Madeleine McCann stars in the least surprising tabloid headline ever

EVER since innocent child Madeleine McCann went missing, we’ve been kept up to date with the story’s key points:

The investigation: the police have not proven what crime befell her, if any. But kidnap is the favourite theory.

The facts: she went missing

The revelations: she is still missing

The court cases: Robert Murat and the parents were libelled in a torrent of media speculation.

Anorak

Posted: 8th, October 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Madeleine McCann: Barrister says he knows where Maddie is (road sweepers scoff)

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news. As the McCanns pursue Goncalo Amaral for libel damages in Portugal, the British press publishes a welter of new Maddie news. Yesterday, the police told us that the child could have been stolen by a burglar. The Met offered no proof to support its theory. No evidence. She she could have been stolen by a burglar who seems to have taken nothing else from that holiday apartment, right?

Today the Mirror has more amazing news. Yesterday, it said Maddie had been taken by paedos. Today it thunders from its front page:

New Madeleine McCann sensation: Witness tells barrister he saw girl ALIVE just weeks ago

And he waited this long to tell us? Maybe this man of law was studying the evidence?

A shaken barrister has told police how a man boasted to him that he had seen missing Madeleine McCann just weeks ago.

Anorak

Posted: 6th, October 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Madeleine McCann: police think she was stolen by burglars who took nothing else

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news:

The Daily Mail has a question:

Was Maddie abducted by burglars she disturbed at holiday flat? Scotland Yard probes new theory as McCanns prepare to make ‘significant’ TV appeal

New?

On 10th, May 2007, the Daily Mirror produced six theories:

“PAEDOPHILE GANG”, the “LONE PAEDOPHILE”, the “JEALOUS MOTHER”, Madeleine wandering off and “DROWNED”, the “OPPORTUNIST PAEDOPHILE”, the “CHILDLESS COUPLE”.

None of those theories have been ruled out. Still, time for another one. This will show that sCotland Yard are making progress in their multi-million pound investigation. So. The burglar:

Madeleine McCann may have been abducted after disturbing burglars in her family’s holiday apartment, Scotland Yard believes.

You want more facts?

Detectives think her disappearance could be linked to a series of break-ins at the Portuguese resort from which she vanished, the Daily Mail can reveal.

On 7th, January 2008, an intruder was spotted. Was that person the burglar?

The burglaries – thought to be the work of a ‘team’ of thieves – happened in the months leading up to Madeleine’s disappearance from the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz in May 2007. One theory – now being taken seriously by British police – is that burglars panicked after Madeleine awoke from her sleep.

So. The panicked burglars stole the child. What else did they steal?

Sources in the Algarve – where the authorities are working closely with Scotland Yard – confirmed yesterday that detectives are investigating a series of thefts from the Ocean Club and elsewhere in Praia da Luz.

Only one child went missing. And the burglars never stole anything from the McCanns’ apartment except for the child.

Daily Mirror:  “Police investigating theory that Madeleine McCann was taken by paedophile ring”

Portugese detectives are now working on the theory that British paedophiles active in the resorts of the Algarve were responsible

So. The Portuguese think its British paedos and the Portuguese think its Portuguese burglars.

Such are the facts…

Anorak

Posted: 5th, October 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: A Crimewatch appeal, living in ‘purgatory’ and the criminal never carried a phone

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the missing child in the news:

Front page of the Daily Express: “Police close to breakthrough.”

There are “3 news suspects”.

The Yard yesterday revealed new evidence has been uncovered about the fate of the youngster and announced that three more suspects or “persons of interest” have been identified.

They are not suspects, then. They are people the police want to talk with.

Anorak

Posted: 4th, October 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: Kate’s ‘suicide’, an ‘evil’ plot to kidnap a twin and another libel trial

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news: the Goncalo Amaral libel trial is underway in Portugal.

The Daily Mail reports:

‘Anti-McCann’ websites plotted to kidnap one of Madeleine’s siblings ‘to find out what they knew about her disappearance’, court hears – Friend of the McCanns found examples of forum members encouraging kidnap so one of the twins could ‘throw some light on the matter’

Gerard Couzens writes:

Internet trolls fuelled by an ex police chief’s claims about the McCanns incited conspiracy-theorists to plot to kidnap the couple’s twins Sean and Amelie, a court heard today.

Anorak

Posted: 21st, September 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment (1)

Madeleine McCann: parents’ risky libel case against Amaral begins in Portugal

MADELEINE McCann is back in the news. The summer passed without sighting of the child who was once spotted all around the world. The focus is  is on Kate McCann, the child’s mother.

The Daily Express lead with news:

“BRAVE MUM KATE FACES NEW ORDEAL IN PORTUGUESE COURT ROOM”

Lest “Brave” and “mum” not place the Express squarely on Kate McCann’s side in a legal spat, the paper adds:

Madeleine’s mother will face her police tormentor in court

This tormentor is called Goncalo Amaral, the Portuguese copper who investigated the child’s vanishing and then wrote a book about it.

The brave mother will face fresh agony in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, where she is launching a court bid to silence her tormentor Goncalo Amaral over allegations he made about the fate of the youngster. Former GP Kate and husband Gerry, both 45, are seeking £1million in damages from the former detective they say made their lives hell.

Amaral, 56, claims the couple lied about the events surrounding Madeleine’s disappearance.

He went on to write a book in which he alleged Madeleine died in the family’s holiday apartment and her parents covered up the tragedy.

Kate McCann and her husband Gerry deny that accusation. So. They want to silence Mr Amaral. One problem is that in Portugal freedom of speech is taken very seriously. It was not so very far back ion history that Portugal was a dictatorship. Freedom to way the unsayable has been had won.

As ever the Express reminds us that Mr McCann is a “heart consultant Gerry”, who will “remain at the couple’s home in Rothley, Leicestershire, to look after their eight-year-old twins Sean and Amelie”.

Michael Wright, the husband of Kate’s cousin Anne-Marie, will tell the Lisbon hearing that Amaral’s “poisonous lies” nearly destroyed the family. Kate agreed to attend court at the last moment on the advice of her Portuguese lawyer Isabel Duarte.

A source close to the McCanns said yesterday: “Kate’s lawyers felt that one of Madeleine’s parents should be there in person. Kate agreed to go while Gerry looks after the twins. “She is not expected to give evidence but will be sitting in the courtroom.”

The paper than quotes a “McCann source”, who cannot be named for reasons we are not told:

“They have been told that every word they have said against Mr Amaral, in response to his ludicrous claims, will be challenged. Lawyers on both sides tried to settle out of court but it was not to be.”

One person is named, however:

The McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell said last night: “Kate and Gerry remain confident they will win. They have a very strong case.”

The Irish Independent leads with very different headline:

Maddie’s mum to face top detective in trial

Amaral is a top detective? Well, he was.

Kate McCann will come face to face with the former police chief she and her husband Gerry accuse of hampering the search for their missing daughter Madeleine when their libel case against him starts in Lisbon today.

Mrs McCann’s attendance in court is understood to be against the advice of Scotland Yard detectives who are attempting to begin their own investigation in the Algarve to solve the six-year mystery.

The couple are suing detective Goncalo Amaral for £1m (€750,000) over allegations he made about the fate of Madeleine, who disappeared from an apartment in Praia da Luz shortly before her fourth birthday in May 2007.

The Indy might want to look again at that exchange rate.

It is feared Mrs McCann’s presence in Portugal will provoke a media circus and further aggravate Portuguese authorities as the Scotland Yard team seeks co-operation to carry out their inquiries on Portuguese soil.

A source said: “Met police are worried it will create a bigger platform for Mr Amaral and his supporters to spout more bile and could damage their own inquiries in the country.”

This could go badly for the McCanns.

The Star says of Amaral:

KATE McCann will today come face-to-face with the disgraced police detective who accused her of covering up daughter Madeleine’s death.

The BBC sums up best:

Amaral, the detective who initially led the inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance, is expected to argue that under Portuguese law he is entitled to make the claims published in The Truth Of The Lie. The former officer was removed from the Portuguese investigation in October 2007 after criticising British police.

READ: It’s a high-risk strategy in Portugal…

Anorak

Posted: 12th, September 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (3)

Madeleine McCann: post heatwave news

MADELEINE McCann: what news? Time for a brief catch-up on the missing child who became the biggest story of the past years:

The Daily Star leads:

The front-page headline runs:

“We can still find missing Maddie”

Anorak

Posted: 26th, July 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: Daily Express juxtaposes Our Maddie next to a family holiday competition

MADELEINE McCann is on the cover of the Daily Express. There is news. Maybe. The front-page headline announces:

 “MADELEINE: POLICE HUNT GIVES McCANNS FRESH HOPE”

As ever there is no news. This is media management. The media continues to feature the missing child. Her parents continue their policy of keeping their daughter’s name in the public eye.

* By the way, who at the Express thought it a good idea to position the child who went missing on a family summer holiday overseas alongside a chance to win a family holiday overseas?  Not good.

Anyhow, this latest news follows the Express‘ story on July 8th:

Yard face a network of evil: Maddie police ‘seeking people smuggling ring’

A FORMER top Scotland Yard detective last night suggested the new investigation into the Madeleine McCann mystery is focused on a network of suspects involved in people-trafficking.

Anorak

Posted: 12th, July 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment (1)

Madeleine McCann: the Daily Express spins a single thread into suspects and arrests

MADELEINE MCCANN: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the missing child in the news:

The Daily Express leads with its customary picture of ‘Our Maddy’ and the headline: “Maddy Arrests Within Weeks.”

Also:

“Cameron backing new investigation”

Inside the paper, we learn:

Mr Cameron said the case of the then three-year-old who went missing from a holiday apartment in Portugal’s Algarve in May 2007 was one that continued to shock the nation.

What did he say of the Met’s investigation?

“It is welcome because they say that there is new evidence, new leads to follow, new things to be done. It was a case that did shock and still shocks the nation and if an answer can be found we should try and find it.”

Anorak

Posted: 6th, July 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Madeleine McCann: 38 ‘suspects’, parents ruled out and new theories

MADELEINE McCANN: Anorak’s look at the missing child dubbed ‘Our Maddie’ in the news:

BBC: “Madeleine McCann: New leads spark Met formal inquiry”

Det Ch Insp Andy Redwood, who is heading what has been called Operation Grange, said: “The review has given us new thinking, new theories, new evidence and new witnesses.”

What new theories? That she wandered off? It’s taken as fact that she was abducted.

Sky News: “Madeleine McCann’s parents have welcomed the launch of a new UK police investigation into their daughter’s disappearance.”

A Met Police review has identified 38 “persons of interest” who detectives want to speak to in relation to the suspected abduction in 2007 – almost twice as many as previously thought.

Officers say they are moving from the case review to an “investigative stage of the inquiry” and now intend to pursue more information about those individuals – 12 of whom are UK nationals

Anorak

Posted: 5th, July 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (6)

Madeleine McCann: CPS head to Portgal as The Met close in

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news:

Daily Express (front page): “FREHS HOPE AS BRITISH LEGAL TEAM HEAD TO PORTUGAL OVER FRESH EVIDENCE”

Alison Saunders, chief crown ­prosecutor for London, discussed crucial developments in the case uncovered by Scotland Yard. It is the first time such a senior figure from the Crown Prosecution Service has travelled to Portugal in connection with Madeleine’s dis­appearance and her presence, along with her deputy, fuelled speculation that a new inquiry is about to be launched.

It certainly does. As a reader writes:

I hope they finally find out what happened.

A CPS spokeswoman is quoted:

“Prosecutors from CPS London and ­investigators from the Metropolitan Police Service visited their Portuguese counterparts on April 17-18 to discuss possible next steps in ­relation to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. We continue to work with the police on this case.”

The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell adds:

“They remain grateful, however, to the UK authorities for the work being done to establish what happened to Madeleine and to bring those responsible for her abduction to justice.”

Evening Standard: “Fresh hope in Madeleine McCann investigation as CPS lawyers travel to Portugal”

Government lawyers have travelled to Portugal to meet police and prosecution officials to discuss new leads in the Madeleine McCann inquiry. The trip is the first time that lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service have visited Portugal in connection with Scotland Yard’s £5 million review of the case.

Home Secretary Theresa May is now expected to announce a full-scale Yard investigation into the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine in May 2007…

Last month the Standard revealed that detectives had identified a list of potential suspects. Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who supervised the review, said there were a “good number” of people who should be questioned as well as “further forensic opportunities”.

The list is thought to number around 20, including Britons. The potential suspects are thought to include a handful of known child-sex offenders who are believed to have been in the Algarve when Madeleine disappeared.

This all sounds like progress.

The Met said:

“Our investigative review into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann continues to make encouraging progress. Detectives remain in regular contact with Kate and Gerry McCann and are working closely with the Portuguese police in an attempt to make further progress.”

Madeleine was then three-years-old when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3 2007, as her parents Kate and Gerry dined at a nearby tapas restaurant with friends.

Such are the facts.

PS – Ben Needham – any British police looking for him?

Anorak

Posted: 23rd, June 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: The Met takes over

MADELEINE McCANN: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the missing child ion the news:

Sunday Express (front page): “Police hint at New Maddie Breakthrough”

Number of breakthroughs to date: zero. What’s this new one? The paper says detectives have “signalled they are on the brink” of a breakthrough. in the “six year mystery”.

Really? What was said and done?

Daily Mirror: “Madeleine McCann search taken over by Scotland Yard”

Anorak

Posted: 15th, June 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (3)

Madeleine McCann: the couple who heard a child crying at night and went to help

IN “WHO SOOTHED WEEPING MADDIE, the Daily Express leads with a Madeleine McCann “exclusive”. It adds: “Police seek couple who entered McCann apartment when Madeleine was crying.”

This becomes:

Mystery couple seen going into McCanns’ flat on night before sobbing Madeleine disappeared

The night before? A couple of strangers walked into the McCanns’ apartment where a child was crying the night before that child vanished? How does the Express know it was Madeleine who was crying? Three children were in the McCanns’ apartment.

SCOTLAND YARD detectives are trying to find a middle-aged couple said to have entered Madeleine McCann’s holiday apartment to comfort her because she was crying, we can reveal today.

Anorak

Posted: 19th, May 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (6)

20 new Maddie suspects help Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell retire in a blaze of publicity

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the missing child in the news: 20 new suspects with Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell:

The Front Pages:

Daily Mail (front page): “20 New Suspects”
The Sun (front page): “Brit Cops List 20 Maddie Suspects”
The Star (front page): “Maddie: Cops Hunt New Suspects
Express (front page): “Police Identify Maddie Suspects”
Daily Mirror (front page): She May Be Alive”

Anorak

Posted: 18th, May 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Madeleine McCann detectives identify ‘potential suspects’ but won’t tell us how many or why

MADELEINE McCann vanished six years ago. Another summer of sighting looms, all eagerly reported by newspapers looking for easy news in the shark-spotting season. The Evening Standard reports:

British police identify new leads in hunt for Madeleine McCann and urge Portuguese to act

Go on:

Scotland Yard has identified a number of potential suspects who may have abducted Madeleine McCann, the force’s top detective revealed today.

Anorak

Posted: 17th, May 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment (1)

Madeleine McCann gets dragged into the Amanda Berry story – Charlene Downs and Ben Needham are ignored

THE story of Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus’s escape from a suburban prison is made made relevant to a British audience by the mention of missing child Madeleine McCann, the benchmark of not only missing children but now of all missing teenagers and women, too.

Alison Philips writes in the Mirror:

Inspiring mothers who fought for missing daughters keep hope of Madeleine McCann miracle alive

A miracle is a happening so incredible is must be the work of God.

The discovery of three women held captive in a house for 10 years can only have reignited hope Madeleine may one day be found.

Indeed, Gina DeJesus’s aunt Sandra Ruiz said: “If you don’t believe in miracles, I suggest you think again.”

From the perspective of the missing women’s loved one their reappearance after ten years of nothing must seem like a miracle. But from the victims’ viewpoint, it must be anything but. They endured captivity at the hands of three men.

What happened to Madeleine McCann remains a mystery. When she vanished, the Mirror conjured six theories, none of which involved the supernatural or God. The Mirror’s six theories of what happened to the innocent child were: “PAEDOPHILE GANG”, the “LONE PAEDOPHILE”, the “JEALOUS MOTHER”, “DROWNED”, the “OPPORTUNIST PAEDOPHILE” and the “CHILDLESS COUPLE”.

Alison Philips then watches the parents:

Last weekend Kate McCann boarded a flight alone to return to Portugal where her daughter Madeleine was abducted almost exactly six years ago. She was going back to the spot where she lost her three-year-old daughter and to the moment she last saw her, tucked up in bed with Cuddle Cat.

Kate was also going back to where she lost her own life, the life she had before it became defined by loss forever. The pain of returning to that whitewashed town on the Algarve must be horrific.

And yet friends say Kate does it to feel close to Madeleine.

This is news, how?

Presumably immersing herself in the pain of her loss is preferable to that awful alternative – forgetting about her little girl. And Kate can’t do that. She more than anyone knows that she wasn’t there when her daughter needed her most.

So now she must fight for the rest of her life to ensure that if Madeleine is still alive, she knows her mother is there for her now.

That’s pretty brutal by Philips. isn’t it. She says Kate McCann’s search for her daughter is in part inspired by notions that she let her daughter down. How does that make Kate McCann an “inspiring mother” as the title to Philip’s piece states?

We don’t yet know Amanda Berry, 16, Gina DeJesus, then 14, and Michelle Knight, then 22, were kidnapped. But we do know they were out in public at the time.

Philips then speculates:

Even if she is dead, Kate’s job remains to keep her daughter’s memory alive because while memory remains, so does life.

In appearing to salute Kate McCann, Philips now says the tabloids’ Our Maddie might be dead. Theta’s the very thing the McCanns’ campaign to find her doesn’t want us to think.

Indeed Kate and Gerry said:

“The discovery of these young women reaffirms our hope of finding Madeleine, which has never diminished. Their recovery is also further evidence that children are sometimes abducted and kept for long periods. So we ask the public to remain vigilant in the ongoing search for Madeleine. Our thoughts are with the women in America and their families.”

But this is an opportunistic and wholly shallow article the intent of which is to fill space by linking events on Cleveland to British readers. Philips then writes:

And this week Kate’s pain must be even more acute as the discovery of three women held captive in an American house for 10 years can only have reignited hope that Madeleine may too one day be found.

They must have. Just as they must have when Jaycee Dugard was found alive and when Elizabeth Fritzl emerged from erh father’s cellar.

The tabloids never say how such events give hope to Andrew Gosden’s parents, Charlene Downes’s loved ones or Ben Needham’s mother. The points of reference have been set. Madeleine McCann is the benchmark for all missing children.

Philips ploughs on:

Like Kate McCann, the mothers of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, had fought tirelessly to keep the stories of their missing daughters in the public eye in the hope that one day it might help bring them home.

Amanda Berry’s mother was led up the garden path by psychics. Gina DeJesus’s father campaigned tirelessly, marking the anniversary of her disappearance with a rally. We know next to nothing of Michelle Knight. Philips makes an assumption.

Gina DeJesus’ mother Nancy Ruiz had plastered posters of her missing daughter all around the neighbourhood after she went missing aged 14 as she walked home one day from school. One of the posters somehow made it into the home where she was chained up.

However bad her life must have been in that suburban dungeon – and it must have been horrific – there must have been some crumb of comfort for Gina knowing her mum was still looking for her, waiting for her to return.

Oh, please. The kidnapped teen got a crumb of comfort from a poster that points to what she didn’t have, what was ripped from her? That’s comforting? It sounds more like torture.

Just as Amanda Berry’s mother Louwana Miller scoured the streets for her daughter until she made herself sick and finally died, broken-hearted, seven years ago.

And that is why Kate McCann cannot give up her search, however painful it might be.

Even if it is the remotest chance, she has to ensure if Madeleine is alive she knows her mother is waiting for her.

How does she ensure what Madeleine knows that, then?

These mothers were all extraordinary in their own way in refusing to stop fighting for their missing daughters.

No. They were not ALL extraordinary. They did exactly what any rational, loving mother would be expected to if their child vanished. They are ordinary women thrust into extraordinary circumstances.

But in another way they were totally ordinary – isn’t it what any mother would hope to do in this situation? And that’s what is extraordinary about motherhood – the superhuman strength it gives to women.

Philips has thus managed to make the extraordinary story ordinary. Who dare say tabloids only deal in sensationalism?

“The nightmare is over,” Cleveland FBI Special Agent Stephen Anthony said during a press conference yesterday in Ohio. For Kate McCann the nightmare goes on until she either dies herself or Madeleine is found.

Every day she must relive the nightmare for Madeleine, just as the mothers of Amanda, Gina and Michelle did for 10 years. In doing so, these dedicated women are an inspiration to mothers everywhere.

They inspire mothers to be, erm, ordinary?

Anorak

Posted: 8th, May 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: April Jones PR and Robert Murat wants a reconstruction

MADELEINE MCCANN: the sixth anniversary of her vanishing looms. The Express and Star lead with the McCanns, ‘Our Maddie’s parents. Kate and Gerry McCann.

The Star leads with the news that April Jones is in their prayers.

Tracey Kandohla reports on the “low-key” church service to remember Madeleine McCann.

Tearful Kate and Gerry spared a thought for the tragic youngster and her family despite their own heartache.

Anorak

Posted: 5th, May 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Madeleine McCann: six years of staring

AS summer looms, so the tabloids press f9 on the keyboard and turn to the unresolved story of Madeleine McCann. On page 35, the Sun reports on the missing child’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann’s visit to the ITV’s Daybreak sofa.

In “McCANNS BAN KIDS’ SLEEPOVER – Maddie parents’ fears”, the Sun reports:

MADELEINE McCann’s parents have revealed how they haven’t changed their missing girl’s bedroom – nearly six years after she was abducted. Her mother Kate said she seeks comfort at her village church in Rothley, Leicestershire – and in their daughter’s room.

And so the story stagnates.

Says Kate McCann:

“Sometimes people ask me if there will ever come a time when I change that room and it’s difficult because in your head that indicates moving on and I’m not there.”

Neither are the tabloids.

And now mum Kate, speaking ahead of the sixth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance on Friday, has admitted she hardly lets twins Sean and Amelie out of sight. Kate said: “They haven’t had any sleepovers with friends and I know that goes on a lot.

And so to Friday.

Sky News: “Madeleine McCann’s Parents ‘Closer’ To Truth”

Madeleine McCann’s parents say a police review into their daughter’s disappearance is making “excellent progress” as they mark the sixth anniversary since she went missing.

In an interview with Sky News, Kate and Gerry McCann asked the public to remain vigilant about possible sightings and talked about adapting to life without Madeleine…

“With the review the Met have been doing over the last two years I think we are closer to finding out what happened,” Gerry McCann said.

“But for Kate and I until we find Madeleine or the person responsible then we’re still miles away.”

The couple thanked the public for their “tremendous support”, and urged people travelling abroad to keep vigilant about possible sightings of  Madeleine.

“Someone knows – not just the people involved in the crime. Other people will know as well, or will be strongly suspicious,” said Kate.

Her husband added: “The key message is – if someone thinks they’ve seen Madeleine, contact police straight away.”

Daily Record: “McCann family to mark six year anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance with low-key ceremony”

THE couple will read prayers and poems while remembering Madeleine at a service in the centre of Rothley. Earlier this week Kate and Gerry vowed to continue their search for her.

Can you be low-key and trail the service in the tabloids?

Daily Mirror:

Today marks the sixth anniversary of the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann… The little girl was snatched from her holiday apartment as her parents dined at a tapas restaurant with friends nearby.

Madeleine’s parents have refused to give up hope that they might find their daughter as they prepare to mark the sixth anniversary of her disappearance…

“Probably the last couple of years it’s been a new normality,” said Mr McCann. “We have adapted to our situation. There isn’t so much intrusion and we’re not in the public eye very much so those pressures have disappeared. The thing for Kate and I was always about having a proper search and turning over every stone and we feel like that is being done.”

And on it goes…

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, May 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (3)

Madeleine McCann: the Costa Teguise angle gets revised

THE 62-year-old arrested as part of an investigation into the alleged abduction of a three-year-old girl at Costa Teguise, Lanzarote, has been released on bail. The Press Association has sent that news to all publishers.

The man has been bailed to return to Milton Keynes police station in early May. He’s not been charged with any offence. He is simply helping police with their enquiries.

Anorak

Posted: 16th, April 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: tabloids monster James Lawlor

THE Daily Star’s alleged “NEW MADDIE CHILD SNATCHER” is said by the Sun to be one James Lawlor, a 62-year-old father of two. He was arrested at his London home after a British man claimed he had stopped a man taking his three-year-old daughter from a shopping mall in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote.

The Sun has more:

Landscape gardener Lawlor lives in Harrow with cleaner wife Ann, 56, and has two daughters — solicitor Rowena, 27, and council worker Denise, 22.

Anorak

Posted: 12th, April 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (3)

Madeleine McCann: appeal leads to arrest of man suspected of attempting kidnap in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote

“HUNT FOR NEW MADDIE FIEND,” declares the Daily Star’s front-page headline.

Keyan Milanian reports:

A BRIT has spoken of the “shocking” moment his daughter was caught up in a suspected kidnap bid that mirrored the Madeleine McCann case.

A child was asleep in her rented apartment? Her parents were out? Then she vanished? And what of Ben Needham?

The dad of three, from Milton Keynes, Bucks, had been shopping on holiday in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote, when his girl vanished.

He spotted her flashing trainers disappearing round a corner.

She was wearing them:

He told the Daily Star: “There was a man leading her off by the wrist. I shouted, ‘Oi! What the f*** are you doing?’ I grabbed her but he wouldn’t make eye contact and walked off. I think she was in shock and knew something was very wrong.”

Anorak

Posted: 11th, April 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (3)

Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann’s London Marathon ‘death threat’ sickens Frankie Boyle’s Sun

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the missing child in the news. As another anniversary of her vanishing approaches, the mainstream media one again picks up the story:

The Sun: “Marathon gun nut’s threat to kill Kate”

Cops probe vile web death threat to mum of missing Madeleine

Who has threatened to murder Kate McCann? And why?

A SICK internet troll has threatened to gun down Kate McCann as she runs the London Marathon, it emerged yesterday.

Anorak

Posted: 17th, March 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment (1)

Madeleine McCann: six or eight British cleaners in a ‘mysterious’ white van

MADELEINE McCCAN: Police are ‘hunting’ for 6 British cleaners. The Sun leads with :

“Maddie: hunt for 6 Brit cleaners”

These cleaners were working in Portugal around the time the child vanished. And, erm, that’s pretty much it.

Although, these six cleaners could be as many as eight.

Anorak

Posted: 15th, March 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (4)

Madeleine McCann: Interpol seek Russell Hobbs and Morphy Richards

DO you know Russell Hobbs? What about Morphy Richards? Following news of a family of kettle thieve in Cyprus, who was accompanied by a child the victim claims looked like Madeleine McCann, the Express announces:

Calls to DNA test ‘Madeleine McCann’ in Cyprus

A BRITISH girl who sparked an inquiry in Cyprus because she looks like Madeleine McCann should be DNA tested, police say.

Only, she “fled” with the alleged crooks.

Cypriot police chief Paris Paraskeva said it is unlikely the girl is Madeleine but the simple check should be done just in case.

What is this simple check?

Today the Sunday Express can disclose the mysterious circumstances which triggered the ­inquiry, now involving Scotland Yard detectives reviewing the Maddie files.

Just as we disclosed them last week:

In October last year a British couple and three children, the Madeleine lookalike and two boys aged two and seven, rented an apartment in Ayia Napa, a place popular with British tourists on the south-eastern tip of Cyprus.

Then they left.

After they left the supervisor of the property noticed some items were missing, including a kettle, and told the owner, who made a complaint to local police.

The police didn’t take it all that seriously. Then the alleged victim recalled that the child in this runners looked like Lord Lucan, Shergar Madeleine McCann. So:

They issued an arrest warrant for the couple and alerted airports and ports. The day before the arrest warrant was issued, February 7, it appears the family flew to Britain.

Got that? The family with the most wanted child on the planet “fled” to…Britain.

Then another man claimed he spotted Our Maddie with the kettle bandits:

The Greek Cypriot man thought a picture with the article showing how Madeleine would look now looked remarkably like the girl who had been his neighbour. He begged police to investigate, telling officers: “I think the girl living next door to me was Madeleine McCann.”

So. The man who owns the house who allegedly got ripped off by the rent-dodgers says the child was Madeleine McCann. And the next-door neighbour – who might know that hard-done-by owner – says he knew it was her, too.

Call the cops!

Inspector Paraskeva told the Sunday Express: “We took the ­report very seriously and then realised the address was the same as for the couple we were looking for. It was quite a ­coincidence.”

No ****, Sherlock.

“I asked my officers to do checks with schools to see if the girl was registered anywhere and we were lucky because she had been at a school in Ayia Napa. We got a photograph of the girl and her birth certificate which showed she was 12, several years older than Madeleine would be now.”

And..?

“We knew the family had left the island, so we informed Interpol and I sent them the picture of the girl and her birth certificate.”

You called Interpol about a family that hadn’t paid a bill? A family who nicked a kettle?

Interpol! Under ‘Crime Areas” in the Interpol website, we could find no section for Kettle Bandits. We did find a spot about “FUGITIVES“:

One of our most powerful tools in tracking international fugitives is the Red Notice. This seeks the provisional arrest of a wanted person with a view to extradition and is circulated to police in all our member countries. Red notices contain identification details and judicial information about the wanted person.

What about “TRAFFICKING IN ILLICIT goods”?

Trafficking in illicit goods, is a generic term used by INTERPOL to describe all types of illicit trade. It includes such practices as counterfeiting (trademark infringements), piracy (copyright infringements), smuggling of legitimate products and tax evasion. Selling fake or counterfeit products as the real thing is one aspect of this crime; so is selling genuine goods on the black market to avoid paying taxes.

No kettles mentioned. Indeed, a Red Notice was not issued for the Kettle Bandits.

Inspector Paraskeva adds:

“I had the name of the girl and an address where the family were staying in England and that has all been given to Interpol, so I ­assume that the police in England will have checked it out. They have not contacted me back, so I do not know what is happening.”

Chances are it’s gone to the very top.

“We also showed the picture of the girl to the Greek Cypriot man and he confirmed it was the child who had been living next door. When he compared the picture with the one in the magazine he was not so sure it was definitely Madeleine but we all felt it was still worth investigating.”

Good for him.

“If the couple had been on the island and we had arrested them and then received this report, we would have asked the girl to provide a DNA sample for testing. We have the DNA profile of Madeleine so we could have done it quite quickly. I would think that Interpol or British police would do this when they speak to the family just to rule it out.”

Hold on a moment. The adults are accused of doing a runner and nicking kettle who you will swab an innocent child? Run! And God Speed…

Anorak

Posted: 10th, March 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (3)

Madeleine McCann and the Cyprus toaster thieves

TO Cyprus, where Madeleine McCann has been spotted. Maybe. The Financial Mirror reports:

Cyprus police have confirmed local media reports of a sighting of a child that looked like missing girl Madeleine McCann, informing Interpol that the child may have been part of a British family that has already fled the island.

Anorak

Posted: 7th, March 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (3)