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: Three Windows, Anatomy Of A Mystery And A New Witness
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Madeleine – The three crucial moment revealed”
“MADELEINE: THE THREE ‘WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY’ FOR AN INTRUDER – MADELEINE McCann died during one of three narrow time slots on the evening of May 3, police now believe”
The Express has been watching the TV in Portugal, a documentary produced by the broadcaster RTP. The show “endeavoured to ignore the vast amount of speculation surrounding the events of May 3 and concentrate only on established facts.” It is not know if the show featured front pages from the Daily Express, but it is unlikely
THE SUN: “Maddie: Three crucial moments”
The Sun is also watching TV in Portugal. The show is called Anatomy Of A Mystery
The three “crucial moments, as told by an entertainment show on the telly. (The disappearance of Madeleine McCann is not a work of fiction for our entertainment; it is real)
“The FIRST period is between 7.30pm and 8.30pm, during which Kate put the children to bed and Gerry returned from playing tennis… Journalist Sandra Felgueiras, who researched the timeline for a Portuguese TV documentary, said: “Police assume the child could have died before dinner”
“The SECOND period is when Gerry checked on the children at 9pm. He says he saw Maddie alive and spent 15 minutes on his way back chatting to TV producer Jeremy Wilkins
“The THIRD period is when Kate went to the apartment around 10pm and then said Maddie had disappeared…
Says McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “We are not going to comment on another speculative Portuguese report. Kate and Gerry know they had nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance”
DAILY MAIL: “Kate McCann screamed from the BALCONY ‘they’ve taken her’, claims new witness”
But didn’t “the 39-year-old GP raise the alarm by shouting: “Madeleine’s gone, Madeleine’s gone”?
Now a waiter at the Ocean Club says he heard otherwise. He hears Kate McCann says: “They’ve taken her, they’ve taken her, they’ve taken our little girl”
DAILY MIRROR: “McCanns put on trial by TV”
Not trial by newspaper…
“Detectives remain convinced the McCanns were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance, a Portuguese TV documentary has claimed”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “’Three key moments’ for Madeleine McCann”
On with the show: “Investigative reporter Sandra Felgueiras, who presents the programme, said: ‘We spoke to many people involved in the investigation and we are certain that the timeline is the best ever produced. Our police sources confirmed that this is the most accurate version of events produced to date”
Yes, that Sandra Felguerias
Gerry and Kate McCann are both “doctors”
VANCOUVER SUN: JOHN Austin MP says the British media, the public and police have largely ignored the recent story of 48 trafficked children who went missing while in the protective custody of social service agencies in England.
As reported on Canada.com: “The children, aged 10 to 17 and mostly girls from Africa and China, are believed to be back in the hands of organized crime figures who originally smuggled them into England to work as child prostitutes.
Meanwhile, the British media, the public and authorities obsess every day about the whereabouts of a pretty blond four-year-old, Madeleine McCann, who went missing over the summer in Portugal.
“I find the dramatic contrast between (public attention to) the worldwide search for Madeleine, and the plight of 48 missing children in Britain, extraordinary,” says Austin.
Updates to follow…
Posted: 10th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (685)
Madeleine McCann: Dr Russell O’Brien, Jane Tanner And Suing The Portuguese Police
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANNS TO SUE POLICE FOR £1M”
Kate and Gerry McCanns are “considering legal action over a string of blunders which they claim, hampered the search for Madeleine”, it is “claimed”
Will suing the Policia Judicaria help them Find Madeleine?
Page 5: “Parents to sue over police blunders that jeopardised inquiry.” Says McCanns’ lawyer Rogerio Alves: “Because we don’t even yet know what this case’s development will be, never mind making predictions for the future, nothing has been arranged in that sense”
So the McCanns aren’t suing the police? It sounds as if Sen. Alves is answering a question rather than making a point
Another McCann legal aide, Carlos Pinto Abreu, says: “You would have to prove that it was intentional – only if you had information that someone had said they knew where the child was and the police had taken no action. It would not be easy but it would be possible”
No mention is made of that headline-making £1million bounty. You can imagine the Express’s hack asking: “So how much could they get, say they did sue? Is £1million fair?”
DAILY MIRROR page 9: “Maddy switch: Tapas 2 named”
Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas says Dr Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner have contacted police to “correct” their statements
Says Ms Tanner: “I don’t want to say anything”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “They are categorically not the couple. There is no couple”
DAILY MAIL page 23: “McCann friends ‘could transform case’”
Says a police source: “The investigation could be changed dramatically if the two witnesses decide to clarify what really happened that night”
The Mail says four of the McCann’s friends could be named as official suspects, including Ms Tanner and Dr O’Brien
THE SUN page 32: “McCANNS COULD SUE DUD COPS FOR £1M”
Carlos Pinto de Abreu says it would be “technically” possible to sue the Portuguese police
Says a source close to the McCanns: “This is not about the money.” Readers are not told how the headline figure of £1milliion was reached
DAILY STAR page 8: “MADDIE PARENTS TO SUE ‘BUNGLING’ COPS – £1m claim over blunders”
Says Rogerio Alves: “What has to be one will be done in time”
A phone poll: “DO McCANNS DESERVE COMPO FROM COPS?”
DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 9th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (892)
Madeleine McCann: Tapas Nine ‘Clarify’ Stories, Clarence Mitchell Says And Anne Enright In New York
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “McCANN FRIENDS ‘CHANGE THEIR STORY’ – Shock Claim over Madeleine police statements”
A reports in Spain’s El Mundo newspaper says two of the ‘Tapas Nine’ have altered their stories
“Simply untrue,” says Clarence Mitchell
Page 9: “WHAT’S THE STORY? McCann friends ‘to clarify evidence they gave to cops’”
Says Ms Jane Tanner, who told police she saw a man hurrying from the McCanns’ apartment with a bundle under his arm: “It is absolute rubbish. We’ve had no contact with the police”
But would she know for certain?
“GERRY TXTS MYSTERY” – Claims are that Gerry sent 14 text messages on the night Madeleine vanished
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – NOW TAPAS PALS CHANGE THEIR STORY”
Page 9: “Why are McCann friends changing their statements?” – It is alleged two of the ‘Tapas Nine’ diners have contacted police in order to “correct” their statements
The Express says four members of the group are about to be named as official suspects: Dr Russell O’Brien, Jane Tanner, Matthew Oldfield and Dr David Payne
Says Clarence Mitchell: “All friends have consistently told the truth. They have no need to change their statements as they have nothing to hide… To suggest they are changing their story is an utter misrepresentation of their willingness to help the police”
Says Jane Tanner: “We’ve had no contact with the police. I won’t say anything else because it would be twisted.” Anyone know what he means by that?
“Gerry 14 texts mystery” – Gerry McCann is said to have sent the messages from this phone as he was dining with his friends
THE SUN page 20: “TAPAS 7 FURY. McCanns’ dinner pals WON’T be changing statements to police”
The Sun hears Clarence Mitchell speak. And from Jane Tanner. And says: “But several contradictions have emerged since Madeleine went missing”
Robert Murat’s lawyer says: “He is very frustrated because he is still an aguido more than six months after the child’s disappearance and they have still made no concrete accusations against him”
DAILY MAIL page 7: “Tapas Two ‘want to change their story about Madeleine’”
“If true,” says the Mail,” the decision by the unnamed pair is the first rift in the group, who have been accused of operating under a ‘pact of silence’”
Gerry McCann is a “consultant cardiologist”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – McCann friends change story”
Page 9: “MADDIE: TAPAS PALS CHANGE THEIR STORIES” – Or not
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 7: “McCann friends want to change their stories”
NEW YORK TIMES: “Congratulations on the Book Award, and Welcome to the Scrutiny”
In the Book section is Booker Prize winner Anne Enright:
“The essay was about Madeleine McCann, who was 3 years old when she disappeared this spring in Portugal. In the essay Ms. Enright tried to work through a cacophony of complicated emotions toward the girl’s parents, including reluctant voyeurism, distaste and pity. But newspapers here and in Britain picked out a sentence in which Ms. Enright said that she “disliked the McCanns earlier than most people” and ignored what she wrote afterward: that she was ashamed of the impulse and, in the end, rejected it.
“Her publishers should have put a large brown bag over her head immediately,” Janet Street-Porter wrote in The Independent on Sunday, in a typical comment. “I urge you not to buy Enright’s book until she apologizes for this slur”
THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news
Posted: 8th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,155)
Madeleine McCann: Find Madeleine, Kate Must Not Cry And No Evidence
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: NEW HOPE SHE COULD BE ALIVE”
Page 7: “Police: We have no evidence she did in apartment” – Portugal’s “top forensic laboratory” cannot find evidence that Madeleine died on the night she went missing
A “senior police source” says the Find Madeleine campaign has hampered the investigation. Says he: “People used to look at her picture and well up with tears… Now they see her picture and it gets no reaction”
Does this say more about human nature than the campaign?
“Mountain folk who love their children so keen to find her” – Villagers in Morocco are looking for Madeleine. “We very happy to help,” says one local
DAILY MIRROR page 6: PUBLIC ‘SICK OF MADDY’ COP SHOCK”
It is “astonishing” it is a “cruel attack”. The police source says: “They’ve overdone it and it’s time to stop.” Can the McCanns introduce another child, a new face we can see? Problem is, the McCanns have only one daughter to focus on. And it she they want found
Says a friend of the McCanns: “Madeleine is currently the most famous missing child in the world and we don’t think that is a bad thing” – such is the way of Brand McCann
DAILY MAIL page 5: “Madeleine campaign ‘could have put her in danger’”
Carlos Anjos, chairman of the Portuguese Union of Police Detectives, says: “The parents and their publicity campaign have turned her into a symbol of something ugly and wrong. People are sick of having it rammed down their throats”
Says a police source: “I know a woman who was out before sunrise every day, searching all day. She couldn’t eat or sleep. It was like she (Madeleine) was her baby. Now she pulls a face when she sees pictures”
Says Clarence Mitchell PR: “Everything we have done from the word go has been very carefully considered and thought through”
And some people would say that is the problem – too careful, too thought through
DAILY STAR page 11: “MADDIE: ‘EYE’ GIRL IN MOROCCO ISN’T HER”
Naoual Malhi sees Madeleine in Morocco. The McCanns private detectives head to Morocco. But local police find the child first. It’s a Moroccan child with blonde-ish hair. It’s not Madeleine
“Expert insists friends are key” – David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham University, says his “educated guess” is that Madeleine is not alive.
THE SUN page 9: “Cop rap for’ Find Maddie’”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We have done our absolute best to make people aware Madeleine is out there”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 2: “No more TV tears for Madeleine, Kate told”
“Kate McCann has been told by British police not to cry in public for fear it could play into the hands of Madeleine’s abductor”
Clarence Mitchell tells a Spanish TV station that British police experts are worried a kidnapper would “get off” on any show of emotion by her and husband Gerry.
THE TIMES: “Kate and Gerry McCann ‘created information monster’ that hindered search for Madeleine McCann”
Says Carlos Anjos: “There is no criminal investigation which can feed a news frenzy for six months, so what we have seen are both English and Portuguese journalists behaving in a scandalous and unprofessional way. Writing terrible stories in the papers, some of which have clearly affected the McCanns… now we have to say that the McCanns are partly to blame for this. Because it was something they created”
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news
Posted: 7th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,174)
Madeleine McCann: Portuguese Police Confess, ‘Madeleine’ Found And Baby Grace
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADDY COPS ADMIT BUNGLE”
Page5: “WE MUCKED UP – Cops reveals shambles of Maddy crime scene.” Two uniformed Guarda Nacional officers claim their superiors “mucked up big”.
One tells the Mirror: “When we arrived it was chaos. Everyone had walked through that place. I lifted my arms, rolled my eyes and put my head down and just got on with it… To find a circus walking in and out of a possible crime scene – well, it was ridiculous…We mucked up big time”
Says another officer: “This case has no end. It’ll get field away with an open verdict. The parents will be suspects for ever. That’s justice for you”
The Mirror does not name either officer. This is due to “Portugal’s strict secrecy laws” – the same laws the prevent police leaks to the media
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Why we suspected McCanns and their friends from the start by Portuguese police”
Page 9: “McCanns and friends ‘jumpy and nervous’” – Two men from the Guarda Nacional are speaking to the press. Says Officer A: “Something wasn’t right. They were upset, panicking, wide-eyed – all the usual responses. But there was something else”
What? The worry that the possible crime scene had been disturbed and not sealed off properly?
“They were scared, and not just the usual scared. They were jumpy and nervous. I don’t know, it wasn’t normal”
Well, it’s not very normal situation, even in Portugal
Says Officer B: “They were hard to get any sense out of. A good scare sobers anyone up.” And the McCanns had been drinking
And of the crime scene? Say Officer A: “They’d paraded half of Luz through there even before they’d called us” – a call the officers say came 40 minutes after the McCanns discovered Madeleine gone
“Mafia threats for woman who ‘spotted’ Madeleine” – Naoual Malhi says she saw Madeleine. She claims a man told her: “Let this lie if you know what’s good for you, your daughter and the rest of your family.” Says she: “I’m not frightened by the Mafia”
DAILY MAIL page 19: “Police ‘looked on a Madeleine crime scene was trampled’”
The two officers have 35 years experience between them
“’DEATH THREATS’ FOR WITNESS” – Naoual Malhi says: “I know the girl I saw getting into that taxi was her and I’m not going to stop until I find her”
Says Chakib Benmoussa, Morocco’s interior minister: “We have no new evidence suggesting such a presence in Morocco”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE DEATH THREAT TERROR – “Shock new development in hunt”
Page 7: “MADDIE PARENTS WERE STRANGE & JUMPY SAY COPS”
Says Officer A: “The mother say she knew straight away the girl had been taken, so why wait 40 minutes to call us”
“Witness death threat” – Naoual Malhi is in the papers. Says she: “They warned me I’m going to be killed next time I step on Moroccan soil unless I shut up about Madeleine”
THE SUN page 15: “MADDIE COPS: WE LOST IT IN 1ST HOUR”
Say the two policemen of the crime scene: “Civilians – family, friends, neighbours, staff, people off the street – everyone was in and out of the bedroom to check under the bed. The damage had been done”
THE TIMES page 4: “Girls seen in Morocco is not Madeleine”
Abdelmajid Chadili, the head of Morocco’s judicial police, says: “In the case of Fnideq, we did find a small blonde girl. We found she was among her true parents and I can tell you she only speaks Arabic”
Naoual Malhi saw ‘Madeleine in this town
Mr Chadili goes on: “In a far away country, some people think it’s not possible that a small blonde girl can be Moroccan. But it’s true, we have children with blonde hair”
IN AMERICA (The Daily News, Texas): “Investigators haven’t formally ruled out the possibility that Baby Grace is Madeline McCann, the 4-year-old British girl who went missing from her parent’s Portuguese hotel room in May”
DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE INDEPENDENT and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 6th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,290)
Madeleine McCann: A Shower Curtain, Kate’s Church Whispers And The Blonde Of Karia Ba Mohamed
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADELEINE DNA IN BAG OF CLOTHES. Roadside find fuels hops she’s still alive”
Plastic bag near Faro airport. The “adult fleece” therein is “smeared with body fluids”. Which may explain why it was thrown away. Perhaps it was used to wipe something in an emergency? The residue is a “moderate” link to the missing child.
Says a friend of the McCanns: “This seems extremely significant. The fact they were found so recently does suggest Madeleine is still alive”
Pages 6 and 7: “IN THE BAG.” Yes, what’s in the bag. For those of you who didn’t read Anorak yesterday: “Shower curtain, white flannel, green elastic band, green child’s T-shirt, Pencil case”.
And “crucially” a pair of “adult jeans”. Although the Mirror does not put that in the list, nor the fleece. Why not?
The stuff is at the Forensic Science Service lab in Birmingham. It is being checked against “a list of known sex offenders”.
“SILENT SOBS AND PRAYERS” – “Outside, the chill autumn night was filled with the sounds of happy families celebrating Guy Fawkes” – Burn the Catholic!
“Inside the brightly lit parish church of St John, Kate McCann [Catholic
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
NEWS OF THE WORLD: “Maddie DNA clue in airport bag”
A bag of clothes containing “DNA linked to Madeleine McCann” has been found dumped by a road in Portugal.” It is a white carrier bag. It was in a layby two weeks ago near Faro airport.
“The bag contained a blue fleece jacket and a pair of adult jeans with traces of DNA that contained ‘moderate’ links to Madeleine”. And: “There was also a SHOWER CURTAIN inside.” And a white flannel, a green elastic band, a light green child’s T-shirt with a green flower on the front and a pink and blue pencil case with a pink heart motif
“Godfather in Madeleine hunt… Crime godfathers in Morocco—where there have been several alleged sightings of Maddie – have been told cops will scale back drug busts if they do”
SUNDAY MIRROR front page: “MY LITTLE MADDY” – a picture of Madeleine McCann on a pony with Kate McCann by her side
• “McCanns heartache as Cops say: “Case closes in 7 weeks
• Police to leave cloud of suspicion over Kate and Gerry”
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE MYSTERY – McCANN FRIENDS TO BE NAMED AS SUSPECTS”
“Dr Russell O’Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, Matthew Oldfield and Dr David Payne were last night forced to bring in their own lawyers after increasing fears that Portuguese police were preparing to implicate them in the case of the vanished four-year-old girl”
So will they be named as suspects or not? The Express say yes and then prevaricates
DAILY STAR ON SUNDAY front page: “MADDIE SIX MONTHS ON – 15 NEW CLUES”
That picture of Madeleine McCann on a horse. A clue?
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “ANSWER OUR PRAYERS – ON THE SIX-MONTH ANNIVERSARY OF LOSING MADDIE Kate weeps at church service for Maddie as parents suffer crushing blow”
“The devout couple first took two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie for ‘a few moments of solitude’ at their village church to remember missing Maddie”
A solitude watched by person who told the press? No need with Clarence Mitchell to fill in the gaps, Says he: “Kate and Gerry wanted a few moments of solitude praying for Madeleine with the twins”
Inside the church: “A collage of pictures of a happy Maddie – including the one…of her sitting on a black Shetland pony – took pride of place near the altar. Six snaps of the youngster next to smiling faces of other missing children were pinned onto a green notice board. Supporters were encouraged to look at the pictures before praying”
And they pray for…
The People looks at “respected” Portuguese daily Publico, which tells: “Six months on from Madeleine’s disappearance, the police theory remains the same. That the child died by accident in her room – and her parents committed the crime of hiding her body”
DAILY MAIL: “Madeleine’s parents hold prayer vigil six months to the minute after she disappeared”
There are about 200 people at the “700-year-old church” near Rothley, Leicestershire
The McCanns are suspects
“Other missing children – including British toddler Ben Needham, who disappeared while on holiday in Greece in 1991, were also remembered at the service”
Did Ben Needham’s family ask for this? Want it?
Says the Rev Rob Gladstone: “Comfort and liberate all those, especially young children who have been taken from their families against their will, give courage to their grieving families”
A board says “Pray for all missing children.” How were the faces on the board selected? Many children are missing
THE INDEPENDENT: “Six months after Madeleine, another 600 are still missing”
Missing persons charities yesterday released figures “showing that more than 600 children have been missing in the UK for as long as Madeleine McCann, and are still unaccounted for”
Many are foreign. Many are teenagers. Not all are blonde
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Prayers for Madeleine McCann, six months on”
“The 3,500-strong population of Rothley – its trees decked in yellow ribbons and messages of support – came to a near standstill as Kate and Gerry arrived from their nearby home”
Locals can’t move for the press?
Rothley is an “affluent Midlands enclave”. This is McCann Land – the enclave – a small territory culturally and ethnically different form the surrounding lands
Says Gerry in his blog: “We have no idea whether she is suffering, but we have to hope and pray that she is being treated like a princess, as she deserves”
THE GUARDIAN: “Madeleine book notes the ‘contradictions’”
More on Maddie 129, a book by Hernani Carvalho and Luis Maia
“The message is that the case just doesn’t add up,” says a representative of the book’s publishers
THE SCOTSMAN: “Six months on, McCanns in new Maddie plea”
The picture of Madeleine on a Shetland pony was taken on a day out at the Hatton Country World park in Warwickshire on April 13 – “less than three weeks before she went missing”
THE TIMES: “Gerry McCann: ‘our princess prayer for Madeleine’”
Gerry McCann’s blog: “It is so painful for us simply being separated, but all the more distressing when we have to speculate about the situation Madeleine finds herself [in]. We have no idea whether she is suffering but we have to hope and pray that she is being treated like a princess, as she deserves”
Posted: 4th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,129)
Madeleine McCann: Fnideq Arabs, Naoual Malhi And The Eternal Blonde
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MAIL front page: “MADDIE ‘I know where to find her’”
“As the McCanns mark six months without Madeleine, the Mail visits the remote Moroccan village that may hold the key”
Know: “A grim, soulless place where a dusty sea-wind whistles constantly through the narrow streets and the darkened bazaars seeth [sic] with intrigue, the Moroccan town of Fnideq is Africa’s last settlement”
Is Madeleine here, in this outpost of Hell?
“Tragically, the sight of a cute-looking child clinging forlornly to some strange adult hand is no great rarity here”
Like in the Bluewater Shopping Centre, Kent, on a Saturday afternoon? Or still worse?
“Last month, however, by grace of her blonde hair, apple cheeks and a milky complexion, one little girl looked so strikingly different as she was swept along Fnideq’s teeming streets in the clutches of a middle-aged Arab woman that someone finally took notice”
Oh for the grace of being blonde among so much seething darkness….
The woman? Why, it’s 24-year-old Moroccan Naoual Malhi. She’s pictured wearing an animal-print raincoat. She stares into the camera. Look into her eyes. She saw Madeleine. And now she is in the papers. And that reward remains on offer…
A man has also seen Madeleine, a blonde child with milky whiteness and apple cheeks. “Listening to the man, Naoual’s pulse quickened. Everything seemed to tally”
Madeleine: DNA ‘does prove her body was in McCanns’ hire car’ (Link)
DAILY MIRROR front page: “SHE’S ALIVE. GIVE HER BACK”
“Maddy mum on 6-month anniversary”
A new photograph of Madeleine has been released (see picture)
Says Kate McCann: “Madeleine is a beautiful little person and the best place for her to be is with her family”
Page 5: “Please keep looking, please keep praying”
6 MONTHS OF PAIN: McCANNS IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Not her own words in an exclusive interview, rather a selection of quotes from Gerry and Kate McCann dating back to May 3, when Madeleine went missing
And a new quote from Kate McCann:
“Six months is such a long time for a little girl to be separated from her family. We believe that our Madeleine is out there somewhere and retain hope that we can be reunited. Madeleine is a beautiful little person who deserves a loving and happy life. To ensure this there is no doubt that the best place for her to be is with her family.
“We know that somebody somewhere can make this happen.That somebody has the ability and power to bring back us back so much joy as well as bring peace to themselves. If you have any information relating to Madeleine’s disappearance or whereabouts please pass it on to 00 34 902 300 213”
Or call the press
THE SUN front page: “MY BABY – Kate please after new DNA blow”
“MADDIE MISSING SIX MONTHS”
“The anguished couple were last night rocked by leaked DNA results from a UK forensics lab, which were said to show: Four-year-old Madeleine’s body WAS in a car they hired 25 days after she vanished in Portugal
“Bodily fluids from the Renault Scenic appeared to have come from the youngster’s CORPSE
“BLOOD found in the family’s rented Algarve holiday apartment was also hers”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “This is yet another unsourced, unsubstantiated report and we simply won’t comment on it. Suffice to say that Kate and Gerry have absolutely nothing to hide”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: ‘SHE WAS KILLED IN FLAT – Parents’ new DNA shocker”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – PRIVATE DETECTIVES REVEAL: “WE’RE CLOSING IN ON MOROCCAN HIDEAWAY”
Here’s hoping the kidnappers don’t read the WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER” and move locations
Moroccan Majid Jazoili says:
“Two people I know saw a picture I carry with me of Madeleine McCann. They told me they had seen her with a family who live in a tiny village in the Rif Mountains. There are three women with daughters who each have a family of their own. There is also a grandfather who lives with them in the same house and lots of children. I don’t know what the blonde girl is doing with them. I called the number I had seen on the poster”
It’s a big reward. Expect more sightings…
THE TIMES: “Friends fear for Kate McCann’s fragile health
“Tonight the couple will come under the most intense public scrutiny since they arrived back in Britain when they attend a special service at the Church of St Mary and St John in Rothley, Leicestershire. They are expected to arrive just before 9.30pm, about the time they say their daughter was taken from their bed at the Ocean Club complex a few days before her fourth birthday”
A minute’s silence?
“They will hear special prayers being said for Madeleine and other missing children between 9.30pm and 9.45pm. By 10pm, the time Mrs McCann reported Madeleine missing, the couple are expected to be back home”
And Kate? Says a source: “Some days are absolutely fine, but on others there is a lot of crying. It is not just the loss of her daughter, it is everything that has happened since”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Detectives probe Madeleine McCann sighting”
Naoual Malhi, a Spanish woman of Moroccan origin, is in a taxi
And a new picture of Madeleine: “Wearing a pink and white striped T-shirt, her blonde hair is blowing across her face as she gives a cheeky grin to the camera”
Madeleine McCann is blonde. And missing
THE GUARDIAN: “Madeleine plea marks six months”
Francisco Marco, of detective firm Metodo 3, says: “We have a six-month agreement with the McCanns. We have already spent a month and a half working. I will find her before that period is up”
ARAB NEWS:
“A study in its own right, the coverage of the McCann case says much about the hysterical, media-fixated country Britain has become. The couple’s professional status and telegenic qualities practically guaranteed that they would become objects of keen media interest. It was, though, remarkable with what zeal the McCanns positively embraced their sudden celebrity and poured their energies into keeping themselves and their story in the headlines”
More to follow…
Posted: 3rd, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (835)
Kate And Gerry McCann ‘Back In The Frame’
AS the Mail’s Madeleine’s McCann headline runs: “Madeleine DNA bombshell: ‘New results put Gerry and Kate back in the frame’
And: “New forensic tests appear to support the theory that Kate and Gerry McCann could have been involved in Madeleine’s disappearance, it has emerged.
“Sources say the results from a second batch of testing, conducted at a laboratory in Birmingham, have been passed to Portuguese detectives via Leicestershire police.
“These findings are alleged to include the discovery of the girl’s DNA – believed to have been obtained from Madeleine’s bodily fluids and hair – in the McCanns’ hire car which was rented 25 days after the girl went missing.”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry are entirely innocent and have nothing to hide. We have always maintained whatever material or evidence the police may have can be wholly and innocently explained.”
More to follow…
Posted: 2nd, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (204)
Madeleine McCann: Malhi Sees, Francisco Marco’s Maddy Dolls And Gerry McCann Returns
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “I SAW MADDY TAKEN AWAY IN TAXI
• Her face was bruised
• She had the eye mark
• Driven 180 miles”
Naoul Malhi is in Morocco. She is 30. She sees a child. She looks into the child’s eyes. Says she: “It was Madeleine. There’s no mistaking that mark”
Pages 4 and 5: More from Malhi: “Her blonde hair was cut shorter and she had a big bruise on her forehead and looked very unhappy [like the girl in Belgium]. The woman was about 40 or 50… As soon as she realised I had looked closely into the girl’s eyes she started dragging Madeleine away and flagged down a taxi”
Malhi calls the taxi company. The cab took ‘Madeleine’ to the port of Housimi, on the Mediterranean. Malhi told the police. She had her photograph taken by the press. The McCanns’ private detectives journey to the town
“BACK TO WORK – Dr Gerry returns six months after daughter vanishes.” Gerry McCann is on his way into Glenfield Hospital in Leicester. “My colleagues have been absolutely fantastic in their support,” says he. “I am very pleased to be rejoining them and to get back to a degree of normality”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “’I saw blonde child with Madeleine eye blemish in Morocco’”. So say the “WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER” in an “exclusive report”
Page 5: “I looked her in the eyes” – More form “Spanish tourist Naouval Malhi”, not to be confused with the Mirror’s Naoul Malhi. She is 24. The story is indeed exclusive
A Spaniard – like the one who saw Madeleine here and here
“Nurse jailed for hoax calls” – Nurse Anne-Marie Kelly made 28 calls to the emergency services in one evening. She claimed to know what had happened to Madeleine. She also said she was a serial killer and had details of a terrorist attack
THE SUN front page: “’I will find Maddie’”
Francisco Marco PI says: “I’ll find her in five months”. Or your money back? Marco says he has bought dolls to give to Madeleine when he rescues her. “I will take them out of the suitcase the day I find Madeleine,” say he.
“We have a six months agreement with the McCanns. I will find her before that period is up”. Indeed, as he says, he will find her in five months. And if only his contact were shorter, he would surely find her quicker
But this time it’s personal: “For me this is a special case. I have two children. They please with me, ‘Daddy, find Madeleine.” Like he found that American child in the mountains of Morocco – any more news of that amazing discovery?
Page 15: “GIRL WITH MADDIE EYE ‘IN MOROCCO’” – Naoual Malhi, aged 24 is speaking – not to be confused with the Express’ Naouval Malhi, 24, nor the Mirror’s’s Naoul Malhi, 30
DAILY MAIL page 23: “Woman spots child with the ‘mark of Madeleine’ on the Moroccan coast”
Naoual Malhi, 24, is with her four-year-old daughter. She sees a woman she identifies as a Berber with a child. A Berber – like the parents of Bouchra Benaissa
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE FILES. Truth on crime that shocked the world. 4 PAGE DOSSIER INSIDE TODAY”
Page 7: “I SPOTTED WITH MADDIE ‘EYE’ GET IN A TAXI WITH RICH ARAB” – A new development. Who is the rich Arab? The woman? The taxi driver? Naoual Malhi tells all
“Gerry’s £75k wage storm” – Gerry McCann is earning £75,000 a year for “working one-and-a-half days a week”
Pages 43-46: “MADDIE MYSTERY – 4-PAGE PULLOUT”
“MADDIE – The biggest mystery of our times”
“SHE JUST VANISHED INTO THIN AIR”
“MADDIE VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE”
“SILENCE OF THE TAPAS 7”
THE TIMES front page: “McCann back to work”
Page 21: “Gerry McCann return to work as private detectives investigate new sightings” – More on Naoual Malhi, 30. Mr McCann will have direct contact with patients after a month as a backroom staffer
THE INDEPENDENT page 13: “Madeleine father goes back to work on part-time basis”
Says “Dr McCann”: “We have always said that at six months we didn’t want to look back and say ‘I wish we had done that’. But now we have done everything we can do to establish the search for Madeleine on an ongoing basis”
THE GUARDIAN page 9: “Gerry McCann goes back to work at hospital”
Says Gerry McCann: “Unless Madeleine is found, we are not expecting any significant developments in the near future”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 15: “Six months on, Gerry CMcann retusn to work”
Says Sybil Berry, visiting a sick patient: “I think I would find it a bit embarrassing if I met up with him. For a start, I wouldn’t know whether I should bring up Madeleine or not”
Posted: 2nd, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,322)
Madeleine McCann: A Titanic Struggle With The Germans And Slavery In Morocco
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “IS MADELEINE A CHILD SLAVE IN MOROCCO?”
“Madeleine McCann may have been condemned to a life of slavery working as a ‘little maid’ for a rich Arab family…” Or not
Page 5: “’Madeleine will be used as a little maid’” – so suggests Inspector Hicham Alaoui of the Moroccan Police in El Hajeb near Fez
Little maids, notes the paper, are “collected by rich families as ‘curiosities’ as well as servants. A woman from a group called Ecpatuk says such children are “vulnerable to abuse”. The Express sys the girls are abused “physically, emotionally and sexually”. Can Madeleine McCann be among them? Maybe…
“Sacked detective called in to help with the probe” – Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral is talking with new chief Paulo Rebelo
“Fury over magazine ‘sick’ ads” – German magazine titanic has lampooned the case, using Madeleine’s image in spoof supermarket adverts. Gerry and Kate McCann call it “sick” and “very hurtful”. The magazine says Madeleine McCann is “getting a bit much for many people”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “Clear us… you have no case”
Says a friend of Kate and Gerry McCann: “They are adamant they should now be cleared”, as are many suspects in ongoing investigations
Page 7: “McCann ‘clear us’ demand’” – Says Clarence Mitchell: “If the reports are true clearly it would indicate the police absolutely, and quite rightly, have no case against Kate and Gerry”
DAILY MAIL front page: “Oh. Come off it, Heather, how dare you compare your ordeal to Kate McCann’s?” Heather Mills is on the telly
Page 7: “Police pursuit of McCanns ‘is running out of steam’” – The public prosecutor in Portugal says Kate and Gerry McCann will not face further police interviews “unless detectives can produce stronger evidence against them”
Mark Williams-Thomas, a former detective with Surrey Police, says the McCann’s private detectives could be on the wrong trail in Morocco. Or not
THE SUN page 24: “GERMAN MAG’S SICK JOKES ABOUT MADDIE – McCanns’ horror as spoof ad pokes fun at lost girl”
Ad advert in satirical Titantic magazine promises the kitchen cleaner will “remove all traces at the home” even DNA traces. The adverts warn that just because Madeleine’s face is on the product it does not mean they can be taken for free. The Sun is disgusted. It reproduces the images and the words to allow its readers to share in its disgust
A march on the German embassy is not yet in the planning
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE SICK NEW TWIST – Horror at German abuse of missing tot”
The Germans have her. A German paedo!
Page 7: “TOTALLY SICK – A full reproduction of the spoof adverts. “McCann’s agony as rag mocks hunt for Maddie.” Thanks to the Star and Sun, the McCanns now know that an obscure German magazines has made jokes about their case
Says Clarence Mitchell: “It shows Madeleine herself no respect… The magazine did not seek permission to use Madeleine’s image to be used on this so-called joke. It they had it would almost certainly not have been given”
So much for doing anything to keep Madeleine in the news
THE INDEPENDENT page 5: “Mills: I am treated as badly as Kate McCann and Diana.” More on Lady Mucca
THE TELEGRAPH page 9: “Madeleine police ‘consult sacked head of inquiry’” – chief inspector Goncalo Amaral is on the case. Sort of
The paper says detectives are “no closer to solving the case”. And the campaign to find Madeleine goes on…
THE TIMES and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 1st, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,518)
Heather Mills Is Princess Diana Is Kate McCann: Is Blonde
HEATHER Mills is on GMTV. Anorak is tuned in, as ever. Heather is not extolling the virtues of baby oil and organic breast milk but lamenting.
“I live in a prison,” says Heather. Not really. Heather is guilty of nothing but love. But there has been a miscarriage of justice that keeps Heather locked behind gates at her mansion.
What is more, Heather is blonde. Like Kate McCann. Like Princess Diana. “It’s like what they are doing to the McCanns,” says Mills. “What are they doing persecuting that woman? Look what they did to Diana.”
Indeed. “The police have said I’ve had death threats from a certain underground group.” The Establishment? Earthworms Against Heather? Al Qaeda? “I live in fear for my life,” says Heather.
But she is prepared. “I have a box of evidence which is going to a certain person if something happens to me,” says Heather, who is not believed to be dating the son of an Egyptian corner shop owner.
As Paul Burrell checks his post, the rest of us wonder about the lot of a blonde in today’s Britain.
There is a media conspiracy against her kind. “What are we doing as a nation buying these newspapers?” she asks. “We need to force a change as a responsible nation.”
“They make up such lies. They’ve called me a whore, a golddigger, a fantasist, a liar, the most unbelievably hurtful things – and I’ve stayed quiet for my daughter…
“I’ve had worse press than a paedophile or a murderer, and I’ve done nothing but charity for 20 years.”
Indeed, what else but charity caused Heather to campaign against landmines, date and then marry the older Paul, with his bobbling head, and beseech him to give, give, give until it hurts..?
Pic: The Spine – “I’ve had worse press than a paedophile”
Posted: 31st, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann, Royal Family | Comments (48)
Madeleine McCann: The Tapas 7 Speak, Blonde Children In Morocco And Hashish
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “McCANN FRIENDS HIT BACK – FURY OF TAPAS 7. Pals: there is NO pact”
Say the McCanns dining party: “The police told us not to discuss our statement. We’ve always tried to honour this. We wish to state there is categorically no so-called pact of silence – or indeed anything secretive between us. Just the desire to assist the search. It is frustrating that the facts we have done as we were asked is till being looked upon as suspicious”
“COPS IN WINDOW PROBE” – Paolo Rebelo is looking at the window of the McCanns’ holiday apartment. “is this how evil Maddie snatcher struck?”
Four pictures:
1. “Rebelo pushes window
2. Net curtains rustle in breeze as the window swings open
3. Detective leans in
4. Team confer about possible escape route”
“Fund paid mortgage” – Some of the £1million Madeleine McCann “fighting fun”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “NOW THEY BELIVE US – Police finally accept Madeleine was snatched”
Portuguese police are looking at possibilities
Says a friend of the McCanns: “At last, after all these months, Kate and Gerry’s story is being believed. They are very encouraged by the re-enactment of Madeleine’s abduction and the police now accept their version of events”
A policeman climbs through a window. He passes out a “large bundle”
“MADDY ‘SPOTTED 10 TIMES IN MOROCCO’” – Says private detective Francisco Marco: “Several unconnected people have told us of the same girl with the same woman. She has shorter hair than Madeleine. But everything else matches”. Like her name?
“MORTGAGE FUND FURY” – Says Clarence Mitchell: “The fund exists to help them when living costs became difficult”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANNS USE FUNDS TO PAY MORTGAGE” – Two mortgage payments on their “£600,000” home
The Express leads with picture of Gerry McCann playing golf. Inset is a picture of Gerry McCann on a bicycle
“We’ve found a kidnapped blonde girl, but it’s not her” – A blonde girl in Morocco. She can speak English. She must have been kidnapped. Right?
Says Francisco Marco: “Blonde children are a valuable commodity in North Africa. They can be sold for huge sums and give prestige to families who buy them”
DAILY MAIL front page: “MADDIE FUND PAYS McCANNS’ MORTGAGE” – Mortgage repayments on their “£500,000” home. (How long before the Express and Mail start a heated debate on the value of the McCanns home and how that value has been affected by the story?)
Page 4: “Is she in the mountains? Investigators scour Morocco in the search for Madeleine”
Says the Mail: “In an extraordinary coincidence the detectives are reported to have already found an English-speaking blonde girl of about Madeleine’s age living with a local family”
How many more blonde children are in Morocco? And can we find them all?
DAILY STAR front page: “Maddie ‘alive in drug den’”
Page 7: “MADDIE’S IN MOROCCAN MOUNTAINS – Ten sightings with rich Arab”
Says Francisco Marco PI of the woman with the blonde child found in the Rif mountains: “My feeling is this woman is some sort of carer who is working on behalf of other people”
Says an “insider”: “It’s a very secretive country and the Rif mountains enjoy official protection because of the importance of the hashish production”
“McCanns in the clear – Portuguese police now believe Madeline was kidnapped”
THE TIMES page 13: “Police return to holiday apartment in attempt to solve Madeleine mystery”
Paulo Rebelo is inside the apartment. He walks to the beach. He passes Sergey Malinka’s home. He is on a road leading to the N125 main road
In Morocco, a 60-year-old woman is seen with a blonde child
“Funds for search used to pay mortgage on McCanns’ house” – The McCanns’ home is worth “460,000”
THE TELEGRAPH front page: “Police re-enact Madeleine night”
Page 17: Paulo Rebelo is at the Ocean Club. Says a source “close to the couple”: “Blonde children are a very valuable commodity in places like north Africa”
Paulo Rebelo is looking
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news
Posted: 30th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,424)
Madeleine McCann: An Accident, Susan Healy’s ‘Twisted’ Words And Metodo 3
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS: “front page: “MADELEINE: THREE NEW SIGHTINGS IN MOROCCO”
The McCanns private detectives are taking calls on the new “hotline”. Each caller says the “blonde, blue-eyed” Madeleine is with a 60-year-old “middle-Class” woman
Pages 4 and 5: “Clues lead to Morocco” – The Metodo 3 private detective agency is working on the theory Madeleine was kidnapped to order and smuggled to North Africa. Cross your fingers and start the expense account rolling, they’re going in
“New bungles of the Portuguese police”: Portuguese officers driving Robert Murat’s impounded camper van crashed it; British detectives are “horrified” Portuguese police failed to routinely quarantine vehicles
Hamish Brown, a former Scotland Yard detective, says: “It defies the rules of investigation.” (Get Mr Brown an agent)
DAILY MAIL front page: “Outrage over claims that Kate’s suicidal”
Page 7: “I just don’t know how long Kate will hold on for…What mother would not go insane if they lost a child?”
Susan Healy, Kate McCann’s mother, tells Portuguese magazine 24 Horas: “I don’t know if any human being can take such pressure”
Says the magazine’s headline: “Kate’s mother fears she will kill herself”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “It is beyond offensive to suggest Kate is suicidal. She is not.” Says the Mail: “Mrs McCann is a GP”
She has weekly counselling sessions. The Mail recalls other relatives saying how Kate is never left alone. A “friend” says Mrs Healy’s words have been “twisted”: “It’s ludicrous and yet another horrible slur”. The Mail says Kate McCann has “dark moments”
“POLICE CRASHED SUSPECT’S VAN” – Robert Murat vehicle is damaged. Policia Judiciaria inspectors drove the McCanns’ Renault Scenic to the pound rather than took it to headquarters on a trailer
THE STAR front page: “MADDIE: RICH ARAB FAMILY HAS HER”
Pages 4 and 5: “Callers tell phoneline they spotted blonde girl with mystery woman – ARABS NAB MADDIE”
Arabs? Oh… Can we invade?
Says a source “close” to the McCanns: “Obviously talk of Madeleine being bartered around by evil people is extremely upsetting for them. But for the first time a credible theory of what happened is being worked by one of Europe’s leading investigation agencies”
Forget the Portuguese police, Interpol and the British police. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… Metodo 3 are on the case. (Invoice in the post)
THE SUN page 11: “KATE’S HURTING BUT SHE IS NOT SUICIDAL – Maddie gran’s fury”
Susan Healy says Kate McCann will not kill herself because: “One, she still wants to find Madeleine and two, for the sake of the other children, Sean and Amelie”
“DNA BUNGLE COPS CRASH MURAT VAN” – Says Hamish Brown: “It’s positively wrong”
DAILY MIRROR page 11: “COPS CONTAMINATE CAR..BY DRIVING IT..and then they crash Murat van”
The paper produces a list of “BLUNDERS”:
Not sealing of the McCanns’ holiday flat
Not making early house-to-house enquiries
No fingertip search of resort
Early e-fit had no face
Not releasing details of what Madeleine was wearing
Being Portuguese (not stated)
THE TIMES page 14: “Madeleine in Morocco, says headline caller”.
The Times reproduces the sketch of a man seen by Jane Tanner carrying a child near the McCanns’ apartment. Like that Portuguese police’s “bungled” efit, there is no face
If you see this man call 0034-902 300213
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 10: “McCann team targets Morocco”
Three calls to the Private detectives. “One from a Spaniard, the other two from British people,” says the source.
More progress reports to follow…
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 29th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,360)
Madeleine McCann: A Big Secret, Jane Tanner’s Friend And Moroccan Paedos
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: MY VERDICT, BY FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF CONSTABLE JOHN STALKER”
“McCANNS ARE HIDING A BIG SECRET”
These are “THE MADELEINE FILES”
Stalker takes time out from advertising burglar alarms on telly to tell us: “I have watched the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case drag out for six months. One thing above all worries me: Why have the McCanns and the seven other members of their group – the Tapas Nine – remained so silent?”
Is he saying..?
“I don’t believe for one minute that Kate and Gerry McCann or their friends are capable or guilty of having murdered the four-year-old. My gut instinct is that some big secret is probably being covered up”
A retired copper’s copper’s instinct is now front-page news. Such is weight of evidence
So who dunnit?
MAIL ON SUNDAY: “McCanns face agonising wait to clear their names”
Kate and Gerry CMCann could be made to wait up to a year to see details of the Portuguese police case against them
Carlos Anjos, chairman of the Union of Portuguese Detectives, says of the drawing released by the McCanns of the man seen by their friend Jane Tanner: “It’s a simple cartoon that anyone could come up with. It’s no e-fit nor does it have anyone’s approval. This simply does not exist.”
SUNDAY MIRROR: “I SAW HIM TAKE HER”
“Jane Tanner is haunted by the image of a man ‘striding urgently’ away from the McCanns’ apartment with a barefooted child slumped in his arms”
She tells a friend: “I never in a million years would have imagined that it was Maddie being carried away. The first thing that raced into my head after finding out she was missing was this person I’d seen”
Says Jane Tanner’s unnamed friend: “It was about 9.15pm when Jane saw the man. She said that although he looked a bit odd and the child he was carrying had bare feet on a cold night, she never in a million years thought it could have been Maddie. You see a lot of people taking children to and from a nearby creche around there…
“Suddenly this man scoots across in front of her with the child, which she thinks is a bit strange because the child was in pyjamas and had no shoes or socks on. He wasn’t running, he wasn’t walking, but he was striding. It was like an urgent walk”
Then, says Jane Tanner’s unnamed friend:
“Jane finished her meal and went up to the apartment straight away to see her daughter. Around 10 or 15 minutes later, Kate discovered that Madeleine was gone.
“Jane heard shouting outside…The first thing that came into Jane’s head was this person she’d seen. She felt complete horror. Kate was screaming ‘She’s gone, she’s gone’ and there was a huge panic”
What Kate was screaming…
NEWS OF THE WORLD: “MADDIE SNATCHED TO ORDER – Detectives claim it was paedo plot”
“Today we sensationally reveal the renowned Spanish Metodo 3 detective agency—hired by parents Kate and Gerry—believe the four-year-old was targeted after a tip-off from INSIDE their Portuguese holiday complex”
Paedos!
“Distraught Kate and Gerry McCann are coming to terms with the sickening thought that missing daughter Maddie is in the hands of a gang of Moroccan paedophiles.” Madeleine was “spirited away to feed North Africa’s sick child sex industry”
The paper “has also discovered the private investigators now believe the kidnapper:
* POUNCED after being TIPPED OFF by an insider at the resort that a young blonde Western girl was there,
* SPIED on the family for days plotting their movements and waiting for the right moment,
* SNATCHED Maddie in a tight eight-minute window of opportunity,
* PASSED her to a paedophile network in Morocco where she has been sold on to other pervert gangs”
Metodo 3 managing director Francisco Marco, says: “I’m certain Madeleine was kidnapped. And I’m also sure her parents had nothing to do with her disappearance. My own view is the most likely place to find her is Morocco. We’re working very hard on all information indicating that. But I stress that we are following up EVERYTHING”
When you are being paid, it’s best to be professional and check and recheck every fact; best not to investigate your employees
DAILY STAR ON SUNDAY front page: “MADDIE – Cops fit panic buttons in the McCanns’ home”
A picture of Gerry McCann on first glance throwing a child onto a skip; on second look, pushing a child on a swing
MADDIE: THE DEATH THREATS – “Heart specialist Gerry” and “GP Kate” have an a alarm fitted
Gerry is returning to work on Thursday and Kate “will be alone in the house with two-year old twins Sean and Amelie”. Or else with her parents, sister and media team, while paparazzi and hacks stand around the front and back of the house
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “COPS KEEP FILES FROM McCANNS”
“Agonisingly for the couple, it could be 15 YEARS before the prosecution case is ‘archived’”
SUNDAY TIMES: “McCann friend is certain she saw abduction”
Jane Tanner sees. “When she was formally interviewed by police at 3am that night, Tanner realised that the pyjamas on the child she had seen were an exact match with Madeleine’s”
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY: “Crying shame to see McCanns judged with poison not pity”
“So, at last, she wept. But the tears of a bereft mother did not impress the hard-hearted and nasty-minded, who had already condemned Kate McCann and her husband Gerry. For them, her breakdown on TV last week was too little, too late – and was it stage-managed?”
OBSERVER: “It is not only the Madeleine McCann case that highlights the perils of exotic holidays”
“The case of ‘Marco’ is as big in Germany as ‘Madeleine’ is here. Yet we hear virtually nothing of it, even though the key to this mystery lies in Britain
“Marco Weiss, 17, has languished without trial since April in a Turkish prison cell crammed with 30 inmates after allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old English girl, ‘Charlotte M’. And while his case will hardly tug at British heartstrings like the missing English child has, it shows how criminal cases can provoke international fissure”
More to follow…
Posted: 28th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (818)
Madeleine McCann: Jose Cabrera Says, Read My Lips And The Ambassador Writes
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – ‘BE KIND TO KATE’. Mother’s heartfelt plea after astonishing attack”
Says Kate McCann’s mother, Susan Healy: “Please be kinder to her. She has enough to cope with. Yes, she is distressed at times and she can’t smile that often at the
moment but she is very strong and she is going to fight on to get Madeleine back”
Oh: “People are saying she’s at breaking point but she’s not going to have a breakdown”
The “heartfelt plea” comes after an “astonishing attack” on “GP Kate” by a Spanish psychiatrist who saw her on Spanish TV.
Jose Cabrera runs a private practice in Madrid. He says: “Kate’s face does not express any emotion whatsoever or feeling. When people cry they move the muscles in their face, and she didn’t move one single muscle, just like a poker player. That is significant”
And: “Her performance brings us the certainty that she is hiding something. The interview was non-spontaneous and it gives us the impression that it was a pose staged by the couple.” He tells the newspaper Correio da Manha: “Any Englishman is cold, but she has something else – her personality is not normal”
Says Englishman Clarence Mitchell: “A few days ago Kate was criticised for not showing enough emotion and then when she does cry she is criticised too. Everything that Kate and Gerry said on that interview was totally genuine. They have nothing to hide. The people who are making these allegations should be very sure about what they are saying. Our lawyers are watching the media coverage very carefully in both Portugal and Britain and action will be taken against anything we feel has gone too far”
“LIP READERS DRAFTED IN AFTER POLICE GAFFE – Says a “source”: “The cameras were set up in the interview suite at Portimao during the two days the McCanns were interrogated and made suspects. But when detectives went to examine the tapes afterwards, they realised that they hadn’t picked up any sound. It then got really farcical because they made an approach to lip readers to try to get the words to go with the visuals on the tape”
DAILY MAIL front page: “Kate stunned by psychiatrists ‘vile attack’”
“Madeleine: McCanns consider suing after Kate accused of ‘putting on a circus act’ with her tears on TV”
Jose Cabrera analysed the couple’s television interview on Wednesday for the Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha. He is billed therein as a “forensic psychiatrist and facial expression specialist”. He is media-friendly doctor with something to say, and the need to say something
Says Cabrera: “All he [Gerry McCann] worried about was controlling her. It’s extraordinary. Whenever she opened her mouth to talk he squeezed her hand – and all this because the key to this mystery is definitely with her”
“Murat feels ‘forgotten’ and ‘desperate’” – Robert Murat’s lawyer Francisco Pagarete says: “Mr Murat has been living with this for a long time now and it is time the police admit they have no evidence against him. He is desperate to get his life back. If the inspectors want another interview, we are willing. Mr Murat is very keen to see the case against him finished”
The Mail is running an online poll: “Do you think Kate McCann’s tears were genuine?” It cares
This poll is not to be confused with the paper’s other urgent polls:
“Where do you think Tottenham will finish this season?”
“Has Strictly Come Dancing become too competitive?”
“Is Nigella Lawson getting too fat?”
DAILY MIRROR: “QUIZ ME OR CLEAR ME, SAYS MURAT”
Says Suspect No. 1 Robert Murat: “Re-interview me – or clear me”
THE SUN: “’Poker face’ Kate set to sue”
“Angry Kate and Gerry McCann may sue over claims this week’s emotional TV interview was ‘staged like theatre’”
(The McCanns have already threatened to sue Portuguese weekly newspaper Tal e Qual, which accused them of killing their daughter, and the daily tabloid 24 Horas, which claimed Mr McCann was not Madeleine’s biological father)
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE SKETCH IS A LIE – Cops blast McCann ‘fantasy’”
Says an unnamed source “close to the investigation”: “There is only the evidence of one person that this man was ever there. Nobody else saw him. There is a waft of the scent of a red herring’’
THE TIMES: “’You have many more abductions than Portugal, but nobody talks about that’ – Lisbon’s ambassador to London tells our correspondents how the Madeleine McCann case left him heavy-hearted”
“Antonio Santana Carlos is swamped by emotional letters from the British public about the disappearance of a little girl”
It is a mixed postbag – “the impassioned camp of Portuguese-blamers, joined by those who condemn the parents, with a lunatic fringe unhealthily excited by the case and who think that they know where the body is”
The rest of us just watch the parents, watch the telly, watch the headlines…
Posted: 27th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (805)
Madeleine McCann: Jane Tanner’s eFit, A Spanish Angel And Wearing Pink Pyjamas
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – 70% DON’T BELIEVE McCANNS”
The McCanns are on the TV in Spain. The show is followed by a phone vote. The people vote, at least some of them do; how many, we are not told. One, two, three..? Gerry is a “cardiologist”
Pages 4 and 5: “Police: Parents are hampering probe.” Angel Galan, head of the Spanish National Police’s kidnap, extortion and murder squad says: “There is no real information to indicate that Madeleine could be in Spain although Mr and Mrs McCann might think so. I think the question is why couldn’t she be in France or in the UK? Why does it have to be Spain, Portugal or Morocco?”
“Drawing that could catch her abductor” – an artist’s impression of a man carrying a child in the vicinity of the McCanns holiday complex on May 3. The man is of average height, of average build, with dark hair and with his facial features not filled in. Do you know him?
The artist was commissioned by the McCanns in light of a person their friend Jane Tanner said she saw on the night Madeleine disappeared
THE SUN front page: “PICTURE SENSATION. He took Maddie – MAN SEEN BY McCANNS’ PAL ON FATEFUL NIGHT”
A drawing of a man. The caption: “Hunted…a drawing of man with child in his arms as seen by Jane Tanner”
Page 13: “MADDIE IN ARMS OF SNATCHER. Pyjamas ‘prove it is her’” – The man is 5ft 6. He is 5ft 10 in the Express. He is “slim”. The girl is wearing pink and white pyjamas. The man is in a maroon shirt, camel coloured trousers and black or brown shoes
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We hope this will go a long was to proving the independent eyewitness account that she was taken by someone and the police’s focus on Kate and Gerry as potential suspects is wrong”. See drawing of a man seen by McCanns’ friend
And: “We believe it does show Madeleine in his arms. The description of the pyjamas is accurate enough to believe that is the case.” The McCanns’ friend sees the girl wearing pyjamas like those worn by Madeleine, whom she knows
“GERRY BACK AT WORK” – Gerry McCann is a “cardiologist” – lest we ever forget
DAILY MIRROR front page: “This is the man who took our Madeleine. PARENTS RELEASE SKETCH”
Page 11: “’He was slim with untidy black hair, plastered back. He was hurrying with a child in pink pyjajmaas’” (No songs please)
“’KIDNAPPER’ SEEN BY KATE’S PAL”
Paul Routledge: “All I want to do is put my arms around her and say: ‘there, there’ while she sobs out her grief on my shoulder”
DAILY MAIL front page: “Friends’ fears for ‘increasingly fragile’ Kate”
Pages 8 and 9: “Is Kate at breaking point?” – If she cracks up will the papers like her better? “Friends fear for Maddie’s mother after TV ordeal”
“SPANISH EYES” – The McCanns have launched a private “proxy investigation” in Spain. Under Portuguese law it is illegal to use private detectives while an investigation is ongoing
The mystery man who may have taken her” – Mrs Tanner sees the man. She is later “racked with guilt”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE PARENTS ‘HIDING TRUTH’ – 70 per cent of TV viewers thinks McCanns are lying”
Pages 4 and 5: “BODY LANGUAGE SPECIALIST GIVES HIS VERDICT ON KATE – ‘MUM WOULD BE VERY GOOD POKER PLAYER’.” Robert Phipps watches the interview with Kate McCann on Spanish TV. She is frowning, and expert Phipps says this is indicative of “pain” and stress. Who knew? We do not know if he then voted in the subsequent poll
THE TIMES front page: “Madeleine ‘abductor’” – The white man is of “medium build”
Page 9: “’This is the man who took Madeleine away’” – The Times says the new picture bears “no resemblance to Robert Murat”. The picture has been handed to the McCanns’ detectives who are operating across Europe and North Africa
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: “Madeleine ‘abductor’” – This is the man Jane Tanner says she saw at 9:15pm on May 3
THE INDEPENDENT and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 26th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,749)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann Sobs, Gerry McCann Points And 14 Questions
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: “KATE’S TORMENT – ‘I think she is being held by someone in their house..as Madeleine’s mummy I feel in my heart she’s out there’”
“Distraught” Kate McCann is on Spanish TV. She is being interviewed. Says she: “I don’t know how anyone could harm anyone as beautiful as Madeleine”
Pages 4 and 5: “TEARS OF KATE – After six months of holding her heartbreak in check..Madeleine’s mum breaks down on TV”
Three pictures of Kate McCann:
“SO EMPTY: Kate tries to explain her loss on TV”
“TOO MUCH: She can’t hold back the tears”
“SOBBING: Kate and Gerry on TV”
“14 questions Portuguese police are flying to Britain to out to the McCanns and friends” – So reports Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas. Why would the police publish the questions and allow the McCanns and their friends to prepare answers? Why only – or as many as – 14 questions? Unless these are questions made up by the media, questions the police are “expected” to ask…
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE WANT ANSWERS TO 14 QUESTIONS. What detectives demand to know”
Pages 4 and 5: “Kate breaks down during TV grilling.” Kate and Gerry McCann are on the telly. Says Kate: “I feel sad and I feel lonely and our life is not as happy without Madeleine…we want people to try to reunite us with your beautiful girl”
And: “We know the truth. We know we are totally innocent. That is why we are calm. We know each other”
Says a “British detective”: “The detectives could be giving the suspects enough rope to hang themselves. It is a common tactic in police investigations to let those under suspicion speak on television in case they trip themselves up”
THE SUN front page: “KATE WEEPS FOR MADDIE – I feel in my heart she is out there”
“Distraught” Kate on the telly. Kate and Gerry are publicising a telephone hotline. No, not 999, their own number
Pages 4 and 5: “MADDIE NEEDS US – So lonely without our lovely girl, sobs Kate”
Three pictures of “Precious..the happy Maddie her mum longs to see”
Three pictures of the McCanns:
“Anguish…Gerry faces TV quiz”
“Ordeal…Kate fights back tears”
“Brave…but the McCanns struggle with their emotions as they relive the night Maddie vanished”
The hotline. Says Kate McCann: “We want to appeal to the people of Spain, Portugal and North Africa to help us and to tell them we have a new central phone number for them to call”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE MUM FINALLY CRACKS – Suspect Kate sobs on TV as she is quizzed”
Pages 8 and 9: “MADDIE’S MUM TV BREAKDOWN – Torment as Kate’s sobs halt interview four times”. Spanish TV journalist Roberto Arce sees Kate “prostrate with pain”
The McCanns hotline number is 00 34 902 300 213
DAILY MAIL pages 8 and 9: “I’M SAD AND LONELY…LIFE IS NOT HAPPY”
Says Mrs McCann: “Somebody knows something. It is not about us. It is about Madeleine.” Is it? We are watching the parents
Gerry McCanns is a “consultant cardiologist”. He says: “We have not been charged with anything”
“Will they find her in Spain?” – Gerry McCann tells El Mundo newspaper (Spain): “The possibility that Madeleine is alive and in Spain is real…If someone had a car, it is clear they could cross into Spain. There is no border guard and no one closed the border the night Madeleine disappeared.” And we look again at the police
THE TIMES page 3: “Sobbing Kate McCann insists that Madeleine is alive and being held”
“Days of hope and despair” – The Times looks at some key dates: June 21 (Madeleine in Malta); August 3 (Madeleine in Belgium); August 23 (Madeleine in Morocco)
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: “’I’M SO SAD AND LONELY’ – KATE McCANN WEEPS FOR MADELEINE ON SPANISH TV”
Page 5: “’Sad, lonely’ Kate weeps for Madeleine in TV interview” – Kate McCann wept “uncontrollably”. Says he:” I feel anxious she is not with us”
THE GUARDIAN page 12: “McCanns set up phone line to seek Madeleine”
THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 25th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,754)
Madeleine McCann: Susan Healy Says, Gerry McCann Plays And Patricia Cornwell Investigates,
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – FATHER PLAYED TENNIS AFTER SHE VANISHED”
No not Father Pacheco – Gerry McCann.
Says Ocean Club waiter Jose Baptista: “If my kid disappeared I’d go insane. I wouldn’t be able to function. They’d have to lock me away. They were so cool about it. All the staff commented about how they were able to play tennis and things calmly”
“I never saw them cry or anything”
You want empathy…
Pages 2 and 3: “It will take a miracle to find her” – Madeleine’s “broken” grandparents talk with “searing honesty” and “struggle to fight back the tears.” Says Kate McCann’s mother Susan Healy on Spanish TV, talking of Madeleine: “But we’re not going to acknowledge she’s gone from our life altogether. She’s too important for that”
Of the night Madeleine went missing: “My daughter is very placid, very easy-tempered and I saw her scream at the British council that night, shout down the phone at him to do something”
You want emotion…
DAILY MIRROR page 15: “Cops forced to show McCanns their evidence in three weeks”
The McCanns “could” be given “secret police files” on November 14, six moths to the day since Robert Murat was named an official suspect. This “could be a massive boost” for the McCanns. Or not
DAILY MAIL page 39: “Gerry McCann’s call home: It’s a disaster mum, she’s gone”
Gerry McCann’s mother-in-law Susan Healy picks up the phone. It’s Gerry. He is “hysterical”. He says: “There’s been a disaster, it’s a disaster. Madeleine has been abducted from her bed”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE WAS IN MURAT VILLA – new DNA find outs No1 suspect back in frame”
Pages 8 and 9: “Maddie DNA in Murat house” – DNA samples found in Murat’s house are said to match traces of DNA fond in the boot of the McCann’s Renault Scenic
Says Mr Murat’s lawyer: “My client has nothing to fear”
“Writer points to Kate” – Crime writer Patricia Cornwell “reckons Madeleine’s mum holds the key to the case” – You want a feeling?
THE SUN front page: “Waiter: Kate is so cold” – Like a gazpacho soup, says Jose Baptista
“I promised we’d get our Maddie back…but it’s harder to say that now” – Susan Healy is at her home in Liverpool. The TV cameras are rolling…
DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news
Posted: 24th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,275)
Madeleine McCann: When Waiters Attack, Kate McCann Childcare Inc. And Feudal Powers
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – ‘McCANNS OR A FRIEND MUST BE TO BLAME’. Tapas bar waiter’s astonishing attack”
Jose Batista served the McCanns and party on that night Madeleine disappeared. “I did not think she had been taken by an abductor,” says he. “I told them [the police] it had to be one of the family or a friend. It had to be someone close”
Mr Batista is a “crucial eyewitness”
Page 4: “Nanny would have cost just £10” – Batista is standing with his “partner” Maria Fernandes, who also works at the Ocean Club complex. She does not speak. She smiles for the camera. Why is she there? They are holding hands. He says the Tapas 9 did check on their children regularly: “I know that because I often took food to the table and found one of them not there. I would take it back to the table to heat it up. But it was always the men who went to check never the women.” Apart from the time Kate McCann went to check. So not always the men. Jose thought that strange. Why?
Says he: “They left heir children alone. If I had been in that position I certainly wouldn’t have done that.” Maria smiles
“Kate may be a child carer after ruling out GP work” – But would she make living at it?
THE SUN front page: “MADDIE EXCLUSIVE: WHAT WAITERS SAW. Kate left kids alone 3 hours a night”
It’s Jose Baptista, not to be confused with the Express’s Jose Batista, even if this waiter does look very similar and is seen holding hands with his “wife”, also called Maria
Pages 4 and 5: “The men normally checked on kids..Kate only went that one night”
Kate and Gerry are “doctors”. Says Jose: “They left their children alone for up to three hours every night.” Apart from when they all went out as family, with the “cranky” children
Maria speaks: “I definitely remember Madeleine. She was like a little angel, very quiet and good as gold. Just a lovely little blonde girl.” Blonde, you say?
“CAREER PLANS STILL ON HOLD”
DAILY STAR page 7: “holiday waiter describes horror night girl vanished – MADDIE: ‘ONLY PARENTS OR PALS COULD HAVE DONE IT’” – Jose Batista says…
“Kate wants job in child care”
DAILY MAIL front page: “I want to work in child care says Maddie’s mother”
Page 7: “Kate McCann ‘wants a job in child welfare’” – So it is “claimed”. So she ahs “told friends”
“FRIENDS ‘SHARED EIGHT BOTTLES OF WINE A NIGHT’” – Says Jose Baptista. Yes, eight bottles between nine Britons. On holiday. In the sun. Indeed, is that all?
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 9: “Madeleine’s mother ‘to as GP for a child welfare job’”
“One possibility is that she will set up a charity to raise awareness of the extent of child abductions across Europe, and help parents and children who suffer such an ordeal”
Fernando Jose Pinto Montiero, Portugal’s attorney general, says the country’s Ministerio Publico, likened to the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service, is a “feudal power”
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN, THE TIMES and DAILY MIRROR: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 23rd, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,637)
Madeleine McCann: Smoke, Ribeiro Hopes And Ash
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANN FRIENDS FACE NEW PROBE. Portuguese police chief wants holiday couples interrogated”
Investigators “believe” members of the so-dubbed Tapas Nine “may” have helped the McCanns dispose of Madeleine’s body. They “could” be named as official suspects”
Page 5: “’I’m convinced Madeleine inquiry will be resolved’” – Alipio Ribeiro, Portugal’s most senior police officer, says he is “optimistic” the case will be solved
Says he: “We have an idea of what happened…In every interview there is a key moment, a click that clarifies everything and help you to reach the end”
“Kate and the ‘lost 5 minutes’” – A source says: “During the 40 minutes in which Kate left the Ocean Club restaurant and alerted the authorities about Madeleine, many things could have happened”. The possibilities, as we have read for some weeks, are endless
DAILY MIRROR page 11: “TOP MADDY COP: WE’LL CRACK IT”
Says Alipio Ribeiro: “Many similar cases have lasted longer and were resolved in the end” – Such as?
“Gerry ‘to go back’” – To Portugal? No, to work. Maybe one day
DAILY MAIL page 35: “The McCann ‘witchhunt’ – Ex yard boss condemns police pursuit of parents”
Lord Stevens is brought into the media for questioning
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE I KNOW THE KILLER – Top cop vows to prove his case”
Alipio Ribeiro is “convinced he knows who killed Madeleine McCann – and has vowed to prove it”. All he needs is some evidence
Page 15: “Portugal’s police chief pledges…I WILL CRACK MADDIE CASE”
THE SUN page 11: “HOW COULD POLICE DROP ASH ON CLUES? Maddie parents’ fury at evidence contamination
Kate and Gerry McCann are “horrified” that cigarette ash “could” have contaminated evidence. Says a close friend of the couple: “It is outrageous to think that messy cops could have ruined vital evidence about Maddie’s abductor”
But did they?
Suzanne McGee, a holidaymaker, says: “I saw one lady forensic person remove her mask and light a cigarette. It just looked all wrong”
Like you, we are at loss for works over this story
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 7: “McCanns’ friends to be re-interviewed by police”
Says Mr Ribeiro: What is clear is that we have the calmness to separate the story, the fantasy, from what is the police side of things”
THE TIMES page 11: “Police speak to McCann friends”
Says Mr Ribeiro: “There is a scenario that has gained strength and has a greater degree of certainty”
Gerry McCann is a “consultant cardiologist”. Kate McCann is a “part-time GP”
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Pic: The Spine
Posted: 23rd, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (58)
Madeleine McCann: Enright In Hiding, Lord Stevens Deduces And Antonio Teixeira On Homicide
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE MYSTERY – GUARD AS GERRY RETURNS TO WORK”
No small development. Gerry McCanns returns to work…
Or not. “Police are poised to protect heart surgeon Gerry McCann when he makes an emotional return to work.” That’s right – Gerry McCann is a “consultant cardiologist”
“However Kate, 39, who worked part-time as a locum GP, has said in the past that she is unable to contemplate working again while her daughter remains missing”. Indeed. Kate is a “GP”
MAIL ON SUNDAY: “Madeleine: New police chief’s anger at mess he inherited”
Paulo Rebelo is the new broom. A police source quoted in a Portuguese newspaper says: “There was important material lying all over the place that hadn’t been considered by investigators. A lot of key information was discarded. The whole process is being reviewed. Putting all the papers in order has been a massive task”
Rebelo, “previously involved in investigating a Lisbon paedophile ring”, has taken on Antonio Teixeira, a 59-year-old murder squad detective
Teixeira once said: “Homicide is a crime we’re all capable of committing.” A colleague says: “By bringing him onto the case, the police are sending out a clear sign that the main lead as far as they concerned is homicide”
“’NO chance the McCanns would be charged with murder in the UK,’ writes Britain’s former top cop” – Former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens is raising his media profile
Says he: “I’ve been a detective at the most senior level for 30 years and have never seen such a witch-hunt, or one based on such flimsy evidence”
Has he seen all the evidence?
NEWS OF THE WORLD: “Maddie’s parents are INNOCENT. I do not think they did it. It doesn’t make sense”
It’s Stevens formerly of the Met once again. He tells us: “There’s absolutely no chance that the parents of Madeleine McCann would be charged with her murder in this country.
“It would be an outrageous miscarriage of justice if they were. I don’t say that from any feelings of sympathy for Kate and Gerry McCann, but from examining the facts of the case — or rather, the total LACK of them.
“I’ve been a detective at the most senior level for 30 years and have never seen such a witch-hunt, or one based on such flimsy evidence”
Stevens looks only at the facts: “They’re both highly professional medics, one a surgeon the other a GP.” These are the facts. And that Madeleine is missing. Stevens, now retired and known as Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington is 6ft 3in
THE PEOPLE: “INEPT.. INCOMPETENT.. I’M INCANDESCENT EXCLUSIVE MADDIE: SHOCK NEW CLAIMS AGAINST POLICE”
“Horrified Kate and Gerry McCann were incandescent with rage last night after cops were accused of a catalogue of incompetence in the hunt for their missing daughter Madeleine”
Anger issues?
“Insiders claim vital evidence was ditched by boozy officers and crucial documents were ignored”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We’d be very concerned to hear all the information in the police’s hands has not been properly or effectively co-ordinated or collated. If Mr Rebelo is strengthening their system that’s all to the good”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Booker winner who misread the McCanns”
Anne Enright, Booker prize winner, has made comment son Gerry and Kate McCanns. Liz hutn has read them: “Kate McCann’s face and figure have always been a factor in this story. Indeed, the only obstacle to a new picture of Kate making the front pages is a new CCTV grab of another tortured blonde in another ongoing soap opera, The Diana Inquest. The camera loves them both”
So too the press…
Hunt reads Enright’s words and concludes: “For Kate to be derided for her composure, and Gerry for his courage in public, or to suggest, as Enright does, that it masks guilt and denial, is despicable. And it won’t do much for the sales of her prize-winning novel, either”
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Booker winner ‘lost for words’ – Anne Enright remains silent in controversy over McCanns article”
“By Thursday, Ms Enright appeared to have gone into hiding. She was not to be found at her home in Bray, Co Wicklow, and several agreed media engagements were cancelled”
Where is she? Why, on a reading tour in the US
THE TIMES: “Too serence for sympathy”
“After an astonishing attack on the family by the winner of the Booker prize and Kate’s suggestion that people don’t sympathise with her because she doesn’t look maternal enough, our correpsondent asks why some people find it so easy to dislike the McCanns”
The Times is on the case
Margarette Driscoll looks at the evidence and tells us: “But if she thinks people don’t like her because she does not appear sufficiently maternal, she’s way off beam. This is the age of the yummy mummy and in those stakes McCann, who looks as though she could be Sienna Miller’s older sister, is queen. It is her coolness of her manner that repels, not her skinniness, nor her careful choice of jewellery”
And her shoes?
THE GUARDIAN: “McCanns ‘victims of a witch-hunt’” – More opinion from the ex-copper’s copper Stevens
Posted: 21st, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (554)
Madeleine McCann: Francisco Moita Flores’ 3 Minutes, Gran’s Plate And The Paedo Doctor
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – 3 MINUTES TO DUMP HER BODY. Amazing new theory of crime specialists”
The police? Sort of… Former police inspector Francisco Moita Flores is the star of a Portuguese TV show about the case. It’s not just the British that can turn the case into a form of entertainment
(Says The Guardian: “Channel 4’s Searching for Madeleine: A Dispatches Special about the police hunt for Madeleine McCann got 3.1 million viewers at 14% over the 9pm hour. At the same time Channel Five’s The Hotel Inspector got 1.5 million viewers, a share of 7%, making it the network’s best performing show of the day)
Says Flores: “There are so many contradictory theories, but she was taken, dead or alive, according to the dogs, down to the church.” Oh?
“This would have to have been done by car. There is a piece of land behind the church and behind that is the sea. A car could take you from the apartment to the sea in 30 seconds, whichever route was used. Let’s say something went wrong, we have about 40 seconds. If you add two minutes to dispose of the body by sea – that’s little more than two and a half minutes at the most. It would take just another 30 seconds to return to the resort”
This is based on hard speculation and raw opinion
Mr Flores adds of the ‘Tapas 9’: “That is more than enough time for any member of the group that left the table during that meal to be considered a suspect. Many of the group, according to what we’re told, was absent from that table – every one of them for more than three minutes”
And then a flash of genius: “The little girl was removed and taken elsewhere – whether alive by an abductor or dead after an accident.
Another “crimebuster”, Professor Paulo Sargento, of Lusofana University in Lisbon, says: “I am convinced that whatever happened happened within the McCanns and their group of friends. The reconstruction shows how unlikely it is that any other explanation could be possible”
But not impossible
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: 3 MINUTES TO HIDE BODY”
DAILY MIRROR: “8 minutes to snatch Madeleine – EXCLUSIVE: 3D MODEL TIME CLUES”
Prof Sargento, of Lusofana University, Lisbon, says: “We have used the precise timings to recreate on screen what happened that night. From 8pm when the group sat down for dinner, seven people got up and walked around 14 times. That means on average there was somebody with a view of the McCanns’ apartment every eight minutes during that period”
And:
“Meanwhile, the McCanns yesterday said they could prove they have never sedated their children,” says the Mirror. “A source said toxicology tests on hair from two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie showed they had never been given sedatives, demolishing police claims all three children were drugged when Madeleine vanished. A friend of the couple said: ‘It backs up Kate and Gerry’s claims’”
Was Madeleine sedated?
THE SUN: “Maddie’s final gift for gran”
A picture of a plate – “the poignant last gift from Madeleine McCann to her gran – given just days before she vanished”
“The heartshaped plate bears Maddie’s little handprints and the touching message, ‘I love you Grandma and Grandad, From Madeleine 2007’”
“Maddie’s devastated gran Susan Healy showed off the plate yesterday and said: ‘This is so special I feel like locking it in a safe. I couldn’t bear anything to happen to it – the handprints are the closest thing we have to a physical reminder of her’”
What of the missing girl’s hair?
DAILY MAIL: “Why Portugal is a haven for paedophiles – the disturbing backcloth to the Madeleine case”
“A Ferrari engine makes a deep, distinctive sound. When the children at Portugal’s most famous orphanage heard the sports car roaring down the driveway, fear swept through the dormitories. The noise could mean only one thing: the man known as The Doctor was coming to call”
No, not Gerry McCann, nor Kate McCann. They had a Renault Scenic.
“Yet this medical practitioner had no intention of adhering to the ancient Hippocratic Oath”
There follows a lengthy story of alleged organised sexual abuse at Casa Pia (House of the Pious), a 17th century Lisbon orphanage where more than 4,000 children are cared for each year behind “high stone walls” – “the doctor would summon selected boys and girls from their beds for examinations one night each week”
The children are taken to “some of the leading members of Lisbon society – ranging from Portuguese government ministers and high-ranking diplomats, to famous television stars and members of the judiciary”. It is “likened to an earthquake waiting to shake Portugal to its foundations”
Says the Mail: “But what relevance does this have to the disappearance 170 days ago of four-year-old Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz, about 280km from Lisbon?”
Good question…
“And what does it mean for Kate and Gerry McCann, who have not only had to cope with losing their child, but have also been subjects of a vicious campaign in the Portuguese press to smear them?”
Another good question…
“It is crucial for two reasons; first because it proves what international crime agencies have long suspected: that Portugal has become a magnet for predatory paedophiles from around the world, using the country’s lax laws and preying on the high numbers of poor, abandoned children.
“And second, because Paulo Rebelo, an urbane, methodical detective who led the Casa Pia paedophile inquiry, was last night finishing his first week as the new chief of the investigation into the disappearance of the British child”
That’s a link?
Says the Mail: “Of course, the Casa Pia case may have no direct link to the disappearance of Madeleine, but the culture in which such a serious child abuse network was allowed to operate is the same culture that pervades the whole of Portugal. Was it this attitude that led to the bungled initial investigation in the McCann case?”
The Mail has no idea. But get a load of those alleged paedos…
THE TIMES: “‘Tests show Madeleine McCann’s brother and sister were not drugged’”
The police tests are in. No. These are tests the McCanns carried out themselves. On Madeleine? No. On the twins Sean and Amelie.
A source close to the couple says: “Any legal team worth their salt would have these kinds of tests done. No evidence of sedatives were found in the twins’ systems”
The twins are not missing
DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 20th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,086)
Madeleine McCann: Gordon Brown Investigates, Gerry McCann’s ‘Fears’ And A Ghost
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – GERRY’S FEARS FOR KATE HOURS BEFORE DISAPPEARANCE”
“Heart consultant” Gerry McCann was “allegedly concerned about his wife Kate’s state of mind” on the night Madeleine vanished. Gerry is said to have spoken about “part-time GP” Kate with “fellow medic” David Payne as Gerry was having a tennis lesson
Page 7: A source says: “David Payne saw Madeleine at around 6:30pm. He popped in because Gerry wanted to make sure Kate was OK”. Says Mr Payne, who has known the McCanns for five years: “I have never witnessed anything untoward in all that time”
“Madeleine visits me at night says ‘hysterical’ Kate” – Susan Healy, Kate’s mother, says probably once or twice a day her daughter is “absolutely devastated, hysterical, bereft”. “I asked her, did the twins come and wake you up? Sometimes they get into bed with Kate. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Madeleine came’”
“Brown’s plea to Portugal” – Gordon Brown is in Lisbon and due to meet Portuguese Prime minister Jose Socrates. He says: “I will discuss the issue”. Gordon Brown PI
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE GHOST VISITS MUM”
Page 10: “Mum’s Maddie ghost anguish” – Kate McCann is an “anguished GP”. Readers are assured by a family “pal” that Kate is suffering
“SUSPECTS FOR REST OF LIVES” – The Star has seen the Channel 4 Dispatches programme on their daughter’s case. The five media-friendly sleuths failed to crack the case. Next week the Coronation Street writers have a go
THE SUN page 27: “CLEAR US, MADDIE PARENTS TELL COPS” – Kate and Gerry are “angry”. A “high-raking source” in the Portuguese police says: “Nothing which allows us to make a definite accusation against them has emerged.” Some news. Might this be why they have not been arrested?
DAILY MAIL page 32: “Brown quizzes Portuguese PM over Madeleine” – Is Mr Socrates a suspect? Gordon Brown is Columbo. Just one more thing, sir…
DAILY MIRROR page 11: “GERRY ASKED PAL TOP CHECK ON KATE – Police probe mental state”
Says Mr Payne: “Kate is a fantastic mum. She can cope. She is a very able person”. Such is the news
“COP: NO PROOF ON McCANNS” – The McCanns have not been arrested. Says Clarence Mitchell: “If this is true, Kate and Gerry should be eliminated from the inquiry”. But the police are still looking. All avenues of inquiry remain open. No evidence. Or no evidence yet?
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 9: “Madeleine’s mother ‘breaks down in hysterics every day’”
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 19th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,296)
Madeleine McCann: Pacheco Deceived, Anne Enright Accuses And The Mail’s Underage Sex
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE TRYING TO MAKE KATE CRACK”
Police are exerting “pressure” on Kate McCann. Portuguese police are to reconstruct the night of Madeleine’s disappearance in the style of TV’s Crimewatch, with the focus on the mother
Page 5: “Priest: I was deceived” – Father Jose Manuel Pacheco says “I was deceived”. He “finally broke his silence”. Says he: “I was deceived. I was just doing my job supporting lost souls. I would do that again with any family who were in their situation. I didn’t do anything wrong”
But deceived? In what way? Readers learn his mistake had been in forming a “close bond with the couple”
“Booker author’s dislike’” – Booker prize winner Anne Enright says she disliked Kate and Gerry McCanns “earlier than most people”. Writing in the London Review of Books, Enright notes: “I thought I was angry with them for leaving their children alone.”
Enright is a “mother of two small children”. She can empathise less as a writer than as a parent. But: “In fact I was angry at their failure to accept that their daughter was probably dead.” Look out for Enright’s next work: Me & Maddie
DAILY MAIL front page: “Five top British crime experts went to Portugal to examine the Maddie case. What is their verdict…?”
A verdict? No body. No arrest made. No court case. Just a verdict. And from “crime experts”…
Pages 18 and 19: “THE MADDIE FILES – Five of Britain’s top crime experts were sent to Portugal to give their verdicts on the McCann case. Here they reveal their deeply disturbing conclusions…”
Who sent these sleuths? The British police? Richard Branson? The Pope? No – Channel 4’s Dispatches. The Madeleine McCann mystery is a media circus, so what more fitting than the TV as a courtroom and arbiter of justice?
The Mail’s Roger Graef presides. He says that under Portuguese law, the age of consent is 13 (“between couples of the same age”). It’s not, yer honour. It is 14. “Portugal has many more paedophiles than it cares to admit.” How many? We do not know. It pains Graef to divulge the hideous details. But there have been two cases of child abduction in the past 15 years over there
The crackers are THE CRIMINAL PROFILER (David Canter), THE SEARCH EXPERT (Gary Lig), THE FORENSIC ANALYST (David Barclay), THE SOHAM DETECTIVE (Chris Stevenson) and THE MEDIA HANDLER (Matt Tapp).
They unearth no new clues, no new evidence, no new ideas. But they get to be on the telly and in the papers. And then they return to the UK to crack other cases, like the murder of Rhys Jones, the whereabouts of Suzy Lamplugh, the capture of Osama bin Laden, the wheabout of the UK’s most wanted Paul Bures “wanted in relation to multiple charges of Rape and Sexual assault on male children aged 13-16 years. He currently resides in Spain”) and…
THE MIRROR front page: “Maddy case is probed by Soham cop” – Former Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, “the man who caught Soham killer Ian Huntely”, is advancing his media career
THE SUN front page: “Soham chief in Maddie cop rap” – Stevenson of the Media says the Portuguese police were “totally ill equipped” to handle the case
Page 8: “MADDIE PROBE IS TOO BIG FOR PORTUGAL COPS – Soham chief blasts ‘too slow’ force”. Is this why the British police sent dogs and helped with forensic tests?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE PARENTS HID TRUTH – Priest reveals McCanns’ deceit”
Pages 6 and 7: “McCANNS DECEIVED ME – I wish I’d never given them key to the church.” Father Pacheco has been told of by his bishop for getting too close to the McCanns
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: Pictures of Kate McCann and Booker prize winner – and mother – Anne Enright. A caption: “Kate McCann avoids the worst of Anne Enright’s criticism although the author says ‘disliking the McCanns is an international sport’”
Page 3: In her essay Disliking The McCanns, Enright notes: “I find Gerry’s need to ‘influence the investigation’ more provoking than her [Kate’s] flat sadness, or the very occasional glimpse of wounded narcissism that flecks her public appearance… The language he uses is more appropriate to a corporate executive than to a desperate father…But we are all used to the idea of corporations lying to us…”
Mrs Enright has not been to Portugal to work on the case. Not yet
THE TIMES pages 6 and 7: “‘It is time to discard the myths and half-truths. She was taken.'” So says David Canter.
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Fat Portuguese women to blame for Kate’s pain
Posted: 18th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,432)
