Crime in Mind documentary:Philip Cairns

TV3 do a good line in tabloid sensationalist claptrap.

There's a rumor that used to do the rounds that he was being abused by a teacher or christian brother and he then told one of the other teachers/christian brothers about the abuse but there was a pedophile ring in the school and it was another one involved in it he had told and they abducted him.
It's only a rumor though, I'm sure there are lots about such cases. We'll probably never know.

Wouldnt overly surprise if this was the case. It probably still is the preferred method of dealing with these "issues" in THAT religion. Disgusts me. :mad:

I just watched this myself, I agree....the two "experts" were spouting speculative bullsh*t. They ignored the most obvious explanation being that he got into a car driven by his parish priest/relative/neighbour. The girl who found the bag clearly stated that she had been up and down the lane, then saw it the last time.....it was dry after it had been raining.....clearly dropped off by someone!

quite annoying, that program!

chillywilly wrote: »

I just watched this myself, I agree....the two "experts" were spouting speculative bullsh*t. They ignored the most obvious explanation being that he got into a car driven by his parish priest/relative/neighbour. The girl who found the bag clearly stated that she had been up and down the lane, then saw it the last time.....it was dry after it had been raining.....clearly dropped off by someone!

quite annoying, that program!

Agreed. Seems the most likely explanation. He was likely offered a lift by someone known to him and trusted.

Ann22 wrote: »

It's been annoying me since I watched it. People at work who know little about the case were talking about it today, going on about the fact that he might've wandered off intstead of going back to school. I was so píst off. I don't believe that for a second.

That stupid blonde said he was clearly anxious about his homework and it would indicate that he didn't want to go back to school:rolleyes:. If he was struggling with the homework he'd been given that morning during his lunchbreak why mitch that afternoon? He'd have been better off not going in the next day when he had that subject again. He wouldn't have the same subject after dinner. He even changed his books for his afternoon classes.

Whoever killed him could well have been watching that show smirking to himself.

I thought they said that it was homework that was due for that afternoon after lunch, not for the next day, and that is why he was rushing so much?
It's not completely implausible that he would have dossed that class.
It's something I often did myself in secondary school.
It said his sister had seen that he was really struggling with it and had offered him help but he had refused.
He had also asked him mum to let him stay off the afternoon to look after his granny for the afternoon.

Although I do agree with you, that it is also not completely implausible that he went missing of his busy neighborhood road.
They were definitely far too dismissive of that idea, especially considering that a witness reported that they had seen a boy matching his description leaning in the window of a red car that was parked awkwardly blocking the traffic etc..

I didn't like their explanations for the reappearance of is schoolbag either. Why would he "stash" his bag in a bush in an alley? Even if he had, surely it would have been found during the extensive search. Even if it had been in a bush and fallen it would still have gotten a bit wet in the rain, not completely dry like the girl who found it said.
They also said that someone may have just found it, and just thrown it there cos they didn't want anything to with it. I can't imagine anyone innocent doing that. Surely the whole neighborhood wanted to do anything they could to help, and it would have been very risky and look really bad if they had been caught dumping it instead of just handing it in.

There was a clip of a newspaper article in that documentary that said something along the lines of "Did school pal dump Philip's bag?"
Apparently the bag was found the very afternoon that all the school children had first been brought into the school for questioning. This could easily be coincidence though.

I also read that 2 of his school books were missing from his bag. His 2 religion books to be exact. In the documentary they kept emphasizing the fact that he was a very religious boy. I'm not sure what significance the missing books are,that's even if they are significant, but I don't remember them mentioning the missing books in that documentary and was wondering why?
Also why didn't they give all the details of the report from witness who thinks he saw boy matching Philip's description at the red car?

Interesting enough documentary, but they seemed to have left a good bit out, and classed too many of their theories as near enough fact.

Watched this last night. What a pile of sensationalist ****e. One of my favourite "expert" comments was the fact that the walk to Bushy Park was a down hill walk from where Philip lived- which would have given him "momentum"
loads of lols to be honest - scarlet for all involved.

i was very dissappointed with the programme . first of all i think
the most plausible/credible explanation as to what happened to
philip are in barry cummins book missing- i've read that myself and the
"experts" should have read that as well.

secondly, the reconstruction clips were from an old programme called
Solved and Solved which aired about 11 or 12 years ago.

They should have done a proper reconstruction as to what might have happened , using appropriate actors etc for each of the possible theories on what happened to him.


personally, i think he was offered by a lift by someone he knew, most likely the abuser/murderer. they should have done the reconstruction of the scenario where in paul cummins book- Missing - a man saw a schoolboy matching philips description talk to a man , (description-mid 50s as was reported in the book , in a red car ), it appeared he was asking the boy for a lift etc. The man gave this info to the guards, took down his reg no as he was parked in an illegal position . unfortunately , the man lost this number when his wife cleaned out his car.

I think this is what happened and the boy most likely was philip.


I don't think the other theories mentioned in the programme hold up to much, especially the one about him mitching. if that was the case, why would he get rid of some of his books, i was like ffs -are they for real when they mentioned that

as regards the annie mccarrick episode, the should have done reconstruction of the likely events, proper ones not shown a drawing of the suspect etc. Again the reconstruction clips were from the programme
Solved and Unsolved shown years ago on RTE.

Ann22 wrote: »

You're right Little Acorn, he had maths that afternoon along with geography and religion. I wonder if he had maths that morning too or was the homework from the day before? It's not implausible that he dossed..but I don't believe he did. I believe that man in the red car Barry Cummins mentioned was the abductor. Didn't the documentary show someone in a blue car?

Hi,
I think it must of being homework from the day before, I watched it again and they definitely say it was homework that was due for that afternoon.
From about 9:20 onwards in the documentary it talks about Philip coming home, and his Mum mentions something about "usually he would always come saying I'm starving" etc., but on that day he just wanted a sandwich and got straight into doing the homework.

Yeah, you're right, they definitely fecked up that reconstruction. They start talking about it at about 13:24 mins into it.
They show a blue car, and all they mention about it is "this however has never being a positive/confirmed identification"
They don't even bother to mention that the car was red, or that it was obstructing traffic so much that the witness actually took it's reg number etc.

I don't know how or why they could leave such an important part out of the reconstruction. If given a good description of the car, somebody else could have remembered seeing it that day or noticed something unusual that day regarding the car.

up for anything wrote: »

I've often wondered whether the family kidnapping figures are skewed by the inclusion of kidnapping by an estranged parent. Is there anything anywhere to clarify that?

They are not skewed. The point is that these kidnappings are carried out by non-strangers.

The laws of probability would thus dictate that the quickest route to a result would be to haul in the parents, the aunts and uncles, etc. as opposed searching under bushes and in drains for mysterious bogeymen.

The ball is dropped on these cases because the police are not willing to hardball the family and the circle of friends. That sounds harsh and maybe unfair but the reality is the statistics hold that it's the logical place to look.