Madeline Foundation Update Email

Rosiepops wrote:

The Madeleine Foundation

Asking the questions about what really happened to Madeleine McCann

Registered address: 66 Chippingfield, HARLOW, Essex CM17 0DJ

Email: ajsbennet@btinternet.com Tel: 01279 635789

NEWSLETTER TO MEMBERS - 15 NOVEMBER 2009
Dear Member

Your Committee and several other members met yesterday in Warrington, Lancashire. We write to update you on developments.

Your views and ideas

Now is a good time for you to share your views and ideas with us about where we go from here. We’d like to hear from you; our contact details are at the end of the letter. In time we may introduce a fully secure private forum for you, but that is for the future.

New website

As most of you may now be aware, our former website at www.madeleinefoundation.org has been off-line for a week and, in any event, had passed out of our control to Mr Steve Marsden, our former webmaster, on 2 October 2009.

Our new website is in preparation. You already can view off-line the material we have for our new site. Please ask if you would like to see it in its development stage before we go on-line. The work is being carried out by a Midlands-based I.T. expert.

Some members thought that, under the terms of Tony Bennett’s accession to the demands of Carter-Ruck, we were not allowed to have a website. This is incorrect. There is no restriction at all on our setting up a new website; however, the content will be different.

The Carter-Ruck requirements mean that we can no longer make specific allegations against the Mccanns, e.g. that Madeleine died in their apartment, or that they somehow caused her death and then covered it up.

However, as the lawyers advised on 2 October, it is legitimate for example:

1) to report the facts of the case without comment

2) to analyse these facts

3) to ask questions based on these facts.

We were further advised that, in publishing material on our new website, we would avoid any risk of libel if we added to any article the McCanns’ version on any of the issues. For example, there is nothing to prevent our publishing, as we intend to, the evidence of Martin Grime and his springer spaniel sniffer dogs, so long as we add the McCanns’ comment on this. They claim that the evidence of sniffer dogs is ‘notoriously unreliable’.

We invite you, and indeed anyone, to submit short or long articles for publication on our site, bearing in mind the above restrictions we are now under.

New publications

Given the new restrictions on what we can and cannot say, our new strategy on the Madeleine McCann case is to publicise by whatever means we can the information on the files released publicly since July 2008 by the Policia Judiciara in Portugal. We will be doing this on our website and, hopefully, also in written publications, about which we shall say more in due course.

New Committee

At our members’ meeting yesterday, the following appointments were made:

Chairman: Grenville Green

Secretary: Tony Bennett

Treasurer: Sharon Lawrence.

Sharon Lawrence is a qualified accountant.

Committee Minutes:

The following issues were discussed:

Bank Account: Regrettably, our current bank account, in which we hold £2,766, has been frozen on the instructions of our former Chairman Debbie Butler. This means no payments can be made out of or into our account. She took this action within hours of being expelled from membership. We are working with Lloyds TSB to resolve this situation; in the meantime, we may have to open a second account.

Madeleine Foundation Conference 27/28 February 2010

We’re proceeding with plans to hold a conference on Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 February near Nottingham East Midlands Airport. We plan to hold our Annual General Meeting for members that weekend, either on the Saturday or Sunday. We’ll circulate further information to you in due course. We agreed that we would fund Goncalo Amaral and his wife to attend our conference and have written to him to make this formal offer.

Could you please assist us with the planning at this stage by letting us know if you plan to attend our AGM? - thanks very much.

The Madeleine Foundation Accounts

Last weekend (7 & 8 November), two newspapers printed details of wild allegations about fraud within the Madeleine Foundation accounts, based entirely on wholly false claims made by our former Chairman. The current position is that Tony was asked by Essex Police merely to produce receipts to support two claims made by him for expenses totalling £1,622.50. Just for your information, these sums included:

a) £387.50 which he paid on his credit card for the hire of a room plus food at a hotel in Harlow for our meeting on 1 August

b) £245.00 given to Vera Steinke to enable her to print 250 copies of ‘60 Reasons’ which she translated into German (money which we hope to recoup from sales)

c) over £900 on stationery and postage in connection with the sending-out of the ‘60 Reasons’ booklet and the ‘10 Reasons’ leaflet.

He produced these receipts straightaway, and we anticipate that this will conclude Essex Police’s investigations.

In the meantime, Tony has made an official complaint to the two newspapers concerned and to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). With the help of the PCC, the two newspapers say they will print prominent corrections to their stories, as soon as Essex Police state that their investigations are complete.

Security of members’ details

Please be assured that we are aware of our Data Protection responsibilities and will not disclose our members’ details to anyone else. The members’ database is held by Tony and Sharon.

Carter-Ruck

In order to settle the demands made by Carter-Ruck in their letter to Tony of 27 August 2009 regarding the McCanns, he has had to give an undertaking to the High Court - and we quote from the Court document: "Not to repeat allegations that the McCanns are guilty of, or are to be suspected of, causing the death of their daughter Madeleine McCann, and/or of disposing of her body, and/or lying about what happened and/or seeking to cover up what they had done".

We emphasise that these are undertakings that Tony himself has given to the court. They do not bind any other citizen of the U.K., whether a member of The Madeleine Foundation or not. However, we would advise all our members that they may run the risk of receiving a letter from Carter-Ruck if they can be identified as having made similar comments about the McCanns. We would advise that you use cautious language in anything you say in writing, about what may have really happened to Madeleine McCann.

Further information

You are welcome to ask us questions about The Madeleine Foundation at any reasonable time. Here are our contact details:

Grenville Green and Helene Davies-Green

**************************** ******************

Tony Bennett
ajsbennett@btinternet.com 01279 635789 Mobile 07835 716537

Sharon Lawrence
**************************** *****************

Removed email and telephone numbers, which no doubt Tony Bennett meant to be exposed on the internet, which is not a very good idea, good job us over here do not give out details like that isn't it Bennett? What is it with Bennett and his obvious need to expose people? He did exactly the same to Debbie Butler, until she looks to be having some kind of mental breakdown.

Why don't these silly stupid people every listen, this is another thing that is going to end in tears, already in this newsletter, I can easily identify intention to defame and if I can, I am certain that Carter-Ruck can!

Apparently Sharonl is a qualified acountant, you would really want that thicko cooking looking at your books wouldn't you? (She can't even spell!)

Peaceful1 wrote:OMG each time I think TB and co cant go any further to shock-they do!
What does this idiot think he is running?
A foundation? AGM meetings? FFS.....this is a MISSING CHILD Bennett!
What did they do for entertainment before Madeleine went missing??? I dont think I even want to know!
This bunch of society's rejects really do need locking up for the safety of the public!

dianeh wrote:Glad to see you back Peaceful1.