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.
Team McCann: A Video
DO we post this video based on the Madeleine McCann case? And if so, what does it say? Is is cruel and unjust? Satirical? Does it say something about how the disappearance of a little girl has been treated in the media? Someone made this video…
Posted: 20th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (18)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann’s Hairdresser, A Suspect Look And Amaral
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
NEWS OF THE WORLD front page: “MADDY’S KIDNAPPER – Beast who took McCann’s little girl”
A “WORLD EXCLUSIVE”
The paper says the witness, Gail Cooper, was staying with her family 600 yards from the McCann’s apartment in Praia da Luz.
She told the police of a “creepy man” in the area. A picture of the man has been produced
Gary Thompson, an associate editor at the News of the World, tells the BBC the picture was being taken seriously. Well, it on the front page. “The picture has been passed to Interpol, police in Portugal and also in Leicestershire, so the important thing is – who is he? Where is he now?” he asks.
“We’ll be urging all our readers in the morning to get in touch with the authorities if they’ve got any information at all about this man”
Is he the man who abducted Madeleine McCann? Or was Mrs Cooper listening to The Beatles at the time?
SUNDAY MIRROR: “THE MAN WHO RAN OFF WITH MADDY?
EXCLUSIVE Hunt for Madeleine: Day 262 First image of suspect”
Or the second image…
“This is the face of a stalker now believed to have snatched Madeleine McCann. The image is a former FBI artist’s impression based on a detailed description given by a key British witness. It clearly reveals the features of a moustachioed man – who was carrying a little girl in pink pyjamas, believed to be four-year-old Maddie”
It’s a photofit, an artist’s impression. Like this FBI picture of Madeleine
The original photofit issued by Portuguese police showed only a round egg-shaped head and blank face and was widely criticised as being useless. The Sun had an eFit. Jane Tanner’s efit had hair and a jacket
The man is “thought to be aged between 38 and 45. He has sallow skin, lank dark hair, large teeth and a distinctive droopy moustache. The suspect, who is said to have spoken in broken English, knocked on the door of Mrs [Sarah] Cooper’s apartment claiming to be collecting for charity. Mrs Cooper says: ‘He made my blood run cold – he gave me the creeps. My judgment is that this man was very suspicious and could have been the kidnapper’”
EXCLUSIVE – Picture of man who gave woman the CREEPS!
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Posted: 20th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,095)
Madeleine McCann: Mari Cortes’s Mum Says, Princess Diana And Torture
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN: “Mari’s mum backs Kate”
“Distraught Irene Suarez, 30, insisted Kate did not kill Maddie, as suspected by Portuguese cops”
Irene is mother to missing Spanish girl Mari Luis Cortes. What does she know of the Madeleine case? Is she a witness?
Mum-of-three Irene says: “With all the speculation that Mrs McCann could be guilty of killing her child, I said that’s all lies. A daughter is very special. For a mother to do anything like that is unthinkable”
The McCanns might well be innocent. They maintain that they are the victims of a heinous crime. But are they innocent because they are parents?
She adds: “I believe Madeleine will be found”
The Sun asks a woman whose child is missing if the parents of another missing child should give up? Is the paper using using her?
“McCANNS guilty.. only of caring” – Lorrane Kelly writes: “I BELIEVE Kate and Gerry McCann are GUILTY…
BELIEVE?
… Guilty of leaving their kids alone while they enjoyed a meal with friends, and they are most certainly guilty of moving heaven and earth in order to try to find their beloved Madeleine.
But that is all”
DAILY MAIL: “If McCanns were Portuguese ‘they would already be in jail’ says ‘wrongly convicted’ killer”
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Posted: 19th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (642)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann’s Message And McCann Posters For Mari Cortes Luz
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS: “I feel your pain – Kate’s note to kidnap parents”
Kate McCann has delivered a “heartfelt message of support” to the parents of missing girl Mari Luz Cortes
Writes Kate, a “GP”: “I feel your pain, as parents we know what you’re going through…I am praying that Mari Luz is found quickly, safe and well”
Not that it’s all about the McCanns, a Maddy 2. Although: Says Juan Jose Cortes, Mari’s father: “Only now I understand what Madeleine McCann’s parents are suffering”
Neither Mr Cortes nor his wife are named suspects in their child’s disappearance
The McCanns have offered to equip posters of Madeleine with a shot of Mari – 12,000 of them are to be put up in Spain, the Balearic and Canary Islands
Mr Cortes says thank you but “We don’t feels strong enough to make a decision”
Says Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman: “The posters could lead to vital clues in both cases. Mari Luz’s face would sit along Madeleine’s… We just want to help”
Help who?
DAILY STAR: “’I KNOW THE PAIN YOU ARE FEELING’”
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Posted: 18th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,107)
Madeleine McCann: Mari Luz Cortes, Maddy 2 And Gerry McCann Writes
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS: “POLICE PROBE MADELEINE LINK TO NEW CHILD SNATCH”
Mari Luz Cortes is missing. “Mari Luz’s heartbroken parents yesterday launched a Madeleine-style publicity campaign to help the search for their daughter. They released a video of Mari Luz dancing and opening her Christmas presents”
What has the disappearance of Mari Luz Cortes to do with Madeleine McCann?
“The McCanns and their investigators, two of whom spent the evening with the Cortes family, believe Huelva is on the route Madeleine’s abductor took to spirit the four-year-old away to North Africa”
Maybe Metodo 3 can get a new client?
Says Gerry McCann: “Hearing of the probable abduction of Mari Luz Cortes has brought many awful emotions flooding back. We hope and pray she is quickly found and returned safely…Huelva is approximately a two-hour drive from Praia da Luz and we went there in early August to publicise Madeleine’s disappearance”
DAILY STAR: “MADDIE COPS PROBE LINK TO SNATCH GIRL”
“Police in Portugal were last night investigating whether the fiend who snatched a five-year-old girl in Spain also took Madeleine McCann. Guilhermino Encarnacao, a key member of the Maddie squad, was drafted in to join the hunt for little Mari Lui Cortes” – Not to be confused with Mari Luz Cortes
Look out Spain, the Portuguese police are on the case. But help is on its way: “Last night private eyes hired by the McCanns were in the port, believing the hunt for Mari could also lead them to Madeleine”
Says a police source: “Officers are certain they know what happened to Madeleine. And, despite the situation in Huelva, they don’t believe she was abducted. They are in the loop regarding events in Spain, but mainly to offer assistance in case the culprits escaped to Portugal. Officers are certain they know what happened to Madeleine. There are key differences. Mari disappeared as she walked alone along a public street in daylight. Madeleine vanished from an apartment at night, where she slept with other children. It would have been a far more difficult and daring abduction. There is other evidence, too’’
So who has linked the cases?
There are pictures in the Star of children holding images of Mari
THE SUN: “2,000 MARCH FOR ‘MADDIE 2’ – Awful emotions flood back for Gerry”
Maddy 2? Another film. A sequel?
“Fears were growing last night that the cases were linked and serial kidnapper is on the loose in the region”. Is there any evidence for this? Can the Sun provide details of other missing children that might be linked? Or is fear all?
Says Gerry McCann: “We hope and pray that Mari is quickly found and retuned safely”
Mari has “echoes” of the case of Madeleine McCann: “NO clues, NO confirmed sightings, and NO witnesses”
Apart from those witnesses who have speaking to the press for the past eight months, DNA samples and people pointing fingers
DAILY MAIL: “McCanns’ pain over Spanish abduction”
Is the disappearance of Mari Luz Cortes really about the McCanns?
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Posted: 17th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,081)
Madeleine McCann: Links To Mari Luz Cortes And Benazir Bhutto
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “HAS MADDY MANIAC STRUCK AGAIN? Mari, 5, missing on route ‘used by paedophile gang’”
Mari Luz Cortes “may” have been snatched by paedophiles. She may have been kidnapped from Huelva on the Spanish frontier with Portugal, which is “a short drive from Praia da Luz”
May…
“Significantly” Helva is on the route that the McCanns “fear” Madeleine’s kidnappers took “as thy headed for a ferry in North Africa”
Page 5: “FEARS OF MISSING SPANISH GIRL’S FATHER”
“Tearful Juan Jose” (readers see a picure of him crying) says: “It’s possible that the disappearance of my daughter is linked to the Madeleine case. But it is not something we want to contemplate right now”
But the Mirror does. And it wants its readers to. Madeleine’s dad Gerry McCann says: “We are extremely concerned another young girl has gone missing in the region. We hope Mari is found quickly, safe and is returned to her family as soon as possible. Our thoughts are with her family as the search continues”
Are the McCanns now the first people to call when a child goes missing? How long before they are billed as “experts in child tragedy” and appearing on news bulletins and regional magazine shows?
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell says: “Gerry and Kate of all people know the agony that Mari’s family are going through”
Helva is “120 miles” from Praia da Luz
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: SECOND GIRL TAKEN. Girl, 5, in copycat snatch”
“The five-year-old disappeared after walking alone to her local shop to buy a packet of crisps. Mari Luz Cortes’s family are convinced she has been abducted. More than 100 police and 500 locals are mounting a massive search”
Page 5: “MADDIE: GIRL, 5, IN COPYCAT SNATCH” – A child has gone missing. But why should it have anything to do with Madeleine McCann?
“A source close to the McCanns’ Barcelona-based private detectives said: ‘There is every chance these cases are linked. We have said all along Madeleine was abducted. Now it appears whoever did it may have struck again’”
Clarence Mitchell says the McCanns are “extremely concerned” about the possible abduction in Huelva
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: ANOTHER LITTLE GIRL SNATCHED”
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Posted: 16th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,237)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann’s A Sex Symbol, Spanish Paedos And Belgian Pervs
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR: “Maddie: Spain link is probed”
“Private detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann believe she was snatched on the orders of a paedophile ring in Spain, it emerged yesterday”
It’s what Antonio Toscano told us about his “Frenchman”. Now Metodo 3 are journeying to Valencia and Alicante. No, not Morocco
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell, says: “A potential paedophile gang connection has been there since May 3. M3 are active in this area”
So nothing definite. Just potential
DAILY STAR: “MADDIE: NEW PERV HUNT”
Metodo 3 “are focusing on child sex rings in Valencia and Alicante, homes to thousands of foreign residents and destinations for millions of tourists every year”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Any paedophilia connection in the region has been thoroughly examined and they are continuing to look at potential leads in those areas”
“Live 1-2-1 BLACK FILTH,” says the Star’s advert. “FILTH 4 FREE”
DAILY EXPRESS: “Madeleine: Family anger at plans for 26-part TV series”
The TV series and then the film (The Brady Bunch, Dallas, Miami Vice), or the film and then the TV series (Ghost Busters, Planet of the Apes, My Big Fat Greek Life)?
Portuguese policeman turned criminologist Francisco Moita Flores has written the script
“The series, based on the official investigation, will start filming in Portugal shortly. Producers are hoping it will be shown across Europe – raising the prospect of it being broadcast in Britain”
Why bother when we have Crimewatch, Panorama, CSI Praia da Luz…
“Detectives trawl child sex gangs” – In Spain. Although Metodo 3 say the paedos there have links with paedos in Belgium and Morocco
THE SUN: “COSTA LINK TO MADDIE – Hunt switches to Spanish sickos”
Not all Spanish are sickos. Although this is the Sun, so maybe they are…
“Investigators from Metodo 3 are speaking with Spanish police about child sex networks in the area and any known offenders’ links to the Algarve in Portugal, where Maddie, four, disappeared last May. They believe a gang took her to Spain before smuggling her to Morocco or Belgium”. Or Malta?
Says an investigator: “We cannot discount anything”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “It is a primary area of our investigation”
It is the Sun’s – oh dear – “child sex hunt”
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Posted: 15th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,352)
Madeleine McCann: The FBI, Maddy’s New Look And The Maddie Movie
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MAIL: “Madeleine eight months on: FBI expert shows how missing 4-year-old may look now”
No, it is not that ghoulish. This is how she would look were she alive…
“A haunting picture of Madeleine McCann as she might look today should be used in the hunt to find the four-year-old, a former police chief said yesterday.” It’s celebrity copper John Stalker, who now advertises burglar alarms on the telly, when he’s not talking to the papers
“State-of-the-art ‘age advancement’ digital techniques were used by an FBI expert to create the image, which shows how Madeleine might have changed over the eight months since she disappeared”
You can create the same computer wizardry on your home PC by taking a picture of Madeleine and using “guesswork” and “speculation” look at her haircut, build and clothes. Squinting at it the image will help…
Says Stalker: “My first thought when I saw the image was ‘Who is this little stranger?’ It was only after looking closer that I realised it was her – and that is why this image is needed so badly because many people could have walked straight past her”
Madeleine McCann is no stranger. That’s her with the auburn hair and red sweater; the black hair and blue top; the blonde hair and swimsuit; the Moroccan family…
“New York Police Department forensic artist Stephen Mancusi”, who produced the picture, says: “This tragic ordeal would have taken her brightness away”
Well, maybe…
Says Stalker: “What makes it so realistic and tragic is that you can almost see the sorrow in the face – the pain of being away from her Mum and Dad for over eight months. We are looking for a new Madeleine”
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Posted: 14th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,207)
Madeleine McCann: McCann Incorporated, McCann Ink And Going Back To Portugal
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY MIRROR: “Tapas 7 in despair at all the ‘lies’”
They say they are also called the Tapas Nine? And the Sangria Seven
“The Tapas Seven are “in meltdown” over the failure of Portuguese police to make any meaningful progress in the hunt for Madeleine”
“IT’S OUR D-DAY – McCanns return to Portugal – EXCLUSIVE Kate and Gerry set date in April for Algarve showdown They’ll tell cops: show your evidence or clear us for good”. Like that D-Day back on November?
“Despairing Kate and Gerry McCann are planning to return to Portugal for a face-to-face showdown with police who think they killed their daughter Madeleine”
They are going back. Now..?
Well, not exactly: “A close friend said the the couple were likely to go back after their ‘D-Day’ of April 11, when their three-month extension is up, and added: ‘They feel they’ve waited long enough with this cloud of suspicion hanging over them. They know their return would be very high-profile. They believe investigators do not have the evidence against them to bring charges, and their presence in Portugal would embarrass them. They’ve so far held off going back there, but they see it as their trump card”
They will go back once they have been allowed to see the police first on them
Says the paper’s source: “They see April 11 as their D-day. They have decided to give the police reasonable time to clear them, or at least open the case files so they can see the evidence against them”
That’s good of them…
FIONA Philips, of GMTV writes: “Have a heart”. Yes, that Fiona Philips
“Unbelievably, every time I write about the McCanns I get messages saying, ‘I used to like you, until you started supporting the McCanns.’ Nice, eh? So I hope you’re happy now that Kate and Gerry have blamed themselves for Madeleine’s disappearance”
Happy?
“In a list of ‘if onlys’, Gerry said: ‘I wish I’d stayed in the apartment that night.’ Now, I expect more bile on praising them for considering making a documentary on the case. Surely you can’t tell me that there’s a parent out there who wouldn’t do anything possible to find their missing child?”
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “’We pray she’ll be at party for twins’”
“Brave Kate McCann is planning a huge birthday party for her twins – and dreams missing Maddie will be there too. Kate, 39, has vowed to go ahead with the bash for Sean and Amelie even though she is still waiting for cops to quiz her again. Mother-in-law Eileen said: ‘The party’s on and it will be an even bigger one if wee Madeleine is back. All we can do is hope and pray.’ Sean and Amelie turn three on February”
Touching stuff. Gerry McCann is a “heart specialist”
MAIL ON SUNDAY: “Madeleine: No film will be made unless she’s found – alive or dead”
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Posted: 13th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,025)
Madeleine McCann: The Gardener Questioned, Marcos Correia Cries Rape And Kelsey Lynn Kudla Says
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: BRITISH ODD-JOB MAN QUIZZED”
A new suspect?
“An anonymous email sent to Portuguese detectives claimed that Daniel Groom was spotted lurking in an alley close to the McCanns’ apartment on the night Madeleine vanished”
The paper says he looks not too unlike the man seen walking from the holiday complex holding a child. You know, that man with no face…
Says Mr Groom: “I think I am being framed. I am the victim of a smear campaign by someone with a grudge against me… During the week two detectives had arrived in town and begun asking friends about my whereabouts. I rang them after they left a message with a friend. I met them in a car park in Praia da Luz… They were two detectives from the Lisbon area, a good cop and a bad cop. One guy was quite small and smoked a cigar. The other guy was really fat, wore girly sunglasses and kept looking around him all the time”
A good cop? We know all about the bad cops (see the Sun). But this good cop..?
They showed him the email. It went:
“Is it a coincidence that this man started working as a gardener in the area and a child went missing?
“Maybe he walked through the car park at the front of the McCanns’ apartment and a little way down the dark alley between the two buildings where he could see and probably hear that the McCanns were there.
“After that maybe he listened at the window of the McCanns’ apartment for any sign that someone such as a babysitter was there. No television…nothing.
“Did this man initially see the McCanns and Madeleine whilst working on an empty apartment/villa and note that the children were left alone? Did he then come back to watch the McCanns when it was dark and not during daylight hours?”
This is front-page news…
Says Groom: “After a few minutes they said they thought it was all b******t. They said if they needed to talk to me again they would, but they thought they were barking up the wrong tree”
A gardening joke to end. Mr Groom may survive his ordeal
“KEEP LOOKING FOR HER, BEGS GRANDAD” – Says Brian Healey: “There has been so much that has been said and written, much of it untrue and hurtful, but so often it seems to me as if the only really important person in all this has been forgotten – and that’s Madeleine”
Indeed. ‘Nuff said…
“Some people don’t seem to want to know about the real Kate”
As we say, ‘nuff said…
THE SUN: “’Paedo dumped Maddie in lake’”
“MADELEINE McCann was raped and killed within 48 hours of being snatched then thrown in a reservoir, a Portuguese lawyer claimed yesterday. Human rights solicitor Marcos Aragao Correia said underworld sources tipped him off on May 6, three days after the tot vanished in Praia da Luz”
May 6?
Correia says he told the police. He then told Metodo 3, the McCanns’ private detectives. Correia says Madeleine’s body was in a reservoir with a small beach and showers for campers, late identified as the Barragem do Arade reservoir
Remerb when X marked the spot – “Vermoedelijke Vindplaats”
“KATE dad: Back off my daughter” – Says Brian Healy: “Some people don’t seem to want to know about the real Kate. She is such a warm and caring person, as well as being intelligent. But you can’t win because people say, ‘He would say that, he’s her father’”
Why would we care? A child is missing, why is it important we like Kate McCann?
“READERS in fury at ‘sick stunt’”
“SUN readers bombarded our MySun discussion forums yesterday to vent their disgust following our revelations that an agency is ready to hire out a Maddie lookalike”
“LOOKALIKE mum: Let us help” – “The tearful mum of a tiny lookalike who hopes to play Madeleine McCann in a film insisted last night: ‘We only want to help’. American Kris Pfister, whose three-year-old Kelsey Lynn Kudla bears a stunning resemblance to the missing tot, added: “I feel for Maddie’s family — I am on their team”
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Posted: 12th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,006)
Madeleine McCann: Entertaining YouTube
THERE are 1,600 videos relating to Madeleine McCann’s disappearence on YouTube…
Posted: 11th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (7)
Madeleine McCann: Kelsey Lynn Kudia For Hire, Paris Hilton And Propaganda
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “’MADDIE’ FOR HIRE”
Tonight Kelsey Lynn Kudia is Madeleine McCann. Kelsey looks likes Madeleine McCann. She’s not in Morocco. She;s nopt Bouchra Benaissa. She not in Malta. But for the right fee she might be. Kelsey is a working Madeleine McCann double
Pages 4 and 5: “The boss of a lookalike agency who hopes to make a fortune out of a little Madeleine McCann double said last night: ‘It’s not sinister – it’s entertainment’. Shona Adams reckons three-year-old Kelsey Lynn Kudla’s similarity to missing Maddie could earn her £9MILLION for starring in a proposed feature film about the vanished tot”
Well, someone would have to play the missing child, unless she is found alive and well…
Says Shona, owner of London’s Juliet Adams Model Agency: “If the film about Madeleine is ever made, then the world is Kelsey’s oyster. If someone like Steven Spielberg made it, she could make £9million easily – of which I’d take 20 per cent. She will become a name in her own right and make it as a child model or actress because she’s got her foot in the door”
Just when you thought it was safe to holiday in Portugal…Dum-dum…
Of course, great acting careers have begun with less. Didn’t Tom Hanks play the baby in a Cry In The Dark?
She continues: “And from there, her earning potential is limitless. It’s not sinister. And if the McCanns are upset, there’s nothing they can do because it’s a democracy. I wouldn’t back away from it because, if a film is being made, then it’s entertainment”
Kate and Gerry McCann are “doctors”.
Says Shona: “I wouldn’t put Kelsey in a position of doing anything bad taste”
SLAP IN FACE FOR McCANNS: Sun columnist Lorraine Kelly says: “It makes you recoil to think a lookalike agency would have a Madeleine on their books alongside someone who looks like Jack Nicholson or Paris Hilton”
Whatever could she mean? Neither Nicolson nor Hilton were available to defend themselves…
DAILY EXPRESS: “The Madeleine lookalike on hire for £600 an hour”
Do you want to get your resort or country in the papers? Hire Kelsey to be a “Madeleine” and attract the world’s media to your locale as she is spotted time and time again
Kelsey is American
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Posted: 11th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,399)
Madeleine McCann: Gerry McCann Talks With Vanity Fair
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADELEINE: THE BIG INTERVIEW”
“Our regret”
“GERRY: I wish we have never gone to the tapas bar”
“KATE: I wish I’d seen the stranger watching us”
“READ THEIR HEARTBREAKING WORDS INSIDE”
Voyeurs, campaigners, police and handwringers come see the pain, the suffering the agony. Prepare to be heartbroken!
“Riddled with guilt, the distraught” Gerry will tell all to the Mirror. Well, not to the Mirror, rather to Vanity Fair magazine. Journalist Judy Bachrach spoke with Gerry in October near the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire
And the interview is not with Gerry and Kate. Only Gerry McCann was interviewed, says the Mail. Kate McCann’s words come via friends and family
Pages 4 and 5: “I WISH”.
It reads very much like a prayer, or a camping speech by Barack Obama. Says Gerry McCann:
“I wish I hadn’t gone to the tapas bar.
“I wish I’d have stayed in the apartment that night
“I wish I’d stayed in the room when I checked on her five minutes longer”
A wish…
Says Gerry McCann: “”At the time we did it, it was not irresponsible. Of course we feel guilty about not having been there and that is just something we have to deal with for the rest of our lives. You are not asking anything we don’t think about on a daily basis. We live this 24 hours a day”
Gerry says his world went “all black, with maybe tiny points of light” in the days after Madeleine vanished. “We can’t cry our eyes out every day because that’s not helping. So after three days I picked myself up…quicker than Kate could. Grief washes over you. It’s like a big wave, mostly I was able to beat it back”
And the Madeleine ‘Look into my eyes’ campaign? Says Gerry: “We thought it was possible this could hurt her. Her abductor might do something to her eye. But in marketing terms it was a good ploy”
THE SUN: “Life’s bleak but I cling to hope”
Says Gerry McCann: “People can support you in your darkest hours and in our case the darkest hour was of course when Madeleine went missing. Now it is just bleak”
In next month’s Vanity Fair: “The interview with Gerry came as it emerged GORDON BROWN has snubbed the McCanns’ request for a meeting; furious Kate EXPLODED when cops first told her she was a suspect; and family spokesman Clarence Mitchell has given a university SPEECH on the topic Missing Maddie McCann — the perfect PR campaign
“A pal of the McCanns said Kate, 39, believes the family were STALKED by Maddie’s kidnapper in the days before she went missing”. WOW
COUPLE hit back on film. Says Clarence Mitchell, the spokesperson: “It is not us being greedy. It is us being needy“
DAILY MAIL: “It’s all my fault, admits Maddie’s father”
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Posted: 10th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,344)
mystery
Why does everything the McCanns do seem so suspicious?
Posted: 9th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (89)
Madeleine McCann: Not A Film, A Book And The McCanns Making Money
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Madeleine’s parents planning Hollywood blockbuster movie”
“Kate and Gerry sparked outrage after it was revealed they have held negotiations with leading producers over the movie rights. The couple – who are prime suspects in the case – are also considering book and TV deals in a package worth an estimated £10million”
A book? Like the Daily Express book? That sick..?
Kate McCann: Michelle Pfeiffer
Gerry McCann: James Caan
Madeleine McCann: Macaulay Culkin
And what of this £10million, and the money earned from any film? “The windfall would help finance the search for Madeleine after concerns were raised that a special fund set up by the family was in crisis”
Page 5: The Find Madeleine fund is down to its last £400,000. More money is needed. So why the “outrage”?
Says the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “We need money to search for Madeleine and that is the most important thing. Nothing has been decided yet. A film would be made on a percentage basis, with part of the profits going to the fund. None of the money would go to Kate and Gerry. They are not trying in any way to profit out of her name’’
And how many films ever make a profit? It would be a film, perhaps, like that about 15-year-old Amy Smart, abducted in the US and found eight months later. “Several movies were made about her while she was missing including The Amy Smart Story”
The “WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER” does not say if the Amy Smart story made any money. But it does trawl the web and see blog comments like:
“Angry” Pamela Blears, from Oldham, posts: “From the day little Madeleine disappeared I have felt sympathy and compassion for the McCanns but this beggers belief. How can they think about making a film out of the tragedy when the poor child hasn’t even been found yet? How low can you get?”
The Daily Express costs “ONLY 40p”
“McCANNS FEAR CHARGES SOON” – “A source close to the family” tells us: “Kate and Gerry insist they are innocent but they fear they will be charged. Naturally Kate and Gerry are concerned that if this line of inquiry continues to its natural conclusion, charges are always a possibility and they know that’s entirely wrong”
He added: “The Portuguese police seem to be blinkered in their approach and it feels like they want to find the McCanns guilty regardless.”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: THE £10M MOVIE – Skint parent to sell film rights”
Skint? The Find Madeleine Fund is dwindling, down to its last “£200,000”. But Gerry McCann is going back to work. He is, as the tabloids never tire to telling us, “a heart consultant”. She is a “GP”
Says the Star: “The couple – who are prime suspects – are in negotiations with the world’s biggest talent and entertainment agency IMG”
IMG – International Management Group– has produced the films Touching the Void, Assault on Waco, Seconds from Disaster, I Shouldn’t be Alive and Kevin and Perry Go Large. Naomi Campbell is on the books
Any film would be an “observational documentary following the on-going search for Madeleine,” says IMG
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 9th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,585)
Moves To Reinterview The McCanns
AS reported: “Portuguese prosecutors have begun moves to reinterview witnesses in the case of missing Madeleine McCann.
“It is believed that they may want British police to speak to seven friends who dined with Madeleine’s parents on the night she was last seen.”
The spokesman for the McCanns, Clarence Mitchell, told BBC News 24 that if the reports were correct the family would welcome them.
“We have been saying for a long time now that, frankly, it’s about time that the police came to reinterview anyone they need to reinterview,” he said.
“We feel that any inconsistencies the police are concerned about in any original statements from Gerry and Kate’s friends can easily be cleared up through these reinterviews.
“And the sooner it happens the better, because we believe it will lead the police to realise there is no case against Gerry and Kate and it will lead to them being eliminated and their arguido [suspect] status lifted.”
Posted: 8th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (58)
Madeleine McCann: Her Blood, Official Tabloid News And Michaela Walczuch Denies
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: IT WAS HER BLOOD IN PARENTS’ HIRE CAR”
“New results sent to Portugal in the last few days show the blood samples could only belong to Madeleine, it was claimed” – claimed…
Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha reports: “The definitive result of the tests leave no doubts for the Policia Judiciaria. The blood found in the McCanns’ car is that of Madeleine as well as those samples detected in the flat”
No doubt? So says a newspaper report that provides the basis to THE WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER’S lead story
Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “These reports are very distressing for Kate and Gerry, they are depressed that again wild rumour and speculation is being presented as fact. We wish Portuguese police would just get on with their investigation, come over to England and carry out the interviews with Kate and Gerry and their friends. All those interviews will prove, yet again, that Kate and Gerry have nothing to hide.
“As for the supposed DNA testing, we cannot comment on yet more unsubstantiated rampant speculation in the Portuguese press. It is ridiculous to suggest that Madeleine’s blood was in the hire car because she was never in it. It was hired more than 20 days after she went missing, which means it was impossible for her to have ever been in it”
A friend of the McCanns says: “They were in no way involved in her disappearance, reports like this just add to their anguish. We would also point out that low copy DNA is under review by police forces in this country following the outcome of the Omagh bombing trial”
But it is a sign of police progress, right?
THE SUN front page: “Maddie blood ‘in hire car’”
“The tormented parents of Madeleine McCann reacted in fury last night to new claims that DNA evidence backs the theory they killed her”
KATE AGONY OVER ‘WILD’ DNA CLAIM – Blood specks behind sofa and in car ‘are Maddie’s”. The scent of death?
A ‘wild’ claim repeated in the Sun…
“Now it is being claimed new and ‘definitive’ results from Britain support the police theory that Maddie was killed in the apartment and her body moved in a car hired 25 days AFTER she vanished” – Claimed by Portuguese newspaper Correio Da Manha, from where the Sun gets its news
The Forensic Laboratory in Birmingham says: “Tests are still being carried out. No final report has been submitted to the Portuguese authorities”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – Blood in car is hers OFFICIAL”
“BLOOD IN CAR IS MADDIE’S OFFICIAL – ‘No doubts’ after test on Renault”
“The findings appear to support the police theory that Madeleine was accidentally killed in the apartment and her parents disposed of her body to mask their negligence”
Only…
“But they come from low-copy DNA analysis – a controversial technique based on just a few human cells which was recently branded unreliable by UK police. Last month, Omagh bomb suspect Sean Hoey walked free after a judge decided this type of testing was not at a sufficiently scientific level to be considered evidence. The Association of Chief Police Officers then announced it was suspending use of the technique in criminal inquiries. And the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales is reviewing a number of cases in which it was involved. That means the results in Madeleine’s case could probably never be used in court”
DAILY MAIL: “Did Maddie witnesses mistake this friend of the McCanns for Murat”
As Anorak reprotered yesterday, David Payne, one of the so-called Tapas 7,9 etc., looks not a lot unlike Robert Murat
Mr Murat’s lawyer Francisco Pagarete says: “Robert has always said the witnesses were mistaken. He was not there that night”
“MR MURAT’S girlfriend Michaela Walczuch was yesterday forced to deny claims she had been named as a police suspect in the case. The Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas claimed the mother-of-one, 34, had been made an ‘arguido’, or formal suspect, alongside Mr Murat and the McCanns. Lawyer Mr Pagarete insisted he had been misquoted by the tabloid when discussing her. Police refused to confirm or deny the report”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Murat’s girlfriend ‘is Madeleine McCann suspect’”
“The Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas reported that Michaela Walczuch, 32, was made an arguida after a witness claimed to have seen her with a small girl two days after four-year-old Madeleine went missing last May”
He is an arguido. She is an aguida
“A spokesman for the Portuguese police said yesterday that she had ‘no information’ about Miss Walczuch being made an official suspect”
Or not…
“ARE spin doctors taking over the world? – The rise and rise of the profession is not confined to politics: even the McCann family, campaigning to find their daughter Madeleine, sought the help of a former BBC journalist, Clarence Mitchell, to manage their publicity”
DAILY MIRROR: “ NEW LEAD ON MADDY”
British tourist Gail Cooper says she saw a “mystery man hanging around Madeleine McCann’s holiday flat just days before she vanished”. Like Paul Gordon did
Ms Cooper say: “He was horrible looking man , really creepy, unkempt and dirty. He definitely wasn’t Portuguese. He scared me”
Is there more than one creepy man in Praia da Luz? Another oddball?
Says Cooper: “I’m sure this man had something to do with Madeleine’s disappearance”
THE SCOTSMAN: “New claims on blood in McCann’s hire car
“Blood traces found in the hire car used by Kate and Gerry McCann were from their missing daughter Madeleine, according to a Portuguese newspaper”
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Please don’t make this into another Maddy’”
Amy Fitzpatrick is missing. She is Irish. Her mother lives in Spain. Amy is 15. she went missing as she walked home on New Year’s Day from a friend’s house where she was babysitting in Calahonda near Mijas in southern Spain
“Outside Amy’s home, a gated development called Riviera Del Sol, just outside Fuengirola, children played in the shrubland, oblivious to the fact a teenager had vanished nearby without a trace. Some poked through shrubbery, others rode their bikes. It was a very different scene to that when Madeleine McCann disappeared last summer in Portugal, when locals and ex-pats joined the search to try and find the missing girl. But the family does not want a repeat of the publicity which has surrounded her case. ‘Please don’t turn this into a circus,’ a family spokesman said last night. ‘Don’t make it another Maddy. Let the police do their job’”
There is only one Madeleine McCann – Her story so far
Posted: 8th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,118)
Madeleine McCann: An Intruder, Murat’s False Alibi And David Payne Is Murat’s Double
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Intruder tried to break in to Madeleine apartment”
Page 5: “I SAW INTRUDER TRY TO GET INTO MCCANN FLAT – British holidaymaker Paul Gordon confronted a man trying to get in through the patio doors of flat 5A at the Ocean Club Resort in Praia da Luz where his two young children were sleeping”
Dramatic stuff. Was the have-a-go hero hurt?
Says the British man: “I find it incredible that no one has tried to work out who this person was who came to the apartment unannounced just days before Madeleine McCann went missing”
How does he know the police have not tried to work it out? But tell us what happened? How was this “intruder” trying to get in? Was he armed?
Says Gordon: “I came across someone at the flat. I now believe he was suspicious. He said he was collecting donations for an orphanage in the mountains. But he did not come to the front door. And it happened in the middle of the day when most people are out. He must have been staking out the property, or worse”
Must have been…
Says the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “Mr Gordon has spoken to the police about his time in the apartment. And our investigative team has spoken with him. He said somebody came round to the apartment 5A asking for a charity donation and said it was suspicious”
ROBERT MURAT: “Suspect Murat ‘was given a false alibi by his friend’” – Murat says he was at home with his mother the night Madeleine disappeared. “The witness said Murat left the bar drunk,” says a police source. “This was the statement that put Murat in trouble”
Not his being “creepy”?
“Police ‘have no evidence to charge Kate and Gerry’” – Which given that the McCanns have not been charged with any crime, seems to be a statement of fact
DAILY MAIL: “Man lurked by Maddie’s patio doors’”
“British holiday-maker Paul Gordon told police he spotted the man outside the two-bedroom flat’s patio doors while his own two children were sleeping inside. Kate and Gerry McCann believe their daughter’s abductor crept into the apartment through the same patio doors, which they left unlocked so they and their friends could check on their sleeping children during their now infamous dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant”
Unlocked doors… Abroad… Children… No key?
“The man claimed to be collecting money for an orphanage in the mountains and Mr Gordon told detectives he left him alone near the doors while he went to find money to give him. In those few minutes the stranger could have studied the lay-out of the apartment and even checked on locks and security arrangements inside, police fear”
Or not… But Metodo 3 are investigating. And then there is Karen Sixsmith, who opened her door to Jehovah’s witnesses. Read about her brush with danger here
THE SUN: “PAL LIED FOR MURAT”
Murat’s lawyer says: “The friend was caught by surprise and tried to defend Robert. He ended up prejudicing him, because this fact is not true”
And: “Meanwhile it emerged a family who rented the flat before the McCanns told police a creepy man posing as a charity collector appeared on their patio”
So he was not collecting for charity, only pretending to? The other fact is that Kate and Gerry McCann are “doctors”
DAILY MIRROR: “I SAW ‘STALKER’ BY MADDY APARTMENT – Tourist raises paedo fears”
Paul Gordon is pictured. Or at least his back is. And the hood brought up over his head. He is made to look less like a witness than a suspect. Why show this picture?
He gave his statement “several times”, including one sworn statement. He gave his fingerprints and DNA samples. So maybe the police did look closely at his statement, after all?
DAILY STAR: “MURAT’S DOUBLE – Pal is mistaken for Madeleine suspect”
Was it Robert Murat those nine (Sun) witnesses saw the night Madeleine McCann disappeared? Or was it David Payne, the McCanns’ medical friend? The Star has a picture of both men. Add some more hair to Mr Payne’s head and you have a likeness.
Says a source: “What is baffling is that Mr Payne’s own wife and two of his friends are among those who claim to have seen Mr Murat outside the McCanns’ apartment that night. Mrs Payne may not have known Mr Murat well but you’d think a wife would recognise her own husband”
So when she says she saw Murat, it would be unlikely she actually saw her husband?
Madeleine McCann: The endless speculation
Posted: 7th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,169)
Madeleine McCann: Paul Gordon Sees, Clarence Mitchell Knows And A Circus
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “New witness was worried by the creeps lurking near apartment.. just 5 days later Maddie had vanished”
“Paul Gordon said he was worried the dodgy-looking people had no business to be at the Portuguese complex”
Which means: “His shock evidence could mean child-snatchers had been staking out the complex before four-year-old Maddie’s family even arrived there”
Or not…
DAILY STAR: “PARENTS HAVE ‘NOTHING TO HIDE’”
So says…the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “At the end of the day the police won’t have enough evidence to prosecute Gerry and Kate because they were not involved in Madeleine’s disappearance in any shape or form”
THE TIMES: “My smashing idea for the circus,” by Ron Liddle
“Staggering somewhat bleary-eyed into the living room on the morning of January 1, 2008, I switched on the television to see what was new with the world. And lo, there were Kate and Gerry McCann staring out at me from BBC News 24. I watched for a few minutes trying to work out if there had been some crucial development in the case that I had missed, but it seemed not. Nothing whatsoever had happened, in fact. Like everyone else, I pray that Madeleine McCann will be found safe and well and that, in the meantime, the whole ghastly soap opera ceases to be the media’s preeminent obsession”
Thus producing more McCann coverage in the Times
THE STAR (South Africa): “Missing kids crisis”
“One child disappears every six hours in South Africa – 110 a month last year until the end of November… Statistics point to 80 percent of missing children being runaways, with 15 percent getting lost. The balance are allegedly abducted… In 2007, murdered South African children included Sheldean Human (7) of Pretoria, Mikayla Rossouw (6) of Swellendam, Annestacia Wiese (11) of Mitchells Plain and Sonja Brown (2) of Rawsonville. Internationally, the world was gripped by the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann (3) from a Portuguese flat”
Madeleine McCann – the story so far
Posted: 6th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,203)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann’s Diary, The Maddy Catty And Portugal’s A Banana Republic
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN: “Police want Kate’s diary”
“COPS moved closer to charging the parents of Madeleine McCann last night after demanding mum Kate’s diary be seized as trial evidence”
The police want the original, having copied it once and handed it back to Kate McCann. The court only considers original documents
“Cardiologist Gerry, 39, is said to be portrayed as an absent dad happy to leave his wife to shoulder the burden while he relaxed on holiday”
A cardiologist. Kate is a “GP”. Such are the facts
A source close to the family says: “The McCanns fear the police want to show a judge they are in position to move the case forward”
DAILY MAIL: “Portuguese police want to seize Madeleine’s Cuddle Cat again”
“Police in Portugal have begun a fresh trawl for evidence which could incriminate Gerry and Kate McCann. Among the items they are said to want to seize is their missing daughter Madeleine’s Cuddle Cat toy, which was examined by forensic teams in the summer. They have also demanded Mrs McCann’s diary”
Why a diary?
“She was advised by a trauma counsellor to keep a journal and to include the days before Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3”
The police: “They have suggested the toy was cleaned to destroy any potential DNA evidence, such as blood. Mrs McCann said it had simply become too grubby”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Don’t go to Portugal for your holiday”
Writes Simon Heffer: “I think it is time that the British people showed yet more solidarity with Gerry and Kate McCann, who have been named by the Portuguese police as the main suspects in the presumed murder of their daughter. If the McCanns killed Madeleine, then I am Barack Obama”
Well…
“The utterly useless Portuguese police have nowhere else to go, because their initial bungling of the investigation has robbed them of vital clues. It is deeply unpleasant of them to try to scapegoat the child’s grieving parents to try to concoct for themselves an impression of competence
“Portugal has revealed itself to be little more than a banana republic through the handling of this case. Whether you have small children or not, you would be mad even to think of having a holiday there”
Portugal is Britain’s oldest ally – or was…
THE INDEPENDENT: “Deborah Orr: The dark deeds that fire the imagination”
“Likewise, the terrible fascination with the Madeleine McCann case can be viewed, with some validity, as collective wish-fulfilment. There is no substantive evidence of murder, but there is a strong undertow of longing all the same for the culprit to turn out to be someone of the professional class living a respectable life somewhere in the suburbs”
Orr quotes form George Orwell’s 1946 essay The Decline of the English Murder: The murderer should be a little man of the professional class – a dentist or a solicitor, say – living an intensely respectable life somewhere in the suburbs, and preferably in a semi-detached house, which will allow the neighbours to hear suspicious sounds through the wall … He should go astray through cherishing a guilty passion for his secretary or for the wife of a rival professional man, and should only bring himself to the point of murder after long and terrible wrestles with his conscience. Having decided on murder, he should plan it all with the utmost cunning, and only slip up over some tiny unforeseeable detail. The means chosen should, of course, be poison”
Posted: 5th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,090)
Madeleine McCann: 20 Years Of Fury, Kate And Gerry McCann Prime Suspects, Robert Murat Says Nothing
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “YOU’RE STILL PRIME SUSPECTS – McCanns’ fury at police chief warning”
“Kate and Gerry McCann were furious last night after learning they are still prime suspects in daughter Madeleine’s disappearance”
It is now the 105th time Kate and Gerry have reacted with fury of been furious in a tabloid setting
“The couple’s hopes of being cleared today were crushed when police chief Paulo Rebelo asked a judge to extend their arguido status because detectives are sticking to their belief that they accidentally killed the four-year-old”
This was predictable. Robert Murat also remains a suspect
Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “They are frustrated and angry. Frustrated because, yet again, there appears to be no movement in the case when they know they are innocent. They will continue to push for their arguido status to be lifted”
The Correio da Manha newspaper “claimed Kate and Gerry, of Rothley, Leics, could be charged with perjury and wasting police time”
But don’t the police waste enough of that themselves?
“They have been warned by their legal team they may have to go to the European Court of Human Rights to get their arguido status lifted”
Human rights? What of Madeleine’s rights?
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANNS ARE MAIN SUSPECTS SAY POLICE”
“Kate and Gerry McCann were dealt a crushing blow last night when a police report accused them of killing their daughter Madeleine”
Says a friend: “They are not the prime suspects. As we understand it, the report talks about the police’s continued belief that Madeleine died accidentally in the apartment and that is why Kate and Gerry remain arguidos. It also talks about Robert Murat remaining an arguido and it discusses the possibility of her being abducted. Well, they can’t have it both ways”
No..?
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Throughout 2007 we have declined to comment on speculation in the Portuguese press. We will follow the same policy in 2008. If this report is true, however, and this interim police report exists, then we believe it contains nothing new. It is simply a restatement of the current position of the police. And we note that it not only discusses Kate and Gerry as arguidos, but also continues to name Mr Murat as an arguido. Crucially it also accepts the possibility that abduction took place”
The green shoots of hope…
THE SUN front page: “McCANN AGONY GOES ON – 246 after Maddie vanished, cops name Kate and Gerry as…PRIME SUSPECTS”
“ANGUISHED Kate and Gerry McCann are facing up to living as suspects over their daughter’s disappearance for another TWENTY years, it emerged yesterday”
Maybe…
Kate and Gerry are “both 39-year-old doctors”
Fact!
DAILY MAIL: “Police ‘still think McCanns killed Madeleine by accident’ – and they will be suspects for 20 years”
“A secret police dossier has accused Kate and Gerry McCann of accidentally killing their daughter and hiding her body, it was claimed yesterday. The couple faked four-year-old Madeleine’s abduction, according to a leaked report on the eight-month police investigation”
Lawyer Edward Smethurst, who is co-ordinating the McCanns’ defence, says: “Any report about the leaked document we believe is completely without substance. We think it arises out of pure speculation on the part of the Portuguese papers”
Kate and Gerry McCann are “doctors”
THE SCOTSMAN: “Madeleine’s parents could be under suspicion for 20 years, says judge”
“The prospect of the case dragging on for years was reinforced yesterday by the president of the National Union of Portuguese Judges, Antonio Martins, who said: ‘No-one knows what type of crime was committed. If it was homicide, the investigation can only be shelved after 20 years; if it was kidnap, 15 years’”
On we go…
THE OBSERVER: “After a year in which the torment of Madeleine McCann’s family has dominated the British media, the trials of the Lees – and the hope the new image has given them – seem particularly acute”
The story: “Katrice disappeared on her second birthday from a supermarket in Germany, where her father was serving as a soldier. Her mother turned away for a few moments to fetch a pack of crisps for the girl’s party and when she looked back Katrice was gone”
Twenty six years ago…
FOX NEWS: “Missing Madeleine McCann: Irish Witness ‘Clears’ Murat”
Says Martin Smith, who was on holiday in Praia da Luz: “I told police it was definitely not him because the man wasn’t as big as Murat – I think I would have recognised him because I’d met him several times previously. He was wearing beige trousers and a darker top. We all put him in his early 40s and I didn’t think he was Portuguese”
The Speculation Commented Upon
Posted: 4th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,150)
Madeleine McCann: Robert Murat Tells All, Neil Hogan Investigates And The Irish Family
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY MAIL: “McCanns bring in cold-case detective”
“Kate and Gerry McCann have hired a former Met Police officer to carry out a ‘cold case’ review into Madeleine’s disappearance. Noel Hogan, a former CID detective, has spent hundreds of hours interviewing British witnesses in the case”
Why not just read the papers, or Anorak?
Hogan has interviewed the so-called “Tapas seven”, also known as the Tapas Nine
Has Hogan enjoyed many success in his new private detective firm? Says the Mail: “Mr Hogan had been investigating one of the 7/7 suicide bombers before the terror attacks in 2005 after the man’s bank became suspicious of his spending patterns” – Would that be one of the men who then went on to play his part in the murder of 52 people? Did Mr Hogan find anything suspicious?
“The McCanns’ official spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, declined to comment”
“CHARGE MURAT OR CLEAR HIM, RELATIVES SAY” – Robert Murat’s aunt Sally Eveleigh, says: “Either charge him or let him go. The worst thing that could happen would be for this to be allowed to carry on as it is”
THE STAR: “MURAT ‘TO MAKE 1M’”
The film. The book. The TV show. The DVD. The computer game. The glass eye. The T-shirts
DAILY EXPRESS: “MURAT WANTS £1M FOR HIS TALE OF WOE”
“Robert Murat hopes to make £1million if he is formally cleared over Madeleine McCann’s disappearance”
A source close to Murat says: “Maddie was the biggest story of 2007 and Robert Murat has been a massive part of that. He’s been living under a cloud since being named a suspect and feels he should at least have some compensation for the trauma”
Why not write his story, the Daily Express has already produced its book – “Madeleine: A Most Heartbreaking And Extraordinary Disappearance, by Robert Downing. It’s published by Northern & Shell, who own the Daily Express.
“Publicist Max Clifford speaks regularly with Murat and has pledged to represent him if he is ruled out of the investigation. Mr Clifford said: ‘He has been attacked from all sides and not been able to defend himself thanks to Portuguese secrecy laws’”
Look out for Murat in OK! magazine and his going on to appear on Strictly Come Dancing
Says Sally Eveleigh: “There is not a shred of evidence against him but we have had to live through eight months of whispering and suspicions. We’re all praying this nightmare will come to an end and he will no longer be a suspect, but if that’s not going to happen then charge him so he can defend himself in court”
Who needs court when you have daytime telly? Perhaps Jeremy Kyle can interview him?
HOLIDAY family may hold clue” – Martin Smith, his wife and children were on holiday in Praia da Luz. They saw a man carrying a child towards the beach. They told the police. Metodo 3 investigators are going to speak with them. The man they saw was “about 5ft 6in”
THE SUN: “MADDIE HUNTERS QUIZ IRISH FAMILY”
Hunters? Run, Maddie, run!
“PRIVATE detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann are to quiz an Irish family who may have been the last to see her alive”
Says Mr Smith: “I’d talk to anyone to move this investigation on. I think about Maddie every day.”
And what about the Portuguese police? Can you tell Sun readers about those bunglers: “I found the Portuguese cops not to be the most efficient bunch.” Job done.
Says Mrs Smith: “We saw a man carrying a blonde child. It was just such a normal thing to see in a holiday resort — we didn’t think anything of it at the time”
THE MIRROR: “MADDY: WE SAW SNATCH”
The Smith says the man they saw was between 5ft 7in to 5ft 9in
The speculation and sensation so far
Posted: 3rd, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,011)
Madeleine McCann: The Case Against Robert Murat And Kirsty Young Says
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
THE SUN front page: “Murat ‘in clear’ on Maddie”
Can it be that Robert Murat is no longer a suspect – and with “NINE” witnesses challenging the “oddball’s” alibi (see Sun yesterday)?
(This is “Murat” as the paper has him, rather than Robert. The McCanns remain Kate and Gerry)
As the Sun reminds readers: “The one-eyed oddball was the first suspect, or arguido, in the hunt for the missing four-year-old”
Tomorrow will be exactly eight months since Madeleine McCann disappeared, and Robert Murat is then legally entitled to ask the police what case they have against him”. The Sun says if there is insufficient evidence against him, then his official suspect status “could” be lifted”
Which means he might be in the clear, as the headline says. Or not
Page 9: “PUT UP OR SHUT UP SAYS MURAT” –
His lawyer Francisco Pagarete tells us: “After eight months that is the end of the inquiry. He must be either accused or advised of the suspicions against him. If they postpone the deadline they will have to tell us why. The public prosecutor either accuses him or doesn’t. And that is what I am hoping will happen. We have not had any communications from the police since August. Obviously they have already cleared Robert, it is just a question of the deadline”
Obviously…
More facts: “Gerry McCann, of Rothley Leics, will return full time to his £75,000-a-year job as a hospital consultant cardiologist from tomorrow”
DAILY STAR: “’CHARGE ME OR LET ME GO NOW’”
“Robert Murat is about to learn if he will be charged or cleared over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann”
Or not – the police may ask for an extension
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: Revealed, the police files on suspect Murat”
Or not. Robert Murat has yet to see the police files on him
“He has not had any contact with the Policia Judiciaria or the Portuguese Judiciary since August. In the meantime he has been unable to work or even see his five-year-old daughter, who lives with his ex-wife in Britain”
Why not? “Hospital consultant” Gerry is returning to work. He has seen his other children
“A total of eight people now claim to have seen him near the McCanns’ apartment on the night that Madeleine vanished”
Or nine, if you read the facts in the Sun
DAILY MIRROR: “Maddy’s dad back full time”
“Gerry McCann is going back to work. What does he do for a living? Why, he is a “consultant cardiologist”…
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 11: “Crimewatch is not dumbing down, says Young”
It’s Kirsty Young, the new presenter of BBC TV’s Crimewatch. She is in conversation with Good Housekeeping magazine
Says she: “A boy being shot riding his bicycle occupies the news for weeks because it’s so unusual. Madeleine McCann going missing preoccupies us all because it almost never happens that a girl is taken from her bed”
But you never know. Stay tuned…
DAILY MAIL: “’I’m not some leggy, pouty bird’ says Kirsty – as she flashes her legs”
More words on Madeleine McCann. A look at Young’s legs. Keep ‘em peeled…
THE INDEPENDENT: “BBC ageism a myth, says new face of ‘Crimewatch’”
Kirsty Young is 39. And blonde
THE TIMES and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news
The files on Madeleine McCann…released
Posted: 2nd, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (914)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann Suspects Robert Murat, Morocco And A Prediction
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
THE MIRROR: “Kate McCann: Murat must tell us the truth”
“Kate McCann has told friends she is still suspicious of Robert Murat after another person claimed he saw him the night her daughter Madeleine vanished”
Robert Murat is the suspect. So too Kate McCann. Finger pointing…
Says a friend of the McCanns: “Kate has always felt there are questions concerning Murat that need to be answered. Gerry doesn’t know whether he is involved but Kate has always been suspicious”
Adds another friend: “The police have never said this is definitely the man. But they think he obviously has some questions to answer”
Like the McCanns
THE SUN: “Maddie search gets twin focus”
“The stepped-up search for Madeleine McCann had a twin focus last night – on Robert Murat and Morocco”
A British barrister has “revealed he saw a man looking strikingly like suspect Murat lurking near Kate and Gerry McCann’s holiday flat on the night Maddie vanished”
Another witness? “He is the NINTH witness to challenge the ex-pat’s alibi that he was with his mum at their nearby home in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz”
Can they swear on it? Is it a fact that Murat was there, out that night?
One fact we do know, and the sun confirms: Kate and Gerry McCann are “doctors”
“Last night it was revealed Kate McCann has always been suspicious of Murat. A source close to her said: ‘She feels there are questions concerning him that need to be answered. There is a body of evidence contrary to what he is saying.” What evidence? What body?
DAILY EXPRESS: “NOW EIGHT WITNESSES POINT THE FINGER AT SUSPECT MURAT”
One less witness than in the Sun. So not all bad news for Murat
“The latest person to cast doubt on Murat’s alibi is an unnamed British barrister who claims he saw the expat hanging around near the Ocean Club half an hour after Madeleine was reported missing”
Kate McCann wonders. A friend of hers says: “They read everything, like everybody else, and think ‘that’s a bit odd’.But because Kate is naturally more wary than Gerry she has occasionally said ‘Perhaps he has some questions to answer.’ But Murat is not a subject of discussion all the time. They do not sit there at home fretting about him”
Not like Sun readers
“PORTUGAL TRIP ‘TO BOOST MADELEINE HUNT’ – KATE and Gerry McCann want to return to Portugal in the New Year in a desperate bid to keep their daughter’s memory alive”
BELFAST TELEGRPAH: “McCanns not planning to visit Portugal”
But…
“Gerry and Kate McCann, both formal suspects in their daughter’s disappearance, will only do so if Portuguese police want to question them there again, said Clarence Mitchell”
DAILY MAIL: “Kate McCann: My suspicions over Murat’s alibi on the night Madeleine vanished”
“Kate McCann is suspicious about Robert Murat’s alibi for the night her daughter Madeleine vanished, it was revealed yesterday. The mother of three has confided to friends she believes there are questions about the British expat that need to be answered”
Any evidence? Or just a feeling?
“Mrs McCann’s doubts emerged after the Daily Mail reported that seven witnesses claim to have seen Mr Murat near the McCanns’ holiday apartment on the night of May 3”
Seven. It’s going down. Mr Murat may be buoyed…
Gerry McCann is a “consultant cardiologist”
DAILY RECORD: “Maddie Parents Have Hogmanay In Scotland”
McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell says: “They are just spending the evening quietly with relatives”. Fact!
THE INDEPENDENT: “Dominic Lawson: If you want to know what’s going to happen in 2008, there are lots of experts who can’t tell you – Perhaps the best commentary on the futility of forecasting is provided by the film ‘Being There’”
“I predict that Madeleine McCann will not be discovered (thus preserving an entire industry in speculation). I predict that no Western political leader will mention the plight of Tibet in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. I predict that Sarah Brown will not invite Cherie Blair round for tea at No. 10. And I predict that Martin Amis will not convert to Islam”
Madeleine McCann last year’s news
Posted: 1st, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (539)
Madeleine McCann: Robert Murat Denies, No Trial And Back To Portugal
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY MIRROR front page: “McCANNS: WE’LL GO BACK. They fear Portugal has forgotten Madeleine”
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell says: “We’ve said they would go back if it would help the investigation”
Could their return hinder the investigation?
Page 5: “WE CAN’T LET THEM FORGET MADELEINE – McCanns want case back in news”
Kate and Gerry McCann were “devastated” to learn posters featuring their daughter had been removed from walls and shops in Praia da Luz
To keep her in the news over there they will return to the country. Says Clarence Mitchell: “At the moment we just want to concentrate on getting the arguido status lifted. If it was lifted we would review everything”
So why the front-page headline? What has changed? What is news?
Says Clarence Mitchell: “They’ve friends there, there are religious sites they’d like to visit and of course there is the link with Madeleine and the need to keep her disappearance in people’s minds” – They need to go site seeing?
THE SUN page 29: “McCANNS’ LAST-DITCH RETURN TO PORTUGAL – Kate and Gerry will go back for Maddie hunt”
If they are cleared
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – Are parents going back to Portugal?”
Well, they will if …
Page 9: “McCanns’ Portugal trip ‘too boost Madeleine hunt’” – Gerry and Kate McCann are “desperate”, “terrified” and “convinced” Madeleine’s kidnapper may try to move her with the “focus died down”
But has it died down? Over 11,000 posters appealing for help have been sent to Morocco. Can’t more posters be sent to Portugal?
“SISTERS’ CLAIM ALL LIES, INSISTS MURAT MOTHER” – Annie Wiltshire and Jayne Jensen say they saw Murat out on the night Madeleine vanished. Not so, says Jennifer Murat
DAILY STAR page 15: “I DIDN’T DO IT – MURAT DENIES MADDIE WITNESS CLAIMS”
Annie Wiltshire and Jayne Jensen say they saw Murat out on the night Madeleine vanished. Not so, says he
Says his lawyer Francisco Pagarette: “Robert will never have to prove he is innocent…If they cannot find evidence there will be no trial”
DAILY MAIL front page: “MADELEINE – Sisters saw mystery men on balcony the day she vanished”
Pages 8 and 9: “Madeleine, Murat and mystery of two blond men on a balcony”
Jayne Jensen (blonde) and Annie Wiltshire (red head) are pictured. Both are “divorcees”. Both are posing for the cameras. They are talking not to the police or Metodo 3 but to the Mail, in an exclusive
This is their “dramatic account of a pair of strangers watching the Ocean Club pool and tapas bar hours before Madeleine McCann vanished”
Well: “They saw two blond men in their 30s, standing on the balcony of an empty apartment only a couple of doors away from the McCanns’ flat in Praia da Luz”
And: “The pair, tanned and in Bermuda shorts, were standing outside the patio doors of a groundfloor apartment, which had been unoccupied all week, and were looking out over the resort’s family swimming pool and restaurant area”
Bermuda shorts, eh
Says Annie wTilshire (gypsy skirt, cardigan and blouse): “They had a view of the whole Ocean Club and the McCanns’ apartment. It just showed how easy it would be for anyone to use those balconies to watch the area. It has haunted me ever since”
“We never met Kate,” Mrs Jensen says. “And we never socialised with Gerry. We just played tennis”
More facts
They looked for Madeleine. They claim to have seen Murat smoking a cigarette in the area
“WHY KATE WANTS TO GO BACK TO PORTUGAL” – A friend says: “If they were to go to Portugal now it would seem like they were trying to put pressure on the police, and they don’t want that”
The McCanns have hired private detectives…
THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT, THE TIMES and THE TELEGRAPH: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 31st, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (502)
