Madeleine McCann: Gypsies, Child Alerts And Coronation Street
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann: The Sun brings news that Our Maddie has been spotted, and a new child alert scheme is launched, and Coronation Street is on hold…
A DRAMATIC sighting of missing Madeleine McCann the day after she vanished is being urgently followed up by private investigators.
…spotted three years ago. We are not told whan the sighting was reported to police.
A man has reported seeing a girl he is now sure was Maddie lying in the back of a van. She was wearing pyjamas identical to the pair Maddie had on when she was abducted.
The witness must have been pretty close to see her lying in the back of a white van – close enough to see the pattern on her pyjamas.
New witness Carlos Moreira, 65, has told investigators the little girl he saw was with a man and woman who looked like gipsies.
Get the gypsies!
A source close to Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry said last night the sighting was “highly significant” and added: “It could be a key breakthrough.”
Mr Moreira was driving from Carregado to Alentejo on May 4. It is 160 miles from Praia da Luz, scene of Madeleine’s disappearance. At 8am, he was in the Benavente region. It took him a while to put what he saw in the context of what was occurring miles to the south. It is only now he is deemed newsworthy. Says he:
“I saw a white van with the back door open. I saw a girl, lying on a pile of clothes in the back. She was wearing a two-piece pyjama set, pink and white, or yellow. I saw her back, I could see her hands and feet.
“She moved one of her fingers but she was deeply asleep. When the van door was opened, she did not wake up, as if she was drugged.”
Fact laced with speculation:
“This girl was blonde and looked around four. A woman came out of the back of the van. I noted that a strong and tall man, wearing a suit, was in front of the snack bar.
“He looked like a gipsy. He was with the woman from the van, he was younger than her. He told her off for leaving the van.”
Why now? Why doe she tells us now?
Mr Moreira said the experience stuck in his mind – but he only realised it could be useful when he saw a cop being asked on TV why roads to the north or to Spain were not blocked after Maddie vanished.
Had only all road users know that Our Maddie was missing. Had only…
Says the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell:
“His account is being looked into. He has done the right thing in coming forward.”
Incidentally, the Mirror has new in: “KID GRAB ALERTS TO HALT TV”
Child kidnap alerts could interrupt national TV programmes whenever a youngster is snatched, it will be announced today. Kate McCann, mum of missing Madeleine, was due to be a special guest at the launch of Child Rescue Alert.
No programme un-interrupted. A “senior police source” says:
“If the alert is nationwide, broadcasters have agreed to put it out immediately. Coronation Street, if it’s on at the time, will be interrupted.”
What odds viewers mistake the bulleting for part of the Corrie plot? It can happen.
Sky News adds:
Police say the first few hours after an abduction are crucial in locating a missing child. But they expect the alerts to be rarely issued and will use new computer software to handle the anticipated deluge of calls from concerned members of the public.
A child goes missing and it’s on the telly… Are you entertained?
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Kate and Gerry McCann give an interview to Portuguese TV channel RTP's reporter Sandra Felgueiras, following the launch of a new video by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) initiative, at the Millbank Studios in London as the couple continue the search for their daughter, Madeleine, who disappeared while on holiday in Portugal in May 2007.
Posted: 25th, May 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
