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: DNA Row, Blood And The Locator Fails To Locate
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR page 11: “McCANNS WON’T BE IN CLEAR BY CHRISTMAS”
So it won’t be over by Christmas, as the Express pointed to yesterday?
Portuguese police wants more DNA tests. They take three weeks to conclude. It’s December 6. A source says: “They hope new tests will clarify what happened around the time she went missing”
Will they?
DAILY EXPRESS page 23: “Madeleine: now ministers may block new police quiz”
Within the next 48, the McCanns will “know if the Government will let them face a new grilling”. The Portuguese prosecutor was “last night set to request permission from the Home Office to reinterview Kate and Gerry and their holiday dinner friends – known as the Tapas Nine”
Or the Sangria 7 – send in your suggestions to the usual address
The Express says the Portuguese are “wary” of British Government involvement”. Why? Because Gerry McCann sits on a Government medical advisory panel. He’s a “heart surgeon”. There is a “political shadow”. Gordon Brown called Gerry McCann. And there were yellow ribbons in the House of Commons
Says a source: “He has gone on to become Prime Minister and they are now suspects. That is an uncomfortable scenario for detectives involved in the case”
“Lab hits at detectives over DNA” – “A STORM has erupted”.
Portuguese police are said to be frustrated at the lack of progress by British DNA experts. UK experts says “unprofessional evidence gathering led to inconclusive tests”
THE SUN page 9: “MADDIE COPS ROW OVER RUINED DNA – Brit experts dismiss ‘blood’ evidence”
A row between British and Portuguese experts. In the Soaraway Sun, you feel there can be only one winner
Portuguese police “believed they found tiny specks of blood on an armchair and wall. They became convinced the specks were from four-year-old Madeleine”. So did the Mail, which at the time produced: “BLOOD ON THE WALL IN MADDY BEDROOM”
But now it emerges the specs “were so contaminated they could not even be identified as blood”. And this led to a row. A heated debate
Says a source: “The Portuguese arrived demanding ‘Where are our results?’” – So rude. Not at all British
“BODYFINDER DRAWS BLANK” – Disappointing news for those pinning your hopes on Danie Krugel – aka The Locator – finding Madeleine McCann. His Matter Orientation System uses GPS technology and DNA samples. The McCanns gave him a hair from their daughter’s head. He went to work. But – shock of shocks -nothing. “I have done my best,” says Krugel
British police may care to reconsider their orders
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: “MADELEINE – PORTUGUESE POLICE ACCUSED IN DNA FIASCO”
Page 17: “Madeleine police ‘angry at DNA blunder claim” – Portuguese police are “furious” at being called “amateurish” by officials at the UK’s Forensic Science Service
There are “angry scenes”. A source says the Portuguese were “unhappy”
The tests feature microscopic spots of blood found at the Ocean Club apartment where Madeleine had been staying, bodily fluids and hair from the Renault Scenic hire car
DAILY MAIL page 41: “Maddie forensic experts clash with ‘unprofessional’ Portuguese”
“Portuguese police investigating Madeleine McCann’s disappearance are said to be furious after British scientists criticised the ‘unprofessional’ way in which they had collected forensic evidence. The Portuguese arrived with the attitude of, ‘OK, where are the findings we need?’
“The Forensic Science Service basically said there weren’t any and made it clear things could have been collected more professionally. That doesn’t mean there was a lot of evidence they failed to collect but what evidence there is was collected in a very amateurish way. The Portuguese took this badly. They were unhappy because there was implicit criticism of how they collected the evidence. There was a heated exchange of views”
DAILY STAR page 20: “Maddie parent’s in D-Day”
Can this be E-Day, or in keeping with the Star’s central news plank, DD-Day
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will read the letters sent by the Portuguese prosecutor requesting interviews with the McCanns and reply. She should not reply by post for obvious reasons
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 6th, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,397)
Madeleine McCann: Sangria Seven, Carolina Santos And Back To Portugal
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE TO CALL McCANNS BACK – They want parents and Tapas 9 friends for new quiz in Portugal”
“Police want Kate and Gerry McCann to return to Portugal before Christmas for fresh interrogations over the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine” – Might it be all over by Christmas?
“The couple could be forced into a confrontation with witnesses or be made to appear in an identity parade” – An ID parade… To what ends? To see if they truly are Kate and Gerry McCann, the country’s most photographed couple?
First Portuguese police are heading to the UK to sit in on interviews between British police and the “Tapas 9”
Says a “source close to the case” in Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha: “When the operations begin on British soil we will be in a position to determine if it is necessary to bring people to Portugal. It may be necessary to do some identifications or to organise confrontations with witnesses”
Or may not be: “POLICE MAY OR MAY NOT CALL McCanns back” – read all about it…
Says Portuguese newspaper, 24 Horas: “The McCanns are not going to escape a new police interrogation”
THE SUN page 21: “HUNT FOR ‘MADDIE DOUBLE’ SNATCHER”
Blue-eyed Carolina Santos is a “Madeleine McCann lookalike”. She is a young girl with brown hair, a broad nose, olive complexion and blue eyes. Her parents, Able and Lina, say a Moroccan-looking man tried to snatch her at their café in Portugal four months before Madeleine vanished.
Says Abel: “We want to see Maddie found as much as anyone. She and Carolina were doubles”
Says a voice at Metodo 3, the private detectives: “This could be relevant”
“TAPAS 7 SHOWDOWN” – Seven? But what of the Tapas 9? What about the Tapas 9 and the Sangria 7, to avoid confusion?
Says Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman: “If they or their friends are required to go to Portugal they’ll be happy to comply”
DAILY STAR page 25: “MADDIE’S PARENTS FACE AN ID PARADE”
There is to be a “face-to-face showdown” between Kate and Gerry McCann and their “holiday pals”
The aim – for what sounds not enough unlike an episode of Trisha – is for the police to expose “inconsistencies” in their statements
DAILY MIRROR page 7: “WE’LL GO BACK – McCanns’ vow as Portuguese cops may want them to return for quiz”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “They will do anything necessary if it helps them move on and be eliminated as suspects”
Says a “close friend” of the McCanns: “Their friends aren’t going to say anything which will give them need to call Kate and Gerry back. Nothing substantial will come of this”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 13: “Madeleine parents ‘may be ordered return to Portugal’”
“We’re doing everything we can to get the letters requesting fresh interviews authorised this week,” a source tells Portuguese daily 24 Horas. “They are ready and simply depend on bureaucratic procedures now”
“It has also emerged that the ‘letters of appeal’, which contain a list of 100 questions that detectives want to put to the group, were ‘fast-tracked’ after a meeting with the British Ambassador to Portugal”
Says a “senior police source”: “It was a private meeting between the Ambassador, the director of the Policia Judiciaria in Faro and the team that was sent to England to analyse the results from the FSS (Forensic Science Service). In that meeting it was decided that because of a lack of conclusive evidence they should go ahead as quickly as possible with new interrogations of the nine people who dined in the Tapas restaurant on May 3,” the source said
PRESS GAZETTE: “Heat settles sticker controversy with charity donation”
“Katie Price [surely Katie Andre] has halted her complaint against Heat magazine for making fun of her disabled son after it apologised and paid a donation to a children’s charity…The Press Complaints Commission received over 100 complaints about the sticker, second only to a Tony Parsons column in the Mirror which criticised the role of the Portugese [sic] in the Madeleine McCann investigation in October this year”
It was Parsons who invited the Portuguese ambassador to “”shut your stupid sardine-munching mouth”
THE INDEPENDENT, DAILY MAIL, THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 5th, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,308)
Madeleine McCann: Charlotte Pennington Poses, Metodo 3 Says And Blood
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – British diplomat in Portugal has doubts about McCanns”
Page 9: “Madeleine: Diplomat’s secret file that rises fears about her parents” – The unnamed British wonk is in the Algarve days after Madeleine’s disappearance. He sends back a missive. He mentions the McCanns “lack of co-operation” with the Portuguese police
Belgian newspaper Derniere Heure sees the note. It runs: “With the greatest respect, I would like to make you aware of the risks and implications to our relationship with the Portuguese authorities, if you consider the possible involvements of the couple”
But wouldn’t a diplomat – a cautious, servile breed in grey suits, sandals and white socks – always highlight the risk? Is this news, even in Belgium?
“Blood-stained towel clue?” – A towel with blood on it has been found in a barn near Praia da Luz. “Fibres discovered on the towel matched samples from the Renault Scenic hire car which Madeleine’s parents rented 25 days after Madeleine went missing”
THE SUN front page: “MURAT BACK IN FRAME”
Page 9: “A nanny at the holiday complex where Madeleine McCann vanished claims she saw suspect Robert Murat there on the fateful night… Charlotte Pennington, 20, is one of three witnesses who could blow apart the oddball’s alibi that he was home with his mum”
Oddball? Oh, creepy Murat, the bouncy castle fetishist…
And this is Charlotte Pennington, who appeared in the Mail on September 25. She has now told her story to Metodo 3, the private detective agency. She is youthful and smiles for the camera
“Days later she and five fellow nannies saw Murat again in a supermarket. He was talking to a mystery man who bore an uncanny likeness to a sketch of a suspect cops were seeking” – Would that be the efit of the man with no face?
What of the “blood-stained towel” or, as the Sun says, the “blood-specked towel”?
“The samples have proved too tiny to match to Maddie’s DNA. But fibres on the towel allegedly strongly match samples from the boot of a car rented by Kate and Gerry after Maddie vanished”
“BORDER FURY OF PARENTS”- “Bungling” Portuguese police, who failed to close the border between Portugal and Spain when Madeleine went missing, did shut it when a car was stolen
DAILY MAIL front page: “MADELEINE – Is Murat’s alibi falling apart”
Pages 12-13: “Six cracks in Murat’s alibi – Witnesses line up to cast doubt on original Madeleine suspect”
“Detectives searching for Madeleine McCann raised ‘serious questions’ about suspect Robert Murat’s alibi yesterday after two new witnesses came forward. Six people now claim to have seen the British expat outside Kate and Gerry McCann’s holiday apartment on the night the girl vanished”
Detectives… Oh, private detectives…
Says a Metodo 3 source: “There are serious questions around Murat’s alibi. He says he was at his mum’s house and did not learn of Madeleine’s disappearance until the following morning. But his claims have now been challenged by eyewitnesses. Three of the McCanns’ friends have always insisted they saw him that night. They say they are sure it was him. Now two new people have contacted us saying they are certain they also saw him. They do not know each other and called our hotline independently” – Three, plus two plus Nanny Pennington…is six. Any more?
The chatter from Metodo 3 is front-page news. They can be trusted..?
“£50,000 a month in fees. A sleepy office 700 miles from the crime, outrageous claims of progress, have the McCanns really chosen the best private eyes to find Maddie”
DAILY MIRROR page 5: “I SAW MURAT AT THE RESORT THAT NIGHT – but he denied it was him, says nanny”
Nanny Pennington wears a woollen jacket, dark-coloured beret and an alluring smile
She says she saw Robert Murat on the night Madeleine went missing. She asks him if he was there. “No, I wasn’t there,” he replies. She tells Metodo 3: “When I went in, he was in the kitchen with several detectives. He didn’t want to talk any more”
Charlotte Pennington is 20 and the most photogenic witness to date. Fact!
DAILY STAR page 17: “’TEN FACTS POINT TO THE McCANNS – Maddie’s parents face new grilling”
“Kate and Gerry McCann will be quizzed over 120 crucial pieces of evidence that police believe put them under suspicion”
Including: “Kate’s instant conviction Maddie…had been abducted”; “Kate’s pleas to her mum for the number of her priest in Liverpool”; “the high mileage they ran up in the Renault Scenic they hired 24 days after Maddie disappeared” (Or 25 if you read the Express); and more…
THE TIMES page 5: “Police to carry out new DNA tests on Madeleine McCann evidence”
Says Guilhermino Encarnação, director of the Portuguese police team searching for Madeleine: “The Judicial Police have asked the laboratory to carry out more tests and exhaust every possibility of obtaining conclusive results”
Charlotte Pennington, 20, says she saw Murat on the night Madeleine went missing
GLASGOW DAILY RECORD: “Murat ‘At Scene Night Maddie Vanished’”
“British nanny Charlotte Pennington claims she saw him at the Ocean Club resort on the evening of May 3…The 20-year-old, from Leatherhead in Surrey, told agency Metodo 3 she saw Murat standing at the Praia da Luz resort’s reception around midnight, as the search began”
Ms Pennington crosses her legs and looks into the camera
THE GUARDIAN media section: “The point of the McCanns’ exercise…”
Says Roy Greenslade: “What strikes me about this saga is that journalists, like so many members of the public, have lost their heads over the McCanns”
DAILY TELEGRAPH and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 3rd, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,408)
Madeleine McCann: DNA, Over By Christmas, Police To Question Kate and Gerry McCann
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: “Madeleine: DNA clue to deserted farmhouse”
SUNDAY MIRROR: “New Maddy witnesses come forward”
“By Lori Campbell” – the hack you told the police and then all of us about “creepy” Robert Murat
“Madeleine McCann suspect Robert Murat is back in the frame after two new witnesses say they saw him the night the four-year-old disappeared,” says Campbell of the Mirror
And: “The private detectives from Metodo 3 are also investigating a tip-off that Murat had connections to the criminal underworld and was working as a police informant”
Another lead for the private detectives. Keep those invoices coming…
Says a source inside Metodo 3: “There are serious questions around Murat’s alibi. He says he was at his mum’s house and did not learn of Madeleine’s disappearance until the following morning. But his claims have now been challenged by five eyewitnesses. Three of the McCanns’ friends have always insisted they saw him that night. They say they are sure it was him because of his distinctive right eye. Now two new people have contacted us saying they are certain they also saw him. They do not know each other and called our hotline independently”
“Case ‘will close in 4 weeks’” – “Top cop” Paulo Rebelo “plans to close the case in one month”
SUNDAY MAIL: “Madeleine: British police to question the McCanns ‘in days’”
“A close friend of the McCanns said they believed that only the seven friends would face questioning” – so nothing arranged yet..?
He adds: “We believe that we are getting close to the couple being cleared.”
A spokeswoman for the Home Office says: “If the Portuguese police were to require to travel to the UK then they would need to apply for mutual legal assistance from the Home Office”
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “McCanns to face fresh police quiz”
Says a judicial source: “Without forensic proof the investigators have to go for the contradictions in the stories of the McCanns and the other witnesses. The investigation has not changed direction. Authorities believe the McCanns and the other official suspect Robert Murat are implicated”
No news is news
DAILY STAR ON SUNDAY: “MCCANNS ‘WILL BE CLEARED BY XMAS’”
“Kate and Gerry McCann are set to be cleared as prime suspects in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine in time for Christmas,” says the paper
Cleared! Big news. What evidence of their innocence – if any is needed? Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “Police chief Paulo Rebelo will have to decide soon whether he has enough evidence to charge them and take the case to the prosecutor. We are relaxed about this. Hopefully Kate and Gerry will be cleared by Christmas”
And: “In another development, it has been revealed that the McCanns – both 39 – are considering offers to publicise the search for Maddie on American TV. It is hoped that highlighting the hunt on major networks in the US – together with Arabic-language adverts due to be broadcast on Moroccan TV – could hold the key to solving the case”
In America… Why?
THE GUARDIAN: “Another flaw in the McCanns’ coverage”
Says Roy Greenslade: “According to the Daily Mirror on its front page, The Sun in a page lead, and the Daily Express also in page a lead, police will speak to the ‘Tapas Seven’. But, according to the Daily Telegraph here, and the Daily Mail here, police plan to question the ‘Tapas Nine’.
“Anyone for eight? I know. A small point. Small, but in the context of the way this story has been covered, significant because it indicates, yet again, that – whatever your opinions might be – reporters cannot agree on a single, simple fact”
FOR all the speculation, sensation and news
Posted: 2nd, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,126)
Madeleine McCann: Tapas 7 Questions, Robert Murat And Jane Tanner In Exeter, And Gerry McCann Says
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “Maddie: Tapas 7 Cops Quiz”
“Tapas 7 face new Murat quiz” – COPS probing the Madeleine McCann mystery will quiz pals of her parents over alleged links to suspect Robert Murat”
Links..? Madeleine McCann: The Exeter Connection
“Portuguese detectives now point to coincidences connecting odd-ball expat Murat with Exeter, Devon – where two of the so-called Tapas Seven live”. Odd-ball? How so?
Says a police source said: “There are many pieces to this jigsaw but they all seem to add up to Exeter – we want to know why. It needs to be established if Murat knew families with children would be staying 100 metres from where he lived. We want to be certain if there was any previous contact between him and any unsuspecting friends of the McCanns”
Robert Murat spent ten days at his sister Samantha’s home in Exeter – “Samantha lives near Dr Russell O’Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, both holiday pals of the McCanns”
And: “They are neighbours of lawyer James Gorrod, 34, and wife Charlotte, 32, who were also in Praia da Luz when Maddie vanished. None of them are suspects”
“McCann’s have ‘nothing to hide’” – Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “The friends – like Kate and Gerry – have nothing to hide”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADDIE: NEW TAPAS 7 QUIZ – Blow for McCanns as police claim stories do not add up”
It is an “EXCLUSIVE”
“Kate and Gerry McCann’s hopes of being cleared over daughter Madeleine’s disappearance were rocked last night by the news that police are set to question the Tapas Seven again”
But yesterday the DNA evidence was not enough. Is DNA evidence never enough on its own?
Says spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry’s friends have consistently said they are happy to be re-interviewed. They’re keen to help. Like Gerry and Kate, they have nothing to hide”
But they might not be; the focus is on their dining companions…
Says vice president of the Portuguese national pathology lab, Francisco Corte Real: “There’s nothing to say for now”. The Mail listens to that and concludes that “he could not hide his disappointment”
And what about Michaela Walczuch? “Police yesterday returned a diary and computers seized from Murat’s girlfriend Michaela Walczuch, 34, admitting they found nothing linking her to the tot’s disappearance”
DAILY EXPRESS: “MADELEINE: GERRY AND KATE ‘STILL PRIME SUSPECTS’”
Still doctors. Still 39. Still parents of missing girl…
“Leaks in Portugal claim tests on DNA samples support Portuguese detectives’ theory that the couple were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance”
Claim…
Says Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas: “The existing evidence up until now is far from clearing the McCann couple in the case. There are more and more indicators that they were involved in the disappearance of the child, but it has been difficult to prove this fact. We will continue to follow all hypotheses”
“MURAT’S LOVER IS GIVEN HER COMPUTERS BACK” – “German-born Michaela” is “32”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “McCann police to question ‘Tapas Nine’”
Not the Tapas 7…
Writing on his internet blog, Gerry McCann says: “We have been told that all the forensic test results are now available. As we have stated all along, we are confident that the results will no way incriminate us and hopefully everyone can concentrate on finding Madeleine and her abductor”
THE GUARDIAN: “ Police ‘want to quiz Tapas 7’”
“Sources told the SIC Portuguese news channel that a team of detectives and the prosecutor would fly to Britain next week for interviews. According to reports, they will deliver letters of appeal to British police, asking them to interrogate the friends, known as the Tapas Seven, again with Portuguese officers present”
THE SCOTSMAN: “McCanns ‘face further grilling’”
“Portuguese police are to make a formal request to reinterview the parents of the missing child Madeleine McCann, it was claimed last night”
All the news and speculation here
Posted: 1st, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,153)
Madeleine McCann: Case ‘Collapses’ Against Kate And Gerry McCann, Maybe
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “MADDIE: Cops ignored key witness – Kate and Gerry ‘clear in week”
Page 13: “KATE AND GERRY’S DNA HOPE” – “DNA ‘evidence against Kate and Gerry collapsed yesterday”
Not the McCanns. It’s Kate and Gerry. Rather, “Doctors Kate and Gerry”
“It is understood British forensic experts told Portuguese cops that tests show NOTHING conclusive” – So nothing to prove things one way or another…
Says the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “Police should now get on with looking for Maddie”
“MADDIE PROWLER IGNORED – Tourist told cops of weirdo” – Amanda Mills “spotted a skulking figure” near the apartment where Madeleine was last seen. It was a week before her disappearance.
“Essex mum-of-three Amanda” says: “It was late at night. This guy came along, put his hands on a pushchair outside an apartment and tried to walk off with it. He ran off when I made a loud noise to let him know he was being watched. He seemed interested in the windows. He was looking at and through them. He set warning bells off in my mind. He was very weird, very dodgy.”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Amanda is at the top of Metodo 3’s list. This could be crucial”
DAILY MAIL page 11: “McCanns ‘in the clear’ after DNA tests”
The Forensic Science Service says tests remain “ongoing”, but the McCanns’ legal team have called on the Portuguese police to lift the couple’s status as official suspects.
Says Clarence Mitchell:
“Enough is enough. There can be nothing that incriminates Kate and Gerry, because they are innocent. We are hopeful this meeting will help speed up the process eliminating Kate and Gerry from the inquiry…We are hopeful common sense will prevail and that Portuguese police will see Kate and Gerry have no case to answer. Forensic evidence – if there is any – is inconclusive or explicable, so they should be eliminated from the inquiry”
DAILY EXPRESS page 15: “MADELEINE: Calls to clear McCanns as Portuguese police fly home after DNA talks”
But the police in Portugal “are increasingly accepting that without damning evidence, they may have to clear the couple”
DAILY MIRROR page 6: “ENOUGH’S ENOUGH – McCanns demand to be cleared as cops’ summit ends in failure”
The four-strong Portuguese team are “no closer to solving the mystery”, says the paper.
And the facts? Well, both Gerry and Kate are “doctors”. Both are “39”. And Madeleine McCann is missing…
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – New DNA shock for parents”
Page 13: “MADDIE MUM AND DAD STILL IN THE FRAME – Portuguese cops call for more tests”
If tests are inconclusive, then why not have more?
“Scientists have told police their findings put Madeleine McCann’s parents in the frame for her disappearance”
A spokesman for the FSS says: “It is common for scientists to meet with detectives in the course of criminal investigations to explain our methods. Our inquiries are continuing. Tests are on-going’’
Says the Star: “Detectives accused ex-anaesthetist Kate of accidentally killing Madeleine after giving her sedatives to help her sleep”
Doctor Kate is a suspect, but no charges have been made against her…
THE GUARDIAN: “Bid to clear McCanns after DNA trip”
Those DNA tests “on blood samples, bodily fluids and hair found in the McCanns’ holiday apartment and the vehicle they hired 25 days after the four-year-old disappeared are “routine”
THE INDEPENDENT page 51: “The Big Question: Are we any closer to finding out what happened to Madeleine McCann?”
After days of ignoring the biggest human interest story in years, the Indy wakes up. And it has questions that any tabloid reader can help it answer:
Why are we asking this now?
What will they discuss?
Are they meeting the McCanns?
Are the McCanns still formal suspects?
Are there any other suspects?
Any other evidence?
Has Madeleine been seen since May?
Who is looking for Madeleine?
Could someone be charged soon?
And: Is the investigation any nearer to reaching a conclusion?
Yes…
* Yesterday’s ‘DNA Summit’ was a significant event that should push the case on
* There have been many sightings of Madeleine and the case remains high profile, despite being more than six months old
* The Portuguese police know more than they are letting on, but are bound by secrecy lawsNo…
* No trace of Madeleine has been found, despite a huge police investigation and the efforts of private investigators
* The investigation was handled badly from the start, meaning that all leads have gone cold
* An army of scientists, abduction experts and sniffer-dog teams have failed to come up with any answers
Yes and no. Maybe…
DAILY TELEGRAPH and THE TIMES; No Madeleine news today
If comments are not working please join the debate in the Anorak Forums…
Posted: 30th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (939)
Madeleine McCann: Portuguese Police Arrive, British Forensics And D Is For…
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “Crunch day on Maddie”
It’s “D-Day today” as forensic experts meet with Portuguese police. Portugal’s “top forensics expert” Francisco Corte-Real and Inspector Ricardo Paiva, “one of the cops in charge of the case”, will hold talks with UK police and scientists from Britain’s Forensic Science Services
What’s the D in D-Day for?
A “legal source” says: “This is D-day for the McCanns…Whatever is in that report is crucial to whether Kate and Gerry are charged, or cleared”
D is for Dunnit?
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE IN MAKE OR BREAK SUMMIT. Portuguese detectives fly to Britain”
The visit has been “dubbed a DNA summit”.
D for DNA?
Says a source: “They are going to England to decode the results of the tests so we are not caught by surprise…The team that is going to the UK is going to examine everything microscopically to make sure the tests have not been manipulated by someone linked to the suspects. We want to be sure all the information that reaches us has not previously been interfered with”
Why would it have been? All forensic materials are in police custody…
Page 5: “Madeleine: “’Someone’s holding back the truth’”
And: “Kate and Gerry McCann are behind a deliberate campaign of misinformation about the disappearance of their daughter it was claimed yesterday”
Says who? Says a “high-ranking police source in Portugal”. Has he any proof?
He tells Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas: “We have analysed all the information reaching the public. None of the reports indicating sightings of the McCanns’ daughter have been confirmed. And there’s also someone who wants to bring down an investigation that has been carried out honestly and rigorously”
So no mistakes were made? And if they were made, there were just honest ones..?
Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ official spokesman, says: “We understand there is no intention for the McCanns to be interviewed or indeed anybody else. That such a meeting is taking place is not particularly surprising and we do not see this as a significant development”
Pages 28-29: “More extracts from the Daily Express’ book Madeleine: A Most Heartbreaking And Extraordinary Disappearance. Can you the difference between the paper’s reporting and its book?
DAILY MIRROR page 15: “MADDY SUMMIT”
Says a source: “There are no witnesses – no smoking gun. The whole care rest on these tests”
What about Jane Tanner? And Mirror hack Lori Campbell and her outing of “creepy” Robert Murat? And other witnesses?
DAILY MAIL page 13: “D-day for the McCann as DNA team fly in for summit”
D-Day and a summit. The Mail has both.
D is for Double
And it has facts: Both Gerry and Kate McCann are “doctors”
“Irrelevant’ private eyes are costing the Madeleine fund £2,000 a day” – Spanish private detective agency Metodo 3 is charging the McCanns’ £50,000 a month. The Mail does some maths and works it out at “around” £2,000 a day. There are 31 days in October
Portuguese police say the private detectives are “irrelevant”. How much a Portuguese police detective earns is not reported
DAILY STAR page 11: “MADDIE: D-DAY FOR PARENTS”
Kate McCann is a “GP”. Gerry McCann is a “heart consultant”. Facts!
D is for Doctors
“In the dark: Gerry and Kate McCann were unaware of the meeting,” says the paper.
Says Clarence Mitchell in the Star’s sister paper, the Express: “We have been informed by Leicestershire police that a meeting between forensic scientists from Portugal and the Forensic Science Service laboratory will be taking place”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann: Portuguese police fly to UK
A spokeswoman from Leicestershire Constabulary says: “There is a meeting taking place but it is not due to any specific development. There has been excellent dialogue between the British and the Portuguese authorities but they found it was time to have a face-to-face meeting. They are not going to be speaking to anyone else while they are in the UK, they are just here for the meeting”
An “insider” tells Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas: “The team going to the UK is going to examine everything microscopically. Portuguese police have already indicated they expect the DNA tests to be ‘indicative’ rather than ‘conclusive’ but are said to be frustrated at the delay”
So not quite D-day, then. More C(ould Be) Day
Says a source: “We cannot understand how the tests which could have been carried out in Portugal in six or seven days have taken almost four months to be concluded”
THE TIMES page 27: “Madeleine police meet to discuss evidence”
And: The Find Madeleine Fund today launches a poster campaign across Southern Spain, part of a new £80,000 publicity drive
D is for Disappeared
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 29th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (97)
Madeleine McCann: Francisco Pagarete Says, Metodo 3 ‘Mercenaries’ And The Vicious Man
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “MADDIE:
• None of her DNA in hire care
• Murat’s lawyer vile slur”
“Forensic experts found NO blood, NO hair and NO body fluids from Madeleine McCann in her parents’ hire car, it emerged last night”
Forensic scientists used by the police?
“Home Office-approved scientists hired by Kate and Gerry McCann say there is no evidence Maddie was ever in the Renault Scenic, rented 25 days after she disappeared”
But the police kept a bit of boot lining. Have the McCanns team checked it…
Says McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “Clarence Mitchell said: “We feel it is impossible there can be anything found on the piece. From our understanding, it is part of the tailgate fitting and is supposed to have tiny droplets of a substance on it…If her body had been in there, there would have been traces all over it. And there aren’t any. Because she was never in there”
Robert Murat’s lawyers Francisco Paragete [not to be confused with Sen Pagarete elsewhere] says: “They deserve to be cursed for leaving three children unprotected.” The McCanns’ private detectives are “dodgy mercenaries”
How do the McCanns pay for the detectives?
“The fund stands at almost £1.1million but £700,000 has been earmarked to pay the private eyes. At its height the fund was receiving £450,000 a month. But that is now down to £30,000”
Would you donate money?
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANNS SHOULD ‘BE CURSED’ SAYS LAWYER”
Francisco Pagarete says: “I’m just sorry that there are people out there ready to feed a couple who abandoned their three children and strutted round the streets daily. On top of that, with bulging bank accounts. In the meantime my client, his mum and his girlfriend, who have nothing to do with this case, are seeing their names dragged through the mud on a daily basis. Before they were made official suspects, the Policia Judiciaria were the best in the world and after they became the worst”
Says the Express: “His words have struck a cord with many in Portugal”
“Countryside search for body” – Detectives are looking around Apria da Luz
DAILY MIRROR front page: “I SAW MADDY DRAGGED AWAY BY VICIOUS MAN”
Ex-pat George Burke is by Lagos marina. He sees a small girl, “who bore a remarkable resemblance to Madeleine”. She is being hauled along by a “vicious-looking” man and a woman.
He says: “It was dark and they were hurrying towards the marina. There was no-one else around at the time and they looked very suspicious”
Page 9: “TAKEN BY SEA?” – George Burke is a “businessman”. Says a source: “The private investigation is now concentrating on Lagos and the marina”
But what about Morocco?
“I THINK I SAW MADDY’” – Madeleine at a petrol station in Lagos; Madeleine on a gypsy cart on Portimao; Marie Ollie sees Madeleine in Marrakech; Isabel Gonzalez sees Madeleine in Zaio; two women see Madeleine in Cartagena, Spain. Madeleine in Belgium. Madeleine in Malta. Madeleine in Bosnia…
DAILY STAR front page:2 “’Parents frame Murat’”
Page 11: “’I’M BEING FRAMED BY THE MCCANNS’” – Says Pagarete: “The people from Metodo 3 have spoken to everyone, including witnesses in this case. They are constantly pursuing my client and his girlfriend and they no longer have a private life. This is simply unacceptable in a democratic country. The Metodo 3 investigators are mercenaries. They’re pressurising witnesses and no-one does anything. It’s a disgrace”
DAILY MAIL page 5: “Curse on the McCanns”
Francisco Pagarete says…
The Mail notes: “The McCanns own a £500,000 home. Mr McCann, 39, earns a reported £75,000 as a heart specialist”
And: “The Find Madeleine fund has raised almost £1.1million, which the couple, who also have twins, have used to fund their campaign and to pay their living costs since May, including two instalments of their mortgage. Their legal costs and spokesman are paid for by benefactors”
THE GUARDIAN: “Murat lawyer attacks McCanns”
And: “Sky News said they [Portuguese police] would travel to the UK on Wednesday to speak to police in Leicestershire – the couple live in Rothley, in the county”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 15: “McCanns ‘should be cursed or leaving Madeleine’”
Says Francisco Pagarete: “This is simply unacceptable in a democratic state…Leave my client alone”
THE INDEPENDENT and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 28th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,585)
Madeleine McCann: Her Last Words, A Play For Today And The Killer Intruder
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – DNA SECRETS LOCKED AWAY”
“A piece of lining from the couple’s hire car is being held in high-security storage at a laboratory in Birmingham”
Page 7: But just last week “sources close to the McCanns” said the couple’s tests on their Renault Scenic hire car – in which Madeleine’s body is alleged to have been carried – found “no DNA evidence linked to Madeleine”
But the “McCanns’ scientists” haven’t been able to check all the car – not the boot lining
Says the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “We do not believe that this affects the results of our tests at all…The piece retained by the Forensic Science Service is extremely small. If anything has been found on it there is a wholly innocent explanation for it”
Says Madeleine McCann: “As she was being tucked up in bed, she said: ‘Mummy, I’ve had the best day ever. I’m having lots and lots of fun’”
“Intruder ‘had to silence her’” – A “chilling” account in Portuguese paper Publico says the intruder “probably suffocated her in an act of panic”
“’My girl was taken as well’” – Agents of Metodo 3 are investigating a link between Madeleine and Joana Cipriano – more on her here
Pages 30-31: “More extracts from the Daily Express’ book Madeleine: A Most Heartbreaking And Extraordinary Disappearance, aka Madeleine: The New Diana
DAILY MAIL front page: “MADELEINE – Was she killed by intruder INSIDE the apartment?”
Well..?
Page 5: “Madeleine ‘killed as she screamed at pervert prowler’”
The intruder is in the McCanns’ apartment… “Fearing that her cries would raise the alarm, he violently silenced her – accidentally killing her – and then grabbed her body and escaped, according to the new theory”
What evidence?
“Respected” Portuguese newspaper Publico has carried out a “chilling recreation of the supposed chain of events”. In Theory No. 432b the man seen by Jane Tanner is carrying a dead child. This theory is “gaining increasing strength at the centre of the police investigation”. More theories…
Publico notes: “An unexpected event thwarted the prospect of desire. A shout from the British child awakened from her sleep. The fear that she would be heard, the urgency to silence her, the violence, probably the suffocation and the unexpected death. All this is in minutes. Now one would have to take her out of there, close the door, escape quickly”
Intermission – ices, popcorn and a vital break for the toilet…
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We do not believe that this is what happened to Madeleine. There has been no evidence to suggest this happened in the apartment at all”
“CAR MAT MYSTERY” – Not only the boot lining but also “several other secret samples” are hidden away at the Forensic Science Service laboratory
“A LINK TO JOANA?” – Metodo 3 are looking over old cases, hunting for a clue, a new press release, a new lead…
DAILY MIRROR page 11: “’Perv killer of Maddy’”
More from Public’s play for today
THE SUN front page: “COPS’ SHOCK NEW THEORY – PAEDO ‘KILLED MADDIE’”
PAEDO!!!
Pages 4 and 5: A pervert sneaked into Madeleine McCann’s holiday apartment – and killed the terrified tot to shut her up when she screamed, police now believe”
PAEDO!!!
Back to Publico’s Maddy Play – Act 2:
Publico: “It would be easy for an intruder to get into the apartment to touch and smell the fragile little blonde girl with big eyes. It took an instant, but his warped sexual desire was thwarted when she shouted out
“So he had to shut her up. He turned on her and probably suffocated her in an act of panic”
Gerry McCann is a “heart surgeon” and Kate a “GP”. The McCanns live in a £500,000 house in Rothley, Leicestershire”
Such are the facts
DAILY STAR page 9: “MADDIE: VITAL DNA IS LOCKED AWAY IN SAFE – McCanns team has not seen car clues”
Why should the suspects get access to all evidence being compiled, possibly against them? Is it now standard practice for the defendant to read the police notes as the case is developing?
“Quiz for tapas friends”- Police to question the McCann’ co-diners
DAILY TELEGRPAH page 17: “Police ‘U-turn over Madeleine theory’”
“Madeleine McCann was killed by a paedophile in a moment of ‘thwarted desire’ before being taken from her Algarve holiday apartment, police investigating her disappearance believe, it has been claimed”
Publico: “All over in minutes. Now he had to get her out of there. Close the door. Flee as fast as he could”
And links to another case: Joana Cipriano, 8, disappeared from her home in the Algarve village of Figueria, 10 miles from Praia da Luz in September 2004. She has never been found. Her mother Leonor, 36, and uncle, Joao, 35, were convicted of murder after Ms Cipriano confessed to the crime during police questioning. She later retracted her confession, claiming it was forced during a beating by detectives, but was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in jail. Her lawyers claim she is innocent and are appealing”
THE SCOTSMAN: “Just how much vilification do they have to suffer?”
“You have to hope that Kate and Gerry McCann stopped reading the papers a long time ago, that they have their news filtered though the calm compassion of Clarence Mitchell, the former BBC journalist turned family spokesman”
THE TIMES, THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine News today
Posted: 27th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,265)
Madeleine McCann: Metodo 3 Think, Daily Express Write The Book And Robert Murat Smears
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR page 5: “The private detectives have a theory: Madeleine was “snatched” to order and is alive in the “perfect” hideout. She’s in Morocco
Says Metodo 3 spokesman Francisco Marco PI: “We’re following the trail. Morocco is the perfect place to hide a kidnapped girl. There are a number of networks there dedicated to trafficking children”
What clues? What evidence?
Marita Fernandez, founder of the agency, says: “We think Murat knows more than he said, Madeleine could be living in Morocco”
Could be? Truth or Phooey?
She goes on: “I played the devil’s advocate and asked them [McCanns] terrible things to see their reactions.” Kate cried. “As a mother and grandmother it strikes me as impossible that a woman who has had artificial insemination to have children and who loves her youngsters in this way could have done anything bad to Madeleine”
A woman’s intuition, eh? Good to hear the PIs are making progress…
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE
* The NEW BOOK That everyone’s been waiting for
* Just what DID happen the night she disappeared?
* What’s the truth about the mysterious sightings of her
* And who do the police really think is responsible
ALL THIS WEEK, ONLY IN THE DAILY EXPRESS, WE REVEAL THE EXTRAORDINARY FACTS BEHIND THE STORY THAT HAS INTRIGUED AND MYSTIFIED THE WORLD”
Fact 1: Madeleine McCann in missing
Fact 2. Madeleine McCann is still missing
Fact 3: Etc.
Page 5: “I SAW MAN LIKE MURAT TRY TO KIDNAP A CHILD” – British nanny at the Ocean Club resort has told police that she caught an intruder, who looked like Robert Murat, trying to climb through the ground floor window while a baby slept inside
“MADELEINE: MCCANNS ‘SPOILED CRUCIAL EVIDENCE’”- Says a Portuguese policeman: “When we arrived at the scene, it was as if there had been an earthquake in the apartment. Everything had been turned over and there were more than 10 people there touching everything. How could the evidence not be contaminated? Of course, we isolated the scene, but a great deal had already been touched”
Pages 30-32: “Madeleine: A Most Heartbreaking And Extraordinary Disappearance, by Robert Downing. It’s published by Northern & Shell, who own the Daily Express. Buy now for Christmas
DAILY MAIL front page: “MADDIE: Police believed McCanns sold her”
Page 5: “Police ‘asked is parents sold Maddie top perverts’” – So says a Portuguese policeman
“THERE’LL BE PRESENTS FOR HER THIS CHRISTMAS” – Says Kate McCann’s father Brian Healy: “We will all buy her a present and they will be under the tree waiting for he when she comes home”
“Team McCann smearing Murat, say friends” – A friend of Michaela Walczuch and Robert Murat calls for an end to the “continuous unfounded attacks”. The woman has been pushed “to the brink of despair”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE MUM ‘SOLD HER’ – McCann outrage at cops’ claim”
It is an EXCLUSIVE (see Daily Mail)
Page 10: “Says Clarence Mitchell: “The suggestion that Kate and Gerry somehow have sold off their beloved daughter takes the ludicrous allegations circulating around this case to a new level of lunacy. It is laughable to even suggest it. Kate and Gerry understand the police must consider all possibilities – no matter how apparently implausible – in order to eliminate them. But if they have considered this for more than a nano-second then they have wasted their time. It is, of course, entirely untrue. Madeleine was abducted”
THE SUN page 15: “MURAT’S FURY – Maddie suspect pleads: Stop smear campaign”
Says a “pal” of Murat: “These continuous unfounded attacks are taking the focus away from the areas that should be investigated. I would think someone from the McCann camp would want to put a stop to it”
Indeed. We should stick to the facts…
“Yesterday it was claimed six months before Maddie vanished a man matching Murat’s description tried to get into the same apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal”
Oh…
“Meanwhile Brit Murat’s German-born girlfriend Michaela Walczuch was said to have had her alibi shattered by revelations she was NOT at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting in Lagos”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 15: “Murat urges Madeleine McCann’s family to stop smears”
Robert Murat and what the nanny saw… What of that? Says a source: “Robert went to the UK at the end of October and remained there until January of this year”
Says Brian Healy: “It really would be a miracle and we would appeal to parents to think about Maddie at this time of the year and help us to bring her home in time for Christmas”
Posted: 26th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,223)
Madeleine McCann: Michaela Walczuch At The Door, JonBenet Ramsey And Metodo 3 ‘A Pup’
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY MIRROR: “Did they want my girl?”
Karen Sixsmith is in conversation with the Mirror. It is an “EXCLUSIVE”. She is in an apartment at the Ocean Club, Praia da Luz. It is a month before Madeleine McCann went missing
A woman knocks at her door. She claims to be a Jehovah’s Witness. “German-born” Michaela Walczuch is a Jehovah’s Witness, or has been. The “mysterious woman” at the door is with a man.
Says Sixsmith: “It was a blonde woman, 35 to 40 years old, English-speaking. She had a pamphlet and I knew straight away that she was a Jehovah’s Witness. She asked if she could come into the apartment to talk about her faith. I took the pamphlet from her and closed the door. I now think it may have been Murat and his girlfriend”
Michaela Walczuch is 34
Karen has a daughter called Kate – “Kate is strikingly similar to Madeleine…Kate would have stood out a mile with her blonde hair and blue eyes – just like Madeleine”
Says the Mirror: “Her testimony – given to the Sunday Mirror so we could pass it on to the McCanns’ private investigators Metodo 3 in Barcelona”
NEWS OF THE WORLD: “Snatch bid last year at Maddie flat”
“A man tried to kidnap a child at the same apartment Madeleine McCann vanished from SIX MONTHS before she went missing,” says a British nanny who “caught the pervert trying to climb in through the ground floor window while a baby slept inside”
DAILY EXPRESS: “BABYSITTER SAW WINDOW MAN”
A source says “A babysitter has given detectives a statement in which she claims she caught a man trying to climb in through a window of apartment 5A – the apartment later occupied by the McCanns”
THE PEOPLE: “SICKENING SMEAR CAMPAIGN – FAMILY’S EMOTIONAL PLEA FOR MISSING DAUGHTER’S RETURN”
“Cops spent days investigating a theory the couple did it because they were desperate for cash”
It is a “sickening smear” making headlines in Portuguese paper 24 Horas
“NO QUIZ FOR MURAT LOVE” – Tuck Price, “a pal of German born Walczuch”, reveala: “I know for sure she’s been going to her Jehovah’s meetings and I know for sure the police haven’t contacted her. If this was true I’m sure the police would have been on to her”
“Find Maddie and give us a miracle for Christmas..” – “Maddie’s grandfather Brian Healy revealed how the family are convinced that she is alive and how they are now hoping for the ultimate Christmas miracle.” Says he: “We will all buy her a Christmas present and they will be under the tree waiting for her when she comes home”
GLASGOW SUNDAY MAIL: “Fury Over ‘Maddie Sold’ Slur”
An “outrageous slur”
A source says: “For several days the judicial police team investigated the possibility that the child had been sold by her own parents because of financial difficulties”
DAILY STAR: “MADDIE: 10 NEW SUSPECTS”
“Spanish investigators hunting for Madeleine McCann have narrowed their search to a hit list of ten paedophiles, we can reveal. Detectives working for the Metodo 3 agency are blitzing locations in Europe and Africa to find the known sex offenders”
Why this ten? Why ten?
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We have every confidence in Metodo 3. They can get to places faster and work quicker than anyone else and have the capacity to work worldwide”
BURNLEY EXPRESS: “Girls’ symbolic silence for Madeleine McCann”
Chelsea Gallagher and Gemma Lee, both 13, raised £450 for the Madeleine McCann Fund with a sponsored cuff-and-silence.
“For an entire school day, Chelsea and Gemma, 13, were handcuffed together and remained silent.” Says Chelsea: “The handcuffs symbolised the people who will be caught, and the silence because we haven’t heard anything about Madeleine”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann: is there no hope left?”
“Bristling with bravado before the television cameras last week, Francisco Marco, the portly boss of the Spanish-based detective agency Metodo 3, sneeringly dismissed the Portuguese police investigation into the disappearance of the couple’s daughter, Madeleine, as ”bumbling”, and boasted: ‘’We know who the kidnappers are and we are very, very close to catching them.’ Off camera, he admitted: ‘No, I can’t disclose any more yet. But I will be proved right.’”
Marco will get his man. A PI always does. Sign the contract. Pay the fee…
A source “close to” the McCanns says: ”The harsh fact is that they were pinning their remaining hopes on Marco’s outfit when they hired them on a six-month contract in September. But, in the past few weeks, they have conceded that they might have been sold a pup. There’s no doubt they’ve worked round the clock, but they don’t have a lot of experience with this type of investigation”
But there are for months left on the contract…
THE GUARDIAN: “Panorama walk-out over McCann film”
“Why did TV journalist David Mills, the producer of a Panorama film on the McCann affair, quit the project before it was transmitted last week? The Observer’s David Rose reveals the inside story of the latest row to hit the BBC’s flagship show”
Sensationalism? Tabloid journalism? Crime as entertainment?
Mills wrote a script. It was not used. “His original film would have compared Madeleine to the JonBenet Ramsey case in Colorado, about which Mills has made three previous documentaries. After the body of JonBenet, a child beauty pageant winner aged six, was found in her parents’ Boulder home, they were vilified by the police and media, despite their continued insistence that they had nothing to do with her death. They claimed she had been killed by an intruder…Years later DNA evidence proved beyond doubt that JonBenet had been killed by an intruder. John Ramsey told Panorama: ‘It’s a life-time damage. No question about it.’”
Posted: 25th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (680)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann Jail And Drugs, Michaela Walczuch Accused And The Others
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – MUM FACES TEN YEARS IN JAIL. Now parents could be charged with abandoning their children”
Abandoning – to go for some tapas down the road?
Says lawyer Jose Olimpio: “The fact the McCanns were made arguidos means that there are justified suspicions against them of committing a crime.” But there is no proof they have…
And: “Mr Olimpio claimed the Portuguese penal code states that placing a person’s life in danger by abandoning them is punishable with a jail sentence of between one and five years. But the sentence rises to between three and 10 years if the victim is a child and the crime is committed by a parent or guardian”
Says Clarence Mitchell (not a lawyer): “They have committed no offence under Portuguese, British or any country’s laws”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “NO ALIBI – EXCLUSIVE Murat lover ‘was not at church as she claimed’”
“An alibi by Robert Murat’s lover for the night Madeleine McCann vanished is a LIE, it was claimed yesterday”
It’s “German born” Michaela Walczuch, who “claims” she was at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting four miles away when the four-year-old was snatched.
But church elder Brother Teofilo Castela says: “She was thrown out of the church more than a year ago and doesn’t attend. There was some problem with the rules and she was cast aside. It was before this year. I haven’t been interviewed by police and the police haven’t been here”
Murat’s lawyer Francisco Pagarate says: “Michaela says she was at the Jehovah Witnesses in Lagos on May 3. She remembers being there”
THE SUN front page: “MADDIE: THE FALSE ALIBI – Suspect’s girl accused over Jehovah claim”
A member of the religious organisation says Michaela Walczuch, was thrown out for “breaking the laws of the Bible” months before Madeleine McCann went missing
Oh? The laws of the bible – there are many. But the Sun boils things down:
“It is not clear which rules Michaela has broken. But the religion’s strict moral code considers adultery and premarital sex to be sins. Michaela started dating Murat almost two years ago, while she was still married to Luis Antonio, 37”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE DRUG TEST SHOCK”
“GP” Kate McCann took a drugs test after she was named a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance
She did it to “fight police claims that she was ‘mentally unstable’’ and could have been on anti-depressants”. Her two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie were also tested. All the tests proved negative. So say the lawyers working for the McCanns
DAILY MAIL: “Madeleine: Now Murat’s girlfriend’s alibi falls apart”
Michael Walczuch is a “German-born mother-of-one”
“The Jehovah’s Witnesses follow what they believe is a ‘purer’ form of Christianity, based on the First Century Church. The ultimate sanction on those who break the rules is excommunication, known as disfellowship”
Such are the facts of the case…
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “No peace for McCanns”
“A senior policeman says they created ‘a monster of information they lost control of’. Meanwhile, the plods who failed to take control of the crime scene on the night Madeleine disappeared and who bungled every step of the investigation that followed, are blameless, obviously”
The Telegraph Liz Hunt fails to spot that Goncarlo Amaral was demoted and any number of tabloid stories on “bungling” Portuguese cops
“Without a trace” – The paper looks at other British children who have one missing abroad “not the story of Madeleine McCann”
“When Katrice Lee vanished in Germany in 1981 there was no blanket media coverage, no poster campaign, hardly even a mention on the national news. And today, 26 years later, her family still have no idea what happened to her”
Christmas Book: Crime fiction” – However fascinated we are by the real-life mysteries of Diana, Princess of Wales or Madeleine McCann, and even as we devour the newspapers with what Margery Allingham saw as “the bright ghoul’s eyes of the calamity fancier”, we return to crime novels because they provide us with the satisfaction of a solution”
Expect lots of books on Madeleine McCann; and Diana
THE TIMES: “Casey Affleck, the brother in arms – Not just Ben’s kid brother – Casey Affleck shows he’s a serious contender in a fine new western”
“His roots seem important to Affleck, and he’ll next be seen playing the lead in the older Affleck’s directing debut Gone Baby Gone, a dark child-abduction drama set in Boston, where the pair grew up. However, in the wake of the Madeleine McCann case, this adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s 1998 novel was withdrawn from this year’s Times/bfi London Film Festival because of its sensitive subject matter, and may never be released in the UK”
Because viewers might confuse a work of Hollywood fiction with real life…
THE GUARDIAN: “Kate McCann ‘agreed to drug tests’”
Says Edward Smethurst: “There were various stories circulating that Kate might somehow be unstable and might be depressed and whatever, but the tests demonstrated that the kind of drugs she might be on did not show up”
CAMDEN NEW JOURNAL: “Author says Freud slipped up in Oedipus ‘obsession’”
“One of Britain’s most popular authors, Salley Vickers, will speak…about her influences, including the hysteria surrounding the Madeleine McCann case, and the work of Clement Freud”
An author making headline on the McCann case… The Oedipus complex and Madeleine McCann… Booker prize winner Anne Enright… Look at me!
Says Ms Vickers: “There’s quite a strong body of opinion in Britain that would have really liked the McCanns to have murdered their own child. They would have been quite excited by it”
The news and speculation so far
Posted: 24th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (735)
Madeleine McCann: Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro Says, Clarence Mitchell Responds And Michaela Walczuch
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: More agony for parents as police chief insists she must be dead”
Page 9: “Why Madeleine is probably dead by top law officer” –
Kate and Gerry McCann “suffered fresh heartache” when Portugal’s Attorney General, Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro, said it would have been “natural” for any kidnapper to kill her. It is a “brutal assessment of the missing four-year-old’s chances of survival”
The Attorney General says: “There’s a greater possibility of the girl being dead than alive. If it is an abduction it would be normal for the abductor to have killed her. Would an abductor with all this publicity and with the whole world having Maddie’s photo still demand a ransom?”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We still firmly believe that Madeleine is alive. Making these comments is entirely unhelpful. From our point of view, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the possibility that Madeleine is alive and being held somewhere is still valid. Our investigators are working on that basis. They, too, have stated that they are confident they will find her alive soon”
“’Murat lover was eyeing my niece’” – Tourist Graham Desuys says he saw Michaela Walczuch “staring” at “blonde-haired Zoe” and her younger brother Conner in Praia da Luz. It is one month before Madeleine vanished
Says the Briton: “She was just looking at my niece and nephew, it was very off-putting. When my partner and I walked past the woman in the street she seemed to get a bit scared and turned away as if to hide” – Were they staring at her to see if she was “staring” at them?
He goes on: “I have no doubt it as her [Walczuch] and it unnerving to think she could have been checking out my family”
If you see anyone looking/glancing/staring/peeping/smiling at your children, tell the police, and the Express…
DAILY MIRROR front page: “SHE’S DEAD. Shock Maddy claim by Portugal’s top law chief. Devastated McCanns insist search must go on”
A shock? To think Madeleine might be dead..?
Page 9: “IT WOULD BE NATURAL TO KILL MADDY”
Says Mr Monteiro: “All lines of inquiry are being pursued. There’s not one that excludes the others. At this moment in time, if you asked if we were going to discover anything I would have to say ‘I don’t know’”
Look out for other Mirror front-page headlines: “SHE’S ALIVE”, “SHE’S MISSING,” “SHE’S SOMEWHERE” etc.
DAILY STAR page 21: “’SHE’S DEAD’”
Mr Monteiro is talking with Portuguese magazine Visao
THE SUN page 23: “’MADDIE IS DEAD’ – Portugal’s top law chief delivers grim verdict”
Not a verdict – more of an opinion
This is “a blow to Kate and Gerry”
DAILY MAIL page 5: “Madeleine is dead’ – Abductor would have killed her because of publicity, says Portugal’s attorney-general”
Says Mr Monteiro on the Portuguese effort: “We have done everything. We have spent in resources, on the Madeleine case, what we have spent on others. In 40 years as a magistrate, I have never seen such a high-profile case as this one”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 17: “Publicity made Madeleine McCann ‘a liability’”
“Portugal’s most senior law officer has said that the huge publicity surrounding the case of Madeleine McCann meant it was more likely she was dead than alive”
THE TIMES, THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news
Posted: 23rd, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (653)
Madeleine McCann: Michaela Walczuch’s Alibi, Metodo 3 Warned And Three-Year-Old Carolina Santos
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN page 21: “CASE CLOSED – Portuguese cops to quit on Maddie as suspect’s girlfriend linked to case”
“BAFFLED Portuguese police [surely, “bungling”] are set to CLOSE the Madeleine McCann investigation – despite startling new evidence emerging”
A police source tells Portuguese newspaper 24 Hors: “We are practically back where we started. The parents are still the prime suspects in hiding their daughter’s body – not of her death, which was probably accidental. But there is no firm proof”
And of the McCanns – the “Leicestershire doctors Kate and Gerry, both 39” – and Robert Murat? Suspects forever…
But never fear “the private detectives hired by her frustrated parents Kate and Gerry are working on sensational new leads that suggest she could be alive”
DAILY MIRROR page 15: “I HAVE AN ALIBI – Murat’s girl ‘in church’ when Maddy abducted”
Madeleine McCann goes missing and at the same moment Michaela Walczuch “was four miles from the family villa with Jehovah’s Witnesses”
Says a friend of hers: “She was at a church meeting in Lagos on the night. She told police this when questioned and they confirmed her story”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Everything Metodo 3 does is within the law” – and on the meter?
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANNS ATE STILL THE MAIN SUSPECTS – Police ‘have closed case’”
Says a source to 24 Horas: ““Detectives are getting ready to pack their bags. Given the current state of the investigation, police chiefs are considering demobilising the team sent specifically to investigate the case and are even planning on moving Paulo Rebelo, the head of the investigation, onto tasks of greater responsibility”
A family friend of the McCanns says: “The worst thing that could happen is for the case to close and Gerry and Kate to remain official suspects” – That’s the worst thing?
Page 9: “Alibi will prove me innocent” – Ms Walczuch said she had an alibi that proves she is “absolutely not involved” in Madeleine’s disappearance
Says the Express: “Walczuch lives five miles from Praia da Luz in Lagos with her estranged husband Portuguese husband pool-cleaner Luis Antonio, 47, and their eight year-old daughter. She set up a property business called Romigen with Murat. In a bizarre living arrangement Murat lived at the flat for six months to conduct an affair with Walczuch while Antonio was still there”
So was she in Silves, where the Portuguese truck driver says he saw her hand over a child?
The “WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER” reports: “Silves was the scene of the attempted child abduction last year. Three-year-old Carolina Santos, who is blonde with blue eyes, was found being led away from the family cafe near the town of Silves by a man last year… Father Abel Santos, 40, said: ‘We were busy working in the kitchen and came out to find out she wasn’t there. ‘I searched around for her and saw her some way away on the road with a man I took to be Moroccan. We started towards them shouting and Carolina stopped and turned towards us. He disappeared around the bend.’ His wife Lina, 28, added: ‘It was very strange because Carolina is very shy and doesn’t go with strangers. When I asked her what happened she said he told her that he had another little girl for her to play with’” – Was Madeleine McCann kidnapped in Portugal before she went missing?
DAILY STAR page 11: “Parents still in police sights”
“A probe by new police chief Paulo Rebelo has concluded the four-year-old’s mum Kate and dad Gerry were rightly named suspects. But there is not enough evidence to charge them, according to police sources”
“MADDIE: COPS TELL PRIVATE EYES TO BACK OFF” – “THE £2,000-a-day private eyes hired by Madeleine McCann’s parents to find her were dismissed by police last night as ‘irrelevant small fry’”
How much do the Portuguese police cost to run?
Says a police source: “The McCanns’ investigators are small fry. The information they have gathered lacks credibility. They are only in places that have already been talked about. They are going over old ground. Miss Walczuch is not a suspect. She was at a prayer meeting. This was established months ago. There are no new leads. We know when the private detectives come and what they are doing here”
A source close to the prosecutor handling the case says: “If they speak to any witness who has been named in the case, or have access to a procedural piece of evidence or a case document, they are committing a crime which could be obstruction of justice”
So the Private detectives can’t even speak with Michaela Walczuch…
DAILY MAIL page 11: “Murat lover ‘was at Jehovah’s meeting as Maddie vanished’”
“German-born Miss Walczuch” was in church when Madeleine went missing
But: “She has failed to reveal, however, where she was on May 5 and June 15, when two separate witnesses claim to have seen her with Madeleine. Mr Murat’s lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, claimed yesterday this was because her diary had been seized by the police some months ago and has not been returned”
Her estranged husband, Luis Antonio, is “a pool cleaner and gardener”
“McCANN DETECTIVES ATTACKED” – “Police launched a contemptuous attack yesterday on the private detectives working for Kate and Gerry McCann”
Police call the PIs “small fry”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 11:” Portuguese detectives ‘ready to abandon Madeleine inquiry’”
The team of detectives led by Paulo Rebelo are “on the brink of shelving the investigation”
THE INDEPENDENT, THE TIMES and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 22nd, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,011)
Madeleine McCann: We Love To Watch, A Link To Hillary Clinton And A New Witness
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “SIGHTING SENSATION – I saw Maddy & Murat girl”
Page 9: “’I saw Maddy and Murat’s girl in Morocco’”
Isabel Gonzalez is back. It was Isabel Gonzalez who told the world she had seen Madeleine McCann in Morocco. Now she says: “I’ve always been sure the girl I saw was Madeleine and now I’m sure the blonde woman I saw was Murat’s girlfriend” – Michaela Walczuch
She told the police. And now she has told the McCanns’ private detectives
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We’re keeping an open mind”
Says Michaela Walczuch: “These claims are so bizarre I have no comment”
THE SUN front page: “Maddie ‘seen in gang’s clutches’”
A trucker says he saw a blonde woman handing a child wrapped in a blanket to a man in Silves, 25 miles from Praia da Luz
He has told the McCanns’ private detectives of what he saw back on May 5
Page 9: “Is this where Maddie was handed to paedos?”
Says a source: “The detectives are working on the theory Madeleine was identified as an easy target, stolen to order and then handed over to a paedophile gang. Because of all the publicity she became too dangerous to keep – and was passed on or sold. The detectives believe she was taken to North Africa, either on a boat from Portugal or via Spain on a ferry to Tangier. They believe they can find the vehicle seen in Silves. It’s an unusual make and colour in Portugal”
And news from “Isabel” Gonzalez
“TAPAS 7 TO BE QUIZZED SOON” – “COPS plan to re-question the Tapas Seven within days in a bid to break their “pact of silence”, reports Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – I SAW HER WITH MURAT’S GIRL IN MOROCCO. Witness’s sensational claim”
Isabel Gonzalez is 60. She is a Spanish mother of six”.
They see Madeleine in the Moroccan town of Zaio. They return to look for her. Says Senora Gonzalez: “It was then that I saw the European-looking couple. It was a blonde woman and a very pale-skinned man with dark hair. They seemed completely out of place as the town is very remote and everyone else there was Moroccan.”
She adds: “After seeing the news reports I am convinced the woman was Murat’s girlfriend. I never saw the blonde woman with Madeleine but I have always connected the two events”
Such is the Express’ front-page news
Page 7: “Gang smuggled Madeleine” – A truck driver sees child in a blanket. A source at the McCanns’ detective agency says: “The witness later identified the woman as Michaela Walczuch after he was shown some pictures. He phoned us with his report about two to three weeks ago…We think it could have been the moment Madeleine was handed over by the original kidnappers”
“Child neglect prosecution fails” – Anthony Bennett’s request that the McCanns’ be sued for child neglect has failed
DAILY MAIL front page: “MADELEINE – the suspect, his girlfriend and an intriguing new sighting in Morocco”
Pages 10-11: “Maddie and the suspects’ lover – ‘I saw Murat’s girl in same place as child says witness”
Isabel Gonzalez says she is “sure” a blonde woman she saw on June 15 was 34-year-old Michaela Walczuch
Gonzalez “described how she saw a little blonde girl being dragged across a street and thought immediately: ‘That’s Madeleine.’ The child was with an older woman in a Muslim headscarf, who was walking fast and trying to hide her face from passing cars. Mrs Gonzalez said the girl’s floppy hat was blown back by a gust of wind to reveal her face, She looked ‘very sad and scared’”
A dark-skinned Muslim woman with a blonde child? Like this one?
“Tawdry tangle of Brit and blonde who preached Jehovah” – Miss Walczuch “reportedly spent some weekends knocking on doors in search of potential Jehovah’s Witness converts, while Murat said he was studying to join the movement”
“LAWYER’S NEGLECT CASE IS THROWN OUT” – Anorak reader Anthony Bennett’s petition to have the McCanns’ charged with child neglect is thrown out after a district judge court ruled that a British court could not have jurisdiction over something that happened in Portugal
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: CHARGE THE PARENTS – Brits want McCanns in the dock”
In a Daily Star phone poll yesterday, 86% said Kate and her husband Gerry, both 39, should be charged with child neglect
What good can be gained from charging the McCanns?
Page 11: “Big to crack 7 pals ‘secret’” – The Tapas 7 might be interviewed by police
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann ‘given to child trafficker’”
Speaking about the claims that a woman had been seen with Madeleine, Clarence Mitchell says: “This is only one line of investigation that is being explored. The witness who claims to have seen Madeleine being transferred (on May 5) was thoroughly interviewed face to face by an investigator from Metodo 3 and was deemed to be a credible witness”
THE TIMES: “Coming soon: fab females in distress – Whether it’s Hillary, Meredith, Madeleine or Paula, we love to watch women suffer. They do it so beautifully”
We love to watch Madeleine McCann suffer?
Says Helen Rumbelow, watching Hillary Clinton: “Violence against women, although in this case entirely conducted through political metaphor, has the thrill of any great taboo, where our conscious disapproval vies with our unconscious fascination”
Hillary Clinton linked to Madeleine McCann…
“Madeleine and Meredith [Kercher – murdered in Italy] make for a dolorous pair: an abducted girl, and an attractive, murdered young woman. In the McCann case the theme of benighted femininity is only amplified by the public anguish of Kate McCann, who, for the past half year has served as our beautiful, empty-handed pieta”
Is the Times featuring A-level essays on feminism and the media?
THE GUARDIAN: “McCann special boosts Panorama ratings”
The McCanns are entertainment
“The public’s enduring fascination with the Madeleine McCann case boosted BBC1’s flagship current affairs programme Panorama last night by 3 million viewers…The show narrowed the gap with ITV1’s reality show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!”
THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news
Posted: 21st, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,331)
Madeleine McCann: ‘Tapas’ Jane Tanner Says, The Pool Man And Two Father Pachecos
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADDY: THREE ACCUSED – Investigators think friends may have plotted kidnap”
“Private detectives fear Robert Murat, girlfriend Michaela Walczuch and her estranged husband Luis Antonio were part of an organised ring that snatched the four-year-old”
Oh. Any evidence?
“Pool cleaner Antonio worked at the resort where Maddy vanished and had full access to the complex. He could have spied on her before the plot was hatched”
Murat’s lawyer Francisco Pagarete says: “These allegations are ridiculous”
Page 5: Jane Tanner sees man with a child in his arms.
“He had his face turned away from me, sort of sideways, and it was very dark. I just didn’t see it properly. I wish to God I had. I wake up to that image every day. [Daily Mirror readers empathise.] Every day I seem striding away, carrying Madeleine away. I try desperately to remember more detail, what his face was like. I think about it over and over. It’s horrible,” says Jane Tanner
And Robert Murat… Is it him?
Says Jane Tanner: “I’ve never pointed the finger at Robert Murat. I don’t know if it was him. I would say the man I saw that night was more Mediterranean looking”
It was Lori Campbell, the Mirror’s hack, who pointed the finger at “creepy” Murat
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE QUIZ PRIEST AGAIN, Church searched and he is questioned over close links to McCanns”
Portuguese police carried out a detailed search at Our Lady Of Light church in Praia da Luz, including the old cemetery.
The operation was carried out “informally and with maximum discretion” by agents from the Policia Judiciaria. Officers “spent the day” with Father Jose Manuel Pacheco, visiting his home
This is the same Father Pacheco who went missing, who felt “deceived”
Says a friend: “Whenever anybody talks about Madeleine he steers the talk on to other subjects. He has stopped going to all the places he used to go, especially the coffee shops. There are two completely different Pachecos, the one before the McCanns and the one after”
Pages 4 and 5: “Jane Tanner: “I’m haunted by her kidnapper.” Says Jane Tanner: “I DID see a man that night carrying away Madeleine,” says Jane Tanner. “She WAS abducted”
“No DNA on the holiday hire car” – Test on the McCanns’ Renault Scenic find no evidence of the missing girl. These are tests funded by “home improvements tycoon” Brian Kennedy. He supports the McCanns
DAILY STAR front page: “Maddie cops dig up graves – Horror scenes you didn’t see on last night Panorama”
“Police hunting Maddie McCann have secretly searched the church and its graveyard where her parents prayed for her safe return”
Police “think her GP mum Kate and heart consultant dad Gerry disposed of her body to mask their negligence after leaving her while they dined with pals in a nearby tapas bar”
All lines of investigation remain open
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We continue to work very closely with the private investigators. We are encouraged by any developments they feel are significant”
Pages 8 and 9: The Star’s phone poll asks readers to answer “YES” or “NO” to the poser: “SHOULD THE McCANNS BE CHARGED WITH NEGLECT?”
Anorak reader Anthony Bennett says they should be
Jane Tanner: “Snatching haunts me every day.” Says she: “I think we were lulled into a false sense of security by the fact it was very much a family resort and quite quiet at that time”
THE SUN pages 12 and 13: “McCANNS’ PAL TALKS TO THE SUN”
It’s Jane Tanner. It’s an “EXCLUSIVE”. It’s her “first interview with any newspaper”. It most likely took place just before her interviews in the Mirror, Express, Star, after she had spoken to the BBC…
Says “Tapas Jane”: “The man was about ten to fifteen feet in front of me and was walking quite quickly and I can remember thinking, ‘That’s odd’”
DAILY MAIL page 13: “It was dark. I just can’t say for sure who took Madeleine”
Jane Tanner needs some help. So the Mail puts a picture of the “figure” Tanner says she saw carrying Madeleine alongside a shot of Michaela Walczuch walking. Similar?
Note that Wallczuzh is a woman, blonde and not “more Mediterranean looking” than Robert Murat
“WHY WERE THE CHILDREN LEFT?” – “Says Kate McCann’s mother Susan Healy: “I have to say that I’m surprised that Kate and Gerry left their children at all”
THE SCOTSMAN: “Girlfriend of suspect denies Madeleine link”
“Tuck Price, family friend, said that any suggestion Ms Walczuch was involved in the case was ‘ridiculous’, adding: ‘She would deny that 100 per cent’”
Says Mr Price, who has spoken on Mr Murat’s behalf: “Michaela has a daughter, she is a decent woman. The police have known Michaela’s story from day one”
THE TIMES page 33: “McCanns’ friend haunted by glimpse of mystery man”
“Ms Tanner, 34, has told police previously that she did not believe the man was Robert Murat, the first official suspect in the case. But yesterday she claimed that she did not get a good enough look at the abductor’s face to rule him out”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 13: “Madeleine: McCanns’ friend ‘haunted’ by night”
Jane Tanner: “The woman who says she saw Madeleine McCann being carried away by her abductor has said she is haunted by the images of the man she knows she will never be able to identify”
THE GUARDIAN: “Madeleine witness speaks of ‘guilt’”
Says Jane Tanner: “I would say the man I saw was more local, or Mediterranean-looking, rather than British, or a tourist. He had dark, almost black, long hair and had swarthy skin. He was dressed in that sort of smart casual way European people dress, not the way Brits on holiday dress normally”
THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 20th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,375)
Madeleine McCann: Michaela Walczuch ‘Seen’, Jenny Murat Says And Kate McCann Screams
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – WHY WE KNOW SHE IS ALIVE. Investigators say she was abducted”
Aren’t the Portuguese police working on the theory that Madeleine McCann is dead..?
Maybe. But detectives at the Metodo 3 agency hear a woman tell of a blonde girl in a van with a woman 90 miles from Praia da Luz
Says Francisco Marco, who heads the team of Spanish private detectives: “We’re 100 per cent sure she is alive. We are very close to finding the kidnapper”
Hurry! This is only a six-month contract. More progress reports to follow…
Page 7: “Madeleine hope – We’re convinced she was snatched say investigators.” Although the evidence to support their convictions appears uncertain
“Murat’s mum insists: “He was with me” – Jenny Murat says of the McCanns’ three friends who claim to have seen her son Robert Murat loitering close to the couples’ apartment – Russell O’Brien, Rachel Oldfield and Fiona Payne: “I just don’t know why they are lying…We were sitting in the kitchen talking the whole evening”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MURAT’S GIRL ‘HAD MADDY – Witness: I saw her bundle child into car”
A witness tells detectives (private ones) she “saw Michaela Walczuch hand a youngster to a man 90 miles from Praia da Luz”
Is she certain? Maybe blonde women all look similar to Spanish eyes, just like blonde Moroccan children can look like Madeleine McCann?
The PIs show the witness a series of photos. One picture is of Michaela Walczuch
Pages 4 and 5: “Murat’s girl and the child in a blanket – TEC’S ‘100% SURE TO FIND HER’”
The witness says they saw Ms Walczuch pass the child from one car to another on May 5. Her memory is vivid…
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry are extremely encouraged by this latest sighting
On tonight’s Panorama TV show, viewers hear that “GP” Kate was offered a deal to confess – she would get just two years choky for manslaughter. Replied Kate, as overheard by her sister-in-law Philomena: “No, no.”
Says Philomena: “The emotion…her disgust, everything was being conveyed, the anger was palpable, you could feel it.”
Philomena was not there. She was on the phone to the McCanns’ holiday apartment
“’McCanns not killers…child was abducted’” – So says the Mirror’s Anton Antonowisz, the man they named twice, from the city of New York, New York
He has seen the CBS show 48Hours. Joseph Moura is a Boston-based PI. And he says Madeleine was abducted
THE SUN front page: “KIDNAP SENSATION – MURAT’S GIRL ‘HAD MADDIE’”
Michaela Walczuch is a “German divorcee”
Page 7: “WITNESS SAW HER HAND OVER CHILD – Suspect Murat’s girlfriend accused on Maddie”
We know the name Michaela Walczuch. But we don’t know who the witness is…
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE PARENTS ‘WE LIED’ – Amazing new revelation
Pages 8 and 9: They lied? So says Joseph Moura for CBS entertainment, USA: “They would have had absolutely no possibility of seeing someone going in or out of that apartment from where they were that evening. They may have lied about being able to see it because they feel guilty about leaving the kids. But these white lies would not have helped the police investigation”
“Kate insists she is a caring mum” – Says Kate McCann in a video diary being made by a friend, John Corner: “There’s not a day goes by that I’m not thinking ‘Why did I think that was OK?’ I have to keep telling myself I am a responsible parent. We were dining very close to the children and we were checking on them very, very regularly. We are very responsible parents and we love our children so much”
“MURAT ‘LOVER’ RIDDLE” – Says Michaela Wulczuch: “I am not answering your questions”
DAILY MAIL page 5: “Murat’s lover ‘was seen with girl who looked like Maddie’”
A column-high picture of Michaela Walczuch
“KATE’S FURY AT POLICE OFFER OF A DEAL” – Gerry McCann’s older sister Philomena McCann says she heard the “39-year-old GP’s anguished response during a phone call from the couple’s apartment in Praia da Luz”
Says she: “My sister Patricia phoned me and, while we were talking, I could hear this screaming – shouting and screaming. It as 3am and Trish ran out with the mobile and I could hear her say to me, ‘Hold on, it’s Kate’. There I am listening to Kate screaming at the lawyer “No. No”
Is Kate McCann on a mobile phone to Patricia while Patricia is talking on another phone with Philomena?
“LIE DETECTOR TEST SNUBBED” – Dan Cargill has offered to test Kate McCann. Mr Cargill is the chairman of the British and European Polygraph Association. You might know him as the lying expert on TV’s Trisha. The McCanns declined his selfless offer
Says Mr Cargill: “I don’t think it was the McCanns’ fault. I was left with the impression the while thing was a PR exercise”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Of course they are not going to take the test. It is inadmissible in Portugal and there are doubts about the accuracy”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 15: “Madeleine police ‘have not ruled out abduction’”
Says Alipio Ribeiro, had of the Policia Judiciaria: “We are assessing all possibilities. New information reaches us every week. Doors are never closed in these cases because there’s always the surprise element”
THE TIMES page 21: “Madeleine was seized by predator who watched me leave flat, says father”
Says Gerry McCann: “I’ve no doubt that Madeleine was targeted and that makes us sick to the core to think that someone was watching us and our daughter and then targeted her. I think the true word is a predator
“They’ve watched me go in, come back out and then they’ve thought: ‘That’s the window of opportunity to get in and get back out’”
Says Alipio Ribeiro: “We have stronger assurances on certain aspects of the investigation, but it is also true . . . that we still do not have the solution.”
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 19th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,289)
Madeleine McCann: Gerry And Kate McCann’s Video Diary, Francisco Marco Says And Snake Oil
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY MIRROR: “MADELEINE ALIVE? WE’RE 100% CERTAIN”
“EXCLUSIVE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE DAY 199 Detectives reveal that they are closing in on Maddy kidnapper And new witness tells of seeing her with TWO suspects in van”
Detectives. The Portuguese police?
“Francisco Marco, head of private detective agency Metodo 3 – hired to track the missing four-year-old by the McCanns – said: “We’re 100 per cent sure she is alive. We are sure she was abducted. We are very, very close to finding the kidnapper”
Keep the expense account open. As the famous Lori Campbell reports, the net is closing in…
Says a source inside Metodo 3: “We believe the sighting is the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for. The witness was able to give a detailed description of the man and woman to investigators”
A witness…
“They showed her photographs, and she was able to pick out the woman with no hesitation. Detectives believe the kidnapper was helped by a third person who watched the apartment for days”
Says Gerry McCann in a fly-in-the-wall documentary shot by his friend John Corner: “I’ve no doubt Madeleine was targeted and that makes us sick to the core to think someone was watching us and our daughter, then targeted her. I think the true word is a predator”
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: “KATE REFUSES LIE TEST”
Mr Don Cargill chairman of the British And European Polygraph Association. He is also “official lie detector expert on TV’s Trisha Goddard TV show”. Says he: “I spoke to the McCanns’ people and they came back with a list of conditions that would have been impossible to satisfy”
No word from Trisha
“PRIVATE EYE CLOSES IN ON MADELEINE” – “In a fresh development in the search for the Leicestershire youngster, Gerry and Kate McCann have been informed of a reported sighting of their daughter in a car with a woman”
Oh?
“It came ahead of an interview broadcast on US television network CBS, in which Fransisco Marco, head of the Spanish private detective agency hired by the McCanns, said he was certain the four-year-old was alive and that the agency was closing in on the abductor”
The world is watching. Has Sen. Marco made progress? If you have a case you need to be solved, contact him on…
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “SNATCHED BY A COUPLE”
“EXCLUSIVE McCann detectives hunt for mystery man and woman as Maddie is spotted two days after she was snatched MADELEINE: NEW CLUES AS TV INTERVIEW ENRAGES PORTUGUESE COPS”
A “dramatic new lead” by “sleuths” hired by the McCanns
“Detectives battling to unravel the baffling case are said to be ‘unimpressed and exasperated’ that Jane [Tanner] has talked about the case on TV – in open violation of Portuguese laws”
Says Kate McCann, “GP”: “We are doing everything we can do to find Madeleine “And the last thing we want is to look back and think we could have done more. There’s not a textbook about it, is there? Like what to do when your daughter gets abducted. It’s awful and horrible for anyone to have to go through this and we are doing what we think is best. People say, ‘How can you stand there and do that when your daughter’s been taken?’ “I’ve been like that myself”
NEWS OF THE WORLD: “’We know who’s got Maddie’”
Says Gerry McCann: “We were looking at the back of the apartment and maybe the weak spots were at the front. It’s a corner flat with trees overlooking it. Somebody could be hiding there watching out of view
“I’ve absolutely no doubt they’ve watched me go in, come back out and then they’ve thought, ‘That’s the window of opportunity to get in and get back out'”
Says the Sun: “Gerry’s theory backs our front page story last month that Metodo 3 believed Maddie was snatched to order in a paedophile plot”
A theory backs the story? And the facts are..?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE IS ALIVE”
“NEW PROOF MADDIE LIVES”
Proof?
“SENSATIONAL new evidence that ‘proves’ Madeleine McCann was abducted and is still alive is to be presented to the world tomorrow night”
The BBC’s Panorama show is on tomorrow night…
“Several other ‘positive’ sightings in the months since will also be revealed – blowing holes in police theories that the McCanns accidentally killed their daughter then disposed of her body”
Only, none of them have proved to be Madeline – not in Belgium, Morocco, Bosnia…
DAILY MAIL: “’Madeleine’s alive and we are very, very close to finding her kidnappers’ say McCanns’ private detectives”
A new witness? “The witness claims she saw a woman pass on the child to a man in central Portugal, about 100 miles from the resort of Praia da Luz, where the McCanns were staying. The man and woman then left in different vehicles and in different directions”
Where are they now?
A police source says: “Portuguese officers are investigating a possible Madeleine sighting in central Portugal two days after she disappeared. The witness rang the Metodo 3 hotline”
THE TIMES: “Madeleine kidnapper arrest ‘soon’”
Francisco Marco, who is paid by Gerry and Kate McCann’s wealthy backer, Brian Kennedy, said: “We are 100% sure that she is alive. We are sure she was abducted. We are very, very close to finding the kidnapper”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Kate McCann: I was a responsible parent”
“In a moving and intimate video made by a close family friend, Mrs McCann says: ‘There’s not a day goes by that I’m not thinking ‘Why did I think that was OK? Why did I think that was OK?’ I have to keep telling myself I am a responsible parent”
A video diary?
“We were dining very close to the children and we were checking on them very, very regularly. We are very responsible parents and we love our children so much”
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Fresh hope in search for Maddie”
Says Clarence Mitchell of private detective Francisco Marco: “He’s very confident. He’s 100 per cent certain that she’s alive and believes that they are ‘very, very close’ to finding the kidnapper”
WIRED NEWS: “10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets – Danie Krugel’s DNA search device”
Posted: 18th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (769)
Madeleine McCann: ‘Tapas Jane’ Tanner, Vicky Hamilton And America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “HAUNTED”
“McCann witness speaks out” – an “exclusive”.
Last night the Mirror saw preview tapes of the BBC TV Panorama show, featuring an interview with Jane Tanner – “The family friend who thinks she saw Madeleine McCann carried away in her pyjamas”
Ms Tanner is “tortured by an awful belief – that she should have saved the little girl”. She tells of her “absolute horror” at living with the “terrible” thought. She helped produce an eFit picture of the man she saw
Says Jane Tanner: “Never in a million years did I think it could have been Madeleine. I just saw a person walk along the top of the road with what could have been a child in his arms”
Ms Tanner is a “marketing executive”. She is talking. So too is a “friend”: This unnamed friend says: “It’s true to say she is haunted by that thought and goes over and over it every day. She thinks to herself, ‘If only I had stopped him’ and ‘If only I had seen his face'”
A friend talks. But Tanner can talk for herself…
Says Jane’s friend: “Basically her heart went through her boots, because she instantly thought of the man carrying a child which she had seen about an hour earlier. When the Portuguese police turned up she told them about it at once. She later became convinced the child was Madeleine”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “All the friends have become frustrated at the secrecy under the Portuguese legal system. Jane felt now was the time to put the record straight”
THE SUN front page: “Tapas Jane tells all”
“In an emotional interview Jane Tanner, a close friend of Kate and Gerry and one of the Tapas Nine, spoke of her ‘horrible realisation I had seen the abductor and done nothing’”
It is a “riveting TV special”
Says Tapas Jane: “I’m talking now because I’m being called a liar and a fantasist. I know what I saw, I know the truth… All of us have told the truth. There is no cover up, or lying”
DAILY MAIL: “Madeleine: Suspect Robert Murat hires publicist Max Clifford ‘to clear his name’” (As reported on Anorak back in May)
“Mr Clifford has said he would be willing to represent Mr Murat, a father of one, but only once he is no longer a formal suspect in the case”
Look out for Robert Murat on OK! (My Villa Make Over), Hello! (My Diana Hell) and the Daily Express (Expat Horror)
“Mr Murat’s mother is interviewed in the Panorama programme to be shown on Monday. She discusses her son’s whereabouts on the night Madeleine disappeared”
“Madeleine investigation ‘to finish at Christmas’” – Portuguese daily Correio da Manha has reported that the Policia Judiciara is increasingly concerned at the lack of concrete evidence in the case – in particular, evidence proving that Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry were involved in her disappearance”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – I SAW MAN CARRYING HER AWAY. Tapas 9 woman tells her story for the first time”
“I SAW MAN CARRYING HER AWAY” – Says a “friend of Jane”: “She goes over it and over it in her mind. She suffers huge remorse because she did not and could not have realised its significance immediately”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We believe the Panorama programme will go a long way to show as wide a public as possible the truth about Madeleine’s abduction”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – I SAW WHO TOOK HER”
News of “HAUNTED Jane Tanner”
THE SCOTSMAN: “McCann friend insists she saw Madeleine’s abduction”
Says Ms Tanner: “I have not spoken because the Portuguese police told us not to talk about these things at all”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Missing children: The torment and hope”. Missing here
“There are many ghosts among us: all of those, usually young, who go missing each year, to haunt and torment the people who love them”
Like Madeleine McCann…
“Until a few days ago, Vicky Hamilton was one of these ghosts – a 15-year-old schoolgirl from West Lothian who disappeared 16 years ago, on February 10, 1991, after spending the weekend with her sister”
Vicky’s remains were discovered in a sandpit in the garden of a house in Margate, Kent – “by police searching for another missing teenager, Dinah McNicol, who also disappeared 16 years ago”
Know: “Looking for one dead girl, they found another”. And Madeleine?
“There are many different kinds of missing. There is the missing of a child such as Madeleine McCann, tiny, helpless, blonde, adorable…She had disappeared for all of us”
THE GUARDIAN: “McCanns’ friend says she saw Madeleine being abducted”
Rachael Oldfield, broke the news. Says Ms Tanner: “I went out to the front door of our apartment. Rachael came and said: ‘Oh, Madeleine’s gone’. That was the first I heard about it. Then I saw Kate and Fiona [Payne, another of the party] shouting: ‘Madeleine!’ And then Kate said to me: ‘Jane, Madeleine’s gone, Madeleine’s gone’. That was the first I’d heard”
THE TIMES: “Kate and Gerry McCann’s friend goes on television to insist: I saw abduction of Madeleine”
Says Jane Tanner: “From day one we have done everything we could to help them with the investigation”
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Maddy witness breaks silence”
“I know what I saw and I think it’s important that people know what I saw because I believe Madeleine was abducted,” Says Jane Tanner
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Saturday’s “highlights” – “Think globally: ‘America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back’ (9 p.m. Fox) travels to London to investigate the case of Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who disappeared in May”
BOSTON HERALD: “A Stoughton private investigator hired by the CBS show “48 Hours” to probe the mysterious disappearance of a little British girl believes her parents are innocent but found holes in their story. Joe Moura, who speaks fluent Portuguese, spent 15 days last month posing undercover as a vacationing businessman at the Ocean Club in Portugal’s resort town of Praia da Luz – where little Madeleine McCann vanished in May in a story that has made international headlines”
FINANCIAL TIMES: Frankfurt is set to open a “Museum for the Comic Arts” to honour the publishers of Titanic magazine, the magazine that brought us adverts of Madeleine McCann chocolate and floor cleaner
Posted: 17th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (393)
Madeleine McCann: Anthony Bennett Sues, CBS And Fox Entertain, And Robert Murat
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANNS TO FACE NEGLECT CHARGES – Lawyer’s private prosecution”
Page 7: “Parents face private prosecution” – Meet retired solicitor Anthony Bennett, 60. He’s a former prospective parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party. He says “Kate and Gerry had admitted leaving their three children unattended in Portugal”. He has sent his application for a summons to magistrates near the couple’s home in Leicestershire
Says the justice seeking Mr Bennett: “I think the case is very simple. By the McCanns’ own admission they have left their children unattended for a significant period of time. What troubles me is that there has been no prosecution by the relevant authorities, namely Leicestershire police and social services”
He’s making a point?
“I think this matter should be put before the court. Do we want a society in which it is acceptable to leave children alone? If my application concentrates people’s minds on whether it should ever be acceptable then I will have achieved what I set out to achieve”
Because having your child kidnapped isn’t enough?
“Police left crucial clues from Madeleine kidnap room be washed away” – “Bungling” Portuguese police failed to send Madeleine McCann’s bed linen to forensics. After “several days2 in situ, the bed was stripped by cleaning staff
DAILY MIRROR page 23: “MADELEINE CLUES LOST”
“Vital evidence” never went to forensics. Sheets, pillow, duvet. Says an insider: “Half the evidence disappeared.” But how would you know what you had lost if you never had it?
THE SUN page 15: “MADDIE COPS DIDN’T EVEN CHEcK HER BED – Bunglers failed to do a DNA test”
Says the source: “It is obvious it would have been good if they had sent sheets, blankets, pillows and even the mattress. Some important clue could have been found”
Anthony Bennett is on the case. This is the same Mr Bennett who “once failed to bring a private case against entertainer Michael Barrymore over alleged drug offences”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry committed no offence”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE ‘HELD’ BY MURAT – Amazing NEW sighting is revealed”
Friends of the McCanns claim they saw Robert Murat “running from the seaside apartment”. Says Robert Murat’s lawyer: “Rubbish”
Page 15: “MADDIE: TAPAS PALS PUT MURAT IN FRAME”
Two of the Tapas Seven say they saw Murat flee the holiday complex. Portuguese paper 24 Horas, quoting a judicial source, says Jane Tanner and her partner Russell O’Brien “fingered British expat Robert Murat during a face-to-face meeting in May”
The insider tells the paper: “They said Murat was the person they saw next to the apartment where Madeleine was sleeping when the alarm was raised”
Says the Portuguese tabloid: “This is the same couple said to have indicated to Portuguese public prosecutors they intend altering their statements after it was made public that they could become official suspects”
DAILY MAIL page 39: “Madeleine police didn’t even check her bed for DNA”
The abductors cold have left evidence on the missing child’s bedding. Hairs found were sent to the forensics lab
Says “forensics expert” Allan Scott: “It is very difficult to be in contact with another surface and not leave a trace of yourself behind”
Russell O’Brien, Jane Tanner and the McCanns have read the report that they saw Murat running away from the apartment complex. They call the report “laughable”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 13: “McCanns friends pointed Murat out to police”
“Two of the so-called Tapas Nine – the name given to Mr and Mrs McCann and the seven friends who dined with them on May 3 at their Algarve holiday complex – allegedly pointed out Mr Murat to police, a Portuguese newspaper claimed”
Says the source: “They were all placed in the same room and two people that had left the restaurant pointed to Robert Murat. They said he was the person they saw next to the apartment where Madeleine was sleeping around the time the alarm was raised”
A friend of the McCanns says: “They have no recollection of ever meeting Mr Murat and the idea that they were asked to sit around a table while their friends pointed him out is ludicrous”
“Madeleine’s parents face fresh legal action” – Anthony Bennett is in the papers
FOX TV: America’s Most Wanted is coming to London to look for new evidence in the Madeleine McCann disappearance case. World’s Most Wanted will be broadcast from London on November 17 and will include a report from correspondent John Turchin in Praia da Luz. Says Fox: “Turchin analyses the crime scene and breaks down possible scenarios of what may have happened to Madeleine in an investigation that brings him face-to-face with the first official suspect in the case”
CBS: “The events surrounding Madeleine McCann’s disappearance remain a mystery that has captured the world’s attention. 48 Hours Mystery goes undercover in an international investigation of the missing child and has obtained exclusive never-before-seen home movies of the family taken in the wake of the tragedy and uncovering new details in the case”
“Shot by a family friend, the intimate footage tracks the McCann family following Maddie’s disappearance from their rented apartment in the Algarve region of Portugal”
THE TIMES, THE INDEPENDENT and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 16th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (284)
Madeleine McCann: Tea With Sympathy, Bosnia And ‘A Sinister Higher Force’
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS page 7: “Little Bosnian girl they thought was Madeleine”
They? It was one man from Ireland, on a visit to a Catholic shrine in Bosnia, who saw Madeleine in a car crying for her daddy
A police spokesman says: “The car and occupants were just as described by the Irish pilgrim, except the little girl was not Madeleine McCann.”
But she was crying for her daddy. Not her mummy. Sure it’s not Madeleine?
Police go on: “The owner confirmed the car we lent to his son, who was with his daughter, who is very much like Madeleine”
Says Alan Dedic of his daughter Tea (blonde): “My daughter Tea was a bit out of control and I had to push her into the car… I wouldn’t dream I would create such a fuss”
“McCanns: New police snub” – The Portuguese public prosecutor will not let the McCanns see the files on them. Senior judges pay heed to the “special complexity” of this case. Robert Murat is not allowed to see his police files either
Says Clarence Mitchell: “All they have seen is so-called evidence that has been leaked to the Portuguese press and they don’t know what, if any, of that is true”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – TRAGIC NEW THEORY”
Come, come. Don’t worry about how it is received. Tragic or magic, let’s have it…
A solicitor, London-based and reportedly working for one of the McCanns’ “holiday pals”, tells El Mundo newspaper, Spain: “I’m afraid these interventions have been prejudicial not only to my client, but also for determining the truth”
The Star says Gerry McCann is a “key Government medical advisor”. The Star’s theory is that “a sinister higher force” has stopped the truth from coming out
“Alert was sparked by ‘hyper’ lookaliake” – “It’s “hyerpactive lookalike” Tea Dedic
THE SUN page 7: “Balkans girl is not Maddie”
Says Mr Dedic of Tea: “She is hyperactive and I had to push her into the car” – Do social services know?
DAILY MIRROR page 9: “Despair at Maddy file secret”
Kate McCann is in “despair”. She cannot see the police files on her. “It has dashed their hopes,” says Clarence Mitchell. And the little girl on Bosnia? Not Madeleine…
DAILY MAIL page 49: “Yet another little girl who turned out not to be Maddie”
How many more? Can there be any more?
Slavko Dedic, Tea’s father – not be confused with the Express’ Alan Dedic – says his daughter was throwing a tantrum. And that his daughter cannot speak English
And for finding Tea we have the Daily Mail to thank. Says a police source: “After being given the car registration plate by the Daily Mail, Bosnian police went within the hour to an address in Ljubuski – and found the VW Golf”
But not Madeleine…
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 17: “Girl in Bosnia is no Madeleine”
“Strikingly similar,” says the caption beneath a shot of Tea Dedic, who is blonde and aged four
THE INDEPEDNT, THE GUARDIAN and THE TIMES: “No Madeleine news today
Posted: 15th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (402)
Madeleine McCann: 100 Questions And José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses Says
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE: WE HAVE 100 QUESTIONS FOR THE McCANNS”
Paulo Rebelo, new head of the “hunt for missing Madeleine”, has drawn up a list of 100 questions. Whether this list is fixed or likely to grow to, says, 105 or 106 questions is unspeculated upon
“The 100 questions are believed to cover in minute detail how the events of May 3 unfolded from early that day until the McCanns reported Madeleine missing around 10.40pm”
100 questions…
Page 10: “Witness confirms Madeleine ‘seen in Bosnia village’” – an Irish pilgrim says he saw Madeleine. And now “local shop assistant Marina Dugandzic, 39, backs up the story
She saw Madeleine?
Says Marina: “He did not mention the name of Maddie McCann or tell us his name. However, he said that he had seen someone pushing a little girl into a black VW Golf with Bosnian number plates. Our colleague Monika Pandza, an English language professor, translated his words”
Nothing lost in translation, we hope
THE SUN page 25: “100 QUESTIONS – Maddie cops’ bid to grill McCanns again”
It’s part of a ‘letter of appeal’ that police want to send to the British Authorities. “Under Portuguese law, such a plea is a formal request asking for interviews, and accompanies details of the evidence”
A source tells a Portuguese newspaper: “If a body doesn’t turn up, or somebody comes forward with a credible lead, we continue without any chance of closing the investigation”
Such is the news
DAILY MAIL page 27: “Maddie’s parents ‘have 100 questions to answer’”
The questions are being blocked by Portimao District Attorney José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses, who is less than certain there is good case against the McCanns
And the police in Portugal are awaiting the results of substances sent to the Forensics Science Service in Birmingham
DAILY STAR page 15: “MADDIE PARENTS FACING 100 QUESTIONS”
Police also want to “seize” the couple’s laptop and Bible
DAILY MIRROR page 20: “McCann officers hit a wall”
No, not more awful Portuguese police driving. Just a source saying police have no new leads
THE TIMES: “Meredith or Madeleine: it’s trial by media”
Magnus Linklater manages to link the disappearance of Madeleine McCann to the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy
“Neither case, however, has demonstrated the two prerequisites of a just legal process: an unbiased police inquiry and the presentation of untainted evidence in court,” says he
Those Italians… Those Portuguese…. And:
“In Portugal, the so-called code of secrecy has resulted in the deliberate manipulation of evidence. Sheltering behind the law, officials have briefed favoured journalists, allowing a barrage of damning allegations to be unleashed against Madeleine’s parents. With little or no hard proof to sustain the charges, they have nevertheless turned a supposedly objective criminal investigation into an exercise in character assassination. The Portuguese authorities may argue that they are simply responding to accusations from the British media that they have botched the inquiry, but that is hardly justification for distorting the evidence”
Anyone seen the boy who killed Rhys Jones? Those British…
“Madeleine McCann detectives barred from reinterviewing parents” – José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses, he says ‘No”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 11: “Police draw up list of questions for McCanns”
Detectives have asked to re-interview the so-called Tapas Nine
“New analysis of the evidence has only confirmed suspicions that exist but nothing more,” a police source tells Portuguese daily newspaper 24 Horas. “There is no new data despite new operations being carried out in field”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry have nothing to hide and we hope they will be cleared as soon as possible”
JAVNO, Croatia: “Media Circus and Murder of Madeleine McCann – In the past six months the media have thrown Maddie McCann down stairs, drowned her in the sea, killed and resurrected her in Medjugorje”
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine new today
Posted: 14th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,133)
Madeleine McCann: Robert Murat Translates, Miracle In Medjugorje And The McCann’s Political Lobby
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Madeleine: Police used chief suspect to translate key witness statements”
Page 5: “Suspect Murat translated statement of the ‘Tapas 9’” – Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas says detectives are worried Murat worked on police statements
Francisco Pagarete, Murat’s lawyer, says: “The reports he translated are being considered by the court and were done under oath… He is sorry the authorities have changed their opinion about him overnight”
Why was Murat named a suspect? Read about that here
Page 5: “McCann deny pressuring friends” – An unnamed lawyer, who claims to be representing one of the Tapas Nine, tells Spain’s El Mundo newspaper: “My client feels obliged to keep silent about what he can do to help the investigation but not because of Portuguese secrecy laws. It’s not that he is scared of the McCanns, but the economic and political lobby surrounding the couple is truly frightening to anybody”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “All of Kate and Gerry’s friends speak as one. They have one lawyer and he has certainly not put out any statements on their behalf”
Page 5: “Big Hunt In Bosnia Delayed” – A man has seen ‘Madeleine’ in Bosnia. Says the Express: “Vital hours were lost in the hunt for Madeleine last night when bureaucratic Bosnian police refused to follow up a possible sighting in the country, claiming it had not been reported properly”
Tsk! Foreign police playing by the rules. What madness…
Mario Bosnjak, a regional police spokesman, says: “Every single policeman in Medjugorje has denied receiving any kind of a report regarding the missing British girl. We are ready to take an active role in the case if we received a proper report. It could be possible the Irish pilgrim did not talk to a policeman but to a customs official or a security guard from some private company. They have similar uniforms.”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE NEW SIGHTING SHOCK”
A “dramatic new twist.” Says a police source: “It is a mystery within a mystery. Maybe it as a vision”
Page 9: “MADDIE SIGHTING WAS ‘CRUEL HOAX’ – Police rule out claim by pilgrim”
DAILY MAIL page 23: “Friend of McCanns ‘scared to tell truth’”
The unnamed London-based lawyer is speaking with Le Mundo of his client: “The only thing he wants is to help the police discover the truth about what happened before, during and after that dinner on May 3”
Says Clarence Mitchell, it is “utter rubbish”
THE SUN page 20: “Maddie translate mistake’”
No mention made of Robert Murat. The alleged “translation errors” are the work of the Portuguese police.
Says Clarence Mitchell: “They have always there are innocent explanations for alleged inconsistencies”
DAILY MIRROR page 6: “’ERRORS’ IN STATEMENTS”
Those “bungling” Portuguese police are not checking “faulty translations” for new clues
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 5: “McCann officers to review statements translated by Murat”
“In the early days of the investigation there were dozens of statements being given at what was a very confusing time,” a police source says.
“Obviously the police acted in good faith in their selection of translators but given all that has been said about the various contradictions in the versions of events, detectives are now re-examining the possibility that there may have been some problems”
THE TIMES, THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news
Posted: 13th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,086)
Madeleine McCann: A Bedroom, A bed And A Blanket
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “FIRST PIC OF SNATCH SCENE – INSIDE MADDY’S BEDROOM”
A picture of the holiday bedroom from where Madeleine McCann vanished. Useful. Perhaps seeing it will jog your memory…
The Mirror highlights three areas of the room:
DOOR: “LAST LOOK. Dad Gerry last saw his daughter form this door”
BED: “HER BED – “Rumpled covers and pillow on mattress”
WALLS: “UNTOUCHED – Room is as it was after police forensic team finished work”
We commend to your attention the shards of sardine roll, cigarette ash dropping and big footprints
The picture is an “EXCLUSIVE”
MADDY COPS WANTS McCANNS SILENCED” – A plan to do harm to Kate and Gerry McCann?
Almost as bad: “Portuguese police may gag Madeleine McCann’s parents by keeping them suspects for the next 15 years.” So too Robert Murat. This one has along way to run
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – THE HUNT SWITCHES TO BOSNIA AFTER NEW SIGHTING”
Page 9: “Tourist spotted Madeleine – I heard her yell: ‘I want my daddy’”
The Express hears news from Medugorje, Bosnia, the site of a Catholic shrine. As reported on Anorak, the man sees a girl who looks like Madeleine. He reports it to local police. Police shrug. He tells the McCanns’ private detective firm. They check the expense account. They respond
The “father of six”, from County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, who asked not to be named, says: “From the minute I saw them, there seemed to be something odd going on. They both had a very swarthy complexion and the toddler with them was a blonde, fair child.” Dark, you say?
“She was wearing a little pink coat and was very agitated and sobbing. The instant I saw her my heart skipped a beat because it struck me that she looked like Madeleine McCann. I felt sure there was something wrong and started to move towards them. As they saw me coming, they started walking faster away from me. I was sure the child they had was not theirs. I got right up beside them, and was about to speak to the child when the man put his hand over her mouth and shoved her into the car. He was pushing her into the back seat and was yelling in a language I didn’t understand.”
“First look at bedroom” – Unless you have already seen the Mirror that is
“New nightmare as McCanns could be suspects for 15 years” – Says Francisco Pagarete, Robert Murat’s lawyer: “The problem is that in Portugal a suspect can remain an arguido for 15 years without any need for police to reapply or extend the status”
No problem for the press
THE SUN page 11: “MADDIE;S BEDROOM.” This is the “FIRST PICTURE” of “Inside the McCann holiday flat”
For those readers unfamiliar with the contents of a “bedroom”, the Sun uses an arrow pointing towards a box-shaped presence and tells us: “Bed she was in before she went missing.” A second arrow points to a “Blanket”
Clarence Mitchell hears of the sighting in Bosnia. Says he:”We are not dismissing it. The witness was 99.9 per cent certain the child was not with her natural parents”
DAILY MAIL page 19: “First photo of Maddie flat as hunt switches to Bosnia”
“Its narrow beds have been stripped of their sheets so they can be analysed for evidence”
And in Bosnia, the “very swarthy” people are with Madeleine. Like the man in Belgian, perhaps…
DAILY STAR page 9: “BOMBSHELL BOOK POINTS FINGER AT MADDIE PARENTS”
Hernani Carvalho and Luis Maia have written Maddie 129. the Star says the book claims some of the Tapas Seven “had already given up searching for Madeleine and were in their own flats 90 minutes after the alarm was raised because ‘they already knew where she was’”
An American artist has been employed by the Star to make Madeleine’s hair from blonde to dark. (Non-experts can use a felt tip or boot polish)
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: “MADELEINE DETECTIVES CHECK NEW SIGHTING AT BOSNIAN SHRINE”
Page 7: Says Clarence Mitchell: “But as with all these reports, the McCanns refuse to raise their hopes until it has been investigated fully”
NEW YORK TIMES: “European Tabloids Still Agog Months After Child Vanishes”
“Six months after Madeleine McCann, then 3 years old, disappeared from her family’s vacation apartment in Portugal, no development in the case seems too small to merit a banner headline — even the news that her father had returned to his job as a doctor. Similarly, no story is too speculative”
THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news
Posted: 12th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (950)
Madeleine McCann: In Medjugorje ‘Miracle Town’, Trust And The Credit Crunch
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY STAR ON SUNDAY front page: “IS THIS MADDIE? Bosnia sighting gives fresh hope”
“An Irish pilgrim visiting the Catholic shrine town of Medjugorje has told the McCanns’ investigators he saw a child fitting her description being bundled into a car, shouting, ‘I want my daddy’. The witness, from Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, said: ‘When I approached the couple who had her, the man put a hand over her mouth and bundled her into a car. I’m sure this child was not theirs and I am convinced it could have been Maddie”
It could have been. Sure. Is Bosnia near Morocco?
“Meanwhile, reports from Portugal say police are no longer considering the possibility Madeleine, who was three when she vanished, is still alive. A judicial source told a Portuguese newspaper: ‘The evidence we have doesn’t leave us in much doubt’”
MAIL ON SUNDAY: “An Irishman on a pilgrimage to the ‘miracle’ town of Medjugorje in Bosnia has been in contact with Kate and Gerry McCann’s detectives Metodo 3 to tell them he heard a little girl cry, ‘I want my daddy’ as she was driven away by a man and a woman”
The spotter tells the McCanns’ private detectives… Not call the local police? He says he told the police. He had written down the car’s number plate. But the police did not speak English. He had his words translated by a shopkeeper. But the police just shrugged
Says the witness, a “father of six”: “The instant I saw her my heart skipped a beat because it immediately struck me that she looked like Madeleine McCann. I was filled with panic. I knew I had to do something”
Writes Gerry McCann on his blog: “The hospital trust has been very supportive throughout and it has been good, although difficult, to see so many friends and colleagues again”
NEWS OF THE WORLD: “Maddie DNA clue – Evidence found on clothes may be profile of abductor”
Remember that bag of clothes and a pencil case found in lay-by in Faro? “Police believe they may have found vital DNA left by the abductor of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann”
Because – get his: A Portuguese police source says: “DNA was found on the clothes that didn’t match Madeleine’s. This is a big step forward. The bag could have huge significance because it could finally give us a trail that could lead us to her”
No DNA is a clue?
THE TIMES: Beneath the headline “Regulatory system must be changed” and the teaser “Responsibility for supervising banks should be given back to the Bank of England”, the Times’ Michael Fallon writes:
“This was the first run on a British bank since City of Glasgow Bank in 1878. In the world’s fourth-biggest economy we saw queues more familiar to Zimbabwe or Germany in the 1920s. It took the authorities four days to bring the situation under control.
“Like the Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, we seemed to be faced with several suspects. But now we have got closer to finding out who failed to stop the run on Northern Rock in September”
No easy thing to link Madeleine McCann with the credit crunch. Well done, Fallon for pulling it off. Few would even attempt it…
“Madeleine McCann friends face questioning as official suspects – “Their lawyers have now warned them that they may be ‘arguidos’, or suspects. ‘It would be a procedural matter, so that they could ask them more probing questions,’ said a source close to the legal team. ‘But they need to be prepared because people in the UK might not see it like that’”
Clear?
THE OBSERVER: “Trust me: I’m the head of MI5”
Writes Peter Preston, former Guardian editor:
“Do you trust every Daily Express story about Diana, every Daily Mail horror story about Brussels, almost any story anywhere about Madeleine McCann? That doesn’t stop them drawing huge audiences – and maybe, on occasion, being possibly true. Do you trust Polly Toynbee or Melanie Phillips? Piers Morgan or Alastair Campbell? Trust isn’t a smorgasbord of news and views; it’s particular, and often individual. It’s absolutely not uniform in its various demands, for otherwise a kind of sombre boredom, full of rules, regulations and mission statements, ensues”
Madeleine McCann – the news so far
Posted: 11th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (424)
