Madeleine McCann: Robert Murat Innocent, Private Detectives & Kate McCann’s Hot Lips
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY MIRROR front page: “WE’LL FIND HER OURSELVES. Maddy parents bring in SAS private detectives”.
Kate and Gerry McCann have hired Control Risk Group, billed as a “crack security firm”, to find their daughter.
Page 5: “THE PROFESSIONALS” – There’s TV show in this. The Portuguese police could be the Keystone Cops, at least that’s what the tabloid press portrays them as.
“Millionaire ex-double glazing boss” is the mystery benefactor paying McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell’s wages. The former window cleaner owns Sale Sharks ruby union club. Look out for their new sponsor.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE. ‘McCanns ARE LYING’ - Portuguese police says friends are in cover-up.”
Robert Murat is to be told he will not face charges. Kate and Gerry McCann will be the only named suspects.
“SMILING” – The WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPERS leads with a picture of Kate McCann grinning.
Pages 4 and 5: “Kidnap? We just don’t; believe it.” It is reported in Portugal that an unnamed Irishman has come forward to say he was in the same place as the McCanns’ friend Jane Tanner. She told police she had seen a man carrying child dashing from the Ocean Club resort in the direction of Robert Murat’s home. The new witness says he saw no-one.
“’GUILT’ OF PARENTS - More than 60 per cent think the couple know what has happened to Madeleine.”
“WHEN KATE WAS HOT LIPS HEALEY” – 15 YEARS AGO Kate was nicknamed hot lips for her resemblance to Loretta Swit in TV comedy M*A*S*H. The Express has seen her Dundee University year book and the comments - “Kate was great fun”; “renowned for alcoholic binges and some ‘dance till you drop’ nocturnal activities”; “she was certainly more interested in going to the pub than she was in her studies” etc.
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: PARENTS ARE LYING. Cops say McCanns & friends tried to frame suspect Murat.”
Pages 4 and 5: “McCANNS ‘ARE LYING’.”
A phone poll: “DO YOU BELIEVE THE McCANNS ARE LYING?” Let’s see if we can top that 60 per cent in the Star’s sister paper the Daily Express. Vote now and vote often.
THE SUN pages 12 and 13: “TWIN’S LIFT FOR MUM AND DAD.”
Kate and Gerry McCann are with son Sean. They have been to Mass. Kate sobs when Ave Maria is sung. Daughter Amelie is in nursery school. She is plying with the Cuddle Cat. She bursts into laughter, “her giggles rang around the building”.
DAILY MAIL front page: “Madeleine:
• Ex-SAS team joins hunt
• New sighting in Morocco
• Kate breaks down in church
• Police accused over forensics”
Page 8: “McCanns hire an ex-SAS team to hunt for Maddie.”
“Second witness supports sighting in Morocco” – Remember when Marl Pollard said she saw Madeleine in Morocco? Now we lean that a man also saw Madeleine in Morocco.
THE INDEPENDENT PAGE 17: “Murat no longer suspect.”
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 10: “McCanns hired detective firm with ex-SAS men”. Under Portuguese law, the McCanns are not permitted to carry out their own investigation in Portugal. But they can investigate in other countries.
THE TIMES front page: “McCann investigators” – McCanns hire private security firm.
Pages 12 and 13: “How they managed to turn campaign around.” The McCanns are “winning the propaganda war”. They have gone on the “offensive”.
A family source says: “It is for the police to prove they are guilty.”
GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today.
Posted: 24th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,048) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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September 25th, 2007 at 8:11 am
It’s getting to be like an ad by the NHS.
Appeal launched for dodgy donors - place your bung in the box.
well they are doctors, dearies.
Sorry to repeat:
Are they all now on a sickie? - I bloody well hope so - surely not allowed anywhere near a patient I hope…
Did they steal the prescription sedatives from the NHS or just obtain them fraudulently via false prescription?
September 25th, 2007 at 8:03 am
985 molly
Well that’s all pretty interesting !! Seems they found someone on their own level to bail them out, takes one to know one as the saying goes, let’s hope he ends up with several dozen eggs on his face…..!!
September 25th, 2007 at 8:02 am
987 molly I like a cop who talks footie and Father Ted
September 25th, 2007 at 8:00 am
987 molly
Heartening news, molly and thanks for posting that one a gain. I wonder how Murdoch’s hacks will spin that one?
September 25th, 2007 at 7:59 am
And just because I hardly slept (too hot
) and am a bit p**sed off. What is with the words these people use?
“Social tennis”!
“High tea”!
Who, outside of Jeeves and Worcester, says things like this?!
Arrrgh!
Got to get some coffee.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:56 am
978 keepcopshonest
yep the vomiting story stinks - pun intended. I wonder if the washing machine is in the apartment itself - and does it have a tumble dryer?
September 25th, 2007 at 7:53 am
This was also posted yesterday evening, by Pe-Jota on ionglobal trends:
Carlos Anjos, the unofficially official PJ spokesman, was just interviewed for a whole hour on Porto Canal TV, mostly about Maddie’s case.
IMO his basic message was: rest assured, rest COMPLETELY reassured, that the PJ isn’t going to back down on Maddie’s case, on the contrary… He was relaxed and seemed completely confident, to the point of almost being uninterested to convince by argument. Certainly he didn’t leak any new sigtnificant details, and basically just set some basic facts for the record.
Above all, he made it very clear that the PJ had been seeing through the whole UK media game since the very beginning (another very clear statement that Sky News was called before the first call to PT Authorities (GNR) was made at 22:41). He even put things in a football context, “we’re playting defense”, even whole team is “almost” crowded near the goal facing the onslaught… but far from being defeated, they’re playing extremely smart (devilishly indeed) in an excedingly complex game,
One example: something Anjos was very keen to stress, as “something no one ever speaks about”: the PJ were accompanied in all forensic evidences by Scotland Yard and Leics police, who dutifully undersigned all that was necessary to assure the meticulouslness of the procedures… And then (as we all know) all samples collected were sent for analysis to the Birmingham lab…When asked if political considerations had been involved in this, his answer was “If you will, if you will…”, adding that “we’d be under heavy fire” now if the samples had been analysed in PT’s labs (more than capable, if a little overwhelmed).
He even took an opportunity for a laugh with the journalists by bringing up the “célebre história” of the church, by which he meant the dogs having picked a cadaver scent, of all places, in a Catholic church with a graveyard. He said this one will go down in PTs anedotário [jokes compendium].
Almost forgot this: Anjos made a point to stress that there’s absolutely no need for a corpse for a murder case to go ahead, mentioning for instance the case of Padre Frederico, a pedophile priest who was convicted in the 1980s for murdered a boy and then throwing his body down a cliff into the Atlantic in Madeira), that was never found. (A meticlous reconstitution of events was performed).
I’d say the PJ is so confident of the case it doesn’t even NEED to collect any more evidence — if anything they have TOO MANY aces up their sleeve. And I think they’re starting to play their little propaganda games with UK media too… For all Anjos’ good cop looks, it almost sounded devilish the way it came out that the PJ is operating…
September 25th, 2007 at 7:52 am
(982-3)
It is odd that everyone wants to bring Murat back in. Everyone else’s story seems to contradict one another’s….
But the police have/will clear Murat, so what does that say for the other stories? I wonder if there would have been CCTV footage that would have caught Murat and he simply isn’t on it? I don’t know what is going on with the Murat thing…
September 25th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Here’s an interesting article from April of this year about Brian Kennedy - Clarence Mitchell’s new employer, and benefactor to the McCanns:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/investigates/2007/04/12/sales-sharks-89520-18892471/
“SALES SHARKS
HAS BRIAN GOT HEART OF GLASS?
12/04/2007
Related Articles
* More Investigates
* Have your say: Investigates forum
HIS Sale Sharks rugby union team won last year’s Premiership - but Brian Kennedy isn’t bagging any trophies for his home improvements empire.
He may be one of Britain’s richest men but his notorious double-glazing outfit St Helens Glass has just gone bust owing £5.5million.
More than 350 victims have been left out of pocket by the Merseyside firm which has been the subject of a four-year investigation by local Trading Standards officers.
Some customers complained about slow, shoddy workmanship.
Others said the company failed to honour its 10-year guarantee when things went wrong.
Yet more complained that they were short changed by the company’s cashback deals.
Last February, the company gave undertakings to the Office of Fair Trading that it would clean up its act.
However, the complaints kept flooding in.
David and Caroline Maitland paid St Helens Glass £8,000 to fit new windows to their home in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, last August.
AS a sweetener, they were promised five monthly cashback cheques of £164. Only two cheques turned up and the Maitlands are owed nearly £500.
“I am appalled at their service,” said David.
“We need the money to help our daughter at college and they are holding on to it unlawfully.”
St Helens went into liquidation two weeks ago, left with assets worth just £55,000.
The Maitlands are unlikely to get a penny, their windows don’t close or lock properly and their 10-year guarantee is now worthless.
Kennedy, meanwhile, is worth around £250million and has a lifestyle to match.
Along with a huge stately pile in Cheshire, he owns a villa in Majorca and a penthouse flat overlooking the ski-slopes of Colorado. He also owns a private jet and helicopter.
The loss of St Helens Glass will hardly dent his business empire that spans more than 20 companies and turns over more than £500m a year.
His first firm, Glasnost Windows, formed in 1991, was wound up by the courts after just 18 months.
His next, Macclesfield Glass Ltd, went bust soon afterwards, owing £160,000, mainly to trade creditors. Around this time, Kennedy bought Weatherseal, itself in administration, for £50,000 and began to build one of the biggest doubleglazing empires in the country, including household name Everest.
Weatherseal went into administration last year owing nearly £9m. It was “rescued” by a management buy-out, involving Kennedy’s business partner Ian Blackhurst, for less than £500,000.
Weatherseal’s holding company, the Bardox Group, went into liquidation in January owing £5.2m.
Meanwhile, the accounts of parent company Wilmslow Windows are seven months overdue. Kennedy tells us he didn’t manage the business and lost £1.6m when St Helens Glass went under.
And he said he has “never earned any dividends or drawn any earnings at any time from St Helens Glass”.
Not directly, no. But St Helens Glass paid Kennedy’s firm Latium Management Services £114,000 in 2003 and £204,000 in 2005 for “management charges”.
Latium, in turn, pays director Kennedy handsomely - £510,000 in 2003, £2.6m in 2004 and £400,000 in 2005.
So come on, Brian. Do you really need to leave the Maitlands and hundreds of other families out in the cold?”
*****
As my Husband always says - “The extremely Rich did not get to be that way by being nice to people” …. Still, if one has millions to spend on a stranger’s legal defence, it might be nice to throw a couple of million to ordinary, innocent people that one has previously screwed over, even in the course of routine business.
Nice Star you’ve hitched your waggon to there Clarence!
September 25th, 2007 at 7:48 am
People will probably laugh but I believe that the “nanny” has been coached. Her story, over 4 months later, is just too convenient. It includes many details that have been brought into question lately regarding the timeline of events, things that the McCanns may/may not have said and done and it also brings Mr Murat back into the frame again.
The only question it raises is what happened to Mr McCanns “social tennis” match which was supposed to have begun at 5.30pm?
“She said: “I was helping give the children high tea. The twins were there and Madeleine and both parents. “It was supposed to finish at 5.30pm but because they were a big group and really social, it didn’t finish until about 6pm. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all.”.”
September 25th, 2007 at 7:48 am
The nanny’s version of events has one thing that gives me food for thought.
I understand that she had been there for three seasons and witnessed many ‘lost children’ situations but had never seen a reaction like Kates. I think from what was said that she encountered them 10 to 20 minutes after Madeleine was found to be missing. I am sure other children who are eventually found safe and sound are missing for that amount of time.
So why was her reaction so much more extreme than others
1. Because it was exactly as she said, the room was in a condition where it was clear that someone had been in and must have take Madeleine
or
2. She knew that something had happened to her because she was involved and her reaction was the pent up grief that she had had to hold on to for hours.
I think it is much more likely to be number 1
This is because the nanny has no reason to say she saw Murat that night.
Whats that all about?
September 25th, 2007 at 7:46 am
(978) Keepcopshonest:
That is an interesting possibility that keeps coming up (your end theory). I don’t think we know if the cops looked at O’Brien’s story, as they wouldn’t think to if they were searching for Madeleine.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Now that I’m completely bored with the bloody McConns I’ve been on the Meccano web site.
http://www.meccano.com/about/index.php
Did you know that Frank Hornby invented Meccano in Liverpool? katiepoo is a scouser as we all know. Also it’s the centenary of Frankie’s invention. Happy birthday Meccano or is that McCanno?
For this who don’t know McCanno is a system of nuts and bolts and shaped objects that you can fit together to make all sorts of wonderful creations. then you simple dismantle bits of them and rebuild them with new bits and you make a completely different creation…
You can spend hours, days months doing this and there’s always a new creation to make, especially if you have a rich relative who keeps buying you more and more McCanno sets and pays for lots of helpers with the nuts and bolts…
Funny coincidences there…
September 25th, 2007 at 7:39 am
975 Nice one andy
Charlotte’s a poser and no mistake missus - bet she’s got a few offers for work after that one, nudge nudge…
September 25th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Try again with a post I made last night, stalled by moderation, urls now removed. Sorry if this is stale stuff for the rest of the board:
The tale of O’Brien’s and Tanner’s vomiting daughter intrigues me:
Friends ‘appalled’ at Kate McCann news
07/09/2007 - 14:33:50
“….On the night Madeleine disappeared, Dr O’Brien left the table at around the time she is believed to have been snatched. But it is understood he was looking after his young daughter, who was ill and vomiting in her room.”
[breakingnews.ie]
“He told police that he was looking after his young daughter, who was vomiting. The girl is the same age as Madeleine,”
[timesonline.co.uk]
OK. When a 3 y/o vomits, quite likely their playmates vomit also (shared bugs, shared food, cross-contamination). It’s possible Madeleine became sick at same time as other child. If so, possible she vomited alone in bed, breathed some in and died. To be discovered by ….? Or, again, perhaps the vomiting episode was an excuse for Russell O’Brien’s lengthy absence.
Did O’Brien and his partner Jane Tanner say they already knew their child was sick before they went out to the tapas bar? Yes. Guardian says at 9.10 pm “Jane Tanner, Mr O’Brien’s partner, is coming late to the dinner, one of their children having been sick…”
So, Kate and Gerry left their 3 children home alone, Tanner and O’Brien delayed and went back for longer check-ins but did worse, really, in going out even though they knew their child was ill. Maybe Tanner thought her child was “better” before she left, but vomiting often signals the start of a bout of illness, not the end. And the child threw up again:
“9.30 Mr Oldfield goes to the McCann’s apartment; he doesn’t raise any suspicions at the time but later says that he noticed there was more light in the apartment.
Russell O’Brien leaves at the same time, to discover that his daughter is vomiting…”
9.35 Mr Oldfield returns to the table
9.55 Mr O’Brien returns …”
[Guardian]
O’Brien comes back even though he knows for sure now that his daughter, same age as Madeleine, has been continued vomiting. This ratchets negligence to a higher level. To leave a manifestly SICK/ILL child of 3 or 4 years old on her own is not normal behavior.
Did it really happen or is part of a cover story? A bit more detail in the Sol account, quoted on this board:
“Russell O’Brien …. was absent for most of the dinner and … returned to the table 5 minutes before Kate went to her apartment and noticed Maddie was missing. Russell then explained that his daughter was sick, and even vomited so it was necessary to change her bed sheets”. One of the employees of the Ocean Club, who was heard by Sol this week, contradicts his version: “If that had happened, he would have to ask the housekeeping service for some clean sheets, which did not happen”.
How would that employee know for sure that no spare sheets were in the room? The apartments are advertised (online) as having washing machines. Did he wash the sheets? Did the rooms come with dryers also? Would O’Brien fail to recall, or lie, about changing his daughter’s bed sheets? Why?
Jumping across to the McCann’s apartment — if it’s true that none of the group asked for clean sheets or had any on hand nor had time to do laundry, then, if Madeleine had vomited (and passed out or died), the parents could not have hidden this from the police that night. The smell of vomit lingers. That *should* dispose of any speculation (my own, above) that possibly this is how Madeleine died.
Unless, say, an accident to Madeleine, discovered not by Kate or Gerry but by O’Brien and/or Tanner, was transformed into a story about time spent caring for their own little girl. That would entail a monumental conspiracy. No sane reason for O’Brien and Tanner to lie about this unless one of them carried some or all of the blame.
This isn’t going anywhere except far-fetched speculation shifting blame sideways, which I really don’t trust … but still, contradictions are endemic in this case, the devil is in the details, and a lot depends on Jane Tanner’s testimony that she saw a man carry off a little girl in pink pj’s. So far nothing verifies what she says. Another board post says O’Brien said he washed his daughter’s pj’s. If so, again, could this be some type of transference? I guess what I’m asking is, did police check the story about the O’Brien-Tanner daughter’s bout of vomiting? Did they look in their laundry basket for those vomit-stained sheets? Could he have been cleaning up an accident in his friends’ apartment? And is it possible, if O’Brien and Tanner got involved in a coverup and disposal of the body, that Kate and Gerry McCann actually had no clue and have never been told?
September 25th, 2007 at 7:36 am
(976) Andy:
Thanks, I kept trying to see it and just couldn’t
I don’t like those professional family portraits either, but I know some people who do (and want me to display them), to each their own I guess?
The news about that nanny claiming Kate McCann did scream “They’ve taken her” along with other things (including what Kate claimed to say?), is interesting. I wonder why in their official PR bit, they just didn’t admit she screamed lots of things/was saying lots, as that is understandable. Now that she didn’t do that, once again, it just seems odd (too much PR and story changes, etc.).
September 25th, 2007 at 7:26 am
974. I must admit that even with my glasses on and the image at double size I only see the red mark on Mrs McCann and the female twin.
As an aside, I must admit to hating those studio shot family portraits. To me they appear, well, tacky.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:20 am
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=483715&in_page_id=1770
The latest news for those just waking up.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:20 am
(971) Andy:
Do you see a red mark on both Kate and Madeleine? I seem to only see it on Kate and the girl twin, I must be going blind…
Morning Everyone!
September 25th, 2007 at 7:18 am
971. Ignore that. The quotation marks in post 970 upset the link.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Just got up, all fresh, made a nice cuppa sun’s gonna be around today… garden calls. Woke up with a thought about Gordie Brown and his election plans - and how the mccanns fit in. In his first 100 days he had Glasgow terrorist attacks by doctors (why does it always come back to Glasgow doctors?), floods, stock market jitters and foot & mouth sourced from a leaky government laboratory. he is claimed to have sorted them out and that’s why “new” labour is ahead in the polls and why he’s thinking of an election date.
But did he sort it all out? And all this time he’s been involved from the very first few minutes in the wretched McConn case. True he cancelled his holiday (a thing Bliar would never do) but the floods are gonna bring food price/availability problems soon, he’s now distancing himself from Northern Rock - and the recovery “system” that he personally set up 10 years ago - and foot & mouth from the Govt lab is back with a vengeance. And we still have a terrorist threat…
Tricky times but where do the McConns fit in? I reckon this affair is a thorn in his election side. What happens if the sedated press suddenly starts telling their voters that the PM is a mate of gerrykins and spends 45 minutes chatting to him on the phone? Doed Gordie want the McConns case to drag on and on so we get bored or will he lean on people to get a quick fix - either jail of whitewash?
We certainly live in interesting times…
September 25th, 2007 at 7:16 am
953.
And now it’s gone. Probably to be “fixed” like everything else surrounding the McCanns.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:12 am
“Not sure if this has ever been asked but, does anyone else find it disturbing that there is a ‘red’ mark on both Kate and Madeleine in this photo from their official shrine, er sorry, site?
http://findmadeleine.com/img/family.jpg”
953 - I think whoever did the site hasn’t saved the picture properly.
September 25th, 2007 at 6:59 am
952 - Java
Your attack on Tony Bennett was desparate.
He is by far the most intelligent poster on this site and he is not in for thrills or grills.
Tony I wish you luck in your endeavours.
For this is not just about Madeleine, it is about the erosion of family values - such as babies left unattended.
This is how society crumbles.
And if the emperor says it is okay
then know that the collapse is just a short distance away.
Seriously empires when they go, go rapidly.
The signs are on the wall.
September 25th, 2007 at 6:44 am
709 - The Real Stig
It was not that case.’
This was one was about a boy.
Completely different but apparently set a precedent.
September 25th, 2007 at 6:32 am
Hello Patricia,
I am at a trade show this week, with limited time to spare. Just dropping a queen life line down to let you know that there’s no news on the Maddy McC. front coming from Alaska - so I can’t contribute much of anything as you say, just asking the questions.
I call Alaska the big sky state because for astronomer hobbyists like myself, the Alaskan sky is unlike any other. It’s a naked eye’s paradise. Big Dipper with the raw eye is easy to spot around this time of year.
You remembered that Winky Dink is my nick name. Good for you!! Usually, I’m just called Wink or Winky by friends and family. Did you enjoy the book I recommended you buy? It sounds a bit like you’re very excited by it. So glad to hear you’ve sunk your teeth into it already. We can chat a bit about it when you’re done, if you’d like?
I do so hope they find little Madeleine alive. But I am quite curious about a lot of wrong doings on the case….
More soon….
From your pal,
Winky Dink
September 25th, 2007 at 6:29 am
To Real Stig re: 641
Thanks! that would be it, my post had 3 urls. Least it’s nothing personal
September 25th, 2007 at 6:19 am
962 itsy bitsy spider
Welll thanks for that but where I am, we are just waking up and I just wondered what I have walked in on !! What’s with all the songs and “Baby Boomer” stuff…? I thought this was a forum about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the innocence - or not - of her neglectful parents, not badly spelt rantings by “is anybody out there” and trying to outdo each other as to what songs we remember and Cat Stevens, or Yusuf Islam, as he is now known ….and so forth !!
September 25th, 2007 at 6:12 am
And Who are you? The Spanish Inquistion?
I thought it was quite obvious…..if you need to ask, then re-read it.
I’m saying goodbye!
(and no Jewel did not write the lyrics to this song…but only a Real Boomer would know who did!!)
All my bags are packed
Im ready to go
Im standin here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin
Its early morn
The taxis waitin
Hes blowin his horn
Already Im so lonesome
I could die
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
Cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
Theres so many times Ive let you down
So many times Ive played around
but I tell you baby, they dont mean a thing
Every place I go, I think of you
Every song I sing, I sing for you
When I come back, Ill bring your wedding ring
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
Cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
Now the time has come to leave you
One more time
Let me kiss you
And close your eyes
Ill be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I wont have to leave you alone
About the times, I wont have to say
Oh, kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
Cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
But, Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
September 25th, 2007 at 6:07 am
958 -959: Feel free to go to sleep, I’ll keep the night vigil on the candy shop (chomp, chomp, chomp)
You all need your beauty sleep toinight!