Madeleine McCann: Pacheco Deceived, Anne Enright Accuses And The Mail’s Underage Sex
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE TRYING TO MAKE KATE CRACK”
Police are exerting “pressure” on Kate McCann. Portuguese police are to reconstruct the night of Madeleine’s disappearance in the style of TV’s Crimewatch, with the focus on the mother
Page 5: “Priest: I was deceived” – Father Jose Manuel Pacheco says “I was deceived”. He “finally broke his silence”. Says he: “I was deceived. I was just doing my job supporting lost souls. I would do that again with any family who were in their situation. I didn’t do anything wrong”
But deceived? In what way? Readers learn his mistake had been in forming a “close bond with the couple”
“Booker author’s dislike’” – Booker prize winner Anne Enright says she disliked Kate and Gerry McCanns “earlier than most people”. Writing in the London Review of Books, Enright notes: “I thought I was angry with them for leaving their children alone.”
Enright is a “mother of two small children”. She can empathise less as a writer than as a parent. But: “In fact I was angry at their failure to accept that their daughter was probably dead.” Look out for Enright’s next work: Me & Maddie
DAILY MAIL front page: “Five top British crime experts went to Portugal to examine the Maddie case. What is their verdict…?”
A verdict? No body. No arrest made. No court case. Just a verdict. And from “crime experts”…
Pages 18 and 19: “THE MADDIE FILES – Five of Britain’s top crime experts were sent to Portugal to give their verdicts on the McCann case. Here they reveal their deeply disturbing conclusions…”
Who sent these sleuths? The British police? Richard Branson? The Pope? No – Channel 4’s Dispatches. The Madeleine McCann mystery is a media circus, so what more fitting than the TV as a courtroom and arbiter of justice?
The Mail’s Roger Graef presides. He says that under Portuguese law, the age of consent is 13 (“between couples of the same age”). It’s not, yer honour. It is 14. “Portugal has many more paedophiles than it cares to admit.” How many? We do not know. It pains Graef to divulge the hideous details. But there have been two cases of child abduction in the past 15 years over there
The crackers are THE CRIMINAL PROFILER (David Canter), THE SEARCH EXPERT (Gary Lig), THE FORENSIC ANALYST (David Barclay), THE SOHAM DETECTIVE (Chris Stevenson) and THE MEDIA HANDLER (Matt Tapp).
They unearth no new clues, no new evidence, no new ideas. But they get to be on the telly and in the papers. And then they return to the UK to crack other cases, like the murder of Rhys Jones, the whereabouts of Suzy Lamplugh, the capture of Osama bin Laden, the wheabout of the UK’s most wanted Paul Bures “wanted in relation to multiple charges of Rape and Sexual assault on male children aged 13-16 years. He currently resides in Spain”) and…
THE MIRROR front page: “Maddy case is probed by Soham cop” – Former Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, “the man who caught Soham killer Ian Huntely”, is advancing his media career
THE SUN front page: “Soham chief in Maddie cop rap” – Stevenson of the Media says the Portuguese police were “totally ill equipped” to handle the case
Page 8: “MADDIE PROBE IS TOO BIG FOR PORTUGAL COPS – Soham chief blasts ‘too slow’ force”. Is this why the British police sent dogs and helped with forensic tests?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE PARENTS HID TRUTH – Priest reveals McCanns’ deceit”
Pages 6 and 7: “McCANNS DECEIVED ME – I wish I’d never given them key to the church.” Father Pacheco has been told of by his bishop for getting too close to the McCanns
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: Pictures of Kate McCann and Booker prize winner – and mother – Anne Enright. A caption: “Kate McCann avoids the worst of Anne Enright’s criticism although the author says ‘disliking the McCanns is an international sport’”
Page 3: In her essay Disliking The McCanns, Enright notes: “I find Gerry’s need to ‘influence the investigation’ more provoking than her [Kate’s] flat sadness, or the very occasional glimpse of wounded narcissism that flecks her public appearance… The language he uses is more appropriate to a corporate executive than to a desperate father…But we are all used to the idea of corporations lying to us…”
Mrs Enright has not been to Portugal to work on the case. Not yet
THE TIMES pages 6 and 7: “‘It is time to discard the myths and half-truths. She was taken.'” So says David Canter.
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Fat Portuguese women to blame for Kate’s pain
Posted: 18th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,432) | TrackBack | Permalink
