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: Murat ‘Cleared’, A Volvo And Urs Hans Von Aesch
BELGIAN police are searching for the owners of the black Volvo in which Madeleine McCann was removed from a Belgian restaurant.
Madeleine was spotted by Katleen Sampermans. The “33-year-old therapist is professionally qualified in child welfare”. The Express places much stock in qualifications and education – see quotidian mentions of cardiologist Gerry McCann and GP Kate – and affords more time to Ms Sampermans’ testimony.
But the car has not been found. Shame. We wonder if the Belgian police are up to the job?
“Of course we are taking this sighting seriously, because that is our job,” says Detective Houben Eddy.
There are sightings of Madeleine McCann in Spain. Sightings in Morocco. Sightings in Malta. Sightings in Wales. Police are looking for Madeleine McCann all over Europe. But no-one has found her. Are they failing? Or is it an impossible job?
And the Swiss police are looking in. Alleged child abductor Urs Hans Von Aesch has killed himself. His body is slumped in a car. He was the prime suspect in the disappearance of Ylenia Lenharda, a five-year-old Swiss girl (pictured).
The Express says Ylenia bears a “striking resemblance to Madeleine”. She does not; not unless all white children look alike.
Readers learn that Von Aesch might have been holidaying in Portugal when Madeleine McCann went missing.
They read that Ylenia vanished last Tuesday from a swimming pool in north-east Switzerland. Von Aesch was the chief suspect. He was on the run. And he shot a man. This man is in Swiss hospital. The Express cites the theory that this man had evidence on Von Aesch and was silenced.
Anorak readers may wonder where all this speculation leaves Robert Murat. He has not shot himself. He remains at large.
The Mirror talks of “mounting speculation” that she is about to be cleared.
If so, the Mirror says the “Portuguese investigation” will be back to square one. Perhaps it would have been different had a Mirror journalist not turned police on to “creepy” Murat and then announced her suspicions to the world?
If Murat is cleared, the papers will pursue him for his story. They will surely pay him for his time.
And Madeleine McCann will still be missing…
Posted: 7th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (95)
Hunting Madeleine McCann And Robert Murat
POLICE and two British cocker spaniels are swarming over Robert Murat’s home in Portugal.
One dog is trained to search for dead bodies. The other dog looks for live ones. In the McCanns apartment, a Portuguese dog can sense if a dead body has been in the room. It picks up the scent.
Robert Murat is chief suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
This is Robert Murat. One-eyed Murat.
File On Murat
The Sun has a “File on Murat”.
This is Murat, of whom the Sun’s Julie Moult delivered up a piece entitled “stories of a fantasist”. “He always seemed so eager to get involved in the police investigation,” said the Sun’s woman–on-the-scene. “Robert claimed he had a daughter just like Madeleine and said he felt compelled to do anything he could. But to me he seemed like classic fantasist.”
The Mail’s Neil Sears told us: “There was something more to the friendly expat who called himself ‘Rob’ than met the eye.” Murat made Sears “feel slightly uncomfortable”.
But it was the Sunday Mirror’s Lori Campbell who alerted police to Murat’s behaviour, she saw as “creepy”. She then told us, publicising her gut feeling.
Creepy Murat. But not half as creepy about the media’s voracious feeding frenzy which turned child abduction into voyeurism, a spectator sport. Madeleine McCann was turned into Maddy and Maddie, the victim of “every parent’s worst nightmare”.
“Kidnapping has weird echoes of Soham case,” said the Express’s front page. “MADDY SUSPECT BEHAVED JUST LIKE HUNTLEY.”
Paul Titcombe, Murat’s ex-boss recalled children’s parties: “Instead of mingling, he’d go straight to the bouncy castle and jump around. He got a bit of a name for himself. It seemed like a fixation.”
There were the “SEX SECRETS OF MADDY SUSPECT”. The “kinky threesome with pool cleaner and wife”.
Such is the file on Murat.
At home With Murat
And here is Murat. Creepy Murat. He is called a “liar” in a stage–managed confrontation with three of the McCanns’ travelling companions. His DNA is being examined and re-examined. Murat is being questioned by police.
And Murat? Says he: “It’s ruined my life. It’s made things very difficult for my family here and in Britain. The only way I’ll survive this is if they catch Madeleine’s abductor.”
The story of one girl’s disappearance had become the story of one man’s survival.
Murat’s Alibi
And now the Express leads with the news that Murat’s home has been taped off “as his alibi is blown wide open”.
But no trace of Madeleine McCann has been found at his home. An Irish ex-pat called Martin Smith says he saw Murat sat in bar on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance. Murat says he was at home all night.
“Madeleine: a major breakthrough,” says the Express in bold letters. Mr Smith says he saw a man carrying a child wrapped in a blanket on the night Madeleine McCann vanished. “If it had been him [Murat] carrying the child, I guarantee I would have recognised him.” So it wasn’t Murat?
Police have found nothing to link Murat with the McCann’s apartment. No DNA matches.
Who dunnit?
What now? The Express knows. “Prayers for Madeleine,” it orders. Praying will crack the case.
And over in the Mirror, the paper whose journalist informed the police of “creepy Murat, Madeleine leads. But no front-page word on Murat. The Mirror has a “SECOND SUSPECT”.
A police source tells of another man under police surveillance. Murat remains the child suspect but this other man is in the frame.
“MADDIE HUNT COPS TAIL NEW SUSPECT,” says the Sun.
Readers aren’t told who he is. The papers don’t know. They are all looking at Murat. And wondering what “THE HUNT FOR MADELEINE” will deliver up next…
Posted: 6th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (202)
A Therapist’s Words On Madeleine McCann In Belgium
KATLEEN Sampermans is sat at a table. She’s the “child therapist” who saw Madeleine McCann dining in a Belgian restaurant with two adults.
Ms Sampermans is “100 per cent sure” she saw Madeleine. But by the time she had spoken to the waitress and alerted police to her discovery, the trio had “fled”, says the Express.
Now she’s talking to the press. “I feel very guilty that I did not do more when I had the chance,” says she. “I was hesitating. The day after I felt so sick that I had to go to the doctor.”
She tells us: “The only thing that has been in my mind has been the parents of Madeleine. I would say to them that if they want to contact me I would be happy to speak to them.”
About what? How she saw their daughter alive and well and drinking a strawberry milkshake? Perhaps as a child therapist this Madeleine spotter could advise the McCanns on the best way to heal their twin children?
“I would also like to say to them I am so sorry that I did not take the girl and they find her.” So says the child psychologist.
Or as one Anorak writer notes, Sampermans may also be sorry that she did not just ask the child if her name was Madeleine. Dashing over to a table and snatching a child is an ill-advised move, even for an expert in child welfare.
She says the little girl was laughing one minute and then sad. This she tells us is “not normal”. “The parent’s behaviour was very strange. They both spoke to the child but never to each other.”
Strange? Perhaps they were just a typical dysfunctional family at a café, or a group so at ease they find no need for small talk?
“As time went by I became more and more sure it was Madeleine but I did not know what to do.”
The man waited by the car – “his eyes were darting around everywhere, scanning everyone on the terrace.” Was he worried? Was he wondering why this strange woman was staring at him?
Sampermans gathered herself. She called the police. She wrote down three digits of the car number plate in which Madeleine and her dining companions had “fled”. She told all to the Daily Express.
And the Express tell us…
Posted: 6th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (23)
Madeleine McCann, Photofits And Career Criminality
“WE DID SEE MADELEINE,” says the headline on the Daily Express’ front page. And this from the Express: “The world’s greatest newspaper.”
Truth upon truth.
The Express says the spotter is a child therapist. Her age is not given. But the inclusion of her career in dispatches – the Express never tires of reminding readers that Gerry McCann is a cardiologist and his wife Kate a GP – is shorthand for trust.
This woman works with children so it follows that she can recognise Madeleine McCann.
The Express says police in Belgium describe the witness as “trusted”. They add: “She works with children and noticed something unusual. That is why we are taking it seriously.”
Job Done
But the Portuguese police took seriously those other sightings of Madeleine McCann in Malta and Morocco. Were those spotters trained in child therapy or mere “holidaymakers” Back in June the Sun heard from Ray Roberts, a British tourist. It was late at night. He saw a girl with an Arabic-looking man in his 40s and a younger woman. The child appeared to be wearing a black wig. She tripped. “Get up, little girl,” said the man in broken English. “They were strange,” said Roberts, “it just jarred.”
The Star talked of “hundreds of reports of sightings”.
But this new sighting is special says the Express, and not just because of the spotter’s day job: “The Daily Express can reveal that the Dutch man matched an identikit image of one seen ‘hanging around’ Praia da Luz in Portugal at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.”
This would be the image the Portuguese police would not allow the British tabloid press to see? The image produced by the “bungling” Portuguese police?
The paper notes that Briton Alex Murray, 60, recognised the man from the photofit image drawn up by police in Belgium. He spotted the Dutchman in Praia da Luz near the time the four-year-old went missing.
Says the Express: “The utilities worker from Newbridge on Wye, mid Wales, said the man was ‘hanging around’ the Jasmin Cafe – less than half a mile from the apartment where Madeleine was taken.”
A utilities worker, eh? But we won’t know the truth until the results of the “DNA test on ‘Maddy’ milkshake” (Mirror front-page headline) are revealed by a scientist.
Total Recall
The Express says a waiter and waitress have corroborated the child therapist’s report that a couple acting suspiciously accompanied “Madeleine”.
Waitress Jolien Houbrech, 21, is talking to the Mirror. The therapist approaches her. “She asked if I noticed any resemblance between Madeleine and the child,” she Houbrech.
“She said that because of her work as a child therapist she had noticed that their behaviour was not that of normal parents. After she said that, I said maybe she should call it in to the police.”
She adds: “Now I wish I had done more and paid more attention to the couple and maybe tried to hear the girl talking. But at the time I didn’t notice anything suspicious.”
But then what does a waitress know..?
Posted: 4th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (76)
Madeleine McCann: Making A Meal In Belgium
POLICE in Belgium have issued a computer image of the man seen with “MADELEINE” McCann close to the Dutch border.
No lazy eye. No cigarette. This face does not look like Robert Murat, the case’s chief suspect. Not even if you draw glasses on it. This man has been seen with a brown-haired British woman. They have both been seen with a child who looks like Madeleine McCann.
“Dramatic breakthrough in search as kidnapped girl is spotted in Belgium,” says the Express on its front page. No circumspection. Just fact.
And, of course, this is no less or more dramatic than those sightings of Madeleine in Morocco and Malta. No less dramatic than when the Dutchman’s picture with an ‘X’ marking the spot where Madeleine’s body could be found. No less dramatic than when Robert Murat was shut in a room at the police station with three of the McCanns’ dining companions.
There is no little drama in the case of Madeleine McCann. But there are no car chases. No flashing lights. No arrests. The drama is all in the telling.
And so to this couple, eating at the De Pauze restaurant. The girl is with them. Police are carrying out DNA tests on the cup used by this “Madeleine”.
A witness is watching all. She’s a child therapist. She says the child is “nervous looking”. She calls the police. When she returns, the group has “fled”.
The couple and the child get into a Volvo with Belgian number plates with the letters VUV. They are seen “speeding off”.
The Express says “several witnesses” in the case remember seeing the little girl. “They said all three were acting suspiciously.” The police are asking questions. Memories are being jogged. Did you see the poor little girl with the swarthy man? It might be Madeleine McCann. Do you remember?
But why Belgium? The Express lists the “legacy of abuse” in Belgium. It mentions Marc Dutroux, convicted of child murder and kidnap. The efit doesn’t look much like him. And he’s in jail. The Express talks of Belgium’s “paedophile rings” and a “paedophile village”.
Madeleine has been seen in Belgium before. In June she was with a Belgian couple outside Liege cathedral. But now more was heard of her. Either the people in Belgium are mistaken or not all that observant, given the so many Britons saw Madeleine in Malta.
“MADELEINE ‘SEEN’ IN BELGIUM,” says the Mirror’s front-page headline.
This is big news. And, as the Express says, Gerry and Kate McCann are “being kept informed”. And they are off to visit Huelva in Spain. Not Belgium. Not yet…
Posted: 3rd, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (56)
Get Your Madeleine McCann Insurance
“ARE your kids safe,” says the Sun’s Fergus Shanahan. This question comes equipped with a picture of Madeleine McCann.
“Perhaps you’re lying on the beach. Or around the hotel pool.” Reading the Sun. Eating burgers and beans. Drinking pints of lager.
“So let me ask you: Do you know exactly where your kids are. Yes, you probably have a good idea. But can you put hand on heart and say you are utterly sure.”
You think. Well, I left them up the chimney…
The Sun’s man with a column goes on to say that the panic now gripping your heart is akin to what Gerry and Kate McCann are going through.
But there is hope. No, not that your child will be locked away in a young offender’s institution or a mid-ranking independent school with boarding facilities.
The hope is that should the kids go missing you will at least get a pay out. Added to the money saved on ice-creams, school books and fines, you are quids in.
The Express introduces readers to InsureandGo. It’s offering mums and dads the chance to inure their child. Should Armani go missing for longer than 24 hours after it has been reported to police, you qualify for ££££!
The caveats are that the child must be under 18 and the maximum windfall/ pay out if £110,000.
“We aim to give customers peace of mind when they go away,” says Perry Wilson, the company’s managing director, an adult you can trust.
“After the disappearance of Madeleine McCann we had a number of calls from concerned parents inquiring what support they would receive from their travel insurance company if their child went missing on holiday.”
So now the kind of parents who read of Madeleine McCann and think it could happen to their loved ones can go abroad assured that if Junior goes missing they can afford to mount a decent search operation.
And with £100,000 on the table, if Armani can just remain the suitcase for a few days more, the family can enjoy the sun and relax after an anxious year…
Posted: 3rd, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (41)
Not Another Madeleine McCann
“I WAS terrified,” says Beverly Fleetham. “I kept thinking of Madeleine McCann’s family and I remember saying, ‘Don’t let this happen to me.’”
The Express brings more. “My partner Steven raced off in his car to look in all the places Morgan likes playing. It was the worst three hours of my life.”
Beverly dials 999. Friends and family search the woods and gardens in Kelty, Fife.
Morgan, aged five, wakes up. She has been asleep in the back of her mother’s car.
Phew!
If you have any stories about games of hide-and-seek that went too far and calling for your child and not hearing them respond in an instant, call the Express.
It could be you…
Posted: 3rd, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (12)
Madeleine McCann Gets Cracker Princess Diana Treatment
MORE news on Madeleine McCann. No, she’s not been found. No, someone has not been charged with her kidnap.
The Express will not let something so recherché as news impact upon its coverage of the missing child.
“MADELEINE,” says the headline across its front page:
Specially trained British police fly in
Portuguese detectives have cancelled all leave
Investigation at critical stage.
Madeleine McCann is getting the Princess Diana treatment. Each day brings more speculation and the promise of something different, or at least a new theory and with it a reason to show Madeleine.
Readers can deal with each point in turn. First up, “Cracker-style” psychologists are heading over to the Algarve. They will try to establish a likely “psychological profile” for Madeleine’s “kidnapper”. Cracker is, of course, the obese, sweaty-necked TV cop. The Express thinks nothing of merging true crime with TV drama. Both sell newspapers.
Of course, British police have already been in Portugal. Back in May, the Sun cheered as British coppers journeyed to the Algarve, including Detective Superintendent Graham Hill, attached to the Child Exploitation and Protection Centre. Hill was on the case. The Portuguese cops, branded as bungling, were ignorant of paedophile-panic. Hill and the British tabloid press would teach them.
And British police have helped the investigation. They have interviewed 490 holidaymakers who were in the resort of Praia da Luz when “the kidnap” took place. More than 2,500 inquires have been processed.
These new Crackers are “experts in the predatory behaviour of paedophiles and child abusers.” They have helped police catch “serious sex offenders”.
And now they are over there. But with paedo-panic cranked right up, British defences are depleted.
(The Times brings news: “Rise in number of sex offenders ‘is swamping supervision service’.” The story is accompanied by a picture of a man watching a child on a swing. Police officers have lost track of 322 registered sex offenders. The sex offender watchlist has been amended to include: outraging public decency, theft, burglary with intent, child abduction and harassment where it could be proved that the crime was sexually motivated.)
The Parents
But the McCann investigation is at a critical stage, says the Express, something it has been telling us for weeks. We should let them go. The McCanns need them more than we do, for now.
And here come Kate and Gerry McCann, living what we are told is every parent’s worst nightmare – a nightmare the British press feed.
The Express hears reports that the McCanns’ relationship is under strain. But it says this is not so. “Gerry adores Kate, and she adores him,” says Madeleine’s grandmother, Eileen McCann.
Gerry McCann is dropping his sister Trisha off at the airport. It is an “emotional farewell”. Eileen McCann says Kate McCann is “really down”.
The Express watches her pass. It shows readers her face. Is she cracking up? The Express zooms in. It cares about the McCanns. It wants to show readers the truth.
So we look. But we see no change…
Posted: 31st, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (188)
Madeleine McCann: The Exeter Connection
“MADELEINE – Now her parents’ friends are hit by hate campaign.”
Lat week, the Express told us of the hate campaign targeted at Kate and Gerry McCann. Today the talk is of “smears” against the McCanns family and friends.
Why has the Express promoted Madeleine McCann to its front page, positioning her in the spot reserved for Princess Diana? Is this what Diana would have wanted? What is the Express selling? Hope? Its credentials as a caring organ? Conspiracy?
Reading on, we learn that there is no hate. The McCanns friends have not been subjected to physical and verbal attacks. There is just a Portuguese newspaper Sol saying that detectives hold no-one above suspicion.
The police are pouring over inconsistencies in the friends’ statements. All nine are being treated as suspects.
And hospital consultant Russell O’Brien, friend to the McCanns, has, it is claimed, been spoken to by police about his time in Exeter. O’Brien and his partner Jane Tanner moved to the city weeks before their trip to Portugal. The Express reads Sol and thereby learns that Murat was in the Devon city for 10 days, arriving back in the Algarve on May 1.
Justine McGuinness, the McCanns’ campaign manager, tells us: “It is absolutely not the case that anyone in the party with the McCanns had ever met Robert Murat before they went on holiday.”
And that’s it.
And Madeleine McCann is still missing…
Posted: 30th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (135)
Madeleine McCann: Look Into Robert Murat’s Eyes
AGAIN the Express has Madeleine McCann where Princess Diana once resided in perpetuity: on its front page.
“MADELEINE,” says the headline, “witness tells chief suspect: You are lying.”
The Express has news of the face-to-face meeting between Robert Murat and three of the McCanns friends. One of the women launches a “tirade”. It is claimed she points the finger at Murat and screams: “I know you were there. I would recognise you anywhere.”
They recognise Murat because, as the Express says, he has a lazy right eye. Look into my eyes. He has a detached retina.
The Express says this could “Shatter” Murat’s alibi. It could. Or couldn’t. Murat remains a free man, albeit under suspicion.
Murat’s “spokesman” Tuck Price, says: “Robert found it traumatic. He could not understand how these people could sit there and accuse him of lying. It all seems to revolve around them recognising his dodgy right eye.” Adding: “It was dark, how could they have seen it. Besides that, he was not there anyway.”
Mr Price is billed as a “friend” to Murat in the Mirror. Why not in the Express? An oversight by the paper or a slight shift designed to show Murat as friendless. Who would stand by him but a spokesman?
But Dr Russell O’Brian is adamant. He says he saw Murat at 1am. A Dr Fiona Payne is alleged to have told police: “He seemed to be peeking into the apartment.” Dr O’Brien’s partner, Jade Tanner, tells of a man rushing away from the resort carrying a small child in blanket.” All three are friends of the McCanns.
“You’re a liar. I saw you peek in apartment,” says the Mirror’s headline.
But we don’t know if he did. Murat says he is innocent. A friend of the McCanns says Murat was in the area on the night Madeleine McCann went missing. And that is it.
More is need to secure a conviction. But we know no more.
All we have is the finger pointing…
Posted: 27th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (432)
Speaking Of Madeleine McMann…
ANOTHER day for no news of missing Madeleine McCann. Another day for more news of Madeleine McCann’s parents.
The Express has Madeleine as its unshakable front-page story. Voices ask if this would it be so if she were not blonde, not the daughter of a consultant cardiologist and GP, facts the Express never tires of repeating?
The investigation being carried out in the tabloid press is “who is to blame?” – a choice between the Portuguese police and paedophiles. But the single thread story is of the parents.
Such has been the media feeding frenzy that the Express can produce the headline: “MADELEINE – Now Her Parents Face Hate Campaign.”
The Express says “several websites” have been bombarded with “nasty and offensive” messages. The message writers accuse Kate and Gerry McCann of “not doing enough to protect their daughter from being snatched”.
That is not a hate campaign. This is people voicing an opinion. The Express would have it that the McCanns are beyond reproach but in the media feeding frenzy all parties are likely to get bitten.
Trolling The Web
And it’s not just on Anorak that questions have been raised about McCanns behaviour since their daughter went missing.
As a further headline in the Express says: “Madeleine’s home town turns against her parents.”
The website of the Leicester Mercury newspaper has disabled its message facility after “nasty” comments were posted.
The papers editor, Nick Carter, says: “A tiny minority of people seem to want to say nasty, spiteful and defamatory things about the McCann family. They are bombarding our site and we had no choice but to block comment entirely on reports about the family.”
Or the paper could monitor comments before allowing them on site. Although this is a huge undertaking.
Express readers are not party to any of these offensive comments, and having seen some of the stuff submitted to Anorak – and one writer has been banned – comments can be a spray of masturbatory spite.
No News
But it is not a hate campaign. These are internet trolls mouthing off because the web offers them anonymity and a platform. It might be these voices are less commenting on the case than just wanting to throw stones at people in the public eye?
(The Express also reports that more than 30,000 paedophiles and sex offenders “may” have used the social networking site My Space. The Express is part of group that owns the Television X, the website of which advertises the show Teenage Dirtbags 3 – Cant Be Shootin No. Such is the Internet.)
The nasties may be complaining in a foul-mouthed and limited way about how the disappearance of one child has been used to point fingers and spread anxiety, specifically about paedophilia.
But whatever they say, it makes not difference to the case. How do offensive message on a local newspaper’s website affect the McCanns and their search for their missing daughter?
How can a comment on a website do anything? Unless it offers a clue to where Madeleine McCann is and what happened to her…
Posted: 26th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (106)
No-One Above Suspicion In Case Of Madeleine McCann
MADELEINE McCann is back on the front page of the Express.
“Dad protests: We are not to blame.”
Gerry McCann is in Washington. He is in the White House meeting staff in the employ of First Lady Barbra Bush.
It is the way of American politics that while the husband declares war and puts up taxes, the Waspish wife delivers homespun wisdom. But Mrs Bush cannot meet Gerry McCann. She has other arrangements.
Or might it be that she does not want to appear too caring, too close to the man accused of neglecting his daughter.
Ever since Madeleine McCann went missing the Anorak message boards and comment pages have been filled with thousands of readers saying they think the McCanns acted irresponsibly in going out for dinner and leaving their three young children alone in the holiday apartment.
“The McCanns part with all that money when they wouldn’t pay for a babysitter? Get real!,” says Marian. “The media’s criticism of these parents is justified and useful, if it stops other irresponsible parents from leaving their toddlers unattended,” says Fulmar. “It was grossly irresponsible and I can’t help but feel if they were not educated middle-class people, that there would be a lot more censure about it in the press and the news coverage,” says Liz.
Blame
And now, as the Sun says, Madeleine’s father is facing a “TV grilling”. Mrs Bush has not met him. But the ABC Good Morning America show has.
“We were 50 yards away and could see the apartment,” says Gerry McCann. “It’s like we were at the end of our garden…We didn’t think we needed a babysitter.”
And they did not break the law. As Gerry tells CNN in a later interview: “We have been assured by the authorities that what we did fell well within the boundaries of good parenting. Madeleine was targeted by a predator and we shouldn’t have to be worrying about people getting into our homes and gardens and playgrounds. That is real criminal act here.”
He is right. Of course. The criminal is the one who, as we suspect, took Madeleine. And then there are the feelings of guilt Mr McCann talks of on his blog. They do not need reminding what that they could have done more. Their child is drowning and they have forgotten how to swim. There is much pain.
And a media frenxy. But the Express is on their side. The Express is championing the McCanns. The paper has no news on Madeleine, which is the point of the McCanns’ media onslaught. But the Express backs Gerry McCann to the hilt. After all, he and his wife are the story.
And it will “fight the smears”. Over in Portugal, Sol magazine “bizarrely” accuses Madeleine’s parents and friends in their holiday group of a “pact of silence”.
The report says: “Madeleine parents and friend with whom they spent their holidays are suspects in the inquiry. There are contradictory versions about the night of the kidnapping and an assumed pact of silence in the group.”
It is claimed that statements differ over how often Madeleine and her siblings were checked. Gerry and Kate McCann are said to be “deeply hurt” by this story.
But surely it is a valid line of inquiry. Should anyone be above suspicion in this case? No. And if Robert Murat, suspect number one, the only named suspect, is found to be innocent, where would fingers then point?
In a case where facts are thin and speculation rife, right it is that all parties are questioned, their testimonies scrutinised.
Or else what is the point?
Posted: 25th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (146)
Madeleine McCann: Hope Floats
“MADELEINE ‘smuggled out of the country on a boat’.”
The Express is making the Madeleine McCann story its own. Should there be any information of the missing child, the Express will be able to flick through its scrapbook and point to the line that confirms that it was first with the truth.
Of course, to get to the kernel of truth readers must make their way through pages and pages of speculation. And today they learn that Madeleine McCann was taken from Portugal on a boat.
The paper says detectives have uncovered details of the route the youngster’s kidnappers took. The details are sketchy – was it a boat or a yacht?
A police source says: “It is a strong line of inquiry. We believe Madeleine is no longer in Portugal and this is the most likely way of taking her abroad.”
And who took her? Was it Robert Murat? The Express hears a witness say they saw a man rushing to the seafront on the night Madeleine went missing.
The Express has a picture of Murat, suspect number one, walking with his lawyer. But he has never left Portugal. Indeed, it was his presence around the crime scene that sparked his being named as the chief suspect.
And there is Gerry McCann saying goodbye to his wife Kate. He is off to America, a long boat ride away from Portugal.
“Kate and I felt it was important to make this trip to America,” says he. “It’s not that we think Madeleine is in the US. But it is predominantly a trip to speak to the top experts in the field of missing children.”
No, not the Express…
Posted: 23rd, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (87)
‘New Clues’ And No News For Madeleine McCann
“MADDIE SUSPECT QUIZ HELD UP BY NEW CLUE.” So says the Star as Madeleine McCann continues to be missing.
A police source tells the paper: “In view of the outcome of the secondary interviews there may not be time this week. It may now be next week – but we will interview him as many times as necessary.”
There may not be time to interview Murat? And what of this new clue?
“Madeleine,” says the Express,” police reveal new clues.”
But not to us. Not to readers. These new clues have, apparently been revealed to Gerry and Kate McCann, Madeleine’s parents.
They have had “intense talks” with Guilhermino Encarncao, lead detective in the hunt.
Gerry McCann uses his blog to say the investigation is “very active”.
He tells us that he and his wife had a “longer meeting than usual with the Portuguese police. There is loads lot of labour-intensive work going on behind the scenes.”
But we get no news of this clue. The Express says Portugal’s “strict secrecy laws” prevent the McCanns from revealing what these new clues are. The Express reports much but reveals nothing – see it here.
Which given how the McCanns have solicited help from the world seems odd. If they have a clue and the public can help, surely Gerry McCann would tell us?
Perhaps the clue points to Madeleine’s whereabouts. She has been spotted in Malta, Morocco, Portugal and even Wales.
We wonder if there is any clue, or clues. How does the Express know there are clues when the police will not share any details with the press?
We leave another bulletin with the impression that there is no news, only speculation.
And know only that Madeleine McCann is missing. Still missing…
Posted: 20th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (82)
Not Finding Madeleine McCann
WITH Princess Diana is post-party recuperation, the Express continues to fill the vacated space with news of Madeleine McCann.
Of course, Madeleine McCann is not yet a tragedy. She may still be alive and well. We hope so. Who cannot hope for that? But the Express is not on her trail; it’s not asking questions and probing for answers.
It is just watching Robert Murat, the only named suspect. As was reported in yesterday’s Express, Murat is to be questioned by police once more.
Again readers are told of eyewitnesses who claim to have seen Murat on the night Madeleine went missing. He says he never went out. They maintain they saw him near the apartment from where Madeleine was “snatched”.
Murat will face questions. Chances are they will be the same questions he has been asked before. The Express makes no mention of any new evidence.
So we are watching Murat. And watching the parents.
“We have no plans to go come home,” say the couple in a statement. “We only want to return with Madeleine.”
They have been granted leave by there employers to continue their search.
And they have the means to keep going. The Express says the Find Madeleine fund, looked after by Madeleine’s great-uncle Brian Kennedy, has raised £900,000.
And it is not just for Madeleine. As Mr Kennedy says: “Any parents wherever they are, whatever they do, should get the same publicity as Madeleine has and if we can do anything through the fund for others we will.”
The talk is of hope. But the message is forlorn and touched by the cruel reality that Madeleine McCann is missing and there has been no sign of her.
Posted: 19th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (123)
Locals Spot Robert Murat By Madeleine McCann’s Flat
MADELEINE McCann is in the news.
“New witnesses say they saw suspect near Madeleine flat,” says the Express on its front page.
“We saw top suspect near Madeleine kidnap flat,” says a headline deeper inside the paper. The Express says these witness statements cast doubts on Robert Murat’s alibi.
A police source tells us: “On Monday and Tuesday a number of witnesses were questioned at police headquarters. They claim they saw a man matching Murat’s description outside the Ocean Club on the night Madeleine disappeared.”
The source says the statements appear to contradict Murat’s alibi that he was home all night on the evening of Madeleine’s disappearance. “As a result of this evidence we will question Mr Murat again later this week.”
Robert Murat was questioned by police for more than 30 hours last week, says the Express. The paper tells its reader that the investigation has reached a “critical stage”.
“MADDY ALIBI QUIZ FOR MURAT,” say the Mirror. The paper says “Portuguese locals” told police they saw a man resembling Murat outside the McCanns’ flat “on the night she was snatched”.
The Mirror has established that’s Madeleine McCann was snatched. It tells us: “The sightings back up identical claims made by friends of Gerry and Kate McCann last week.”
Good that progress has been made in this case. And by the tabloid press. But Madeleine McCann is missing. Still missing…
Posted: 18th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (74)
Madeleine McCann Tests The Imagination Of Harry Potter Fans
HAVING stopped scaring children at the cinema, Madeleine McCann is now giving children sleepless nights at the bookshop.
“MADDY POTTER,” says the Mirror’s front page, “JK asks for Madeleine poster in EVERY shop selling her book.”
In this tabloid world where we are all friends on nickname terms, Maddy is being championed by JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter diaries.
Rowling has written to every bookshop selling her tome asking them to place a picture of Madeleine McCann at the till point.
Amid those spontaneous purchases for miniature books on chicken soup, Top Trumps and Nunzilla (the fire breathing nun) will be the face of the world’s most famous missing child since Charles Augustus Lindbergh Junior.
“This is fantastic,” says Gerry McCann, father of the missing child. And it is, but not in the way he thinks.
Says Gerry McCann: “I got her [Madeleine] a DVD and like most kids she is a fan. We look forward to reading the books to all three children.”
Cynics may read an endorsement in these upbeat words, Mr McCann’s clear statement that Madeleine will be found safe and well. But Rowling needs no endorsement.
“I fervently hope that posters displayed prominently in shops all over the world will help find Madeleine McCann and raise the profile of the many other missing children in different countries,” says Rowling.
Surely then the poster should be of those children?
But Rowling can only do so much. She imagines the good the posters will do. And children buying her book can stretch their imaginations beyond Potter’s spells and dark arts to what happens to little girls stolen from their beds.
“In Madeleine Mum’s New Hope”, the Express hears Gerry McCann say: “We’ve jointly come up with this poster. The reach of something like that really will be global.”
But Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal. Is she likely to be in America, Canada, Brazil?
Or have things moved beyond finding Madeleine McCann, who is no longer a missing child but the face of all missing child the world over?
And what is the likelihood the bookshops will agree to put her by the till?
Posted: 17th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (32)
Situation “Critical” For Madeleine McCann And Robert Murat
MADELEINE McCann remains on the front of just one newspaper: the Express.
“MADELEINE,” says the small headline, “Search will reach critical stage this week, say police.”
News indeed to followers of crime who think the first minutes after the incident are the most vital. Who knew that the critical moment comes ten weeks after the apparent crime has been enacted?
The Express is at the forefront of investigative journalism. It tells readers that Robert Murat is to face further questions. Says a police source: “After a series of interviews last week, the investigation is moving forward and we now believe that the inquiry has reached the critical stage.”
So why has Kate McCann, Madeleine’s mother, flown back to the UK, the first time she has returned home since her daughter disappeared?
She cannot leave at a time like this, surely? Although she is soon back from the family Christening.
What next?
The Express hears prime suspect Robert Murat tell us: “I can’t carry on living like this, no human being could. I am the only suspect and it could take years for them to release me from this investigation.”
But the Express says this is the critical time. Although critical for what or whom, we are not told. Is this the crucial moment to find Madeleine McCann? Or has the story moved on and this is this now the critical moment to see if Robert Murat will survive?
“I wake up with this nightmare every morning and I go to bed with it every night,” says Murat. “I can’t speak on the phone because they are listening to everything I say. “I have had no help from the British authorities… I can see no light at the end of the tunnel.”
It is a critical time…
Posted: 16th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (122)
Madeleine McCann: Is This Relevant?
THERE has been no little talk on the Anorak Forums and comment pages about Madeleine McCann – about 4,000 posts.
And not all of it has been supportive of the parents. Some voices accuse Madeleine’s parents of not taking proper care when they left their children alone in the holiday apartment while they went out with friends.
My view is that it mattered but not much. If Madeleine was stolen – as it appears – the criminal only needed a moment to act. And if not her then some other child.
Erin in Madeleine McCann: Face To Face With Robert Murat thinks this is “interesting”. Do you?
(Jacksonville, FL) — The mother of four young children pleaded guilty yesterday to child neglect charges. Police say she left her kids ages eight-months to five-years-old alone for at least three hours in her westside apartment last month. A judge sentenced 28-year-old Wynette Smith to the 22 days she’s served in jail since her arrest plus two years of probation. Police responded on June 21st to a tip from the management of Smith’s Collins Road apartment complex. The children remain in state custody. Smith’s boyfriend, 33-year-old Shakir Muhammad, remains in jail on 100-thousand-dollars bond facing the same charges.
Posted: 13th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (145)
Madeleine McCann: Face To Face With Robert Murat
“MADELEINE SHOWDOWN,” says the Mirror’s front page. “McCann pals tell suspect: You were there night she vanished.”
Over in Portugal, Fiona Payne, Russell O’Brien and Rachel Oldfield, friends of the McCanns, say they saw Robert Murat, suspect No.1., the only suspect, on the night Madeleine McCann went missing.
The three are questioned together. Murat joins them. They are sat in a small room. A police source tells us: “Because there was a disagreement it is normal in Portugal for the two sides to be brought together to find the truth.”
This seems entirely sensible. Get all parties talking and see what occurs. Don’t demonise Murat but make him answer his accusers in camera.
In the course of this exchange, the Mirror says it is “believed” the trio saw Murat close to the Ocean Club resort’s pool minutes after Madeleine went missing.
The Mirror says the sighting contradicts Murat’s claim that he was at his mother’s villa all night.
“Madeleine,” says the Express’s front page. “Family friends: We saw chief suspect at apartment.”
The “face-to-face showdown” could “shatter” Murat’s alibi. So the police are talking to him. They talk to him for six hours after the McCanns’ dining companions have left.
And then Murat is allowed to leave the police station. He is not arrested. Madeleine McCann disappeared 71 days ago and her whereabouts are unknown.
We know about Robert Murat. But we know nothing of Madeleine McCann…
Posted: 13th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (71)
Madeleine McCann: Murat, Toscano And Friends
“MADELEINE’S FAMILY FRIENDS QUIZZED.”
The Express looks on as Rachael Oldfield, Russell O’Brien and Fiona Payne are questioned by detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
All three were dining with the McCanns on the night Madeleine went missing. The Express says O’Brien and Payne are doctors. As the express tells us every day, Gerry McCann is a cardiologist and his wife Kate a GP.
Prime Suspect
The Express then relives the night of Madeleine’s disappearance. But after 70 days of searching the facts have not altered one bit: it is night; the thee McCann children are in the holiday apartment; the parents are 100 yards away having dinner; Madeleine McCann is missing. The McCanns are doctors.
And Robert Murat is the chief suspect. The only suspect. He is at the police station the same time as the McCann’s dining party. “There was a reason why they were present in the station at the same time as Murat,” says a police source.
Was it to trigger a memory, to see if one of the dining party had seen Murat before, possibly around Madeleine or on the night of her vanishing?
We are not told. All we know is that Murat has spent another 6 hours in the company of the Portuguese police. That is 35 hours in total since Madeleine McCann went missing. So many questions. Robert Murat has not been arrested.
And there’s Antonio Toscano, the “Spanish investigator” who talks of ‘The Frenchman’ taking Madeleine.
Anorak readers have heard more of this Frenchman. Paulo Reis in Portugal tells us his name is Bernard Alapetite. He denies taking Madeleine. He denies being in Portugal since 1977. He has a sordid past.
But Alapetite has not been arrested. He has not been questioned. Toscano has not delivered up the criminal.
And Madeleine McCann is missing. Still missing…
Posted: 12th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (51)
Madeleine McCann: 29 Hours With Robert Murat
“MADELIENE SUSPECT QUIZZED FOR TEN HOURS,” says the Express on its front page. Readers see Robert Murat going for his “interview” with Portuguese police.
For the tape, Murat is neither handcuffed nor in the company of uniformed persons. He walks in the company of his lawyer Fancisco Pagarete. His head is unbowed. Although this is school holiday time, no mob of mums and kids is there to scream “paedo” and chuck eggs and darts his way.
Murat is innocent? But this is the second time Murat has been questioned in the Madeleine McCann mystery. He denies any involvement in the child’s disappearance. But still the questions come.
The Mirror’s front page says: “Madeleine suspect held over “English girl” email. The Mirror calls this a “suspicious email”. Why this is suspicious we are not told. It was a Mirror journalist who told the police, and then the world, that she found Murat “creepy”.
But the police have found no evidence linking Murat to Madeleine. No link has been established between Madeleine and computer “geek” Sergey Malinka. No link has been established between Madeleine and Murat’s German lover Michaela Walczuch.
Murat was held by the police for 19 hours the first time. He has now been interviewed for ten more hours. His DNA has been taken, but it is not that of the “stranger” found in Madeleine’s bedroom.
A Briton Abroad
Murat is unable to comment on the case, bound by law. But his friend, Tuck Price, tells us: “He told me they are just going through everything again but he sounds well and I’m sure it’s just a routine thing.”
He goes on: “It’s been a very surreal experience for him. He is holding up, but he wants it to be over.” Murat’s estranged wife Dawn says she has never doubted his innocence.
But Murat has received stacks of hate mail, says his aunt, who runs a guest house near Praia da Luz. He has been a “virtual prisoner” in his home. He fears reprisals.
Is Murat another victim? As a Briton abroad should the press be defending him more, standing up for his rights? Or is his sanity and wellbeing a small price to pay in the hunt for Madeleine McCann?
After weeks of investigative work, Murat remains the only suspect.
Posted: 11th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (56)
Madeleine McCann In The News
MADELEINE McCann in the news.
Not in my name:
A drug user who carried out a fake door-to-door collection for missing Madeleine McCann to fund her habit has been jailed for 90 days.
Heroin addict Debbie Clifton, 33, formerly of Boswell Road, Chadsmoor, called at the home of an 83-year-old woman on June 2 and asked for a donation for Madeleine’s Fund. She was given £2.70 in loose change.
Yes, £2.70.
John Peel, prosecuting at Cannock Magistrates’ Court, said Clifton then called without success at several other addresses.
Still £2.70.
Never again:
Worried parents will be able to monitor the movements of their children via a satellite tracking device.
The device – which can be carried in a rucksack – allows parents back at home to pinpoint exactly where their child is when they step out.
It lets them to watch satellite images on their computer of the area where their child is and the route they are taking.
Including a panic button and mobile phone, it also allows a child to send an SOS text message to their parent’s mobile phone if they get into trouble.
Not with Gordon Brown on the case:
Mr Brown said: “I have talked to Madeleine McCann’s parents. I have heard from them their appreciation of the work that has been done in this investigation.
“Obviously there are issues they want to be assured about and I have raised these with the Portuguese Prime Minister.
“He has assured me that everything that can be done will be done and obviously we look for progress in something that’s heart-rending in its sadness, that a young child can be separated from her parents for so long.”
Mr Socrates said: “It’s important for Great Britain but it’s important for Portugal, and it’s very touching in public opinion in Great Britain but also in Portugal.
“We have dedicated to this investigation all the resources we have in order to give it high priority and we are doing our best. Everyone in Portugal and the family knows we are doing our best.”
Madeleine McCann is still missing…
Posted: 10th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (20)
Grace Before Film: “Net Closes” In On Madeleine McCann’s Kidnappers
THE Express’s front-page headline (“MADELEINE”) is married to the promise of a “FREE £15 EYE TEST FOR EVERY READER AT ASDA.”
The face of Madeleine McCann stares from the page. Readers are used to the image, familiar with Madeleine’s distinctive right eye, where the pupil runs into the blue-green iris.
The official Madeleine McCann website features the song Everything I Do (I Do It For You), chosen no doubt because it opens with the line “Look into my eyes”. Although the song also implores listeners to “Search your heart – search your soul/ And when you find me there you’ll search no more”, words that appeal to the tabloid press for whom Madeleine is “our Maddy”.
Entertaining Stuff
Such mawkishness causes Tony Parsons to write in the Mirror of the people who felt uneasy about the cinema showing of Shrek The Third (certificate U) featuring an appeal for “snatched” Madeleine. Parsons says of the people on a fun day out who don’t like their four and five-years old learning of children “snatched” from their beds and never seen again: “And they should be grateful that their own children will sleep in their own beds tonight.”
Only a lunatic would want to experience what the McCanns are going through. But we should not give thanks that our children sleep in their own beds in this Grace Before Film. The crime of child abduction is rare. We should be shocked at the crime, not anxious and fearful that our children will be next.
Fishing Net
But Madeleine McCann does appear as the victim of a heinous crime. And now good news. Promising news. “Net is closing in on kidnappers,” says the Express. “Chief suspect faces new quiz.”
Only the Express has news of a breakthrough. And the news is that police “expect a major breakthrough in the hunt for her kidnappers”.
What it is? Can’t say? Will it lead to Madeleine being found? Can’t say? Will it be a happy ending? Can’t say. Will the ogre get it in the neck? Can’t say.
The Express is thin on facts but it does say that the chief suspect is Robert Murat. He is due to be “hauled in” for more questions later this week.
Says a police source: “While there is only one official suspect so far, investigators have identified other people they believe were involved in this case and they are now being sought.”
But the only suspect we have is Robert Murat. And his estranged British wife Dawn tells us: “Hopefully, any new meeting with police will be able to tell him he is no longer wanted with their inquiries.”
That might be it. If any new evidence were incriminating, the police would not wait to speak with Murat or arrest him.
But still the Express looks at Murat twice and tells us all about him. It offers no new insight, no new clue. But the net is closing in, we are assured.
Keep your eyes peeled. Wear glasses if you must. Help find Madeleine…
Posted: 9th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (114)
Madeleine McCann Not In Malta Or Morocco
FROM Paulo Reis in Portugal:
Portuguese CID spokesman, about Madeleine abduction: “The clue to this mistery is in Praia da Luz”
Portuguese authorities have dismissed as groundless all leads on sightings of Madeleine McCann in other countries rather than Portugal, namely in Morroco and Malta, said Polícia Judiciária (PJ), Portuguese CID, spokesman Olegário de Sousa (…) Further investigations are being carried out centered mainly on the area of Praia da Luz itself, said Mr. Olegário de Sousa. «The clue to this mistery is in Praia da Luz», according to other police source quoted by Diário de Notícias. (…)
Note: Kate and Gerry McCann are innocent.
Posted: 9th, July 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (6,189)
