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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: The Tapas 7 Speak, Blonde Children In Morocco And Hashish
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN front page: "McCANN FRIENDS HIT BACK – FURY OF TAPAS 7. Pals: there is NO pact"
Say the McCanns dining party: "The police told us not to discuss our statement. We've always tried to honour this. We wish to state there is categorically no so-called pact of silence – or indeed anything secretive between us. Just the desire to assist the search. It is frustrating that the facts we have done as we were asked is till being looked upon as suspicious"
"COPS IN WINDOW PROBE" – Paolo Rebelo is looking at the window of the McCanns' holiday apartment. "is this how evil Maddie snatcher struck?"
Four pictures:
1. "Rebelo pushes window
2. Net curtains rustle in breeze as the window swings open
3. Detective leans in
4. Team confer about possible escape route"
"Fund paid mortgage" – Some of the £1million Madeleine McCann "fighting fun"
DAILY MIRROR front page: "NOW THEY BELIVE US – Police finally accept Madeleine was snatched"
Portuguese police are looking at possibilities
Says a friend of the McCanns: "At last, after all these months, Kate and Gerry's story is being believed. They are very encouraged by the re-enactment of Madeleine's abduction and the police now accept their version of events"
A policeman climbs through a window. He passes out a "large bundle"
"MADDY 'SPOTTED 10 TIMES IN MOROCCO'" – Says private detective Francisco Marco: "Several unconnected people have told us of the same girl with the same woman. She has shorter hair than Madeleine. But everything else matches". Like her name?
"MORTGAGE FUND FURY" – Says Clarence Mitchell: "The fund exists to help them when living costs became difficult"
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – McCANNS USE FUNDS TO PAY MORTGAGE" – Two mortgage payments on their "£600,000" home
The Express leads with picture of Gerry McCann playing golf. Inset is a picture of Gerry McCann on a bicycle
"We've found a kidnapped blonde girl, but it's not her" – A blonde girl in Morocco. She can speak English. She must have been kidnapped. Right?
Says Francisco Marco: "Blonde children are a valuable commodity in North Africa. They can be sold for huge sums and give prestige to families who buy them"
DAILY MAIL front page: "MADDIE FUND PAYS McCANNS' MORTGAGE" – Mortgage repayments on their "£500,000" home. (How long before the Express and Mail start a heated debate on the value of the McCanns home and how that value has been affected by the story?)
Page 4: "Is she in the mountains? Investigators scour Morocco in the search for Madeleine"
Says the Mail: "In an extraordinary coincidence the detectives are reported to have already found an English-speaking blonde girl of about Madeleine's age living with a local family"
How many more blonde children are in Morocco? And can we find them all?
DAILY STAR front page: "Maddie 'alive in drug den'"
Page 7: "MADDIE'S IN MOROCCAN MOUNTAINS – Ten sightings with rich Arab"
Says Francisco Marco PI of the woman with the blonde child found in the Rif mountains: "My feeling is this woman is some sort of carer who is working on behalf of other people"
Says an "insider": "It's a very secretive country and the Rif mountains enjoy official protection because of the importance of the hashish production"
"McCanns in the clear – Portuguese police now believe Madeline was kidnapped"
THE TIMES page 13: "Police return to holiday apartment in attempt to solve Madeleine mystery"
Paulo Rebelo is inside the apartment. He walks to the beach. He passes Sergey Malinka's home. He is on a road leading to the N125 main road
In Morocco, a 60-year-old woman is seen with a blonde child
"Funds for search used to pay mortgage on McCanns' house" – The McCanns' home is worth "460,000"
THE TELEGRAPH front page: "Police re-enact Madeleine night"
Page 17: Paulo Rebelo is at the Ocean Club. Says a source "close to the couple": "Blonde children are a very valuable commodity in places like north Africa"
Paulo Rebelo is looking
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news
Posted: 30th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,424)
Madeleine McCann: An Accident, Susan Healy's 'Twisted' Words And Metodo 3
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS: "front page: "MADELEINE: THREE NEW SIGHTINGS IN MOROCCO"
The McCanns private detectives are taking calls on the new "hotline". Each caller says the "blonde, blue-eyed" Madeleine is with a 60-year-old "middle-Class" woman
Pages 4 and 5: "Clues lead to Morocco" – The Metodo 3 private detective agency is working on the theory Madeleine was kidnapped to order and smuggled to North Africa. Cross your fingers and start the expense account rolling, they're going in
"New bungles of the Portuguese police": Portuguese officers driving Robert Murat's impounded camper van crashed it; British detectives are "horrified" Portuguese police failed to routinely quarantine vehicles
Hamish Brown, a former Scotland Yard detective, says: "It defies the rules of investigation." (Get Mr Brown an agent)
DAILY MAIL front page: "Outrage over claims that Kate's suicidal"
Page 7: "I just don't know how long Kate will hold on for…What mother would not go insane if they lost a child?"
Susan Healy, Kate McCann's mother, tells Portuguese magazine 24 Horas: "I don't know if any human being can take such pressure"
Says the magazine's headline: "Kate's mother fears she will kill herself"
Says Clarence Mitchell: "It is beyond offensive to suggest Kate is suicidal. She is not." Says the Mail: "Mrs McCann is a GP"
She has weekly counselling sessions. The Mail recalls other relatives saying how Kate is never left alone. A "friend" says Mrs Healy's words have been "twisted": "It's ludicrous and yet another horrible slur". The Mail says Kate McCann has "dark moments"
"POLICE CRASHED SUSPECT'S VAN" – Robert Murat vehicle is damaged. Policia Judiciaria inspectors drove the McCanns' Renault Scenic to the pound rather than took it to headquarters on a trailer
THE STAR front page: "MADDIE: RICH ARAB FAMILY HAS HER"
Pages 4 and 5: "Callers tell phoneline they spotted blonde girl with mystery woman – ARABS NAB MADDIE"
Arabs? Oh… Can we invade?
Says a source "close" to the McCanns: "Obviously talk of Madeleine being bartered around by evil people is extremely upsetting for them. But for the first time a credible theory of what happened is being worked by one of Europe's leading investigation agencies"
Forget the Portuguese police, Interpol and the British police. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… Metodo 3 are on the case. (Invoice in the post)
THE SUN page 11: "KATE'S HURTING BUT SHE IS NOT SUICIDAL – Maddie gran's fury"
Susan Healy says Kate McCann will not kill herself because: "One, she still wants to find Madeleine and two, for the sake of the other children, Sean and Amelie"
"DNA BUNGLE COPS CRASH MURAT VAN" – Says Hamish Brown: "It's positively wrong"
DAILY MIRROR page 11: "COPS CONTAMINATE CAR..BY DRIVING IT..and then they crash Murat van"
The paper produces a list of "BLUNDERS":
Not sealing of the McCanns' holiday flat
Not making early house-to-house enquiries
No fingertip search of resort
Early e-fit had no face
Not releasing details of what Madeleine was wearing
Being Portuguese (not stated)
THE TIMES page 14: "Madeleine in Morocco, says headline caller".
The Times reproduces the sketch of a man seen by Jane Tanner carrying a child near the McCanns' apartment. Like that Portuguese police's "bungled" efit, there is no face
If you see this man call 0034-902 300213
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 10: "McCann team targets Morocco"
Three calls to the Private detectives. "One from a Spaniard, the other two from British people," says the source.
More progress reports to follow…
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 29th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,360)
Madeleine McCann: A Big Secret, Jane Tanner's Friend And Moroccan Paedos
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE: MY VERDICT, BY FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF CONSTABLE JOHN STALKER"
"McCANNS ARE HIDING A BIG SECRET"
These are "THE MADELEINE FILES"
Stalker takes time out from advertising burglar alarms on telly to tell us: "I have watched the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case drag out for six months. One thing above all worries me: Why have the McCanns and the seven other members of their group – the Tapas Nine – remained so silent?"
Is he saying..?
"I don't believe for one minute that Kate and Gerry McCann or their friends are capable or guilty of having murdered the four-year-old. My gut instinct is that some big secret is probably being covered up"
A retired copper's copper's instinct is now front-page news. Such is weight of evidence
So who dunnit?
MAIL ON SUNDAY: "McCanns face agonising wait to clear their names"
Kate and Gerry CMCann could be made to wait up to a year to see details of the Portuguese police case against them
Carlos Anjos, chairman of the Union of Portuguese Detectives, says of the drawing released by the McCanns of the man seen by their friend Jane Tanner: "It's a simple cartoon that anyone could come up with. It's no e-fit nor does it have anyone's approval. This simply does not exist."
"Jane Tanner is haunted by the image of a man 'striding urgently' away from the McCanns' apartment with a barefooted child slumped in his arms"
She tells a friend: "I never in a million years would have imagined that it was Maddie being carried away. The first thing that raced into my head after finding out she was missing was this person I'd seen"
Says Jane Tanner's unnamed friend: "It was about 9.15pm when Jane saw the man. She said that although he looked a bit odd and the child he was carrying had bare feet on a cold night, she never in a million years thought it could have been Maddie. You see a lot of people taking children to and from a nearby creche around there…
"Suddenly this man scoots across in front of her with the child, which she thinks is a bit strange because the child was in pyjamas and had no shoes or socks on. He wasn't running, he wasn't walking, but he was striding. It was like an urgent walk"
Then, says Jane Tanner's unnamed friend:
"Jane finished her meal and went up to the apartment straight away to see her daughter. Around 10 or 15 minutes later, Kate discovered that Madeleine was gone.
"Jane heard shouting outside…The first thing that came into Jane's head was this person she'd seen. She felt complete horror. Kate was screaming 'She's gone, she's gone' and there was a huge panic"
What Kate was screaming…
NEWS OF THE WORLD: "MADDIE SNATCHED TO ORDER – Detectives claim it was paedo plot"
"Today we sensationally reveal the renowned Spanish Metodo 3 detective agency—hired by parents Kate and Gerry—believe the four-year-old was targeted after a tip-off from INSIDE their Portuguese holiday complex"
"Distraught Kate and Gerry McCann are coming to terms with the sickening thought that missing daughter Maddie is in the hands of a gang of Moroccan paedophiles." Madeleine was "spirited away to feed North Africa's sick child sex industry"
The paper "has also discovered the private investigators now believe the kidnapper:
* POUNCED after being TIPPED OFF by an insider at the resort that a young blonde Western girl was there,
* SPIED on the family for days plotting their movements and waiting for the right moment,
* SNATCHED Maddie in a tight eight-minute window of opportunity,
* PASSED her to a paedophile network in Morocco where she has been sold on to other pervert gangs"
Metodo 3 managing director Francisco Marco, says: "I'm certain Madeleine was kidnapped. And I'm also sure her parents had nothing to do with her disappearance. My own view is the most likely place to find her is Morocco. We're working very hard on all information indicating that. But I stress that we are following up EVERYTHING"
When you are being paid, it's best to be professional and check and recheck every fact; best not to investigate your employees
DAILY STAR ON SUNDAY front page: "MADDIE – Cops fit panic buttons in the McCanns' home"
A picture of Gerry McCann on first glance throwing a child onto a skip; on second look, pushing a child on a swing
MADDIE: THE DEATH THREATS – "Heart specialist Gerry" and "GP Kate" have an a alarm fitted
Gerry is returning to work on Thursday and Kate "will be alone in the house with two-year old twins Sean and Amelie". Or else with her parents, sister and media team, while paparazzi and hacks stand around the front and back of the house
SUNDAY PEOPLE: "COPS KEEP FILES FROM McCANNS"
"Agonisingly for the couple, it could be 15 YEARS before the prosecution case is 'archived'"
SUNDAY TIMES: "McCann friend is certain she saw abduction"
Jane Tanner sees. "When she was formally interviewed by police at 3am that night, Tanner realised that the pyjamas on the child she had seen were an exact match with Madeleine's"
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY: "Crying shame to see McCanns judged with poison not pity"
"So, at last, she wept. But the tears of a bereft mother did not impress the hard-hearted and nasty-minded, who had already condemned Kate McCann and her husband Gerry. For them, her breakdown on TV last week was too little, too late – and was it stage-managed?"
OBSERVER: "It is not only the Madeleine McCann case that highlights the perils of exotic holidays"
"The case of 'Marco' is as big in Germany as 'Madeleine' is here. Yet we hear virtually nothing of it, even though the key to this mystery lies in Britain
"Marco Weiss, 17, has languished without trial since April in a Turkish prison cell crammed with 30 inmates after allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old English girl, 'Charlotte M'. And while his case will hardly tug at British heartstrings like the missing English child has, it shows how criminal cases can provoke international fissure"
More to follow…
Posted: 28th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (818)
Madeleine McCann: Jose Cabrera Says, Read My Lips And The Ambassador Writes
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – 'BE KIND TO KATE'. Mother's heartfelt plea after astonishing attack"
Says Kate McCann's mother, Susan Healy: "Please be kinder to her. She has enough to cope with. Yes, she is distressed at times and she can't smile that often at the
moment but she is very strong and she is going to fight on to get Madeleine back"
Oh: "People are saying she's at breaking point but she's not going to have a breakdown"
The "heartfelt plea" comes after an "astonishing attack" on "GP Kate" by a Spanish psychiatrist who saw her on Spanish TV.
Jose Cabrera runs a private practice in Madrid. He says: "Kate's face does not express any emotion whatsoever or feeling. When people cry they move the muscles in their face, and she didn't move one single muscle, just like a poker player. That is significant"
And: "Her performance brings us the certainty that she is hiding something. The interview was non-spontaneous and it gives us the impression that it was a pose staged by the couple." He tells the newspaper Correio da Manha: "Any Englishman is cold, but she has something else – her personality is not normal"
Says Englishman Clarence Mitchell: "A few days ago Kate was criticised for not showing enough emotion and then when she does cry she is criticised too. Everything that Kate and Gerry said on that interview was totally genuine. They have nothing to hide. The people who are making these allegations should be very sure about what they are saying. Our lawyers are watching the media coverage very carefully in both Portugal and Britain and action will be taken against anything we feel has gone too far"
"LIP READERS DRAFTED IN AFTER POLICE GAFFE – Says a "source": "The cameras were set up in the interview suite at Portimao during the two days the McCanns were interrogated and made suspects. But when detectives went to examine the tapes afterwards, they realised that they hadn't picked up any sound. It then got really farcical because they made an approach to lip readers to try to get the words to go with the visuals on the tape"
DAILY MAIL front page: "Kate stunned by psychiatrists 'vile attack'"
"Madeleine: McCanns consider suing after Kate accused of 'putting on a circus act' with her tears on TV"
Jose Cabrera analysed the couple's television interview on Wednesday for the Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha. He is billed therein as a "forensic psychiatrist and facial expression specialist". He is media-friendly doctor with something to say, and the need to say something
Says Cabrera: "All he [Gerry McCann] worried about was controlling her. It's extraordinary. Whenever she opened her mouth to talk he squeezed her hand – and all this because the key to this mystery is definitely with her"
"Murat feels 'forgotten' and 'desperate'" – Robert Murat's lawyer Francisco Pagarete says: "Mr Murat has been living with this for a long time now and it is time the police admit they have no evidence against him. He is desperate to get his life back. If the inspectors want another interview, we are willing. Mr Murat is very keen to see the case against him finished"
The Mail is running an online poll: "Do you think Kate McCann's tears were genuine?" It cares
This poll is not to be confused with the paper's other urgent polls:
"Where do you think Tottenham will finish this season?"
"Has Strictly Come Dancing become too competitive?"
"Is Nigella Lawson getting too fat?"
Says Suspect No. 1 Robert Murat: "Re-interview me – or clear me"
THE SUN: "'Poker face' Kate set to sue"
"Angry Kate and Gerry McCann may sue over claims this week's emotional TV interview was 'staged like theatre'"
(The McCanns have already threatened to sue Portuguese weekly newspaper Tal e Qual, which accused them of killing their daughter, and the daily tabloid 24 Horas, which claimed Mr McCann was not Madeleine's biological father)
DAILY STAR front page: "MADDIE SKETCH IS A LIE – Cops blast McCann 'fantasy'"
Says an unnamed source "close to the investigation": "There is only the evidence of one person that this man was ever there. Nobody else saw him. There is a waft of the scent of a red herring''
THE TIMES: "'You have many more abductions than Portugal, but nobody talks about that' – Lisbon's ambassador to London tells our correspondents how the Madeleine McCann case left him heavy-hearted"
"Antonio Santana Carlos is swamped by emotional letters from the British public about the disappearance of a little girl"
It is a mixed postbag – "the impassioned camp of Portuguese-blamers, joined by those who condemn the parents, with a lunatic fringe unhealthily excited by the case and who think that they know where the body is"
The rest of us just watch the parents, watch the telly, watch the headlines…
Posted: 27th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (805)
Madeleine McCann: Jane Tanner's eFit, A Spanish Angel And Wearing Pink Pyjamas
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – 70% DON'T BELIEVE McCANNS"
The McCanns are on the TV in Spain. The show is followed by a phone vote. The people vote, at least some of them do; how many, we are not told. One, two, three..? Gerry is a "cardiologist"
Pages 4 and 5: "Police: Parents are hampering probe." Angel Galan, head of the Spanish National Police's kidnap, extortion and murder squad says: "There is no real information to indicate that Madeleine could be in Spain although Mr and Mrs McCann might think so. I think the question is why couldn't she be in France or in the UK? Why does it have to be Spain, Portugal or Morocco?"
"Drawing that could catch her abductor" – an artist's impression of a man carrying a child in the vicinity of the McCanns holiday complex on May 3. The man is of average height, of average build, with dark hair and with his facial features not filled in. Do you know him?
The artist was commissioned by the McCanns in light of a person their friend Jane Tanner said she saw on the night Madeleine disappeared
THE SUN front page: "PICTURE SENSATION. He took Maddie – MAN SEEN BY McCANNS' PAL ON FATEFUL NIGHT"
A drawing of a man. The caption: "Hunted…a drawing of man with child in his arms as seen by Jane Tanner"
Page 13: "MADDIE IN ARMS OF SNATCHER. Pyjamas 'prove it is her'" – The man is 5ft 6. He is 5ft 10 in the Express. He is "slim". The girl is wearing pink and white pyjamas. The man is in a maroon shirt, camel coloured trousers and black or brown shoes
Says Clarence Mitchell: "We hope this will go a long was to proving the independent eyewitness account that she was taken by someone and the police's focus on Kate and Gerry as potential suspects is wrong". See drawing of a man seen by McCanns' friend
And: "We believe it does show Madeleine in his arms. The description of the pyjamas is accurate enough to believe that is the case." The McCanns' friend sees the girl wearing pyjamas like those worn by Madeleine, whom she knows
"GERRY BACK AT WORK" – Gerry McCann is a "cardiologist" – lest we ever forget
DAILY MIRROR front page: "This is the man who took our Madeleine. PARENTS RELEASE SKETCH"
Page 11: "'He was slim with untidy black hair, plastered back. He was hurrying with a child in pink pyjajmaas'" (No songs please)
Paul Routledge: "All I want to do is put my arms around her and say: 'there, there' while she sobs out her grief on my shoulder"
DAILY MAIL front page: "Friends' fears for 'increasingly fragile' Kate"
Pages 8 and 9: "Is Kate at breaking point?" – If she cracks up will the papers like her better? "Friends fear for Maddie's mother after TV ordeal"
"SPANISH EYES" – The McCanns have launched a private "proxy investigation" in Spain. Under Portuguese law it is illegal to use private detectives while an investigation is ongoing
The mystery man who may have taken her" – Mrs Tanner sees the man. She is later "racked with guilt"
DAILY STAR front page: "MADDIE PARENTS 'HIDING TRUTH' – 70 per cent of TV viewers thinks McCanns are lying"
Pages 4 and 5: "BODY LANGUAGE SPECIALIST GIVES HIS VERDICT ON KATE – 'MUM WOULD BE VERY GOOD POKER PLAYER'." Robert Phipps watches the interview with Kate McCann on Spanish TV. She is frowning, and expert Phipps says this is indicative of "pain" and stress. Who knew? We do not know if he then voted in the subsequent poll
THE TIMES front page: "Madeleine 'abductor'" – The white man is of "medium build"
Page 9: "'This is the man who took Madeleine away'" – The Times says the new picture bears "no resemblance to Robert Murat". The picture has been handed to the McCanns' detectives who are operating across Europe and North Africa
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: "Madeleine 'abductor'" – This is the man Jane Tanner says she saw at 9:15pm on May 3
THE INDEPENDENT and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 26th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,749)
Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann Sobs, Gerry McCann Points And 14 Questions
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR front page: "KATE'S TORMENT – 'I think she is being held by someone in their house..as Madeleine's mummy I feel in my heart she's out there'"
"Distraught" Kate McCann is on Spanish TV. She is being interviewed. Says she: "I don't know how anyone could harm anyone as beautiful as Madeleine"
Pages 4 and 5: "TEARS OF KATE – After six months of holding her heartbreak in check..Madeleine's mum breaks down on TV"
Three pictures of Kate McCann:
"SO EMPTY: Kate tries to explain her loss on TV"
"TOO MUCH: She can't hold back the tears"
"SOBBING: Kate and Gerry on TV"
"14 questions Portuguese police are flying to Britain to out to the McCanns and friends" – So reports Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas. Why would the police publish the questions and allow the McCanns and their friends to prepare answers? Why only – or as many as – 14 questions? Unless these are questions made up by the media, questions the police are "expected" to ask…
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – POLICE WANT ANSWERS TO 14 QUESTIONS. What detectives demand to know"
Pages 4 and 5: "Kate breaks down during TV grilling." Kate and Gerry McCann are on the telly. Says Kate: "I feel sad and I feel lonely and our life is not as happy without Madeleine…we want people to try to reunite us with your beautiful girl"
And: "We know the truth. We know we are totally innocent. That is why we are calm. We know each other"
Says a "British detective": "The detectives could be giving the suspects enough rope to hang themselves. It is a common tactic in police investigations to let those under suspicion speak on television in case they trip themselves up"
THE SUN front page: "KATE WEEPS FOR MADDIE – I feel in my heart she is out there"
"Distraught" Kate on the telly. Kate and Gerry are publicising a telephone hotline. No, not 999, their own number
Pages 4 and 5: "MADDIE NEEDS US – So lonely without our lovely girl, sobs Kate"
Three pictures of "Precious..the happy Maddie her mum longs to see"
Three pictures of the McCanns:
"Anguish…Gerry faces TV quiz"
"Ordeal…Kate fights back tears"
"Brave…but the McCanns struggle with their emotions as they relive the night Maddie vanished"
The hotline. Says Kate McCann: "We want to appeal to the people of Spain, Portugal and North Africa to help us and to tell them we have a new central phone number for them to call"
DAILY STAR front page: "MADDIE MUM FINALLY CRACKS – Suspect Kate sobs on TV as she is quizzed"
Pages 8 and 9: "MADDIE'S MUM TV BREAKDOWN – Torment as Kate's sobs halt interview four times". Spanish TV journalist Roberto Arce sees Kate "prostrate with pain"
The McCanns hotline number is 00 34 902 300 213
DAILY MAIL pages 8 and 9: "I'M SAD AND LONELY…LIFE IS NOT HAPPY"
Says Mrs McCann: "Somebody knows something. It is not about us. It is about Madeleine." Is it? We are watching the parents
Gerry McCanns is a "consultant cardiologist". He says: "We have not been charged with anything"
"Will they find her in Spain?" – Gerry McCann tells El Mundo newspaper (Spain): "The possibility that Madeleine is alive and in Spain is real…If someone had a car, it is clear they could cross into Spain. There is no border guard and no one closed the border the night Madeleine disappeared." And we look again at the police
THE TIMES page 3: "Sobbing Kate McCann insists that Madeleine is alive and being held"
"Days of hope and despair" – The Times looks at some key dates: June 21 (Madeleine in Malta); August 3 (Madeleine in Belgium); August 23 (Madeleine in Morocco)
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: "'I'M SO SAD AND LONELY' – KATE McCANN WEEPS FOR MADELEINE ON SPANISH TV"
Page 5: "'Sad, lonely' Kate weeps for Madeleine in TV interview" – Kate McCann wept "uncontrollably". Says he:" I feel anxious she is not with us"
THE GUARDIAN page 12: "McCanns set up phone line to seek Madeleine"
THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 25th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,754)
Madeleine McCann: Susan Healy Says, Gerry McCann Plays And Patricia Cornwell Investigates,
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – FATHER PLAYED TENNIS AFTER SHE VANISHED"
No not Father Pacheco – Gerry McCann.
Says Ocean Club waiter Jose Baptista: "If my kid disappeared I'd go insane. I wouldn't be able to function. They'd have to lock me away. They were so cool about it. All the staff commented about how they were able to play tennis and things calmly"
"I never saw them cry or anything"
You want empathy…
Pages 2 and 3: "It will take a miracle to find her" – Madeleine's "broken" grandparents talk with "searing honesty" and "struggle to fight back the tears." Says Kate McCann's mother Susan Healy on Spanish TV, talking of Madeleine: "But we're not going to acknowledge she's gone from our life altogether. She's too important for that"
Of the night Madeleine went missing: "My daughter is very placid, very easy-tempered and I saw her scream at the British council that night, shout down the phone at him to do something"
You want emotion…
DAILY MIRROR page 15: "Cops forced to show McCanns their evidence in three weeks"
The McCanns "could" be given "secret police files" on November 14, six moths to the day since Robert Murat was named an official suspect. This "could be a massive boost" for the McCanns. Or not
DAILY MAIL page 39: "Gerry McCann's call home: It's a disaster mum, she's gone"
Gerry McCann's mother-in-law Susan Healy picks up the phone. It's Gerry. He is "hysterical". He says: "There's been a disaster, it's a disaster. Madeleine has been abducted from her bed"
DAILY STAR front page: "MADDIE WAS IN MURAT VILLA – new DNA find outs No1 suspect back in frame"
Pages 8 and 9: "Maddie DNA in Murat house" – DNA samples found in Murat's house are said to match traces of DNA fond in the boot of the McCann's Renault Scenic
Says Mr Murat's lawyer: "My client has nothing to fear"
"Writer points to Kate" – Crime writer Patricia Cornwell "reckons Madeleine's mum holds the key to the case" – You want a feeling?
THE SUN front page: "Waiter: Kate is so cold" – Like a gazpacho soup, says Jose Baptista
"I promised we'd get our Maddie back…but it's harder to say that now" – Susan Healy is at her home in Liverpool. The TV cameras are rolling…
DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news
Posted: 24th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,275)
Madeleine McCann: When Waiters Attack, Kate McCann Childcare Inc. And Feudal Powers
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – 'McCANNS OR A FRIEND MUST BE TO BLAME'. Tapas bar waiter's astonishing attack"
Jose Batista served the McCanns and party on that night Madeleine disappeared. "I did not think she had been taken by an abductor," says he. "I told them [the police] it had to be one of the family or a friend. It had to be someone close"
Mr Batista is a "crucial eyewitness"
Page 4: "Nanny would have cost just £10" – Batista is standing with his "partner" Maria Fernandes, who also works at the Ocean Club complex. She does not speak. She smiles for the camera. Why is she there? They are holding hands. He says the Tapas 9 did check on their children regularly: "I know that because I often took food to the table and found one of them not there. I would take it back to the table to heat it up. But it was always the men who went to check never the women." Apart from the time Kate McCann went to check. So not always the men. Jose thought that strange. Why?
Says he: "They left heir children alone. If I had been in that position I certainly wouldn't have done that." Maria smiles
"Kate may be a child carer after ruling out GP work" – But would she make living at it?
THE SUN front page: "MADDIE EXCLUSIVE: WHAT WAITERS SAW. Kate left kids alone 3 hours a night"
It's Jose Baptista, not to be confused with the Express's Jose Batista, even if this waiter does look very similar and is seen holding hands with his "wife", also called Maria
Pages 4 and 5: "The men normally checked on kids..Kate only went that one night"
Kate and Gerry are "doctors". Says Jose: "They left their children alone for up to three hours every night." Apart from when they all went out as family, with the "cranky" children
Maria speaks: "I definitely remember Madeleine. She was like a little angel, very quiet and good as gold. Just a lovely little blonde girl." Blonde, you say?
DAILY STAR page 7: "holiday waiter describes horror night girl vanished – MADDIE: 'ONLY PARENTS OR PALS COULD HAVE DONE IT'" – Jose Batista says…
"Kate wants job in child care"
DAILY MAIL front page: "I want to work in child care says Maddie's mother"
Page 7: "Kate McCann 'wants a job in child welfare'" – So it is "claimed". So she ahs "told friends"
"FRIENDS 'SHARED EIGHT BOTTLES OF WINE A NIGHT'" – Says Jose Baptista. Yes, eight bottles between nine Britons. On holiday. In the sun. Indeed, is that all?
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 9: "Madeleine's mother 'to as GP for a child welfare job'"
"One possibility is that she will set up a charity to raise awareness of the extent of child abductions across Europe, and help parents and children who suffer such an ordeal"
Fernando Jose Pinto Montiero, Portugal's attorney general, says the country's Ministerio Publico, likened to the UK's Crown Prosecution Service, is a "feudal power"
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN, THE TIMES and DAILY MIRROR: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 23rd, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,637)
Madeleine McCann: Smoke, Ribeiro Hopes And Ash
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – McCANN FRIENDS FACE NEW PROBE. Portuguese police chief wants holiday couples interrogated"
Investigators "believe" members of the so-dubbed Tapas Nine "may" have helped the McCanns dispose of Madeleine's body. They "could" be named as official suspects"
Page 5: "'I'm convinced Madeleine inquiry will be resolved'" – Alipio Ribeiro, Portugal's most senior police officer, says he is "optimistic" the case will be solved
Says he: "We have an idea of what happened…In every interview there is a key moment, a click that clarifies everything and help you to reach the end"
"Kate and the 'lost 5 minutes'" – A source says: "During the 40 minutes in which Kate left the Ocean Club restaurant and alerted the authorities about Madeleine, many things could have happened". The possibilities, as we have read for some weeks, are endless
DAILY MIRROR page 11: "TOP MADDY COP: WE'LL CRACK IT"
Says Alipio Ribeiro: "Many similar cases have lasted longer and were resolved in the end" – Such as?
"Gerry 'to go back'" – To Portugal? No, to work. Maybe one day
DAILY MAIL page 35: "The McCann 'witchhunt' – Ex yard boss condemns police pursuit of parents"
Lord Stevens is brought into the media for questioning
DAILY STAR front page: "MADDIE I KNOW THE KILLER – Top cop vows to prove his case"
Alipio Ribeiro is "convinced he knows who killed Madeleine McCann – and has vowed to prove it". All he needs is some evidence
Page 15: "Portugal's police chief pledges…I WILL CRACK MADDIE CASE"
THE SUN page 11: "HOW COULD POLICE DROP ASH ON CLUES? Maddie parents' fury at evidence contamination
Kate and Gerry McCann are "horrified" that cigarette ash "could" have contaminated evidence. Says a close friend of the couple: "It is outrageous to think that messy cops could have ruined vital evidence about Maddie's abductor"
But did they?
Suzanne McGee, a holidaymaker, says: "I saw one lady forensic person remove her mask and light a cigarette. It just looked all wrong"
Like you, we are at loss for works over this story
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 7: "McCanns' friends to be re-interviewed by police"
Says Mr Ribeiro: What is clear is that we have the calmness to separate the story, the fantasy, from what is the police side of things"
THE TIMES page 11: "Police speak to McCann friends"
Says Mr Ribeiro: "There is a scenario that has gained strength and has a greater degree of certainty"
Gerry McCann is a "consultant cardiologist". Kate McCann is a "part-time GP"
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Pic: The Spine
Posted: 23rd, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (58)
Madeleine McCann: Enright In Hiding, Lord Stevens Deduces And Antonio Teixeira On Homicide
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
SUNDAY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE MYSTERY – GUARD AS GERRY RETURNS TO WORK"
No small development. Gerry McCanns returns to work…
Or not. "Police are poised to protect heart surgeon Gerry McCann when he makes an emotional return to work." That's right – Gerry McCann is a "consultant cardiologist"
"However Kate, 39, who worked part-time as a locum GP, has said in the past that she is unable to contemplate working again while her daughter remains missing". Indeed. Kate is a "GP"
MAIL ON SUNDAY: "Madeleine: New police chief's anger at mess he inherited"
Paulo Rebelo is the new broom. A police source quoted in a Portuguese newspaper says: "There was important material lying all over the place that hadn't been considered by investigators. A lot of key information was discarded. The whole process is being reviewed. Putting all the papers in order has been a massive task"
Rebelo, "previously involved in investigating a Lisbon paedophile ring", has taken on Antonio Teixeira, a 59-year-old murder squad detective
Teixeira once said: "Homicide is a crime we're all capable of committing." A colleague says: "By bringing him onto the case, the police are sending out a clear sign that the main lead as far as they concerned is homicide"
"'NO chance the McCanns would be charged with murder in the UK,' writes Britain's former top cop" – Former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens is raising his media profile
Says he: "I've been a detective at the most senior level for 30 years and have never seen such a witch-hunt, or one based on such flimsy evidence"
Has he seen all the evidence?
NEWS OF THE WORLD: "Maddie's parents are INNOCENT. I do not think they did it. It doesn't make sense"
It's Stevens formerly of the Met once again. He tells us: "There's absolutely no chance that the parents of Madeleine McCann would be charged with her murder in this country.
"It would be an outrageous miscarriage of justice if they were. I don't say that from any feelings of sympathy for Kate and Gerry McCann, but from examining the facts of the case — or rather, the total LACK of them.
"I've been a detective at the most senior level for 30 years and have never seen such a witch-hunt, or one based on such flimsy evidence"
Stevens looks only at the facts: "They're both highly professional medics, one a surgeon the other a GP." These are the facts. And that Madeleine is missing. Stevens, now retired and known as Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington is 6ft 3in
"Horrified Kate and Gerry McCann were incandescent with rage last night after cops were accused of a catalogue of incompetence in the hunt for their missing daughter Madeleine"
Anger issues?
"Insiders claim vital evidence was ditched by boozy officers and crucial documents were ignored"
Says Clarence Mitchell: "We'd be very concerned to hear all the information in the police's hands has not been properly or effectively co-ordinated or collated. If Mr Rebelo is strengthening their system that's all to the good"
DAILY TELEGRAPH: "Booker winner who misread the McCanns"
Anne Enright, Booker prize winner, has made comment son Gerry and Kate McCanns. Liz hutn has read them: "Kate McCann's face and figure have always been a factor in this story. Indeed, the only obstacle to a new picture of Kate making the front pages is a new CCTV grab of another tortured blonde in another ongoing soap opera, The Diana Inquest. The camera loves them both"
So too the press…
Hunt reads Enright's words and concludes: "For Kate to be derided for her composure, and Gerry for his courage in public, or to suggest, as Enright does, that it masks guilt and denial, is despicable. And it won't do much for the sales of her prize-winning novel, either"
IRISH INDEPENDENT: "Booker winner 'lost for words' – Anne Enright remains silent in controversy over McCanns article"
"By Thursday, Ms Enright appeared to have gone into hiding. She was not to be found at her home in Bray, Co Wicklow, and several agreed media engagements were cancelled"
Where is she? Why, on a reading tour in the US
THE TIMES: "Too serence for sympathy"
"After an astonishing attack on the family by the winner of the Booker prize and Kate's suggestion that people don't sympathise with her because she doesn't look maternal enough, our correpsondent asks why some people find it so easy to dislike the McCanns"
The Times is on the case
Margarette Driscoll looks at the evidence and tells us: "But if she thinks people don't like her because she does not appear sufficiently maternal, she's way off beam. This is the age of the yummy mummy and in those stakes McCann, who looks as though she could be Sienna Miller's older sister, is queen. It is her coolness of her manner that repels, not her skinniness, nor her careful choice of jewellery"
And her shoes?
THE GUARDIAN: "McCanns 'victims of a witch-hunt'" – More opinion from the ex-copper's copper Stevens
Posted: 21st, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (554)
Madeleine McCann: Francisco Moita Flores' 3 Minutes, Gran's Plate And The Paedo Doctor
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – 3 MINUTES TO DUMP HER BODY. Amazing new theory of crime specialists"
The police? Sort of… Former police inspector Francisco Moita Flores is the star of a Portuguese TV show about the case. It's not just the British that can turn the case into a form of entertainment
(Says The Guardian: "Channel 4's Searching for Madeleine: A Dispatches Special about the police hunt for Madeleine McCann got 3.1 million viewers at 14% over the 9pm hour. At the same time Channel Five's The Hotel Inspector got 1.5 million viewers, a share of 7%, making it the network's best performing show of the day)
Says Flores: "There are so many contradictory theories, but she was taken, dead or alive, according to the dogs, down to the church." Oh?
"This would have to have been done by car. There is a piece of land behind the church and behind that is the sea. A car could take you from the apartment to the sea in 30 seconds, whichever route was used. Let's say something went wrong, we have about 40 seconds. If you add two minutes to dispose of the body by sea – that's little more than two and a half minutes at the most. It would take just another 30 seconds to return to the resort"
This is based on hard speculation and raw opinion
Mr Flores adds of the 'Tapas 9': "That is more than enough time for any member of the group that left the table during that meal to be considered a suspect. Many of the group, according to what we're told, was absent from that table – every one of them for more than three minutes"
And then a flash of genius: "The little girl was removed and taken elsewhere – whether alive by an abductor or dead after an accident.
Another "crimebuster", Professor Paulo Sargento, of Lusofana University in Lisbon, says: "I am convinced that whatever happened happened within the McCanns and their group of friends. The reconstruction shows how unlikely it is that any other explanation could be possible"
But not impossible
DAILY STAR front page: "MADDIE: 3 MINUTES TO HIDE BODY"
DAILY MIRROR: "8 minutes to snatch Madeleine – EXCLUSIVE: 3D MODEL TIME CLUES"
Prof Sargento, of Lusofana University, Lisbon, says: "We have used the precise timings to recreate on screen what happened that night. From 8pm when the group sat down for dinner, seven people got up and walked around 14 times. That means on average there was somebody with a view of the McCanns' apartment every eight minutes during that period"
"Meanwhile, the McCanns yesterday said they could prove they have never sedated their children," says the Mirror. "A source said toxicology tests on hair from two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie showed they had never been given sedatives, demolishing police claims all three children were drugged when Madeleine vanished. A friend of the couple said: 'It backs up Kate and Gerry's claims'"
Was Madeleine sedated?
THE SUN: "Maddie's final gift for gran"
A picture of a plate – "the poignant last gift from Madeleine McCann to her gran – given just days before she vanished"
"The heartshaped plate bears Maddie's little handprints and the touching message, 'I love you Grandma and Grandad, From Madeleine 2007'"
"Maddie's devastated gran Susan Healy showed off the plate yesterday and said: 'This is so special I feel like locking it in a safe. I couldn't bear anything to happen to it – the handprints are the closest thing we have to a physical reminder of her'"
What of the missing girl's hair?
DAILY MAIL: "Why Portugal is a haven for paedophiles – the disturbing backcloth to the Madeleine case"
"A Ferrari engine makes a deep, distinctive sound. When the children at Portugal's most famous orphanage heard the sports car roaring down the driveway, fear swept through the dormitories. The noise could mean only one thing: the man known as The Doctor was coming to call"
No, not Gerry McCann, nor Kate McCann. They had a Renault Scenic.
"Yet this medical practitioner had no intention of adhering to the ancient Hippocratic Oath"
There follows a lengthy story of alleged organised sexual abuse at Casa Pia (House of the Pious), a 17th century Lisbon orphanage where more than 4,000 children are cared for each year behind "high stone walls" – "the doctor would summon selected boys and girls from their beds for examinations one night each week"
The children are taken to "some of the leading members of Lisbon society – ranging from Portuguese government ministers and high-ranking diplomats, to famous television stars and members of the judiciary". It is "likened to an earthquake waiting to shake Portugal to its foundations"
Says the Mail: "But what relevance does this have to the disappearance 170 days ago of four-year-old Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz, about 280km from Lisbon?"
Good question…
"And what does it mean for Kate and Gerry McCann, who have not only had to cope with losing their child, but have also been subjects of a vicious campaign in the Portuguese press to smear them?"
Another good question…
"It is crucial for two reasons; first because it proves what international crime agencies have long suspected: that Portugal has become a magnet for predatory paedophiles from around the world, using the country's lax laws and preying on the high numbers of poor, abandoned children.
"And second, because Paulo Rebelo, an urbane, methodical detective who led the Casa Pia paedophile inquiry, was last night finishing his first week as the new chief of the investigation into the disappearance of the British child"
That's a link?
Says the Mail: "Of course, the Casa Pia case may have no direct link to the disappearance of Madeleine, but the culture in which such a serious child abuse network was allowed to operate is the same culture that pervades the whole of Portugal. Was it this attitude that led to the bungled initial investigation in the McCann case?"
The Mail has no idea. But get a load of those alleged paedos…
THE TIMES: "'Tests show Madeleine McCann's brother and sister were not drugged'"
The police tests are in. No. These are tests the McCanns carried out themselves. On Madeleine? No. On the twins Sean and Amelie.
A source close to the couple says: "Any legal team worth their salt would have these kinds of tests done. No evidence of sedatives were found in the twins' systems"
The twins are not missing
DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 20th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,086)
Madeleine McCann: Gordon Brown Investigates, Gerry McCann's 'Fears' And A Ghost
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – GERRY'S FEARS FOR KATE HOURS BEFORE DISAPPEARANCE"
"Heart consultant" Gerry McCann was "allegedly concerned about his wife Kate's state of mind" on the night Madeleine vanished. Gerry is said to have spoken about "part-time GP" Kate with "fellow medic" David Payne as Gerry was having a tennis lesson
Page 7: A source says: "David Payne saw Madeleine at around 6:30pm. He popped in because Gerry wanted to make sure Kate was OK". Says Mr Payne, who has known the McCanns for five years: "I have never witnessed anything untoward in all that time"
"Madeleine visits me at night says 'hysterical' Kate" – Susan Healy, Kate's mother, says probably once or twice a day her daughter is "absolutely devastated, hysterical, bereft". "I asked her, did the twins come and wake you up? Sometimes they get into bed with Kate. 'No,' she said. 'Madeleine came'"
"Brown's plea to Portugal" – Gordon Brown is in Lisbon and due to meet Portuguese Prime minister Jose Socrates. He says: "I will discuss the issue". Gordon Brown PI
DAILY STAR front page: "MADDIE GHOST VISITS MUM"
Page 10: "Mum's Maddie ghost anguish" – Kate McCann is an "anguished GP". Readers are assured by a family "pal" that Kate is suffering
"SUSPECTS FOR REST OF LIVES" – The Star has seen the Channel 4 Dispatches programme on their daughter's case. The five media-friendly sleuths failed to crack the case. Next week the Coronation Street writers have a go
THE SUN page 27: "CLEAR US, MADDIE PARENTS TELL COPS" – Kate and Gerry are "angry". A "high-raking source" in the Portuguese police says: "Nothing which allows us to make a definite accusation against them has emerged." Some news. Might this be why they have not been arrested?
DAILY MAIL page 32: "Brown quizzes Portuguese PM over Madeleine" – Is Mr Socrates a suspect? Gordon Brown is Columbo. Just one more thing, sir…
DAILY MIRROR page 11: "GERRY ASKED PAL TOP CHECK ON KATE – Police probe mental state"
Says Mr Payne: "Kate is a fantastic mum. She can cope. She is a very able person". Such is the news
"COP: NO PROOF ON McCANNS" – The McCanns have not been arrested. Says Clarence Mitchell: "If this is true, Kate and Gerry should be eliminated from the inquiry". But the police are still looking. All avenues of inquiry remain open. No evidence. Or no evidence yet?
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 9: "Madeleine's mother 'breaks down in hysterics every day'"
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 19th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,296)
Madeleine McCann: Pacheco Deceived, Anne Enright Accuses And The Mail's Underage Sex
MADDY WATCH – Anorak's at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: "MADELEINE – POLICE TRYING TO MAKE KATE CRACK"
Police are exerting "pressure" on Kate McCann. Portuguese police are to reconstruct the night of Madeleine's disappearance in the style of TV's Crimewatch, with the focus on the mother
Page 5: "Priest: I was deceived" – Father Jose Manuel Pacheco says "I was deceived". He "finally broke his silence". Says he: "I was deceived. I was just doing my job supporting lost souls. I would do that again with any family who were in their situation. I didn't do anything wrong"
But deceived? In what way? Readers learn his mistake had been in forming a "close bond with the couple"
"Booker author's dislike'" – Booker prize winner Anne Enright says she disliked Kate and Gerry McCanns "earlier than most people". Writing in the London Review of Books, Enright notes: "I thought I was angry with them for leaving their children alone."
Enright is a "mother of two small children". She can empathise less as a writer than as a parent. But: "In fact I was angry at their failure to accept that their daughter was probably dead." Look out for Enright's next work: Me & Maddie
DAILY MAIL front page: "Five top British crime experts went to Portugal to examine the Maddie case. What is their verdict…?"
A verdict? No body. No arrest made. No court case. Just a verdict. And from "crime experts"…
Pages 18 and 19: "THE MADDIE FILES – Five of Britain's top crime experts were sent to Portugal to give their verdicts on the McCann case. Here they reveal their deeply disturbing conclusions…"
Who sent these sleuths? The British police? Richard Branson? The Pope? No – Channel 4's Dispatches. The Madeleine McCann mystery is a media circus, so what more fitting than the TV as a courtroom and arbiter of justice?
The Mail's Roger Graef presides. He says that under Portuguese law, the age of consent is 13 ("between couples of the same age"). It's not, yer honour. It is 14. "Portugal has many more paedophiles than it cares to admit." How many? We do not know. It pains Graef to divulge the hideous details. But there have been two cases of child abduction in the past 15 years over there
The crackers are THE CRIMINAL PROFILER (David Canter), THE SEARCH EXPERT (Gary Lig), THE FORENSIC ANALYST (David Barclay), THE SOHAM DETECTIVE (Chris Stevenson) and THE MEDIA HANDLER (Matt Tapp).
They unearth no new clues, no new evidence, no new ideas. But they get to be on the telly and in the papers. And then they return to the UK to crack other cases, like the murder of Rhys Jones, the whereabouts of Suzy Lamplugh, the capture of Osama bin Laden, the wheabout of the UK's most wanted Paul Bures "wanted in relation to multiple charges of Rape and Sexual assault on male children aged 13-16 years. He currently resides in Spain") and…
THE MIRROR front page: "Maddy case is probed by Soham cop" – Former Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, "the man who caught Soham killer Ian Huntely", is advancing his media career
THE SUN front page: "Soham chief in Maddie cop rap" – Stevenson of the Media says the Portuguese police were "totally ill equipped" to handle the case
Page 8: "MADDIE PROBE IS TOO BIG FOR PORTUGAL COPS – Soham chief blasts 'too slow' force". Is this why the British police sent dogs and helped with forensic tests?
DAILY STAR front page: "MADDIE PARENTS HID TRUTH – Priest reveals McCanns' deceit"
Pages 6 and 7: "McCANNS DECEIVED ME – I wish I'd never given them key to the church." Father Pacheco has been told of by his bishop for getting too close to the McCanns
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: Pictures of Kate McCann and Booker prize winner – and mother – Anne Enright. A caption: "Kate McCann avoids the worst of Anne Enright's criticism although the author says 'disliking the McCanns is an international sport'"
Page 3: In her essay Disliking The McCanns, Enright notes: "I find Gerry's need to 'influence the investigation' more provoking than her [Kate's] flat sadness, or the very occasional glimpse of wounded narcissism that flecks her public appearance… The language he uses is more appropriate to a corporate executive than to a desperate father…But we are all used to the idea of corporations lying to us…"
Mrs Enright has not been to Portugal to work on the case. Not yet
THE TIMES pages 6 and 7: "'It is time to discard the myths and half-truths. She was taken.'" So says David Canter.
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
Fat Portuguese women to blame for Kate's pain
Posted: 18th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann | Comments (1,432)
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"
"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 and
andTHE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today
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…
"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…
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)


text:
Personality: Stephan A. Hicks
Spotlight on founder of nonprofit My Brother's Keeper of Greater Richmond
2/1/2019, 6 a.m.
"Men are the greatest resource in our city. However, services focusing on men in Richmond are severely lacking. When it comes to helping men get on their feet, there is little offered."
This is the sentiment of Stephan A. Hicks, 57, of South Side. It also is the driving force behind My Brother's Keeper of Greater Richmond, a nonprofit Mr. Hicks founded in 2009 to uplift and empower men to reach their greater potential.
"Coach," as he is called by the nearly 1,000 men his program has mentored in the past decade, is a God-driven passionate leader wearing many hats. He is a facilitator, coordinator, spiritual mentor, motivational speaker, life coach and trainer.
"People think that men should have it together by a particular age," Mr. Hicks says. "But the truth is, because of violence, economic disadvantages and other social factors, when men are not where they should be, people should not look down on them, but try to offer them a hand up."
MBKGR provides a safe place on Carnation Street in Richmond's South Side where males ages 13 and older can come and share their struggles, receive manhood and fatherhood training as well as mentoring from other men.
The nonprofit's mission reflects what was absent in Mr. Hicks' past, as well as his dreams for the future for African-American men and the challenges facing them daily — connecting with each other, gaining practical and spiritual guidance, and getting support to become better husbands, partners, fathers, brothers, uncles and sons.
"Self-improvement is the key in our work, addressing men's frequently identified under-developed skills — interpersonal communication, anger management and conflict resolution," he says.
Through small group interactive workshops and seminars, MBKGR helps men address their seemingly overwhelming issues.
Using retreats and conferences throughout the year, including a 14-week life skills course covering co-parenting, job seeking, career development and financial planning, men learn to improve their lifestyles and become responsible citizens.
The organization also has a "Suits for Success" program and the annual "Manny Awards."
"Suits for Success," Mr. Hicks explains, came from attending job fairs where employers were ready to hire at a moment's notice. He observed how woefully underdressed young men were. With appearance being important, Mr. Hicks says he knew some of the men didn't have or couldn't afford a suit.
"If you are struggling, buying a suit, which may average $200, is not an important purchase," he says.
As an adolescent who grew up without a father in Alabama, Mr. Hicks dropped out of high school and later moved to Baltimore, where his father lived. He realized job skills were a necessity. Subsequently, he earned a GED, developed computer skills and started to work in the administrative field.
He got married and had two children, which he says "added to the pressure to provide for myself and my family."
Struggling, he turned to vices, developing a crack cocaine addiction that sent him on a path of personal destruction, incarceration and, upon release, homelessness.
At age 40, he moved to Richmond, alone, which he says gave him a change of environment and a chance to start over in a place where people didn't know him.

subset: commoncrawl


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L.A. Dodgers slugger Matt Kemp was recently spied court-side at the Staples Center for an L.A. Clippers exhibition game. Matt went for a collegiate-inspired look sporting a classic Brooklyn Circus varsity jacket. Matt completed his look fit with a collar shirt, denims and chukka shoes.
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We've also selected a few varsity jackets at various price points.
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