Madeleine McCann: Daily Mirror Presents 2006 News of The World David Reid Story As Its Own Scoop
MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news. Today the Daily Mirror has a front-page scoop:
“BRIT PAEDO WAS LIVING NEXT DOOR TO MADDIE RESORT”
Go on, Tom Pettifor:
Mirror investigation reveals that sicko David Reid was hiding in the Algarve at the time Madeleine McCann was taken from Praia da Luz
Did that investigation include reading the News of The World from 2006? That paper told us:
Holidaymakers and ex-pats in the small town of Carvoeiro, near Albufeira, are unaware of the sordid past of the crooner they know affectionately as Irish Dave.
Warped Reid, who was jailed for three years for indecent assaults and gross indecency, has the run of the town because he came out of prison BEFORE the Sex Offenders’ Register was launched and does not have to register his whereabouts.
The Belfast-born joiner does the occasional day’s work on local building sites but spends most mornings in bed and sunny afternoons on his balcony overlooking the ocean.
He is a regular at popular local pubs The Round-Up Saloon and Jailhouse where he plays guitar and sings country and reggae favourites.
On nights off from gigs he befriends expats and tourists over cigarettes and beer at the neon-lit town centre bars that pull in punters with happy hours and karaoke.
This area is home to hundreds of British expats and thousands of tourists flock to the town every year with young children.
Pettifor makes no mention of the ex-paper’s report, writing:
Reid moved to the seaside resort of Carvoeiro, 30 miles from Praia da Luz, in 2004 after being freed from jail.
The same year the sleepy town was targeted by a lone child sex attacker who broke into apartments belonging to British holidaymakers, often abusing young girls in their beds.
Reid was completely unmonitored by the authorities while in Portugal because he was released from prison before the Sex Offenders’ Register was set up.
Is 30 miles away “next door” as the Mirror’s front-page headline states? Is your next door neighbour thirty miles away? Do you live in a castle surrounded by expansive lands? According to the Mirror, Hyde Park corner is next door to High Wycombe. Good news for those Buckinghamshire home owners who can now add a few zeros to the value of their homes.
But Reid does sound like a revolting human being. Anyone sane should agree with his being a sick man.
(Also, Pettifor forgets the celebrity angle, Pixie Lott told us: “I grew up singing in a karaoke bar in Carvoeiro called the Round Up Saloon, and even now, when we go back.”)
Pettifor adds:
Carvoeiro is one of three resorts, including Praia da Luz, targeted by a prowling paedophile who is suspected of abusing five youngsters, aged seven to 10.
The sex attacks happened between 2004 and 2006 while the break-ins were reported up to 2010. Police believe they are likely to be linked to Madeleine’s disappearance.
Not quite. They said it was one line of enquiry. There might be a link.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is spearheading the new UK police search for the missing youngster, said the sex attacks in Carvoeiro were at the “high end” in terms of seriousness.
The officer added that the man they are hunting “has a very unhealthy interest in young, white girls who he attacks whilst they are on holiday in their beds”.
Reid’s girl victims in the UK were white. The pervert died last year of cancer at the age of 61 or 62, according to locals in Carvoeiro – where he had been attacked in a bar after his sick past was exposed.
Reid’s victims were not all girls. They were not all that far away from him:
Last week the News of the World issued an alert for vile Reid after they reported how he had abused his own children, sisters Mandy, Julie, Joanne and Sheree and their brother David over a period of 16 years.
His victims were all white, though, like him.
As the Mirror boasts of about its “findings”, we hark back to what else the NoW’s Gemma Calvert wrote in 2007:
The chain-smoking Ulsterman lives alone in a first-floor apartment on a stunning clifftop above a sandy cove called Paradise Beach. One local said: “It’s packed in the summer when the weather’s good and the children are on school holidays. Convicted paedophiles like him will have temptation in front of them every day at the height of the season.”
But Reid, 56, insists: “I’m not a menace to anyone any more. That’s all in the past. I just want to get on with my life here and be left alone.” Chillingly he refuses to accept the full gravity of his crimes. “I never touched any of my kids,” he claims. “I exposed myself to them—and only to the girls, not my boy. I still can’t find any explanation for what I did but maybe it was the alcohol. I’d like to contact my kids and tell them I’m sorry for what I did but I just can’t find the strength. I want to stay here in Portugal. I don’t want to be on the run all my life.”
But his failure to admit he assaulted his children just adds to their never-ending pain.
Mandy, speaking on behalf of the family, said: “We are glad the News of the World has exposed his whereabouts so families travelling there will know what sort of person he is.
“It makes it easier for us to know he is nowhere near us. For years our father has destroyed us. He continues to get on with his life forgetting the crimes against us, his own children. It is so frustrating as he continues to play down the seriousness of what he has done. This is a classic case of a typical paedophile denial. These men think of nothing but themselves and are a danger to society. It shows that a change in the law is needed imminently.”
The Portugal Resident says the NoW story “was published after his children were awarded the Bhs family award in 2006 for their work helping other victims of sexual abuse”.
Such are the facts.
Posted: 26th, March 2014 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
