A BRIEF HISTORY OF CMOMM AND THE MMRG

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CMOMM AND THE MMRG

From its beginning on 25 November 2009, with only eight members, to this very day where CMOMM has nearly 10,000 members, the forum has gone from strength to strength, as years come and go, a great many people have joined and made valuable contributions to the debate.  Every month the forum attracts a steady flow of new members, thanks to it's professional presentation and extensive content packed with fact, evidence, reference material, research, analysis, points of discussion and more.

Early on, it became clear that CMOMM was not merely just another Madeleine discussion forum or blog. It rapidly attracted serious researchers. Unsurprisingly, within just 18 months, it replaced another Madeleine forum, The 3 Arguidos, as the most popular in terms of membership and number of views per day. Since then it has maintained and extended its dominance of the internet world of Madeleine McCann discussions.

A COVER-UP

But not only that, it very soon morphed from a discussion forum into an investigative  forum - one where serious, collaborative research was done into the many things which have been hidden by what CMOMM members and guests firmly believe is an almighty cover-up of what really happened to Madeleine McCann.

But not only did it become an investigative forum, it also became a campaigning forum. Elsewhere on the forum you will find a long list of campaign activity - petitions, leafleting, letters to top politicians right up to the Prime Minister, letters to the police in England and in Portugal, and much else besides.

Many of those who have contributed to CMOMM have, in common with the usual practice elsewhere on the internet, decided to remain anonymous for personal reasons.  More importantly,  there is a particular reason for this here on CMOMM, namely that the McCanns are extremely litigious and will stop at nothing to silence their critics.  The anonymity has no impact on member contribution, all are equally valued by CMOMM.


LIBEL ACTIONS

As is well-known, in June 2009 the McCanns sued the original investigation co-ordinator, Gonçalo Amaral, for libel damages, claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds. Their claim failed after a bewildering succession of court actions, lasting eight years, in which their case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, back down to the lowest court, then up again to the Supreme Court a second time. But though the McCanns lost, the succession of court actions placed a severe strain on Gonçalo Amaral, who had to incur huge costs defending himself.

The McCanns also targeted CMOMM member Tony Bennett, a founder member of CMOMM.  Sse our article “How it all began” here:

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/f80-how-it-all-began

Despite undertakings he was forced to give to the McCanns at a High Court hearing on 25 November 2009, Tony continued to write and campaign about the case. On 1 December 2011 the McCanns lost patience with him and brought a case in the High Court alleging that he had broken the terms of his undertakings. Tony defended the case, but lost. On 25 February 2013, Mr Justice Tugendhat held that Tony had breached a number of his undertakings and sentenced him to three months in prison, suspended for one year. As a result, CMOMM was required to remove some of Tony’s articles from the forum. Tony still contributes to the forum, but is limited as to what he can say.

CMOMM continues to be carefully watched by the McCann legal force which enforces certain restrictions on what's written.  This minor irritation doesn't prevent the forum from pursuing it's objective, it just makes us more diligent about commentary.  So, in a manner of speaking, it's to our advantage that we strive to only present fact, evidence and informed commentary.

KEY CONTRIBUTORS

Hundreds of members, past and present, have made significant contributions to the research and analysis carried out on the forum. It would be great to pay personal tribute to all of them by name, but, as explained above, the vast majority prefer to retain their anonymity.

Over the years, three CMOMM members who have been prepared to be named, and have made giant contributions to the research work here, are Peter MacLeod, Lizzy Taylor and Richard D. Hall.

Peter MacLeod is a retired Police Superintendent from Nottinghamshire Police, now living in Spain. He joined CMOMM early on, where he is better known as ‘PeterMac’. His greatest contribution to understanding what really happened to Madeleine McCann is his outstanding e-book, chronicling key evidential issues in the case. CMOMM is proud to host all chapters of his e-book at this link:  https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16005-petermac-s-free-e-book-what-really-happened-to-madeleine-mccann    

The e-book is also available FREE on  the internet, here:

http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com  

Frankly, everyone who really wants to understand the Madeleine McCann case should make sure s/he reads every chapter.

Perhaps the  single most important piece of work that Peter thoroughly investigated was the McCanns’ claim that the so-called ‘Last Photo’ of Madeleine, by the Ocean Club swimming pool, was taken at 2.29pm on the last day of their holiday, Thursday 3 May 2007.  In more detail, he has shown that the only day of the week that this photo could possibly have been taken was Sunday, 29th April, the only warm and sunny day that week.

Lizzy 'HiDeHo' Taylor is a British-born businesswoman now living in Canada. Right from the start, she was convinced that the McCanns’ account of events on their holiday in Praia da Luz was not true, and began to make a major contribution to public understanding of the case in a prolific series of YouTube vidoes. She also joined CMOMM in the early days and her research is well worth studying in depth.

Perhaps the single most important piece of work that Lizzy thoroughly researched was her patient, detailed analysis of all the statements made by witnesses who claimed that Madeleine was alive after Sunday 29 April, which she published here on CMOMM.  She recognised that some key witnesses were clearly not independent, such as the McCanns and their close-knit group of friends, who have been called the Tapas 7. She paid special attention to a claim by the McCanns & Madeleine’s crèche supervisor, Catriona Baker, that they were with Madeleine at a ‘high tea’ between about 5pm and 6pm on Thursday 3 May, the night Madeleine was reported missing. This alleged event was important because the Portuguese Police believed that Catriona Baker was being truthful. Lizzy’s exhaustive analysis of the multiple contradictions between the McCanns and Catriona Baker’s account of events cast severe doubt on the claim that Madeleine was still alive at 6pm that evening, and led to CMOMM members questioning when she was last seen by anyone independent that week. Her analysis can be viewed on the forum and we have links to many of her best videos.      

Richard D Hall has made five documentary films about Madeleine McCann, which have been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube. He joined CMOMM in 2014, the year when his first Madeleine documentary, ‘The True Story of Madeleine McCann’, was suddenly released and was immediately watched by millions. There was an amazing response to his 4-hour presentation of mountains of disturbing facts hitherto withheld by the mainstream media. Literally dozens of people have uploaded his Madeleine documentaries onto their own YouTube channels.  At the end of his first film he publicly acknowledged the help of articles on CMOMM in the preparation of his film. Richard’s investigative skills have been revealed in a series of true crime investigations, including ‘The Didcot Murders’, ‘Kill Jill’ (on the killing of Jill Dando) and ‘Exit from Brexit’ (on the murder of Jo Cox).

OUR OTHER MEMBERS

Who are our other members?

Broadly speaking they are a group of good hearted people from all walks of life, who have joined together with a common goal, to see justice for little Madeleine McCann, a lost soul who has been so severely let down by those who should really care.  Her family and the British establishment.

Many members have specialist knowledge or expertise. We would love to give you some of their names but we have to respect our members right to anonymity.

Among our other resident experts are academics, health and social service professionals, those with legal knowledge and police experience , experts in photography - including digital photography - forensics experts including those familiar with DNA analysis, and people from many walks of life whose experience and views help to make up the rich tapestry of this forum.

Sharon 'sharonl' Lawrence is an accountant who amongst other work has carried out analyses of the controversial and very sparse accounts  the McCanns have to provide to Companies House for their company ‘Find Madeleine’ – often falsely described as a charity.

Tania 'Hobs' Cadogan is a statement analyst, an expert at analysing written statements, who has worked in conjunction with Peter Hyatt, the well-known U.S. statement analyst, who  was interviewed at length by Richard Hall for his fourth Madeleine documentary film, ‘Embedded Confessions’.            

THE MADELEINE MCCANN RESEARCH GROUP

On the forum, you’ll find many analytical articles by members of the ‘Madeleine McCann Research Group’ (MMRG). Some of these were former members of the Madeleine Foundation (see our article ‘How it all Began’). Other members here contribute to their work. MMRG also makes use of other excellent research published by those who are not CMOMM members, notably the work of Dr Martin Roberts, most of which is also are published on CMOMM, see this link:

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/f48-dr-martin-roberts-mccannfiles

We decided to open up this special section of the forum to promote MMRG’s work. The group intend to republish some of the excellent Madeleine Foundation articles (albeit edited to avoid any libel) which were previously removed from the forum in 2012 because of fears of possible libel action by the McCanns. We’ll put the articles here as we get them.

WHAT IS THE COLLECTIVE VIEW OF THE FORUM ADMIN AND CMOMM’S LEADING RESEARCHERS ON WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO MADELEINE MCCANN?

Right from the start, nearly all members here accept that there is more than enough circumstantial and forensic evidence to believe that Madeleine died in the McCanns’ holiday apartment some time that week.

Three issues have made us all look deeper at when on that holiday Madeleine may have died.

The first was the extraordinary BBC Crimewatch McCann Special shown on 14 October 2013. This hour-long ‘Special’, watched by 7 million viewers, i.e. about one in six of all British adults, put an alleged sighting of a man - carrying a young blond child towards the beach at the very time the McCanns were raising the alarm - as the ‘center of the focus’ of the work being done by the Metropolitan Police into Madeleine’s disappearance. The sighting has divided opinion on the forum ,as cam be seen by searching the word ‘Smithman’ on the forum.

The second was the issue of when the so-called ‘Last Photograph’ of Madeleine McCann was taken.

The McCanns said that this photo of her by the swimming pool was taken at 2.29pm on the last day of her holiday, i.e. Thursday. But expert evidence collated by PeterMac and analysed on the forum left little room for doubt that it must have been taken on the only sunny day that week - Sunday. And there are no other photos of Madeleine that week that we can be certain were taken after Sunday.

We have already mentioned the third issue, namely the work pioneered by Lizzy Taylor in which she cast doubt on whether there was any credible, independent witness evidence of Madeleine being seen alive after Sunday.

For all these reasons, it is the collective view of the CMOMM Admin team that Madeleine must have experienced  a sudden and serious event, probably on Sunday or Monday, which led to her death.  

None of us know how she might have died. That is a subject which his discussed from time to time on the forum.

FORUM DEBATE

CMOMM is an open forum that anyone can join. It is primarily an investigative forum. Robust, though polite, disagreement and debate is fine, and welcomed, but be prepared to have your theories challenged if they lack support. Whether you have relevant experience and qualifications or not, do join in where you can, and help us edge ever nearer the truth about what really happened to Madeleine.

The CMOMM Admin Team, April 2019