A Picture of Innocence/Dr Roberts

A Picture of Innocence

The 'last photograph', with Gerry, Amelie and Madeleine
EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com

By Dr Martin Roberts
29 March 2012

A PICTURE OF INNOCENCE

As any half awake reader of 'Madeleine' will have discovered, the McCanns appear to have an answer for everything. Even though there may be questions yet to be put for which they might struggle to offer a convincing response, there is one in particular that they have already demonstrated they cannot answer. They could not answer it when it was put to them in 2007. And they still cannot answer it five years later. It surely does not require a clinical psychologist to point out that there is something seriously wrong when a parent deprived of his or her child cannot adequately recall that child's last moments with them.

When interviewed in 2007 for Spanish broadcaster Antena 3, the McCanns were asked:

"Allow me to take you both back to the 3rd May. What's the last thing you remember about Madeleine?"

KM: "Just a happy little girl. A beautiful, happy little girl"
(Not: 'She was sleeping beautifully' or 'was sound asleep').

GM: "Just think of all the times... the nice times that we've had with her in our house, and in her playing, in the playroom with her... with her... the twins."

The father could not even place Madeleine in Portugal. Instead he describes happy times at home in Leicester.

Fast forward now to 2012 and a very recent interview for Swedish Television:

Fredrik Skavlan: "Errm... If we could start by going back, errm... to... to May, errr... 3rd 2007. What's your strongest memories of Madeleine from that day?”

Gerry McCann: "I think the strongest memory I have is of really, the photograph that was the last photograph we have of her and, errr... you know, we'd had a lovely holiday. Madeleine was having a great time and just after lunch we went over to the pool area and, errr... she was sitting there paddling in the pool and I was sitting next to her and she turned round and she's just beaming. And then the... the last time I saw her, which was probably minutes before she was taken, when she was lying asleep, and it's terrible how... I've said this a few times but I had one of those poignant moments as a parent where... I went into her room, and the door was open, and I... I just paused for a second and I looked, and she was sound asleep, and I thought how beautiful she was. The twins were asleep in the... in their cots and I thought how lucky we were. And within, you know, minutes that was shattered!"

However intriguing one might find Gerry McCann's reference to his reverie being 'shattered,' or the verbatim repetition of his 'proud father moment' anecdote, the more revealing aspect of his response to the interviewer's question is the opener; the description, ostensibly, of his strongest memory of Madeleine from that day, which turns out not to be a particularly vivid memory of Madeleine at all, but the description of a photograph in which both Gerry McCann and his daughter Madeleine appear. As Gerry says:

"I think the strongest memory I have is of really, the photograph."

The 'last photograph we have of her' gives nothing away as regards the date it was taken but that is not the crux of the matter.

When Gerry speaks of his strongest memory being of a photograph he means exactly that. He does not describe his memory of accompanying two children by the pool and being photographed at the time. Oh no. He describes the photograph, from the onlooker's point of view:

"...just after lunch we went over to the pool area and, errr... she was sitting there paddling in the pool and I was sitting next to her and she turned round and she's just beaming."

Look at the photograph in question. Gerry is staring directly at the camera from behind a pair of sunglasses. Madeleine, a sun hat shielding her face, has turned away to her left with a broad smile. But from their relative positions at the time the shutter was pressed, Gerry would not have been able to tell whether Madeleine was beaming, frowning or crying. 'She's just beaming' is a description of what Madeleine looks like to anyone viewing the photograph. It is not a personal recollection of Gerry McCann's, the father who, despite attempts at convincing the PJ that his memory actually improved with time, has, five years on, a stronger memory of a photograph (its details, by virtue of the photograph's very existence, do not need to be remembered) than he does of a later interaction with Madeleine; an interaction which, in keeping with well-documented 'recency effects' in memory (last item(s) in a series best recalled), should constitute the stronger recollection, being nearer in time and, by definition, the last experience of its kind.

Amnesia apart, there are two reasons in particular why anyone should be unable to recollect the fundamental detail of a significant personal interaction: They have either forgotten all about it (it was not that significant after all), or the memory was not established in the first instance, i.e., what was supposed to have happened did not.

The McCanns have been propped up by two classes of supporter over the years: The enthusiastic subalterns with their own political and/or professional agendas, and the cohorts of the gullible. Head of the Portuguese Lawyers Order Dr. António Marinho e Pinto, a witness for the McCann couple in the forthcoming libel action against Dr. Gonçalo Amaral, the first co-ordinator of the investigation to Maddie's disappearance, belongs in the former category, as illustrated by a recent statement of his on Portuguese Television:

"I am highly critical of the options taken by the Judiciary Police officers, namely of Dr. Gonçalo Amaral [MeP seems oblivious to Paulo Rebelo's role as coordinator of the 'second part' of the investigation that lead directly to the archival]. I believe that it is absurd to attribute... first of all to conclude that the child died, secondly to attribute that death to the parents. I believe that an English couple that is holidaying in the Algarve did not come here to murder their daughter. And if indeed she died, due to an accident, the first thing they would do, obviously, wouldn't be to hide the cadaver, it would be to try to save her, to take her to a hospital. A couple that sees their daughter in that situation, in that situation..."

Dr. António Marinho e Pinto (and anyone else sharing his belief in the seemingly absurd) is cordially invited to read/re-read as appropriate, 'There's Nothing to Say She’s Not Out There Alive' (McCannFiles, 27 June, 2009). Anyone capable of playing the game 'noughts and crosses' should be able to interpret a matrix of four possibilities. If they cannot do that then they have no right to opine as 'experts' in front of a T.V. camera. Assuming they can recognise four discrete conditions, then what is it about the following pairing the likes of Dr. António Marinho e Pinto currently fail to understand?

If Madeleine McCann is not 'out there alive' then she is dead.

Abduction is the only route to being 'out there alive,' all other possibilities having been dismissed by the parents. Hence 'out there alive' equates to 'abducted.' So if Madeleine McCann was not abducted then, as surely as night follows day, she is dead - and then some. The statements by Jane Tanner and Aoife Smith tell us, in effect, that Madeleine McCann cannot have been abducted, unless she was tossed in the air like a pancake just before being witnessed (sighted, call it what you will) by Tanner, or else changed out of her Eeyore pyjamas 'on the hoof' before being spotted by the Smiths.

The abduction story more than verges on the ridiculous. It is ridiculous. It most certainly does not deserve to be called a 'thesis.'

As for the second of Dr. António Marinho e Pinto’s 'beliefs,' it too has already been addressed ('A Line in The Sand:' McCannFiles, 19 March). So it's 'back to the drawing board' for April then...?

I went into her room, and the door was open, and I... I just paused for a second and I looked, and she was sound asleep, and I thought how beautiful she was. The twins were asleep in the... in their cots and I thought how lucky we were. And within, you know, minutes that was shattered!"

Vanity Fair interview from early 2008:

It wasn’t until Kate walked into the villa at 10 and felt a sickening breeze—the front window had been jimmied open—that she realized something terrible had happened. “The scene was stark,” Gerry tells me. On one bed the twins lay sleeping. In the next lay only the plush cat toy Madeleine was never without. That was when Kate came out screaming, “Madeleine has gone!”

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/02/mccanns200802

The twins were asleep on the..

The other bed! I don't believe the twins were sleeping in those travel cots. I don't even believe they were sleeping in the room the McCanns said they were. I think the McCanns huddled on that bed in what was said to be their room because that was the room the children had actually slept in and there was something there that would have shown that to be the case.

Gerry looks out of sorts on that last photo. If it were the happy family snap he makes it out to be, why not put his arm around them both , laugh with them, say 'come on Amelie watch the birdie' or some such. Madeleine is laughing, Gerry's expression is emotionless and Amelie is watching her toes. All 3 of them look as if they've been photoshopped in actually and with modern digital cameras with instant playback surely Kate could have done better and got them all looking at her.

I also find it strange that he doesn't mention about Amelie in the last photo, he just says he was sitting next to Madeleine. I would have expected something like ' we went to the paddling pool. Madeleine and Amelie were having fun together splashing their toes in the water etc'

chrissie wrote:I also find it strange that he doesn't mention about Amelie in the last photo, he just says he was sitting next to Madeleine. I would have expected something like ' we went to the paddling pool. Madeleine and Amelie were having fun together splashing their toes in the water etc'

i still cant get over how diffrent maddie looks in every photo i will never work that out

Neither K or G have ever spoken from the heart. Even the photocall they made in the early morning following the "abduction", he had to read from a prepared script. He is describing the poolside photo, not what was happening on the afternoon this was taken. Both of them speak in the third person, as though what happened was happening to someone else, rather like watching a film or play. I don't think that they have a truly emotional bone in their bodies. They have never showed real emotion, and the bullshit about not showing it is beyond words. I don't know whether this is a proper description of them grammatically, but they are definitely emotionally anal retentive.

AnnaEsse wrote:

I went into her room, and the door was open, and I... I just paused for a second and I looked, and she was sound asleep, and I thought how beautiful she was. The twins were asleep in the... in their cots and I thought how lucky we were. And within, you know, minutes that was shattered!"

Vanity Fair interview from early 2008:

It wasn’t until Kate walked into the villa at 10 and felt a sickening breeze—the front window had been jimmied open—that she realized something terrible had happened. “The scene was stark,” Gerry tells me. On one bed the twins lay sleeping. In the next lay only the plush cat toy Madeleine was never without. That was when Kate came out screaming, “Madeleine has gone!”

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/02/mccanns200802

The twins were asleep on the..


The other bed! I don't believe the twins were sleeping in those travel cots. I don't even believe they were sleeping in the room the McCanns said they were. I think the McCanns huddled on that bed in what was said to be their room because that was the room the children had actually slept in and there was something there that would have shown that to be the case.

- the twins were asleep in 'their own apartment' - the phrase Gerry used when they moved the twins (still fast asleep) from 5a during the night of 3/5.
And now I'm going to have to find it - still I think it was Pennington who was on the spot within 5 minutes and stated early on (never repeated I think) that the twins weren't in their cots, not there at all. This was just after 10.00 p.m. It also explains why there were no sheets in the cots, something the PJ noticed.
So that all makes sense, patio door open, nobody home, all valuables safely stored, twins safe in bed in 'their own apartment'.
The PJ said that they have evidence that all the children were together in one room?

tigger wrote:

AnnaEsse wrote:

I went into her room, and the door was open, and I... I just paused for a second and I looked, and she was sound asleep, and I thought how beautiful she was. The twins were asleep in the... in their cots and I thought how lucky we were. And within, you know, minutes that was shattered!"

Vanity Fair interview from early 2008:

It wasn’t until Kate walked into the villa at 10 and felt a sickening breeze—the front window had been jimmied open—that she realized something terrible had happened. “The scene was stark,” Gerry tells me. On one bed the twins lay sleeping. In the next lay only the plush cat toy Madeleine was never without. That was when Kate came out screaming, “Madeleine has gone!”

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/02/mccanns200802

The twins were asleep on the..


The other bed! I don't believe the twins were sleeping in those travel cots. I don't even believe they were sleeping in the room the McCanns said they were. I think the McCanns huddled on that bed in what was said to be their room because that was the room the children had actually slept in and there was something there that would have shown that to be the case.

- the twins were asleep in 'their own apartment' - the phrase Gerry used when they moved the twins (still fast asleep) from 5a during the night of 3/5.
And now I'm going to have to find it - still I think it was Pennington who was on the spot within 5 minutes and stated early on (never repeated I think) that the twins weren't in their cots, not there at all. This was just after 10.00 p.m. It also explains why there were no sheets in the cots, something the PJ noticed.
So that all makes sense, patio door open, nobody home, all valuables safely stored, twins safe in bed in 'their own apartment'.
The PJ said that they have evidence that all the children were together in one room?

Pennington said quite a lot (she did want to be a fairy)! but her official statement reads.............

The witness states that she participated in the searches, together with her colleague—Amy, searching various areas of the Ocean Club establishment. She also states that she searched the patio area of the residence where Madeleine stayed with her parents and siblings, and during which, she encountered many individuals inside the apartment but was not able to tell if they were complex employees or friends of the couple. She did not enter the residence in question;• She participated in the searches until 01H30 on the 4th of May, 2007, when she returned to her residence;

I really haven't dreamt this up, it was backed up by another member the last time this came up.

This is from her interview PJ files.
• The witness states that she participated in the searches, together with her colleague—Amy, searching various areas of the Ocean Club establishment. She also states that she searched the patio area of the residence where Madeleine stayed with her parents and siblings, and during which, she encountered many individuals inside the apartment but was not able to tell if they were complex employees or friends of the couple. She did not enter the residence in question;
• She participated in the searches until 01H30 on the 4th of May, 2007, when she returned to her residence;
• During the search, she noticed, together with her colleagues from the Ocean Club, that other people participated in the searches (tourists, and proprietors from the complex in question);

I'm not sure if Pennington is the helpful one who also saw a man in a boat wrestling with a child and various other suspicious people in other locations.
Her statement is ambiguous to say the least.
I do think her statement re the twins was in an interview with DM or something like that.

Seems odd to me that Gerry should say he remembered the photograph, rather than saying he remembered the day the photo was taken. When I look at a photo of a family member, I recall the day it was taken, what we had been doing before and what we did later. I have photos on a calendar on my kitchen wall, one of which is of me holding my grandson on my lap, sitting in a sandpit at a Country World place. If I were to be asked about that day, I'd say that I met my daughter and grandson at the place, that we had looked at the animals in the sheds, then grandson had had a great time on the play tractors before we went to the sand play area. J. had ended up on my lap because he had tripped and fallen backwards and I put my arm around him. Then the photo was taken. So, if someone were to ask, "Do you recall that day you went to ****** Country World?" I'd start by saying how as soon as my daughter saw me, she had commented on the pink sunhat I was wearing.

I wouldn't say I remembered the photograph. I think Gerry probably said that about the photo to reinforce the idea of its having been taken on May 3rd, which I'm not at all sure about.

tigger wrote.......

I'm not sure if Pennington is the helpful one who also saw a man in a boat wrestling with a child and various other suspicious people in other locations. Her statement is ambiguous to say the least.
I do think her statement re the twins was in an interview with DM or something like that.

as I recall she saw someone on a boat heaving a plastic bag or similar over the side.

DM article says she was inside the apartment contradicting her witness statement

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-483715/Kate-McCann-DID-scream-Theyve-taken-claims-new-nanny-witness.html

Miss Pennington, however, one of the first people to set foot in the couple's apartment after the disappearance, says she heard the mother use both phrases.
The 20-year-old Briton, who tended children for the Mark Warner holiday complex in Praia da Luz, firmly believes the McCanns are innocent.
Speaking publicly for the first time yesterday, she described Mrs McCann in the aftermath as "a broken woman" who was shuddering and unable to move.

also claims she saw Robert Murat....
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/madeleine/535992/I-saw-Robert-Murat-at-Maddie-flat-Nanny-Charlotte-Penningtons-claim-Madeleine-McCann.html

A NANNY at the holiday complex where Madeleine McCann vanished claims she saw suspect Robert Murat there on the fateful night, it emerged yesterday.


Charlotte Pennington, 20, is one of three witnesses who could blow apart the oddball's alibi that he was home with his mum.

boat incident....

http://www.google.co.uk/#q=madeleine+mccann+charlotte+pennington&hl=en&prmd=imvnso&ei=l5J0T4rEHKLH0QWZ7qgZ&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=3957298f66cdad19&biw=1280&bih=640

A mystery boatman was seen kicking at something in the middle of the night two days after Madeleine McCann disappeared, detectives have been told.

Former Mark Warner nanny Charlotte Pennington said she spotted the man in a small dinghy just off the Praia da Luz seafront at 11.30pm. She claims he was kicking at an object stored in the boat's hull.

When she moved closer to investigate, the man - whose name she has given to Portuguese and British police - stooped out of sight then hurriedly rowed away.

Portuguese police are taking the sightings seriously and Miss Pennington, 20, has twice spoken to Leicestershire detectives about her evidence.

Charlotte Penninton comes across as a bit of a fantasist, she wants to be a fairy i think she is away with them

'I went into her room'

Very odd.

Annabel wrote:A Picture of Innocence

The 'last photograph', with Gerry, Amelie and Madeleine
EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com

By Dr Martin Roberts
29 March 2012

A PICTURE OF INNOCENCE

As any half awake reader of 'Madeleine' will have discovered, the McCanns appear to have an answer for everything. Even though there may be questions yet to be put for which they might struggle to offer a convincing response, there is one in particular that they have already demonstrated they cannot answer. They could not answer it when it was put to them in 2007. And they still cannot answer it five years later. It surely does not require a clinical psychologist to point out that there is something seriously wrong when a parent deprived of his or her child cannot adequately recall that child's last moments with them.

When interviewed in 2007 for Spanish broadcaster Antena 3, the McCanns were asked:

"Allow me to take you both back to the 3rd May. What's the last thing you remember about Madeleine?"

KM: "Just a happy little girl. A beautiful, happy little girl"
(Not: 'She was sleeping beautifully' or 'was sound asleep').

GM: "Just think of all the times... the nice times that we've had with her in our house, and in her playing, in the playroom with her... with her... the twins."

The father could not even place Madeleine in Portugal. Instead he describes happy times at home in Leicester.

Fast forward now to 2012 and a very recent interview for Swedish Television:

Fredrik Skavlan: "Errm... If we could start by going back, errm... to... to May, errr... 3rd 2007. What's your strongest memories of Madeleine from that day?”

Gerry McCann: "I think the strongest memory I have is of really, the photograph that was the last photograph we have of her and, errr... you know, we'd had a lovely holiday. Madeleine was having a great time and just after lunch we went over to the pool area and, errr... she was sitting there paddling in the pool and I was sitting next to her and she turned round and she's just beaming. And then the... the last time I saw her, which was probably minutes before she was taken, when she was lying asleep, and it's terrible how... I've said this a few times but I had one of those poignant moments as a parent where... I went into her room, and the door was open, and I... I just paused for a second and I looked, and she was sound asleep, and I thought how beautiful she was. The twins were asleep in the... in their cots and I thought how lucky we were. And within, you know, minutes that was shattered!"

However intriguing one might find Gerry McCann's reference to his reverie being 'shattered,' or the verbatim repetition of his 'proud father moment' anecdote, the more revealing aspect of his response to the interviewer's question is the opener; the description, ostensibly, of his strongest memory of Madeleine from that day, which turns out not to be a particularly vivid memory of Madeleine at all, but the description of a photograph in which both Gerry McCann and his daughter Madeleine appear. As Gerry says:

"I think the strongest memory I have is of really, the photograph."

The 'last photograph we have of her' gives nothing away as regards the date it was taken but that is not the crux of the matter.

When Gerry speaks of his strongest memory being of a photograph he means exactly that. He does not describe his memory of accompanying two children by the pool and being photographed at the time. Oh no. He describes the photograph, from the onlooker's point of view:

"...just after lunch we went over to the pool area and, errr... she was sitting there paddling in the pool and I was sitting next to her and she turned round and she's just beaming."

Look at the photograph in question. Gerry is staring directly at the camera from behind a pair of sunglasses. Madeleine, a sun hat shielding her face, has turned away to her left with a broad smile. But from their relative positions at the time the shutter was pressed, Gerry would not have been able to tell whether Madeleine was beaming, frowning or crying. 'She's just beaming' is a description of what Madeleine looks like to anyone viewing the photograph. It is not a personal recollection of Gerry McCann's, the father who, despite attempts at convincing the PJ that his memory actually improved with time, has, five years on, a stronger memory of a photograph (its details, by virtue of the photograph's very existence, do not need to be remembered) than he does of a later interaction with Madeleine; an interaction which, in keeping with well-documented 'recency effects' in memory (last item(s) in a series best recalled), should constitute the stronger recollection, being nearer in time and, by definition, the last experience of its kind.

Amnesia apart, there are two reasons in particular why anyone should be unable to recollect the fundamental detail of a significant personal interaction: They have either forgotten all about it (it was not that significant after all), or the memory was not established in the first instance, i.e., what was supposed to have happened did not.

The McCanns have been propped up by two classes of supporter over the years: The enthusiastic subalterns with their own political and/or professional agendas, and the cohorts of the gullible. Head of the Portuguese Lawyers Order Dr. António Marinho e Pinto, a witness for the McCann couple in the forthcoming libel action against Dr. Gonçalo Amaral, the first co-ordinator of the investigation to Maddie's disappearance, belongs in the former category, as illustrated by a recent statement of his on Portuguese Television:

"I am highly critical of the options taken by the Judiciary Police officers, namely of Dr. Gonçalo Amaral [MeP seems oblivious to Paulo Rebelo's role as coordinator of the 'second part' of the investigation that lead directly to the archival]. I believe that it is absurd to attribute... first of all to conclude that the child died, secondly to attribute that death to the parents. I believe that an English couple that is holidaying in the Algarve did not come here to murder their daughter. And if indeed she died, due to an accident, the first thing they would do, obviously, wouldn't be to hide the cadaver, it would be to try to save her, to take her to a hospital. A couple that sees their daughter in that situation, in that situation..."

Dr. António Marinho e Pinto (and anyone else sharing his belief in the seemingly absurd) is cordially invited to read/re-read as appropriate, 'There's Nothing to Say She’s Not Out There Alive' (McCannFiles, 27 June, 2009). Anyone capable of playing the game 'noughts and crosses' should be able to interpret a matrix of four possibilities. If they cannot do that then they have no right to opine as 'experts' in front of a T.V. camera. Assuming they can recognise four discrete conditions, then what is it about the following pairing the likes of Dr. António Marinho e Pinto currently fail to understand?

If Madeleine McCann is not 'out there alive' then she is dead.

Abduction is the only route to being 'out there alive,' all other possibilities having been dismissed by the parents. Hence 'out there alive' equates to 'abducted.' So if Madeleine McCann was not abducted then, as surely as night follows day, she is dead - and then some. The statements by Jane Tanner and Aoife Smith tell us, in effect, that Madeleine McCann cannot have been abducted, unless she was tossed in the air like a pancake just before being witnessed (sighted, call it what you will) by Tanner, or else changed out of her Eeyore pyjamas 'on the hoof' before being spotted by the Smiths.

The abduction story more than verges on the ridiculous. It is ridiculous. It most certainly does not deserve to be called a 'thesis.'

As for the second of Dr. António Marinho e Pinto’s 'beliefs,' it too has already been addressed ('A Line in The Sand:' McCannFiles, 19 March). So it's 'back to the drawing board' for April then...?

Another great post with a cracking opener.
The composition of that photo still really annoys me as well. Has photographic packages improved enough to deconstruct that further yet?

When you look at that photograph of Madeleine with Amalie and their apology for a father, I wonder how the McCanns had the gall to tell the world and his wife, that they never physically looked for her. How could they not want to search every nook and cranny for their innocent little girl? Kate McCann said it was too dark to search for Madeleine, although she now tells a different story in her book of filth and lies.

I feel sick to the pit of my stomach, everytime I look at the photograph of the McCanns laughing outside the church, on what would have been Madeleine's 4th birthday. Madeleine's 4th birthday was less than 2 weeks after she disappeared, yet the McCanns acted as if it was a celebration of a happy event. Maybe it was in their eyes.

Then there's the photograph of the McCanns and Uncle Brian holding a cheque for a substantial amount of money. All three of them are laughing as if they won the lottery and there is another one of the three of them holding a t-shirt.To look at them, you wouldn't think that a little girl had gone from their lives.

Then there's the McCanns media interviews, where Gerry is either laughing, smirking, or grinning like a Cheshire cat. I really do wish that the interviewers, would grow back bones and ask this vile man what he finds so funny about Madeleine's disappearance.

I have a feeling that the interviewers can only ask the McCanns what they are told to ask them. It doesn't stop me wishing though and it doesn't stop me wanting to slap him right in his kisser.

I agree, that a picture is not a memory, it is the events that surround that picture which would provide that memory. Gerry's entire memory of his time at the pool seems to revolve around a photo, and thus seems to have been made up rather than remembered. However, this was not the last time that Gerry had seen Madeline alive awake that day.

According to both Kate and Gerry, BOTH parents were present when the kids were having tea, BOTH parents walked the kids back to the apartment, and BOTH parents bathed the children at 5:40 before Gerry had to leave at 6 pm for a tennis game.

This period of time would have been the last that Gerry would have seen Madeleine alive awake, so why are there no fond memories of this period of time (5:00 - 6:00 pm)? It appears to be a lost hour in Gerry's memory, when recalling his last memories of Madeleine.

IMO the using the photo is a way Gerry can keep control of his thoughts as he makes them public. In all probability the answer to the question what are your last fondest memories would take us to the truth, but to another time and place that would expose the story we are being asked to believe.

In thee same way the answer to the question - when did you last see Madeline - has been well scripted and voiced very dramatically as the answer is when he gazed upon her at his final check and thought how beautiful she was. Seems tthe tins never got a look in!!?

Such questions will be a challenge to the mind as the truth battles with what he wants to tell us which are two different things. So to assist in his answer, Gerry brings up the image of the photo to the front of his mind and describes that as part of a script. Another thread recently refered to the repeative use of wording by Kate when asked the question about when Madeleine apparently raised the subject of where they were when she cried. Kate calls upon the store in her memory that has the words to cover the event, all the way upto - then she moved on - as to conclude the matter and prevent any further questions that may arise - quetions for which there are no scipted answers - dangerous territory for the Mc's.

Having to constantly use their mental agility and switch from the truth to the script will be very wearing overtime and unsustainable as they will try an change or embellish and move away from the obvious script but step in something awful as they try. So far - in the main - the M's have only faced gentle quesions in front of the camera - but we have seen examples of how they react when more serious questions are posed and they enter unrehersed terrritory. There is a lot more of that to come methinks!!