Madeleine McCann: Clarence Mitchell Speaks, Make Madeleine History And Breastfeeding
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY MAIL pages 10 and 11: “Madeleine cried for 18 hours a day. Kate tells of the special bond forged in the painful days of early childhood.”
Kate McCann is speaking with Portuguese magazine Flash!. This interview took place before Kate McCann was named as a suspect in Madeline’s disappearance. Kate says the first six months with Madeleine were “very difficult”. Madeleine had colic. “I had to carry her around permanently,” says Kate.
What does it mean, this interview that has “emerged”? That what you tell magazines can be taken out of context and used in evidence against you, or something else?
THE TIMES page 9: “McCanns go straight to the top in search for powerful backers.”
Gordon Brown is being kept abreast of the investigation on Kate and Gerry McCann, possibly by reading the British press and watching the news bulletins.
(Is any MP still wearing a yellow ribbon?)
The McCanns have a new spokesman. He’s called Clarence Mitchell. He resigned as head of the Government’s Media Monitoring unit to take this new post.
Mr Mitchell once offered: “There’s a whole level of debate taking place online which simply didn’t exist before and departments feel they need to be fully engaged in that.”
Look out for Kate’s blog.
DAILY MIRROR front page: “THE TIDE TURNS.”
“McCanns WON’T be ordered back to Portugal says Judge”
“Gordon Brown briefed on the case”
“New spokesman will declare Gerry and Kate innocent today”
Clarence Mitchell says: “They have nothing whatever to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.” And as the McCann’s new spokesman he should know.
Pages 4 and 5: “RAY OF HOPE.”
Madeleine has not been found but Kate and Gerry McCann will not have to fly back to Portugal for more questioning.
On the downside sales of the “Look for Madeleine” wristband are not going well in Portugal. In “LOCALS REJECTS ‘FIND HER’ BRACELETS,” this year’s Make Poverty History band is being turned down at a car boot sales in Praia da Luz.
Says one ex-pat: “It’s as if they want to forget something so horrible happened.” Or buy something less with their money?
Says another: “We can’t understand how they can carry on jogging after losing Madeleine. Gerry went to a hairdressers a few weeks after she disappeared and continued tennis lessons. The Portuguese feel they should b hysterical.” But not the British, who understand reserve…
THE SUN front page: “MADDIE COPS SLAPPED DOWN. KATE BACKED BY JUDGE. Mum won’t be hauled back to Portugal.”
Judge Pedro Anjos Frias rejected Portuguese police calls for the McCanns to return. “He is thought to have ruled the case to flimsy to justify the move.” Or, to put it another way, he has not received sufficient evidence to be convinced of the need for a trial.
Pages 4 and 5: “COPS CASE COLLAPSING.”
And: “McCanns tell Brown: We have solid defence.” Gordon Brown’s reaction to this news is not known.
THE INDEPENDENT page 32: Thomas Sutcliffe says the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been “yoked by journalists to another kind of story – the primal faction of fairytale”. Here “the beautiful child is swallowed by something that has emerged from the dark”.
It is, is it not, every child’s worst nightmare.
Page 4: “Kate McCann ‘will not be reinterviewed in Portugal’.”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE POLICE CASE FALLS APART.”
“Judge refuses to recall the McCanns”
“Impossible to detect sedatives in hair”
“But slurs against the parents continue”
Slurs?
Pages 8 and 9: “My struggles to control Madeleine – BY KATE MCCANN.”
As told to Flash! magazine. The twins arrive. “The worst thing is that she started to demand lots of attention, especially when I was breastfeeding them.”
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE ALL SEVEN McCANN PALS IN FRAME.” The seven dwarves, to continue Mr Sutcliffe’s analogy?
“Cops set to name them as suspects.”
Pages 6 and 7: “BRIT PALS ALL SUSPECTS.”
The Tapas 9 are in the frame. This will put the lid – the tapas – on the case. Right?
“Maddie cops jet to UK as group face grilling” – Portuguese police are “planning” to come to the UK to continue the investigation. British police will conduct interviews.
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 8: “McCanns to be interviewed by British police.”
Kate and Gerry are also keen to reach Gordon Brown. A source tell the paper: “The McCanns do not expect help or influence to be exerted on their behalf but want to get messages to the very top that they are innocent.”
Does Brown read the Telegraph?
THE GUARDIAN page 35: “Never mind the high street: Branson sells his Virgin Megastores.”
No mention of Madeleine McCann, granted, but this news one day after Branson pledged to help the parents clear their names looks like interesting timing?
Posted: 18th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,047) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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September 18th, 2007 at 10:23 am
105 - SSS, sorry to bore you.
Funny you assume I’ve been arrested because I think the public should keep an eye on the government!
September 18th, 2007 at 10:23 am
102 - I’m not in Portugal so the Portugese have no jurisdiction over my actions.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:22 am
15 SSS
There is in comments in Times, one comment from USA amongst all the sympathetic whiners that—
” these people seem to be moving heaven and earth to get a trail by sympathetic public ,and hefty pals ,and PR, and friendly press ,instead of in a court like everyone one else. !!!! Why ? “
September 18th, 2007 at 10:21 am
103 I read somewhere where O’Brien said that his agreement with GM was that the friends would say nothing without running it past GM first.
Can anyone else verify this? I think Moderation put a link up to this last week sometime?
107 What other circumstances? Hmmmm
Must work now, back later.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Rest Says:
September 18th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Morning Seymour Laws, we need your help - can you provide a definition for “chavs” ?
A sub-set of what I refer to affectionately as “the lower orders”.
Would please to accept instructions to act in a private prosecution - but it certainly would not be on a pro bona basis - I would need a huge brief to compensate for the ridicule .. err that is to say, to properly reflect the amount of work involved.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:18 am
103 According to Rest, no one should say anything to the police as they are not trustworthy, being a branch of the government, and anything you say will incriminate you even if you are innocent!!
September 18th, 2007 at 10:16 am
99 ~ moderation… exactly…
September 18th, 2007 at 10:16 am
One Kate McC quote in the Mail today which wasn’t in the Inde interview…
“I know that what happened is not due to the fact of us leaving the children asleep.
I know it happened under other circumstances.”
Ooo er.
Clarence Mitchell has a lot of experience at the MMU with a stop watch timing how long MPs are given on WATO. Is it the right sort of experience to put a stop to his clients making these random confessions?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I think GM’s use of “deceived” once again alluded to the PJ framing them. I can accept the possibility that the evidence against them is weak, and that they had no involvement (other than leaving her alone) in her disappearance. But I find it hard to accept that the PJ are willfully framing them and planting evidence.
I am sorry, but I just do not buy conspiracy theories.
It is his response of crying conspiracy to being named a suspect that I find suspicious. It does not of course mean he is guilty.
I would like to 8ask a question: Do you think that any of the alleged evidence indicates that Madeleine is dead?
If so, wouldn’t the parents be more concerned with this rather than claiming they are being set up and bringing in the PR brigade?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:15 am
92 Ask Sharon lol
Rest, I am bored with this whole police thing now. Low attention span! Whatever you say buddy, you have had a bad experience I am sure, and maybe you are one of the 90%, who knows? Each individual has their own experience, and all I would say is, that as a mother, I would want the TRUTH to be told. There would be no saving my own backside whilst my daughter is possibly in the hands of a gang of paedo’s suffering God only knows what abuses. And you’re right, questions asked can be slanted, but answers can be thought and reasoned, and therefore less likely to “land you in it”. Of course, I have yet to hear that Kate or Gerry threatened to kill their child, so if they did answer that question truthfully, they have nothing to hide. Answering questions like why did you hire a car the day before you left to see the Holy See, are surely innocent enough, and I think we would all like to know the answers to those.
According to the Teflon 2 spokesperson, they have an explanation for each and every piece of evidence against them, whether flimsy or not. Why not speak out then and shut everyone up?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:15 am
72 ~ For those who have googled no stone unturned…. here’s the publishers blurb on the book written in 2001 under the title no stoned unturned…
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Founded in 1991 as a nonprofit forensic investigative team, NecroSearch International specializes in homicide cases shelved because of “corpus indelecti” that is, a body cannot be produced as evidence that a murder has taken place. Coming from a wide range of backgrounds geophysicists to “cadaver dog” specialists to chemists and rank-and-file cops the members of NecroSearch combine their skills to produce the most proficient (and most exciting) detective work since Sherlock Holmes. They take the coldest cases and comb for hidden graves on rural hillsides, in suburban backyards and at the bottom of mud-choked riverbeds, searching for remains that have been buried anywhere from two to 20 years. (Or 70, as in the notorious Romanov family case.) Having sharpened his true crime teeth on Monster, Jackson competes here with two other books on forensic science to appear this season: Michael Baden and Marion Roach’s Dead Reckoning and Corpse by Jessica Snyder Sachs. But while those books concentrate on the establishment of forensic methods as formidable weapons in the fight for criminal justice, this book combines the burden of scientific proof with rousing tales of police work out in the field or the quarry, the Rocky Mountains or someone’s backyard. The book covers the group’s quirky beginnings and digs into its most important cases suspensefully; Jackson’s sharp eye misses nothing in the painstakingly rendered details. A must-have for true crime fans, it should also be of great interest to anyone fascinated with the practical applications of science. 32 pages of photos not seen by PW
did the mccanns know something we don’t….. last nights poster [tongue in cheek] suggested a copy of the book was in PdL…. I suspect not but….. well you just never know in this case….
September 18th, 2007 at 10:15 am
If my friends kept a wall of silence whilst my child was missing, I would be horrified as it would hinder the police investigation. What have they got to hide?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Judge Dread 95. The restriction on you with a private investigation is that it is against the law in Portugal. No matter that you have nothing to do with the enquiry. No-one is allowed to investigat an open case other than the PJ.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:14 am
5 Brandon Flowers..ITV has 20% of it owned and controlled by Murdoch ?Sky?Sun that is why..!!!!!However this one by R Littlejohn is OK..found buried as independent comment..( hard to find those !! ) in Mail…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=482362&in_page_id=1772&in_author_id=322
September 18th, 2007 at 10:14 am
98 oh sorry - guess we know it now
September 18th, 2007 at 10:13 am
82 Impressed… or rather like it is on this forum in reverse…
September 18th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Morning Seymour Laws, we need your help - can you provide a definition for “chavs” ?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:11 am
92 Toni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav
September 18th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Chav is basically a scumbag…with no job..constantly wears tracksuits and burberry baseball caps and says the word “like” a lot..
September 18th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Maybe we should start our own fund, and finance a private investigation. There are no restrictions on us, and it would be impartial as we have nothing to lose, but may gain the safe return of Madeleine.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:10 am
84 - Toni, well there’s no need for the twins to have to suffer needlessly, too. I don’t see anything wrong with them going to the park or the zoo.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:09 am
89 I have always found that odd myself, and it was one of things from day one that got to me. Why not send the neighbour, and IMMEDIATELY call the police?
Unless, she has this respectful scepticism so thought that 8 drunkards staggering around could do a better job!
85 Would you be in charge of the prosecution?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I thought a chav was a car, til my husband told me that is a chev. please enlighten me someone
September 18th, 2007 at 10:07 am
81 - SSS scepticism is not distrust, simply suspended judgement. The truth is sometimes difficult to know. It seems basic to me - the police are an arm of the government, and the citizenry is responsible for keeping the government in check.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:06 am
80 I have no idea what the split is, and I take no notice of “class”. As I said, I don’t know what a “chav” actually is.
I was merely passing along a comment posted yesterday by some one.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:04 am
79. Thank you. Still cannot understand why the motherly instinct didn’t stay and protect the children, an animal wouldn’t have left them.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:04 am
4 - Vers lol good point..I too would love to beat him with a blunt instrument
September 18th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Found this on the Mirror forums, don’t know if it’s been posted here before. Worth a looksie though.
http://www.petitiononline.com/McCann2/petition.html
September 18th, 2007 at 10:02 am
77 ~ A1st….. as it is, thats exactly how it ended up !
September 18th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Morning lynch mob - interestingly, you could all club together to bring private a private prosecution here in England. It would not get far, but, like other far fetched theories, it is theoretically possible, and it would enliven matters further.