Just to expand on some of my thoughts here, if it's not clear why I'm suggesting that the Press are maybe being deliberately quiet.
I think the British Press are generally working in harmony with the German investigation, at least in the sense of being mindful about what they reveal. Lessons have probably been learnt from what has gone on before with previous suspects in the MM saga too. But I think that part of the reason HCW might have so readily engaged with the tabs is to cement a good relationship with them, in order to ensure that certain things crucial to their investigation don't get inadvertently revealed. Better to manage the narrative than let it run wild, so to speak.
Clearly, the Germans have evidence that they don't want made public yet. And clearly, the British Press have resources to potentially find out about some of this evidence. And so I wonder if there's perhaps some cooperation and understanding about not mentioning certain details, so as to not jeopardise the German investigation.
There's been a few things that have been raised through other outlets that I would have expected the British tabs to have picked up on and fashion their own story. But they haven't. They've avoided mentioning them altogether. Which seems strange, because we all know how ruthless and speculative they normally are. When it comes to the MM case, they will literally run any kind of non-story, irrelevant of its veracity. So, when they have a golden opportunity to cite another source/outlet for a really juicy story that potentially has significance... and they don't... it does make you wonder why.
These are 4 stories I would have ordinarily expected the British tabs to have reported on, but they have declined to do so.
- Last year, Amaral released another book. This fact has been briefly mentioned in the tabs, but unlike his first book, there's been hardly any details of it's content featured in any articles. Perhaps not a total shock given his reputation but there is one particular claim Amaral makes which seems hugely significant. That is that the BKA apparently unearthed autobiographical books written by CB in the box factory, in which he supposedly details disturbing crimes committed by himself and his associates. I don't believe for a second that no UK tab journo has picked up on this yet. The speculative headline is ready-made -- "Did CB write about what he did to MM?". But yet the Press don't say anything about it.
- Also last year we had the Portuguese CM articles where it seems they got hold of some of the BKA files, probably via a leak in the PJ. CM's claims about CB admitting to his mystery associate "Aberle" about killing someone went unreported here. The British Press obviously knew about the articles, but they said nothing. The Daily Star was the only paper I saw that ran a story about it. They mentioned the mystery associate and some of the other things CB was alleged to have said to him but they deliberately left out the biggest bombshell. It was clear that they were directly quoting the CM source but yet they didn't mention the part about CB admitting to killing someone, even though it was said in the very same article they were referencing as their source for the other comments.
- We had a number of stories that ran here in relation to the Sat.1 documentary that aired in January. Many quotes and references to things they found. But one thing that wasn't given any reverence in the tabs, was the claim from a former friend of NF that the she recognises the mystery phone number the BKA have apparently been appealing for all this time as belonging to NF. That is again another ready-made headline if they wanted to run it. Even if it was completely untrue, the fact the German doc makers had this woman on tape making the claim, they would have no legal problems in repeating and speculating on this claim. I don't think it's a coincidence either that NF released a story making it clear that she was not an accomplice just before this aired, after refusing all interviews prior to that. Yet HCW said the doc didn't tell them anything new they didn't already know. Which presumably includes the claim about the phone number belonging to her.
- In December, The Olive Press ran a story about the Hazel B case and stated that the BKA had identified CB's fingerprint on a knife that was in her apartment. Again, it would have been easy for the British press to re-hash the same article, but they haven't said a word about it. The Olive Press implied that this information had come from someone involved in the Sat1 doc, prior to it airing. But when it did air, there was no mention of a knife (as far as I recall), but they did state the BKA "probably" had fingerprints or DNA evidence in the Hazel case. It seemed to me like they knew something specific though, how could they come to that conclusion otherwise? It was obviously something significant as it was one of the things FF launched the legal complaint about, with him querying if HCW had given this information to Rabe. HCW denied that he'd said anything about it to Rabe when she interviewed him, although that's not to say they didn't get the information via a different source in the BKA investigation.
Another anomaly that could perhaps be added to the 4 points above is the tab's lack of mention of Christian Post. A man who was said to be one of CB's very best friends at the time, by a number of people. A blonde German who visited CB in prison in 2006 and helped remove incriminating evidence from the farmhouse. His account is known but gets no mention over here.
All JMO obviously.
