Madeleine McCann: Links To Mari Luz Cortes And Benazir Bhutto
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “HAS MADDY MANIAC STRUCK AGAIN? Mari, 5, missing on route ‘used by paedophile gang’”
Mari Luz Cortes “may” have been snatched by paedophiles. She may have been kidnapped from Huelva on the Spanish frontier with Portugal, which is “a short drive from Praia da Luz”
May…
“Significantly” Helva is on the route that the McCanns “fear” Madeleine’s kidnappers took “as thy headed for a ferry in North Africa”
Page 5: “FEARS OF MISSING SPANISH GIRL’S FATHER”
“Tearful Juan Jose” (readers see a picure of him crying) says: “It’s possible that the disappearance of my daughter is linked to the Madeleine case. But it is not something we want to contemplate right now”
But the Mirror does. And it wants its readers to. Madeleine’s dad Gerry McCann says: “We are extremely concerned another young girl has gone missing in the region. We hope Mari is found quickly, safe and is returned to her family as soon as possible. Our thoughts are with her family as the search continues”
Are the McCanns now the first people to call when a child goes missing? How long before they are billed as “experts in child tragedy” and appearing on news bulletins and regional magazine shows?
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell says: “Gerry and Kate of all people know the agony that Mari’s family are going through”
Helva is “120 miles” from Praia da Luz
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: SECOND GIRL TAKEN. Girl, 5, in copycat snatch”
“The five-year-old disappeared after walking alone to her local shop to buy a packet of crisps. Mari Luz Cortes’s family are convinced she has been abducted. More than 100 police and 500 locals are mounting a massive search”
Page 5: “MADDIE: GIRL, 5, IN COPYCAT SNATCH” – A child has gone missing. But why should it have anything to do with Madeleine McCann?
“A source close to the McCanns’ Barcelona-based private detectives said: ‘There is every chance these cases are linked. We have said all along Madeleine was abducted. Now it appears whoever did it may have struck again’”
Clarence Mitchell says the McCanns are “extremely concerned” about the possible abduction in Huelva
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: ANOTHER LITTLE GIRL SNATCHED”
Page 11: “Child snatched off street 1 hour from McCann villa”
“Fears were growing last night that the kidnapper of Madeleine McCann has struck again” – Fear and excitement in the press
Helva is just “over an hour by motorway from the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz”. The Star said it was 120 miles. Drive. Fast
But what of Mari and these links to Madeleine McCann?
Says THE WORLD’S GREATEST PAPER: ““Spanish police immediately alerted colleagues in neighbouring Portugal to the striking similarities in the two cases, while the McCann family’s own private investigators, Metodo 3, raced to the scene. Both are attractive children of a similar age, left alone by parents when they disappeared into thin air, unseen by any witnesses. The parents of both believe their daughters have been abducted”
So who did it? The Express has an idea: “One witness claimed to have seen Mari Luz crying on a bus with a gypsy woman, who was shouting at her to keep quiet”
Gypsies. Always the gypsies…
THE SUN front page: “Maddie: Girl No2 vanishes”
Page 9: “McCANNS’ FEAR as 2ND GIRL VANISHES – Cops probe similarities with Maddie mystery”
Is this about the McCanns?
“Gerry and Kate McCann told of their ‘extreme concern’ last night after a Spanish girl vanished in circumstances similar to their daughter Maddie. Mari Luz Cortes, five, disappeared on Sunday after going out to buy crisps at a local shop”
Just like Madeleine, then…
DAILY MAIL: “Spanish girl, five, vanishes ‘just like Maddie’”
Says family spokesman Luis Molina: “It is normal she would go to the shops alone. It is only round the corner”
STREATHAM GUARDIAN: “’I’m like Benazir Bhutto‘ says Maddy lookalike agency boss”
“Mum-of-one Shona Adams, who runs the Juliet Adams Model Agency from her home in Streatham Hill, told the Streatham Guardian she now fears for her young son’s life after receiving death threats and racial abuse. They came in response to reports which state Ms Adams hoped to make money from using three-year-old Kelsey Kudla to play the missing girl in a film. ‘I’m absolutely worried about my son,’ said the 41-year-old. ‘Benazir Bhutto received death threats telling her not to go back to Pakistan and when she did she was killed’”
THE INDEPENDENT: “Press complaints soar to hit record high in 2007”
“Complaints to the press watchdog reached record numbers last year, due in part to outrage over a magazine which mocked the disabled son of the glamour model Jordan.
“The second case involved a Daily Mirror column by Tony Parsons, headlined “Oh, up yours, senor”, regarding the Portuguese police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. One of the complainants was the Portuguese ambassador to Britain, who had been urged by Parsons in his article to ‘keep your stupid, sardine-munching mouth shut’”
THE TIMES: “Big rise in press complaints”
Complaints to the Press Complaints Commission, the press watchdog, reached a high last year. The 4,340 complaints were a third up on 2006. A Daily Mirror column about Portuguese police and Madeleine McCann attracted the most complaints — 485. There were 143 about Heat magazine for its use of a picture of the model Jordan’s disabled son.
Madeleine McCann: Watching the parents and ghoulish entertainment
Posted: 16th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,237) | TrackBack | Permalink
