CARTAS ROGATORIAS UK (FILE 3) pages 12 to 13
Witness statement of Alan Robert Pike (crisis counsellor) 2008.05.07
Witness Statement of Alan Robert PIKE
Occupation: Crisis Counselor
This testimony (constituted by two pages and signed by me) is the truth and in accordance with my understanding. I give this testimony with the knowledge that, knowingly making false statements may subject me to legal action.
Date: 07 of May 2008
Signature: __________________________________________
I am the above reference person and live at the physical address already provided the police. I work as a crisis counselor. DC Holliday and DC Ferguson of the Leicestershire police questioned me on behalf of the Portuguese police relative
To my involvement with Gerald and Kate McCann whose daughter disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in May of 2007.
I have been a crisis counselor for about 3 and a half years, and work for a private agency titled ‘The Centre for Crisis Psychology’ (or CCP). Before this job, I worked as a social worker for about 11 years. CCP has agreements with other agencies who can request our services, like for example, the placement to a holiday to offer assistance to someone who has suffered a traumatic event. There are many different aspects in my profession, but this one seems to me the most relevant to my testimony.
I would say that my experience with CCP was required in order to help people abroad who find themselves confronted with tragic situations, for a total of between 30 and 60 times. I got to know Gerald McCann and Kate Healy on Saturday, May 5, 2007. I would describe my relationship with them in totally clinical terms. I provided them counseling help with regards to their emotional state provoked by the fact that they were separated from their daughter Madeleine. I spoke with Gerry and Kate very early in the morning on the 5th of May, 2007. Our services were requested by the Mark Warner agency. I travelled specifically to speak to them in person, and with the family and agency functionaries. Kate and Gerry had been awake for two nights when I got to know them.
Comment :Alan Pike had no way of knowing if this was true, as usual the word of the parents that they had not slept. The window was open, shutter up, no witness. Child abduction, no witness.
I do not remember specifically what they said about Madeleine’s disappearance and I did not ask them about the circumstances in which the disappearance occurred. My purpose at the time was their emotional state. My role was not to question them regarding the disappearance or to investigate. Upon reflection however, they always referred to their daughter’s disappearance as an ‘abduction.’
Comment: Not one word of concern if the children had been sedated.
I would say that Kate e o Gerry were exhausted, anguished, confused, and angry for a few reasons, but namely with the lack of information. They were insecure as to how to help and with the lack of help and assistance. Their comportment did not surprise me. It was a comportment which I have witnessed a lot at times when a trauma is suffered. In my opinion, their reaction relative to the disappearance of Madeleine, as already stated above, was completely within the bounds of what one would expect of parents whose daughter was taken from them against their will.
I was not there to judge the reaction of Kate or Gerry, but I would say that their behaviour was consistent, according to my knowledge of that which they were experiencing. I helped them deal with the situation and offered them face to face counseling on many occasions, since the day I met with them in Portugal and in Leicester. They and the rest of the family have access to a 24-hour telephone help line. At CCP we use a psychological method in each of clinical interventions that allows the patient to relive their traumatic experience, discuss his or her physical and emotional reactions and after provide counseling and support that helps them deal with these emotions in the short and long-term.
Since the return of Kate and Gerry to the U.K., I have worked for them privately but my relationship here has been exclusively clinical in nature.
This testimony was made by me and is the truth according to my understanding.
