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 11:27 pm
Is that better ?
September 9th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
erm… bob i was pleased to read that inclusion in the people as well.
It is a bit of a turn up for the books that the times have noted that gerry refused to answer no less than 40 questions put to him.
he is fortunate because in portugal they still have the right to remain silent
here it may well have been seen as a rebuttle of the truth put to him
September 9th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Elizabeth - we must get together and sort out our names!
September 9th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
that article was prior to be appontment of Justine McGuinness, the failed liberal democrat candidate for west sussex, as the mccann team spokesperson
September 9th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
How many of y’all think the Mccans did it? I do
September 9th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Is this a change in tone from The People.
BRIT POLICE WATCH AND LISTEN NEXT DOOR
British detectives secretly listened in as Portuguese police grilled Kate McCann over daughter Maddie’s disappearance, The People can today reveal.
http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_headline=brit-police-watch-and-listen-next-door&method=full&objectid=19758723&siteid=93463-name_page.html
What’s ridiculous about the McCann’s incompetent Portuguese plods trying to frame us line is that the change in the direction of the investigation came after the involvement of British police and forensics. Nice to see one of the tabloids acknowledging this.
September 9th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
I’m from Houston Texas USA
September 9th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
vc: you’ll be able to extract the main players from here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=452633&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&ct=5&expand=true
September 9th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
BD
Be serious
You know more about this than anyone.
September 9th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
bulldump - I love your comments - however must now go to bed.
Night all.
Elizabeth (in blue)
September 9th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
(1139) Martin
Yep … I said it about 2-3 weeks ago….”emergency tracheotomy”
And I stick by it
September 9th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
vc, i would have helped you out but unfortunatly you have used uppercase letters for the initial letters in their name, suggesting that they are proper nouns.
I’m afraid these people do not qualify to be proper nouns
September 9th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
BD? What you mean?
King Herold….
Just was after a bit of help
September 9th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
sorry, thats king herod!!!!
September 9th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Trismegistus - Fabulous part of the country - I was there a few weeks ago
watching a game of cricket. The team I was supporting played the Queens Household cricket team. We are posh aren’t we? Years ago I lived in Windsor.
Just trying to lighten the mood on here -
September 9th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
we have only ever had gerry’s word for it that they are working as one with the pj for maddies safe return.
I don’t believe this to be the case. I believe the mccanns were supplied as much inforation as joe public and this was another part of his spin.
if he made most people believe that he was working with the police, taking into account most people already have shit in their eyes, he would be elevated to a position above suspicion to the general public. hence generating more sympathy.
playing on peoples sympathy has been the mccanns weapon of choice throughout
September 9th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
1173, Elizabeth:
I’m from deep, dark, equatorial Berkshire. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.
We’re all posh around here. NOT!
September 9th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
vc, you may be able to add king herad to that list
September 9th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
make your frikken mind up gerry: the telegraph has gerry saying:
The couple now fear the “cloud of suspicion” which hangs over their heads after they were named as formal suspects in the case will divert attention away from the search for Madeleine and leave them increasingly isolated in their attempts to find her.
frikken hypocrite, they were saying in the last few days they were gonna request to be suspects so they could get closer to classified information
September 9th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Guys Girls
I need a list of all the Mcanns friends
Please can you learned people post their names
It was three couples
DR O Brian & Jane Tanner
DRs Rachel and Matthew Oldfirld
There was another couple and a single woman who were they?
And have I missed any?
September 9th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
1102 - Mark M, Good point. I have another hidden assumption.
The case 1 in my previous point breaks down to something like this:
1. If the McCanns are telling the truth, and Madeleine’s disappearance is indeed because of abduction by a stranger,
2. And the PJ has dropped that line of inquiry (of looking for Madeleine elsewhere) and is focussing only on the McCanns, based on acceptance of (1),
Then
3. The PJ must be bumbling incompetents because they have latched onto a false hypothesis and are spending all their efforts investigating something that is false and neglecting an angle that could very well result in the recovery of the missing child.
What I haven’t considered is the case that they are actually taking a multi-pronged approach. They very well may be doing that.
I don’t believe that the Portuguese police are incompetent by definition. Many people on this forum and in the press seem to think that. Most of the arguments brought forth to support that statement could be explained by one or more alternate explanations. For instance, their alleged “slowness” in bringing forward evidence could be indicative of caution and professionalism rather than slow-wittedness. In fact, I find it much more plausible that the police in a developed world country are behaving with professionalism and competence rather than stupidity and bumbling.
I don’t believe my case 1 (McCanns are telling the truth) is correct. But I believe this on an emotional level, not a rational one. I have no rational reason for believing it. My emotions led me to state my case 1 in a way that led people to disbelieve it on an emotional level, just like I do. Apologies.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Hermes 1174:
My first post here 2 days ago was mainly about the fascination I felt for the sociological and cultural aspects of the media circus, and the mob hysteria surrounding this, for most people, irrelevant little story (however tragic in one way and another for those actually involved).
This site, which I found by googling, seemed to give (mixed in with loads of standard blog junk) a critical overall view of that circus, and I was interested to see what people would think as the media circus seemed to be losing its bearings following the latest developments.
There’s the Agatha Christie / Cluedo aspect too, of course, which right now should be much more compelling to most normal people than any detective fiction or boardgame.
Then there’s the relation between these two aspects, particularly the question: Why the hell didn’t anyone in the media bandwagon take a more critical detached view of this strange business from the start? To me and most of the people I spoke to, there was something distinctly fishy about the whole thing from the very beginning.
But no, the BBC sent their top anchorman to Portugal for over a week, and spent 15 minutes getting him to tell viewers of the main news bulletin one day that there was nothing new to report, while the first speech by the new French President, outlining a new French view of Europe and the World earlier that same day was pushed completely out of the bulletin.
It also reminds me of the media bandwagon leading up to war in Iraq, uncritically swallowing all the equally fishy scenario of Saddam as an imminent threat to western civilization.
There, it took the media circus rather more than 4 months to start realizing and admitting they’d made a mistake.
Finally, putting all this together, I’m waiting impatiently for the myopic media, and all the gullible fools that projected so much onto this silly little story, to get their ‘comeuppance’, in the doubtless totally vain hope that some people will learn something from this crazy mass hysteria, and we may at some point be saved from another Iraq War or fascist dictatorship.
OK, so I’m projecting too.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
(1178) did rupert murdoch play a part in this?
most certainly. gerry mccann said that his meetings and support of celebrities were through friends contacts. the kinda people with these kinda contacts is likely to be publicists or agents.
the murdoch groups very life blood is publicists and agents.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Martin, Yes. I see but just curious what other people thought about those postings.
Response to Martin: Martin, you just convinced me that more heads are better than one. YES.
Why the ‘have’, I asked?
September 9th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
i have just been transfered to denmark, i am from bermondsey though
September 9th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
my thoughts and comments i have expressed may not be shared by my employers
September 9th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Just as a matter of interest, do any of you actually care about child abuse? It happens in your own street, as well as far off ‘incompetant’ countries…
Might be useful to look around you, and actually DO something about it rather than mither on about what you do mither on about.
I’m not sure that the UK has a national register for child abuse, so people just move.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Elizabeth blue to Elizabeth
I’m from a village about 6 miles away from Rothley where the McCanns live.
How about you?
September 9th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Bulldump , what I mean is calling yourself bulldump is interesting because you are less full of it than others I have noticed.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
I noted earlier that ‘We have played no part in Madeleine’s disappearance’ - just about all Gerry said, carrying a young McCann on his shoulder, but entering rather than leaving a place they were staying this time - was, like so much else said by Gerry on TV and on his website, just SLIGHTLY strange.
Why the ‘have’, I asked?
Why not ‘played’, implying a specific isolated event at a particular point (3 May 2007, between 9:10 and 10:05)?
‘Have played’ suggests an ongoing event stretching over time.
How strange, then, that Sky now reports him as sating ‘We played no part’.
It’s this sort of thing - and this is only one of a hundred similar things that in themselves mean nothing, but together mean rather a lot to me, and perhaps to the PJ.
Perhaps Rupert Murdoch has played a part in all this.