Madeleine McCann: 100 Days Of Voyeurism And Entertainment
THE case against Robert Murat is making slow progress, or no progress. An unblinking Madeleine McCann continues to stare at readers from the front page of the tabloids, scaring parents and children via leaflets in banks and cinema adverts.
But now there is a new bad man. He is Francisco Pagarete. He is the lawyer acting for suspect number one Robert Murat.
“Lawyers sick outburst,” says the Mirror’s front page. “These bloody McCanns should just go away and leave this town,” says he. “They’re giving it a bad name.”
The Express also leads with the lawyer’s words, albeit abridged to “Why don’t these bloody McCanns go home”. The words hang beneath the word “MADELEINE”, the Express’s bold statement playing at the bold facts.
And there is more from Pagarete. “As a Portuguese person I think it is strange that somebody would leave their kids. Then, after the first thing happened, they left their twins and went to see the Pope. It was like the McCanns on tour.”
The McCanns did meet the Pope. Or, as Mick Hume points out in the Times, “as a BBC headline put it, in a Lloyd-George-knew-my-father moment, ‘Pope meets Madeleine’s parents’.”
That was the private moment played out before millions. The McCanns were doing their bit, getting spiritual succour. But why were we all invited to watch? Were the media outlets going out of their way to help one family or just giving the public what they wanted: grief.
But there was no news. There is no news. All is a public spectacle. And now the lawyer for the only suspect is the bad man who says bad things.
“You would never leave them alone like that in a foreign country and go to have a drink. It is not a normal thing,” says he.
Many may well be appalled. Others will agree with Pagarete. But these words and their reporting add nothing to the case, shed no light on the girl’s disappearance.
In any case, the McCanns aren’t leaving. “I won’t be driven out by bullies,” says Kate McCann on the Mail’s front page. This is the “Kate McCann interview”.
Says she: “Sticks and stones… we will never go through anything worse than being parted from Madeleine. We will not be leaving or be forced out. I am not prepared to be bullied into something that I don’t want to.”
So she won’t go. And tomorrow when it will be 100 days since Madeleine disappeared, the McCanns will be in Praia da Luz. And so too will be the TV cameras and the newspaper reporters.
They will want a story. And they will get balloons, doves and to review an investigation that has turned into voyeurism and entertainment…
Posted: 10th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (239) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
August 15th, 2007 at 4:34 am
Anyone read why Kate will NOT wear a shirt with Maddie on it? I see dad with a few different ones. I recall her saying she would not wear it…
August 15th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Gerry’s Blog/Diary
Day 103 - 14/08/2007
Relatively quiet day. This allowed me to catch up with e-mails, phone calls and some administration. No major news on any front.
The weather has been unseasonably cool over the last 2-3 days. I have had a long sleeved top on for the first time in over 2 months and it is more pleasant overnight, making sleep easier.
DO WE CARE?!?!??!
Madeleine’s name is NOT even mentioned in this entry…..
August 15th, 2007 at 2:20 am
Colette…This has been such a circus. Do hope you can break away. Next big hurdle is “blood samples”..Then what???
August 15th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Colette! “Were you talking to me?” I have been here since the begining And will keep going…Do not wish to hear any foul mouth answers from certain types…
Only thought provoking intelligent research…
August 15th, 2007 at 12:42 am
anonymous,
am wondering if it might not be better for all of us to switch our computers and tv sets off for the next three weeks to try and get away from this story even if cold turkey-style. don’t know about you, but its doing my head in! i think i gotta tune out, dont know how easy that will be…
August 15th, 2007 at 12:33 am
OOPS! Barry! not brian….”Do not want to go there”
August 14th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Horrible thought: does anyone think the police have actually found a body (based on reports about conjecture she was put in a bag with stones and thrown off a cliff into water)? And that these are the ‘clues’ they have as to her death (ie very big clues)? And that they just haven’t revealed that to anyone yet, because they’re still not sure who did it, but suspect the family and want to make them ‘crack’ by letting them hear only snippets of rumours? All seems very quiet…
August 14th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Once again I agree with Martin. Since Day1. I thought that there was too much publicity and not enough investigation. after 2 weeks Gerry McCann said he would get a PR team. I anxiously awaited for the “big guns” to take over interpol,Private Investigator,etc. Especially after all the money that was donated. But gerry McCann thought Pr Team was in order.I even wrote to the British Consulate seeking some answers as to why they were not doing any in depth investigation. Ribbons, Songs, Visits to the Pope seemed to be a way of avoiding the real issue. YES brian..I do not want to go there. especially your comments, which were not backed by any evidence.the truth will hopefully come out.Madeleine deserves justice.
August 14th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Barry..I’ll go there..its one possibility that cannot be discounted…lets hope not though….
August 14th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Thanks Colette….doesnt change the fact that they didnt keep up what little pleas they made. The McCanns are very busy telling us that they believe (and the police are telling them) that Madeleine is alive yet they make NO continued appeal to the ‘abductor’……
August 14th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
“Mother appeals for safe return” 7th May
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=av&q=madeleine&edition=i&recipe=all&scope=all&start=13&link=next
There’s loads of other video stuff there as well…
August 14th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Hi guys,
Just to let you know there was an occasion quite near the beginning after Madeleine went missing when the parents made statements to waiting press (it was held outside, and they were standing in a road) - and they did seem thoroughly upset. Kate didn’t speak at all, it was just Gerry, and Kate’s breath was short and she was breathing shallowly.
Before that, there was one other occasion that I remember when they were both sitting inside somewhere and made a plea to the abductor. Kate read from a piece of paper looking up between each sentence and speaking quite slowly, as though each sentence was trouble. She said “Whoever is with Madeleine, or has been with Madeleine - please don’t hurt her, please don’t frighten her.” She then ended on a plea in Portuguese, something along the lines of “Please give back my little daughter” because the last word was “menina”.
Hope this helps!
August 14th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Star… Yes i know about that interview (not very convincing) but what i mean is a pre arranged press conference (or several)) that you always see in other ‘abductions’ to appeal to the ‘abductor’. There has been NONE! With so much money to hand why did they not arrange such a conference as a one-off on the 100 days and make it a worldwide, simultaneous tv event. The McCanns machine is very good at publicising what is ’supposed’ to have happened to their child and rake in the sympathy and money. But when it comes to actually looking for their child they have done NOTHING. And when the other logical step is to appeal to the person you believe has abducted her, they have again done NOTHING. The only assumption we can make is that the parents know where she is, whether dead or alive……
August 14th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Martin…I believe we were told Kate made a plea…ONCE!! The one interview when asked to speak to Madeleine if she was watching and she sorta laughed and said…we love her she knows that (or something along those lines)
Like i said, I have seen a few moms or parents on the tv looking for a missing child and they look NOTHING like the McCanns. They are visually UPSET and crying and plead for whoever knows anything to come forward.
The McCanns have $$$$ to be on a endless Holiday since they dont want to go home….Kate is actually gettin an attitude with everyone, the police, the people of portugal, those that are supporting her HOLIDAY…
August 14th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Could someone please help me here. When a child goes missing and assumed abducted aren’t we normally subjected to the parents or family members making a direct plea on tv, once or several times to the ‘kidnapper’? I dont recollect the McCanns EVER doing this. Am I right? And if so, that tallies with them not actually lifting a finger to look for her either….There’s an obvious conclusion to be made here but my point is that we should not feel guilty for questioning or even suspecting the McCanns when their behaviour has led to all this speculation in the first place….
August 14th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I agree with your sentiments Barry (and your original comment seems to have disappeared) - people don’t want to ‘go there’.
But I don’t agree that that was what was going on either…
August 14th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
What’s weird is the fact that given all the shit that goes down in the world, nobody seems to want to “go there”. Seems like the McCann publicity machine has brainwashed everybody.
If, as we have seen in many cases, parents can burn their own children with cigarette butts and systematically beat them to death, I’m sure my suggestion is worthy of thought - however disturbing that thought may be.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Barry’s comments???….tooooo weird..do not want to go there..logic based on evidence is my mode of operation…
August 14th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Really, Barry…..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/14/nmaddy114.xml
August 14th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Perhaps this is a paedophilia case, but we are looking in the wrong direction. What if members of the group were “taking it in turns” to check on the children as part of an unsavoury sex game.
Something goes wrong - what can they do? Hence the elaborate web of cover stories and smoke screens from the McCanns and their friends.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Martin! I agree with you..opportunistc predator is not logical. With this new blood evidence? If it holds true, then all my suspicions from the onset make sense.
I hope I am way off base. This is the “unthinkable” I do not want to hear.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Saddened’s scenario re Madeleine wandering off and being targeted by an opportunistic paedophile was my first and original theory in this case - it is simple, is not exactly unusual, and statistically the most likely. Like Saddened I always believed that the inconsistencies and odd behaviour of the McCann party after the event were an extremely misguided attempt to cover up the original neglect that got ridiculously out of control and could not be halted. Even tired children will awake following a nightmare or needing the toilet - and let’s be honest, we cannot be sure that Madeleine was even asleep when left.
I would still be inclined to believe this scenario, depending upon a couple of things … firstly the cadaver dog findings and secondly IF the blood turns out to be Madeleine’s - Like everyone else I will just have to wait and see.
Even in the worst case scenario I would be extremely suprised if the McCanns themselves were directly involved in Madeleine’s death … although the involvement of one of their friends would not astound me - who can ever say they REALLY know someone. Even those who are closest to us are capable of hiding terrible secrets… a fact that, unfortunately, people do not want to even think about.
August 14th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Saddened… An opportunistic predator who found her wandering is the scenario that makes the least sense to me. In the link above Kate confirms Madeleine to be “tired” before going to bed and “asleep” when they went out. It is therefore difficult to believe that she may have ’sleptwalked’ out of the appartment and noticed by NOBODY except a ‘predator’ who got lucky. It is also likely that the child would have been found by now in this scenario, dead or alive.The only predator scenario that remotely makes sense is one who monitored the McCanns movements day to day and struck at the convenient moment. This ‘crime’ was a result of short term or long term PLANNING. The more time goes on the more I suspect there never was any ‘predator’. The only thing that makes any sense (though hard to grasp) is that the parents and/or the friends are somehow involved in her ‘abduction’ or possible death. Hope I’m wrong and will be eating my words but I can see no other possibility myself……..
August 14th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Star, here’s the link you requested. The whole interview (radio) is interesting as Kate is quite defensive but the key bit is I believe between 4 and 5 mins when asked about sleeping!!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2007_32_wed.shtml
August 14th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Well, trying to drift away is hopeless really, as the post notifications keep coming into the inbox. I must stop that.
AMBULANCE CHASERS?? I don’t think anyone here answers to that description. Unfortunately obsessed maybe, and I’d probably answer to that description myself, but nobody who’s trying to make money out of ….what?
This morning, I am more bewildered about Russell O’Brien’s lengthy absence from the Tapas party, vomiting daughter, and his wife, Jane’s, description of a man carrying a child who nobody else saw. But it still doesn’t make sense, does it? Not given the number of people who’d have to be involved in a cover-up conspiracy, including the child’s own parents? The only thing that makes sense is an opportunistic predator who found her wandering, and that the McCann party just want to preserve their own reputations and careers, given the possibility of child endangerment charges.
But life doesn’t always make sense. I think the present measure of speculation here is because everyone thinks something is going to happen. It probably won’t. And I think we all know, and have for a long time, that she is no longer alive. Poor child.
August 14th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Here is an interesting report, that emerged yesterday:
http://portal.rpc.com.br/gazetadopovo/mundo/conteudo.phtml?id=687075
Another Portuguese paper, the Diário de Notícias, revealed this Sunday that there were “contradictions” in the statements of the witnesses that had dinner with the parents of the girl on the 3 of May, when Madeleine disappeared from the apartment where she slept with her smaller siblings.
One of the friends of the couple McCann, Russel O’ Brien, was present at the beginning of dinner, but left shortly afterwards and only returned when the group had nearly finished the meal.
It was Jane Tanner, wife of Russell who gave to the Judicial Police (PJ) the description of a man with a girl in his arms, of 1,70m of height, thin, and with brown hair in the street, seen on the night of the disappearance.
The description supplied by Jane was one of the trails followed by the police during the time that they considered abduction as the most probable of the hypothesis for the disappearance of Madeleine.
The newspaper also revealed that the McCann couple took refreshments with Madeleine at 18h30 on the day of the disappearance, in a restaurant in the Beach of the Light.
This fact was only known to the Portuguese Judicial Police because the owner of the restaurant called them himself to ask if the police would be interested in viewing the video made by the CCTV of the establishment.
After seeing the images, the police interrogated the parents of the girl, questioning why the parents had forgotten to mention this fact in their previous statements.
The Portuguese newspaper affirmed that the statements of the friends of Madeleine’s parents, (several couples who holidayed together), are floods of “contradictions and oversights”.
Some questions of my own in regard to the above:
How could the children all be in bed at 6.30 (as we have been previously told) when there is CCTV footage of the McCanns and Madeleine in a restaurant at the same time?
The twins are not mentioned - were they there as well, and if not, then where were they and with whom?
August 14th, 2007 at 5:33 am
A bit of info…
Everything we have done in the campaign to help find Madeleine has been driven by the fact that all our family and friends feel that there is a reasonable chance Madeleine is still alive. Kate and I will always have that hope unless we see concrete evidence to the contrary.”
Despite police repeating over the weekend that the McCanns and their friends are not suspects in the case, further claims emerged yesterday in Portuguese tabloids to add to an alleged smear campaign in the past week.
Jornal de Noticias reported that blood traces had also been found on the curtains of Mr and Mrs McCann’s bedroom.
Sol alleged that British sniffer dogs picked up traces of the girl’s body in the holiday apartment.
An unnamed expert was quoted as saying: “In order for the dogs to detect a body, this would have to stay in place where it died for a minimum of two hours.”
I didnt know the blood was found in the PARENT’S bedroom? Also i dont know WHY they say the parents and/or friends are NOT suspects if the dog really did get a hit. As stated above and by others posting here, it says a dead body would need to be in place for 2 hours. THIS MAKES NO SENSE According to mom and dad, the kids were checked at 9.30 and mom found Maddie gone around 10…..That dont add up. If she was gone from the room AT 10…and the dog got a hit, she would of had to be dead around 8 at the latest? So who saw Maddie alive last??!?!?!?
August 14th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Martin…..do you have the link to the interview where Kate is asked if Madeleine was sleeping when they left?
I am still shocked at her interview when asked to say something to Madeleine if she was listening and she laughed…i had to listed a few times…and she didnt have much to say and kept looking away…
August 13th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
- sharp intake there!
wow, hadn’t thought of that.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Here’s my weird, mischeivous and ironic ‘thought of the day’…
Ever thought that one day, if the parents are implicated, that funds donated in a search for Madeleine may instead be used to defend her killers…..