Madeleine McCann: What really happend with the troll Tony Bennett and Peter Tobin

ON Thursday last, Tony Bennett, 65, was given a three months prison sentence suspended for one year for publishing claims that Kate and Gerry McCann caused their daughter Madeleine’s death. There is, of course, no proof that the child has died. There is no evidence whatsoever that the McCanns had any part in any death. All we know is that the innocent child is missing.

Mr Justice Tugendhat found Bennett guilty of contempt of court.

“I am sure that he intended to allege that the claimants are to be suspected of causing the death of their daughter, and did in fact dispose of her body, lie about what happened and covered up what they had done. It is essential for the rule of law that injunctions and court orders be obeyed. It can’t be an answer that the person who is giving an undertaking or subject to an injunction can ignore it with impunity while it is in force.”

Anorak

Posted: 23rd, February 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Madeleine McCann: Gerry McCann says ‘Madeleine and her safety is often treated with complete contempt’

MADELEINE McCANN: Kate and Gerry McCann want Lord Leveson proposals on media regulation be implemented in full.

They should not get their way. Press Freedom means what it says. No buts. Why should journalists be held to ethical and moral standards imposed by others? You only need a access to the internet and an opinion to be a journalist. You might not be a good one, but the public will be the judges.

Why should a human being not need a license to express a view? True, writers must be held to account for what they /we say. But freedom of expression cannot be ring-fenced. You cannot cause offence to no-one.

Anorak

Posted: 17th, February 2013 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Is Madeleine McCann in Ukraine? No – but her posters are

MADELEINE McCann was not in New Zealand. The DNA taken from an innocent child in New Zealand proved that she was not stolen by her parents. Kiwi police then told media:

“Given that there is conclusive evidence that their daughter is not Madeleine McCann and has no connection to Madeleine McCann, it is only right that she and her family are entitled to a level of privacy that most of us enjoy.”

Blimey! They needed to prove their child was theirs. Nice.

Anorak

Posted: 15th, February 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (3)

Madeleine McCann: A jailed troll and police swab kids in New Zealand

MADELEINE McCann is back in the news. Why? Well, the Daily Star has news:

MADELEINE MCCANN PARENTS WANT JAIL FOR EX-SOLICITOR’S ‘SLUR’

It’s Tony Bennettt. Regular Anorak readers will know why comments on this story are not enabled.

Doctors Kate and Gerry McCann, both 44, claim Tony Bennett, 65, is in contempt of court for breaching promises that he would not repeat the allegations.

Bennett has accused Gerry and Kate McCann of covering up their daughter’s death.

Anorak

Posted: 6th, February 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Madeleine McCann: On the road to Brazil with dead Raymond Hewlett

THE Sunday Express has shocking news. The front-page headline screams: “MADDIE KIDNAP PHOTO SHOCK.“

Can it be true? Is it possible that missing Madeleine McCann still sells newspapers? (Surely, ‘been found alive and well’ – ed.) The sub-headline is no less informative:

“Scotland Yard has new pictures that seem to show Madeleine in Brazil.”

Anorak

Posted: 20th, January 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (4)

Madeleine McCann spotted in New Zealand for fifth time

IS Madeleine McCann in New Zealand? The New Zealand Herald reports:

Senior Sergeant John Fookes told local media police were informed of the sighting on New Year’s Eve and about 70 police officers were instructed to look out for the girl.

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, January 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: Robert Murat’s mum is writing a book

MADELEINE McCann: Gerry McCann has called for all the recommendations raised in Lord Leveson’s Report on media standards to be made State sanctioned. He and his wife Kate McCann undoubtedly suffered at the hands of a voracious media. Others also suffered.

Daily Express: “JENNY MURAT: KATE MCCANN PRINTED SUCH AWFUL THINGS ABOUT MY ROBERT IN HER MADELEINE BOOK”

Anorak

Posted: 2nd, December 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: Did Raymond Hewlett ‘take Maddy’?

THE Daily Mirror asks on its front page: “DID He Take Maddy?” It’s Raymond Hewlett, the convicted and dead paedophile. The Mirror says “Cold case cops to quiz Bris about child rapist.”

Hewlett is the man who died. He’s the man who never did make a death bed confession (the Sun said he did – he didn’t) but maintained he’d never met the missing child. Despite no evidence linking the child rapist to Madeleine McCann’s vanishing, Hewlett was labelled the “Maddie paedo”, a “person of interest“, the “Maddie paedophile” and “Maddie Pervert”.

Anorak

Posted: 23rd, November 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment (1)

Madeleine McCann: McCanns no longer hire private detectives

THE Express, as ever, has no news of Madeleine McCann. But it does have news of the hunt for her:

MADDIE MCCANN PRIVATE EYES CALLED OF (sic)

James Murray and Tracey Kandohia have no news:

KATE and Gerry McCann are no longer employing private detectives to search for their missing daughter Madeleine

Anorak

Posted: 28th, October 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (19)

April Jones: Kay Burley makes them weep as troll-faced Amanda Platell spots paedos everywhere

APRIL Jones: The five-year-old went missing from the Bryn Y Gog estate in Machynlleth, Wales. The news round-up:

Daily Mail (front page): “April’s family release poignant new photos as hope for her fades”

Daily Mirror (front page): I saw April driven off”

“Witness says he was the last to see her alive”

Armchair detectives know that the last person to see anyone live is a suspect in that person’s unexplained demise. But April Jones might be alive. We don’t know.

AN OAP saw a car speed away from the spot where April Jones vanished. The distraught 70-year-old said moments earlier he had seen her playing with pals but she suddenly disappeared. As the hunt for April, five, became a murder inquiry yesterday, he added: “I’m kicking myself that I did not raise the alarm.”

Anorak

Posted: 6th, October 2012 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (10)

Frankie Boyle says Jimmy Savile is shagging Madeleine McCann in heaven

YOU never saw Kate Middleton’s breasts on the news. You never saw the Innocence of Muslims film on the news. And on This is Leicester, you can’t see the tweet that triggered the headline:

Outrage at Frankie Boyle’s offensive Madeleine McCann comment on Twitter

Know that:

Comedian Frankie Boyle has been under attack for making a “deeply offensive” comment about Madeleine McCann on Twitter

Anorak

Posted: 2nd, October 2012 | In: Celebrities, Madeleine McCann | Comments (21)

Madeleine McCann and the hunt for a Portuguese smoker

THE Daily Express has news of Madeleine McCann. Yes, We know.

MADDIE MCCANN MAY HAVE BEEN WATCHED FROM BALCONY, WITNESS TELLS YARD

James Murray has more:

A KEY witness with potentially vital ­evidence about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has just been interviewed by a Scotland Yard detective on the cold case review team.

Anorak

Posted: 25th, September 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (3)

Stephen Street, Colette McPartland and Madeleine McCann is Scarlett

TOM Rawstorne has a question for Daily Mail readers – and it involves Madeleine McCcann:

Is Maddie the reason this girl was taken into care? Portuguese police say her British parents were too drunk to look after her… but the explanation could be more sinister

We meet Stephen Street, 42, and Colette McPartland, 37. They live in Portugal. They used to live with their daughter Scarlett, 2. She’s been taken into care. Rawstorne sums up the story:

…local police claim, the two English teachers — who have lived in Portugal for the past five years — had been drinking so heavily that Ms McPartland could not stand. Their child, meanwhile, had been left to run wild. At one stage, it is alleged, it was only the intervention of a passer-by that prevented Scarlett from running on to a busy road nearby. As a result, Scarlett was taken from the couple, bundled into a police car and driven to the local police station, where she was found to be wet, hungry and thirsty.

Bundled. The language has shifted. When the Mail first reported the story, it said:

Police claim the British couple were drinking white wine at a bar in Portugal while their daughter Scarlett played 100 yards away. Eyewitnesses claim they were staggering around.

We were told:

But there was no sign of them yesterday at their cramped ground-floor flat near to the square where they went drinking.

Anorak

Posted: 16th, September 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment (1)

Annecy Lake Murders: Madeleine McCann, Laurent Fillion-Robin and ideas

THE ANNECY Lake murders: the murders of four people in the French Alps have been knocked off the front pages by the London 2012 Paralympics closing ceremony. Feel good beats a murder mystery. But there are reports:

The Telegraph tweets: “Alps shootings: police widen cordon around al-Hilli family home in Claygate, ask neighbours to leave houses.”

The Times has a Q&A, which is more Q than A:

Q. “Were the Hillis victims of a carjacking that went wrong?”
A: “…Investigators say it is possible…”

Q. “Was Saad al-Hilli a target for professional hitmen?”
A. “…investigators say it is also possible.”

Q. “Could a family feud have led to the massacre?”
A. the murders have “left investigators questioning whether it could really have been carried out by, or on the instructions of, a relative”

Q. “Are there other theories?”
A. Yes.

See this straw plucking from the Guardian:

The theory of a lone killer driven by psychopathic, religious or racial hatred is, perhaps, one of France’s worst fears in the aftermath of the Annecy shootings. It would take the country back to the dark days earlier this year when Mohamed Merah, who claimed links to Islamic extremism, went on three separate killing sprees in and around the south-western city of Toulouse.

Q. “What evidence points to a professional hitman?”
A. Some.

Anorak

Posted: 10th, September 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment

Madeleine McCann is spotted more often because she’s missing, says detective

WHEN we read that a German tourist has spotted Madeleine McCann on a flight from Ibiza, we wondered why he din’t shout out her name or take a really clear photograph? Still, he did his best. And the Olive Press, which broke the story that was picked up by the Daily Mirror and the Sun, says he did ok. In “Detective praises reporting of ‘Maddie’ sighting in Ibiza”, we read of former Met officer Ian Horrocks. We’ve heard from this expert before. He’s “praised the quick thinking of reader Frank Bode“.

German businessman Bode was so convinced he had spotted the youngster with a German family on the flight from Ibiza to Munich a fortnight ago that he contacted police, the family and the Olive Press, after taking a photo.

Sure. But it wasn’t her. And then we get this belch of logic:

Horrocks believes that the longer Madeleine has been missing, the more likely it is that people will spot her.

Anorak

Posted: 4th, September 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (6)

Madeleine McCann was on holiday in Ibiza says German tourist who took a photo

FRANK Bode, 42, a German tourists, says he saw Madeleine McCann on a Lufthansa flight from Ibiza to Munich.

Says Bode to the Olive Press:

“My intuition told me that the girl, who was around seven to 10 years old, could be Madeleine. She didn’t seem to fit with her family at all. Her father was clearly German, as were her two brothers, both around 10 to 12 years old, but her mother appeared to be British.”

Anorak

Posted: 28th, August 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (4)

Scotland Yard to ask Cameron if he wants to keep looking for Madeleine McCann

AS we told you, when the Olympics have gone, and no sharks have been spotted in the Thames, Madeleine McCann will return to the news cycle.

Justin Davenport, tells Evening Standard readers that “Scotland Yard is to ask Prime Minister David Cameron if he wants to continue funding an inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann”.

Anorak

Posted: 24th, August 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann invoked in failed Canary Islands attack

NOT much news of Madeleine McCann so far this summer, but one news site does manage to muster:

Boy fights off kidnapper with karate chop in chilling echo of Madeleine McCann holiday abduction

So. This is how it went down. Finally.

In a chilling echo of the Madeleine McCann abduction, Jack Butler had left his family in a restaurant in Lanzarote to pop back to their bungalow when a suspected paedophile grabbed him and tried to drag him into an underground car park.

Anorak

Posted: 20th, August 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment (1)

Madeleine McCann: The cigarette butt theory

EVERY summer since she vanished in 2007, tales of Madeleine McCann have appeared in the papers as fast the hacks could press f9 on their keyboards. When the Olympics London 2012 ends, look out for an Our Maddie story in the national tabloid prress.

Anyone sane wants the child to be found alive and well. Everyone wants closure. The latest news reaches us via The Olive Press, “The best English newspaper in southern Spain.”

The headline announces:

Missing link overlooked in the Madeleine McCann case

Anorak

Posted: 9th, August 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (4)

Madeleine McCann is dead like Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman says Soham dad

TEN years ago. Ian Huntley murdered schoolgirls Holly Well and Jessica Chapman. The murders in Soham were massive news. The ghoulish media is keen to relive the story. Soham: A Parents’ Tale will be broadcast on ITV1 on Friday at 9pm. Goodbye, Dearest Holly – Ten Years On by Kevin Wells can be purchased on all internet bookshops. The Daily Mail tells its readers:

“We can only conclude with heavy hearts that there will not be a happy ending for the McCanns”: Holly Wells’ parents on Madeleine and why they will never get over the death of their own daughter.”

Given that the parents of Madeleine McCann have stated their desire for one and all to believe their child is alive, Mr Wells’ comments will surely be deemed unhelpful. Kate and Gerry McCann may even be “disgusted“. Looking for a dead child was pretty much the crux of the original Portuguese police investigation, the one slammed by the McCanns.

Wells goes on to say that Madeleine McCann’s vanishing helped him, in a way:

The media spotlight on Soham has thankfully diminished over the years. I believe the principle reason for Soham’s retreat from centre stage is the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The search for Madeleine dominated tabloid coverage for a long time.

It was a desperate story for Nicola and me to follow, but follow it we did, praying for a positive outcome throughout. We were constantly asked for media interviews but chose not to intrude on someone else’s tragedy.

Until…

Despite many leads, Madeleine remains missing. As outsiders to this tragedy, we can only conclude with heavy hearts that there will not be a happy ending. Please do not think about criticising the McCann family.

Why would anyone think that?

They have been forced to use the media of the world solely to raise awareness of their missing daughter. Some of the media comment and speculation they have had to endure, on top of dealing with their private grief, is nothing less than shameful.

See a man whose daughter was murdered by a deviant opining that the child is dead. Mr Wells has suffered greatly. It’s odd that he would invoke Our Maddie in his anniversary piece for the Mail. It’s almost as if – as if! – the Mail has encouraged him to mention that bemchmark of misisng children. “Any views on Madeleine McCann, Mr Wells?” asks the Mail’s hack.

Wells adds:

My wife Nicola and I believed, but more importantly hoped, that the ten-year anniversary of the ‘Soham Murders’ would somehow slip under the radar.

Says Mr Wells in the Daily Mail.

This industry in mourn porn continues in the Sun, wherein we meet Reece Jarvis:

Holly was very girly and Jessica helped me spell… I’ll never forget

Highlights include:

Jessica: “She was really sporty. I think of the Olympics and wonder whether she could have been there. Both of them were really clever.”
Holly: “Holly was a girly girl. I’m sure she would have been really pretty and broken a lot of hearts.”
Funeral: “I asked my parents if I could go to the funeral. I remember those two coffins and crying throughout.”
Huntley: “Reece, now a qualified joiner, refers to the man who haunted his dreams for years only as ‘him’ or ‘he’.”
Maxine Carr (Huntley’s former lover and accomplice): …a “nice, friendly person who used to bring us chocolates”.

We then met a woman in Soham:

One woman said: “We don’t ever talk about him, no one does. Only strangers mention his name.”

And:

Another friend still belongs to the Soham Fenland Majorettes where Holly was a keen member. Leader Nikki Richards revealed: “Their parents gave us a ‘Holly and Jessica Commemorative Cup’ which is presented every year.”

And then the Sun talks about gardening:

…a pearl pink rose — called the Soham rose — was later created in Holly and Jessica’s memory. As you walk along the quiet streets of this small Cambridgeshire village you can see it growing in people’s gardens, a fitting tribute to two beautiful girls.

Madeleine McCann is missing. She is not yet a flower…

Anorak

Posted: 29th, July 2012 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (4)

Madeleine McCann spotted in Washington and torture gang leader’s book

AS the schools break up and the sun threatens to shine on holiday heads, the media tuns to stories os sharks in your tap water and Madeleine McCann. the innocent child is not longer the subject of a voracious feeding frenzy but she is the benchmark in missing children and stories editors can tap into to reach the readers’ feelings.

From KREM news comes the amazing headline: “MADELEINE MCCANN SEEN.”

The story in full tells us:

Madeleine McCann went missing in May of 2007 and now she has been seen in Grand Coulee Dam, WA on July 11 2012 at Harvest foods wearing a pink butterfly dress, pink strap on high heels, and a flower hair clip with a butterfly on it, and with a man about the age of 43-48 wearing a blue sweatshirt, jeans and brown sandals.

Anorak

Posted: 18th, July 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (9)

Turning missing children into a nationwide panic

MADELEINE McCann’s mum, Kate McCann, is what the Sun terms the “ambassador for missing people”.

It’s not a country. Kate McCann is representing the Missing People charity.

She tells the Sun:

“As the search for Madeleine goes on, I want to look at the wider picture and see what I can to do to help. Before Madeleine went missing I was horrifyingly ignorant about it myself. It really is much bigger than people realise.”

Anorak

Posted: 11th, July 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment (1)

Robert Murat is targeted once more

THE Algarve Resident has an interview with Robert Murat. It’s in response to the widely reported opinion of one Stephen Birch. Luis Manuel Cabral writes in Portugal’s Diario de Noticias:

Maddie’s body may be in the backyard of Murat

Robert Murat is an innocent man. He was libelled and received damages in light of the media reporting on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. His name remains blackened.

This translation is via Google:

The “Morning Post” writes that after an exhaustive study of the land of Praia da Luz, and the changes that have suffered in five years, using images from Google which acquired, the entrepreneur Stephen Birch was taken, there are about two weeks , to the backyard of English Robert Murat. Passionate about the disappearance of Maddie McCann, Birch decided to mount surveillance of the nearby Ocean Club, where the girl was taken May 3, 2007. And when Murat left the house, he invaded her property with a geo-radar machine. Have you participated in the Judicial here who thinks he discovered the corpse of Madeleine. “I am fully convinced that it is Madeleine who is buried there” – about 60 inches below ground, “a passage in the area of ​​cement that was built there after the disappearance of the child” and that the actual searches done in PJ ground “in the northeast corner of the house, following a line of trees,” the businessman said yesterday.

Ok. It’s garbled. But you get the gist. It is utterly appalling.

Anorak

Posted: 7th, July 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Stephen Birch claims to have found Madeleine McCann’s remains

MADELEINE McCann: Stephen Birch is a South African businessman who claims to have discovered the remains of the missing child. He’s spoken with Portugal’s Expresso newspaper.

The allegation (via Google translate):

Stephen Birch is 47 years old and is the figure of the day. This South African businessman said to have discovered the remains of Maddie, a few meters from the property to Ocean Club resort, where the girl disappeared on May 3, 2007. Stephen bases his theory on who says he was more than 1 year and 3 months of research. The investigation was completed in the last 15 days, when moved to the Algarve to collect what he considers to be the conclusion of his research.

It came with two South Africans and even breaking the law, entered a private property, made a prospecting area where the body believes to be Maddie.

The Express confirmed with a geologist who used the machine to scan the terrain is the most advanced technology currently exists for this purpose. Also with the same specialist confirmed the result of the prospecting shows that there is something buried on site, although it is not possible to identify what, which means it can be anything and not necessarily the remains of Madeleine McCann.

Watch the video and know Stephen Birch in an exclusive interview to Expresso, given at the Lisbon airport, while returning to South Africa, June 28.

Portuguese police says it is reviewing these data, as analyzed all received over five years.

However, Scotland Yard asked for more material to Stephen Birch, to investigate the consistency of the theory of South Africa. Maddie is alive and captive or dead and buried, the truth is that the case continues to arouse the interest of people around the world. How did the Stephen Birch, whose investigation has cost him thousands.

No evidence. No facts.

Sky News adds:

He passed them to Scotland Yard detectives who are carrying out an investigative review of the case.

They have asked him for more information to help them interpret the scan results and the “raw data” the machine collected.

He has also sent the material to Portuguese police who abandoned their search for Madeleine 15 months after she disappeared.

He says:

“All I want to do is solve the mystery and bring closure to Madeleine’s family. I am convinced she lies where I have scanned.

“I’ve had the scans analysed and they show digging, a void and what could be human bones.”

No word from Danie Krugel.

Spotter: Karen

Anorak

Posted: 5th, July 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (10)

The Home Office and its Madeleine McCann ‘secret file’

YESTERDAY, the Sunday Express had a Madeleine McCann story. The headline told us:

MADELEINE MCCANN FILE KEPT SECRET

James Murray wrote:

THE Home Office is refusing to release secret files on the Madeleine McCann case to avoid diplomatic ructions with Portugal.

Anorak

Posted: 2nd, July 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (3)