Madeleine McCann: Helena Monteiro, Rogerio Alves and tabloid excitement

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at Our Maddie in the news…

Daily Mirror (front page): “At last! Maddy Police launch new probe”

“Lawyer: Cops investigate ‘fresh, specific information”

No. They don’t.

Daily Express (front page): “MADELEINE – Parents joys as Portuguese police start fresh hunt”

Daily Star (front page): “MADDIE – Shock as cops reopen case”

A shock because it is not true.

Only, the Portuguese police have not re-opened the case. As we reported yesterday,

It is understood that the team from Portugal’s investigative Policia Judiciaria (PJ), headed by senior officer Helena Monteiro, has been looking at the Madeleine case for some weeks now.

A team of detectives based in Oporto in northern Portugal has been appointed to re-examine the original investigation into the little girl’s disappearance from the Algarve in 2007, the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias reported.

Anorak

Posted: 10th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comments (18)

Madeleine McCann: Portuguese police ‘reopen’ the case

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at missing child in the news… The case is being reopened in Portugal?

Over the newswires, and picked up by the Independent:

Portuguese police have launched a review of the Madeleine McCann case.

Why?

A team of detectives based in Oporto in northern Portugal has been appointed to re-examine the original investigation into the little girl’s disappearance from the Algarve in 2007, the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias reported.

Anorak

Posted: 9th, March 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: Another book comparrisson

MADELEINE McCann – the greatest story ever told? The New York Times reviews Gods Without Men,’ a Novel by Hari Kunzru:

“The central plotline in “Gods Without Men” — and the motor of the novel — is reminiscent in some respects of the real-life story of Madeleine McCann: the little British girl who disappeared while on vacation with her parents in Portugal in 2007.”

Fact and fiction.

Potter: Karen

Anorak

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

Madeleine McCann: a Paedophile and a song

BARRY James Shaw has appeared at Belfast Crown Court, charged with downloading and swapping images of children being sexually assaulted. He also fantasised about kidnapping Madeleine McCann. Shaw has been jailed for two years.

Judge Patrick Lynch QC tells Shaw:

 “You may have felt at the time — in your room downloading these materials — that you caused no hurt to anyone, but for each of these appalling images there are victims, and if it were not for people like yourself there would be no demand for them, and the abuse that is inherent in the production of these materials would not occur.”

Anorak

Posted: 5th, March 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: Katrice Lee and Martin Ney

MADELEINE McCann: Katrice Lee is missing and Martin Ney is in the frame:

Sunday Sun:

““We were laughed at when we said there was a market for children in Europe – that Katrice could have been abducted and now no one would think twice that wasn’t a possibility when you think of cases like Madeleine McCann,” said Richard, who is now separated from Katrice’s mum.”

Katrice Lee went missing from a NAAFI supermarket in Paderborn in Germany on November 28, 1981, on her second birthday.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, February 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann spotted in Alhaurin el Grande – get the gypsy

MADELEINE MCANN: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Our Maddie in the news: she’s been spotted in a Mercadona shop…

The Oliver Press (story now gone) told its readers:

Yvonne Tunnicliffe, who has lived in Spain for six years, made the sighting while shopping at a Mercadona store in Alhaurin el Grande in 2009….”She had mousy blonde hair in scruffy plaits, very fair skin and looked about seven or eight, which is how old she would have been now”…

As reader Karen says:

She wouldn’t have been that old in 2009.

Anorak

Posted: 24th, February 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (3)

A new film about paedophiles and Madeleine McCann

READY for a new film about Madeleine McCann? The List has an interview with Markus Schleinzer – writer and director of Michael:

His debut film is “based on Madeleine McCann and Josef Fritzl cases”.

Madeleine McCann went misisng. We do not know what happened to her. Josef Fritzl imprisoned and raped his children.

Schleinzer has spent 17 years in the Austrian film industry as a casting director, working for filmmakers such as Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher, The White Ribbon), Jessica Hausner (Lovely Rita, Lourdes) and Ulrich Seidl (Dog Days). His debut feature, Michael, which he wrote and directed, was the only German-language film in competition at Cannes in 2011. Inspired by the Natascha Kampusch and Josef Fritzl cases, and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, it observes the last five months in the relationship between a 35-year-old paedophile (Michael Fuith) and a 10-year-old boy (David Rauchenberger) whom he keeps in his locked basement.

Anorak

Posted: 19th, February 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: Express re-introduces the Tapas 7

MADELEINE McCann: The Metropolitan Police is talking with the ‘Tapas 7’…

Express: “MADELEINE MCCANN DETECTIVES TO CALL IN TAPAS 7”

Fact! Lee Rainbow is on the case.

Jame Murray reports:

SCOTLAND YARD detectives are poised to interview the so-called Tapas Seven as their inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann steps up a gear. The friends of Kate and Gerry McCann, who accompanied them on their holiday to Portugal almost five years ago, are expecting interview requests as soon as officers feel they could assist the investigation.

Anorak

Posted: 5th, February 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (7)

Madeleine McCann: Pat Brown. Amazon and Carter Ruck

MADELEINE McCANN: Pat Brown, a “criminal profiler” in America, has issued a press release stating that she has sent a Cease-and-Desist Letter to Gerry and Kate McCann, parents of the missing child. The letter ends:

 We request that the claim of libel be retracted for the Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the book permitted to be returned for sale at Amazon.

Any press release is, as it says, intended for the press. It is PR. It is designed to draw attention to the subject, in this case Pat Brown.

She wrote a book called “Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann”.

It’s appears to be for sale on the Barnes & Noble website. But you cannot read it on Amazon. Pat Brown tweeted:

 “I have indeed been Carter-Rucked. Amazon has pulled my book because the McCanns claim it is defamatory.”

Anorak

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

Madeleine McCann: Is Tony Bennett going to jail?

MADELEINE McCann: Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter of the Daily Telegraph, has news on Kate McCann, Gerry McCann, Tony Bennett and the Madeleine Foundation:

For almost five years, Kate and Gerry McCann have suffered the anguish of not knowing what happened to their daughter Madeleine. Through it all, they have also had to contend with a sustained campaign of harassment conducted by a small band of fanatics convinced they had a hand in their daughter’s disappearance.

Now, one of their main tormentors is facing jail for refusing to leave the McCanns’ alone.

Tony Bennett has waged a campaign since 2007 against the couple – repeatedly accusing them of covering up the girl’s death in leaflets, books and on internet postings. On one occasion, the Madeleine Foundation, which he runs, handed out 1,500 pamphlets in Rothley, the couple’s home village in Leicestershire, entitled “10 key reasons which suggest she was not abducted.”

Anorak

Posted: 30th, January 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann blamed for changing American language

MADELEINE McCann’s legacy is now known:

““It’s possible,” Fogarty wrote, “that this British term has gained footing in the American media because of the high-profile disappearance of British girl Madeline McCann in May 2007. The McCann story received wall-to-wall news coverage for weeks, and this is just speculation, but it may be that the constant reporting by British journalists about how the girl “went missing” subtly influenced American reporters to adopt the term.“

Anorak

Posted: 26th, January 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment (1)

Leveson Inquiry: Richard Desmond and Peter Hill on Madeleine McCann and live blogs

RICHARD Desmond has taken the stand at the Leveson Inquiry – and the main topic of his Q and A was Madeleine McCann. Before him was Peter Hill, former editor of the Daily Express, “who was in charge during the disappearance of Madeleine McCann“, notes the Telegraph. Our Maddie now defines journalists’ careers.

Peter Hill:

* Hill says the vanishing of Madeleine McCann was the biggest story event he had seen in 50 years.

Says he:

* “It was not a story that you could ignore and you simply had to cover it as best as possible.”

* “I did not accuse them of killing their child.”

* ”The story that I ran were the people that did accuse them and those were the Portuguese police.”

* “It was nothing to do with an obsession, it was more to do with a method of working”.

* “There was an enormous clamour for information and I felt this story was something which should keep running.”

Richard Desmond owner of Express Newspapers, OK!, New and Star magazines.

* “Every paper was doing the same thing, which is why every paper or most papers paid money to the McCanns. Only we were scapegoated by the ex-chairman of the PCC”

* He says Peter Hill, then his editor at the Express, was vilified for “printing the facts” about the McCann case.

Telegraph live blog (Andy Bloxham):

To summarise, Desmond has just claimed that the McCanns must have been happy about coverage in the Daily Express because they did not complain for weeks, then only decided to sue when they got a new team of lawyers. He says the McCanns were happy to have the articles printed about Maddie but says that it was only when “new lawyers” came along that the situation changed, “that’s a fact”. Jay is angrier than I’ve seen him appear in saying his claims are outrageous that the McCanns weren’t upset by the coverage.

Robert Jay QC: “Your newspaper had accused them of killing their daughter. Are you seriously saying they were ‘quite happy’?”

Sky Blog:

Court 73 turns into a maths lesson as Desmond works out that of 102 articles on McCanns only 38 were ‘bad ones’ ie defamatory #leveson

Guardian live blog:

* Desmond: “On your figure, we ran 102 articles for four months, nothing happened until a new firm of lawyers – who were on contingency – then came in to sue us.”

* Desmond: “Once again I do apologise. I am very sorry that we got it wrong … every paper was doing the same thing, which is why every paper paid money to the McCanns. But only we were scapegoated by the PCC.”

* Desmond tries to justify his papers’ McCanns coverage because he says there was different points of view about what might have happened. “There has been speculation that Diana was killed by the royal family,” he says. The speculation has gone on and on. I don’t know the answer. I apologise again to the McCanns etc etc etc, but there are views about the McCanns and what happened,” he adds.

* Leveson: “…there is no comparison between Madeleine McCann and Diana. In the case of Diana we have a dead body.”

* Jay points out that the logic of that argument is that the paper could write anything it liked. Desmond says he’s not advocating that.

* Desmond apologises to the McCanns over his papers’ coverage.

* “I don’t wish to minimise it … and I’m not trying to win points here, but if there were 102 articles on the McCanns, and 38 bad ones … you could argue there were 68 or 70 good ones.”

* Desmond emphasises again that he isn’t wishing to play down the effect of the bad stories.

* Desmond: “Every paper, every day, for that amount of time, was talking about that story. Poor old Peter Hill … I remember calling him that night, I spoke to him for about two hours, because he’d done it to the best ability, reported the facts. Unfortunately, it was fair to assume that the Portuguese police were a reliable source.”

* Desmond says he didn’t think the stories boosted circulation.

Desmond: “With respect to journalists, (putting money and DVD giveaways on the front cover) is the only way you increase circulation”

Hacked Off Live Blog

* Jay accuses Desmond of making a “grotesque characterisation” of the McCanns, as he says it took a long time for the family to get involved in legal dispute with the press.

* Desmond says: “Everybody was interested in the McCanns, and everybody had a view on the McCanns”.

* He adds newspaper editors “have to believe” that circulation goes up with big stories, countering Peter Hill’s claims about boosts when running stories on the McCanns.

* He tells Leveson: “This inquiry is probably the worst thing that’s happened to newspapers in my lifetime”.

Ends.

Anorak

Posted: 12th, January 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann caused the Daily Express to withdraw from the PCC

AT the Leveson Inquiry Hugh Whittow, editor of the Daily Express, explains why his paper ran the Madeleine McCann story day after day after day…

Steven Baxter hears Whittow say:

“We ran the story because it was a huge story, it was the only story”

Whittow is then asked why the Express withdraw from the PCC:

“Because of the McCanns I think that was a huge problem for us and I think they should have intervened … no one was intervening at all. Everybody had too much leeway, it just went on and on. I don’t blame the PCC. I just think in hindsight they might have been able to intervene and perhaps this will reflect in the body that you set up.”

Anorak

Posted: 12th, January 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (6)

Did Gary Dobson murder Madeleine McCann?

OUR MADDIE – Anorak’s look at Madeleine McCann in the news: Stephen Lawrence, Gary Dobson and David Norris linked to missing child:

Like every newspaper, the Daily Express leads with news that two racist killers – Gary Dobson and David Norris -have been founds guilty to murdering Stephen Lawrence. But while many wonder which of nine other suspects and police will follow Dobson and Norris into the Old Bailey dock, the Express reports:

SCIENTIFIC advances used in the Stephen Lawrence case could solve the mysteries of Madeleine McCann and Jill Dando.

Madeleine McCann went missing. We do not know what happened to her. Jill Dando was murdered.

Forensic experts working on the racist murder devised new techniques to discover microscopic clues that convicted two of the killers. Now Scotland Yard hopes the same revolutionary approach could help find the truth behind the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine in 2007 and the killing of BBC Crimewatch presenter Miss Dando in 1999.

Anorak

Posted: 4th, January 2012 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment (1)

Madeleine McCann spotted in bible

TO Thailand, where Madeleine McCann has been spotted in the Koh Tao Bible.

Madeleine McCann is now the benchmark of daughters in the Far East…

Spotter

Anorak

Posted: 31st, December 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: Let’s get the Arabs

OUR Maddie: Anorak’s at –a-glance look at Madeleine McCann in the news: after the gypsies are defamed it’s time to get the Arabs again:

Sunday Express: “MADELEINE: SECRET FILES REVEAL FOUR ‘SIGHTINGS’ IN MOROCCO”

Only four?

James Murray writes:

Today the Sunday Express can reveal that among the Spanish private detective agency’s secret files are key “sightings” of Madeleine in Morocco.

Why would the files be secret? If every stone is being turned over to look for the child, why would any sighting remain a secret? Is it so that the kidnappers aren’t panicked, as Gerry McCann said they might have been when the Daily Mail spotted Our Maddie in India?

It’s Metodo 3, of course, the private detective agency that never found the innocent child, nor provided any firm evidence of what happened to her. The firm’s Francisco Marco Fernandez says of handing over 30 boxes of stuff to the Met:

“I think this could be a significant moment in the effort to discover what happened to the child. I am very glad all our leads will now be looked at by the Yard because they are important.”

Anorak

Posted: 20th, December 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: When Hush Money Becomes A Donation

OUR Maddie: Anorak’s look at Madeleine McCann in the news: when News of The World “hush money” becomes a donation.

THE dread News of The World paid £125,000 to Madeline McCann fun. The money was made as part of the paper’s apology for publishing Kate McCann’s private diaries without her permission.

The Guardian says the money was paid “on condition that the terms of the deal remained secret”. A confidentiality agreement was signed in September 2008.

Last week, however, the NoW’s last editor Colin Myler, told the Leveson Inquiry that it was his belief the McCanns had okayed the paper’s use of the diary. The Guardian says the McCanns deny the claim.

Anorak

Posted: 18th, December 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (7)

Madeleine McCann: Metodo 3, 8 New Old Clues And NoTW Editor Myler Denies Gerry McCann

OUR Maddie: Anorak’s look at Madeleine McCann in the news: Metodo 3 PR, the News of The World denies Gerry McCann’s claim, and new old eight clues…

Daily Star: “MADELEINE MCCANN: COPS’ 8 NEW TIPS”

BRITISH police hunting for Madeleine McCann were last night examining up to eight “important” leads after meeting private eyes.

We know this, how?

Four detectives visited the Spanish HQ of the Metodo 3 investigation agency, which spent six months working for parents Kate and Gerry. The Brit officers, from a 30-strong Metropolitan Police team carrying out a review of the case, took away around 30 boxes of documents.

Go on:

The agency’s director Francisco Marco told a Spanish TV show [The Ana Rosa Programme]: “I think there are six, seven or eight very important leads in there. They were passed at the time to Portuguese police who ignored them because it was a very politicised issue.

“They didn’t want to look into anything that didn’t come from their own sources because of Portuguese chauvinism. We were never allowed to do a proper job. Scotland Yard can now continue with all the work we did inside and outside of Portugal.”

Anorak

Posted: 15th, December 2011 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: A Date For Amaral’s Libel Case, Kate’s Diary And Blaming The Gypsies

MADELEINE McCann: The McCanns’ libel case against Goncalo Amaral – Sky calls him “the Portuguese police officer who bungled the hunt for missing Madeleine” – will take place in Lisbon on February 9 and 10.

Sky News, sister organ to the NoTW, is scathing of the former detective who wrote the book The Truth Of  The Lie. It has sold over 300,000 copies.

The 52-year-old former detective has made a fortune selling a book and TV documentary claiming the young British girl is dead – and wrongly claiming her parents staged a cover-up.

The McCanns says Mr Amaral is “self-obsessed“. Is is fairly treated by the British media?

The McCanns have always strongly denied his allegation and in a 36-page writ lodged in June 2009, they accuse Mr Amaral of libel and breaching their human rights.

Anorak

Posted: 14th, December 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: Viscount Rothmere Fails To Explain The Daily Mail’s Omissions

MADELEINE McCann’s name has been evoked at a parliamentary committee hearing on privacy and injunctions.

Viscount Rothermere, the controlling shareholder of the Daily Mail, says he is “very deeply sympathetic to everything the McCanns have gone through“. However, he but that he stood by Paul Dacre, the Daily Mail editor-in-chief’s coverage of the missing child.

Says Rothermere:

“My paper writes about many things that give me personal cause for concern but I feel it’s my duty to allow editors the job to edit.

“If I picked up the phone every single time I disagreed with an article then I would make their job a lot harder to do. I rely on the processes within the organisation and their obeyance of them in order to run a professional outfit…

“I had personal concerns, yes. I think what the McCanns went through was very difficult for them but I did not bring up the issue with Paul Dacre, if that answers your question.”

Anorak

Posted: 13th, December 2011 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: The Sun Uses Our Maddie To Look Good

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Our Maddie in the news…

The Sun’s front-page headlines screams:

“New move over kidnap – MADDIE COPS JET TO BARCELONA”

So. There is proof that Madeleine McCann was kidnapped?

No. Not yet.

Cynics might suppose the Sun’s headline is prompted less by actual news, of which there is little, and more on the paper’s need to look caring and loveable. The Sun, after all, is sister organ to the News of the World, now defunct, which published Kate McCanns’s diary without her permission.The NoTW apologised, but at the Leveson Inquiry into media standards Kate McCann spoke of the pain it caused her. She then sold the rights to her book to the Sun.

Anorak

Posted: 6th, December 2011 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comment (1)

Madeleine McCann: Scotland Yard Detectives Hit Spain

MADELEINE McCann: Officers form Scotland Yard are in Spain.

Justin Davenport writes in the Evening Standard:

Homicide officers have met Spanish colleagues in Barcelona in the last two weeks to hold talks over her disappearance.

Barcelona…again.

Police are believed to be discussing reports that Madeleine may have been abducted and smuggled across the border to Spain.

Kate and Gerry McCann has issued a statement on the Metropolitan Police:

“We are pleased that the review is making progress.”

Anorak

Posted: 5th, December 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (5)

Does Kate McCann Makes Us Feel A Bit Sorry For The News International At The Leveson Inquiry?

KATE McCann, mother of missing child Madeleine McCann, has been telling the Leveson Inquiry into media standards about being on the wrong end of a voracious feeing frenzy. She suffered at the hands of the media. The media tide turned against she and her husband Gerry McCann. The McCanns have been the victims of repeating baseless claims against them.

The Times reports:

Describing how she felt when she realised the diary had been printed, Mrs McCann, 43, said: “I felt totally violated. I’d written these words at the most desperate time of my life. There was absolutely no respect shown for me as a grieving mother or a human being or to my daughter. It made me feel very vulnerable and small. I just couldn’t believe it. I just recently read through my diary entries at that point in that week, and I talk about climbing into a hole and not coming out because I just felt so worthless that we had been treated like that.”

Mr McCann, also 43, said that his wife felt “mentally raped” by theNoW’s publication of the journal under the headline Kate’s diary: in her own words. He called for an investigation into the publication of the diary.

The NoTW behaved terribly.

Anorak

Posted: 24th, November 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (4)

Madeleine McCann At The Leveson Inquiry: The Free Speech Debate

MADELEINE McCann: Kate and Gerry McCann has been addressing the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.

It’s front page news:

Front pages:

“Days of dignity for the McCanns”- Telegraph
“Lives are being harmed by these stories, says McCanns” – Guardian
“I was violated by the press says Kate McCann”- Times
“Tortured by the tabloids”- Indy

Kate McCann says he felt “totally violated” when the News of the World published excerpts from a private diary.

Madeleine McCann went missing on May 3, 2007. He case continues to make headline news.

Gerry McCann also spoke. He noted how the coverage turned from helpful to their search for their daughter to being negative against them.

Anorak

Posted: 24th, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comments (24)

Kate McCann ‘Raped’: Our Maddie Is The Media’s Favourite At The Leveson Inquiry

THE LEVESON Inquiry into press standards and phone hacking is underway. And because the media loves nothing more than reporting on the media, the thing will get lots of airtime. And Kate McCann is in the news.

The Daily Telegraph records her words under the headline:

Leveson Inquiry: Kate McCann felt ‘mentally raped’ when diary published

Rape?

Anorak

Posted: 17th, November 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (45)