Madeleine McCann: 29 Muslim Countries Refuse To Join Hunt For Our Maddie
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann: Scotland Yard investigates, 19 countries – how many are Muslim, Daily Star readers? – refuse to hunt for Our Maddie and Gerry McCann tells the twins all he knows.
Sunday Express (front page): “YARD ASKED TO REOPEN MADDIE CASE”
By whom?
“Calls for Scotland Yard to step in after police in Portugal fail to take the latest appeal for information seriously”
Calls by whom?
The Express features not a picture of the Our Maddie its readers know but the one mocked up by the fine people at Ceops. The piece is written by James Murray, who goes under the new title “Investigations Editor”. As for the news:
Kate and Gerry McCann want the Yard’s renowned kidnap team to assess an avalanche of new information after last week’s emotional internet appeal, which generated five million hits from around the world.
This does not seem unfair. A British national has gone missing. But what information should the police spend their resources looking at? James Murray investigates:
Portuguese ¬police, the Sunday Express can reveal, have failed to set up a new phone line for callers to ring with information.
So no police station have a phone? Has the National Emergency Number – 112 – been decommissioned by those bungling Portuguese coppers?
Last night there was fury over the dismissive response. Interpol and Europol are among 163 ¬forces worldwide that have committed to help with the appeal.
Fury. Always the fury. But can it be that 163 police forces have committed to help find Madeleine McCann? And if police in South African, Canada, Chile, Japan and Romania are looking then why not the Portuguese? There are 192 coutries in the UN. This means that 29 countries are not helping find Our Maddie. Which is shocking.
No news on what those 163 police forces are doing to look, but Murray is more concerned with what the Portuguese are not doing:
Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria is still in charge of the Madeleine case because that is where she disappeared over two years ago. It would say only that if credible information comes in by fax, letter or email, it would be passed to senior officers if it was deemed “significant”.
So the front-page headline that they will not investigate is wrong. They will. What the Portuguese will not do is investigate every phone call and emails. This entire front-page screamer seems to be based on one man’s opinion.
Last night former Scotland Yard chief Dai Davies said it was time to let the Yard take over. The former royal protection head said: “Madeleine is a British subject and she deserves the best, which the Yard can provide. It is time to put any daft police protocols to one side and get on with the job of finding her. It is a solvable case.
“It is astonishing and disgraceful that the Portuguese have not assigned a specific team to scrutinise leads which could provide a breakthrough in the world’s biggest child abduction case.
“It is frankly outrageous that the parents of this poor child should be hiring private detectives to conduct an investigation which should have been taken on by the Yard in the first place.”
Dai Davis…? Oh, him. He’s the top copper who in a retired and media-friendly capacity jetted to Paia Da Luz in 2007, and with skiful investigative prowess came up with just four theories as to what happened to Our Maddie. Mirror readers learnt:
MY FOUR THEORIES
1. Maddie was snatched by an opportunist paedophile.
2. A planned abduction, plotted in UK, in which she was “snatched to order” by a paedophile gang.
3. Someone holding a grudge against the McCanns.
4. Snatched by local childless couple.
In 2008, he opined:
“The Portuguese investigation has quite simply not solved the crime and it is now looking increasingly likely that it will be shelved. I would suggest that this is the time to call on the Yard to take the lead and to get them to form a team of detectives to work on the case”
In other Maddie non-news news:
Mail on Sunday: “McCanns use psychologist to help tell twins about Madeleine
Mrs McCann, 41, said experts have said the youngsters will ask about Madeleine’s disappearance when they are ready. “We’ll be led by them,” she said. “We’ve had advice from a child psychologist and they’ve said Sean and Amelie will lead the way. If they ask a question, we’ll answer them honestly. I’m not going to rush them, but if they ask something then I’ll answer them.”
Mr McCann, 41, a heart specialist, added: “We will answer their questions openly and honestly. What they ask, we’ll tell them. We’ll tell them what happened and what information we know.”
So what happened and what is known? Well , kids, an innocent child went missing. And the media went nuts.
Madeleine McCann: no suspects. No sign of the child. Just a media narrative…
* 192-163 equals whatever reader Martyn P tells us.
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Posted: 8th, November 2009 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (6) | TrackBack | Permalink
