Madeleine McCann: Suspects Kate And Gerry And The Flight Of Fancy
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
THE SUN front page: “EXCLUSIVE – ‘We’re being set up. I’ve had enough. Let’s go home.’” This is the “ANGER OF MADDIE DAD.”
Gerry and Kate McCann, “the doctors”, are back in their home town of Rothley, Leicestershire.
Pages 4, 5, 6 & 7: A statement from Gerry McCann in which he thanks one and all for the support and adds: “But we would like to ask for our privacy to be respected now that we have returned home.”
But their private grief is public spectacle. Can they be left alone with their daughter still missing and their campaign to find her in progress?
“YOU’LL LOSE THE TWINS.” Portuguese police are said to have told Kate McCann she should confess or face losing her two children.
“FACT OR FIT-UP?” The Sun considers the claims and gives each an “EXPLANATION.”
THE SUN SAYS: “McCanns’ hell”. The McCann’s “torment gets more horrendous by the day.” Where is the “kidnapper who might still have the four-year-old child in his clutches?”
THE TIMES front page: “McCanns fly home to fights their case.”
Mr McCann says the police’s focus on them is “deeply disturbing”.
Portuguese newspapers claim the McCanns failed to answer 40 questions put to them during interviews last week. “They apparently feared that they could wrongly implicate themselves if he [sic] did so.”
Pages 6 & 7: “Puzzles and mysteries at the very heart of the investigation.”
The paper tries to answer some of these questions. It tells us: “Although a small child could be killed quickly it would take time to hide the body so that it was not discovered in the biggest search in Portuguese history.”
The paper’s David Brown does not reveal how he researched this. He just knows.
The window to the McCanns apartment might have been opened from the inside. Brown of the Wapping Yard concludes: “Or was the window opened to make it appear as if an intruder had used it to enter the bedroom?”
Hmmm. What say you Mr Brown?
DAILY MAIL front page: “Police are determined to charge McCanns with killing Madeleine. HOME…FOR HOW LONG?”
Mr McCann is said to have told a friends: “We are being completely stitched up by the Portuguese police. We are completely f*****. We should have seen this coming weeks ago and gone back to Britain.”
Pages 2 and 3: “Madeleine’s parents consult Pinochet’s lawyer.” The McCanns have consulted with Michael Caplan QC, the British lawyer who represented Chilean dictator General Pinochet, who stood accused to torture and human rights abuses. Interesting?
Pages 4 & 5: “Questions the police must answer.”
The paper wonders if Robert Murat was named as a suspect in the hope his presence might “lead the couple into committing an incriminating indiscretion?” Or not.
In attempting to answer the key questions, the Mail produces more questions.
And the evidence..? The paper’s Michael Hanson wonders just how “foolproof” forensic tests are. You can’t argue with the science. Or can you?
DAILY MIRROR front page: “Kate weeps in Maddy’s room.”
The paper’s “EXCLUSIVE” is that Kate McCann sat alone in Madeleine’s “pink-painted room” and “sobbed in despair”.
How does it know this?
A friend says: “They are not running and will clear their names.”
Pages 4 & 5: Four pictures of the McCanns: arriving at Faro airport; boarding a flight,;on the plane getting ready for take off; and walking to their family home in Rothley.
Pages 6 & 7: “40 questions they both ‘refused’ to answer’.” And: “Officers say her replies left a lot to be desired, ‘it was claimed.’”
“McCANNS FACE KILLING CHARGE.”
“WHY COPS THINK SHE WAS NOT ABDUCTED.”
Page 9: Brian Reade has a daughter the same age as Madeleine McCann. Brian, who writes for the Mirror, has found it “impossible to imagine the depth of pain and guilt”. Without a body, says Brian, “They may never be able to prove their total and complete innocence.”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE ‘WE CAN PROVE PARENTS DID IT.’ Portuguese police make dramatic new claim over evidence.”
Pages 2, 3 4, 5: The paper’s Martin Evans is on flight EZY 6552. He sees the McCanns travel home. He experiences “first hand…Kate’s pain and anguish on that most difficult of journeys”.
The seatbelts sign goes off. A note is passed to Kate. It is from another passenger. Kate reads the “simple message” of support. “A female passenger kneels by Kate and gives her a “tight hug.”
Kate sobs, “tears dripping slowly down her cheeks”.
Page 6: “Questions for the McCanns.” The Express has a go at solving the mystery. It says “Case could hang over us for ever say parents”.
DAILY STAR front page: “Maddie’s parents surprise flight.” Flight?
Pages 6 & 7: “We’re not running away.”
Page 7: More from Martin Evans, who sees the McCanns’ “pained expressions”.
Pages 8 & 9: “Furious donors want cash back as pressure mounts on friends to reveal all. DAD: I’LL USE £1M MADDIE FUND TO CLEAR OUR NAMES.”
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: “Year-long wait for McCanns to clear name.”
Says Kate McCann: “Portuguese law prohibits us from commenting on the police investigation. Despite their being so much we wish to say we are unable to do so except to say this: we have played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter Madeleine.”
Page 4: “Couple facing a ‘life sentence of grief’.”
THE GUARDIAN front page: “Exhausted and under suspicion, Madeleine’s family come home.”
Pages 2, 4 & 5: “Rothley villagers relieved to see family return.”
“Thank goodness. They’re back where they belong and it’s the best place they could possibly be,” says one young mother.
The Rev Mark Chandler adds: “My every sense tells me that Rothley is just pleased and relieved to have them back.”
THE INDEPENDENT front page: “130 days since they left for a family holiday, the McCanns return to Britain without Madeleine. This is “THE HOMECOMING”.
Pages 2 & 3: “A shattered family returns to Britain without Madeleine”. “Portugal’s media clamour for conviction”.
Says one mother holidaying in Praia da Luz: “You don’t want to believe the worst but when you read headlines like these [in Portuguese media], obviously one conclusion seems more likely than another.”
Says the Diario de Noticia: “PJ wait for final examinations to arrest Madeleine’s parents.”
Madeleine McCann: private grief as public spectacle
Posted: 10th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,280) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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September 10th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Moriarty (104) I was just thinking the same but didn’t know how to phrase it.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Moriarty 104 - I wholeheartedly agree
September 10th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Maria 84
Such proof may be forthcoming and proved in a court of law, but until it is, we know nothing and we certainly have no right to circulate lies such as an intention to use the fund to pay legal fees when they have categorically said the opposite.
This was stated above in the news feed
Pages 8 & 9: “Furious donors want cash back as pressure mounts on friends to reveal all. DAD: I’LL USE £1M MADDIE FUND TO CLEAR OUR NAMES.”
September 10th, 2007 at 10:44 am
103. But they have neglected the twins as well
September 10th, 2007 at 10:43 am
as far as I ‘know’ M.E. the twins were not corpses when they were left.. however I may be wrong!!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:43 am
cj, i have seen you attacking people here before for not agreeing with the mccanns abduction theory.
please don’t insult me and just point me in the direction of just 1 piece of evidence to suggest an abduction ever took place
just 1 peice of evidence would satisfy me
September 10th, 2007 at 10:43 am
m.e. 103 - She wasn’t a corpse when they left her AND the still-breathing twins, the previous 5 nights!!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Mods and Admin
I do believe that cj is offensive for the sake of being offensive. Please see 102. Maybe he/she should be booted. It brings nothing to the forum
September 10th, 2007 at 10:42 am
94
Yes but be careful. You cant prosecute for neglect yet because neglect may NOT have taken place. It could be a red herring for the ‘abduction’ to be committed. And certainly in Madeleine’s case, you cant be charged for neglecting a corpse…………
September 10th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Bulldump that the fleas of a thousand padeophile spunk will infest your armpits and aforementioned disgusting arms and arm pits fester till eternity with the evil shit you cast out you useless piece of muck shit that was ever invented on this earth!
Get the message!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:40 am
CJ 85 - we must be on 2 different levels here as that link led me to a story of train derailment!!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I’m copying this from the older topic:
The Scottish papers certainly consider them scottish, as they are today displaying more ‘loyalty’ than the English papers:
What the Scottish papers say
Many of the papers run with the case of the missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann.
The Record says that the parents of the little girl returned to Britain under a cloud of suspicion - as friends insisted: “They are not running away.”
Gerry and Kate McCann arrive home without their daughter - after insisting Portuguese police were trying to set them up, writes the Scottish Sun.
The Herald’s front page headline uses the words of Gerry McCann: “We had nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.”
The Press and Journal say that the McCanns flew home and insisted they were not running away and The Courier reports that the couple made the sad return to Britain without their eldest child.
The Scottish Daily Mail reports Portuguese police claims that Kate and Gerry McCann should be charged with killing their daughter Madeleine and covering up the evidence.
The Scottish Daily Express also report on Portuguese police sources which say there is enough evidence to convict the parents.
FROM bbc news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6986654.stm
Notice any differences in approach?
September 10th, 2007 at 10:39 am
cj - any thing is possible - like parents who’ve just had a child abducted being with it enough to orchestrate a global campaign, raise £1mill, meet the pope, fly to thw white house…….
September 10th, 2007 at 10:39 am
(84) Maria
Also this from Auntie Phil
“”Well, we don’t agree with that in any shape or form, and we want the investigation changed round to look for Madeleine alive, as we reckon she is.”
Reckon??? That’s hardly “convinced” is it??
September 10th, 2007 at 10:38 am
moriarty
ohhhh” and the butterfly that landed on kate was not in fact a butterfly, but a normal house fly drawn by the scent of rotten flesh?
September 10th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Possibilities:
Madeleines abductor is the same as in the other Portugese case near Praia da Luz 2004 case (Joana), Madeleine is still alive and held against her will, Police frame parents. Hunt for Madeleine scaled down/ceased.
Parents for second time are wrongly convicted and sentanced to jail. The lynch mobs satiated by public ‘hanging’. Madeleine continues the rest of her life in some cellar/jail/padeo ring.
Three years later the circus begins again the predator emerges for another child!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Maria 84 - Sonia Sutcliffe was 100% convinced that Peter was innocent….where is he now?
Jeremy Thorpe’s wife was 100% convinced her husband did NOT have sex with rent boys…..where are they now?
History is littered with people who thought their close relative/friend was innocent but unfortunately this doesnt make it so.
I am 100% positive that if you could go back to April of this year, and ask the Mc’s family and friends if the couple would EVER go out and leave their little toddlers, all under the age of 4, on their own, said friends and family would be aghast at the thought and tell you not to be so stupid.
Fact is, they DID leave those little ones, so I don’t think that the fact that Aunty Phil and Granny Mo think they are innocent means squat!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:36 am
reminds me of my kids when they’ve been found out!!!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:36 am
And (following on from (90)), it may have been clothing, not the body, that was in the car.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:35 am
yup it is odd, i also envisaged that bithering heartless midget attaching a clothes peg to his testicles to help the tears along
September 10th, 2007 at 10:35 am
(84) Maria
Quite apart from the fact that you seem VERY well informed from a McCann point of view I must point out the folly of this
“By the way again, weren’t the Portuguese police, the media people, the friends who visited from the UK etc. all extremely remiss and a tad stupid not to have noticed the McCanns removing a hidden body several weeks after the event. One might have thought the police, at least, would have been keeping an eye on them! Or do people thing the police DID see that but chose, inexplicably, not to say anything at the time”
Who said the McCanns moved the body? It could well have been another member of the Tapas9 - Perhaps O’Brien who I believe was still in Portugal. Remember the Tapas2 went to see the protector of all children worldwide, his holiness, the Pope the day after they hired the car. Perfect opportunity to dispose of a body…….
September 10th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Matty (86)
That’s an interesting thought. Because, if the McCanns were actually taken into custody and the twins were in Portugal, they might well get taken into care by the Portuguese authorities.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:33 am
does anyone think its odd that in 4 months of interveiws about his missing daughter - the one and only time he’s close to tears is when he’s protesting his innocence???
September 10th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Could the swift change of tack on “we are staying in PDL” then return to UK be a need to get the twins home in a familiar enviroment with other family members around them ie grandparents etc. Should the MCs be asked to return and be charged/detained it would be less traumatic for the twins if they were home rather than in Portugal and then have to come home and leave parents behind. Does this give an indication of how they feel the direction of the case is going or have they been advised on how the case will/may go?
September 10th, 2007 at 10:28 am
As of yet there is no body, how can the PJ prove that there is a murder?
Easy they frame them!
Result:- the real perpetrator still on the loose free to come back and do the same, say in, oh I dont know, maybe three years or so….
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2…411009,00.html.
If this case of 2004 was a miscarraige of justice as the parents say then it is very very likely that Madeleine would not be missing today!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I have no more idea of the truth of what actually happened to Madeleine than anyone else but it has been made absolutely clear that the fund will NOT be used for their legal fees. Private money will be used. I don’t whose but they have a very large circle of friends, family and colleagues who believe 100% in their innocence. These include mainly people who are doctors, teachers, lawyers, business people etc. They will be able to raise the money and have made it absolutely clear that the fund will ONLY be used for its correct purposes.
Of course, they can’t do right for doing wrong. If they had used the money for a private investigation, people would have said they were wasting it and didn’t trust the police investigation. They have used the money, quite correctly, to publicise the case and support the campaign. They said they hoped Madeleine would be found quickly and the fund then used for other missing children. They did not feel they could “waste” it.
They have always said they supported the police investigation and have even been careful not to criticise openly the slow start, the failure to close borders etc. etc. etc. It would appear they tried from the start to PUSH the police into action as much as they could and have taken steps to try to ensure that no other parents of a missing child experience the same thing.
If they are guilty, justice on that score will take its course, I see little point in adding lies to the case.
The evidence which is in the public domain does not add up and the DNA evidence so far is inadequate and capable of innocent explanations BUT we do not know what further evidence the police have already or may be going to receive.
We simply do not know.
Whether or not people like the way the McCanns look or conduct themselves is an irrelevance. Many people warm to the couple, some do the opposite. No judge will take any notice of such nonsense.
It is interesting that those who know them, friends, close family, other relatives, colleagues, neighbours, schoolfriends, patients etc. etc. believe it is impossible that they killed Madeleine, hid her body, instigated a massive cover-up etc. etc. but, again, no judge or jury could be swung by that if the evidence against them is clear. However, the good opinion of people who know them must indicate something. They seem to be loved, liked, respected, admired by all who have ever known them personally, and especially are seen as very loving parents who waited a long time to have three much-loved children, whatever about the terrible error of leaving alone for periods of time on holiday.
By the way again, weren’t the Portuguese police, the media people, the friends who visited from the UK etc. all extremely remiss and a tad stupid not to have noticed the McCanns removing a hidden body several weeks after the event. One might have thought the police, at least, would have been keeping an eye on them! Or do people thing the police DID see that but chose, inexplicably, not to say anything at the time?
I really do not believe, by the way, that if I knew even a close friend of mine, or a relative, had done something like that, I could possibly conspire to protect them. Conscience would take over. Are we saying that not a single one of their friends or relatives has a conscience? (I am only saying here that I think everyone they know, including those who were there that night, believes them innocent.)
Proof is needed for two things, and it’s important to note that (b) does not follow from (a) :
(a) that Madeleine is dead
(b) that the McCanns killed her, accidentally or otherwise
Such proof may be forthcoming and proved in a court of law, but until it is, we know nothing and we certainly have no right to circulate lies such as an intention to use the fund to pay legal fees when they have categorically said the opposite.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:28 am
it would also mean that when they say their stories do not corroborate other witness staements, they are not just talking about a couple of discrpancies in timing diiference
if the police have enough evidence to convict the mccanns but are sure they will return to portugal when requested, why is murat alledged not allowed to leave?
September 10th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Paola 67 The £1Million maddie comment was taken from a newspaper, apparentley Gerry has stated to clear there names they will use the fund.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:26 am
when the journalist pointed the police in murats direction and they said that they already had him under observation, why would they make an admition like that?
if the police had planted the seed that murat was the prime suspect and got the mccanns friends to verify that it was him the police would automativally know their testimony is bogus, after all he does look very confident for a man still classed as a suspect.
he worked for the police prior to the investigation as a translator surely they must have checked out his integrity and crudentials and considered him of good character.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:23 am
(79) bulldump
LOL