Check out http://www.stopdaniekrugel.com

it’s a national pride issue:

I take it you’re a brit…

“We place the hair in the resonating chamber. you understand, each individual is unique, and the arrangment of genetic particles is quite distinct…Well, as soon as it’s analysed, the information is coded in a series of anbaric pulses and transferred to the aiming device. That locates the, the origin of the material, the hair, wherever she may be. It’s a process taht actually makes use of the [...] many-worlds idea…”

The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman 2000

Don’t tell me that’s fiction too??

The phrase “innocent until proven guilty” refers to the fact that the burden of proof is on the police to prove the McCanns’ guilt, not on the McCanns to prove their innocence. It doesn’t mean that the McCanns are necessarily innocent. The correct frame of mind to approach this is “they could be either guilty or innocent, and until we see the evidence, we do not know”. And if there isn’t enough evidence to prove their guilt, then legally, we cannot simply presume guilt and instead have to act as if they were innocent. (Although again, absence of evidence of guilt does not equal evidence of innocence, although to all intents and purposes anyone acquitted because of lack of evidence is treated as if innocent.)

The “negative climate” is neither here nor there. In any such high-profile enquiry there will be allegations of guilt and protestations of innocence, but it would be very wrong indeed to silence people who question the McCanns’ innocence on the basis of an assumption that the McCanns are telling the truth. Equally, it would be wrong to make flat-out claims of their guilt without sufficient evidence to back up those claims – and indeed, that’s why we have a robust libel system in this country.

It is indeed the case that the vast majority – last figure I saw was around the 90% mark – of child murders happen at the hands of a family member or family friend, and the figure is, I believe, similar for child abuse. It is not outside of the realms of possibility that the McCanns did in fact kill their daughter, and to discount that possibility at this stage is to be naive in the extreme. The McCann’s press machine has been so very effective at swaying journalists and public alike, that now more than ever we need to be aware of our own prejudices and accept that the truth may be really rather unpalatable.

Personally, I think the butler did it, with the lead pipe, in the library.

I see you didn’t manage to get any more detail out of Danie than I did. Is it just me, or are discussions like that usually an indication that there’s no detail to get?

If you care to hear my personal theory, I believe Danie made up the device so he could have an excuse to keep helping out on local police investigations. Then the media got hold of the story and he had no choice but to either play along or admit he was lying to stay involved in policework. I think the whole thing has gone completely beyond his capacity for inventive untruth, and the cracks are showing…note he only started calling it ‘quantum’ after 3 years on the scene – usually a dead giveaway someone has run out of creative excuses.

Maybe, he’s got some funky DNA, like one of the characters in Heroes.

October 13, 2007 at 2:55 pm

“PV – One might infer from your comments a position on the McCanns that differs substantially from “innocent till proven guilty”. If you are correct, it will make not a shred of difference to the police investigation. However, if you are not correct, then you are adding to a negative climate surrounding two innocent people who have just had the worst thing in the world happen to them, which would be unforgiveable.

It’s an awful thing if charity money is being used on this fraudulent man who preys on other people’s misery, and it’s possible to say so in a public forum without intruding onto the currently unresolved tragedy of the Madeleine McCann case.”

Dudley, I don’t have a view about the McCanns specifically. I don’t know them. But I do have a view about so-called psychics, dowsers, mediums and quacks in general who prey on parents and families who have lost family members in suspicious or mysterious circumstances. I have a view too, and not a good one, about the money grubbers and idiot media hacks who give them the oxygen of publicity because they are complicit in a scam. Now I don’t know if it’s true that the McCanns employed or sought the help of this individual but if they did, and they are reportedly intelligent people, then I think it opens up many possibilities and question. As I wrote, one could take a cynical view.
As I understand it, and correct me if I’m wrong, in the real world of child abuse and violence inflicted upon them, away from the fantasies of tabloid headline writers, the biggest dangers to children are close family members followed by close family associates. An investigation into the disappearance, abduction or murder of a child should never eliminate the parents, just because they are the parents. An investigator would need a better reason than that – like alibis and evidence.

At least it was better than the MMR/autism reply, but doesn’t really go far enough. In addition to the “That criticism can often be shrill, intemperate and inaccurate,” phrase (unnecessary?), it seems that their journalists got their ‘confirmations’ from the internet. If the bloggers had the same resource and picked up the flaws in very short order, what on earth are the journalists being paid for?

None more wild than corpse dowser and his quantum box of tricks…

If the journalists had really been doing their job, rather than being blinded by Maddie fever, they would have found rather more sceptical coverage regarding Krugel online than just “several references to his past activity that appeared to lend credibility to his claims”.