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
Comments
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September 11th, 2007 at 12:43 am
I really can’t be associated with this sort of thing, even anonymously.
Another good information source destroyed by morons. I’ll maybe come back another night when admin has hopefully banned some ip numbers.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Are you talking about gecko100, blunger?
September 11th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Woohoo I ‘outed’ them. Shame on your behaviour.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:39 am
Your poor mum, you can imagine her unzipping the suitcase and giving you the cuddle cat to play with, then when it was time to go, reading a passage from the Bible to you, instead of a bedtime story….the verse about how someone didn\’t eat for a week to try to save their child from being sick - well it didn\’t work for your mum - she had to start eating again.
One last hug, oh cuddle cat will need a wash now.
You didn\’t mind being put in all those bin bags and stuffed into a case as if you were rubbish did you - you know your parents deal with corpses all the time and you are not in that body anymore - it doesn\’t matter where they throw your body does it?
Sorry you can\’t come home but your parents think it more important that we keep lying to everyone - although there is no need to anymore - they have no jobs and the twins will be taken from them - still - they\’d rather leave you to rot out here in the middle of nowhere…..alone - than let themselves rot in jail - so bye bye - phew you smell bad but your parents still love you…….don\’t they?
September 11th, 2007 at 12:38 am
For God’s sake. Where’s the admin when he/she is needed ?
You’ll get this whole setup closed down if you go on like this.
PLEASE do it somewhere else, not in a place discussing the death/loss of a little girl.
Drop this damn filth, it’s appallingly inappropriate.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:37 am
Checked out the link to Fox news in US but didnt hear any mention of Kates father- when they said her father may be an accomplice I took it as a reference to Gerry.
What a sad lot we are-when this gets solved we will have too much time on our hands!
September 11th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Is there a massimprehonsion here?
gecko - has someone offered to fist you, or punch you with their fist?
September 11th, 2007 at 12:36 am
m.e - correct, didn’t he say is was something to do with child protection and had an unhealthy interest in children… or did I mis hear!
September 11th, 2007 at 12:35 am
The tabloid and public tide of optinion is turning of course -
but why do the Portuguese police need to keep leaking
stuff to the papers? If the evidence
was water-tight then why not wait and go for the charges?
It appears to be against the Portuguese Law for the police to
leak this news, so why do it? The PJ are certainly risking
claims of an unfair trial. It looks a bit fishy to me. If G+K are
guilty then this doesn’t seem the optimal way of getting a conviction.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Antonia (1122) that article was first published on August 8. They’ve republished it (for some bizarre reason.) Aug 8 is dated at the end of it.
Whole thing a Sad sad story. If the parents are involved I do feel sorry for them.
Before Gerry’s latest blog came up, I had been thinking along the following lines - in response to Blunger asking if anyone not posting wants to comment (all alledgedly):
1. Gerry did it. The PJ knows this, so they are suggesting Kate did it. This they imagine will make Gerry crack over time, because he knows his wife will go down for something he in fact did. At this final point, he will confess. PJ reckon that’s how to get the real culprit to own up.
2. Jane Tanner was not lying when she said she saw a man taking a child down the street. She thought at the time it was a father carrying his own sleeping daughter, so she didn’t do anything to stop him. And she was right about it being a father and daughter - because it was Gerry and Madeleine. It seemed odd to her, so she held her tongue, and didn’t say anything at first when Kate screamed out abduction. Later when she gave the witness statement, and in order to get the police not to think along the wrong track (ie that it was Gerry she saw) - and out of some kind of loyalty to him or to O’Brien who may have been in on it aswell - she makes a point of saying that the person was not an expat but looked like a local.
3. Gerry suspects Jane saw him too, so to muddy the waters he says he didn’t see anyone walking down the street with a child at all (despite the fact this would help corroborate his side of things.)
4. In an interview I read twice today (sorry no link but it’s out there), Gerry specifically says (but this is not verbatim): “I know kate didn’t do it because I know what I did that evening. And Kate knows what I was doing that evening too - and was only apart from me for ten minutes.” This stood out to me when I read it.
5. I think it would be pretty easy to put a small child in a bin wrap under the flap where the spare tyre would normally go - even it meant the felty-thing on top stuck up a little. They could have easily packed bags on top to keep it in place.
6. If there is any foul play, don’t know how they could have kept up the act they have over this period of time.
7. To drop a body into the sea it would have to be taken surely by a boat and dropped far out to sea - otherwise it would have washed up by now?
8. I’ve wondered about the salt wells near the church (where they keep fish apparently?) - water and fish smells could confuse sniffer dogs?
9. I wonder how Mrs. Fenn feels at the moment.
10. I know someone who is a bit like K McC. Very presentable, organised, quite shy at first, a little bit icy, very ruthless when you get to know her better, does not easily tap into her emotional side. Has a brother who is severely physically and mentally handicapped (not sure if that is the PC expression anymore) and has had to learn to live with that in her family over a lifetime (although they put him in a home from the get-go) - maybe this contributed to her ‘iciness’. But still this person I know is not a murderer (yet.) Don’t know if this is relevant to how people cope, but maybe K McC’s family background has stuff we don’t know - and it has taught her to be hyper-controlled. Her mother seems pretty cool too, as in controlled and a bit prissy.
OK, enough for now.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:33 am
yes it was me and fizz in a threesome as I remember
September 11th, 2007 at 12:32 am
The word ’screw’ comes to mind…
You seem to have that opinion of most women like Philomena, Kate, me etc.
Why?
September 11th, 2007 at 12:31 am
gecko - I was the one that suggested your face should be punched in! I’m not a man.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:28 am
AHHH GRECIAN 2OOO..
I am the said ‘fister’ ( you have yet to refuse the offer) and Yes I am getting a distinct urge to do something to Kate. A good slapping at the very least methinks.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:27 am
blunger that is hard to watch,vry hard indeed
September 11th, 2007 at 12:27 am
(1138) gecko100
Sorry.. was going to bed, but is it a requirement for a man to be overweight to “fist” you?
September 11th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Well off to bed now folks. I will update the Legend in the morning and I am sure there will be some BIG news tomorrow. And if you are still reading And Justice For All… what a day to bring out big news. On the anniversary of 9/11. What a day to hide bad news eh (gullible or what)
September 11th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Christoph: are you overweight?
It is clear to me exactly what the men on this board woulds like to do to Kate McCann.
Blimey, yesterday three of them wanted to ‘fist’ me.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:23 am
(1126)
You clearly haven’t heard of the mighty power of the Portuguese Sniffer Sardines!
Infallible at solving crimes (and quite tasty on the BBQ, with just a pinch of salt).
September 11th, 2007 at 12:22 am
1118
Yup.
Watch it unfold before your very eyes.
As soon as the first member of the group reinterviewed by the Portuguese police this week begins to crack.
Could be a compulsive telly week!
On the Sky TV thing, perhaps the police were engaged?
They’re certainly quick thinkers these McCanns aren’t they!
September 11th, 2007 at 12:22 am
You pissed off Andorra?
You bastards!
September 11th, 2007 at 12:21 am
(1131) pete
Portugal used to be a strong naval nation. We have always been allied to them, mainly because they hated the Spanish and French as much as we did
September 11th, 2007 at 12:21 am
hmmm the definition of a coloboma is fairly interesting… it can be associated with congenital heart defects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coloboma
hmmmmmmmmmmm
is there such a thing as involuntary euthenasia
September 11th, 2007 at 12:20 am
I just watched the other father in
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1283385,00.html
as someone suggested for comparison.
I wish I hadn’t. I couldn’t finish it. I’m bloody crying.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:19 am
1125 Bulldump - I was more thinking…there goes the last European country we haven’t pissed off majorly in the last 500 years.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:18 am
(1126) Christoph
Or perhaps it should be Scuba Doo
September 11th, 2007 at 12:17 am
(1126) Christoph
Remember we are talking about Scooby Doo… Anything for a scooby snack
September 11th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Just wait for the friends to squeal.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:16 am
So the Old Bill are on their case now then it seems. End game in sight
” The intercepts are said to have been made in a joint operation conducted by Portuguese and British police officers.”
September 11th, 2007 at 12:16 am
That’s a great link, Antonia. Although one part confuses me:
Amphibious sniffer dogs?