Madeleine McCann: Child Alert, Fear And Tony Bennett’s McCann Club
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann: Kate and Gerry’s fury at ‘club’ devoted to prosecuting them”
Gerry and Kate McCann have expressed their anger at the establishment of a fee-paying “club” dedicated to seeing them prosecuted over the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.
A retired British solicitor, Tony Bennett, has set up a fund called The Madeleine Foundation, which aims to bring a private prosecution against the McCanns for alleged child neglect.
Tony Bennett has been on Anorak.
But Madeleine’s parents fear members of the public will inadvertently donate money to it because they may mistake it for the McCanns’ own Madeleine Fund, which pays for private investigations into her whereabouts.
Mr Bennett says his fund is a “subscription-only members’ club, charging a £10 annual fee”.
Says Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman: “It is a great shame that Mr Bennett feels the need to make money out of Madeleine McCann. He did not seek permission from Gerry or Kate to use Madeleine’s name.”
It’s a brand?
“This so-called foundation is in no way doing anything to help find Madeleine.”
Says Bennett:
“Some of the money immediately raised will be used to pay for a barrister to give his or her opinion on how best to proceed with a legal action against the McCanns. We are a group of people, which is rapidly growing in number, who want to get to the truth of what happened to Madeleine. We will also campaign for changes to the law about parents who leave children on their own.
DAILY MAIL: “Brussels throws out McCann’s appeal for European missing child alert system”
Kate and Gerry McCann’s campaign for an alert system for missing children across Europe will not be adopted by the EU, ministers said yesterday.
FENLAND TODAY: “McCanns win more backing for child abduction alert”
More MEPs have backed a campaign spearheaded by the Rothley parents of Madeleine McCann for a Europe-wide child abduction alert, the couple’s spokesman said.
WALES ONLINE: “Common sense not cotton wool for children, says safety tsar”
PARENTS should not respond to fears of child abduction and knife crime by wrapping their children in “cotton wool”, a leading charity’s new child safety tsar warned.
Karen McFarlane has been appointed by Children in Wales to promote a reduction in avoidable deaths and injuries.
She said: “What we’d like to try to do is empower both the children and the parent as they make informed choices. We don’t want to wrap them in cotton wool”…
Lynne Hill, the charity’s policy director, said children’s fears could be fuelled by the portrayal of dangers in media coverage.
She said: “Children are very, very aware of what’s reported on the news. The decision of some children to carry knives was often in response to a fear of attack,” she said.
“What’s striking is very often children think it’s a way of protecting themselves.”
Fears of child abduction had escalated following the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007.
Ms Hill said: “I know when Madeleine McCann was kidnapped there were a lot of reports of children being very fearful that someone would snatch them or a friend of theirs”
Increasing the fear. It could be you…
Posted: 9th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (701) | TrackBack | Permalink
