Madeleine McCann: Kate And Gerry’s Blood, Threat And Tears
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
THE SUN front page: “KATE’S AGONY – CONFESS & YOU’RE OUT IN A YEAR.”
“Deal of blood, threat and tears.” Kate McCann is being interviewed by police. This is a “highly-charged confrontation, Portuguese officers citing forensic evidence told the GP she would receive a jail sentence of between two and three years if she signed a confession.”
Kate McCann is “horrified”. Says she: “How dare you?”
A source tells the paper: “The police were trying to get Kate to say she had amnesia or was in shock or had a breakdown. They said if she signed the confession she’d serve a year and that her husband would not be charged and could go home. It was effectively emotional blackmail.”
“SHOCKED” Gerry McCann has been named as a formal suspect.
THE SUN SAYS: “But the allegations made yesterday against Madeleine’s distraught mother Kate are astonishing and, in places, farcical. A suspicious page of the Bible left open? A call to a priest on the day of Maddie’s disappearance? Not exactly a smoking gun.”
Do all crimes involve a smoking gun?
The Sun concludes: “The Sun desperately wants justice for Maddie. But the greatest pity is that she is the one person who seems to have been forgotten in this mess of incompetence.”
And the Press continue to watch the parents.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: DEATH ON MUM’S BIBLE.”
THE WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER writes of “THE DAY THE JEERING STARTED”.
“Just two days ago Kate McCann, 39, was regarded almost universally as a victim who had suffered unimaginable agony. Families everywhere shared her heartbreak at losing her beautiful daughter. But it was clear yesterday, as the GP arrived to be formally named as a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance, that much of that sympathy has now gone.”
The crowd outside the police station – 400-strong – goes into a “frenzy” when Kate McCann arrives. “There were whistles, then jeers and boos before some in the crowd began to shout insults. ‘Whore… daughter of a whore,’ some yelled in Portuguese.”
The Express translates.
A local man says: “They will find this more and more because in Portugal harming a child is the worst thing…The Portuguese people took them to their hearts and now we feel cheated. It will not be nice in Portugal for them now.”
Kate is “cool and collected”.
DAILY MAIL front page: “THE ACCUSED. Portuguese police’s staggering grilling of Madeleine mother.
• Why was her blood in your car?
• Did you drug her that night?
• Confess and get just two years.”
DAILY STAR front page: “YOU KILLED MADDIE.”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADELEINE SENSATION. We have found her blood in the boot of your hire car.. DID YOU KILL HER BY ACCIDENT?” This is “what police asked Kate McCann during 16-hour grilling”.
THE GUARDIAN front page: “Mother, victim…suspect: police target Kate McCann.”
THE TELEGRAPH: “Kate and Gerry McCann named as suspects,” says the headline.
“Mr McCann stared straight ahead as his suspect status was announced and refused to answer questions from awaiting journalists. A crowd which had been attending a concert in the town square earlier listened to the announcement and several people gasped audibly.”
In “Villagers back Madeleine McCann’s parents”, the paper journeys to Rothey, Leicestershire, the McCanns’ home town. Michelle Canilleri, who lives in Rothley, shares with the world: “I can’t believe it. This is such a shock. They have got the wrong people. No way in the world would either Kate or Gerry harm any of their children.”
THE INDEPENDENT front page: “FROM ANGUISHED PARENT, TO GRIEVING MOTHER, TO SUSPECT.”
“Shortly before 11am, Mrs McCann’s spokeswoman, Justine McGuinness, revealed that the 39-year-old GP was being made an arguida – official suspect – in the case. And then she uttered the six short words which will be inconceivable to some who have followed this case and a confirmation of long-held suspicions to others. ‘Kate fears she will be charged,’ Ms McGuinness said.”
THE TIMES front page: A picture of the McCanns meeting the Pope.
Madeleine McCann The Public Spectacle
Posted: 8th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,454) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
September 9th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Remember the quote that the friends and McCanns made saying that on an earlier holiday they came up with a great idea to have fun while kids were in rooms?
Well apart from the 2 that used baby monitors the rest left their kids alone too….
and presumably also drugged their children…
So if the McCanns go down….they should too!!!
It could have easily been their kids that night dying in agony of an overdose!
That would expain why they are so keen to help the McCanns…their doctor jobs would be lost too!
If Gerry has really confessed to sedating the children I know a group of doctors that are wetting their pants right now!!!!
September 9th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Bumb rush and lynch mobs…that’s what this entire thing has become for the McCanns. I’ll buy that maybe one of them could be a sociopath, but not both. It would take an sociopath to make up an abduction story, keep themselves in the media and continue to follow through. Both of these people can’t be that way.
This is a bumb rush from the Government via the police in Portugal to get them out.
The McCanns made a terrible mistake in leaving their children alone, for that they should be investigated by British social services and maybe monitored. But I stand firm in my original position that the police did not act appropriately or expediciously and that they have much to hide. The punishment alligation and possible punishment has been made to fit a fictcious crime. A weak theory by the police. It’s retaliation for the Mccanns wanting to sue the press.
September 9th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
(981) bulldump
“well, gerry, you aint in portugal now so just answer the fuckin questions you been skirting for the last 4 months”
Sweet
September 9th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Moderation, it is not at all big news here in SA. I think that yesterday was the first time (apart from the few days after Madeleine disappeared) that I saw something of the story on our newspaper billboards next to the side of the roads. Apart from those who have DSTV and can pick up SKY news, there is very little, almost nothing reported by our local TV stations (the arguing of our politicians in Parliament gains priority over everything else).
If it wasn’t from what I hunt down on the Internet and what I read here, I would know practically nothing about Madeleine. I will say that this little girl’s face caught my eye and my heart from the first time I saw her picture, and thus my almost obsessive interest in this case.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I’ve got some great music for a Can Can…
September 9th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Apparently they’ve teamed up with Buster Bloodvessel, and are re-recording the ‘McCann Can’.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Julie, how big is the story in SA? Is it as big as here? I’m really interested because of the internet link. It fascinates me…. is it big in the papers / news or just on the internet?
I know many of the US posters say they have no news.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Based on that, they should arrest the scriptwriter, as she must have done it.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Arthur; Heaven McCann?
September 9th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Mark M, Blunger, to address the following question…
“So do many of you agree ? There is a culture in our country (UK) supportive of leaving children of three years out of earshot for periods of half an hour or more ?”
I know Brits who do it, and I know Germans who do it (don’t know any Americans who do it, by the way). They teach the kids how to ring Mummy’s or Daddy’s mobile with one-touch dialing if there is anything wrong. They lock the kids in after they’re asleep, and go off to dinner for hours, sometimes miles away.
They don’t seem to view it as neglect. They essentially seem to think nothing could go wrong, and if it did go wrong they are just a phone call away.
I would NEVER even consider doing that. Seems like sheer madness to me. But I have met not just a few who think I am over-protective when I tell them that’s bad parenting.
Other cultures looking in on it must think these people are ghouls or morons. But maybe child abduction has not been all that rampant in previous decades in northern Europe, compared to the US for example. Maybe traditionally they’ve not had to worry about such threats. Still, lots can go wrong apart from abduction. That part I don’t need to explain.
When some folks do this, they really don’t think they are doing wrong. Otherwise good people can sometimes make bad judgments (this is a generalization, not meant to apply to any family in particular).
September 9th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Blunger (1073) “McCanns must fight to the death for trial in England”.
Whose death? Haven’t there, allegedly, been enough? To misquote Oscar Wilde: ‘one may be regarded as a misfortune; two looks like carelessness’.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Who is Dorothy McCann?
September 9th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Interesting article (with a lot of the unanswered questions that remain puzzling to me) :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/article2418919.ece
September 9th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Yes, I have it on very good authority that Tony McCann is known as Mr Verbosity throughout the NHS. Once told the wife of a mate of mine suffering from scabies that she was actually experiencing a transmissible ectoparasite skin infection characterized by superficial burrows, intense pruritus and secondary infection. I mean, all that just to say you have an itchy face. I ask you? Does anybody else notice the repeated dependent clauses in his sentences when he speaks? Ted Bundy apparently spoke like that too. So did Bible John (so does Gary Linneker, by the way..hmmm). That might also help explain the Svengali-type influence he appears to exercise over his wife, Jenny, when she is standing beside him looking like somebody stole her skipping ropes. Mate of mine says GCHQ have been analysing his speechess for evidence of subliminal hyponotic suggestion and coded messages to the kidnappers of little Dorothy McCann who is believed to be in a safe house somewhere on the Isle of McCann.
Arthur
September 9th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
I didn’t say or imply that Diana was a saint. I do think she had a sensitivity to divorce and infidelity that could have made her a wonderful and positive addition to England’s royal history. It’s wrong to not give people their proper due, and in spite of all Diana’s many faults, she did possess, in the first days of her marriage, an unusually beautiful soul. It is that part of her that people love, not the crazy thing that she ended up as.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I am SO ashamed of our media.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
McCanns must fight to the death for trial in England.
Avoid evidence of intercepted incriminating communications amongst the Tapas9.
Of course, if they were innocent this wouldn’t matter.
Another Sky interview is on now with another “expert” sneering at the Portuguese police. Even after having to admit he cannot know what evidence they have.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
1068, I think the police have found the body.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Spindoctors (1068) EXCELLENT … I don’t think ANYONE here could put that quite in a nutshell as you’ve just done …. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT PIECE OF WORK!
September 9th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Spindoctors….. all speculation, Nothing corroborated. Just rumours and whispers. Or have you seen the court documents?
September 9th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Martin (0165) “Don’t expect them back in Portugal soon”, if/when it comes to it, I don’t suppose they will have much choice. As a member of the EU, Portugal should only have to issue a European Arrest Warrant and the local bobby will be round their house to take them to the airport. Extradition is should be much easier under this new system, I think they don’t even need an extradition hearing.
Hopefully someone with real expert knowledge will correct me if I’m wrong.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
I agree with Mark M.
If you drug your children to sleep with a strong sedative such as antihistamines and then abandon them for hours on end all week so that you can have time to drink alcohol with friends…
If you also overdose your child with drugs and kill it…
If you then hide the body to protect your reputations as doctors…
If you treat your own childs body as if it were just any other corpse in a hospital morgue…If you then pervert the course of justice by leading people to think that your child has been kidnapped by setting a scene and acting innocent
If you lead a tidal wave of publicity and make people search for a child that is no longer alive…constantly leading police in the wrong direction…
If you head a major fraudalent internet company that is hosted in Britain under our juristiction and laws for the aim of collecting money to pay for your lawyers in case you get found out…
If you take advantage of people mourning your loss …feeling your pain…..
crying for your child and looking for her everywhere.. .
putting up posters …giving money… buying your products and praying for her safe return…
If you encourage them to imagine the things a paedeophile may be doing to her…
If you scare parents away from a Portugal in case their children will be abducted…
If you scare little children by showing them how a child can be taken from their bed…in a cinema…instead of showing it to adults….
If you start believing your own lies but not to the point where you forget that you have hidden the body….
If you panic that a search area is about to find the body and dig up the corpse of your child and bung it in the back of your car to move it……
If you get rid of the corpse of your child in a place that has already been searched….you know the area as you have been there a few days and driven around…you remember it from a day trip you may have been on with your children….
If you carry on telling people lies and telling them to look for a live child…
If you do not tell the police where you have hidden the body so that she can rest in peace even after you have been caught….
YOU WILL BE OFFERED……2 YEARS IN JAIL…if you tell police the truth!
If you are caught using a phone whilst driving….YOU WILL BE GIVEN…..
…… 2 YEARS IN JAIL
Well that is justice for you!!!!!!!!
September 9th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Sorry June. I forgot!!
I did look the other day but it was all quiet in the engagment ring department!
Dance, dance, dance……….
September 9th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Support the McCanns, you cannot be serious.
They brought this on themselves and anyone supporting them supports child neglect.
They are scum as far as I am concerned because a poor helpless child has disappeared as a result of the need to socialise rather than look after their children, and who knows what Madeline she has had to suffer. Its got to be a damn site worse than anything that happens to the McCanns. They only lost a daughter, Madeline lost her mummy daddy brother and sister.
People like you should find a rock and disappear under it.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
1057 (Shouldn’t that be TrismEgistus?)
I think the McCann lawyers have begun ‘forum shopping’:
‘We can’t get a fair trial in Portugal, and our kids need to be in England and need us with them. So if you think you have evidence, put it to an English court, which has concurrent jurisdiction in this case’
Don’t expect them back in Portugal soon.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
JuneJohnson: that’s very funny ‘the last big shopper…haha
September 9th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
guily? oops guilty
September 9th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Come on Moderation, be reasonable, they have relics of her in Harvey Nicks and Harrods………The picture of the last big shopper
September 9th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
‘1048 Mark M Says:
No other housemate would dare go to sleep for fear of waking up outside the BB house!’
Nah they would just LURV the free sleazy publicity it would generate for them
I can just see the lurid gutter press headlines now ‘Gerry McCann Ate My Hamster!’, ‘I Went to Sleep in the BB House only to wake-up minus my liver!’ and ‘Gerry got upset when I refused his offer of a wife-swapping orgy plus free hospital medication’
The McCann story will run and run forever and ever
September 9th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Martin: I am sure that these people will judge themselves more harshly than we could ever do. They are living their ‘punishment’ and they have not been found guily of anything yet.