Madeleine McCann: Robert Murat Sues Jane Tanner (?) And McCanns Sue TV1

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann – GERRY and Kate McCann have been in Lisbon. As one trial ends – the one against Goncalo Amaral – another begins: the McCanns are launching criminal proceedings against a Portuguese TV channel TVI. And Robert Murat is reported to be suing Jane Tanner.

As Sky’s Hannah Thomas-Peter in Lisbon reports:

Gerry and Kate McCann say TV1 was in “material breach” of a court injunction issued to prevent allegations made in a book by former lead investigator Goncalo Amaral being repeated.

The McCanns deny that their daughter died in their holiday apartment. There is no proof that she did. But there is a book. In Maddie: The Truth Of The Lie, Amaral takes the media conceit that saw Madeleine McCann – renamed Maddie in the media to make snappier headlines – alleges the innocent child died and the couple faked her abduction. The parents are innocent.

Will the book be banned? It’s one for the judges to decide.

In other Our Maddie news, shiny-faced telly newsboy Keir Simmons, Tweets:

Lawyer confirms: Robert Murat, wrongly accused in #McCann case, has made legal complaint against friend of McCann’s Jane Tanner

That’s Robert Murat, tried by the tabloids, linked to Soham killer Ian Huntley by a voracious media high on specualtion, fingered in the crowd by a “creepy” tabloid hack, a whisper of “paedo“, a scent of death, who met some of the so-called Tapas 7 (they sued and they won) at a police station – “You’re a liar. I saw you peek in apartment,” went the Mirror’s headline. The Mirror that told us on September 2007:

DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADELEINE: DNA is found. Arrest expected ‘in 48 hours’.”

No yellow ribbon on the Mirror’s front page. But news of that blood found on the McCann’s apartment walls. We learn: “The DNA of a potential suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has been found by British scientists.”

Poor, Robert Murat, the one-eyed, innocent man – the innocent police -approved translator– portrayed in the tabloid press as an “oddball” with a bouncy castle festish, an “alibi blown“, the false celebrity father who sued the press and won and WON. His name is forever sullied – a benchmark for the abused. The double, And now he is seeking recompense – for what is unclear.

There’s lots more in the Anorak Forums…

Anorak

Posted: 17th, February 2010 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comments (32)

Madeleine McCann: An EastEnders Celebration And The Twins Were There

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann – Interviewing the McCanns’ children, a play and EastEnders’ best bits…

The Sunday Express has news of a lead in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann:

‘MCCANN TWINS MAY HOLD CLUES’ SAYS CRIMINAL PROFILER

May?

THE country’s most senior criminal profiler suggested Madeleine McCann’s brother and sister should have been interviewed about her disappearance.

Does this top ‘tec not think the parents Gerry and Kate McCanns have asked their children what they saw that fateful night? Since we are being invited to imagine, can we imagine that? It tusn out the story is based on documents presented to court in the matter of McCanns v Goncalo Amaral.

Twins Sean and Amelie were aged just two years and three months when Madeleine was snatched from a holiday apartment on the Algarve in Portugal in May 2007 shortly before her fourth birthday.

A month later, Lee Rainbow, senior behavioural investigation consultant at the National Policing Improvement Agency, wrote a report for Portuguese detectives which may have altered the course of the inquiry.

Mr Rainbow urged them to “consider the possibility of exploring the potential of interviewing Sean and Amelie McCann”.

Anorak

Posted: 14th, February 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (13)

Madeleine McCann: Kate And Gerry McCann’s Legal Pitfalls And Risks

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann – The media awaits the vedict of McCanns Versus Goncalo Amaral. Much depends on it. The McCanns have taken a risk in going against the former police officer in a foreign country. While it can be aruged – as they have  done – that any publicity for their missing daughter is good because it keeps her name alive in the voracious media.

But it does not keep us looking for the child. It just allows us to gawp at them, the distraught parents of a missing innocent.

In the Anorak Forums, AGW takes up the matter:

YOU know when an accident is going to happen. They even have corporate speak phrases for it these days: “Risk Assessment” is one.

You know when a playing kitten is going to fall from the arm of the chair, you know when the child is going trip and fall, no matter how quick you are to try and get there.

Sometimes you see disasters being created and thundering, in silent-movie slowed down train-wreck style, toward you or others and there’s little you can do other than stand and watch horror-struck by the enormity of it all.

You know the accident’s about to happen and there is nothing you can do but perhaps wonder why you knew?

It has nothing to do with sixth senses, it is because the most powerful computer known to man, your brain, has gathered in all the previous experiences you have weighed in the balance and made a predictive analysis.

That is what is so strange about the current and past behaviour of the parents of the missing child Madeleine McCann.

Continue reading the McCann’s Risky Move:

Anorak

Posted: 13th, February 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (6)

Madeleine McCann: Spotted In Italy And At The National Theatre

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann – Waiting for the Amaral verdict, we learn of why the police investigated the McCanns and how hundreds of Maddies were spotted…

Daily Record: “Revealed: Portuguese police have ignored possible sightings of missing Madeleine McCann”

PORTUGUESE police have ignored dramatic new possible sightings of Madeleine McCann, it emerged yesterday.

Why are the possible sightings dramatic?

Details of them are included in a dossier, which includes photos of girls “shockingly similar” to the missing youngster.

In the Mirror, a sighting of a child becomes:

Maddy cops missed vital hunt clues

The most significant lead involved a series of reported sightings within a week in the same area of northern Italy.

Why are they the most significant? The Mirror does not say. The McCanns’ lawyer Isabel Duarte brings these pictures to the world’s attention. And adds:

“I’m angry because it is the police who should be doing this.”

Anorak

Posted: 12th, February 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (10)

Madeleine MCanns Is Back On The Front Pages As Amaral Hearing Ends And Trial Begins

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann – The Daily Mail’s front page leads with news that the British police “Did say investigate McCanns”.

Gerry McCann was made a suspect in his daughter Madeleine’s disappearance after a British expert said he should be investigated for ‘homicide’, a Portuguese court heard yesterday.

What British expert? And what were they expert in?

Criminal profiler Lee Rainbow recommended that police on the Algarve investigate the doctor and his wife Kate because of ‘contradictions’ in his statement. The report by Mr Rainbow, of the National Policing Improvement Agency, was sent to Portugal in June 2007, a month after the three-year-old disappeared.

We are not told what these apparent contradictions are, just that one man says they existed. Such are the facts. Here are more:

It was dramatically produced yesterday by lawyers for a disgraced Portuguese detective whose campaign of vilification the McCanns are trying to stop. The couple want Gonzolo Amaral to be legally barred from accusing them of being involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.

Anorak

Posted: 11th, February 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (68)

Madeleine McCann: Case Against Goncalo Amaral Ends

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann – FROM the world of fiction to the world of faction and The McCanns’ case against Goncalo Amaral, and his book The Truth Of The Lie. (Eat yer heart out, Agatha Christie.)

As we know, the book claims Madeleine McCann is dead – that she died in the McCann family’s holiday apartment. The book claims the couple faked her abduction. Such are the facts in a case now over 1000 days old.

Anorak

Posted: 10th, February 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (9)

World Famous Detective To Track Down Madeleine McCann On TV

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann – GREAT news is that a top detective who always gets his man is on the case and is right now involved in the hunt for the media’s Our Maddie – as ‘TVLand’ writer Tim Oglethorpe (how dy’er get the job?) tells Mirror readers:

“Poirot plot risks wrath”

First it was Coronation Street, now it’s Poirot heading for trouble over a storyline.

Anorak

Posted: 10th, February 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment

Madeleine McCann: John Terry, Books And Lawyers

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann – Can Madeleine McCann be linked to the latest big news story – John Terry’s alleged shags – and can we find more reason to gawp at Kate and Gerry McCann?

First up the news that John Terry has lost a lawyer to Wayne Bridge. And the Mail wants us to know:

* Angus McBride is a partner of London law firm Kingsley Napley representing Manchester City’s Bridge in the negotiations over his separation from former partner Vanessa Perroncel, whose affair with Terry is now causing so much controversy.

Does he have form?

McBride, whose clients include Madeleine McCann’s parents, is trumpeted as ‘managing and protecting the reputation of individuals subject to either media or criminal investigation’.

Lawyers. Vain and cowardly footballers. Missing innocent children. Make the link.

In other news, The People tells of “agony” for the McCanns:

It’s: “McCanns’ new agony.”

Kate and Gerry McCann face fresh heartache after discovering two books about their daughter Maddie’s disappearance may be published.

May be. Want more facts?

* Tony Bennett, barred by injunction from making allegations in the matter, plans to release The Madeleine Case Files Vol 1. And Stephen Marsden will publish Madeleine McCann: Faked Abduction.

May be published…

Clarence Mitchell, acting for doctors Kate and Gerry McCann, both 41, said: “We will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who defames them.”

Well, yes. The law is the law.

And here’s Kevin Halligen, the tabloids’ “Maddie fraudster” who fingered by the Sun’s man on the scene, who was in actual fact spotted by Christopher Winsley.

* A man accused of conning £300,000 from the Madeleine McCann fund will fight extradition in a separate fraud case. Kevin Halligen, 48, is wanted in the United States after allegedly ripping off an oil company in a £1.2million scam.

His lawyer Mark Summers told City of Westminster magistrates yesterday: “The extradition is contested.” Halligen, who appeared by videolink from prison, was remanded in custody for a further three weeks.

Madeleine McCann is missing…

Join The Forums

Anorak

Posted: 8th, February 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: Jack Dee, Harry Potter, Fiona Phillips And Danie Krugel’s Matter Orientation System

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: Jack Dee, Harry Potter, a fundraising dinner and on a beach with Danie Kruge.

News in the Express is that “COMEDIAN Jack Dee has helped to raise £45,000 to keep up the search for Madeleine McCann.” What did the “COMEDIAN” do to raise the money – a sponsored laugh?

He played auctioneer at an event to mark the 1,000 days since she disappeared in May 2007. Among the prizes were flights donated by Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson and signed Harry Potter books.

Sounds good. Any other money raised?

Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry welcomed 180 celebrities and supporters to the £150-a-head gala dinner in Kensington, west London, last week.

Anorak

Posted: 31st, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (4)

Madeleine McCann: Terror In The North Sea

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: The Northern Times reports that Chinese lanterns set off in north west Sutherland in memory of Madeleine McCann being missing for 1000 days triggered a scary incident.

No, not the Our Maddie nightlight.

A woman reported seeing three bright orange lights in the sky at around 9pm in the Scourie area. She feared they were flares which had been set off by someone in distress.

Well, in a way, they were… Police are called. The coast guard is called. But the real emergency is at the Northern Times, where the reporter tells readers:

Lanterns have been released across the UK in support of Jerry and Kate McCann’s search for their missing daughter.

Anorak

Posted: 29th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (7)

Madeleine McCann: The Fundraiser In Pictures

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann:Kate McCann and Gerry McCann said they were “trying to move forward” as they hosted a £150-a-head fundraising dinner to mark 1000 days since their daughter went missing. There was a raffle and auction at Kensington Roof Gardens in west London. Says Kate McCann:

“It’s obviously difficult but we are trying to move forward to help Madeleine and all missing children.”

Madeleine McCann became the media’s Our Maddie and then the benchmark for all missing children. Celebs at the do included Jack Dee, Fiona Phillips, Gloria Hunniford and Peter Bowles. No suspects. No sign of the missing child.

Anorak

Posted: 28th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (64)

Madeleine McCann: 1000 Days Of A ‘Fierce Blonde Flame’

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: It’s been 1000 days since Madeleine McCann went missing and became the media’s Our Maddie, the benchmark for missing children. In that time we have learnt…NOTHING.

What we have done is look and be entertained by the single thread story of girl who went missing.

Tonight a roof-top, showbiz spiced dinner to commemorate the milestone. And there’s to be an auction. Bring your wallet. One lot is a poem by Simon Armitage, called The Beacon. Armitage wrote a poem for the fifth anniversary of 9/11, the 60th anniversary of VE-Day and Killing Time, a poem celebrating the millennium. Perspective in the matter of Our Maddie is all.

The Beacon

Dusk, doubt, the growing depth of an evening sky,
dark setting in as it did that night,
the forever vastness of outer space
reflecting the emptiness here inside,
shadowing, colouring, clouding the mind.
But somewhere out there there has to be life,
the distance only a matter of time,
a world like our own, its markings and shades
as uniquely formed as a daughter’s eye,
distinctly flecked, undeniably hers,
looking back this way through the miles and years
to a lantern cupping a golden blaze,
its candle alive with a fierce blonde flame
for the thousandth time, for as long as it takes.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (6)

Madeleine McCann: 1000 Days Of Nothing But Looking

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: On Wednesday January 27 2010, Madeleine McCann will have been missing for 1,000 days – unless she is found before that.

This seems unlikely, given that so sign of the missing innocent has been seen in that time. We have had sightings, speculation, accusation, hype, fury, hoopla, pain, libel and above all sensation and entertainment – but we have not a single clue as to what happened to Madeleine McCann.

Madeleine McCann: 100 Days Of Voyeurism And Entertainment

She remains missing. There are no suspects. No crime had been proven to have befallen her. But we can watch the parents on the telly. We can watch their suffering. Look. Look. Look.

Anorak

Posted: 24th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (26)

Madeleine McCann: A Celebrity Banquet, Kate McCann Stars And Amaral Rebuttal

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: sniffer dogs, defaince, gagging and a celebrity dinner and lament:

Madeleine McCann: The Story In Pictures

BACK when Our Maddie was the cause celebre and the great and good were queuing up to donate to the reward fund and wear the T-shirt, a dinner would have been the event not to be missed event. Which jobbing celeb would dare to turn an invite down?

Madeleine McCann: When Will It End?

But now, who would go? The Express delivers:

MCCANNS’ STAR-FILLED PARTY TO BOOST FUND

And we learn:

DEFIANT Kate and Gerry McCann will mark the 1,000th day since their daughter disappeared with a celebrity packed £150-a-head fundraising dinner and auction at a top London venue.

Can anyone stand to eat? Does the food stick on the way down?

Tycoon Sir Richard Branson and their businessman backer Brian Kennedy will join stars at Kensington Roof Gardens in west London on January 27.

Any bands or cabaret?

Radio Five’s Nicky Campbell and children’s author JK Rowling have also been invited.

And they’re coming, right? Hey, it’s for Our Maddie. Do they dare refuse?

Says Kate, 41: “We will raise money for Madeleine’s Fund and the ongoing search for her. If our circumstances remain unchanged, this day will sadly mark 1,000 days since Madeleine was taken from us.”

Anorak

Posted: 17th, January 2010 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comments (83)

Madeleine McCann: The Dangers Of PR And Libel

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: Where PR persons cautiously tread?

FACT:The only person so far brought before the Beak in the mysterious case of the missing child Madeleine McCann is Goncalo Amaral the former chief investigating police officer.

I’m no fan of former Tory PR woman Amanda Platell, but she shows signs of the PR penny beginning to drop in today’s Daily Mail with this:

CONJECTURE: ‘Kate and Gerry McCann say they have no regrets in taking a Portuguese policeman to court for libel, thus subjecting themselves to weeks of lurid accusations in court.
……I fear they will never put an end to the vile rumours about them… the tragedy of the ongoing court case is that it will only give oxygen to the conspiracy theorists.

Are Kate and Gerry really sure that this will help find Madeleine?’

FACT: How much worse for their already shattered family life will it be if they lose? Second Place in this sort of contest is an appalling position, not recoverable and there is no chance of a rematch.

Even an outright win leaves mud sticking.

Could that explain the good Drs Kate and Gerry McCann PR person Clarence Mitchell’s curious non-appearance in Portugal this week? – AGW

Well, Anorak did mention the risks more than a while ago.

Madeleine McCann: No suspects. So sign of the child.

Anorak

Posted: 16th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (34)

Madeleine McCann: Amaral ‘Fala Com McCanns’ And Ten More Years

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: Ten more years, gawping at Kate McCann, Amaral the panto baddie (boo- hiss – f*** off) and libel…

FIRST the good news for the voracious media in the never-ending story of Our Maddie, as the Daily Star says:

MCCANN FIGHT MAY RAGE ON FOR 10 YEARS

After ten more years of Our Maddie, the Star will have to return to Katie Price updates. But ten years is not too shabby. If the Daily Express can do it with Princess Diana for a decade, the Star’s sister paper can darn well do it for Our Maddie. It’s the least it can do.

Former detective Goncalo Amaral has vowed to take the fight to get his controversial book published to the European Court of Human Rights if he loses his current case.

But legal experts say that process could take a decade. Mr Amaral’s book claims Madeleine died in her family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

Anorak

Posted: 15th, January 2010 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comment

The Other View On The McCann Court Case: When Libel Trials Go Wrong

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: There is a another view of this McCann court case which I warned about almost three years ago.

AGW writes:

Anorak

Posted: 13th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (4)

Madeleine McCann: Amaral’s Diamond, Dead In A Dream And Four Theories

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: Maddie ‘died’ in the family apartment; Maddy was lying on a hillside, Kate McCann’s “agony” and Amaral’s wearing a diamond earring…

Pictures Of All The Madeleine McCann Suspects

Goncalo Amaral says any ban on his book, Maddie: The Truth Of The Lie, is against his freedom of speech. The book says Madeleine McCann died in the family apartment. The McCanns says this is not so – she was abducted. She want libel damages.

The news:

Daily Express (front page): “MADDIE ‘DIED’ IN APARTMENT”

Portuguese police chief’s amazing claim to court ion £1m McCann libel case

Claim. Not fact. Do the police deal in claims? Do the courts?

MADELEINE McCann died in her family’s holiday apartment as the result of a tragic accident and her parents concealed her body, a police chief told a court in Portugal yesterday.

So they were made “arguidos”. But the McCanns are no longer arguidos. Because – get this – the above was a theory. No fact.

One officer even claimed that Portuguese police changed their inquiry from a missing person search to a murder investigation after Kate told him she had a nightmare and had seen Madeleine’s body lying on a hillside.

Can a dream be a fact?

The Sun calls it a “sick claim” delivered in a “courtroom outburst”. Back in the Express:

He said: “The conclusion that was arrived at was that Madeleine McCann died at the apartment and the McCann couple simulated the abduction to hide the fact that they had not taken care of their children.

Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida told the court that he believed the couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were directly involved in Madeleine’s disappearance – a theory he said was shared by Portuguese and British officers working on the case.

“There was a tragic accident in the apartment that night and they neglected the care of their children. It was the conclusion of both Portuguese and British police. We have always spoken of a tragic accidental death. There was no homicide.”

Adding:

Asked if he thought Madeleine was dead, Mr de Almeida replied: “Yes. She is dead. It was not only the police who believed this but the public prosecutor. The McCanns did not kill her but they concealed the body.”

The Scotsman:

(He told the court the main evidence for this was the findings of British police sniffer dogs sent to Portugal to examine the flat. The McCanns’ lawyer, Isabel Duarte, challenged this claim, arguing that the sniffer dog results did not constitute proof and were not allowed as evidence.)

Let’s stick to the facts:

After a tense opening, their spokeswoman confirmed that the couple found listening to the allegations very painful. She said: “I think it is hurting them. They can feel hurt by these things being repeated again and again and again. However, they know what really happened so they are confident. They just want to find their daughter.”

Daily Mirror (front page): “MADDY DREAM MAKE KATE A SUSPECT”

Just weeks after Madeleine McCann vanished, sobbing mum Kate rang the Portuguese detective appointed to look after her to tell of a horrific dream in which she had seen her daughter’s dead body.

Distraught Kate said Madeleine had been lying on a hillside overlooking the beach at Praia da Luz. She begged Inspector Ricardo Paiva to search the spot.
And..?

Astonishingly, rather than inspiring pity at a desperate mother’s plight, the incident sparked only suspicion in the minds of the officers who were supposed to be hunting Madeleine and her abductor.

Is that astonishing? The Star calls it a “Kate’s murder dream.” The Sun is astonished:

KATE McCann had a dream in which she saw the body of missing daughter Madeleine on a hillside above their holiday resort, a court heard yesterday.

And after she told Portuguese cops of the nightmare, they became convinced the little girl had been KILLED rather than abducted.

That might be because Kate McCann “had seen her daughter’s dead body.”

The McCanns’ Portuguese police liaison officer Inspector Ricardo Paiva is on the stand:

But the detective admitted the police had been suspicious of the McCanns from the start – simply because they had tried to give the stalled hunt for Madeleine some much-needed momentum.

So it wasn’t the dream that make Kate McCann a person of interest to the Portuguese police – it was the fact that she was the moth of the missing child.

He added: “They disobeyed our request to keep quiet about the details of their daughter’s disappearance while we conducted our investigation. Instead, they turned it into a media circus.”

They didn’t do that alone – someone who worked on the case actually wrote a book.

Let’s stick to the facts:

Kate regularly shook her head in frustration. Gerry remained grim-faced.

Kate. Gerry. Not Mr and Mrs McCann. We are not looking at a trial in a foreign country – a trial that investigates whether freedom of speech has its limits. We are just watching the parents of the missing girl.

The Sun (front page): Maddie is dead and you hid her

Antonella Lazzeri delivers “His smiles, their pain”, telling readers that Kate McCann is

“Stroking a photo of Maddie tied to her handbag, Kate McCann”. She looks “tearfully down to the floor, horror-stricken… she flinched when the cop said of Madeleine in a loud and stark voice ‘She is dead’

Goncalo Amaral “smiled”.., “he diamond in his left ear glittering in the courtroom’s lights.”

Daily Star (front page): “Madeleine died inside apartment’”

Kate inched closer to her husband in the public gallery of the Palace of Justice in Lisbon as the officer gave his verdict.

A verdict? It was a claim not long ago.

District Attorney Jose Menezes, who handled the case, said there had been no evidence to charge the McCanns with any crime.

But he believed they neglected their children, and lied about how often they checked on them during a meal with pals at a tapas bar the night Madeleine disappeared. He said four possibilities of what happened to the youngster remain – kidnap, child-trafficking, homicide or her body was hidden after an accidental death.

Now we’re getting somrwhere. Only four theories.

Meanwhile in court:

Mrs McCann wearing a dark coloured floral dress sat impassively in the front row of the court room beside her husband. The pair held hands and exchanged occasional whispers and nods as they were passed notes by interpreters informing them of court proceedings, which were carried out in Portuguese.

Mr Amaral, dressed in a dark suit and purple tie, was seated at the bench beside his legal team, fifteen feet away from the couple. He spent much of the proceedings with his eyes closed avoiding the direct gaze of the McCanns.

More fact sin the Mail, where Kate’s “agony” is headline news. And we learn that, “Mr and Mrs McCann [are] both doctors”.

A child is missing. One fact.

Pictures Of All The Madeleine McCann Suspects

Anorak

Posted: 13th, January 2010 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comments (30)

Court Hears Madeleine McCann ‘Died In Holiday Apartment’

LAWYER Jose Magalhaes e Menezes tells the court in the Goncalo Amaral libel trial of a report signed by Tavares De Almeida that said Madeleine McCann had ‘died’ in the family’s apartment.

Tavares De Almeida was the police chief inspector at the time Madeleine vanished.

Mr Amaral makes the same suggestion in his book that the McCanns would like banned. They are seeking libel damages. Mr Amaral says a ban infringes on his freedom of speech. A trial ensues.

And Sky News screams:

Madeleine McCann ‘Died In Holiday Apartment’

Anorak

Posted: 12th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (12)

Madeleine McCann: Coronation Street’s Simon Missing And Amaral’s Trial

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann: Portugal, Amaral, libel and Coronation Street:

IN Portugal, Kate and Gerry McCann’s legal action against Goncalo Amaral will last three days. As the disappearance of an innocent child became a form of entertainment, a brand for PRs and speculation, Amaral penned Maddie: The Truth Of The Lie, in which he claimed that Madeleine died in her family’s holiday flat on the night she disappeared.

That a detective who worked on the high-profile case should make his claims in a book – even using the tabloid nickname for the child – is pretty much in keeping with a single-thread story that became a chance for viewers at home to play armchair detective, show how much you care by a mawkish display of ribbon wearing and gawp at the girl’s bereft parents.

Anorak

Posted: 12th, January 2010 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comments (10)

Madeleine McCann: More Speculation, Children for Sale And Joana Cipriano

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann.

Kate and Gerry McCann are back in to Portugal for the libel trial against Goncalo Amaral, the detective who penned ‘The Truth of The Lie’, a book questioning the McCanns’ account about what happened to their daughter.

Says Clarence Mitchell:

“The details of their travel plans and itinerary will at their request remain private.”

Which means that journalists will actually have to follow the McCanns rather than simply rocking up for press conferences.

The news round-up:

Anorak

Posted: 11th, January 2010 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comments (9)

Madeleine McCann And The Senior Police Officer ‘Paedo’

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann: HOLLIE Greig, who has Down’s Syndrome, “claims she was abused for 14 years from the age of six, and has given police the names of some of the men she says assaulted her, including a senior police officer and a sheriff.”

So reports the Press and Journal. However:

The Crown Office revealed last night that there was not enough reliable evidence to proceed with the case, however.

And this has what to do with the media’s Our Maddie?

Mrs Greig claims two of the alleged abusers moved to Portugal a number of years ago and she went to her local police station at Shrewsbury to pass on that information when news broke of the kidnapping of Madeleine McCann.

Anorak

Posted: 7th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (14)

Madeleine McCann Overlooks Ireland’s River Suir

MADELEINE McCann: Madeleine McCann Overlooks The River Suir. Why? Why not?

Anorak

Posted: 5th, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (2)

Madeleine McCann: British Police On Operation Task Will Not Release Files

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann: News is that Leicestershire Police files on the hunt for Madeleine McCann will only be made public when anyone involved in her alleged kidnapping is brought to justice.

Anorak learns that force’s paperwork includes everything from correspondence with Government ministers and the McCanns, details of police meetings, and possible leads and sightings.

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, January 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (14)

Madeleine McCann’s Kidnapper Turns Up On Facebook

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann: On Facebook, Madeleine McCann’s kidnapper has created a fan group. The message is:

“If 2,000,000 people join this group, I will give back Maddie McCann.”

Facebook plus Madeleine McCann: the tabloids are going to love this one. The person who set this is up is either: a) a kidnapper; b) a fantasist; c) unaware of the reward for the child’s return; d) a shock comic looking to attract lots of attention to themselves; e) a parodist mocking how people use the web to talk to Madeleine McCann and show how much they care?

Anorak

Posted: 24th, December 2009 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comment