Madeleine McCann: Watching Kate McCann And Looking For Damages

MADELEINE McCann Watch: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Madeleine McCann in the news: Three summers on from when Madeleine McCann vanished, the media is still watching the parents, zooming in on Kate McCann. The McCanns are in Portugal in search of Madeleine…and damages.

Daily Star (front page): “MADDIE: OUT NEW HOPE”

The harrowing trip was “extremely emotional” for Kate McGann and her first visit to Portugal since Maddie disappeared in May 2007…

The couple’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell added: “It has been a difficult and daunting ordeal for both of them, but particularly Kate. It’s her first trip back and it’s been very traumatic for her. In the end she just decided: ‘I’ll do it for Madeleine.’

“It’s an extremely emotional time but she feels it was necessary to help find her daughter.”

Daily Mirror (front page): “Every day I cry for Maddy”

At an emotional press conference in Lisbon she admitted: “I cry for her every day.”

Daily Express (front page): “MADELEINE: We will never give up our search says a tearful Kate as she returns to Portugal for the first time since her child vanished”

KATE McCann yesterday said she would return to the resort where her daughter Madeleine vanished.

Yesterday she said she would not. What changed?

Asked if she was going back to Praia da Luz, Kate said they would not be going to the Algarve resort on this trip, but added: “We will go back to Praia da Luz some time. This could be a crucial point in the search for Madeleine and we will do everything we can to help find our daughter.”

Becsue the detectives ays that Our Maddie is in Praia and the environs. While youi were in Lisbon:

And all the other children that aren’t found also supports his theory? He feels this is the lone prowler who has Maddie stashed in a cellar or dungeon in the lawless villages around Praia da Luz.

The Sun (front page): “Kate in Lisbon plea to Maddie”

BRAVE Kate McCann fought back tears yesterday as she returned to Portugal for the first time since she was made a suspect in daughter Maddie’s abduction. A drained-looking Kate was there with husband Gerry to meet lawyers suing a cop on their behalf over cruel claims he made in a book.

Want more facts, some details perhaps that the “bungling cops” overlooked and the Sun’s investigative reporters can unearth?

The McCanns, both doctors from Rothley, Leics, were officially cleared. But Amaral wrote a book called The Truth of the Lie in which he claimed Maddie was dead and her parents had made up the story of her being abducted.

Doctors. Which is the kidn of relevant face

Daily Telegraph: “Madeleine McCann’s parents planning to sue former detective who led hunt for daughter – Madeleine McCann’s parents are consulting lawyers over suing the former detective who led the hunt for their daughter for £1.2 million.”

The hunt for Madeleine McCann is taking place in courtrooms.

They are considering suing the former Portuguese police officer Goncalo Amaral over his book, In The Truth Of The Lie, in which he claims that Madeleine is dead and questions the McCanns’ account that she was taken while they were eating with friends nearby.

The McCanns felt the book was very hostile towards them and have already obtained a ban on further sales of the book and an injunction against Mr Amaral from repeating his claims about them or Madeleine.

The Guardian: “McCanns return to Portugal in search of Madeleine – and to sue police chief”

The parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann returned to Portugal today to launch a fresh charm offensive aimed at convincing sceptical locals that there is still hope of finding her alive.

A little cynical from the Matthew Taylor and Esther Addley.

Though the couple were careful to feed information to the British media, local newspaper and broadcasters felt they were not given the same access, and as criticism of the Portuguese police grew in British papers, they in turn began leaking prejudicial material to disgruntled local journalists.

By late summer 2007 the couple had already begun legal action against one local magazine, Tal e Qual, for falsely alleging they had been responsible for Madeleine’s death.

Their support among the Portuguese population, always fragile, became openly hostile when the couple were named official suspects that September — Kate McCann was booed as she left the police station and they fled Portugal a few days later. Yesterday’s visit was the first time she had returned since.

Mitchell left the Foreign Office to work as the couple’s personal spokesman weeks later as some headlines in the UK became almost equally critical. The following March the McCanns accepted £550,000 in damages from Express Newspapers, for “grotesque and grossly defamatory” allegations, including that they had sold Madeleine, and were involved in swinging or wife swapping. They have since been formally cleared of any involvement in the crime.

The McCanns are innocent.

In Portugal, however, there remains a widespread lack of sympathy and, among many, an open suspicion of the couple, which was fed by the publication of the former police chief Gonçalo Amaral’s book A Verdade da Mentira (The Truth of the Lie) in July 2008. The McCanns’ decision today to speak privately to local rather than British media may be the first sign of a change in strategy from their new Lisbon PR advisers.

And Madeleine McCann? Well, she remains missing.

Note: The McCanns want to keep their daughter in the public eye, keep people looking for her. But they are innocent – and they are litigious. Reporting on their story makes running a publication fraught with peril. Our moderators try to read every comment, and are unable to publish many of them. The McCanns have chosen to be in the public eye, and they set the modern media a tricky challenge: stick to the facts but make room for the sentiment.

Anorak

Posted: 24th, September 2009 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann Comments (10) | TrackBack | Permalink