Madeleine McCann: Star Spots ‘150 Maddies’ – And Only One Kate McCann
MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Our Maddie in the news: hundreds of Maddies and only one Kate McCann:
Daily Star (front page): “SCANDAL OF 150 MADDIES”
Jonathan Corke has news:
AN estimated 150 children a year are victims of Madeleine McCann-style abductions in Britain.
Having established by media opinion and best-guesswork that the innocent child was abducted, the paper continues to look at the facts:
But campaigners say missing pets are more closely monitored than missing youngsters. If the Government launched an in-depth probe into each case, as they have done for Madeleine, it would cost nearly a billion pounds.
But it would be worth it, right. As for more facts:
And an investigation by the Daily Star Sunday has revealed officials have no idea of the exact number of child snatches every year.
As revealed in that front-page headline about “150 MADDIES”.
Lady Catherine Meyer, of charity Parents & Abducted Children Together, says:
“How many are abducted? We don’t know. We guess about 1,000. And stranger abductions (committed by persons unknown to the family) about 150 but that is a complete estimate.”
Is that 150 a year? A month? A minute? Is that in the entire world or just in Portugal? The facts on which the guess is based need enlarging.
The Star thunders:
But the number of missing children could be as many as 130,000 a year, according to one campaigner.
That’s a lot of missing children.
Meyer adds:
“How can we improve the situation unless we know how many children are affected?”
Maybe less children go missing in Maddie-style abductions than the campaigners fear and the situation is not so very bad? After all, aren’t child kidnaps reported to police, and don’t police keep records?
Missing People spokeswoman Amalia McGibbon said: “It is vital that the police record every missing person so organisations can better understand this issue.”
Well, yes. But every missing person is not 150 missing Maddies, as the Star yells. Madeleine McCann might be the benchmark for all missing kids, but surely she is not the totem for all missing people, some of whom, presumably, choose to go “missing”?
The police do not look for missing people unless the person is regarded as vulnerable – or it is thought a crime has been committed.
The Star adds:
This week the charity will launch a Twitter appeal highlighting the cases of scores of missing kids, including two-year-old Katrice Lee, snatched from a British military base in Germany nearly 30 years ago.
She has not been seen since she went to the Naafi shop on an armey base at Paderborn, near Hanover.
Ben Needham, who vanished on the Greek island of Kos 20 years ago aged 21 months, will also feature.
Good. Both cases need a renewed investigation. If David Cameron is to direct the Met to investigate Madeleine Mccann, then he should be as keen to send the police to Hanover and Kos.
Ben’s mum Kerry writes:
“Why Madeleine’s case and not Ben’s?”
Why Madeleine and not Ben as well? C’mon, Dave, as a dad you should do the decent thing.
Also indentified by the Star are:
Daniel Entwistle, 7: He went missing on the same day as Madeleine McCann.
Daniel vanished from outside his home in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. He had gone out to get a baby’s bottle for his younger brother and some sweets from the shop across the road. Then he headed round the corner on his bike. He was never seen again.
Andrew Gosden, 14: Read about him here (pictured above).
Daily Express (front page): “HOW DARE THEY CALL ME COLD”
Yep, instead of looking for “150 MADDIES” the Express is looking at Kate Mcann – who is not missing.
Posted: 22nd, May 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink
