Teams meetings from the balcony of her villa in the sunshine Montenegro” and boasting “about her jetset life,” the still remaining in post chief executive, Karen Kneller, has since been nicknamed ‘Karen Invisible’ by staff. Of her, Emily Dugan observed: “She is described by some of those working for her as ‘absent,’ with her ‘finger off the pulse.’”

     

    “One staff member said that under Pitcher and Kneller, an ‘us-and-them culture’ had been allowed to grow within the organisation, with commissioners – the arbiters of cases – staying at top hotels when staff were summoned to Birmingham for meetings, while others stayed at budget accommodation.”

     

    “Fine wines, lobster dishes and post-dinner brandies featured while Pitcher held court at top restaurants with commissioners at their twice-yearly meetings. One source recalled: ‘It was The Ivy; it was never McDonald’s. It was always the posh restaurant.’”

     

    Separately, in an article for the Romford Recorder last week also, the paper’s investigations reporter Charles Thomson reported on “the family of an East End man [named Jason Moore] challenging a murder conviction” calling “for urgent extra funding at Britain’s miscarriage of justice watchdog.”

     

    Thomson observed: “A Newsquest legal action revealed investigators at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) are juggling dozens of cases each. The average caseworker at the CCRC is trying to manage 23 simultaneous cases, rising to 25 if trainees, new starters and leavers are excluded… The highest number of cases allocated to a single worker in January this year was 45. With annual leave, that worker would have just one week per year to spend on each potential miscarriage of justice assigned to them – not accounting for any ‘additional responsibilities.’”

     

    Now, aside from Pitcher having been expelled and Kneller clearly on the ropes, it seems that this – the only body that can reinvestigate miscarriages of justice to send them to the Court of Appeal – is going to be rocked by further revelations.

     

    On Sunday 9th February, Scott Jones and Glen Owen for The Mail on Sunday shared that “Jeremy Bamber’s 40-year bid to prove he is innocent of the White House Farm murders will come to a head next month when the under-fire Criminal Cases Review Commission decides whether to refer the case to the Court of Appeal.”

     

    Journalist Emily Dugan recently tweeted sharing her article and remarked on the CCRC’s chief being dubbed ‘Karen Invisible’ by staff at the hapless and hopeless organisation.
    Journalist Emily Dugan recently tweeted sharing her article and remarked on the CCRC’s chief being dubbed ‘Karen Invisible’ by staff at the hapless and hopeless organisation.
    Responding to ‘The Mail on Sunday’ article about the CCRC likely reviewing Jeremy Bamber’s case next month, one person who left a comment, ‘SloaneRanger’, observed: “Isn't it curious that the as much use as a chocolate teapot Criminal Cases Review Commission is now getting so 'busy' revisiting cases finally now that they've had the disgrace of their handling of the Andrew Malkinson case and subsequently the forced resignation of their chairwoman Helen Pitcher OBE? This useless organisation has sat on the evidence presented to them by the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign in recent years for far too long. Whether you believe Jeremy Bamber to be innocent or guilty, the evidence gathered, at the very least, illustrates the incompetence of Essex Police and proves that this case must be revisited.”
    Responding to ‘The Mail on Sunday’ article about the CCRC likely reviewing Jeremy Bamber’s case next month, one person who left a comment, ‘SloaneRanger’, observed: “Isn’t it curious that the as much use as a chocolate teapot Criminal Cases Review Commission is now getting so ‘busy’ revisiting cases finally now that they’ve had the disgrace of their handling of the Andrew Malkinson case and subsequently the forced resignation of their chairwoman Helen Pitcher OBE? This useless organisation has sat on the evidence presented to them by the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign in recent years for far too long. Whether you believe Jeremy Bamber to be innocent or guilty, the evidence gathered, at the very least, illustrates the incompetence of Essex Police and proves that this case must be revisited.”
    A recent tweet from @Bambertweets remarked on instances referencing Sheila Caffell being alive inside White House Farm whilst Jeremy Bamber was outside with police and also Essex Police’s ‘curious’ record keeping about where they first encountered bodies in the property. Isn’t it about time the CCRC got on with reviewing this clear potential miscarriage of justice?

    In a letter to the lawyer for Bamber – who is the only whole-life prisoner in a British jail to continue to claim to be innocent, but whom was convicted of the 1985 murders of his adoptive parents, his adoptive sister and her twin sons in 1986 – that was “seen by The Mail on Sunday,” a CCRC case review manager stated:

     

    “I am still aiming to bring Mr Bamber’s case before a decision-making committee around March to consider the core issues. I am continuing to consider Mr Bamber’s submissions, in particular those relating to the number of sound moderators (gun silencers) recovered from White House Farm and the forensic findings from it/them.”

     

    Responding, a spokesperson for the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign (JBIC) today told The Steeple Times that they are finally anticipating action to resolve the clear previous lack of it in the CCRC’s handling of evidence submitted. They exclusively commented:

     

    “Nearly four years ago the CCRC were presented with a cast-iron alibi for Jeremy Bamber in the shape of a 999 call being made from within White House Farm at 6.09 am on the morning of the shootings. This showed that Sheila Caffell was still alive inside the house when Jeremy was standing outside surrounded by police officers.”

     

    “In July 2024, this alibi was corroborated by the police officer who took the call, PC Nicholas Milbank, in an interview with The New Yorker magazine. He confirmed that he did take a 999 call from White House Farm at that time.”

     

    “He also said that he had no knowledge of the typed, unsigned, statement, supposedly written by him, that Essex Police used before Jeremy’s 2002 Appeal to explain away the police records of the 999 call as a ‘misunderstanding.’ Mr Milbank said that he had never written such a statement.”

     

    “In light of these facts, it is utterly extraordinary that the CCRC have, as far as we are aware, made no attempt to contact Mr Milbank directly to confirm what he said to The New Yorker.”

     

    “During the years since Jeremy’s latest submissions were lodged with the CCRC, in March 2021, they have done nothing apart from a cursory desktop review of the prosecution case. The CCRC have not investigated any aspect of the considerable amount of exculpatory evidence they have been shown, such as the fact that the police lied about there only being one moderator involved in the case.”

     

    “Jeremy has served 10% of his current 40-year-term whilst the mass of evidence that proves his innocence has been gathering dust on the shelves of the CCRC.”

     

    “We can only hope that the further evidence of two moderators being involved in the case that was given to the CCRC in November 2024, thereby disproving the central plank of the Crown case that here was only one, will finally prompt the CCRC to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal very soon.”

     

    To learn more about the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign, click here.

     

    To read Heidi Blake’s 17,000-word August 2024 ‘The New Yorker’ article about Jeremy Bamber’s case, ‘A Very English Murder,’ in PDF format, click here.

     

    Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples and watch his shows on YouTube at @mjs2781/streams.

    A message from our editorial team – Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by supporting our work via Patreon.

     

    Some questions Essex Police and the Criminal Cases Review Commission plainly need to answer regarding this case… Including some new ones that could lead to to the exoneration of jailed for nigh on 40 years and still protesting his innocence Jeremy Bamber…

    • What happened to a suicide note allegedly left by Sheila Caffell, a paranoid schizophrenic known for suffering psychotic episodes, that was initially referenced by police and then disappeared?
    • Why did Sheila Caffell not have rigor mortis when officers discovered her body?
    • Why was blood still gaping from Miss Caffell’s body when it was found?
    • Why was the bible found by the body of Miss Caffell moved at the crime scene, why was it not used in evidence and why was that bible destroyed by police also?
    • Why are there different accounts about how many bodies were discovered on the ground floor of the farmhouse when Essex Police first entered the farmhouse at around 7.30am?
    • How could Jeremy Bamber be the killer if police officers repeatedly detected movement inside White House Farmhouse whilst he was stood with them outside at from around 4am onwards?
    • How could Jeremy Bamber be the killer if a 999 phone call was made by someone within White House Farm at 6.09am when he was outside at that time with police officers?
    • Why was a silencer supposedly used in the shootings not discovered immediately when police entered the residence?
    • Why have questions about the number of silencers found never previously addressed? Were there one, two or even three such sound moderators? Did Essex Police make false claims about such devices?
    • Why did scratch marks supposedly made in the kitchen of the house supposedly by a silencer not appear in the first photographs taken at the crime scene? How were they actually made in order that they appeared in later imagery?
    • Why weren’t issues with whose DNA could have been on that silencer made clear at Jeremy Bamber’s trial?
    • How could Jeremy Bamber be the killer if he made a phone call from his Goldhanger home 3.5 miles away moments after his father had called police from White House Farmhouse to say that his daughter had “gone berserk” with a gun?
    • Why did Essex Police hide hundreds of thousands of pages of key documentation including police logs and crime scene photographs from being shared during both the 1986 trial and the 2002 appeal? As human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell remarked in May 2024: “[Jeremy Bamber] cannot have a new, fair appeal until all evidence is made available to his legal team. The wholesale suppression of evidence means that Jeremy Bamber did not get a fair trial. His conviction is unsafe.”
    • Could the AGA be responsible for the burn marks on Nevill Bamber and if so, why did Essex Police move bodies at the crime scene?
    • Why did Essex Police so push the narrative of Jeremy Bamber’s former lover and known thief Julie Mugford given they knew shew had been sold her story for £25,000 to the now defunct News of the World with the payment to be received only if he was convicted?
    • Why did Essex Police not investigate why other relatives supported the narrative of Jeremy Bamber as killer given those very relatives only benefitted financially based on Jeremy Bamber’s ultimate conviction?
    • Why have the “crisis-hit miscarriage of justice watchdog” Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) “only managed to review three of nine potential grounds of appeal identified by Bamber’s lawyer Mark Newby since an application as made in 2021?”
    • When will the Criminal Cases Review Commission – who have less than 2% referral rate back to the Court of Appeal – finally finish reviewing evidence supplied in the Jeremy Bamber case that this shows this as a conviction that clearly needs re-examining at the very, very least?

    The scene of the murders during the night of 6th and 7th August 1985: White House Farm, Pages Lane, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Maldon, Essex, CM9 8AA.
    The scene of the murders during the night of 6th and 7th August 1985: White House Farm, Pages Lane, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Maldon, Essex, CM9 8AA.
    Jeremy Bamber’s adoptive parents, Ralph and June Bamber, and the grave where they are buried. Could he finally be exonerated of their killings in 2025?
    Jeremy Bamber’s adoptive parents, Ralph and June Bamber, and the grave where they are buried. Could he finally be exonerated of their killings in 2025?
    In November 2022, Phillip Boyce – who has worked on high profile investigations as a forensic scientist for over 30 years –claimed that Essex Police could have “changed the evidence” in the case by moving the body of Nevill Bamber before official photographs of the scene were taken. If true, the three burn marks on Mr Bamber’s back would not have been inflicted by the hot end of a rifle but instead by his dead body being left lying against the AGA and its hot handles instead causing the burns. In photographs taken by police, shown to the trial jury at Chelmsford Crown Court in 1986, Nevill Bamber was instead seen slumped over an overturned chair in the kitchen.
    In November 2022, Phillip Boyce – who has worked on high profile investigations as a forensic scientist for over 30 years –claimed that Essex Police could have “changed the evidence” in the case by moving the body of Nevill Bamber before official photographs of the scene were taken. If true, the three burn marks on Mr Bamber’s back would not have been inflicted by the hot end of a rifle but instead by his dead body being left lying against the AGA and its hot handles instead causing the burns. In photographs taken by police, shown to the trial jury at Chelmsford Crown Court in 1986, Nevill Bamber was instead seen slumped over an overturned chair in the kitchen.
    One of the bedrooms at the farm; a truly horrific scene that will go down in history as a murder most horrid. If it is proven that Jeremy Bamber was NOT the killer, this case will also go down in history as one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice.
    One of the bedrooms at the farm; a truly horrific scene that will go down in history as a murder most horrid. If it is proven that Jeremy Bamber was NOT the killer, this case will also go down in history as one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice.
    In April 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported that “further questions about the conduct of Essex Police [were] raised as it [was] revealed they destroyed the bible, nightclothes and pillows that were found with the victims at White House Farm on the night of the 1985 murders. The 20th March 2000 letter from the Criminal Cases Review Commission to Glaisyers Solicitors LLP and Sheila Caffell is truly a shocking example of a bungling balls-up.
    In April 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported that “further questions about the conduct of Essex Police [were] raised as it [was] revealed they destroyed the bible, nightclothes and pillows that were found with the victims at White House Farm on the night of the 1985 murders. The 20th March 2000 letter from the Criminal Cases Review Commission to Glaisyers Solicitors LLP and Sheila Caffell is truly a shocking example of a bungling balls-up.
    The clearly left open bible next to the body of Sheila Caffell was photographed by Essex Police, but was then not submitted as evidence and destroyed. A supposed suicide note also disappeared and countless other evidence was clearly tampered with. “What motivation did those processing the scene have to do this?” is a question that Essex Police and prosecutors have repeatedly failed to answer.
    The clearly left open bible next to the body of Sheila Caffell was photographed by Essex Police, but was then not submitted as evidence and destroyed. A supposed suicide note also disappeared and countless other evidence was clearly tampered with. “What motivation did those processing the scene have to do this?” is a question that Essex Police and prosecutors have repeatedly failed to answer.
    Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, a longtime supporter of Jeremy Bamber, tweeted about the case on 7th March 2021. He remarked: “Is this [the] greatest miscarriage of justice?” and previously in 2017, he wrote to the then chief constable of Essex Police, Stephen Kavanagh, to highlight the “grave injustice” of the force’s withholding and destroying evidence with regard to the White House Farm murders.
    Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, a longtime supporter of Jeremy Bamber, tweeted about the case on 7th March 2021. He remarked: “Is this [the] greatest miscarriage of justice?” and previously in 2017, he wrote to the then chief constable of Essex Police, Stephen Kavanagh, to highlight the “grave injustice” of the force’s withholding and destroying evidence with regard to the White House Farm murders.
    Jeremy Bamber’s legal team have alleged that the senior investigating officer in the case, Michael Ainsley, took documents relating to the case to his home in 2010 and destroyed them in spite of “knowing there was an active appeal underway.” Surely, now, it is time for a reinvestigation of this case at the very least if faith in the British justice system is to be retained.
    Jeremy Bamber’s legal team have alleged that the senior investigating officer in the case, Michael Ainsley, took documents relating to the case to his home in 2010 and destroyed them in spite of “knowing there was an active appeal underway.” Surely, now, it is time for a reinvestigation of this case at the very least if faith in the British justice system is to be retained.
  • Enough Is Enough – The Madeleine McCann Case, Its Unspoken Secrets & Why Operation Grange Needs To End Now

    Enough Is Enough – The Madeleine McCann Case, Its Unspoken Secrets & Why Operation Grange Needs To End Now

    Jane Monckton suggests enough is enough and argues it is time to close the investigation into the ‘disappearance’ of Madeleine McCann; focus funding instead on other missing people who can more likely be found

    The Madeleine McCann case has been a fixture in public consciousness for 17 years. As a three-year-old who vanished from a Portuguese holiday resort on 3rd May 2007, Madeleine became a symbol of hope, horror, and heartache for a family – and a mystery for a global audience.

     

    However, after years of an investigation riddled with dead ends, millions in public funding, and a recent disappointment in the acquittal of suspect Christian Brueckner in other totally unconnected cases, many are asking the same question: Why does this case continue? Who holds the real answers? And, is there anyone out there who actually knows what happened?

     

    A costly obsession – Millions spent, few results

    Since her disappearance, the hunt for Madeleine has become one of the longest-running – and shockingly costliest – missing persons investigations in modern history. In the UK alone, an estimated £14 million has been spent by the British government on Operation Grange, the inquiry dedicated exclusively to finding her. And what has this unprecedented spending achieved? Precious little, if anyone were actually honest.

     

    The latest in a long line of “persons of interest,” German national Christian Brueckner, was initially paraded as a suspect by authorities. For years, he was presented as the ultimate suspect, with tantalising hints from investigators that finally, an answer was within reach. Yet, Brueckner was acquitted in another unconnected set of cases, and the public, once again, was left with the bitter aftertaste of a dead end lead. It begs the question: how much longer should this cycle of build-up and disappointment go on?

     

    Red herrings and endless questions – Who knows the truth?

    As the Brueckner debacle shows, the investigation has been marred by high-profile suspects who, in the end, turn out to be red herrings. Time after time, public interest is reignited with suggestions of “new leads,” only for hopes to be dashed. One can’t help but wonder: how many people out there actually know the truth? There must be individuals, witnesses, or former suspects who have held pieces of information for years – information that could bring the truth to light. Yet the silence remains deafening.

     

    For instance, many people still believe that multiple individuals connected to Praia da Luz on that fateful night might hold valuable insights. The complex network of witnesses, staff, and even other guests at the resort has never fully been disclosed, creating an air of secrecy. Why hasn’t this circle been fully investigated? Are there people shielding each other, protecting reputations, or perhaps even benefiting from the ambiguity? How many know the truth, and why hasn’t it come out?

     

    A media frenzy turned financial drain

    The McCann case has also become a staple of tabloid speculation, with sensationalism often driving the narrative. This has led to endless news cycles, yet almost no new information. We hear about a “breakthrough” only for it to turn out to be irrelevant, as in the case of Brueckner. In the meantime, the families and friends who might genuinely be connected to the case but entirely innocent are hounded by the media and given no peace.

     

    But beyond the voyeurism, there’s a real human cost here, as well. Imagine being a relative of the McCann family, constantly reliving the tragedy in the public eye. Or imagine being a potential witness or informant, wanting to come forward but stifled by the sensationalism. This relentless churn of media attention has not only stymied progress but has also created an environment where justice seems increasingly unlikely.

     

    Has the McCann investigation become a money pit?

    For those watching from the outside, it’s hard not to notice the amount of public funding channelled into the Madeleine McCann case. When Operation Grange was launched in 2011, the British government was already under pressure to solve the case once and for all. Yet, here we are, over a decade later, with little more than speculation, conjecture, and dead-end leads to show for it.

     

    To put things in perspective, most missing person cases do not receive this level of financial support, let alone an ongoing operation involving a team of detectives exclusively dedicated to one case. This extensive use of resources raises uncomfortable questions. At what point does this pursuit, as heartbreaking as it may be, become a fruitless money pit? What are the limits of such an investigation, and who determines when enough is enough?

     

    Christian Brueckner – The latest in a line of failed leads

    Christian Brueckner, a convicted criminal in Germany, was publicly labelled as a major suspect, with authorities insinuating that the case’s resolution was closer than ever. For months, the public followed the hints and statements, believing this might be the moment of closure. And yet, with Brueckner’s recent acquittal in Germany in a separate set of cases, the Madeleine McCann case seems as lost as it did in 2007.

     

    If Brueckner was, indeed, a red herring from day one – as many experts now believe – then why was he pursued so doggedly? Why was so much time and money invested in yet another dead-end? This latest misstep is emblematic of a larger issue within the investigation: a pattern of misdirection, fuelled by sensationalism, that leads nowhere. This mismanagement not only wastes resources but chips away at public faith in the investigation itself.

     

    The human toll on the McCann family (and the public)

    For the McCanns, the reality is one of endless agony and frustration. Kate and Gerry McCann, who once inspired global sympathy, are now met with mixed reactions, often due to the perception that the case has overshadowed other equally tragic disappearances. In many ways, the prolonged investigation has become a burden not only to them but also to the public, who are forced to confront the unsettling realization that justice may never come.

     

    Every failed lead, every dead-end, only exacerbates the sense of helplessness and frustration. It’s no longer just about finding Madeleine; it’s about finding peace and closure for everyone involved. When millions are spent, and years are lost, the cost is emotional as much as it is financial.

     

    Time for a conclusion – Is there a line between hope and reality?

    While hope is a powerful thing, there’s a line between hopeful pursuit and futile obsession. The resources poured into the Madeleine McCann case could have been allocated to other families seeking justice, to other unsolved cases that lack this level of media attention and public funding.

     

    If this investigation continues, should it be with a cap on resources? Should it be shifted to a lower priority? Should there be a different approach entirely – one that finally gives closure rather than more questions? These are uncomfortable questions, but they are necessary ones. It is, perhaps, time to consider the ethical limits of an investigation like this and the price we are willing to pay for an answer that may never come.

     

    Who will end the silence?

    The most pressing question of all remains: who knows the truth? With so many suspects, witnesses, and “people of interest” connected to Praia da Luz, it’s difficult to believe that no one holds a piece of this puzzle. Someone, somewhere, knows more than they’re sharing. But as years pass, the possibility of anyone coming forward diminishes. Whether out of fear, protection, or complicity, the truth remains hidden.

     

    The question is whether the investigation’s resources might be better spent encouraging those with critical information to come forward. Perhaps a shift in focus from pursuing elusive suspects to encouraging testimony might be what’s needed now. Without genuine answers, the cycle of disappointment and dead-end leads will only continue.

     

    Enough is enough – An end in sight?

    For over 15 years, the world has watched the Madeleine McCann case spiral into a costly, complicated quagmire. Every new suspect, every promising lead, seems to end the same way—nowhere. The recent acquittal of Christian Brueckner in a separate set of unconnected cases underscores the painful truth: Despite the millions spent and years lost, we’re no closer to finding Madeleine than we were on that fateful night in 2007.

     

    The time has come for a sober reassessment; not only of the investigation itself but of the resources and public interest invested in a case that has seen far more support than most.

     

    The McCann family deserve closure, as do the many families whose missing loved ones will never receive this level of attention or funding. It is time for an honest reckoning, one that prioritises the truth over sensationalism, closure over endless searching for a child many believe will never be found. The world may never fully understand what happened to Madeleine McCann, but we can, at the very least, decide when to let this chapter close. 

     

    Jane Monckton has worked for ‘The Steeple Times’ since its inception in 2012. She has followed the Madeleine McCann case with interest and has come to be outraged that resources allocated to Operation Grange are not reallocated to help find missing people who she believes can actually be found. Follow her on Twitter at @Jane_Monckton.

     

    Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples and watch his shows on YouTube at @mjs2781/streams.

    A message from our editorial team – Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by supporting our work via Patreon.

     

    A warped sense of priorities… Madeleine McCann on a tennis court prior to her ‘disappearance’ in May 2007 and her parents out running near the resort she ‘disappeared’ in the days after her ‘disappearance.’
    A warped sense of priorities… Madeleine McCann on a tennis court prior to her ‘disappearance’ in May 2007 and her parents out running near the resort she ‘disappeared’ in the days after her ‘disappearance.’
    Living-it-up… Gerry McCann enjoying a round of golf (left); Kate McCann at Downing Street, London hobnobbing with Missing People CEO Martin Houghton-Brown, the Duchess of Gloucester and the then Home Secretary Theresa May on 23rd May 2012 (right).
    Living-it-up… Gerry McCann enjoying a round of golf (left); Kate McCann at Downing Street, London hobnobbing with Missing People CEO Martin Houghton-Brown, the Duchess of Gloucester and the then Home Secretary Theresa May on 23rd May 2012 (right).
    Brown nosing with a ragbag of rotten rubbish… Amongst those to have supported the McCanns have been especially gobby attention seekers including job wrecker Sir Richard Branson, “Chanel-clad” charity begins at home tin banger Baroness (Catherine) Meyer and her pompous arsehole late ex-husband Sir Christopher Meyer and job wrecking grabber Sir Philip Green.
    Brown nosing with a ragbag of rotten rubbish… Amongst those to have supported the McCanns have been especially gobby attention seekers including job wrecker Sir Richard Branson, “Chanel-clad” charity begins at home tin banger Baroness (Catherine) Meyer and her pompous arsehole late husband Sir Christopher Meyer and job wrecking grabber Sir Philip Green.
    Enough is enough – Missing still yet little to no police resources for their cases… Ben Needham disappeared in Kos, Greece on the 24th July 1991 aged 1 and his mother gets little help for her search; Martin Allen disappeared in London on 5th November 1979 aged 15 and though his brother, Kevin, keeps the case in the public eye as much as he can, he gets little to no help from the Metropolitan Police. Why won’t the police consider reallocating resources away from Operation Grange towards the search for other missing people? £14 million has been wasted for nothing, after all. What are they hiding?
    Enough is enough – Missing still yet little to no police resources for their cases… Ben Needham disappeared in Kos, Greece on the 24th July 1991 aged 1 and his mother gets little help for her search; Martin Allen disappeared in London on 5th November 1979 aged 15 and though his brother, Kevin, keeps the case in the public eye as much as he can, he gets little to no help from the Metropolitan Police. Why won’t the police consider reallocating resources away from Operation Grange towards the search for other missing people? £14 million has been wasted for nothing, after all. What are they hiding?
    Pictured above – Since croaked paedophile Sir Clement Freud (right) lunched with Gerry (left) and Kate McCann in Praia da Luz in Portugal in July 2007, two months after their daughter’s disappearance. Mrs McCann later praised the risotto as “the best she’d ever tasted.” Pictured below – Ghislaine Maxwell pictured at the launch of a book about Sir Clement’s brother, Lucian, titled ‘Breakfast With Lucian’ in 2013 by Geordie Greig. Also in the image are Nicholas Coleridge, Piers Morgan, an unknown child, Geordie Greig and Ariadne Calvo-Platero.
    Pictured above – Since croaked paedophile Sir Clement Freud (right) lunched with Gerry (left) and Kate McCann in Praia da Luz in Portugal in July 2007, two months after their daughter’s disappearance. Mrs McCann later praised the risotto as “the best she’d ever tasted.” Pictured below – Ghislaine Maxwell pictured at the launch of a book about Sir Clement’s brother, Lucian, titled ‘Breakfast With Lucian’ in 2013 by Geordie Greig. Also in the image are Nicholas Coleridge, Piers Morgan, an unknown child, Geordie Greig and Ariadne Calvo-Platero.
    In 2009, private investigators for Gerry and Kate McCann issued an E-FIT to the media of a woman they believed could be “potentially significant” to their investigation. She has never been found, but, speculation online (entirely unproven as accurate thus far) has regularly included: “She looks remarkably like Ghislaine Maxwell.” There is no suggestion that this is one and the same woman, but it would be ever so helpful if the convicted nonce sex trafficker Miss Maxwell came forward and cleared this up for once and for all.
    In 2009, private investigators for Gerry and Kate McCann issued an E-FIT to the media of a woman they believed could be “potentially significant” to their investigation. She has never been found, but, speculation online (entirely unproven as accurate thus far) has regularly included: “She looks remarkably like Ghislaine Maxwell.” There is no suggestion that this is one and the same woman, but it would be ever so helpful if the convicted nonce sex trafficker Miss Maxwell came forward and cleared this up for once and for all.

    Missing Madeleine – Questions STILL without answers… £14 million wasted on Operation Grange… Why continue? Why waste more? Why not help others?

    Many questions about what happened on the evening of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remain. Some that have been highlighted by the press and discussed online include:

    • Why did Kate McCann refuse to answer 48 questions put to her by the Portuguese police?

     

    • Why were certain records of phone calls on the evening of the disappearance “whoosh-clunked” from the memories of the phones of Mr and Mrs McCann and the ‘Tapas 7’?

     

    • Why were relevant mobile phone records never handed over to the authorities in spite of them potentially being useful to the search?

     

    • Why did the couple not use the babysitting service on offer in the holiday resort on the evening of 3rd May 2007 when they went out on the razzle dazzle with friends?

     

    • Why was the door to the apartment – which opened directly onto a public highway – left unlocked with three children aged under three years old alone inside?

     

    • Why did a British sniffer dog sense the smell of a corpse in a cupboard in the apartment from which Madeleine McCann disappeared?

     

    • Why did a sniffer dog also supposedly sense the smell of a corpse in a vehicle hired by the couple a month after the disappearance of their daughter?

     

    • Why did the McCanns repeatedly try to discredit the work of the sniffer dogs and their handlers?

     

     

     

    • Why have the McCanns attempted to ‘gag’ anyone who disputes their version of events – most especially Gonçalo Amaral?

     

    • Why, given over £14 million has been spent on this search to date, has nobody come forward with any sighting of ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann given the very, very substantial rewards on offer?

    Enough is enough – In December 2017, when £11 million of British taxpayers’ money had been spent towards the search for ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann, 86% of viewers of ITV1’s ‘Loose Women’ said the public purse should cease to fund the investigation. Now, in January 2023, with that sum now well in excess of £14 million (aside from the millions in private money also), it is time to allocate resources to the search for missing people who actually can be found, we would suggest. Shouldn’t 2024, when many suffer because of the cost-of-living crisis and many others remain missing without financial assistance for the search for the them, be the time that this pointless waste of funds finally ends?
  • Talking Claudia Lawrence – ‘Crime Suspect’ on Talk TV 2024

    Talking Claudia Lawrence – ‘Crime Suspect’ on Talk TV 2024

    Matthew Steeples on discussing the disappearance of Claudia Lawrence fifteen years ago in York on TalkTV’s ‘Crime Suspect’ with esteemed former detective Peter Bleksley

    Earlier this month, I returned to News UK’s headquarters next to The Shard in London to be a guest, for the second time after appearing in February to discuss the ongoing Madeleine McCann case, on Peter Bleksley’s deservedly respected TalkTV Crime Suspect show.

     

    This time focused on the fifteenth anniversary of the literal ‘vanishing’ of a 35-year-old chef named Claudia Lawrence in the Heworth area of York, I appeared alongside the renowned criminologist and author Professor James Treadwell, the former police inspector and visiting lecturer at Leeds Trinity University Martin Holleran and the journalist and author of Gone: The Disappearance of Claudia Lawrence and Her Father’s Desperate Search for the Truth Neil Root.

     

    Aired first on TalkTV’s terrestrial and YouTube channels on the 5th April, the 21:22-minute version on the latter has been viewed nearly 130,000 times to date and focused on the key question: “Could there still be someone out there who knows what happened to the 35-year-old chef?”

     

    Aged just 35 at the time she disappeared into thin air on either the night of 18th March or the morning of the 19th March 2009, here is a case in which North Yorkshire Police – to date – have performed over 48 video recorded interviews under caution, but come to utterly no conclusion.

     

    Having similarities to the case of the also ‘vanished’ Australian Marion Barter in that no real evidence of her having ‘existed’ after the 19th March 2009 has ever come to light, I focused my commentary on Crime Suspect on the media portrayal of Claudia Lawrence and asked: “Would she have been made out to have been promiscuous and a drunk if she had been a man?”

     

    As has also been pointed out by Joan Lawrence, the likely victim of murder’s mother, who has subsequently received an OBE for her efforts in bringing about the passing of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 – which modified the law in order to allow the appointment of guardians for the affairs of missing people – the “intense” and “vicious stories” about what might have occurred helped nobody.

     

    In Claudia Lawrence: A Mother’s Story, a four-part series first aired on the BBC in March this year, the problems of allowing untruths about what actually occurred to be spread is further explained, but what is now required is for a community to come together and to finally realise that it is time to put aside past allegiances. It is time to do justice for this missing-for-fifteen-years lady and her family.

     

    To watch the full-length version of the Claudia Lawrence ‘Crime Suspect’ programme on TalkTV, click here.

    Follow Peter Bleksley on Twitter at @PeterBleksley, Martin Holleran at @Future110, Neil Root at @NEILROOTWriter and Professor James Treadwell at @James_Treadwell.

     

    Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples and watch his current nightly show on YouTube at 8.30pm daily.

     

    A message from our editorial team – Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by supporting our work via Patreon.

     

    The YouTube version of the show; for a longer version first shown on TalkTV’s terrestrial channel, click here.
    On Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “It’s been 15 years since chef Claudia Lawrence vanished into thin air in Heworth, York. What do you think happened to her?” He added the hashtags: #ClaudiaLawrence #Heworth #York #Yorkshire #chef #missingpeople #missing #vanish #vanished #murder #accident #death #strangecases #ClaudiasLaw #anniversary and offered four options. 78.7% of respondents favoured the answer: “Killed, someone she knew” whilst only 6.5% believe that she “disappeared” seeking a “new life.”
    Claudia Lawrence vanished
    Claudia Lawrence was born on 27th February 1974 in Malton in the North Riding of Yorshire. She vanished on either the evening of the 18th March 2009 or the morning of 19th March 2009 in Heworth, York. She has never been seen or heard from again since.
    Claudia Lawrence disappearance mind map
    A mind map produced by Matthew Steeples about the case. Whilst it is just a starting point, it illustrates the links between different members of the community of Heworth, York and the presumed victim of murder most likely. It is now time for members of that community to think of justice and reexamine their allegiances; time has passed and surely now, it is time for those that clearly know to finally tell the truth about what occurred on 18th March 2009.
    Crime Suspect Peter Bleksley James Treadwell Neil Root Matthew Steeples Martin Holleran
    ‘Crime Suspect’ aired its programme about the vanished-likely-murdered chef on 5th April 2024 with Peter Bleksley as host. The daughter of a solicitor and town mayor has been missing now for over 15 years and not one trace of her has been found to date.
    The Nag's Head Heworth
    During the programme, there was much discussion of Miss Lawrence’s activities at a pub just six doors from her home, The Nag’s Head in Heworth, as well as at other hostelries she frequented.
  • Media Matters Mark Alexander – High Court Victory For Sir Terry Waite Supported Prisoner

    Media Matters Mark Alexander – High Court Victory For Sir Terry Waite Supported Prisoner

    As humanitarian hero Terry Waite is knighted, a prisoner he has campaigned in support of, Mark Alexander, finally gets good news with a landmark judgment at the High Court

    This morning, in King Charles III’s clearly well thought out Birthday Honours list, a genuinely wonderful gentleman, Terry Waite received what he’s described as one of his life’s “peak” achievements when this former envoy for the Church of England was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for his services to charity.

     

    The now elevated Sir Terry modestly commented that he was “really amazed that I’ve got it; I’m getting on, but I’m still working at 84.” He added: “I’m still very active” and yesterday came good news also for a campaign the former hostage has long been involved with, that of the case of the clearly dubious conviction of Mark Alexander.

     

    Sir Terry has repeatedly suggested the September 2010 conviction of Alexander of the murder of his conman father in Buckinghamshire on a date unknown between September 2009 and February 2010 to be based on “circumstantial evidence” and that this is a case being in need of being “reviewed without further delay.”

     

    Yesterday in London, the High Court decided a legal challenge against the government over a jail interview by telephone by journalist Robin Eveleigh with Alexander was “misdirected and irrational.” Mr Justice Andrew Baker said a decision by the governor of HMP Coldingley in Surrey, where Alexander is currently held, should be “quashed” and added that “the claimant’s request [will need to be considered] afresh.”

     

    Responding, through the ‘Justice for Mark Alexander’ campaign website, Mark Alexander announced:

     

    “Today’s ruling is an important milestone in the fight for an open, transparent and accountable justice system in which prisoners’ voices are heard; wrongful convictions can be properly scrutinised; and our free press is able to work without resistance or obfuscation from government. More needs to be done to address other systemic failings at the heart of our penal and justice system, but today at least marks a step in the right direction and will hopefully enable more recognition to be given to miscarriages of justice here in the UK.”

     

    Going further, Eveleigh explained:

     

    “The role of the media in highlighting and exposing miscarriages of justice cannot be overstated. The BBC’s pioneering investigative documentary Rough Justice led to 18 convictions being overturned.”

     

    “Mr Alexander’s story is never going to reach the audience it needs and deserves via print media, nor would a print media commission or commissions go anywhere near supporting the volume of work required to investigate his case thoroughly. It is telling that in response to the quashing of Adnan Syed’s conviction – following the global attention his case received through the American podcast Serial – veteran BBC journalist Justin Webb told Radio 4’s Today programme that podcasts were now ‘the place to go’ for innocent people wrongly convicted.”

     

    Mark Alexander’s grandmother added:

     

    “As a family we need this documentary to happen. We all feel it can bring about fair justice, to prove Mark’s innocence and clear his name. I will always support Mark, because I know in my heart that he is innocent.”

     

    Production of the podcast series about Mark Alexander’s case by Robin Eveleigh now ought to be given the go-ahead and this, a conviction based very much on a very much botched investigation, must now be reexamined. Such should be done urgently, but given how slowly the wheels of justice move in once Great Britain, sadly, don’t hold your breath.

     

    Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    A message from our editorial team – Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by supporting our work via Patreon.

     

    Pictured top – Mark Alexander at his graduation ceremony with Sir Terry Waite KCMG CBE.

     

    To follow the ‘Justice for Mark Alexander’ group on Facebook, click here, and to follow the campaign seeking a review of the case on Twitter go to @PatientCaptive. Prominent supporters include the former Conservative MP for Westminster The Rt. Hon. Mark Field, the Reverend Canon Grant Fellows, the Right Reverend Bishop Tim Stevens and the hostage-turned-humanitarian Sir Terry Waite KCMG CBE. Supplied images: © http://freeMarkAlexander.org (CC BY-ND 4.0).

     

    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “Is it time for the case of Mark Alexander @PatientCaptive to be reinvestigated?” He linked to this article and added: “Context of murder conviction based on circumstantial evidence only according to Sir Terry Waite in today’s ‘The Steeple Times.’” By 12 noon on Saturday 17th June 2023, the very clear majority of respondents favoured the answer: “Yes; Mark Alexander is innocent.”
    Mark Alexander
    Found guilty without any forensic evidence and with the help of ‘Midsomer Murders-esque’ “suspicious neighbours primarily, supporters of Mark Alexander rightly highlight that the prosecution withheld critical information from trial that included that four potential suspects – who police never bothered to speak to – were never even mentioned to the jury. Going further and summing up what led to the conviction of Alexander, Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence (PPMI), observed: “Another example of typical factors in a wrongful conviction: no forensic evidence, impossible time frame for the crime to be committed, witness put off by the police, important witnesses not interviewed, lurid allegations in the press published before they could be countered, all racked up by such sad personal circumstances.”

    Issues with the 2010 murder conviction and jailing for life with a minimum of 16 years of Mark Alexander:

    • Not one iota of forensic evidence links the convicted now 35-year-old to the murder and much of the police case against him was based on the word of “suspicious neighbours” with attitudes akin to characters from the TV drama series Midsomer Murders.
    • On the homepage of the campaign supporting him, it is stated: “Mark has always maintained his innocence… Mark was found guilty on the basis of doubt created about his version of events rather than any evidence of his involvement in a murder. No such evidence exists. There is no known cause, or date, of death – and there were no traces of DNA, blood, or even fingerprints linking Mark to the crime.”
    • The convicted man’s father, Samuel, had a string of at least eleven aliases and was a known confidence trickster.
    • The deceased man was cautioned for shoplifting in 1995 and had been involved in mortgage frauds involving a number of properties. He was described by his son tellingly when he remarked: “Dad always seemed to be running or hiding from something.”
    • Samuel Alexander lied also to his son about what had happened to his mother and cruelly told him she had died of cancer. The pair were only reunited after Mark Alexander’s arrest and it then became known that Samuel Alexander had also cheated her as part of a property scam also.
    • It was also revealed at sentencing that the deceased pensioner spent “long hours on the computer surfing teenage chat rooms and sex websites, sometimes posing as a man in his late teens or early 20.” Could it be that he upset someone in the process and could they be his true killer?
    • Mark Alexander has produced evidence showing that there were four potential suspects working at his father’s home around the time of his death. Police never spoke to these suspects and the jury were never made aware of them.
    • The convicted man has never admitted his guilt of this shocking crime in spite of the fact that in doing so he could have seen his sentence reduced.
    • Using human rights laws, Mark Alexander was, in March 2020, able to finally obtain files documenting his father’s multiple identities from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs. He became supposedly the first person in Britain to achieve such access and now also, according to the Daily Mail’s Alice Cachia and Robin Eveleigh: “[The Justice for Mark Alexander’ campaign] are also developing new mobile phone cell site evidence which they hope will provide proof of Alexander’s movements around the time of his father’s death.” They hint that this will show he could not possibly have been present at the time of the murder and burial.
    • Mark Alexander told The Mirror’s crime editor Tom Pettifor in May 2020: “I’ve always always maintained my innocence, you just assume the system will work, but we didn’t have enough time or evidence to prove it, particularly against the story the prosecution were spinning… Nothing will ever justify what they did to [my father], but I just need some answers.”

    Humanitarian hero Sir Terry Waite KCMG CBE’s 22nd November 2022 message in full:

    Over the course of my life I have been in contact with many prisoners who claim they have been unjustly convicted.

     

    I fully appreciate that not all who approach me are truthful, but it is said that between six and seven percent of those convicted are innocent and ought not to be in jail.

     

    I fully understand what a difficult task it is for an innocent prisoner to appeal. It is a long and costly process. It is also difficult for those who have to determine the fate of a man or woman claiming wrongful conviction.

     

    I have known Mark Alexander for almost ten years. I have studied his case and spoken personally with him many times. The evidence against him was circumstantial, as was pointed out by the judge in his case.

     

    I find it difficult to believe that a complete forensic examination was conducted before the jury found him guilty by majority verdict. In recent years, new evidence has emerged which throws even further doubt on the safety of his conviction.

     

    Alas, the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slowly and Mark, still a young man, remains incarcerated – denied access to an open prison because, in the eyes of the authorities, he refuses to accept his guilt.

     

    In the past 12 years, he has achieved academic distinction, but his continued imprisonment in a secure establishment means he may not be able to study for a doctorate.

     

    Mark’s case certainly raises reasonable doubt in my mind and, ought to be reviewed without further delay.

     

    Mark-Alexander-Samuel-Alexander
    Mark Alexander and his late father Samuel Alexander.
    2-Prospect-Close-Drayton-Parslow
    The scene of the burial (but not necessarily the killing) of Samuel Alexander – 2 Prospect Close, Drayton Parslow, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0JB.
    2-Prospect-Close-Drayton-Parslow-aerial-view
    An aerial shot of the property.
    Documentary-evidence-Samuel-Alexander-fraud
    Documentary evidence of Samuel Alexander using aliases that show him to have been a man capable of perpetrating fraud and deception.
    Terry-Waite-Mark-Alexander-HM-Prison-Coldingley
    On Friday 28th September 2018, Mark Alexander played at a charity concert for The Howard League of Penal Reform at HM Prison Coldingley in Bisley, Surrey. Terry Waite CBE read from ‘Out of the Silence,’ his book about his 1,763 days in captivity from 1987 to 1991 in Lebanon.
  • Reservoir Rubbish – More Wasted Money In £14m Search For ‘Missing’ Madeleine McCann

    Reservoir Rubbish – More Wasted Money In £14m Search For ‘Missing’ Madeleine McCann

    Matthew Steeples slams the decision to waste yet more money on top of the £14 million spent by searching a reservoir for Madeleine McCann; it is time precious resources were reallocated to searches for missing people capable of actually being found

    In a new development in the genuinely wasteful £14 million ($17.3 million, €16 million or درهم63.7 million) search for Madeleine McCann – a child who went ‘missing’ after her middle class doctor parents needlessly and neglectfully left her and her siblings alone on 3rd May 2007 in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal – police have today begun searching a reservoir about 25 miles distant from the scene of the ‘vanishing.’

     

    Conducted by Portuguese police at the behest of German police who have been investigating the 45-year-old convicted rapist Christian Brückner – an evil monster, but nonetheless an evil monster cleared  Cleared in February 2021 of the May 2015 kidnapping of Inga Gehricke – here is yet further example of timewasting for the sake of keeping police officers in jobs.

     

    Present in addition to Portuguese and German officers are several from the Metropolitan Police and of the search The Guardian tellingly observed:

     

    “The reservoir was reportedly searched in 2008 and bones found in a bag were judged to be of ‘non-human origin.’ It remains unclear why the police have chosen to search the reservoir again at this point.”

     

    “On Monday evening, Portugal’s judicial police released a statement confirming local media reports that they would conduct the search at the request of the German authorities and in the presence of British officials.”

     

    “This will be the first major operation of its kind since June 2014, when the Metropolitan police received permission from Portuguese officials to search the holiday resort of Praia da Luz with search dogs and ground-penetrating radar.”

     

    In response to this news, today on Twitter, I asked:

     

    “Will today’s search of a reservoir for missing Madeleine McCann lead to new developments or is it just yet another misallocation of resources on top of the £14m already wasted?”

     

    By 11:30am this morning, the majority of the 570 responses, 46.2% favoured the answer: “No; more distraction” whilst 40.5% plumped for: “No; just to keep police £.” Just 13.3% sampled opted for: “Yes; progress at last.” The poll remains open for another 22 hours, but I don’t anticipate those supporting the “yes” option to overcome the 86% who clearly believe that this latest police action to be nothing other than another disgraceful misuse of public money.

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “Will today’s search of a reservoir for missing Madeleine McCann lead to new developments or is it just yet another misallocation of resources on top of the £14m already wasted?” By 11:30am on Tuesday 23rd May, the majority of respondents unsurprisingly favoured the answer: “No; more distraction.”

    Barragem do Arade reservoir near the town of Silves in the Algarve, about 25 miles (40 kilometres) from Praia da Luz where Madeleine disappeared aged three from her family’s holiday apartment on 3 May 2007.

    Madeleine McCann search 23rd May 2023 1
    Madeleine McCann search 23rd May 2023 2
    Madeleine McCann search 23rd May 2023 3

    Missing Madeleine – Questions STILL without Answers… £14 million wasted on Operation Grange… Why continue? Why waste more? Why not help others?

    Many questions about what happened on the evening of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remain. Some that have been highlighted by the press and discussed online include:

     

    • Why did Kate McCann refuse to answer 48 questions put to her by the Portuguese police?

     

    • Why were certain records of phone calls on the evening of the disappearance “whoosh-clunked” from the memories of the phones of Mr and Mrs McCann and the ‘Tapas 7’?

     

    • Why were relevant mobile phone records never handed over to the authorities in spite of them potentially being useful to the search?

     

    • Why did the couple not use the babysitting service on offer in the holiday resort on the evening of 3rd May 2007 when they went out on the razzle dazzle with friends?

     

    • Why was the door to the apartment – which opened directly onto a public highway – left unlocked with three children aged under three years old alone inside?

     

    • Why did a British sniffer dog sense the smell of a corpse in a cupboard in the apartment from which Madeleine McCann disappeared?

     

    • Why did a sniffer dog also supposedly sense the smell of a corpse in a vehicle hired by the couple a month after the disappearance of their daughter?

     

    • Why did the McCanns repeatedly try to discredit the work of the sniffer dogs and their handlers?

     

     

     

    • Why have the McCanns attempted to ‘gag’ anyone who disputes their version of events – most especially Gonçalo Amaral?

     

    • Why, given over £14 million has been spent on this search to date, has nobody come forward with any sighting of ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann given the very, very substantial rewards on offer?

     

    Ben-Needham-and-Martin-Allen
    Missing still yet little to no police resources for their cases… Ben Needham disappeared in Kos, Greece on the 24th July 1991 aged 1 and his mother gets little help for her search; Martin Allen disappeared in London on 5th November 1979 aged 15 and though his brother, Kevin, keeps the case in the public eye as much as he can, he gets little to no help from the Metropolitan Police. Why won’t the police consider reallocating resources away from Operation Grange towards the search for other missing people? £14 million has been wasted for nothing, after all. What are they hiding?
    Tennis-and-jogging
    A sense of priorities… Madeleine McCann on a tennis court prior to her ‘disappearance’ in May 2007 and her parents out running near the resort she ‘disappeared’ in the days after her ‘disappearance.’
    Gerry-and-Kate-McCann-Theresa-May
    Living-it-up… Gerry McCann enjoying a round of golf (left); Kate McCann at Downing Street, London hobnobbing with Missing People CEO Martin Houghton-Brown, the Duchess of Gloucester and the then Home Secretary Theresa May on 23rd May 2012 (right).
    Sir-Richard-Branson-Sir-Christopher-Meyer-Baroness-Catherine-Meyer-Sir-Philip-Green
    Brown nosing with a ragbag of rotten rubbish… Amongst those to have supported the McCanns have been especially gobby attention seekers including job wrecker Sir Richard Branson, “Chanel-clad” charity begins at home tin banger Baroness (Catherine) Meyer and her pompous arsehole late ex-husband Sir Christopher Meyer and job wrecking grabber Sir Philip Green.
    Gerry-McCann-Sir-Clement-Freud-Ghislaine-Maxwell-857x1024-1
    Pictured above: Since croaked paedophile Sir Clement Freud (right) lunched with Gerry (left) and Kate McCann in Praia da Luz in Portugal in July 2007, two months after their daughter’s disappearance. Mrs McCann later praised the risotto as “the best she’d ever tasted.” Pictured below: Ghislaine Maxwell pictured at the launch of a book about Sir Clement’s brother, Lucian, titled ‘Breakfast With Lucian’ in 2013 by Geordie Greig. Also in the image are Nicholas Coleridge, Piers Morgan, an unknown child, Geordie Greig and Ariadne Calvo-Platero.
    Ghislaine-Maxwell-Madeleine-McCann
    In 2009, private investigators for Gerry and Kate McCann issued an E-FIT to the media of a woman they believed could be “potentially significant” to their investigation. She has never been found, but, speculation online (entirely unproven as accurate thus far) has regularly included: “She looks remarkably like Ghislaine Maxwell.” There is no suggestion that this is one and the same woman, but it would be ever so helpful if the convicted nonce sex trafficker Miss Maxwell came forward and cleared this up for once and for all.
    In December 2017, when £11 million of British taxpayers’ money had been spent towards the search for ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann, 86% of viewers of ITV1’s ‘Loose Women’ said the public purse should cease to fund the investigation. Now, in January 2023, with that sum now well in excess of £14 million (aside from the millions in private money also), it is time to allocate resources to the search for missing people who actually can be found, we would suggest. Shouldn’t 2023, when many suffer because of the cost-of-living crisis, be the time that this pointless waste of funds finally ends?
  • Essex Police – GUILTY As Charged In Jeremy Bamber Case

    Essex Police – GUILTY As Charged In Jeremy Bamber Case

    As Essex Police are found guilty of failing to refer a 2020 complaint by Jeremy Bamber, could his case be sent back to the Court of Appeal?

    Essex Police are widely known for bungling investigations. Aside from very clearly bungling the investigation into the rape and murder of Stuart Lubbock at the home of the disgraced ‘entertainer’ Michael Barrymore, this 3,842-officer strong force has now been exposed for having mishandled complaints in the Jeremy Bamber White House Farm murder case.

     

    With news that the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has found the force guilty of breaching their statutory duty by not referring 29 serious complaints to them about the case comes proof yet again of disgraceful incompetence at the very least and far worse potentially at the very worst.

     

    Responding on Monday this week from His Majesty’s Prison Wakefield, 62-year-old Bamber told the Daily Gazette and Essex County Standard’s trainee reporter Daniel Rees:

     

    “I think the report is strong enough to assist the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) to get my case sent back to the Court of Appeal, I am hoping in the next six to eight weeks.”

     

    “Essex Police has failed in its statutory duty in not investigating these complaints and not sending this matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.”

     

    “These are serious complaints. I have sent this complaint to Essex Police, the Attorney General, the Home Office, the CPS but everyone has blanked me and has done nothing. I never expected the IOPC to come out so strongly and say Essex Police failed in their statutory duty.”

     

    “They have dismissed me so many times. It has been 38 years but this is the endgame – I genuinely believe that.”

     

    Going further, in comments shared in the Mirror this morning, Bamber added:

     

    “I firmly expect that the freedom that was so unjustly taken from me will soon be restored.”

     

    “After 36 years it can now be proven with absolute certainty I did not burn my dad with the rifle barrel or the rifle’s sound moderator, as my trial jury were misled into believing.”

     

    Unsurprisingly asked for a response, “Essex Police declined to comment on the matter.” Shame on them for yet again trying to sweep this serious matter under the carpet. May Jeremy Bamber – a man who has never waivered in stating his claim that he is innocent of the 1985 slayings of his adoptive parents, his adoptive sister and her two sons at their familial home at White House Farm in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex – now finally get the review of his case that he truly deserves.

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    To learn more about the case, click here to view the official Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign website.

     

    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “As the Independent Office for Police Conduct is found guilty of failing to refer 29 serious complaints about the Jeremy Bamber case, will he be cleared and freed?” By 11:30am on Wednesday 17th May, the majority of respondents favoured the answer: “Yes; about time too.”

    Some questions Essex Police plainly need to answer regarding this case… Including some new ones that could lead to to the exoneration of jailed for 36 years and still protesting his innocence Jeremy Bamber

    • What happened to a suicide note allegedly left by Sheila Caffell that was initially referenced by police and then disappeared?
    • Why did Sheila Caffell not have rigor mortis when officers discovered her body?
    • Why was blood still gaping from Miss Caffell’s body when it was found?
    • Why was the bible found by the body of Miss Caffell not used in evidence and why was that bible destroyed by police also?
    • Why are there different accounts about how many bodies were discovered on the ground floor of the farmhouse?
    • How could Jeremy Bamber be the killer if police officers repeatedly detected movement inside White House Farmhouse whilst he was stood with them outside?
    • Why was the silencer supposedly used in the shootings not discovered immediately when police entered the residence?
    • Why did scratch marks supposedly made in the kitchen of the house by that silencer not appear in the first photographs taken at the crime scene? How were they actually made in order that they appeared in later imagery?
    • How could Jeremy Bamber be the killer if he made a phone call from his Goldhanger home 3.5 miles away moments after his father had called police from White House Farmhouse to say that his daughter had “gone berserk” with a gun?
    • Why did Essex Police hide hundreds of thousands of pages of key documentation including police logs and crime scene photographs from being shared during both the 1986 trial and the 2002 appeal?
    • Could the AGA be responsible for the burn marks on Nevill Bamber and if so, why did Essex Police move bodies at the crime scene?
    • Why did Essex Police so push the narrative of Jeremy Bamber’s former lover and known thief Julie Mugford given they knew shew had been sold her story for £25,000 to the now defunct News of the World with the payment to be received only if he was convicted?
    • Why did Essex Police not investigate why other relatives supported the narrative of Jeremy Bamber as killer given those very relatives only benefitted financially based on Jeremy Bamber’s ultimate conviction?

     

    White-House-Farm-Pages-Lane-Tolleshunt-DArcy-Maldon-Essex-CM9-8AA
    The scene of the murders during the night of 6th and 7th August 1985: White House Farm, Pages Lane, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Maldon, Essex, CM9 8AA.
    Nevill-and-June-Bamber
    Jeremy Bamber’s adoptive parents, Ralph and June Bamber, and the grave where they are buried. Could he finally be exonerated of their killings in 2023?
    White-House-Farm-kitchen-AGA
    In November 2022, Phillip Boyce – who has worked on high profile investigations as a forensic scientist for over 30 years –claimed that Essex Police could have “changed the evidence” in the case by moving the body of Nevill Bamber before official photographs of the scene were taken. If true, the three burn marks on Mr Bamber’s back would not have been inflicted by the hot end of a rifle but instead by his dead body being left lying against the AGA and its hot handles instead causing the burns. In photographs taken by police, shown to the trial jury at Chelmsford Crown Court in 1986, Nevill Bamber was instead seen slumped over an overturned chair in the kitchen.
    Bedroom
    One of the bedrooms at the farm; a truly horrific scene that will go down in history as a murder most horrid. If it is proven that Jeremy Bamber was NOT the killer, this case will also go down in history as one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice.
    True-Crime-Newsquest-Jeremy-Bamber-November-2022
    On 24th November 2022, the new True Crime Newsquest mini-series ‘White House Farm murders – Is Jeremy Bamber Innocent?’ featured in an article by Jody Doherty-Cove. In it, Tom Dalby, a reporter on the Colchester Gazette and Essex County Standard, is quoted to say: “The support Bamber gets in prison – in 2017 he told us he [got] about 100 letters per week from supporters, 500 Christmas cards. There is this level of support he still gets from people locally… There are people who are very clear he is innocent.” In the programme also, former detective Mark Williams-Thomas quotes Essex Police Acting Chief Detective Michael Ainsley as having written in 1985: “On my return from annual leave, I obviously enquired as to the situation with the murders… [I was assured] the evidence indicated that Sheila [Caffell] was responsible.”
    Destroyed-evidence-Sheila-Caffell
    In April 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported that “further questions about the conduct of Essex Police [were] raised as it [was] revealed they destroyed the bible, nightclothes and pillows that were found with the victims at White House Farm on the night of the 1985 murders. The 20th March 2000 letter from the Criminal Cases Review Commission to Glaisyers Solicitors LLP and Sheila Caffell is truly a shocking example of a bungling balls-up.
    Bible-Sheila-Caffell-destroyed-evidence
    The clearly left open bible next to the body of Sheila Caffell was photographed by Essex Police, but was then not submitted as evidence and destroyed. A supposed suicide note also disappeared and countless other evidence was clearly tampered with. “What motivation did those processing the scene have to do this?” is a question that Essex Police and prosecutors have repeatedly failed to answer.
    Peter-Tatchell
    Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, a longtime supporter of Jeremy Bamber, tweeted about the case on 7th March 2021. He remarked: “Is this [the] greatest miscarriage of justice?” and previously in 2017, he wrote to the then chief constable of Essex Police, Stephen Kavanagh, to highlight the “grave injustice” of the force’s withholding and destroying evidence with regard to the White House Farm murders.
    Michael-Ainsley-evidence
    Jeremy Bamber’s legal team have alleged that the senior investigating officer in the case, Michael Ainsley, took documents relating to the case to his home in 2010 and destroyed them in spite of “knowing there was an active appeal underway.” Surely, now, it is time for a reinvestigation of this case at the very least if faith in the British justice system is to be retained.
  • More Money For Operation Grange – Is ‘Missing’ Madeleine McCann Search To Get Top-Up On £14m Already Wasted?

    More Money For Operation Grange – Is ‘Missing’ Madeleine McCann Search To Get Top-Up On £14m Already Wasted?

    As a girl brought up in Poland goes on ‘Dr Phil’ to claim to be Madeleine McCann, why is Operation Grange likely to receive a top-up on the £14 million already wasted? Why not help fund the search for other missing people instead?

    A Twitter poll still running by The Steeple Times’s Matthew Steeples this morning stands at around 95% in favour of the Home Office ending funding to Operation Grange – the investigation into the ‘disappearance’ of Madeleine McCann.

     

    Established on 12th May 2011 after the daughter of doctors Gerry and Kate McCann went missing in Praia da Luz, Portugal on 3rd May 2007 aged just three years old, the Metropolitan Police Specialist Crime Command unit ‘investigative review’ became an ‘investigation’ subsequently.

     

    Funded to the tune of the astonishing sum of nigh on £14 million to date in spite of finding nada, nowt, nothing, the Daily Mail’s Elizabeth Haigh this morning shockingly claimed: “Police probing disappearance of Madeleine McCann ‘are set to get hundreds of thousands of pounds in new funding.’”

     

    Going further, Haigh added:

     

    “A significant sum has been requested by the Met Police and is likely to be approved by the Home Office, The Sun reports.”

     

    “Each year hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent on attempts to find her… A source close to the ongoing investigation last night said her parents would be ‘delighted’ with the news. The source said: ‘This is excellent news. Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry will be delighted. It gives fresh hope.’ There had been fears the probe into the toddler’s case could be cut back amid budget cuts.”

     

    At a time when the general public are enduring poverty, food banks and struggling due to the cost of living crisis, this is frankly outrageous and turning to such, former Metropolitan Police detective Peter Bleksley was quite rightly quoted as stating:

     

    “As long as there are unanswered questions I can see why there is a case. But, in this time of squeezed budgets, I can also see why eyebrows would be raised. I understand the frustrations of missing children who do not have the luxury of such ongoing funding.”’

     

    Elsewhere this weekend, a woman claiming to be the ‘disappeared without a trace’ now 19-year-old has appeared on the American talk show Dr Phil to claim: “I believe I’m Madeleine McCann.”

     

    Julia Wendell – a young lady brought up in Poland andgenerally assumed to have – “really believes” she could be Kate and Gerry’s McCann’s “long-lost child after recognising Kate McCann’s voice,” according to LBC.

     

    Miss Wendell – who is being bizarrely aided by a medium and private investigator named Dr Fia Johansson – is “currently awaiting the results of a genetic test and submitted three DNA samples and a genetic test, which will help determine her ancestry.” She stated:

     

    “A lot of you ask why Kate and Gerry are not involved. There is no need. Madeleine McCann’s DNA is already there. They don’t need to get involved with media press.”

     

    “I want to say something to Kate McCann: I listened to a song that you sang to your daughter Madeleine. When I hear your voice – from movies, from interviews – I feel like I really know this voice, your voice. I really believe that I could be Madeleine.”

     

    Miss Wendell “wants to be part of the [McCann] family;” God help her.

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    Pictured Top – ‘Missing’ Madeleine McCann (left) and Julia Wendell, a girl from Poland, who is currently claiming to be the ‘missing’ child.

     

    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “Is Home Office justified in even considering giving Operation Grange further funding on top of £14m already wasted on search for ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann? Shouldn’t £££ go towards searching for other missing people instead?” As of 11:30am on Monday 27th March 2023, over 90% of respondents unsurprisingly favoured the answer: “Yes; fund finding others.” The Metropolitan Police and Home Office should, but likely won’t pay attention.
    Ben-Needham-and-Martin-Allen
    Missing still yet little to no police resources for their cases… Ben Needham disappeared in Kos, Greece on the 24th July 1991 aged 1 and his mother gets little help for her search; Martin Allen disappeared in London on 5th November 1979 aged 15 and though his brother, Kevin, keeps the case in the public eye as much as he can, he gets little to no help from the Metropolitan Police. Why won’t the police consider reallocating resources away from Operation Grange towards the search for other missing people? £14 million has been wasted for nothing, after all. What are they hiding?
    Tennis-and-jogging
    A sense of priorities… Madeleine McCann on a tennis court prior to her ‘disappearance’ in May 2007 and her parents out running near the resort she ‘disappeared’ in the days after her ‘disappearance.’
    Gerry-and-Kate-McCann-Theresa-May
    Living-it-up… Gerry McCann enjoying a round of golf (left); Kate McCann at Downing Street, London hobnobbing with Missing People CEO Martin Houghton-Brown, the Duchess of Gloucester and the then Home Secretary Theresa May on 23rd May 2012 (right).
    Sir-Richard-Branson-Sir-Christopher-Meyer-Baroness-Catherine-Meyer-Sir-Philip-Green
    Brown nosing with a ragbag of rotten rubbish… Amongst those to have supported the McCanns have been especially gobby attention seekers including job wrecker Sir Richard Branson, “Chanel-clad” charity begins at home tin banger Baroness (Catherine) Meyer and her pompous arsehole late ex-husband Sir Christopher Meyer and job wrecking grabber Sir Philip Green.
    Ghislaine-Maxwell-Madeleine-McCann
    In 2009, private investigators for Gerry and Kate McCann issued an E-FIT to the media of a woman they believed could be “potentially significant” to their investigation. She has never been found, but, speculation online (entirely unproven as accurate thus far) has regularly included: “She looks remarkably like Ghislaine Maxwell.” There is no suggestion that this is one and the same woman, but it would be ever so helpful if the convicted nonce sex trafficker Miss Maxwell came forward and cleared this up for once and for all.
    Gerry-McCann-Sir-Clement-Freud-Ghislaine-Maxwell-857x1024-1
    Pictured above: Since croaked paedophile Sir Clement Freud (right) lunched with Gerry (left) and Kate McCann in Praia da Luz in Portugal in July 2007, two months after their daughter’s disappearance. Mrs McCann later praised the risotto as “the best she’d ever tasted.” Pictured below: Ghislaine Maxwell pictured at the launch of a book about Sir Clement’s brother, Lucian, titled ‘Breakfast With Lucian’ in 2013 by Geordie Greig. Also in the image are Nicholas Coleridge, Piers Morgan, an unknown child, Geordie Greig and Ariadne Calvo-Platero.
    In December 2017, when £11 million of British taxpayers’ money had been spent towards the search for ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann, 86% of viewers of ITV1’s ‘Loose Women’ said the public purse should cease to fund the investigation. Now, in January 2023, with that sum now well in excess of £14 million (aside from the millions in private money also), it is time to allocate resources to the search for missing people who actually can be found, we would suggest. Shouldn’t 2023, when many suffer because of the cost-of-living crisis, be the time that this pointless waste of funds finally ends?

    Missing Madeleine – Questions STILL without Answers… £14 million wasted on Operation Grange… Why continue? Why waste more? Why not help others?

    Many questions about what happened on the evening of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remain. Some that have been highlighted by the press and discussed online include:

     

    • Why did Kate McCann refuse to answer 48 questions put to her by the Portuguese police?

     

    • Why were certain records of phone calls on the evening of the disappearance “whoosh-clunked” from the memories of the phones of Mr and Mrs McCann and the ‘Tapas 7’?

     

    • Why were relevant mobile phone records never handed over to the authorities in spite of them potentially being useful to the search?

     

    • Why did the couple not use the babysitting service on offer in the holiday resort on the evening of 3rd May 2007 when they went out on the razzle dazzle with friends?

     

    • Why was the door to the apartment – which opened directly onto a public highway – left unlocked with three children aged under three years old alone inside?

     

    • Why did a British sniffer dog sense the smell of a corpse in a cupboard in the apartment from which Madeleine McCann disappeared?

     

    • Why did a sniffer dog also supposedly sense the smell of a corpse in a vehicle hired by the couple a month after the disappearance of their daughter?

     

    • Why did the McCanns repeatedly try to discredit the work of the sniffer dogs and their handlers?

     

     

     

    • Why have the McCanns attempted to ‘gag’ anyone who disputes their version of events – most especially Gonçalo Amaral?

     

    • Why, given over £14 million has been spent on this search to date, has nobody come forward with any sighting of ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann given the very, very substantial rewards on offer?

     

  • All That Glitters… Jim Davidson Should Apologise Over Sickening Gary Glitter Remarks

    All That Glitters… Jim Davidson Should Apologise Over Sickening Gary Glitter Remarks

    Matthew Steeples suggests Jim Davidson should admit he got it wrong in suggesting returned to jail paedophile Gary Glitter was a “remorseful’ man who “looked ready to start a new life”

    This morning, the washed-up wazzock and all-round scumbag that is Jim Davidson OBE was trending on Twitter after an interview with the ‘Mouth of the Sewer’ that is GB News’ Dan Wootton last night.

     

    Whilst Davidson – a foul-mouthed ‘5×3’ (five kids by three of his five wives) – used the interview to bang on about “smug” Gary Lineker and how he “never particularly felt welcome” at the BBC, he neglected to comment on his thoughts on the real trending news, that of the filthy paedophile Gary Glitter being returned to jail after just 38 days in a bail hostel after breaching his licence terms.

     

    Glitter – who was caught and photographed by another bail hostel resident using a smartphone to access the ‘Dark Web’ via something called ‘The Onion’ to attempt to snare further victims – had been visited by Davidson at the Isle of Wight prison where he was then housed by the former supermarket shelf-stacker Davidson in 2019.

     

    Afterwards, in June 2021, Davidson shockingly and rather casually shared of his child abusing ‘chum’:

     

    “I spoke to Paul [Gadd, AKA ‘Gary Glitter’] when I visited The Verne [prison] two years. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life.”

     

    Instead of remarking on this very, very clear ‘error of judgment,’ speaking to Dan Wootton on GB News yesterday regarding the BBC’s #GaryGate debacle, Davidson raged:

     

    “My political interest was cast upon me way before at Thames Television when I had The Jim Davidson Show and a man called John Howard Davis, who was a BBC producer, turned up and got rid of me and Benny Hill overnight.”

     

    “And then, about a year later, I got a little cassette, a VHS, dropped on my desk by my manager and it [sic] said: ‘The BBC want you.’”

     

    “I said: ‘What’s that?’ They [sic] said: ‘They want you to do this, it’s some rotten show about snooker, so me and John Virgo went and did that show and I never particularly felt welcome there.”

     

    “I was a smell under peoples’ noses and then one day Bruce Forsyth went sick and I stepped in and did The Generation Game. I replaced him just for a day and I wasn’t particularly good, but it made Bruce get better very quick.”

     

    “When he went to do his new deal, they said: ‘No, we’ve got Jim Davidson’ and I did The Generation Game for seven years. I did The Big Break for twelve seasons and seven seasons of The Generation Game.”

     

    “Now look at the BBC. I’m totally erased; I am the statue that’s thrown into Bristol Docks… They gave me a million quid to go away. I had a contract with a million quid’s worth of wages and they said: ‘We’ll give you a million quid if you go away; please don’t tell anyone,” but I told you ‘Danny Boy’ [Dan Wootton].”

     

    “I was worse [than anything else] because I was a working-class Tory. I was a traitor and I like to mess about and have a laugh and be rude and stuff on the rehearsals and it was all pretty much frowned upon.”

     

    “They’re more concerned in being woke and ticking boxes. You know, ticking boxes; the man said to me: ‘We have to have 8.9% ethnic minorities on every show’ and so if you couldn’t get anybody that wanted to come on Big Break who was of non-white persuasion, you had to go out and kidnap some poor bugger and throw him in.”

     

    “You know, err, it was daft and do you know what I learnt there, and I’ve been in the business forty-seven years… I’m nearly one-hundred… So, you learn a thing or two about the BBC and it’s full of people that don’t know how to make programmes. I had to tick a box and I had to be silly.”

     

    “Now, I wouldn’t have thrown Lineker off like that and having a boss called Tim. Now come on, how scary is a Tim?”

     

    “Now, anyway, you wouldn’t throw someone off; just turn them off. I can understand that it’s taxpayers’ money and I hate the BBC with a passion. It’s a toss-up between them and the NHS who I hate the most, but I, you know, I wouldn’t have got rid of him because now Tim’s shown himself as lily livered.”

     

    “[Lineker] can now say what he wants, can’t he? He’s won and he’s going to be even smugger. Smug, smugger.”

     

    “It’s upto Tim and all those silly people [what the BBC does next] and now they want to get rid of the chairman ‘cos he arranged some loan or helped Boris [Johnson]. Now, everyone’s just picking on one another. I think the BBC have lost the public; they’ve lost the dressing room.”

     

    “You know, who do we watch now? GB News, anything but BBC. What does the BBC stand for? ‘Bring Back Corbyn,’ ‘Bring Back Communism.’”

     

    “You know, it is a joke and we have to pay for it whether we like it or not. You know, let’s scrap it and watch GB News all day long.

     

    Responding, this morning on Twitter, I asked:

     

    “As Jim Davidson trends, should he apologise for his June 2021 remark: “I spoke to Paul Gadd [Gary Glitter] when I visited The Verne [prison] two years ago. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life” given the paedo has been recalled to prison after being caught on Dark Web?”

     

    Other Twitter users took up the mantle and amongst comments were:

     

    “I wonder if Jim Davidson still believes that Gary Glitter is remorseful and ready to start a new life?”

     

    “Remember when Jim Davidson was funny? Me neither.”

     

    “Fun Fact: For years the BBC didn’t give a flying sh*t about their right-wing so-called ‘comedian’ Jim Davidson’s racist/misogynistic stage show when he was hosting their flagship Saturday night show ‘The Generation Game’ #IStandWithGaryLineker.”

     

    All that Glitters is not gold; all that is Jim Davidson is utterly toxic and now it is time for the latter to apologise for getting it well and truly wrong about one of the most evil men ever to set foot on this planet.

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGGBmDZbfgE
    TRAILER – Matthew Steeples will be ‘live’ with Shaun Attwood to discuss his views on Gary Glitter being returned to the clink after breaching his licence terms whilst in a bail hostel on Wednesday 15th March at 6pm GMT. Please do tune in and please do ask away.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylQ6N-_gPRQ&t=0s
    FULL EPISODE – This will be ‘live’ for the first time at 6pm GMT on Wednesday 15th March 2023. View here.
    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “As Jim Davidson trends, should he apologise for his June 2021 remark: “I spoke to [Gary Glitter] when I visited The Verne [prison] 2 years ago. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life” given the paedo has been recalled to prison after being caught on Dark Web?” He gave the options: A) “Yes, disgraceful remark”; B) “No, second chances matter”; C) “Cancel Davidson and Glitter” and D) “Couldn’t care less.” By 11:30am on Wednesday 15th March 2023, the majority of respondents favoured the idea of the cancellation of this noxious pair of grifters.
    Dan Wootton Jim Davidson
    GB News is about the only channel that will now accept the weird warblings of these two utter berks.
    Gary Glitter Jim Davidson
    A pair of toerags forever linked by a hashtag.
    Nonce Defender
    Twitter users have rightly mocked the ‘entertainer’ over his decision to visit a disgraced ‘singer’ who abused children as young as 10 years old in prison. What on earth was it about the paedophile-nonce-monster Gary Glitter that attracted Jim Davidson to visit him in prison? An answer is required. The public should be told.
    Jim Davidson Jimmy Savile
    Those that think Gary Lineker was WRONG to tweet about politics whilst working for the BBC should be reminded that both Jim Davidson and the late paedophile Sir Jimmy Savile openly campaigned for the Conservative Party and that both men also worked for the BBC. It is pure hypocrisy to call out Mr Lineker on this basis.
    It is very clear that Dan Wootton has no nous when it comes to questioning Jim Davidson. Mr Wootton is clearly not a journalist prone to drilling into real stories; he just PR peddles for his chums.

    Deserved “Public Hate Figure” Jim Davidson OBE’s Worst Moments…

    On Great Yarmouth:

    “Full of fat children of all colours.”

     

    On London and the UK:

    “I am never coming to London again… I may as well go to Dubai and be an ethnic minority there than wait five years till I become one here.”

     

    On former UKIP leader Nigel Farage:

    “The Jim Davidson of the political world.”

     

    On beating up one of his four ex-wives:

    “We’re like a couple of boxers. On the first occasion, I poked her in the eye by accident. I actually went for the mouth… The second time I gave her a shiner. I threw a bunch of keys which whacked her in the eye. Just for a giggle she kept blackening it up to make it look worse.”

     

    “I took the wife out last night; one punch!”

     

    On supposedly giving up on making jokes about black people:

    “I can’t do impressions of Frank Bruno or Ian Wright? That’s racist, is it? But I can do Sven-Göran Eriksson?”

     

    “I’m not going to get on my knee, and I’m not going to go ever black person I see, ‘hail you.’ I’m not going to apologise for the past; the past was the past.”

     

    On Black Lives Matter protestors:

    “Pondlife… F**king stupid.”

     

    Of his thoughts about his chum Boris Johnson:

    “Don’t listen with mother.”

     

    On Piers Morgan (after he was paid to appear on his Life Stories programme):

    “You don’t deserve to listen to anyone’s life story because you don’t f**king listen.”

     

    On the BBC and the NHS:

    “I was a smell under peoples’ noses… I’m totally erased; I am the statue that’s thrown into Bristol Docks… They gave me a million quid to go away.”

     

    “I hate the BBC with a passion. It’s a toss-up between them and the NHS who I hate the most.”

     

    Proving himself the ultimate ‘Brain of Britain’:

    “People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die.”

     

    After being declared bankrupt:

    “My problem is money.”

     

    On himself:

    “I could cure Aids and give £1 billion to womens’ groups and people would still think I was a racist, sexist twat”.

     

    “I’m a homophobic arsehole.”

     

  • Two Bit Tice – ‘Monster’ Fearing Richard Tice Rages In Support Of ‘#LockdownFiles Leaker Lover’ Isabel Oakeshott

    Two Bit Tice – ‘Monster’ Fearing Richard Tice Rages In Support Of ‘#LockdownFiles Leaker Lover’ Isabel Oakeshott

    After Matthew Steeples called out ‘leaky #lockdownfiles sieve’ Isabel Oakeshott, her ‘chlorinated chicken chap’ Reform UK leader and TalkTV host Richard Tice bizarrely enquired of him: “What kind of monster are you?”

    “Let’s Make Britain Great” is the predictably and very clearly ‘borrowed’ strapline used by Reform UK, a ‘political party’ – which actually is just an entity registered in England and Wales as company number 11694875. The Donald Trump-esque mantra is used as part of an attempt to attract swivel-eyed right wingers to an ‘operation’ that didn’t win a single seat in the 2021 London Assembly elections; at that poll, Reform UK laughably finished in tenth position – behind the Women’s Equality, Rejoin EU, UKIP and Animal Welfare parties even.

     

    Now, in the wake of The Steeple Times having covered the scandal of Isabel Oakeshott – whom we branded “a woman who is best known not (as she claims) as a ‘journalist’ but instead as a ‘lobbyist who carries a poison pen’” back in September 2019 – having broken an NDA and released the WhatsApp messages of the equally unctuous Matt Hancock as part of a campaign named #lockdownfiles on Saturday, the ‘chlorinated chicken chap’ that is her current squeeze, Reform UK leader Richard Tice, decided to bat back directly and defend his grubby gym gear wearing lady-love.

     

    Tweeting Matthew Steeples, in several rambling rants likely written after a boozy lunch in Belgravia yesterday, ‘considerably richer than yow’ businessman and TalkTV tittle-tattler Tice very generously shared our article (“thanks, Dicky”) and remarked:

     

    “So @M_Steeples is clearly just jealous of Isabel’s success because he is a 2 bit journo of a 2 bit rag that no-one has heard of. Keep going Matthew!”

     

    Turning to COVID-19 itself, the father of three and regular yellow stickered shopper at ‘Celebrity Waitrose’ Belgavia raged:

     

    “So you do not care about the damage to children, the inhumane CareHome restrictions, the awful funeral constraints, the suicides? What sort of monster are you?”

     

    The response to his tweets has been overwhelming, but likely not quite what Tice was anticipating. Aside from being told: “Save your faux outrage, you hypocrite!” one social media observed: “Right back at ya. Stop spreading misleading information” of his ‘monster’ related question. Now Dicky dear, please do go and pour yourself a British beer and please ease your and grubby gym gear-clad Issie’s “jealousy” with that.

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    Pictured Top – Richard Tice decided to give Matthew Steeples a “Sunday sermon” about monsters yesterday; he did so late afternoon and likely after a few (British beer only) shandies and perhaps a boozy lunch (with non-European wines only) in Belgravia.

     

    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “Yesterday, Richard Tice of the Reform Party asked: ‘What sort of monster are you?’ of me after I called out his leaky squeeze Isabel Oakeshott. Who is actual monster in story of #lockdownfiles leaking of MattHancock’s WhatsApp missives?” He gave the options of a) Isabel Oakeshott (32.6%), b) Richard Tice, (8.7%) c) himself (6.5%) and d) Matt Hancock (52.5%). As of 11.30am on Monday 6th March the results were as listed.
    Tweet 1
    58-year-old Richard Tice ‘bigs himself up’ as some kind of man of the people in spite of having a clearly very privileged past and present. Often spotted in the tony taverns of Belgravia, this former Conservative donor has been involved in amongst other things property development and investment. He was privately educated at Uppingham and is the son the late horse trainer Joan Tice DL OBE. That he claims Matthew Steeples “jealous” of his gossipy girlfriend – a woman who falsely acted as a muckspreader when she falsely shared fake news that David Cameron had performed a sexual act on a dead pig – is proof permanent that he’s the one who is actually off his merry rocker. “Keep going Dicky!”
    Tweet 2
    Called out by Steeples after he suggested him a “2 bit journo of a 2 bit rag,” Tice responded: “What sort of monster are you?” He didn’t find a very positive response to his idiotic question from the majority of social media users.

    Social media responds to Richard Tice’s rambling rants and questions about monsters…

    Responding on Twitter and Facebook to the missives to Matthew Steeples, social media users observed of Tice and Oakeshott:

     

    “Two-bit? Do you mean The Steeple Times? I read it all the time as do all in the know; distinguished and principled journalism – especially compared to the dross trotted out by your squeeze.”

     

    “You’re a professional troll and so is Oakeshott. Who is paying you?”

     

    “[Oakeshott] had these messages two years ago. Why is she only concerned about those issues now? What sort of monster is she?”

     

    “The problem you have is that you are even more wrong than the government were!”

     

    “Don’t try to kid us you care. You’ve tried to exploit the release of that information with your partner in an attempt to inflict political damage & now you pretend you care? You’re a 2 bit crappy grifter like Farage. I wouldn’t trust you with a lettuce, let alone our rights.”

     

    “Save your faux outrage, you hypocrite! What about the damage to children currently suffering from Long Covid? I don’t hear you utter a bloody word about them!”

     

    “If Isabel had been a decent person, i.e. concerned about what is in the public interest, she would have released ALL the information to ALL media without payment. We see you two for what you really are!”

     

    “You are using those examples of wrongdoing and other peoples’ real human suffering to promote your own ends. What’s worse is that you are gaslighting people by cynically pretending that you are doing it ‘because you care,’ when self-interest is always your real motive. Shyster!”

     

    “What we know is that Oakeshott released these messages at a time that was politically convenient but chose to hide the fact that Banks lied until she was exposed.”

     

    “Disgusting you are trying to manipulate peoples’ suicides for your own benefit and agenda.”

     

    “Serialised in the telegraph to maximise the news cycle/exposure. How is this about any more than @IsabelOakeshott and her personal & political agenda? It’s a massive scoop, dripping with tabloid subterfuge, but why dress it up as a crusade?

     

    “She felt it was in public interest, was disgusted… But not before the book was out. And no doubt her leakage has been handsomely rewarded, possibly even legal protection should MH sue her. She’s the reason journalists will be less trusted with confidential matters.”

     

    “They’re insulting your credibility, I thought you’d recognise that given how often it must occur.”

     

    “You are a charlatan… Trying to make political gain out of peoples’ suffering. What sort of monster are you?”

     

    “[You] didn’t care until you and [Oakeshott] could make political hay and a boatload of cash.”

     

    “None of [the things Tice supposedly ‘cares’ about] are remotely true or relevant. File them under ‘things which ill-informed fight-wingers bleat about but never actually happened. No wonder the ‘UK’ is a global pariah and laughing stock.”

     

    “It’s genuinely painful when dead-eyed sociopaths obsessed with political power no matter the cost lecture others about ‘caring.’ Your entire platform exists and feeds only on negative emotion, reactionary populism with power for its own sake as the final and only goal.”

     

    “You would happily send [sic] asylum seekers drown. F**k off with the faux humanitarianism.”

     

    “You do not care about so-called ordinary people. Stop pretending. I suspect you want an authoritarian far right tax haven complete with subservient work force.”

     

    “You can care about all of this and still think your significant other is a wrong’un. Hope this helps, Dicky.”

     

    “Like your partner, you care when it suits your agenda [Richard].”

     

    “It’s you that’s the monster… A Tory monster. The worst kind.”

     

    “Stop using peoples’ deaths for your own financial gain, you ghoul.”

     

    “[‘What sort of monster are you?’]… That last line, have you ever considered looking in the mirror and pausing to think, [Richard]?”

     

    “Right back at ya. Stop spreading misleading information.”

     

    “Nice one… Brilliant… Keep up the good work, Matthew.”

     

    “Oooh, you’ve got your knickers in a twist… Grow up Tice… You should be the leader of the Whataboutery Party.”

     

    Waitrose Belgravia chlorinate chicken yellow sticker Bollocks to Brexit
    In August 2019, ‘The Steeple Times’ shared an image of Brexiteer Richard Tice buying yellow stickered salmon at Waitrose in Belgravia. We asked: “What next? Chlorinated American chicken?” and suggested he find another yellow sticker… That yellow sticker? ‘Bollocks to Brexit.’
    John Whittingdale Isabel Oakeshott
    In September 2019, ‘The Steeple Times’ condemned Isabel Oakeshott as a “fake news creator” and shared a reader submitted photograph of her next to the “lapdance loving MP” John Whittingdale. For once, she wasn’t wearing her grubby gym gear.
    Reform UK Make Britain Again
    Reform UK bases its message most clearly on 45th POTUS Donald Trump’s message: “Let’s Make America Great Again.” It’s a message that has yet to resonate at the ballot box with the great British public. Perhaps Richard Tice should focus on that problem before worrying about ‘monsters’ that simply don’t exist.
    Grifter bike
    On Twitter, amongst much mockery, this image of a ‘Grifter’ bicycle simply shone out and had to be shared. As Norman Tebbit once argued, it might be time ‘Dicky Boy’ got on it.
  • “Easy Mark” Randy Andy – Jeffrey Epstein Used The “Dim” Duke Of York As “His Front Man” In “Deals With Often Very Shady Players”

    “Easy Mark” Randy Andy – Jeffrey Epstein Used The “Dim” Duke Of York As “His Front Man” In “Deals With Often Very Shady Players”

    Royal author Tina Brown suggests “dim” Prince Andrew was just considered an “easy mark” by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein whilst condemnation of the mocked-up “bathtub bonk” by Ian Maxwell widens

    Yesterday the Express’s Sophie McCabe revisited the relationship between Prince Andrew and his late “bestie,” the since croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

     

    Examining comments by The Diana Chronicles author and former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown (also known as Lady Evans CBE), McCabe stated:

     

    “Prince Andrew was first introduced to Jeffrey Epstein in 1999 by his friend and now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. The Duke of York went on vacations with both Epstein and Maxwell, invited them to royal residences and visited the disgraced financier on his private island. According to royal author and expert Tina Brown, the prince was an ‘easy mark’ for Epstein.”

     

    “Ms Brown, the creator of The Daily Beast, met Epstein in the Noughties. When her publication was about to publish the first of what would be six detailed investigative reports exposing his role in sex-trafficking young girls, he unexpectedly turned up at her office.”

     

    “In her book, The Palace Papers, she describes Epstein as ‘snake-eyed and terse,’ adding: ‘There was a morose, menacing air to him that I found sinister.’”

     

    “She also revealed that Epstein referred to Andrew as his “useful idiot” and described the characteristics that made the late Queen Elizabeth II’s second son an ‘easy mark for con artists and crooks.’”

     

    “Ms Brown claimed: ‘Andrew, unfortunately, exhibited classic symptoms of what is scientifically recognized as the Dunning-Kruger effect, the cognitive bias in which people come to believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are.’”

     

    “‘The combination of minimal self-awareness and dim intellectual wattage leads sufferers of this condition to overestimate their capabilities. Years of enjoying unearned obeisance to his royal position allowed Andrew to bang on with a combination of overweening self-confidence and unchallenged ignorance. It made him an easy mark for con artists and crooks,’ she continued.”

     

    “According to Ms Brown’s unnamed source, Epstein flew Andrew on his corporate jet to places where he wanted to negotiate deals, knowing their governments were obliged to receive the British Prince. The financier would use Andrew as ‘his front man negotiated deals with often shady players.’ Ms Brown claimed Epstein would ‘give Andrew some cream off the cake.’”

     

    Now, in a month when the possibly as high as £9.7 million ($12 million, €11 million or درهم44.1 million) mutually agreed non-disclosure agreement reached by the equally birdbrained bagger of freebies Sarah, Duchess of York’s live-in ex-husband with Virginia Roberts comes to an end, the woes for this non-sweater are definitely worsening.

     

    Though he might have possibly even have encouraged Ian Maxwell to release to The Daily Telegraph what was subsequently mocked as “the most peculiar photograph seen on a front page,” the Duke of York simply looks more and more ridiculous.

     

    Of the snap of two random people with their faces covered with A4 printouts of photographs of Roberts Giuffre and Prince Andrew in the infamous bath where they were alleged to have begun their sexual shenanigans on 10th March 2001, Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid on Monday observed:

     

    “It shows two people in the very bath in Ghislaine Maxwell’s former Belgravia home where the Duke of York was alleged to have abused Virginia Guiffre.”

     

    “Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother believes that it discredits Virginia Guiffre’s claims. It’s very odd, because Virginia Guiffre says that they were in the bath together.

     

    “This setup, this mockup, that the two people have done wearing masks, which is supposed to recreate that they were in the bath together – I have no idea what it recreates other than it’s clearly a bath big enough for two people to be in.”

     

    “In what sense it discredits Virginia Giuffre – I think most people looking at it would be at a complete loss.”

     

    Giving his tuppence worth, Reid’s co-host Richard Madeley added:

     

    “If you’re going to say the bath is too small for two people to sit in it, then you have a photograph presumably that demonstrates you can only get one person in it. To say this bath is too small and to prove that with a picture of two people in the bath, it seems to me bonkers. It just makes no sense at all.”

     

    Elsewhere in an “exclusive” on Sunday, Mirror news reporter Patrick Hill interviewed US attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represents nine of Jeffrey Epstein’s many, many victims about the Maxwell mockup. He shared that he thinks “the prince’s advisers are part of the PR plot” and observed:

     

    “It’s absurd. They seem to be saying Virginia was in the house after all. It undermines their case.”

     

    “As for Ghislaine’s comments about the genuine photo of Andrew with Virginia at her home in London, it shows a lot of work is being done on his behalf – he’s desperate to rehabilitate his image.”

     

    “Ghislaine protects the men in her life. She’s hoping Andrew can help her.”

     

    “There’s a PR campaign at work. It’s a public relations exercise, not so much a legal one. I think he and his lawyers have realised they have an impossible hill to climb.”

     

    “But he has nothing to lose by saying he wants to do it. He wins from declaring he’s innocent and should be let back into the royal family, but it’s never going to happen.”

     

    “It is unbelievable he’d try to reverse the agreement. If he starts down that route it’ll reopen the entire case.”

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party.

     

    THAT 2001 Photo Thus Far NOT PROVEN A FAKE – The 10th March 2001 photograph of Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell

    The photograph, taken supposedly by Jeffrey Epstein on the first-floor landing at 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8ES, United Kingdom, has been shared by the world’s media in hundreds of thousands of articles and analysed countless times by countless experts.

     

    In November 2019, the Daily Mail’s Inderdeep Bains called it: “The photograph that WON’T go away” and it, as of date, has NEVER been discredited. Amongst evidence suggesting it to be perfectly real is that:

     

    • The setting of the photograph has been confirmed as genuine by the Maxwell family. Of it, in March 2021, Ian Maxwell told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I do recognise that setting.”
    • The window in the picture has the same features as the front first floor windows of 44 Kinnerton Street.
    • The width of the first floor landing is accurate to the measurements shown in the floor plan of the sales brochure prepared on the 14th October 2021 by estate agents Wellbelove Quested.
    • Though he claimed to be “at a loss to explain this particular photograph” during the 2019 BBC interview, the Duke of York has admitted to having visited 44 Kinnerton Street. He stated: “I don’t think I think ever went upstairs… The dining room and everything was on the ground floor.” Contradicting the royal, sources have claimed that the room behind him, Roberts and Maxwell in the photograph was used as a sitting room.
    • The heights of all three individuals in the picture look to be accurate proportionately.
    • Prince Andrew’s “chubby fingers” are clear to see. The Queen’s second son’s fingers are clearly “chubby fingers” and these very same “chubby fingers” have been seen hundreds of thousands of times in hundreds of thousands of other photographs.
    • Prince Andrew has claimed he only ever goes out in London in a suit and tie. Images of him in open necked shirts in the capital – including one of him leaving the nightclub Chinawhite – prove to the contrary.
    • Prince Andrew has claimed he does not “do” hugs and and embraces in photographs. Images of him taken in St Tropez embracing the US socialite Chris Von Aspen in July 2007 suggest the alleged non-sweater is wrong also on that score.
    • The outfit worn by Virginia Roberts – a woman who has already received financial settlements from Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell – has been seen on her in photographs of her at Naomi Campbell’s 2001 birthday party in France. In spite of some suggestions that a lady only wears an outfit once, we counter that a lady in Miss Roberts’ unfortunate situation would be forced to wear what she was told appealed to those in control of her wished her to wear.
    • Matthew Steeples of The Steeple Times and Shaun Attwood of Shaun Attwood’s True Crime Channel have both seen inside 44 Kinnerton Street and the stair rail shown in the photo remains in place and is thus genuine to the setting. Attwood subsequently released film footage of this on his YouTube channel and The Steeple Times shared its most recent image of the open front door with the stair rail beyond in July 2021.
    • Many experts have repeatedly stated photo manipulation was in its infancy at the time that this image first surfaced.
    • The FBI have never questioned the authenticity of the image.

     

    Ghislaine-Maxwell-44-Kinnerton-Street-bathtub
    When asked about what occurred on the night of 10th March 2001 in the first floor bathroom at her Kinnerton Street mews house, Ghislaine Maxwell responded: “[Virginia Roberts] then characterized [sic] things took place in my bathroom in the bathtub itself. The tub is too small for any kind of activity whatsoever.” The picture of that very same tub used in marketing material by Wellbelove Quested proves exactly to the contrary.
    Ghislaine-Maxwell-44-Kinnerton-Street-layout-1
    The floor plan shared by the likes ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘The Sun suggested the first-floor bathroom at the house to be 7-foot, 4 inches by 7-foot, 2-inches. Floor plans shared by estate agents Wellboved Quested suggested that the room is actually 8-foot, 4-inches by 8-foot, 2-inches. There was most definitely plenty of room for two…
    44-Kinnerton-Street-floorplan
    A floorplan of 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia. In it, mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s home is clearly shown to be a place where ‘public’ entertaining took place on the ground floor, whilst ‘extracurricular’ activities took place on the upper two floors.
    44-Kinnerton-Street-banister
    These photographs of 44 Kinnerton Street, taken in July 2021, provide proof that the bannisters seen in the March 2001 photographs remain inside said property. The setting in which Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts were captured was indeed most definitely genuine. In the same month, the new owners of the property displayed a poster at 44 Kinnerton Street for a festival that was to be held in East Anglia from 31st July 2021 to 1st August 2021. The event, the EA Festival, was hosted at Hedingham Castle – home to Jason and Demetra Lindsay – in Essex and had a line-up that included model and advocate Arizona Muse, film director Mike Figgis, ‘Countdown’s’ Susie Dent, sex commentator Rowan Pelling and comedian Josh Berry. The same open doorway also showed something else… The very same bannister that was shown in the photograph Prince Andrew, Virginia Robert and Ghislaine Maxwell appeared in.