Madeleine McCann Category
News digests and reviews of the missing child in the news. Madeleine McCann vanished on Thursday, 3 May 2007 from a rented holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Madeleine, on holiday with her twin siblings and parents Kate and Gerry McCann,became the biggest news story of the past decade. We’ve followed it closely ever since the story broke.
Madeleine McCann: Gerry McCann’s Phone Records, Neglect And Abduction
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR: “McCANNS IN FURY AFTER 14 TXTS SLUR – Cops demand Gerry’s phone records”
Gerry McCann reacted angrily yesterday to claims he received a string of mystery texts the day before his daughter vanished. Police applied to Portugal’s supreme court to seize his phone records after learning of the alleged messages.
They claim Gerry was sent 10 texts from an unknown number 24 hours before Madeleine disappeared.
Claim. Claim. Alleged. Now we’re getting somewhere.
THE TIMES: “Madeleine McCann’s parents investigated for neglect”
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Posted: 29th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (158)
Madeleine McCann: No Portugal Return, Maddy TV And Paris Hilton
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
It’s the Mirror’s “MADELEINE EXCLUSIVE”. The news is – as Anorak reported last night – that the Tapas Seven (surely the Sangria 7? –Ed) will not be returning to Portugal to take part in a reconstruction of the night Madeleine went missing.
A source says: “They were asked informally to return, then asked again in an official letter last week. After some consideration they decided not to go back. They were concerned it would not be televised, and were bemused as to why it was happening so long after Madeleine disappeared.”
And who would play Madeleine? Her? Her? What about “Look Into My Eyes”, a TV talent show search for a Madeleine fronted by Trevor McDonald and GMTV?
Remember Kelsey: “Mummy, I could play Madeleine. I look just like her’”?
THE SUN: “No re-run for Maddie cops”
What does Lorraine Kelly think? It was she who said:
How could someone put their infant child forward as a Madeleine lookalike with the idea of making money? The child obviously has to be around the same age as Madeleine.
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Posted: 28th, May 2008 | In: Celebrities, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (500)
No Madeleine McCann Reconstruction
SKY News reports that plans for a reconstruction of the night Madeleine McCann disappeared has been called off.
It sems that several members of the Tapas Seven/Nine were not able to attend.
Kate and Gerry McCann had already decided not to return to Portugal for event…
Posted: 27th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (38)
Madeleine McCann: Bobby Hands, Cannes And A Hunger For Publicity
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
As Leslie Felperin, the excellent reviewer for Variety magazine remarked to me: the newspaper-reading public can’t be persuaded to react in the same way: they care about Madeleine McCann in a serious mood, or in a non-serious mood, they care about Sir Alan Sugar or Simon Cowell. The idea of actually caring about a violent arthouse film investigating the life of Bobby Sands is a very tall order indeed.
Fact and fiction – the story of Madeleine McCann
Posted: 27th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann | Comments (562)
Find Madeleine McCann On Facebook
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SAY the McCanns: “We strongly support and encourage this new initiative to use Facebook to increase awareness of missing children.”
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you will know that children go missing.
Although not if you’re watching the TV news of reading the newspapers because Madeleine McCann is no longer in the mass media.
But the campaign has not been in vain. She is on a press release.
And the better news is that no children have gone missing in the past few weeks. We look through the mainstream press every day. It’s a fact. But what of life on the internet?
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Posted: 25th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Online-PR | Comments (1,240)
Madeleine McCann: Josef Fritzl, Ben Affleck And TV Child Abuse
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MAIL: “Ben Affleck has something to shout about –
Romancer of J-Lo, husband of Jennifer Garner, beefcake specialist of Hollywood blockbusters… and director of sensitively handled film echoing the Madeleine McCann case. Ben Affleck is all these…
And maybe not even in that order. As Affleck said in Pearl Harbor: “Not anxious to die sir, just anxious to matter.”
Ben Affleck’s first film as a director, Gone Baby Gone, a harrowing tale of child abduction, received rave reviews when it came out in the US last year, but its release in Britain was postponed because of chilling parallels with the Madeleine McCann story – and the young lead actress’s strong resemblance to the missing British girl. Now, more than a year since Madeleine’s disappearance, the film is finally about to be released here.
And Affleck has views, too. Having had his film – a work of fiction – compared with the disappearance of a real child, Affleck enjoins the Mail in a game of Tabloid Bingo.
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Posted: 23rd, May 2008 | In: Celebrities, Madeleine McCann | Comments (881)
Madeleine McCann: Press Complaints, Tony Parsons And No News
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
Madeleine McCann is missing…from the papers.
There’s no sign of the child whose name and face are linked to every hack’s keyboard (press f9).
But Madeleine is mentioned in the Press Complaints Commission: Annual Report for 2007.
In 2007, the PCC received 4,340 complaints in total, a 70 per cent increase on the 1996 figure. One column alone in The Mirror about Madeleine McCann attracted 485 complaints.
Might these complaints have been triggered by the Mirror’s mawkish positioning of a yellow ribbon in its cover, which has now gone the way of its WMD counter?
More likely it’s the October 29, 2007 article by Tony Parsons. In “Oh, up yours, Senor”, Parsons invited the Portuguese ambassador to “shut your stupid sardine-munching mouth”. We should not be too hard on Parsons who has experienced the sting of having a child go missing when his own daughter dispapeared from view for, well, it felt like seconds.
“My wife and my daughter were in the school changing room packing up the tutu after ballet. I was waiting right outside, kicking around a ball with the kid brother of one of my daughter’s friends. Eventually my wife came out alone. ‘Where is she?’ my wife asked. ‘Isn’t she with you?’ I said. And that’s how it happens.”
Parsons’ child was found in a classroom. She was “chilling out”.
Incidentally, in 2001 the Mirror’s travel writers told readers: “If your image of Portugal is sardines, golf courses and Benfica football club, then it’s time you paid the place another visit.”
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Posted: 22nd, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (348)
Madeleine McCann: Kevin Doyle Plays A Blinder, Chris Ayres’ Maddy Paddy And Brain Surgery
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “FAI eloquent on Madeleine”
KEVIN DOYLE seemed somewhat surprised the other day when he was informed that the Irish team’s Estrela da Luz base was just five minutes away from where Madeleine McCann went missing last year.
Kevin Doyle is a footballer with the Eire team. He’s at a press conference.
That Doyle had to take a question on the topic was somewhat bizarre, but then such is the demand of news desks — given that Maddie stories still sell — then it was perhaps inevitable. What was more bizarre, however, was an FAI press officer following up unprompted with quite an eloquent comment about the tragedy, before quickly stating that it was from Giovanni Trapattoni who seemingly was scheduled to be asked about the issue as well.
Eveyone should comment on Madeleine McCann. What they say determines how we perceive them. The boy done good.
Doyle said he was going to take a stroll to the church where the McCanns famously prayed in the days after their daughter disappeared, and some other players have been spotted strolling around the area.
A pilgrimage? A quick scout for women? A warm down after training?
THE TIMES: “The babysitter from cyberspace”
Chris Ayres’ LA Notebook: “imagine the terror at leaving my child in the care of an internet nanny”.
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Posted: 20th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (739)
Madeleine McCann: My Brilliant Career
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE GUARDIAN: “Heard the same song three times today? Blame the craze for ‘testing’ tunes”
Martin Kelner is writing on his career in radio:
“The problem is that during the day most of my local radio stations are aiming at a broadly similar audience, roughly women of a certain age, from around 30 to a shade over 55. Those who claim to be in the know say this is the constituency that will help you to a good score in the quarterly Rajar figures.
The slavish adherence to this perceived wisdom was made clear to me at the BBC local station that sacked me just over a year ago (on the same day Madeleine McCann went missing actually, which is probably why you never saw much about it in the newspapers) for not being “female friendly” enough.
Irony? Given the Madeleine McCann is now a linked to the f9 button on a journalist’s keyboard, it’s hard to tell…
Posted: 19th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann | Comments (252)
Madeleine McCann: Spanish Police, Child Abduction And Giovanni Trapattoni
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY MIRROR: “COSTA PAIR TRIED TO STEAL OUR CHILDREN – EXCLUSIVE THIRD attempt to snatch young Brits from their parents in Spain”
Nigel and Lesley Atkinson’s sons Jason, 10, and Jake, eight, were playing outside their home in Moralet, near Alicante, when two men drove up and tried to entice the boys into their car…
“The boys were confused but thank God they were sensible enough to get back in the house. As they did, the men shouted at them to come back. But at this point our baby-sitter came out and the men sped off in their car.”
Spain? Not Portugal, then?
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Posted: 18th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (536)
Madeleine McCann: Scotsman Apologises To Robert Murat
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
ROBERT Murat is involved in legal action against 11 British newspapers and Sky New.
THE Scotsman has apologised to Robert Murat and admitted publishing defamatory allegations about him.
Says the paper:
“On 15 May an article about Robert Murat headed ‘Madeleine: He jokes of being ‘No.1 suspect’’ was published in which we reported a number of defamatory allegations about Mr Murat in connection with the abduction of Madeleine McCann.
“The article wrongly accused him of ‘hanging around’ the scene in a manner which recalled the Soham murders.
“Likening his behaviour in this way to that of Soham murderer, Ian Huntley, suggested that he was involved in the abduction of Madeleine McCann. It was a seriously defamatory allegation and wholly untrue.”
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Posted: 17th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (442)
Madeleine McCann: Daily Express Editor Stands Down And a Joke
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE GUARDIAN: “PEOPLE”
Meanwhile, a current editor, Peter Hill of the Daily Express, stood down yesterday from the Press Complaints Commission, not entirely coincidentally following the company’s recent £550,000 payout to the family of Madeleine McCann for publishing false stories about them.
The donation, right?
The PCC’s chairman, Christopher Meyer, had said Hill’s position was under review following the Express’s apology
THE IRISH TIMES: “Comedy controversies: all in the worst possible taste – Some of the gags that attracted most opprobrium.”
Sean Hughes on Madeleine McCann
At a show last year, Irish comic Sean Hughes noted how the parents of missing child Madeleine McCann had visited the Pope in the Vatican. “I know the Pope was in the Hitler Youth, but I don’t think he has anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance,” he said.
A joke should be funny. Try this one, or this one. Or this one…
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Posted: 16th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (460)
Madeleine McCann: More Secrets And A Rerun
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR: “Maddy file kept shut”
A Portuguese judge overseeing the Madeleine McCann inquiry has extended judicial secrecy by a further three months.
WORKSOP GUARDIAN: “Madeleine files set to stay secret for another three months”
Says the McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell: “We cannot comment on reports in Portugal that the judicial secrecy period has been extended by another three months as Kate and Gerry’s legal advisors have yet to be officially informed of any such decision.”
No comment.
“However, if it’s the case, it’s clearly disappointing and Kate and Gerry’s lawyers will of course continue to press for the opening of the police file. You have to ask yourself how the period of secrecy remaining in place for such a long time actually does anything to help find Madeleine.”
No comment.
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Posted: 15th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (340)
Madeleine McCann Reconstruction To Go Ahead, Maybe
PORTUGUESE police want to reconstruct the night Madeleine McCann vanished.
Says the McCanns’ lawyer at a police conference in Faro in the Algarve: “We have little faith in the benefit of this step and how it can help to discover what happened to Madeleine. But there are strong indications it will go ahead.”
Clarence Mitchell, the McCann’s spokesman, said nothing had been decided.
“The discussions about the possible visit by all nine are still ongoing,” he said. “It is down to the friends – as well as Kate and Gerry – to decide whether they want to go back.
“Of course, Kate and Gerry would do anything they could if they thought it would help find their daughter.
“There are some serious questions surrounding the value of the proposed exercise and only when satisfactory answers have come in and all the friends are happy will it happen.”
Posted: 14th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (206)
Madeleine McCann: The Carnival Of Spotters Reaches Brazil And Yeremi Vargas
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY STAR (front page): “Maddie is seen alive & well in Brazil”
Madeleine McCann is on a plane bound for Sao Paulo. She has also been spotted in Argentina and Chile. The Star says 11 million people live in Sao Paul. It’s the world’s fifth biggest city.
Such are the facts. Gerry McCann is a “heart consultant”. Kate McCann is a “GP”. Facts.
Madeleine has also been seen in: Portugal, Spain, Malta, Morocco, Belgium, Bosnia, France, Australia and Dorset.
Says Clarence Mitchell: “There have been a handful of sightings of Madeleine in South America. Some have been reported, others have not.”
How do editors decide which sightings got on the front page and which are ignored? How do the McCanns?
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Posted: 14th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (288)
Madeleine McCann: Watching The Children
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN: “So sad on Maddie’s birthday”
THE parents of missing Maddie McCann held a “low-key” party yesterday on her fifth birthday. Kate and Gerry McCann decided it must go ahead for the sake of their three-year-old twins Amelie and Sean.
And then tell the world about it.
Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “Obviously, without Madeleine home yet, this is sadly just another day without her in many respects. Of course they marked her fifth birthday, as much for Sean and Amelie’s benefit as anything else, but they did it privately within the family.”
How long before we are watching Sean and Amelie?
DAILY STAR: “MADDIE BIRTHDAY.. NO CAKE, NO CARDS”
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Posted: 13th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (520)
Madeleine McCann: Blaming Richard Desmond And How To Prevent Another Maddie
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE GUARDIAN: “Why the Sunday Express is so unpopular”
ROY GREENSLADE:
I note that the Sunday Express took another sales nose dive last month to record an average weekly sale of just 673,840. Could the continuing circulation slide have anything to do with the readers’ dislike of its scandalous Madeleine McCann coverage? Possibly.
Or has it more to do with the whimsical, but pointless, columns by the paper’s editor, Martin Townsend ? Also possible.
But I believe it has more to do with the growing distaste for its owner, Richard Desmond. In true Maxwellian form a sweaty picture of Dirty Des appeared in this week’s issue (arm around Lulu, poor her) at a charity function arranged by, of course, Desmond himself. Expect another sales drop this month.
OK!, which routinely features its owner Desmond, is the top selling showbiz magazine. Go figure…
METRO: “McCanns hold ‘low-key Maddie birthday party’”
Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist at Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital, has a number of clinical appointments but he and his wife were due to be together at home for some part of the day.
Such are the facts.
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “7 ways to keep your kids safe on holiday – It’s easy for parents to become too relaxed about their children while abroad, so Shane Dunphy suggests some general rules”
Summer’s here — at last. And all we can think about are holidays in the sun. But no parent can take their children abroad now without thinking of tragic Madeleine McCann.
Tips to avoid another Madeleine McCann include:
Posted: 12th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (369)
Madeleine McCann: Inside The Flat, New Clues And Bad Parents
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
NEWS OF THE WORLD (front page): “MADDIE”
More?
“WORLD EXCLUSIVE: FIRST PICTURES INSIDE FLAT”
“Maddie’s bedroom”; “front door” – the flat from Madeleine McCann supposedly went missing is for hire, and the NOTW has been to look it over.
Has the NOTW turned into a holiday brochure, got into the timeshare game?
Now the rest of the flat has been redecorated and is ready to welcome more holidaying families to Portugal.
Can the flat be rented by the minute, and because of its history does it come with a surcharge? For now, the paper wants to show readers “How fiend could have kept out of sight”.
Our detailed survey of the flat reveals a host of places Maddie’s abductor could have hidden when it’s most likely he was almost caught in the act by dad Gerry as he checked on her and twins, Sean and Amelie, at 9.05pm on May 3 last year…
Details. You have noted the door and the bedroom. Now look at the inside of a “WARDROBE”.
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Posted: 11th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (471)
Tabloid Bingo: McCann, Matthews, McGuckin And More…
ANORAK’S’ Tabloid Bingo: With Lorraine Kelly…
The Aim of The Game: To combine the names McCann, Fritzl, Matthews, McGuckin and McKeown in one column. Can the Sun’s Lorraine do it? Eyes down…
WHY do many parents leave their common sense behind as soon as they step on the plane and go off on holiday?
A promising start from Kelly, who has set a scene which should enable her to use all five names, possibly in a single paragraph.
Parents who would not leave their children in the front garden to play on their own happily dump them in the hotel room or villa while they go for a meal. The poor McCanns will never forgive themselves for their tragic error of judgment which led to the disappearance of Maddie.
Tick!
What about the Irish bank chief and his wife who had their children taken into protective custody when on holiday in the Algarve?
You mean the mortgage advisor, Lorraine?
Eamon McGuckin was said to be so drunk that he collapsed and fell through a sofa, while his wife Antoinette threw up in their hotel reception area.
Tick!
Damn those flimsy Portuguese sofas.
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Posted: 10th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews, Tabloids | Comments (28)
Madeleine McCann: McCanns Cleared, Shannon Matthews Fund And The Maddy Card
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
DAILY MIRROR: “McCANNS ‘IN CLEAR’”
Kate and Gerry McCann will be formally cleared as suspects in daughter Madeleine’s disappearance by August, their lawyer said yesterday.
Fact. Now the Portuguese police can find Madeleine? And the McCanns can return to Portugal.
Rogerio Alves said detectives in Portugal had finally admitted they have no evidence against the couple and were preparing to lift their arguido status. But he also warned the move could signal the end of the year-long hunt for the four-year-old.
But the Portuguese police are useless, right? And the McCanns have Metodo 3?
But McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “We don’t want the case to remain unsolved.”
DAILY MAIL: “McCanns’ status as suspects in Madeleine’s disappearance ‘will be lifted by August’”
This August. Fact.
Says Rogerio Alves: “I believe that by August the police will close the case and lift arguido status. I believe it is a very strong possibility.”
Believe. Possibility. Fact.
ROUNDTOWNNEWS (Spain): “Mass of Balloons for Madeleine”
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Posted: 10th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (329)
Madeleine McCann: Rob Blackhurst’s Maddy Theme Holiday, BBC Apologises And If Cars Could Talk
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE BBC have apologised to the McCann family for scheduling a film about a runaway girl called Madeleine on the anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance…
But bungling Beeb chiefs scheduled the 1998 children’s film Madeleine for the weekend of the first anniversary of the youngster’s disappearance.
Can you separate fact from fiction? Call 0800 HELPMEIMMAD and our team of trained TV watchers will talk you through the plot.
The movie, starring Nigel Hawthorne, is about an orphan who runs away and manages to foil a kidnap plot. The blunder was only spotted at the last minute and the BBC hastily replaced the film with the 2005 Lindsay Lohan movie Herbie Fully Loaded.
You know, the one about the car with the big secret.
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “BBC apologises to Madeleine McCann’s parents”
Says a source close to the McCanns:
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Posted: 9th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (481)
Madeleine McCann And McGuckin: Max Clifford, Robert Murat And Portugal Is No Spain
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, with special guests the McGuckins.
British media massed in Portugal for the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are filling in the blanks by watching the telly. Eamon and Antoinette McGuckin flicker into life. Now read on…
THE GUARDIAN: “Holiday couple insist they were not drunk”
Friends in their village in County Derry, Northern Ireland, said the McGuckins had been the victims of “media paranoia” generated by the first anniversary of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
You can never be too careful. There could have been three more Maddies.
Their children – aged one, two and six – were temporarily taken from them last weekend by the Portuguese authorities. The McGuckins said they were saddened and traumatised by the furore.
Portugal – bring the kids and get away from the kids.
DAILY MIRROR: Watching the parents. And what do we know about them?
“The couple live in a £450,000 house in Maghera, Northern Ireland.” Such are the facts.
DAILY MAIL: “’We were ill, not drunk’, claim Portugal holiday couple who had children seized”
Last night, a statement released by the McGuckins failed to state how much or what had been drunk, only that it was not “an excessive amount”.
Semantics. Well, Mr McGuckin is a “former bank manager”.
The incident has caused outrage in Portugal, where the year-long investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has already raised questions over standards of British parenting.
Let’s bomb Portugal, or at least give our young offenders a free holiday there.
BELFAST TELEGRAPH: “Did Derry duo pay for McCanns’ mistake?”
Lindy McDowell plays tabloid bingo and wonders…
And here we come to the crux of the matter. Two words — Madeleine McCann.
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Posted: 8th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (669)
McGuckin In McCann Peril: Foreign Crimes In Foreign Climes
BRITONS planning trips to the new Portugal should go equipped with a loud hailer, a private detective and nothing too shiny. If on a driving holiday, ensure the boot can be opened from within.
Listen to the tale told by Eamon and Antionette McGuckin, who found their three children in the care of the Portuguese – and what irony there, readers – after they were attacked by a “Rohypnol gang”.
One would imagine that given the paralysing powers of the so-called date rape drug, the Rohypnol Gang are not much cop at ganging, preferring to lie down and wait their victim to trip over them. It would help if the victims were drunk.
But this gang is armed with the drug and slipping it into the “small jug” of sangria the McGuckins were quaffing, sipping, even. (Although the Mirror’s Sue Carroll sees the “dog tired, hot and thirsty” couple taking beer – mucky foreign beer.)
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Posted: 7th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (448)
Madeleine McCann: McGuckins, CCTV And A Mother’s Scream
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUE CARROLL (Mirror): The McGuckins are “ashamed”.
“What they should not be are convenient scapegoats for the Portuguese police who, a year on, have failed to turn up even a sliver of evidence on the fate of Madeleine McCann”
McCann. McGuckin. It’s Tabloid Bingo! Bingo! Bingo! Bingo!
DAILY MAIL: “Big Brother? Hardly. The CCTV cameras don’t work – and actually make crime even worse”
Says Ross Clark: “The revelation that only three per cent of London street robberies are solved by CCTV cameras comes as no surprise to me.”
It is a similar story with that other great arm of the surveillance society: the national DNA database. So far, there has been muted public protest at the database, on which there is now the DNA of 4.5 million Britons recorded. But the public’s view of the database is based on the assumption that it is helping to catch criminals. Yesterday, however, the Home Office admitted that for every 800 samples added to the database, it helps solve just one crime.
For example?
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Posted: 7th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (93)
Madeleine McCann: The McGuckins, Middle-Class Drinks And
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR: “Portugal booze parents’ court fear”
It’s Eamon and Antoinette McGuckin.
Bank manager Eamon, 35, passed out in the hotel reception while Antoinette, 36, vomited before falling unconscious.
A source close to the family said last night: “They are very ashamed. They want to go to court. They want to say to the judge that the children are safe with them.”
Significant:
Vilamoura is 45 miles from Praia da Luz, where four-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing while her parents were out with friends a year ago.
DAILY MAIL: “Shamed: The middle class parents who got so drunk on holiday their three children were taken into care”
Middle-class drinkers. Who knew of such a thing?
Mr McGuckin used to be manager of the Magherafelt branch of the Ulster Bank, a spokesman said. He left 18 months ago and is understood to now work for a mortgage company. His wife is a full-time mother.
British parents:
The incident has caused outrage in Portugal, where the year-long investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has already raised questions over standards of British parenting.
BELFAST NEWSLETTER: “Couple ‘will face NI social services’”
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Posted: 6th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (460)
