Madeleine McCann: Gail Cooper Feels, Clarence Mitchell PR PI And Armchair Detectives
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
GLASGOW DAILY RECORD: “Find This Man New Suspect Sketch Prompts Family Plea”
“THE family of Madeleine McCann yesterday issued a desperate message to the world saying: ‘Find this man’. Gerry and Kate McCann have called for an international search after an artist’s impression of a man they believe may have been involved in their daughter’s disappearance was released”
McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell says: “Who is he? Where is he? What, if any, is his connection to Madeleine’s disappearance?… If he is innocent, we want him to come forward for his own sake so he can be ruled out”
Would you go forward and enter the circus?
DAILY MIRROR front page: “New hope for Kate – NEW CLUE IN HUNT FOR MADDY”
Each new clue gives a new headline and story. Play along at home. You the sleuth
“WHO IS HE.. WHERE IS HE? THE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE Sinister stranger in paedo gang fear”
“Kate and Gerry McCann yesterday issued a desperate plea for information about a bogus charity collector whose gang are feared to have snatched Madeleine”
Gail Cooper says she saw him. So did Paul Gordon
Says Gerry McCann: “We appeal to anyone who knows him or may have seen him to contact our investigators” – Not the police?
A McCann family source says: “It’s significant. This is the first time we have been able to produce a detailed picture of someone who could have taken Madeleine. Our agents have been speaking to a witness who has told us about another man seen around the area. We’re doing all we can to get a similar image of him”
THE SUN: “FIND THE WEIRDO – Hunt for scruff feared to have taken Maddie”
A picture of Clarence Mitchell holding up the sketches of the “oddball”. No, not Robert Murat, another “oddball”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry are quite buoyant. Every time we do something like this it gives them strength”
As for the man: “The McCanns’ investigators Metodo 3 followed up the April sightings. Gail said the suspect was aged 38-45, long-haired with a handlebar moustache and big teeth. He may have been North African”
Gail Cooper says she saw him. She tells us: “He was very unpleasant and creepy. I felt vulnerable in his presence. He made my blood run cold”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: SIGHTINGS OF WANTED MAN FLOODING IN”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Calls are coming in. One man rang to says he distinctly remembers seeing this man during a visit to Portugal two years ago. Others are being co-ordinated by the investigation team in Spain”
The Express says this image “bears a close resemblance to an earlier drawing of a man seen carrying a child on the night Madeleine disappeared. That would be the picture rooted in Jane Tanner’s sighting. The picture of the man with no face
“WORLDWIDE hunt for suspect”
Says Gail Cooper: “In my job I have to assess people and make a judgment. My judgment is that this man could have been the kidnapper. I would recognise him immediately if I saw him again. His appearance has really stuck in my mind. What happened is still very vivid to me”
Everyone’s a sleuth looking for Madeleine McCann
DAILY MAIL: “Is this the man who snatched Maddie from bed?”
No! Yes! Maybe!!!
THE SCOTSMAN: “More like the police than the police – new tactics in hunt for Madeleine”
“It had all the features of an official police press conference: a solemn appeal for sightings, delivered with detective-speak phrases such as ‘eliminating suspects in the investigation’. However, the man standing behind the lectern was not a senior policeman but a PR consultant hired by a family determined to find answers even if it means going it alone”
One former senior officer with Strathclyde says: “The language and the presentation that are being used imitate the police thanks to their PR people. They know that’s a good way to catch the public’s eye. It’s an authoritative approach and it captures people’s attention. I don’t think there’s any real policing expertise, though. I’d say it’s highly unlikely they have anywhere near the resources of an active policing force. The parents don’t know how to conduct an investigation and they’re dependent on people they are hiring, who, in some cases, may not be best suited for the job. I think, as time goes on, it’s unlikely they will find any new information on their own, outside of the chance someone will respond to this kind of public appeal”
DAILY STAR: “MADELEINE SUSPECT’S FAKE ORPHANAGE”
He’s the “creepy-looking oddball”. He’s the “weirdo”. Fail Cooper saw him “ogling” children
THE GUARDIAN front page: “Is this the man who abducted Madeleine? Two witnesses give similar descriptions”
“The long-haired man seen by Gail Cooper, 50, three times in late April last year, was said by Jane Tanner, a friend of the McCanns, to bear a “strong resemblance” to the man she saw carrying a child in pink pyjamas and bare feet from the complex on May 3, the night Madeleine vanished”
THE TIMES: “Kate and Gerry McCann release sketch of suspected abductor”
“One million copies of the sketch will be distributed throughout the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco after a description given to police by Gail Cooper, 50, a British tourist who stayed near the McCanns’ apartment”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “The man suspected of kidnapping Madeleine McCann”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “It is for Madeleine and for Madeleine’s sake. This man has to be traced”
Madeleine McCann: trials by media
Posted: 21st, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,286) | TrackBack | Permalink
