Madeleine McCann: Mum’s The Word, War Of Words And Woolfall PR
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – Police wanted to lock up mum.”
(As noted yesterday, Kate McCann I snow billed as ‘mum’.)
“Kate McCann was just hours away from being locked up in a police cell, it emerged yesterday,” readers learn
“Detectives who interrogated the mother of missing Madeleine for more than 11 hours wanted her put behind bars after she refused to answer key questions.”
The police want to put the suspects behind bars, eh? Maybe they want to put all suspects behind bars, just to be safe? And swab them all, like they do in the UK, just to be safe?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE IS DEAD: No doubts say British cops”
No doubts? Unless she is found alive, of course…
British police also believe it was right for the McCanns to be named as suspects by their Portuguese counterparts
A “senior British detective” says: “It was not a decision that would have been taken at all lightly. The English officers would have been fully aware of the implications of taking such a step and would have agonised over it. They knew they would effectively be casting a shadow of suspicion over a couple who have lost their daughter and who maintain they are entirely innocent victims of a heinous crime.
“The case is in the media spotlight. A wrong call would be exposed to worldwide condemnation. There is no way any officer would make that decision unless they believed it was wholly necessary as a crucial part of the investigation.’’
Good to know the British and Portuguese police are working together…
DAILY MAIL: “British police attack Portuguese ‘dirty tricks’ over Madeleine”
Oh?
“British police entered the war of words over Madeleine McCann to deny Portuguese detectives’ claims that she was killed in her family’s holiday apartment. The Leicestershire force said it did not back the theory put forward by Portuguese detectives that the four-year-old died in the care of her parents, Gerry and Kate, which was leaked to a Portuguese newspaper this week.
“The daily Correio da Manha quoted unnamed sources as saying British officers believed the missing four-year-old’s corpse was hidden in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz”
A police source adds: “Leicestershire Constabulary have been careful not to offer an opinion as to what has happened to Madeleine as it is not party to all the evidence as it is not our investigation.”
Quite so. What is there to add? No new facts. No arrests. No body.
Says the Mail: “The move also highlighted the deep divisions between detectives in the McCanns’ home county and those in Portugal.”
A British source “linked to the inquiry” says: “It appears that Portuguese police are resorting to dirty tricks to divert attention from their troubled investigation
At last the papers are focusing on finding the missing girl…
DAILY MIRROR: “McCanns plea to talk as cop case collapses”
“The shambolic Portuguese investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has ground to a halt”
A source says: “There is little expectation of dramatic developments in the near future…There is no body and the chances of finding evidence to suggest that Madeleine’s corpse could have been stored then put in the boot of the McCanns’ car are fading fast. It means the police will have serious difficulties in convincing prosecutors of their theory – let alone a jury.
“Unless the Portuguese police have kept something pretty amazing up their sleeve they need a new witness or a major new discovery. Basically they’ve run out of evidence”
But what is this case about if not drama and sensation? Nothing should be ruled out.
Alipio Ribeiro, head of the Policia Judiciaria, reportedly told aides: “There is a crisis every day. This one is resolved, let’s see what tomorrow’s is”
He gets it
THE TIMES: “I saw Kate and Gerry McCanns’ despair and if they were acting they deserved an Oscar – The PR expert who advised Madeleine’s parents in the first weeks of her disappearance offers a new insight into their state of mind”
Alex Woolfall is a public relations consultant for the Ocean Club, Praia da Luz. He met the McCanns. He is an expert in “crisis PR” – just what the case needs. And who can trust if not a PR?
“I was struck at the perception of people who had watched Kate and Gerry: that they were very controlled and perhaps were not responding in a way people thought would be more natural. They were not at all controlled. When I was with them, they were between being completely distraught and trying to do what they felt was the right thing”
PR crisis averted. Now to find Madeleine…
TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN & INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 6th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (656) | TrackBack | Permalink
