The Sound of Silence

Sometimes it is what is not said that is more powerful than what is shouted from the rooftops.

I think this can certainly be said to the McCann’s stunning silence concerning the offer of Dr Mark Perlin, CEO of leading forensics firm Cybergenetics to re-analyze the data samples taken from Appt 5a and the Scenic hire car. Forensics has moved on tremendously during the last 12 years with the application of sophisticated computer algorithms and improvement in computer speeds necessary to crunch the numbers and obtain accurate results from minute samples of low copy mDNA with the added complexity of potentially mixed samples.

If for a moment one entertains the preposterous idea that the McCanns and their cronies are actually telling the truth, this would seem an utterly bizarre reaction. They have supposedly been desperately scouring the globe for their abducted daughter for over 12 years, have spend huge amounts of donors’ money on a wide variety of bogus Spanish private investigators, South African chaps with special gizmos and all the rest. Surely when one of the world’s leading authorities on forensic genetics with impeccable credentials offers to reanalyze the samples for free and states publicly that he is highly confident that he can come up with some definitive results within a couple of weeks, they would gratefully seize the opportunity to throw light on the case and make a major step forward into finding out what has actually happened to Maddie!

But of course they can’t. For once Gerry must discipline himself to keep his mouth shut. They are faced with a dilemma. Were they to publicly advocate that Scotland Yard should accept Dr Perlin’s offer, the political pressure on them to do so would likely be irresistible. That of course would be disastrous, because we all know the result that Dr Perlin is highly likely to discover – that it was Maddie’s mDNA that found itself splattered all over the wall, curtains and back of the sofa and then mysteriously appeared again in the boot of the Scenic at least 25 and probably more like 60 days later.

Such a result could well trigger a sea change in public opinion against the McCanns as the mass of the public finally woke up to the fact that they had been duped all these years. Though we can anticipate that Team McCann’s PR army would put of a sterling fight to throw shade on the matter, this may be a finally be a bridge too far in terms of what the general public is willing to stomach. Attention would inevitably turn to the political decisions at first by Gordon Brown (and probably a lesser extent Tony Blair) to pressure the Portuguese Government to kill off the case, the police to avoid asking awkward questions and John Lowe of FSS to obfuscate the summary of his forensics report. The non Murdock press at least might then start to ask awkward questions of Rupert Murdock, Rebekah Brooks & Co of their role in the cover up, why they blackmailed Cameron into launching the preposterous Operation Grange and why indeed did Cameron and May succumb to such blackmail and be forced to keep the farce playing for all these years.

The other end of the McCann dilemma would of course be to publicly advocate against allowing Dr Perlin to perform his reanalysis. Despite their astonishing success at casting doubt in the minds of many over the canine evidence, they would undoubtedly be advised that to do so publicly would have looked astonishingly guilty behavior even in the minds of the most naive of the public. They were therefore forced to zip it. Just as with Kate’s non answer of the PJs list of questions and Gerry’s infamous “No Comment”, whistling into the wind pantomime when asked the oh so pertinent question had you had any prior contact with Robert Murat Gerry? by the as yet untamed media.

The UK Government find itself in a somewhat similar bind in relation to the reanalysis offer. The desire to avoid triggering a scandal which may come to make the Saville debacle look like a chimp’s tea party is likely to be at the forefront of ministerial minds desperate to let sleeping dogs lie. For them too the path of least resistance must have seemed to let the Scotland Yard Whipping Boy take the flack, after all that is what they were being paid and promoted to do wasn’t it? The Grangiteers could in theory, presumably have accepted the offer on their own volition, but we can have no doubt that they are more aware than anyone of the fictitious nature of their mandate. Certainly they will be aware that the reanalysis could be the ignition of the fuse to the metaphorical stack of gunpowder beneath the floors of Parliament and the British Establishment and so be aware that unilaterally accepting such an offer could prove to be a one way ticket to obscurity and pariahdom.

And so it was that Operation Grange were forced to soak up the heat and come up with a cock and bull story that the data had already been looked at again using latest methods. Where does this leave us?

I believe that the next year will be of critical importance for the case.  The politicians directly implicated in the cover up Mssrs Brown, Cameron and May have now slunk off into the political wilderness. As things stand neither Boris Johnson nor Pritti Patel were directly involved in the cover up, but if Operation Grange is further extended they will be.  Boris Johnson in particular is driven by his dreams of a historical legacy.  The truth will eventually emerge as DNA technology will progressively improve until such time that reexamination will be considered inescapable.  It is our job to convince him that continuing May's strategy of kicking the can down the road by failing to turn off Operation Grange's life support system will prove to be an unnecessary blight on his eventual historical legacy.