Madeleine McCann: The Lindy Chamberlain Connection, The Tapas 9 And Buried At Sea
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY MAIL front page:
• “Judge wants Kate to face new quiz
• Family hits back at ‘disgraceful lies’
• Police: We may never find the body”
The Mail looks at the ‘TAPAS 9’ – “The seven people dining with Gerry and Kate McCann at the Ocean Club tapas bar on the night of May 3 have all steadfastly defended their friends.”
THE TIMES front page: “Madeleine police travel to Britain.” A squad of Portuguese officers will travel to Leicester to work alongside British officers who are investigating the McCanns.
The McCanns are to travel to Portugal next Wednesday.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE BODY ‘THROWN INTO THE SEA’.”
Stop digging up the church and the pavements of Praia da Luz. The Express has a new development.
“Not enough evidence to charge parents. We need a confession, say police.”
A confession? Back to the church! Put a wire tap on the priest!
A “senior” Portuguese police officer says: “There are a lot of clues, signs and indications, but without more elements it’s impossible for us to determine what happened in those vital hours. Even if the blood and traces gathered in the car or the apartment were confirmed to correspond 100 per cent to the little girl’s DNA, that wouldn’t prove anything.
“Those elements could only confirm – and at the moment we don’t even have that – that the little girl was in the apartment, which is plainly obvious, and in the car. In either of the cases, nothing would prove homicide, just that the body of the little girl had been transferred in the vehicle.”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADDY’S BODY MAY NEVER BE FOUND.”
The Mirror cares too much for the poor family McCann to speculate on this most sensitive matter. So it takes a look at what the papers are saying Portugal.
Notes Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias: “The police admit the body doesn’t now exist. Readers learn: “One of the most credible possibilities would involve the body having been thrown in a sack of stones at sea from a yacht.”
But the McCanns hired a car…
“Another paper, 24 Horas, reports that detectives may be relying on the McCanns making a confession,” notes the Mirror, with compassion.
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – DID MUM CONFESS?” And: “police to quiz priest.”
We knew it. The priest. And haul the Pope in. Do not forget the Pope.
THE SUN front page: “COPS FEAR BODY WON’T BE FOUND. MADDIE ‘DUMPED IN The SEA’.”
Not the Holy See. The Mediterranean Sea.
The Sun notes: “A body weighed down with stones and dumped in deep water from a boat several miles out, however, would simply disappear.”
A friend of the McCanns says how the couple feel Portuguese cops are “playing a game with them”. She says: “They are very frustrated — they really do not know what is going on.”
The pal says: “Gerry and Kate feel police in Portugal have forgotten about their daughter. The investigation has become political and they feel the police are playing a game with them. They just want them to concentrate on finding Maddie.”
THE GUARDIAN:
“Dingo mother backs McCanns.” Possibly the best headline in the case thus far.
“Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, the Australian woman wrongly convicted of murdering her baby after telling police it had been snatched by a dingo, has spoken out in support of the parents of the missing Madeleine McCann, claiming they could suffer a similar miscarriage of justice to her own.”
Did a dingo take Madeleine McCann? Can the Sun get another bag of stones, a mid-range dog and investigate?
Chamberlain’s ordeal was, of course, turned into a film. Her role was given flesh and bone by Meryl Streep. Who will play Kate McCann in Luz Of My Life? The smart money must be on Jennifer Aniston or a blonder Michelle Pfeiffer.
Sam Neill played Lindy’s husband Michael. He could be Gerry, if you squint a bit.
Madeleine McCann: The Story So Far
Posted: 15th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (326) | TrackBack | Permalink
