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: Fat Portuguese Wives To Blame For Kate McCann
PAULO Reis writes on Madeleine McCann:
According to Bel Mooney, from the Daily Mail, “Portuguese police suspected” of Kate McCann, since the beginning, because “their wives were telling them she looked too controlled, did not weep enough.”
The “cultural difference” between Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, where “young mothers quickly come to look like overblown roses, their child-bearing settling comfortably around their hips” explains why “it’s hard not to imagine Portuguese women murmuring to their husbands that this British woman is – yes – much too skinny.”
So, the wives of Portuguese detectives “would be instinctively prejudiced against Kate for not looking like them, as well as because her self-control was alien to a culture which traditionally hangs its emotions out like washing on lines”, writes Bel Mooney.
And a question that makes sense, for the Daily Mail columnist, is if the “Portuguese attitude insidiously affect the views of the wider world, tapping into innate expectation of how mothers are ‘supposed’ to be…”
Source: Paulo
Posted: 18th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (75)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann Not Busted, Gerry’s Computer And Dead DNA
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “MADDIE SENSATION – COPS SEIZE GERRY’S COMPUTER. Swoop as he says: “She may be dead”
Not Gerry McCann’s home computer, rather one he used while in Portugal
Page 5: “PROBE ON PC” – The computer is said to have been “hired” (the Sun’s quotation marks) by “cardiologist” Gerry. Thrillingly, the computer “could contain correspondence with high-profile supporters such as David Beckham, Sir Richard Branson and JK Rowling”
“Kate’s mum: She’s being persecuted for looking like a waif” – “Waif-like” Kate McCann’s mother Susan Healy hears her daughter tell her: “If I weighed another 2st, had a bigger bosom and looked more maternal people would be more sympathetic”
Can she try?
Says Susan: “She has always had that kind of build and has never carried any weight”
Skinny-mum syndrome (look out for it in the Express)
DAILY MIRROR front page: “KATE HITS OUT”
Page 6: “PERSECUTION OF MY KATE” – “Pencil-thin” Kate is fells persecuted.
Says Susan: “Kate and Gerry are as innocent as you or I”
Well, not you, obviously
Says Susan’s husband Brian: “I have heard nothing yet to convince me that Madeleine is not still alive”
“’MADDY PROBABLY DEAD’” – Says Clarence Mitchell: “Gerry and Kate are realistic enough to know there’s a probability she is dead”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – PARENTS CAR HID A CORPSE. It was under carpet in boot say police”
“Bodily fluids” have been found in the Renault Scenic used by the McCanns in Portugal. Says a source: “These are bodily fluids that could only come from a corpse. Police are waiting for the results to confirm the identity of the DNA
More DNA. More tests. More talk about DNA tests
Pages 2 and 3: Says a source, they are “innocent. And: “If evidence like this had been found the implications would be serious. Let’s just say they would not be sitting at their home in Leicestershire”
Comments Clarence Mitchell: “We simply cannot comment on unsubstantiated reports”
“She probably IS dead, say parents”. Kate and Gerry are “anguished”. Clarence Mitchell says Kate and Gerry believe Madeleine is “out there and may still be alive”. Or dead
“New hunt for body of Madeleine in massive Wilderness Reservoir” – Police at the Barragem da Bravura
Page 4: “Madeleine mother: People would show more sympathy if I had a bigger bosom”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: ‘A BODY WAS IN McCANN CAR BOOT”
Page 9: “CORPSE ‘WAS HIDDEN IN McCANN HIRE CAR – ‘Body is boot’ DNA shocker”
“Poster bid for clues” – The McCanns have launched a new drive to find their daughter. Posters. The letter Os have been turned into Madeleine’s distinctive eye. Brand McCann. Have you see her?
“Sick Maddie gag” – Channel 4’s Bremner, Bird and Fortune made a joke, saying Gordon Brown would find Madeleine on the eve of a general election
DAILY MAIL front page: “KATE McCANN – I’m persecuted for not looking like a mother”
Page 5: “Kate ‘is persecuted for not looking like a typical mother’” – She is not in a typical situation
Says Susan Healy: “she is a very sensitive, caring person and one of the most maternal people I know – she puts me to shame”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 13: “Parents were naïve to leave Madeleine alone”
Says Susan Healy: Her daughter and son-in-law had acting “out of naivety” in leaving their children alone while they went to dinner
THE TIMES page 13: “Why I’m being persecuted, by Kate McCann”
Not quite the interview the headline alludes to. Just more words on Kate McCann’s slimness
THE INDEPENDENT and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Picture: T-shirt available in sizes 3-4 (scaring the children)
Posted: 17th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,177)
Madeleine McCann: Russian Mafia, Paedo Pics, Richard Branson PI
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Madeleine: Kidnap link to Russian mafia gang”
Page 7: “Madeleine may have been kidnapped by an international paedophile network
Linked to Russia and lawless former Soviet states”
Any evidence?
Says an “expert”: “They especially target blonde children and there are strong grounds to believe that Madeleine might well be a victim” – She blonde; she’s a child; she’s a blonde child; etc.
Says a source: “Madeleine is a pretty blonde child who unfortunately fits the profile of these evil perverts”
As the Express notes: “The Algarve has a growing Russian community” – Such is the evidence
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE WAS NOT TAKEN BY PAEDO”
Page 9: “NO SIGN OF MADDIE IN PAEDO PICS” – Portuguese police have looked through the pictures seized in Operation Predator and fond no shots of Madeleine
Says a source close to the McCanns: “They’re town between relief that she’s not in the clutches of a paedophile ring and dismay thaty the investigation has hit another brickcwall”
“Blonde in coat hunted by cops” – A blonde women in a coat was seen “lurking” outside the McCanns holiday appartment. Who is she? There i talk of a “child sex gang”
DAILY MAIL page 19: “Child porn police draw a blank in hunt for Maddie”
The McCanns are “both doctors”
Comments Clarence Mitchell: “We are unable to comment on anything that goes to the heart of this investigation.” But: “However it does sound as if one avenue of investigation has been closed”
THE SUN page 15: “MADDIE COPS’ PAEDO SWOOP DRAWS BLANK”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Richard Branson defends Madeleine’s parents”
Branson has already donated £100,000 to help fund Gerry and Kate McCann’s legal team.
Says he on NBC’s Today Show: “Imagine your child gets stolen from you, you go through all the hell that comes with that, then when the Portuguese police cannot find the person who has stolen it they (sources) start placing stories in the press, each one of which is shown to be unfounded a week or two later but by then they have spread around the world”
Empathy.
“They had no proper legal representation and so I felt it was important they got the top Portuguese and British lawyer on board so that they could get the truth out
“I think over the last month since that has happened the tide has turned and people generally accept around the world that the Portuguese police and press overstepped their mark”
A child is missing…
THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT, THE TIMES and DAILY MIRROR (a first): No Madeleine news today
Posted: 16th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,268)
Madeleine McCann: Reservoir Of Wilderness, Altar Images And Bravura
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “HUNT FOR MISSING GIRL’S BODY”
It is no longer the “HUNT FOR MADELEINE”
“MADDIE COPS DRAG LAKE” – Portuguese police are looking over a lake dubbed the “Reservoir of Wilderness”
Page 6: “Maddie hunt switches to Reservoir of Wilderness – PARENT’S DISMAY AS DIVERS CALLED IN”
The lake is Barragem da Bravura. It is 15 miles from Praia da Luz. It is “desolate”. It is a “beauty spot”. Says the Sun: “It is not thought the cops are acting on any specific intelligence”
Says a source: “It would be tragedy for Kate and Gerry…They want the cloud is suspicion lifted form them.”
The McCanns are in church. Pictures on their missing daughter are in “pride of place” on the altar. The McCann children see them and point, saying: “There’s Madeleine, there’s Madeleine”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE SEARCH LAKE FOR BODY”
Page 5: “Teams trawl lake and beaches in Madeleine search”
“Her parents are innocent, insists nanny” – Nanny Catriona Baker is a “key witness”. She worked at the Ocean Club when the McCanns were there. She saw a man acting “suspiciously”. But she was not with the McCanns when the McCanns raised the alarm
“Murat suspect status ‘will be lifted’” – Says the suspect Robert Murat’s lawyer: “It’s possible that in the next four weeks his status will be cleared because we will have reached six months since he has been a suspect in the case…In some complex cases it can be up to year before suspects are cleared”. It’s up to the District Attorney
DAILY MIRROR page 7: “IS MADELEINE HIDDEN HERE? Cops to search isolated reservoir for body”
The water is called Reservoir da Brevura, and should not be confused with the Sun’s Reservoir da Bravura. These are the tabloid facts
Clarence Mitchell says: “They are realistic enough to know Madeleine may dead”
DAILY MAIL page 5: “Starting from scratch. Madeleine police go back to basics and begin searching forests and reservoir”
The Sun says, according to Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias, the search is “linked to mobile phone calls made by the McCanns and their friends” (see the Sun’s “no specific evidence”)
Portuguese police have drafted in two analysts known as ‘The Cleaner’. They can help ‘The Locator’, ‘The Equaliser’ and ‘The Supercop’
DAILY STAR page 9: “MADDIE COPS TOLD TO SEARCH UNDER EVERY ROCK”
Although not the rocks they already searched under – it is all rocks within a 10-mile radius of the Ocean Club
THE TIMES page 13: “Madeleine investigators launch new search in vicinity of resort” – within a nine-mile radius of the Ocean Club, including the Bravura dam
Kate McCann is pictured on her way to church
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 13: “Police plan reservoir trawl for Madeleine as hunt team triples”
THE GUARDIAN
Posted: 15th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (962)
Madeleine McCann: The Observer, The Locator And Bloody Footprints
MADDY WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
MAIL ON SUNDAY: “Madeleine: Bloody footprint found in McCanns’ apartment”
“A bloody footprint was found in Kate and Gerry McCann’s apartment, matching a print on their hire car, according to a forensic report” shown to the paper
“The existence of the two marks, which has never been revealed until today, is apparently at the heart of renewed suspicion that the couple were involved in their daughter’s disappearance”
So it’s her blood. This is rightly headline news…
“New tests carried out at the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham show there is a ‘moderate’ chance that the blood belonged to Madeleine. But the results are inconclusive”
So it might not be Madeleine’s blood. It could belong to anyone. Hold the front page. Too late…
Clarence Mitchell comments: “We simply cannot comment on unsubstantiated reports that touch on any evidence at the centre of this inquiry”
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: “Bloody footprint clue to mystery of Madeline”
NEWS OF THE WORLD front page: “MADDIE KIDNAP – THE PROOF”
“Police have been told Kate KNEW instantly little Madeleine had been snatched because there was still a clear imprint of the youngster left in the unruffled bed sheets”
Says a..?
A source tells us: “People keep asking how did Kate know so quickly that Madeleine had been taken and not just walked out. But it’s obvious. When she put Maddie to bed the child was all tucked up around the shoulders, and when Kate realised she was gone all the sheets were still neatly in place.
“A child of that age wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed without moving a thing. Someone had clearly been in and carefully lifted her out. Kate realised that right away.
“This evidence must now refocus the police attention. Kate and Gerry should be released from their suspect status”
Because a “source” close to the suspect says so…
SUNDAY MIRROR: “COPS PROBE NANNY’S DUMPED AT SEA CLAIM”
“Portuguese police are becoming increasingly convinced Madeleine McCann’s body was dumped at sea”
But the bloody footprint..?
“Last night nanny Charlotte Pennington told how she saw a sailor kicking at something in the hull of his vessel in Praia da Luz” two days after Madeleine went missing”
Says Charlotte: “I’m really pleased they are taking this seriously because it means they aren’t just looking at the McCanns as suspects”
A “source” says: “Whoever had the expertise to make Madeleine disappear from the flat also had the expertise to throw her into the sea”
Or take her to Morocco, Belgium, Spain etc…
THE PEOPLE: “MADDIE COPS: SHE WAS THROWN OFF BOAT”
It is an “EXCLUSIVE” (see Sunday Mirror above) Charlotte Pennington speaks out
“Little Madeleine McCann was dumped at sea hours after she was snatched from her family’s Portuguese holiday apartment, police believe”
“Cardiologist Gerry and GP Kate vigorously deny the police allegations against them” – the facts!
TAKING HEART: “Gerry and Kate McCann put on brave faces yesterday as they took their little twins to a special children’s service at their village church. They then returned to their £600,000 home nearby” – More facts!
THE TIMES: “McCann case detective faces ‘torture’ trial”
Tavares Almeida, who interviewed Kate McCann, is “one of three officers accused of beating Virgolino Borges, a railway worker, during nearly eight hours of interrogation”. Read more here
But he is only accused, and not proven guilty. He is a suspect
THE OBSERVER: “The readers’ editor on… DNA and the hunt for Madeleine”
The Guardian reports on Danie Krugel: The Locator –“It’s also disappointing that this appeared in the newspaper that was first to discount the wilder DNA theories that swirled around the Madeleine inquiry last month, theories that are now largely discredited”
McCANN Watch: In an article about, er, Gordon Brown, Mariella Fostrup works in The McCanns: “Does anyone remember St Diana, currently back in the headlines, being vilified as a loose cannon by all and sundry just weeks before her death led to her canonisation? How many times have Kate and Gerry McCann found themselves riding the metronome of public opinion back and forth between monsters and maligned victims?”
Enlightening stuff
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH and SUNDAY INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 14th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (686)
Madeleine McCann: Robert Murat Speaks, Bin Laden Sought And The Grassy Knoll
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: MURDER POLICE IN NEW HUNT”
“The new head of the Madeleine McCann investigation is bringing in a team of CSI-style murder specialists to crack the case”
It’s time to let the actors lose on the case. CSI Praia da Luz
Clarence Mitchell says: “These are fresh eyes, for which they are grateful. The development is welcomed by the family. If the new team are experts in homicide then hopefully Mr Rebelo can eliminate Kate and Gerry as suspects”
How? Kate and Gerry McCann are suspects in the disappearance of their daughter who, according to speculation, has been abducted/killed/drowned/the victim of an accident and much more
DAILY MAIL: “Madeleine: ‘Arguido’ Murat begs police to clear him of suspicion”
Robert Murat tells BBC News: “It’s five months, my savings have gone, Mum is doing what she can, it is just very, very difficult”
His cousin Sally Eveleigh, who runs a guesthouse in Portugal, says:
“Five months down the line, he hasn’t heard from the police for three months, and there’s no evidence against him. He hasn’t seen his daughter for over five months. He has no finances now, all his savings are gone and he needs to rebuild his life, I mean, his life is on hold”
Can we have a whip round? Can the McCanns help?
DAILY MIRROR: “Leave me alone to find my daughter”
“Tormented Kate McCann” demands “Leave me alone to find my Madeleine”
“Desperate Kate” says: “Haven’t I suffered enough without all these new lies coming out?”
Well, not exactly the words of Kate McCann, rather her Kate’s mother-in-law Eileen McCann’s take on things.
Eileen says: “They are destroying Kate and they are destroying us. They are destroying Kate and they are destroying us. All Kate is asking for is to be left alone to continue searching for her daughter. We have seen her cry every night and every day for Madeleine. All she wants is to have her back. She still has hope. A piece of Kate’s heart has been torn away. It is very, very hard for her and we worry about how she is bearing up.
“It is a living nightmare…It is the ultimate nightmare. She looks so frail and so desperate and at times seems like a broken women. Behind closed doors she cries and cries”
Desperate stuff. But how does this insight advance the search for Madeleine?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: NEW DIG FOR BODY”
“The body of missing Madeleine McCann could lie by the church where her parents prayed for her safe return”
We are back to Our Lady of Light chapel in Praia da Luz
And – get this: Police “spent part of yesterday examining a grassy knoll on the hillside site that was the resort’s cemetery before a new one was opened nearby”
Any who sees a battered white Fiat Uno should tell the authorities
THE SUN: CSI: “Portugal for Maddie cops”
“The appointments of four of the country’s most elite investigators – experts in murder, manslaughter and data cross-referencing – more than doubles the manpower on the team”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “New Madeleine McCann chief steps up hunt”
“There has also been a renewed police presence in Praia da Luz, with officers spotted on the beach, in the apartment from where Madeleine disappeared and around the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns and their friends stayed”
The police are stepping up their efforts?
Mark Williams-Thomas, a former Surrey Police child protection officer who worked on the Sarah Payne murder inquiry, says the new approach was ‘textbook’. Says he: “For a long time now the investigation has lacked direction and impetus and [Paulo] Rebelo has brought that back. You wonder why they didn’t bring him in earlier”
Mr Williams-Thomas is not working on the McCann case, just talking about it
Clarence Michelle says: “In a normal world, the results [of DNA test] would go back to police who would assess them and that would be it. In this twilight zone we are operating in, whatever comes back will be leaked and exaggerated and the McCanns are fearful about that.”
And: “They want developments like everyone else and if they are required to go back to assist with the inquiry then of course they will”
Well, they are named suspects
THE GUARDIAN: “After Madeleine, why not Bin Laden?”
“Danie Krugel is an ex-policeman in South Africa who believes he can pinpoint the location of missing people anywhere on the map. He does this by using his special magic box, which works through something to do with ‘quantum physics’, but you aren’t allowed to know any more than that: these are ‘complex and secret science techniques’, driven by a ‘secret energy source’ driving a ‘matter orientation system machine’. By simply popping a strand of the missing person’s hair – or some other source of DNA – into his box of tricks, Krugel can pinpoint that person’s location, anywhere”
Madeleine McCann: Danie Krugel Is The Locator
Krugel volunteered to help the McCanns. The McCanns sent him a strand of Madeleine’s hair. He knows where she is. Ben Goldacre wonders:
“It’s amazing, of course, and the military applications alone are incredible. Why not find Bin Laden, every house burglar in Britain, and Lord Lucan too? In fact, if it works, this machine is a guaranteed Nobel prize winner, and in the meantime, psychic debunker James Randi has a million dollar prize for anyone who can demonstrate paranormal powers like these. Krugel’s claims fit the bill perfectly. Why not use the device to locate Randi, and claim his million?”
So it works?
“Meanwhile here is Krugel in a South African documentary on his work finding missing children. ‘If you get a signature sample of something … let’s call it organic or non-organic … a very small sample. I have developed a method to use that small sample and to create data that I use to search for its origin. So you transmit and you receive.’
“Is there anything metaphysical involved? Are you psychic?” Krugel: “I’m a Christian and I put it clearly … this is science, science, science!”
And we await those DNA results
THE TIMES and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 13th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,026)
Madeleine McCann Watch: Ben Affleck Releases
MADELEINE McCann watch: Ben Affleck, star of Gigi, Jersey Girl, one half of the straight-to-video relationship called Beniffer, the man who uttered the line “Not anxious to die sir, just anxious to matter” as Pearl Harbor exploded, is directing his first film. It’s called gone Baby Gone.
Says Ben in the Telegraph: “Disney UK made the decision to postpone the movie but I absolutely support it and I’m pleased by what I think is erring on the side of good taste.
“There’s no rush. It’s obviously a sensitive time and if there are any similarities we can wait to distribute the movie in the UK.
“I was only vaguely aware of the Madeleine case because it wasn’t a big thing here in the United States. Maybe I’m out of it because I don’t read many newspapers, but I didn’t really know much about it until somebody said, ‘Hey, there may be some similarities’.”
That’s right. Affleck is making a film – a work of fiction – that may be a bit like the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Ben is nothing if not sensitive.
Anyone traumatised by Afflecks’s performance in car accident movie Changing Lanes, who is a devout Christian and found Dogma offensive or who fears impending Armageddon can applaud Ben’s actions…
Posted: 12th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (34)
Madeleine McCann: Gerry McCann Protests, DNA And Slurs
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
THE SUN front page: “COPS’ SHOCK NEW CLAIMS – Gerry is NOT Maddie’s dad”
Page 7: “ANGRY GERRY SLAMS COP RUMOURS – I’m Maddie’s fathr..100%”
Kate and Gerry are “horrified and distressed” at the suggestion. The Sun says that both Kate and Gerry are “GPs”.
The allegations are “outrageous” and were made in Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas. The paper says: “The English found the biological father and concluded he had nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.”
And this means: “There is absolutely no chance her paternal profile could be confused with her twin siblings”
Says Clarence Mitchell (not Madeleine’s father): “Due to further unwarranted, unsubstantiated and totally inaccurate speculation in the Portuguese press” Gerry and Kate have authorised me to make the following statement”
A confession? A denial?
“For the record Gerry McCann is the biological father of his daughter Madeleine, a reports suggesting otherwise is nothing short of lies. It is indeed an absolutely untrue fabrication”
Not a true fabrication, eh? And not one the British press would mention, unless it was to show readers how bad those Portuguese are
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – PARENTS ARE STILL THE MAIN SUSPECTS”
Says who? “Says Portugal’s top policeman”
Police chief Alipio Riberio (Zooks!) says: “The investigation will continue to proceed along the lines it has proceeded until now” – He is following procedure
Page 9: “’New DNA test result will show us the truth’” – Julie Evans, who works for “one of Britain’s leading hair analysis providers, says “It is very difficult to detect the presence of sedatives in recovered hair strands”. Like the hair strands found in the McCanns’ car? Yes. And no, Julie is not working on the McCann case
DAILY MIRROR page 7: “McCanns ‘still chief suspects”
Alipio Ribeiro says: “All lines of investigation are open and will continue to be open until we have more clarity on the case”
DAILY MAIL page 5: “I am Maddie’s dad!”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “We have up to a year to sue and we will do…But they plan to sue 24 horas and any other media outlets that prints these claims as soon as the official s8epcts status is lifted.”
Any other media out that prints the claims will be sued? For what? Presenting the claims as fact or presenting them as news as reported in the Portuguese press, and allowing Gerry McCann space to issue his denial? And first they have to sue Sandra Felgueiras
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: WHO’S HER DADDY?”
Page 7: “GERRY: I AM MADDIE’S DADDY – Family fury over IVF ‘lies’”
Gerry is a “heart surgeon”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 13: “Paternity ‘slur’ angers McCanns”
THE GUARDIAN, THE TIMES and THE INDEPENDENT – No Maddie news today
Posted: 12th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,628)
Madeleine McCann: Ben Needham Is Missing, Operation Predator And Maddie’s Cops
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “McCanns warn: We’ll sue over claims we drugged our children”
Page 7: “Madeleine parents: We have never sedated our children” – The “slurs” are “outrageous” and “hurtful”.
The theory that they sedated all of their children is a “wild theory”. It appears in Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas, a source for “some of the more outlandish reporting”. The Express reproduces the outlandish reporting for its readers to digest and marvel at
“Grim hunt for images as child-porn ring is smashed” – Operation Predator is a clamp down on child porn in Portugal. A friend of the McCanns says: “This shows the scale of the problem in Portugal and appears to show that the Portuguese police seem to be looking in the right direction. It may provide vital leads”
But the raids were not directly connected with the Madeleine case. Operation Predator was six months in the planning
THE SUN front page: “Maddie: cop raid on pervs”
Page 7: “McCANNS’ DELIGHT AT PAEDO SWOOP” – Kate and Gerry McCann are “encouraged” that 300 Portuguese police “smashed” a 80-strong paedophile ring
“’FIND OUR KIDS TV’” – Kate and Gerry have backed a TV channel that features the 150,000 UK children that go missing each year. Pictures of missing children will be shown at GP surgeries, shopping malls and hospitals
Page 37: “MISSING BEN AGONY – We were too working class to get help like Maddie’s family” – The mother of Ben Needham, who disappeared 16 years ago on the Greek island of Kos – sees haves and have nots
“I was 19,” says Kerry Grist. “Just an ordinary girl from a council estate and people thought, ‘She will just go away in a few months, have another child and forget about it…I don’t think people thought Ben was important enough.” Or the media didn’t…
Kate McCann is a doctor. Gerry McCann is a heart specialist. Both Madeleine and Ben are blonde
DAILY MAIL page 5: “Huge porn swoop offers hope of a Maddie clue”
“Could Ben still be alive?” – Ben Needham disappeared from near his grandparents’ farm house
Says Mrs Grist, Ben’s mum: “Madeleine’s parents are middle class people with important jobs and seemed to have had a publicity machine behind them straight away”
DAILY MIRROR page 15: “WHY STAY IF SHE HAD SOMETHING TO HIDE?”
A pal of Kate McCann says: “She could not tear herself away [from Portugal]. What mother could leave the place where her daughter vanished? …If she had something to hide why would she hang around in Praia da Luz waiting for the police to come knocking on the door?”
We don’t know. Why?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE POLICE ARREST 80 PAEDOS”
Madeleine McCann does not have her own police force – not yet. But the police working on one case are Portuguese, like the police in her case. It’s an “EXCLUSIVE”
Page 7: “MADDIE COPS RAID PAEDOS” – The Star sees Gerry McCann leaving his home in a car. “STRAIN” reads the caption
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 17: “Madeleine police turn spotlight back on paedophiles”
“Missing children TV hopes to jog patients’ memories” – Ben Needham is missing. Xiao Xiao is missing. Lee Thomas Wedge is missing. Leanna Petrenko is missing. Abigaile Sommerville is missing. Andrew Paul Gosden is missing
THE INDEPENDENT page 24: “Mother in plea to missing son” – Ben Needham is missing
THE TIMES page 11: “Madeleine police return to kidnap theory”
German and Dutch police are believed to have been asked to trace and interview guests staying at the Ocean Club when Madeleine went missing
THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 11th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,683)
Madeleine McCann: Paulo Rebelo, Six More Kids And Clarence Mitchell Says
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADDY FLAT SEARCHED FOR 5 HOURS”
Three Portuguese police are looking over the McCanns’ holiday apartment
Page 11: “FINALLY..THEY GET IN THEIR TOP MAN” – Paulo Rebelo is on the case.
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry hope Mr Rebelo will now work to eliminate them from the inquiry as suspects and will then be in a position to refocus his team in the search for Madeleine”
First things first. Prioritise
Mitchell goes on: “Clearly we hope that a new head of the inquiry will work to ensure the unsubstantiated and unfounded allegations surrounding the case will now end”
The Mirror says it is “claimed four more children were in the McCanns’ holiday flat on the night Madeleine vanished”
THE SUN front page: “6 kids in flat with Maddie says ‘tec”
Page 6: “MADDIE TEC’S BIZARRE NEW CLAIM – 7 kids left in McCann flat as doc pals dined”
Paul Rebelo is Portugal’s “number 2 cop”. He is not Portugal’s “top man” (Mirror), but at least whoever that is can help with the case should Rebelo fails to produce a body
Jane Moore: “Keep Diana oddballs away from Diana” – one mysterious blonde looks very much like another
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Madeleine: Seven children were sleeping in McCann apartment, claim police”
Page 9: “Another amazing claim by the police: Other couples’ children were in Madeleine’s apartment”
It is a “bombshell”. It could “destroy the credibility of the group – now dubbed the Tapas Nine” – who say their own children were in their own family apartments
Clarence Mitchell says: “If you put seven children together, you’re going to have a far harder time getting them to sleep then three”
We await a re-enactment
Says a “high-ranking Policia Judicaria officer: “Unless we are dealing with a sexual predator who had been following this little girl for quite some time, which is not probable because they had only been in the Algarve for six days, it would be highly unlikely she [Madeleine] would be chosen. In crimes of this nature, the criminals always look for younger children because they are easier to sell”
And easier to get off to sleep, right?
DAILY MAIL page 25: “Madeleine ‘was left in room with six other youngsters’”
“It’s utter rubbish,” says Clarence Mitchell
Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas tells of “significant evidence” that seven of the Tapas Nine’s eight children had been in the McCanns’ apartment on May 3
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – COME BACK AND FIND BODY – new cop tells parents ‘return to Portugal’”
The McCanns have been “ordered back to Portugal”
Page 7: “Parents and pals face quiz on damning evidence – NEW MADDIE COP: BRING THEM BACK TO PORTUGAL NOW”
Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, who “snared Soham killer Ian Huntley”, is in Portugal. He’s making a show for Channel 4. It’s on the telly tonight. Will he crack the case in time for a live! sensation?
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 11: “Police in fresh search for McCanns’ apartment”
Seven Portuguese officers are in the flat – or three, as the Mirror reports
The McCanns have hired their own forensic experts to challenge any DNA evidence linking them to their daughter’s disappearance
THE TIMES front page: “Madeleine: DNA tests for British tourists”
Detectives in Praia da Luz want all British tourists who were there when Madeleine McCann disappeared to provide DNA samples and fingerprints
Page 3: “Madeleine detectives ask for British tourists’ DNA” – this “suggests that detectives cannot rule out the possibility that a stranger might have stolen the child from her bed”
Robert Murat is not mentioned
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 10th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,463)
Madeleine McCann: DNA Jigsaw, Torture And The Twilight Zone
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE DNA PUTS PARENTS IN FRAME. British experts insist their tests are valid”
Page 7: “DNA tests ‘fill in more pictures of jigsaw’” – A source close to the investigation provides the headline quote. But what has been found is unsaid, and how it involves Kate and Gerry McCann
“New police chief is accused of torture” – Chief inspector Tavares Almeida is to face charges of “beating up a robbery suspect in custody”. The Express says this is a “torture scandal”. The alleged victim – who was accused of being part of a gang that sexually abused children and coerced them into violent muggings – was acquitted
Mr Almeida was dubbed “Kate’s Tormenter”, possibly by the Express today
DAILY MAIL page 8: “New DNA tests ‘put the McCanns back under suspicion’”
The McCanns, both “doctors” are said to be “extremely distressed by the claims”
DAILY MIRROR page 7: “COPS GAVE UP SEARCH THREE MONTHS AGO”
“Investigation in tatters as second detective accused of violence”
THE SUN front page: “McCANNS’ AGONY – MADDIE: NEW DNA LINK TO KATE”
British forensic scientists “are said to believe tests on fresh clues support earlier findings that led to the McCanns being declared suspects”
Page 4: “McCANNS ‘LIVING IN A TWILIGHT WORLD’”
Clarence Michelle says: “We had reports that DNA had proved ‘inconclusive’ and even it had put the McCanns in the clear.”
Reports from whom is not reported
“Now there are reports that the DNA is making them look suspect. There are wholly innocent explanations for any material police may or may not have found. This just goes to show what a twilight zone we are operating in”
The Twilight Zone – wasn’t that the name of the TV show with the sting in the tail?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: NW DNA DAMNS PARENTS. Brit police find shock evidence”
But they have not been arrested. The McCanns are just suspects. How is this damning?
Pages 8 and 9: “MADDIE: SHOCK NEW DNA CLUE TO PARENTS – Boffins say cops on the right trail”
“Torture rap cop” – Tavares Almeida is 48
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 9: “Portuguese police ‘right to focus on McCanns’”
A British source says “Everything that has emerged indicates that the investigation is focusing where it should”
A British detective says the case is being “done back to front” – the parents should have been looked at first. The mantra is: “Clear the ground from under your feet”
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 9th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,027)
Madeleine McCann: The Tapas Group’s Movements On Tape
PAULO Reis in Portugal writes on Madeleine McCann:
A team headed by two university professors has created a computer-animated video with the movements of the Tapas group, during the crucial hours, on May 3, before Kate McCann found Madeleine was missing. The two experts, Paulo Sargento and Paulo Gamito, based their study on time lines and statements from witnesses published by The Times, BBC and the Portuguese newspapers Público and Sol.
Paulo Sargento told TV channel SIC that after the McCann arrived at the restaurant, almost every 5 minutes there was somebody leaving the table…going out to the apartments or coming from that direction – 7 persons went out 14 times in a period of two hours.The criminal expert considered the possibility of a kidnap as “not consistent” with so many regular checkings. “It will be very difficult, there was a very short period of time” available for a kidnapper to act, without being spotted, he said. The team is now working on another virtual scenario: a walk from Ocean Club to the church.
Spotter: Paulo Reis
Posted: 9th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (140)
Madeleine McCann: Clouds, Krugels Matter Orientation System And In Morocco
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: “We’ll be Maddie suspects forever”
Friends says Kate and Gerry McCanns are under a “cloud of suspicion” that will never blow over
Page 11: “McCANNS: WE’LL BE SUSPECTS FOREVER” – Father Jose Pacheco – remember when he was missing? And was found? – says: “Police will find Maddie in the end”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “WE’LL BE SUSPECTS FOR EVER”
Kate and Gerry McCann are “distraught”
Pages 4 and 5: “As DNA expert claims his device has pinpointed missing tot’s grave one mum warns the McCanns..DON’T TRUST THE BODYFINDER” – Danie Krugel knows where Madeleine’s body is buried
His knowledge, heralded as a sensational breakthrough over the weekend, now relies on a “bizarre DNA-tracking machine”. All hail the Matter Orientation System
Verenda Gouws says: “Don’t trust him.” Her son went missing. She gave Krugel a hair from her son’s razor. Says she: “I can’t say this machine doesn’t work – but I know for a fact it didn’t work for us”
DAILY MAIL front page:” MADELEINE – Kate fears mystery will never be solved”
Page 13: “Maddie’s mother fears mystery will never be solved” – If Madeleine is not found it would be a “nightmare”
A woman has spotted Madeleine in Morocco. A Spanish woman – again a Spanish woman; do all blonde children look alike to them? – says she saw Madeleine in a village
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE PARENTS IN THE CLEAR – as new shock on DNA evidence”
So the nightmare is over. The cloud has passed
Says a source: “The tests which have taken place so far have proved inconclusive”
So they are in the clear. Or might not be. it is inconclusive
Page 9: “Fears for Kate’s health” – Kate McCanns looks “drained”. She is taking “vitamins”. She is being cooked her “favourite meals”. Kate has “not been seen to smile in public for several weeks”. Unless you look at the Mail and past pictures of Kate in happier times
DAILY STAR page 7: “MADDIE COPS GET HI-TECH ‘CRACKER’” – Portuguese police are using a computer programme. The software crunches the facts and pumps out an explanation
Portuguese criminologist Fancisco Moita Flores says the programme highlighted “inconsistencies” in statements received. “The essential fact is that the parents and the friends all lied in relation to the timings,” she says
Lied or were mistaken? The computer knows all. You cannot trick the computer. And if it works in this case it will work anywhere. Get it at police station near you and make the inventors from Lisbon University rich
THE TELEGRAPH page 11: “McCanns fear they will always remain under suspicion” – Danie Kruge says: “Dig here”
THE INDEPENDENT, THE TIMES and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 8th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (948)
Portuguese Police Union Sues British Media Over Madeleine McCann
PAULO Reis in Portugal on Madeleine McCann:
The head of PJ detective’s union confirmed that a libel suit was filed against “two British Media organizations”, because of stories published that were considered defamatory of Poliícia Judiciária. “After we filled it, the British Media moved from attacks against the Portuguese Police to personal attacks against Criminal Coordinator Gonçalo Amaral”, said Carlos Anjos. “They are trying to undermine his credibility, either as a professional or as a individual, insulting him without even respecting his privacy and his family.” The PJ detective’s union president said they were in touch with Gonçalo Amaral and, if he wants to file also a libel suit, he will have the “full support of ASFIC.”
Carlos Anjos rejected accusations from British Media about the alleged incompetence of Portuguese Police, in Madeleine’s investigation, and referred the case of Rhys Jones, a 11-years-old boy who was shot on August 22: “After more than one month, British Police wasn’t able to arrest his killer. In this case, they have more than a dozen witnesses, but until now they have arrested 17 suspects and they sent them free, didn’t charged nobody”
Good to hear the investigation is getting somewhere.
Source: Gazeta Digital
Posted: 7th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (168)
Madeleine McCann: Danie Krugel Is The Locator, Gerry McCanns The Roof And Paedo Alert
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
NEWS OF THE WORLD front page: “Maddie was alive on beach”
“A renowned international manhunt expert, dubbed The Locator, sensationally revealed he has uncovered a telltale DNA trail left by snatched toddler Maddie McCann”
THE LOCATOR – in the papers and all over Praia da Luz from Sunday (see press for details). Anyone else see a made-for-TV series or a fly-on-the-wall documentary?
Ex-cop Danie Krugel has tracked the “forensic route” he believed her kidnapper took from her Madeleine’s Portuguese holiday apartment. It ends on the beach
Says Krugel: I spent four nights in July carrying out my searches. I’ve been able to trace where Madeleine was in the resort and have drawn a map which has been given to the police.
“I can’t reveal details as I don’t want to alert anyone who might try to disturb the scene. But I believe I’ve traced where she was taken that night and now it’s down to police to use their search experts to do the rest. The area to which my investigation led me is a difficult one to search”
Disturb the scene? The beach at a popular tourist destination made famous by the disappearance of a little girl? Yes, best not disturb that. And tell the wind and the tide to stop, too
A source “close” to the McCanns says: “The work of Mr Krugel should not be underestimated and gives great hope to Gerry and Kate. Many people have contacted the couple to try to help but while their hearts may be in the right place they just don’t have the expertise to be of assistance. But Mr Krugel has a proven record of finding people and his methods are extremely credible”
Like this credible helper. And this one. And this one. And this one…
SUNDAY MIRROR front page: “MADELEINE SENSATION – BOYFINDER CALLED IN”
• McCanns hire leading DNA expert
• He pinpoints area on local beach
• New cops urged to start digging
And fishing…
“Desperate Kate and Gerry McCann” sent a strand of Madeleine’s hair to South African police colonel Danie Krugel. The Locator has located the spot where Madeleine’s body is buried
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “WOMAN WHO COST MADDIE FUND £51K”
“Anguished Gerry McCann sensationally split from the expert masterminding the worldwide hunt for his missing daughter Madeleine after she put in a whopping £20,000 overtime and expenses bill”
PR Justine McGuinness charged Gerry and wife Kate £51,000 for 89 days’ work. “Her basic fee was £350 a day, making a total of £31,000. And the rest was made up in overtime payments and expenses – including bar and restaurant bills”
A source says Gerry saw the bill and “hit the roof”. He was “livid”
So she went. And was replaced by Clarence Mitchell
“Gerry was the only one who wanted Clarence,” readers learn. “He was determined to get him after building a strong relationship with him in Portugal. But nobody else wanted him because he had given Kate and Gerry – what some of the family thought of as – questionable advice”
Can the McCanns’ PRs get a PR before their names and sullied?
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: “New police chief turns screw on McCanns”
MAIL ON SUNDAY: “MPs demand record of child-tracking devices over paedophile fears”
Oh?
“New laws to regulate the use of high-tech child-tracking devices are being called for by MPs amid fears they could be used by paedophiles and stalkers. The technology is aimed at parents wanting to keep tabs on their children after a series of high-profile child murders and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann”
Maybe all adults should be chipped instead? Or children paedo-proofed – why let it ruin your holiday?
THE TIMES: “Detective who suspected Kate and Gerry McCann may lead hunt”
Luis Neves, 41, is seen as a forerunner to replace Goncarlo Amaral as lead detective. He was seen by the McCanns as a “breath of fresh air” when he joined the inquiry team.
“But he later became convinced she had died in an accident in the McCanns’ apartment”
Or will it be Carlos do Carmo? He has no previous connection with the case, and was Amaral’s predecessor as director of the police in Portimao. The Times says he earned the respect of colleagues after bringing the killer of a police officer to justice
Who will it be: Carmo or Neves? Press your keypads now!
Or C: The British Supercop?
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: “Police have open minds, insists Kate McCann”
“Kate and Gerry McCann are ‘furious’ at Portuguese police claims that British detectives believe their missing daughter Madeleine is dead”
Says Kate McCann to friends: “The police have told us they have an open mind. Of course we accept it’s possible Madeleine may no longer be alive but we don’t know and nor do the police, so we have to do everything we can to find her”
Clarence Mitchell refuses to comment on “the latest unfounded, unsubstantiated rumours”
A source says: “”Quite how any child would die falling off a sofa is beyond me”
She fell off the sofa? Really…
THE OBSERVER: “Forensic DNA tests ‘reveal traces of Madeleine’s body on resort beach’”
“Retired” South African police superintendent Daniel Krugel is on the beach
Are you?
Posted: 7th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (716)
Madeleine McCann: Mum’s The Word, War Of Words And Woolfall PR
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – Police wanted to lock up mum.”
(As noted yesterday, Kate McCann I snow billed as ‘mum’.)
“Kate McCann was just hours away from being locked up in a police cell, it emerged yesterday,” readers learn
“Detectives who interrogated the mother of missing Madeleine for more than 11 hours wanted her put behind bars after she refused to answer key questions.”
The police want to put the suspects behind bars, eh? Maybe they want to put all suspects behind bars, just to be safe? And swab them all, like they do in the UK, just to be safe?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE IS DEAD: No doubts say British cops”
No doubts? Unless she is found alive, of course…
British police also believe it was right for the McCanns to be named as suspects by their Portuguese counterparts
A “senior British detective” says: “It was not a decision that would have been taken at all lightly. The English officers would have been fully aware of the implications of taking such a step and would have agonised over it. They knew they would effectively be casting a shadow of suspicion over a couple who have lost their daughter and who maintain they are entirely innocent victims of a heinous crime.
“The case is in the media spotlight. A wrong call would be exposed to worldwide condemnation. There is no way any officer would make that decision unless they believed it was wholly necessary as a crucial part of the investigation.’’
Good to know the British and Portuguese police are working together…
DAILY MAIL: “British police attack Portuguese ‘dirty tricks’ over Madeleine”
Oh?
“British police entered the war of words over Madeleine McCann to deny Portuguese detectives’ claims that she was killed in her family’s holiday apartment. The Leicestershire force said it did not back the theory put forward by Portuguese detectives that the four-year-old died in the care of her parents, Gerry and Kate, which was leaked to a Portuguese newspaper this week.
“The daily Correio da Manha quoted unnamed sources as saying British officers believed the missing four-year-old’s corpse was hidden in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz”
A police source adds: “Leicestershire Constabulary have been careful not to offer an opinion as to what has happened to Madeleine as it is not party to all the evidence as it is not our investigation.”
Quite so. What is there to add? No new facts. No arrests. No body.
Says the Mail: “The move also highlighted the deep divisions between detectives in the McCanns’ home county and those in Portugal.”
A British source “linked to the inquiry” says: “It appears that Portuguese police are resorting to dirty tricks to divert attention from their troubled investigation
At last the papers are focusing on finding the missing girl…
DAILY MIRROR: “McCanns plea to talk as cop case collapses”
“The shambolic Portuguese investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has ground to a halt”
A source says: “There is little expectation of dramatic developments in the near future…There is no body and the chances of finding evidence to suggest that Madeleine’s corpse could have been stored then put in the boot of the McCanns’ car are fading fast. It means the police will have serious difficulties in convincing prosecutors of their theory – let alone a jury.
“Unless the Portuguese police have kept something pretty amazing up their sleeve they need a new witness or a major new discovery. Basically they’ve run out of evidence”
But what is this case about if not drama and sensation? Nothing should be ruled out.
Alipio Ribeiro, head of the Policia Judiciaria, reportedly told aides: “There is a crisis every day. This one is resolved, let’s see what tomorrow’s is”
He gets it
THE TIMES: “I saw Kate and Gerry McCanns’ despair and if they were acting they deserved an Oscar – The PR expert who advised Madeleine’s parents in the first weeks of her disappearance offers a new insight into their state of mind”
Alex Woolfall is a public relations consultant for the Ocean Club, Praia da Luz. He met the McCanns. He is an expert in “crisis PR” – just what the case needs. And who can trust if not a PR?
“I was struck at the perception of people who had watched Kate and Gerry: that they were very controlled and perhaps were not responding in a way people thought would be more natural. They were not at all controlled. When I was with them, they were between being completely distraught and trying to do what they felt was the right thing”
PR crisis averted. Now to find Madeleine…
TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN & INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 6th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (656)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann Becomes Mum
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – I CRY EVERY DAY SAYS KATE”
“For the first time she reveals her torment” – Kate gives the papers what they want: tears
Pages 6 and 7: “Madleine’s mum: I can’t stop crying” – Kate McCann is no longer Kate McCann; she is above all things Madeleine’s mum
“Obviously nothing can compare with the night Madeleine went missing,” says mum. And Gerry – dad’s – worst moment? “I think when we were made suspects in our own daughter’s disappearance – when the inference was that Madeleine was dead and that, somehow, we were involved…”
Yes…
“But, no it can’t get any worse than that first night…”
DAILY MAIL page 7: “Some days I just can’t stop the tears, says Maddie’s mother”
“Second police chief quits the case” – Tavares Almeida has followed his boss Goncarlo Amaral and left the business of Madeleine McCann to another lucky Portuguese cop
DAILY MIRROR front page: “KATE McCANN SPEAKS AS NEVER BEFORE..Every day felt like a week”
Page 5: “Being named suspects, the idea that we were involved, was terrible. But NOTHING can compare to the trauma of the first night our Madeleine went missing”
Kate is a “locum GP”. Gerry is a “heart specialist”. These are the facts. And they remain unaltered
The couple give an interview as they visit the offices of the Leicester Mercury newspaper, where they are presented with a cheque for £57,000 from the sales of the Madeleine wristbands
THE SUN front page: “KATE’S MADDIE ORDEAL – NOTHING’S AS BAD AS THAT NIGHT. Mum tells of torment”
Page 6: “I weep for Maddie…but we still have hope”
Says Kate McCann: “I’ve had days when if I wasn’t crying for Madeleine, I was crying from the messages people have sent us”
The McCanns “say their lowest point…was when Portuguese police declared them ‘arguidos’ – formal suspects over their daughter’s disappearance”. So not the night Madeleine disappeared, as the Express says?
Gerry is a “cardiologist”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – Kate: I cry for my daughter every day”
Page 8 and 9: “Finding Maddie had gone was far worse than being named suspect in killing”
THE TIMES page 14: “The twins are the only part of our lives that are normal”
Kate McCann says: “There is a semblance of normality returning. It’s more normal than it was three weeks ago, Amelie and Sean can see that. But really how can it be normal without Madeleine?”
THE INDEPENDENT page 8: “Second officer steps own from Madeleine inquiry” – Tavares Almeida. Bad Times, as Tavares were wont to say
THE GUARDIAN page 15: “Sacked Madeleine detective’s deputy seeks leave” – Senor Tavares. (Heaven Must be Missing An Angel)
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: “KATE McCANN: THE DAILY TORMENT OF LIFE WITHOUT MADELEINE”
Page 3: “The McCanns have kept Madeleine’s room the same as it was. The twins are allowed in for a few minutes – “Otherwise, the door remains closed most of the time”
Detectives make notes.
Posted: 5th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (855)
Madeleine McCann: Back To Portugal, A Scapegoat And Super Cop
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Madeleine: McCanns vow ‘We’ll go back to Portugal’”
Page 9: “Kate and Gerry: We’ll fly back to Portugal”
A source says the McCanns would like to meet Goncarlo Amaral’s successor leading the investigation. And: “We would not presume to tell the Portuguese police how to do their jobs”. So what will they talk about?
On Mr Amaral, a source tells Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha, the man was “a scapegoat for the English”.
The Express says Gerry is a “consultant cardiologist”. Kate is a “part-time GP”. Such are the facts
DAILY MIRROR front page: “McCANNS: WE’LL GO BACK TO PORTUGAL”
Page 11: “NEW COP IN CHARGE..NEW HOPE FOR US”
A source says: “We do hope that the change will re-energise and refocus the hunt for Madeleine”
THE SUN pages 14 and 15: “He was boozy, incompetent and convinced the McCanns killed Maddie..so we say to sacked police chief Amaral: “GOOD RIDDANCE”
Readers see the “Cop’s café…restaurant where Amaral spouted his nonsense.” He is a “hapless plod”. He has thick forearms. “It seems he spent most of that time conjuring up countless malicious explanations for Madeleine’s disappearance”. You spend too long with tabloid hacks, you run the risk of going native
“COPS IN MUDDLE WITH NO LEADER”
Page 11: “Snub Portugal till brains are put on Maddie case”
Kelvin Mackenzie wants Britishers to boycott Portugal
DAILY MAIL page 30: “Now focus on finding Maddie, her parents tell police” – The McCanns have “welcomed the sacking” of Mr Amaral. But they will not comment on the, er, case
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE – Sarah Payne cop to join in hunt”
Page 9: “GET SARAH COP TO FIND MADDIE – ‘Ace British detective will crack the case’”
Dept Supt Alan Ladley is a “super cop”. He nailed Roy Whiting for the murder of seven-year-old Sarah Payne. A source says: “They want a successful copper and he could be just the man”
A British wooden top could head the Portuguese investigating team. He will show them how to clear crime up and make Portugal a crime-free idyll, like the UK
DAILY EXPRESS page 15: “Madeleine case in disarray after sacking” – Says Clarence Mitchell: “There have been so many distractions, so many unsubstantiated allegations swirling around all of this out there and repeated here in Britain”
THE TIMES, THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 4th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,156)
Madeleine McCann: Amaral Policing, Secrets Out And EastEnders
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: PORTUGUESE POLICE CHIEF IS SACKED AFTER AMAZING OUTBURST.”
Page 9: “Madeleine detective kicked off case after blasting British police” – Chief inspector Goncalo Amaral says: “The British police have only been working on what the McCann couple want them to and what suits them.”
Says Amaral: “The Ocean Club is in Praia da Luz, not in London…It won’t be an email, and an anonymous one at that, which will distract our line of investigation.”
Mr Amaral is making reference to the email sent to the official website of the Prince of Wales last week claming a vengeful nanny had abducted Madeleine.
Pages 30 and 31: “HAIR-RAISING TRUTH ABOUT THE PSYCHIC BARBER – During the day Gordon Smith cuts hair, at night he claims he communes with the spirits. So does he really think he can help the McCanns find Madeleine?”
THE WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER confirms that former EastEnders actress Michelle Collins is a “BELIEVER”.
DAILY MAIL page 7: “Off the case. Madeleine police chief demoted after amazing rant against McCanns and British detectives”
Say Amaral: “They [the English] have been investigating tip-offs and information created and worked upon by the McCanns”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: CHIEF COP SACKED.”
Page 10: “INSPECTOR CLUELESS GETS THE BOOT”
Page 11: “If Maddie IS dead she will tell me where he body is” – Says Gordon Smith
DAILY MIRROR front page: “Maddy copper is axed”
Page 7: “OFF THE CASE – Boozy cop is demoted after furious outburst against the McCanns”
THE SUN page 7: “MADDIE COP FIRED FOR McCANNS RANT – storm as bungler says family duped Brit police”
Comments Clarence Mitchell: “I can confirm that Kate and Gerry are aware of this development but we cannot comment”
THE GUARDIAN page 7: “Detective leading hunt for Madeleine sacked after blast at UK police” – Mr Amaral is 47. He has been demoted. He is 48 in the Sun. Such are the facts
Carols Pinto de Abreu, the McCanns’ Portuguese lawyer, says: “The McCanns cannot confess to something they did not do and cannot and should not lie to please the police”
THE INDEPENDENT page 8: “Detective leading Madeleine hunt dropped from case after outburst” – Amaral is being investigated over an alleged attack on the mother of a different missing girl. Read about that here
THE TIMES front page: “Detective in charge of McCann case sacked”
Page 9: “Madeleine detective sacked after outburst”
Alipio Ribeiro, Amaral’s boss, says: “The police should be discreet and keep quiet, but there is always someone who talks” – So much for those secrecy laws
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 15: “Madeleine inquiry chief sacked after attack on British police”
A “family friend” of the McCanns says: “What he [Mr Amaral] is saying is just plain wrong. Leicestershire Police are not doing anything on Kate and Gerry’s behalf. They are simply there for liaison. There is certainly no strategy to distract form the Portuguese investigation”
What investigation?
Posted: 3rd, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,208)
Madeleine McCann: ‘Bad Dad’ Gerry McCann, The Psychic Barber And Drugs
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “Madeleine was drugged but it was by kidnapper says her grandmother.”
Page 9: “Madeleine’s family: She was drugged…but not by parents.”
Eileen McCann, Gerry’s mother – says: “I really believe they [whoever took her] gave her a drug. There is no way they carried her out of there without her waking. If she was taken when she was sleeping by somebody she did not know, she would have screamed the place down.”
Alternatively, she was taken by someone she did know? Or Mrs McCann is just speculating.
“’BAD DAD’ GERRY” – Carlos Anjos, head of the Portuguese Police Federation, says Gerry, “a heart consultant”, is a “negligent father”. This is his “astonishing rant”.
THE SUN front page: “Mystics hunt for Maddie.”
Around 150 leads provided by mystics have been followed up.
Page 6: “ASK PSYCHIC BARBER TO HELP FIND MADDIE” – Clairvoyant Gordon Smith has been contacted by the family. Smith hosts TV’s Most Haunted show. He says he can tell if Madeleine is alive or dead. Mick is nicknamed “THE PSYCHIC BARBER”.
DAILY MIRROR front page: “McCANNS: SHE WAS DRUGGED.”
Page 5: “‘Madeleine must have been drugged..she would have screamed place down’” – GRANDMOTHER EILEEN McCANN YESTERDAY.”
“Couple call on psychic to help” – Ex-hairdresser Smith is a “wacky medium”.
Says he: “In order for it to work I need to sit with the closest relatives who would be the parents. Then I’d tune in and see what I can pick up. But I would always warn them that there’s a possibility nothing might happen.”
Best to warn them of that first…
DAILY MAIL page 5: “Now police leader mocks ‘negligent’ Gerry McCann over his fears that an abductor was in Maddie’s room.”
“Call for the ‘psychic barber’” – “Despite both being strict Roman Catholics, the couple have already made contact” with Gordon Smith.
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE I’LL FIND BODY IN DAYS. Parents call in psychic.”
Page 7: “MADDIE’S PARENTS CALL FOR PSYCHIC BARBER” – “I have offered my help for free,” says Smith. “I never charge for private readings. I have already assured them I will say nothing to the press.” Indeed, not. Best save it for the book.
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 15: “Police chief accuses McCanns of hindering inquiry” – Carlos Anjos accuses McCanns of using “diversion tactics”.
THE TIMES page 27: “McCanns ‘considering psychic help’”
THE GUARDIAN no Maddie new today.
Madeleine McCann: A Life In Headlines
Posted: 2nd, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,270)
Madeleine McCann: In Morocco, Killed By Steps And The 6ixth Sense
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: SHE IS IN MOROCCO. I saw her, says reliable new witness…but police says she fell down steps.”
A non sequitur to get the Madeleine McCann week underway.
THE WORLD’S BEST NEWSPAPER hears Samantha Peart say that she saw a girl who looked like Madeleine in Morocco on June 10. She reported it to police, who did “nothing”.
Mrs Peart’s husband is a “stockbroker”. Gerry McCann is a “consultant cardiologist”. Daily Express readers should insert there profession [here].
And the latest theory is that Madeleine died in an accident – she fell down some steps.
Can Madeleine cement her place as the Express’ new Princess Diana, who also died in an accident (?), the paper finds it hard to believe happened?
Page 4 and 5: “Now police say she fell down the steps.”
Page 5 is split in two: “SHE’S DEAD…” and “SHE’S ALIVE”.
DAILY MIRROR pages 4 and 5: Kate and Gerry McCann are “linked in anguish”.
THE SUN page 9: “150 DAYS, 150 NIGHTS…WE PRAY FOR MADDIE.”
Kate and Gerry McCann are in church. They go to church a lot. We always see them go. Father Keith Tomlinson asks: “I think I’m right it saying it’s been 150 days, 150 nights, since that terrible day…We pray for Madeleine and her family.”
“STEPS PLUNGE SLUR” – Portuguese police think Madeleine fell down a flight of stairs at their holiday flat. A “senior police source” says they are “100 per cent certain” the girl stumbled down ten steps head first. He adds: “The only thing to investigate is how the body disappeared.”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “It’s ludicrous. Leaks appear on a daily basis. It’s hurtful.” Mr Mitchell likes the word “ludicrous”.
DAILY STAR page 7: “KILLER STEPS – British cops claim Maddie fell to her death.”
“TV psychic offers help” – Colin Fry, star of TV show 6ixth Sense, says he can use his powers to track down Madeleine.
THE TIMES page 21: “A sacked maid seeking revenge is latest suspect over missing Madeleine.”
Sunday’s news hits the Times. The tip-off emailed to the official website of:
a) The McCanns
b) Prince Charles
c) Girls Aloud?
The answer is… (b).
Clarence House informed Scotland Yard, who informed Leicestershire police, who informed a journalist, who informed the world.
“Mother who buried child in garden to be deported to UK” – The Times sees fit to underscore the McCann story with the tale of Tracy McHugh, who secretly buried her newborn baby in her Florida garden.
DAILY MAIL page 6: “Now the Portuguese say Madeleine died in fall on a staircase” – but the Star says the cop making this slur is British?
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 11: “Madeleine died after fall down steps, say detectives” – Say Portuguese police.
The McCanns are in discussion to appear on US talk shows. To keep Madeleine in the news. Madeleine has not been spotted in the US. Not yet.
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Maddy news.
Posted: 1st, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,365)
Madeleine McCann: The Nanny Suspect, Amaral Policing And Jail
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE MYSTERY. BRING IT ON.”
The Sunday Express is not the Express, which has form some weeks led with the front-page banner “MADELEINE”. The Sundays Express goes its own way.
“McCanns remain defiant as they face 40 questions from UK police this week”
“Kate and Gerry’s fury as new sighting in Morocco by businessman is ignored”
SUNDAY MIRROR front page: “MADDIE HUNT: THE TRUTH.”
The truth… At last…
“DISGRACE.”
A picture of Madeleine McCann (on the right). A picture of Portuguese copper Goncarlo Amaral (left).
“Police have ignored 250 sightings of her” – and have investigated how many?
“Cop leading police probe works four hours a day” – Amaral’s not overworked and fresh.
“He has three-hour boozy lunches with pals” – Amaral holds lengthy meetings to discuss and masticate over the case with team.
“Puffing on a cigarette and knocking back beers, the man leading the world’s biggest missing child inquiry enjoys yet another long, boozy lunch.”
Good to know that the Mirror is not wasting its time and watching him.
STAR ON SUNDAY: “THREATS TO McCANNS.”
“Friends say the couple are ‘extremely concerned’ by the nature of the threats and are considering hiring extra security.
Last night a spokeswoman for the McCanns, both 39, confirmed that they had been sent what she described as ‘negative letters and fear mail’.”
INDEPENDENT: “Maddie ‘kidnapped by maid’, says email.”
“The McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said they were ‘encouraged’ by the development.”
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Kate McCann will risk jail to find Madeleine
Kate McCann has been told by her legal team that she faces jail sentence if she flouts Portuguese law to discuss details of the four-year-old’s disappearance in a high-profile television interview.
She tells a “close friend”: “I will do what I must. What does any of it matter if it helps find Madeleine?”
“It is what Kate thinks will help,” a close friend tells the paper. “What choice does she have? Unless Kate and Gerry ignore the law and speak out, their chances of finding Madeleine will dwindle further. Better to risk prison if it helps find her.
“Will the Portuguese police really prosecute a mother whose sole aim is to find her daughter or at least, God forbid, discover the whereabouts of her body? Kate, most of all, believes risking a jail sentence is nothing compared to finding Madeleine.”
Who needs an interview with Kate with friends like that?
THE OBSERVER: “This limbo that lasts a lifetime,” writes Carol Sarler.
“The McCanns are said to be devastated by dashed hopes; if so, they must get used to it, for there will be more sightings, more dashing and, to add to their misery, more harassment of more innocent families. I know this because, having investigated the disappearance of Ben Needham on Kos in 1991, the unfolding of the McCann case has felt like one long, wretched, groundhog summer.
“Ben, recapped in a nutshell: his grandparents, Eddie and Chris Needham, moved from Sheffield to Kos with their teenage son Stephen, daughter Kerry and her boyfriend and their son, Ben…
“…The singular difference between the Needhams and the McCanns is, crudely, class. Eddie has homemade tattoos on his knuckles, Chris was a grandmother at 38, Kerry and her boyfriend – a man known, as they say, to the police – lived in a council block. Perhaps this explains why, throughout their ordeal, nobody from the British consulate in Athens once got off their butt or went to Kos to help or support; surgeon Gerry McCann, by contrast, mobilised the world.”
“Arabic adverts aid Madeleine hunt”… “Despite the disappointment of last week’s misleading sighting of a blonde girl in the Moroccan town of Zaio, the McCanns believe that their daughter might be somewhere in the country.”
TIMES: No Madeleine news today.
Posted: 30th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,108)
Madeleine McCann: People Smugglers, A Small Fridge And Child Alerts
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – STOLEN BY PEOPLE SMUGGLERS.”
“Missing Madeleine McCann may be in the hands of North African people smugglers. Police in Morocco, investigating a reported sighting, believe they have identified a link with a ruthless gang of traffickers.”
Remember when Madeleine was in “the clutches” of Moroccans, and how the gang turned out to be a couple of farmers and their daughter?
Now: “The breakthrough came a few weeks after Madeleine went missing when a Spanish tourist reported seeing a blonde girl matching her description being dragged along by a scruffy, Arab-looking woman in the town of Zaio.”
Spanish tourist Isabel Gonzalez has told the world how she saw a blonde toddler in Morocco. Not Bouchra Benaissa. Another blonde Moroccan.
“The alarm was raised in May by 60-year-old Spanish tourist Isabel Gonzalez who said: ‘The girl I saw was blonde, with pale skin, whereas everyone else in the area is dark-skinned and dark-haired.”
Well, not everyone. Remember Bouchra Benaissa..?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE BODY KEPT IN FREEZER.”
THE SUN front page: “MADDIE COPS IN SICK SLUR.”
“COPS MOST SICKENING SLUR YET” – “MADDIE’S BODY KEPT IN FRIDGE.”
“Maddie parents mark 150 days”
“McCann’s gagged by cops” – “A friend of the McCanns said: ‘It is madness. We are being forced to inhabit a fantasy world in which we can increase public awareness of Madeleine’s disappearance and urge the public’s help through a poster campaign, but her own parents cannot help in this because of the legal status attached to them. It is so frustrating – Madeleine’s own mum and dad are not allowed to speak about her.’”
So they have anything to say that is not said through their spokesman, Gerry’s blog and friends, and to the police?
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADELEINE SENSATION – NEW SUSPECT IN STAIRWELL.”
“A British tourist seen ‘hiding’ in a stairwell outside Madeleine McCann’s apartment on the night she disappeared was being investigated last night.
“The new suspect, stocky and wearing two-tone glasses, was spotted by an Ocean Club worker just 12 metres from the flat. The employee, who did not want to be named, exclusively told the Mirror: ‘I’ll never forget him.’”
DAILY MAIL: “McCanns gagged from answering claims they dumped Madeleine’s body in Spain.”
•Portuguese papers claim Kate McCann killed Madeleine while Gerry played tennis
•Couple ‘then hid the child’s body in a fridge and later disposed of it in Spain’
•McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the reports were ‘utterly ludicrous’
These are the “latest lurid allegations”.
“A family friend ridiculed the suggestion that Madeleine’s body could have been stored in a fridge, saying: ‘Have you seen the size of the fridges in those apartments? Of course they did not stuff her in a fridge.’”
THE TIMES: “Kate and Gerry McCann’s friends refute ‘missing hours’ claim as smears continue.”
“The parents of Madeleine McCann have pleaded for an end to the distressing smear campaign that has suggested that they may have killed their missing daughter…
“It was claimed yesterday that police in Portugal believe that Kate McCann killed Madeleine while putting her to bed at their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz between 7pm and 8.30pm on May 3 and then hid her corpse in a fridge, with the help of friends.
“The respected Diario de Noticias newspaper said that officers believed that Mrs McCann accidentally killed Madeleine while her husband was playing tennis.”
Stop the smears. But read all about them first.
THE GUARDIAN: “EU plan for missing child alerts.”
Oh?
“Portugal will next week call for the creation of an EU-wide alert system for missing children, five months after Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday resort in the south of the country. The move has been welcomed by the McCann family.”
So she was taken across boarders?
“In a statement released through Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman, Madeleine’s father, Gerry, said: ‘If this is true, we would very much welcome it as it would be a major step in the right direction. We feel it would be vital in protecting other children and their families. Kate and I have consistently campaigned to effect change throughout the EU to help protect children.’”
But Madeleine McCann might not have been stolen. Is this just another instance of people jumping on story to promote their pet cause?
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann’s parents may face jail.”
No, not for child neglect.
“Kate and Gerry McCann could face 12 months in prison if they speak out to defend themselves against a slur campaign in Portugal because of the country’s strict secrecy laws, it is claimed.”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Each and every one of these nonsensical allegations causes real pain and hurt for both Gerry and Kate.
“We just hope that everyone can see these ridiculous rumours for what they are.”
Posted: 29th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (573)
Madeleine McCann: Spies, Richard Branson PI And Maddy TV
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE. SPY-IN-SKY PLAN TO FIND HER KIDNAPPER.”
So she was kidnapped. Wasn’t she?
“Satellite and aerial footage as well as internet traffic should be used to help the hunt,” say “intelligence experts”, including Professor Anthony Glees, Director of Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies. Security is his thing.
Pages 4 and 5: “Riddle of the McCanns’ day out” – Why did the McCanns go to Spain on August 3 and what did they do there? Clarence Mitchell says the TV cameras and journalists tracked their every move.
“Branson: They are innocent” – Richard Branson PI calls it a “grotesque nightmare”. He has donated £100,000 to help the McCanns clear their name. He says the McCanns have “the weight and support of Britain behind them”.
THE SUN front page: “OUTRAGE AS COPS CLAIM MADDIE ‘BURIED IN SPAIN’.”
Pages 6 and 7: “POLICE PROBE LOST 2 HOURS” – Police Claim the McCanns buried Madeleine during a “missing two hours” in Spain.
Kate and Gerry are “shattered”.
Says the Sun:
“SUSPICIOUS the trip was postponed from the day before – because Gerry had intestinal problems.
“’STRANGE’” that the couple from Rothley, Leics, chose to visit Spain on a national holiday, when the shops were shut.
“MYSTERIOUS that the McCanns racked up ‘unjustified mileage’ in their Renault Scenic – hired 25 days after Maddie disappeared.”
A source says a new ad campaign to find Madeleine will start in two weeks.
DAILY MAIL page 3: “Police use CCTV to map McCanns trips.”
As newspaper Correio de Manha reports, Spanish police have given their Portuguese counterparts CCTV footage “showing the Renault Scenic in places in Spain where there was ‘no reason’ for the couple to be.”
A TV series based on Madeleine McCann is being produced in Chile. Says Chilean newspaper El Mercurio: “The case is becoming a soap opera.”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “KATE IS SO FRAGILE. Fears for mum after latest blow.”
Kate McCann’s face is all over the front page. “The anguish is plain to see.” A friend hears that Madeleine had not been found in Morocco: “Kate is so fragile. She’s suffering a devastating disappointment.”
Page 5: “They suffered a devastating blow with the false alarm in Morocco. Kate has crashed.”
“COPS PROBE SPAIN TRIP.”
DAILY STAR pages 6 and 7: “MADDIE DUMPED IN SPAIN.” An “exclusive”.
THE TIMES page 16: Mick Hume says: “The line between investigation and emotive entertainment has disappeared.”
THE TELEGRAPH page 6: “Portuguese focus on McCanns’ Spain trip” – Clarence Mitchell says the McCanns are innocent.
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: no Madeleine news today.
Posted: 28th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,087)
Not Another Madeleine McCann
“MANY of us had begun to fear the worst, especially in the light of Madeleine McCann.”
The words of “butcher” Shaun who had been looking for his five-year-old son Alex.
The Express helps in the Hunt for Shaun and finds him hiding beneath his bed. Incredibly, the Express find time to take a picture of Shaun in hiding mode and delivers it to its readers by way of a guide: “If you child goes missing, look here.”
Readers learn that 11 people have searched Alex’s bedroom, making us wonder how large the room is. Teenagers were looking for him by the waterfront. Neighbours were frantic.
A police helicopter flew around Saltash for an hour. Twelve officers are on the look out for Alex.
And then, with the help of a police dog team, he is found.
Says Ms Olver: “I’m so grateful for everyone who helped us. Their support was overwhelming and we will never forget it.”
That’s one child saved. But the work is never done…
Posted: 27th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (16)
