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Crime in Mind documentary:Philip Cairns

  • 17-01-2011 11:49PM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,005 ✭✭✭


    Anyone else see this? My heart's broke for that lads' parents. How would you ever have peace of mind again? There were three experts on the programme taking a fresh look at the case.

    They concluded at the end that Philip likely mitched from school and either fell into the Dodder river or met his killer down around its banks. I don't really believe this, they said he was a religious child who respected authority and always did as he was told so he doesn't sound like a child who would skive off school. Maybe he was worried about his schoolwork but if a child is so anxious about getting his homework done it's possible but imo not likely that he'll skive off school.

    They also suggested that he was being bullied, surely someone would've known if he was. His teachers have also said that up until he went missing, his concentration levels were good, that if his name was called by mistake to read in class, he always knew where they were in the passage.

    Because there was a wide pathway along the road he was walking, they say he wasn't abducted there. I thought that was a daft assumption. They briefly mentioned a schoolboy seen talking to someone in a parked car but they didn't place much emphasis on this. Here's a quote from Barry Cummins' book 'Missing'....

    "Some weeks after the disappearance of Philip Cairns a man contacted the Gardaí in Rathfarnham. What he told them was at first to intrigue them but ultimately to frustrate them.

    He told them he had been driving along Ballyroan Road from Ballyboden Road between 1:20 and 1:30 p.m. on Thursday 23rd October 1986-the time Phillip is believed to have been abducted.

    Close to Ballyboden Road he noticed a red car, which he described as being badly parked and obstructing traffic. He said he had seen a boy wearing a grey school jumper and carrying a bag approaching the front passenger door of the parked car.

    The witness had been angered by the way the car was parked and told the gardaí he had written down the registration number of the car. However, he no longer had the number. He had gone on to the airport, and while he was away his wife had cleaned out his car and the number was lost. It was only after he learnt of the disappearance of Philip Cairns that he remembered about the badly parked car.

    This incident may have been perfectly innocent but it just goes to show that the lad could well have been taken from the roadside. He didn't have to have been taken kicking and screaming. If that was Philip then it looked like he knew his abductor.

    I really hope someday someone comes forward to help find the poor little lad:(.


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭stovelid


    Crazy to think he'd be in his 30s now. I was around the same age as him and have never forgotten his face from those posters at the time.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    I was in the area working just down the road from his house on the day he disappeared and can remember the events oh so well .


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,005 ✭✭✭Ann22


    Latchy wrote: »
    I was in the area working just down the road from his house on the day he disappeared and can remember the events oh so well .

    No way Latchy:(. I worked with a sister of one of his classmates. She said it was a terrible time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,891 ✭✭✭Kersh


    Crazy to think he'd be in his 30s now. I was around the same age as him and have never forgotten his face from those posters at the time.

    Me too, never ever forgot it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,106 ✭✭✭flyton5


    Every now and again they re-issue the posters. There was one in Texaco on Rathfarnham Road quite recently. Didn't see the show but a Garda friend of mine said the main suspect at the time was a now deceased priest...


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    Ann22 wrote: »
    No way Latchy:(. I worked with a sister of one of his classmates. She said it was a terrible time.

    Yeah , I remember the only real clue was his schoolbag appearing next day in the lane opposite his house ..now that was weird and strange .If as that driver said, about seeing a schoolboy get into a car ,then it would not take somebody long to drive up into the Dublin mountain area or away down the country via what was the nearby duel carrigeway .Also the forensics science techniques the police have today wern't around back then .


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,758 ✭✭✭✭TeddyTedson


    Has anyone that went to his old christian brothers school heard the other rumor about what may have happened to him.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 705 ✭✭✭yurmothrintites


    They also said in the documentary that an elderly woman came forward in 2008 stating that her partner had admitted to his killing and told her of Philip's body's whereabouts. They investigated and searched two wooded areas on the other side of the m50 I think, but that didn't amount to any further leads or evidence. Hopefully somebody has seen that documentary and has the courage to come forward, but how likely is it 25 years later?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,005 ✭✭✭Ann22


    flyton5 wrote: »
    Every now and again they re-issue the posters. There was one in Texaco on Rathfarnham Road quite recently. Didn't see the show but a Garda friend of mine said the main suspect at the time was a now deceased priest...

    It'd make sense that he'd get into a car with a priest (nowadays kids would run a mile) or maybe a teacher. They mentioned that a couple of years ago a woman came forward saying her ex (I think)confessed to her that he'd murdered Philip. That led to the search that went on around a golf course.(Sorry, I didn't spot the previous post)

    Another disturbing thing I read in the 'Missing' book was that 16yrs after Philip's disappearance, in 2002, another schoolboy was walking on that same road and a car coming from the Rathfarnham direction, made a U-turn and stopped close to the child. The driver said something along the lines of 'Come on, you're late. Get in!' The boy didn't get in luckily but if a child was an anxious child in his first year in secondary school you can imagine how he'd feel pressured to get in. Could've possibly been the same person who took Philip.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 486 ✭✭jackie1974


    I remember this so well, I was 10 at the time. Wasn't there reports that the alley where the school bag was found was searched on the day he disappeared but nothing was found yet six days later the bag was found there, I thought that very strange. You'd think if somebody took him from the street they would dump his bag in some remote area why risk putting it in an area where police were searching.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,243 ✭✭✭✭Jesus Wept


    Where is this documentary?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    Remember it so well. I was eight and it terrified me. I was at that age where adults would be regularly giving the "Never speak to a strange grown-up" talks...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,758 ✭✭✭✭TeddyTedson


    Anyone know if it's going to be repeated?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,005 ✭✭✭Ann22


    The-Rigger wrote: »
    Where is this documentary?

    It was on tv3 tonight.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,005 ✭✭✭Ann22


    Anyone know if it's going to be repeated?

    You can watch it here on Tv3 catch up
    http://www.tv3.ie/index.php
    (It was about Annie Mc Carrick last week.)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 171 ✭✭carm


    Anyone know if it's going to be repeated?
    I don't see it listed but you could try the TV3 website:
    http://www.tv3.ie/videos.php?locID=1.65.573


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    Ann22 wrote: »
    It was on tv3 tonight.

    I will watch it on the tv3 website if available tks .

    Edit -just saw previous posts


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,243 ✭✭✭✭Jesus Wept


    This documentary is seriously lacking in content.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,351 ✭✭✭Orando Broom


    I don't believe the parents have fully disclosed what they know/ what they suspect.

    Philip Cairns was kidnapped/killed by someone he was familiar with and knew well.

    The schoolbag was left back, it was an attempt to throw the authorities off the trail.

    In 90% of these cases the perpetrators are well known to the family and the truth is shame and guilt prevent parents from admitting to themselves what they allowed to develop/happen.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,243 ✭✭✭✭Jesus Wept


    I don't believe the parents have fully disclosed what they know/ what they suspect.

    Philip Cairns was kidnapped/killed by someone he was familiar with and knew well.

    The schoolbag was left back, it was an attempt to throw the authorities off the trail.

    In 90% of these cases the perpetrators are well known to the family and the truth is shame and guilt prevent parents from admitting to themselves what they allowed to develop/happen.

    Can you show me a link to support this?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭stovelid


    The-Rigger wrote: »
    This documentary is seriously lacking in content.

    To be honest, I did too but I guess there isn't much information to go on. I'm not really a fan of that dramatised reconstruction documentary style that seems to have crept more and more into so-called serious TV in recent years but it was still worth a watch, I thought,

    Can't begin to even imagine what it's like to not only lose your kid, but never know what happened and where the remains are.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,080 ✭✭✭✭Big Nasty


    Has anyone that went to his old christian brothers school heard the other rumor about what may have happened to him.

    No but I'm interested to know!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,166 ✭✭✭enda1


    MCMLXXV wrote: »
    No but I'm interested to know!

    Likewise. Went to the school but didn't hear any particular rumour.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,351 ✭✭✭Orando Broom


    The-Rigger wrote: »
    Can you show me a link to support this?

    Sorry you're right it's less it's 76%.

    Based on the identity of the perpetrator, there are three distinct types of kidnapping: kidnapping by a relative of the victim or "family kidnapping" (49 percent), kidnapping by an acquaintance of the victim or "acquaintance kidnapping" (27 percent), and kidnapping by a stranger to the victim or "stranger kidnapping" (24 percent).

    http://www.klaaskids.org/pg-mc-mcstatistics.htm


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,288 ✭✭✭pow wow


    Terribly sad story but the premise of this show is utterly ridiculous. It's one thing to revisit the case and draw attention to it so that some new evidence might surface, but contemporary psychologists essentially speculating about what happened to him and fabricating a whole series of events that they 'think' happened after he was last seen is little more than pointless conjecture.

    I'd of course hope that it leads to some advancement of the investigation and a breakthrough so his family can have closure and whatnot, but the way the programme was arranged seemed like it was a vehicle primarily for these folks to peddle their speculative skills.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,062 ✭✭✭Fighting Irish


    yup


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,925 ✭✭✭aidan24326


    If you look at the site missingpersons.ie there's a remarkable number of people on the missing list here. Some of them have been missing for years and yet some of those cases never drew much publicity or media interest. I wonder is that because the families in question didn't push the case as much as some others did?

    Then you have the more high-profile cases like Trevor Deely and Deirdre Jacob, where renewed efforts and appeals for information have turned up no leads whatsoever.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,284 ✭✭✭wyndham


    There was nothing new in this show and some of it was nonsense. Like when they were in the laneway and the woman was speculating that Philip may have hidden his schoolbag in the bush overhanging the wall for it to fall down later. Hence why it only reappeared later. 25 years ago there was no bush there.

    Even the interviews with the parents were 10 years old. They must have declined to be involved and you can see why from the approach.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,062 ✭✭✭Fighting Irish


    carm wrote: »
    I don't see it listed but you could try the TV3 website:
    http://www.tv3.ie/videos.php?locID=1.65.573

    Won't load for me :mad:


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,062 ✭✭✭Fighting Irish


    Oh wait, it's on irishtorrents


This discussion has been closed.
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