Madeleine McCann: Missing Hours, Found Again And A PR Disaster
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
THE SUN front page: “MADDIE DAD AGONY. Fiend hid from Gerry. He was already in room he tells cops.”
A source close to the family says: “When Gerry went to check on Madeleine at 9.05pm he realised the bedroom door was open. Gerry is firmly of the view the abductor was already in the apartment.”
It’s another theory.
“When he went in he saw Madeleine was asleep but the bedroom door was slightly open. He thought, ‘That’s odd’ because he had left it firmly closed. But all the children were asleep. So he just went in and closed the door again and came out about 9.10pm.”
Good to hear Gerry McCann joining in the mood of speculation?
“Gerry is convinced the man must have been hiding, and once Gerry went through the patio doors the only way out was through the window. The front door was locked so the kidnapper took Madeleine and climbed out the window.”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “HOW SHE WAS TAKEN. The McCanns’ story.”
“Stolen to order after being spied on for days
Abductor hid in flat as Gerry looked in on kids
He got in through patio doors and out by window”
Gerry is a “heart specialist”.
Says a source: “When Gerry leaves, the man realises he has only a few minutes. He thinks the only way to get out without being seen is through the window.”
And: “Initially he thought Madeleine might have got up and gone to the toilet, or to get a drink or something.”
So what has changed? Why a new theory now, with a new spokesman on hand and the McCanns named as suspects?
DAILY STAR front page: “SEVEN HOURS TO KLILL MADDIE. Police probe her ‘lost’ final afternoon”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: THE MISSING SEVEN HOURS.”
Police sources reveal that “despite exhaustive inquiries they cannot confirm the whereabouts of part-time GP Kate, 39, and her daughter after 1.29pm on May 3”. A source said Kate’s movements were “unaccounted for until she sat down to have dinner with friends at a tapas restaurant within their holiday complex at around 8.40pm”.
The last photograph of Madeleine was said to have been taken by Kate at 2.29pm on May 3.
DAILY MAIL: “McCanns: What we really did in the missing six hours.”
“Madeleine had high tea at 5.30pm with staff at the Kids Club. She was picked up shortly before 6pm by Kate and Gerry.”
The friend insisted: “Kate was never alone with Madeleine that afternoon. There were always other witnesses present. These details were all given to detectives during police interviews, so they know what Kate and Gerry said happened that day.”
So no missing hours, then?
THE TIMES front page: “MADELEINE McCANN: Matthew Parris laments a PR disaster.
“The fatal flaw of David Cameron and Kate and Gerry McCann” - Our correspondent looks at the baleful influence of the marketing men.
“Look what they’ve done to Kate and Gerry McCann. Here were two people deserving of the most intense public sympathy. On a superficial level they got it – by the media bucketload. Yet did you not sense from an early stage an undertone of irritation at the couple? I’ve sensed it everywhere I go: not a sign of doubt about their innocence, which most of us take for granted, but a feeling, nevertheless, that they in some way invited trouble – though we banish the thought as brutal and wrong.
“Which it is. So why the ungenerosity? I believe it is because Kate and Gerry McCann have allowed an impression to arise that they and their advisers are marketing their own tragedy. Where we would have expected to see parents distracted and disorganised by grief, we have seen a professionally run campaign to find out what the media want, and give it to them.
“This has been done for a most defensible reason: to enlist the entire European public as amateur detectives in the search for Madeleine. But now her parents have ended up looking like film stars in a Hollywood weepy.”
“Put up or shut up, Madeleine McCann police told” - Friend of McCanns counters claims of ‘lost’ six hours before girl vanished
DAILY TELEGRPAH: “Madeleine McCann: Gerry certain he was in bedroom with kidnapper”
THE GUARDIAN: “From prime suspects to hounded victims - how parents turned the media tide”
Posted: 22nd, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,536) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
359 the horse…
Does gerry’s blog cover the period 2 to 5 May 2007? If not I’ll probably give it a miss…
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Free 363
Elementary my dear Watson
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Surely if the abductor had watched their routine over the previous evenings he would have entered the apartment just after a check had been made on the children, knowing he then had half an hour to get clear before the next check was made.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
166 m.e.
No, It wasn’t Murat’s computer that had supposedly been wiped, it was his associate Malinka’s, the Russian computer savvy person. Post 195 in the previous thread.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:21 pm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1752277.ece
found this early report worth a reminder of times and quotes
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:20 pm
355 358
I think it’s admirable to take your studies on holiday but maybe Gerry’s stern demeanour gives away his other views on the matter. Wearing your morgue clothes obviously helps you concentrate - like that old chewing gum advert…
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:17 pm
6 days since gerry has updated his blog…What the hell is going on? If nothing else he could let all his fans know about how long its taken today to jog up the hill to the corner shop, or how its pissing down in Rothley or how terrible it is now the holiday is over….??????
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:16 pm
355 Bet she didn’t study much after one of those notorious “tapas sessions”.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
The PJ have the hire car. It was impouded soon after the McCanns left.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:14 pm
351 I agree there Wanderer
A good start would be to spend some of the loot (10% of the interest so far would do it) on developing the website so people could see exactly what is being done (and how much loot it cost). After all people gave money to “find Maddie”.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:13 pm
“Anorakian influence on Mitchell & McCann”
Cant wait to hear the explanation for that book on police forensic evidence being found in the McCann apartment AND having the Scent Of Death on it.
How about ‘Kate needed to study it for her job as a part-time mortician’?
Have that one on me, Gerry old mate.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
353 - LOL
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Did the McCanns give the hire car to Auntie Phil who then tried to get rid of it? From a distance she could be mistaken for two men surely!
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1285297,00.html?f=vg
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:09 pm
349. Absolutely - they were so appalled that we all seemed to add 2+2 and get 4, whereas Gerry told them it is really 5. Meant half their posts were not getting through poor things.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:08 pm
(345) Andy:
I think there probably have been some sightings (if the sightings were reported by someone lucid or not, I don’t know).
I think we’re all a bit annoyed with the parents thing, guilty or not, we just want to know where Madeleine is before we decide who is guilty. That’s how I feel about it anyway, I’m tired of hearing about the McCanns and what lawyers, etc. they’ve hired and how proving their innocence could take some time (if they are pursued as guilty)…and “put up or shut up”…all of that.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:07 pm
347 I thought that was more of a Maytime activity…
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:06 pm
327
dean i think seymour and mod have asked for their own algebra codes to keep the riff out
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:06 pm
347 - they were casing out some incinerator place too, I heard!!!!
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:05 pm
338 God I hope she doesn’t try to stuff the hire car in the washing machine by accident when she does the laundry…
A can of petrol should do the trick, though
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I am sure they post as well. But TG they seem very quiet today SO FAR.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
333.
Thanks.
I asked because I wondered if there was any correlation between sightings of Madeleine before her parents became suspects and afterwards.
A frequent cry from the McCann camp has been that making the parents suspects has taken Madeleine out of the public eye. I just wanted to know if sightings had stopped long before this or whether they had remained constant.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
325 Puzzled
So do the McCann’s new Portuguese laywers wife’s sister-inlaw or her friend keep up with the posts here?
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Firestar (340) … LOL and agreed … I learnt my lesson a while ago!
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Wanderer 338. Thank you. I need a little lie down now.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Puzzled (339) - nope those are broken, not missing!
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
just before i go, just remember
never tick the notify me box.
i’m still trying to unglue my inbox from thursday.
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
322
Auntie Phil’s weighing scales
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
(332) Puzzled:
I thought the McCanns had the hired car in a safe place and “locked away”, so they can have their own experts look at it? Is that what the report meant by missing? Missing to the police…not to the McCanns (I will not go further with the possibilities that setup presents!)
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:59 pm
333
it’s a good option if you like your kids to learn how to toast crumpets with their arses.
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:59 pm
327
Im not eating any foreign food!!
lol