Tel: Harlow (01279) 635789 HARLOW
e-mail: ajsbennett@btinternet.com Essex CM17 0DJ
Carter-Ruck Friday 20 August 2010
Solicitors
6 St. Andrew Street
LONDON
EC4A 3AE
Your ref: Stevie Loughrey
AT/IH/SVL//13837.5 - 15 July and 3 August 2010
Sent by e-mail and hard copy by Certificate of Posting
Dear Sirs
re: Your clients Dr Gerald and Dr Kate McCann - ‘60 Reasons’ booklet and ‘10 Key Reasons’ leaflet
I have yet to receive any acknowledgement of my last two letters to you dated 16 and 20 August respectively. Do you intend not to acknowledge my responses to my letters?
I now write in relation to a number of issues relating to the undertakings I gave to the High Court on 25 November 2009.
I write first of all in relation to the publication or linking elsewhere of our leaflet which is commonly known as ‘10 Key Reasons’.
As you know I agreed not to further sell nor distribute copies of that leaflet, and I have not done so. Nor for that matter has The Madeleine Foundation as a separate entity.
It has come to my attention that the ‘10 Key Reasons’ leaflet is currently available on a blog set up recently by Helene Davies-Green. I will not give the link as we intend to publish this letter as an open letter.
For the record, neither I nor The Madeleine Foundation as a separate entity has given any consent to the reproduction of our leaflet on that blog. Moreover, we have written to Mrs Davies-Green making clear our objections to that leaflet being reproduced on her blog. I say this because until earlier this year, both Helene Davies-Green and her husband Grenville Green were Committee members of the Madeleine Foundation and indeed until 19 June Mr Green was our Chairman. We have no power or control over Mrs Davies-Green’s decision to set up a blog nor of course over the contents of it.
In my last letter, I referred to the activities of ‘muratfan’ whom we believe with very good reason to be Ian West of Norwich, a former photographer. You claimed in your letter of 3 August that neither you nor your clients knew anything about him, which caused us some surprise. I write now to inform you that ‘muratfan’, on his blog: ‘brenryanandco’, has publicised two clear and accurate links to where my book known generally as ‘60 Reasons’ may be viewed. I will not publicise these links for the reason given above. I hasten to add that those particular links and all other links to the ‘60 Reasons’ book and the ‘10 Key Reasons’ leaflet were removed to our website months ago.
During the past 48 hours, the following message, which I reproduce in its original form and without alteration, has been placed on the internet and has moreover reached thousands more people by virtue of ‘Alerts’ on the internet such as ‘Google Alerts’:
Madeleine Foundation Secretary Admits To Selling Banned Book
2010-08-30
By Robert Kennedy
Tony Bennett despite a court undertaking admits to selling banned book
For_Immediate_Release:
Tony Bennett, a odd ball from Harlow, had a court undertaking not to promote, sell or copy his book "60 Reasons". Despite this Mr Bennett is continuing to sell this book.
He claimed in a press release today that his group The Madeleine Foundation had been inundated with sales of the book. He is quoted as saying " sales of our '60 Reasons' book - now effectively banned as the McCanns claim it is libellous - rocketed"
Mr Bennett responded by saying " If the McCanns want to sue me over it they can. I can defend this in any court of law and they know it. That is why they have not taken me to task over it"
For more information:
Keywords: Tony Bennet,madeleine maccan,madeleine foundation,McCanns,court undertaking,tony bennett libel,libel case
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I do not know who is responsible for placing this irresponsible and untrue report on the internet. You may wish to find out and have a word with them. For the record:
- Neither I nor The Madeleine Foundation ‘admits to’ (as claimed by the author of this press release selling the ‘banned book’ since 25 November 2009
- The statement ‘Tony Bennett is continuing to sell his book’ is wholly false. We have on record, as you are fully aware, correspondence with wholesale and retail booksellers who have placed orders for ‘60 Reasons’. We have informed them on each occasion that the book is not for sale. We also have, should it ever prove necessary, enquiries from individuals who very much want to buy the book. On each occasion bar one (see below), we have told them that the book is not for sale any more.
- It is true that we issued a press release on 29 August. That press release referred to a surge in sales of ‘60 Reasons’ following the publicity about our ‘leaflet drop’ in Leicestershire on 12 August 2009. That surge was well before 25 November 2009, the date of the undertaking. We had stopped selling ‘60 Reasons’ some time before then.
- The press release titled ‘Madeleine Foundation Secretary Admits To Selling Banned Book’ alleges that I said this: “Mr Bennett responded by saying: ‘If the McCanns want to sue me over it they can. I can defend this in any court of law and they know it. That is why they have not taken me to task over it’." That alleged quotation from me is a complete fabrication.
Whether you wish to contact whoever placed this irresponsible and bogus press release on the internet is a matter for your clients, but I should point out to them and yourselves that every time ‘The Madeleine Foundation’ is mentioned on a ‘Google Alert’, we get extra traffic to our website, enabling people to read our many articles there.
A classic example of this occurred only yesterday. The internet poster ‘muratfan’ runs a particularly pernicious blog and routinely makes libellous posts about me and other members of The Madeleine Foundation. He appears to think that his activities will benefit your clients, of whom he is an avid supporter and champion. If he thinks his vicious personal attacks and lies are to your clients’ benefit, he is very much mistaken. On the contrary, people speculate whether your clients are aware of this conduct, on their behalf, and ask if they’ve ever tried to influence ‘muratfan’ and others to refrain from the highly personal, often obscene and false allegations they make.
Yesterday a Google Alert for muratfan’s latest blog article, whatever that may be, produced this entry on the Alert:
Keeping A Check On Bennetts Libellous Posts....Tony Bennett Loves ...
By murat fan
To join our campaign for justice for Madeleine, contact The Madeleine Foundation at 66 Chippingfield, HARLOW, Essex, CM17 0DJ Tel: 01279 635789 email: ajsbennett@btinternet.com
website: http://www.madeleinefoundation.org/
Keeping A Check On Bennetts Libellous... - http://brenryanandco.blogspot.com/
This sort of exposure only increases traffic to our website and leads to further enquiries about our work. Moreover, as a direct result of this very article being published on the internet, we now have one more new member. Whether your clients wish to exert any influence over ‘muratfan’ is of course entirely a matter for them.
Finally, it is true that one copy of ‘60 Reasons’ has been sold, and we wish now to give you the full circumstances of that sale. Very early in the year, we had an enquiry from someone purporting to be ‘Michael Sangerte’ of ‘Berkshire’. Despite being told originally that this booklet was no longer on sale, this gentleman wrote a number of letters, pleading to obtain a copy ‘for historical interest’ and promising to pay ‘a high price’ for it. All this correspondence is documented. Eventually, believing that this was no a genuine enquiry, we agreed to obtain a copy of it from one of our past customers.
Your clients Dr Gerald and Dr Kate McCann - Your letter of 3 August 2010, received 9 August; my letter of 16 August
Further to my letter of Monday’s date, I have yet to receive confirmation that you have received it, together with the attachment; please have the courtesy to confirm safe receipt as soon as possible. Please also confirm safe receipt of this letter.
In my letter I referred to a number of clear contradictions between the statements of your clients and other members of the ‘Tapas 9’ about all-important events on the afternoon and early evening of Thursday 3 May 2007, the night Madeleine was reported missing. These were only a small selection from many other contradictions there are among the statements of your clients and other members of the ‘Tapas 9’.
I suggested to you that these clear contradictions inevitably fuelled speculation on the internet and elsewhere about the true events of that period of time.
It might be very helpful if your clients could place on the written record their answers to these very public questions, as thousands of people are looking for answers in this case but keep encountering these contradictions. It is very much in your clients’ interest therefore for them to provide clear answers to them. We would certainly be happy to publish their answers on our website, as I am sure would the owners of the many other forums and blogs on the internet which take a generally sceptic stance as to your clients’ claims regarding how Madeleine disappeared. They could set the record straight, for example on their website, by providing definitive answers to the following questions about this period of time:
1. Did David Payne actually visit Dr Kate McCann at all on the evening of 3 May?
2. Did he see Dr Kate McCann only in a towel? - or not?
3. Did he enter the apartment, or not?
4. If he was there, was he there for 30 seconds, or 30 minutes - or how long was he there?
5. Was the tennis game at 3.00pm pre-booked by the McCanns (Jane Tanner’s version) or not (your clients’ version)?
6. Why did Dr Gerald McCann play tennis for an hour from 6pm to 7pm on 3 May (various statements) when he had had to stop playing any tennis at all at 4.30pm due to a recurrence of an apparently pre-existing Achilles tendon injury? (David James Smith article)
7. Did Dr Gerald McCann carry on playing with Julian the tennis coach at 4.30pm (Dr Kate McCann’s statement) or not (David James Smith article)?
8. Did Dr Kate McCann go jogging between 4.30pm and 5.30pm (her statement) or not (Dr Gerald McCann doesn’t mention this in his first two statements)?
9. Was Dr Gerald McCann really on the tennis courts nearly all the time between 3.30pm and 7.00pm?
10. Did your clients decide that the children were not going to the recreation area and therefore bathed the children together between 5.30pm and 6.00pm (Dr Kate Mccann’s sttaement) or did they not decide this (as evidenced by Dr Gerald McCann asking Dr David Payne at around 6.30pm to ask if his wife and children were coming down to the recreation area)?
11. If Dr David Payne did visit Dr Kate McCann at around 6.30pm the night Madeleine disappeared, for which of the following reasons was it (all these have at various times been given by various witnesses):
(a) to see if she was all right?
(b) to bring her and the children down to the recreation area? - or
(c) because Dr Gerald McCann was worried about how his wife was
coping with the children and to see if she needed help?
12. Were the children taken by your clients for tea on 3 May 2007 (some statements) or were they already having tea when your clients visited the creche (other statements?
13. Were your clients both sat on Madeleine’s bed reading stories to the children (Dr Gerald McCann’s version) or not (Dr Kate McCann does not mention this)? (Note: David James Smith in his Times article gives a third version, namely that Dr Kate Mcann was sitting on the couch with the three chidlren whilst Dr Gerald McCann was elsewhere drinking beer).
14. Did Dr Matthew Oldfield tell Dr Gerald McCann that he’d checked your clients’ apartment and heard nothing (Dr Oldfield’s account) or not (Dr Gerald McCann’s version)?
15. For which reason did Dr Matthew Oldfield leave the table at 9.00pm (a) to chase up the tardy Paynes because he saw the lights still burning in their apartment, or (b) to check on the children? (there are varying accounts and it is generally agreed in the statements that both your clients were present at the moment Dr Matthew Oldfield left the table)
16. Did the Paynes meet Dr Matthew Oldfield en route between the 'Tapas' bar and the Paynes' apartment around 9.00pm? If so, why do some statements say this never happened (e.g. Dianne Webster who was adamant this meeting never took place) while others who say this meeting did happen disagree about where it is supposed to have taken place?
It might also assist your clients if Dr Kate McCann were now willing to answer the 48 questions put to her at interview by the Portuguese Police on 7 September which she declined to answer.
Finally, given that the claim by Dr Kate McCann that she ‘instantly’ knew that Madeleine had been abducted (as opposed e.g. to having wandered off) forms such a central part of your clients’ account, and given that Dr Kate Mcann, so far as I am aware, has never given a definitive explanation of why she thought this, may I with respect suggest that a clear answer to that question, published for example on your clients’ website, would help to end the speculation that her unwillingness to answer this very simple question has generated.
Yours faithfully
Anthony Bennett
