Madeleine McCann: Spies, Richard Branson PI And Maddy TV
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE. SPY-IN-SKY PLAN TO FIND HER KIDNAPPER.”
So she was kidnapped. Wasn’t she?
“Satellite and aerial footage as well as internet traffic should be used to help the hunt,” say “intelligence experts”, including Professor Anthony Glees, Director of Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies. Security is his thing.
Pages 4 and 5: “Riddle of the McCanns’ day out” – Why did the McCanns go to Spain on August 3 and what did they do there? Clarence Mitchell says the TV cameras and journalists tracked their every move.
“Branson: They are innocent” – Richard Branson PI calls it a “grotesque nightmare”. He has donated £100,000 to help the McCanns clear their name. He says the McCanns have “the weight and support of Britain behind them”.
THE SUN front page: “OUTRAGE AS COPS CLAIM MADDIE ‘BURIED IN SPAIN’.”
Pages 6 and 7: “POLICE PROBE LOST 2 HOURS” – Police Claim the McCanns buried Madeleine during a “missing two hours” in Spain.
Kate and Gerry are “shattered”.
Says the Sun:
“SUSPICIOUS the trip was postponed from the day before – because Gerry had intestinal problems.
“’STRANGE’” that the couple from Rothley, Leics, chose to visit Spain on a national holiday, when the shops were shut.
“MYSTERIOUS that the McCanns racked up ‘unjustified mileage’ in their Renault Scenic – hired 25 days after Maddie disappeared.”
A source says a new ad campaign to find Madeleine will start in two weeks.
DAILY MAIL page 3: “Police use CCTV to map McCanns trips.”
As newspaper Correio de Manha reports, Spanish police have given their Portuguese counterparts CCTV footage “showing the Renault Scenic in places in Spain where there was ‘no reason’ for the couple to be.”
A TV series based on Madeleine McCann is being produced in Chile. Says Chilean newspaper El Mercurio: “The case is becoming a soap opera.”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “KATE IS SO FRAGILE. Fears for mum after latest blow.”
Kate McCann’s face is all over the front page. “The anguish is plain to see.” A friend hears that Madeleine had not been found in Morocco: “Kate is so fragile. She’s suffering a devastating disappointment.”
Page 5: “They suffered a devastating blow with the false alarm in Morocco. Kate has crashed.”
“COPS PROBE SPAIN TRIP.”
DAILY STAR pages 6 and 7: “MADDIE DUMPED IN SPAIN.” An “exclusive”.
THE TIMES page 16: Mick Hume says: “The line between investigation and emotive entertainment has disappeared.”
THE TELEGRAPH page 6: “Portuguese focus on McCanns’ Spain trip” – Clarence Mitchell says the McCanns are innocent.
THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: no Madeleine news today.
Posted: 28th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,087) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
September 28th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
225. Gareth. Disrespectful? Well, if I ever meet them I promise to curtsy.
I just re-read Kate’s interview and remembered what put me off her.
The insistent justifications -
“I am a very responsible parent”.
“it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that we haven’t committed a crime”
“our mistake, if you can call it that?”
How can you be so careful to cover your own back when your daughter is probably dead?
Normally you’d be talking a couple out of feeling guilt, with this pair you’d have to talk them into it.
They might say they say they feel it but the qualifications make it hard to believe.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
224
It’s as if she’s convinced herself something else has happened and her answers are in relation to that.
I think she had nothing to do with the disposal, and in her mind shes not telling lies if she convinces herself some one has took her.
She is in denial about her death. Yet carries on focusing on someone else actually took her from the apartment.
Would social services have to had her checked by a pshycologist?
September 28th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
203, Gareth,
I can’t understand how Portuguese newspapers are allowed to print whatever they like about this case (whatever happened to the threat to sue Tay y Qual?), leaks flow from the PJ and the witnesses and arguidos are not allowed to say anything at all for fear of prejudicing the case?
September 28th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
191 karen
“We’re not destroying them.
Seriously, are they really so weird that an internet forum will destroy them where a missing kid and being named suspects by the PJs wouldn’t?”
Karen, it adds to the pressure and hurt. It is not helpful. The Lindy Chamberlain case is a reasonable example. There were most of the same elements at play as in this case except for the Internet. Hostile and vindictive speculation on the part of sections of the media and public made a bad situation much worse for the Chamberlains.
A lot of people place a large part of the blame for their marriage breakdown on the public hostility directed at them. People aren’t made of stone - they can be deeply hurt with no more than words.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Ade Says:
September 28th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
209 Forget about mongers, is Auntie Phil a bit of a minger? We should be told…
How can you say this about such a beautiful person? Philomena is beautiful on the inside and thats what counts. IMO she needs a good racking.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Tony Bennett
What exactly is your intense interest in the case? I see you wrote a book about the Barrymore pool incident. Are you looking to write a book about the McCann Mystery?
I also notice you’re a solicitor.
In that capacity, can you give us a brief overview of what the police here could be doing in the case at the moment - if anything?
September 28th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
221 Judge Dread ……..’Nobody is detroying the McCann family they are doing a pretty good job of that themselves with their constant changes to their stories.’
Have you spoken to the McCanns? Is this absolute fact that they are constantly changing their story? Do you know this because you are a member of the interviewing team? NO you read all this crap in the media and you think its all fact. This is what pisses me off……………….
September 28th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
was its name cuddle by any chance (231)
September 28th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Gareth 203..If you really are an ex Policeman are you not a tad ashamed of dissing the Portuguese Police,( based on what exactly..the UK spin doctors .?) Esp as your ex colleagues in UK Police have been closely working with them since beginning. The parents invited the world into their lives via their non stop PR for 5 months….they cannot NOW complain that not everybody believes them, since they found they keep on changing their story. ? The idle speculation by them. their agents, the press and the public will continue until this is satisfactorily explained with fail safe proof. The UK media has a lot to answer for here in reporting every bit of 15th hand gossip too in lazy and sensationalism journalism, as do Clarence and Philomena who cannot get on with looking for Madeline, but have to jabber mindlessly and damagingly, at least 10 times a day, to a listening, and increasingly critical world .
If McCann’s has kept heads down after the 1st couple of TV shots ( like families of other missing children did ) and let PJ and UK Police get on with it, NONE of this outpouring would have ensued .
.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
With regard to what the McCanns may or may have done/be doing to help find Madeleine, here’s a point.
Of course they went with advice that huge publicity, whatever its obvious risks, statistically, is more likely to yield results in missing children cases than NOT having publicity. That’s why the USA has its Amber Alert process which bombards the public with info from as soon as the police hear about a missing child. (A bit different from this case where the police didn’t even bother to issue a description of Madeleine’s clothes. The McCanns had to organise that themselves.)
BUT, does anyone imagine for one moment that they are going to tell the public about any specific leads they or friends or agents are actually following up? They will keep as much secrecy about specific programmes as they can so as not to alert anyone who might still be holding Madeleine.
That seems obvious to me. To assume that they “did nothing” (apart from a massively successful media campaign in terms of keeping Madeleine in the public eye everywhere) or are doing nothing now, is just plain daft. We simply don’t know what they have done or are doing, and quite rightly so.
I agree that it is probably the media who are behind a lot of the recent leaks. They will have followed up people like the nanny who verified that Madeleine was collected from the kids’ club after “high tea”. They can’t follow up the group of friends because they, as witnesses, are not supposed to say anything specific about the investigation. (That’s why I doubt the story about David Payne saying he called in at the McCanns’ apartment at 7.00pm. If he did, I don’t think he’d say anything at this stage.)
Most of what we read is speculation. In time the full truth will no doubt emerge.
Meantime, where is Madeleine? Are the police actively searching for her? Their official spokesman said the other day that all possibilities were being looked at, including kidnapping.
I know they have to be sure but is it really likely that the McCanns were doing something sinister on their way to Spain?! There may have been fewer media people because the date was altered when Gerry was ill the day before, but there were still huge numbers. They had one cameraman with them all the time didn’t they?
But wait…!! He must have have been in the conspiracy as well! Hang him high!
Even if they didn’t, they’d have had to bury Madeleine pdq just in case anyone popped up and noticed them. The world’s media were following this story.
Really, it does seem as though “they” (to use a word sometimes ascribed to Kate McCann) are coming up with dafter and dafter ideas.
May be wrong though. We’ll have to see later today. Maybe the police do know what they are doing and I accept that they have to follow uo all possibilities. (They are just months too late doing it. If the McCanns were out of sight that day, it is quite simply the fault of the Portuguese police who should have had them under constant surveillance, except maybe during siesta time. Can’t expect them to work all the time.) I read today that they’ve abandoned the idea of digging up around the church until they have some “credible leads”. Only a newspaper report so possibly (certainly?!) wrong.
Tony Bennett, I think most of what you call “facts” in your earlier post today are also only from newspaper reports, leaks etc, ie. speculation.
As Moderation frequently says (and gets abused for saying!), the only absolutely known fact about the night in question is that Madeleine is missing. (I know some posters deny that and think that Madeleine will pop up soon, as prearranged by her parents, and that they will then pocket the dosh, but I discount that as too preposterous even for most of us on the Anorak site!!)
September 28th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
228
i thought amnesty were the bad guys now.
i’ve just forgotten why.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
192, firestar,
I agree, I think the length of posts should be limited.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
226
didn’t you see the cat on tv the other week in the old folk’s home, that was sitting on peoples beds and they were dead by morning?
i would be inclined to kick the cat to death if it poked it’s head round my door.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
209 Forget about mongers, is Auntie Phil a bit of a minger? We should be told…
September 28th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
221 - Judge Dread
I agree. If you want to find your missing child;
1. Go to where she went missing.
2. Use shoe leather/Shanks’ Pony.
3. Turn over some of those unturned stones.
4. Do a door-to-door leaflet drop in person.
5. Emphasise the reward.
6. Appeal on TV for anyone that has information about your missing child to come forward.
7. At least make it look like you care about your missing child when on TV.
Don’t do this;
1. Jog on beach the day after your child is missing.
2. Fly around in private jets to other countries.
3. Meet Popes or Senators.
4. Write daily blogs about the state of the weather or what clothes you’re wearing.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
203. Actually Gareth, I’ve just realised it’s not remotely sensible to be on an internet forum slagging off the posters.
Picket the Portuguese Embassy. Bombard them with emails.
That’s what I do for Amnesty International. And if Kate and Gerry falsely go to prison and their case comes through in my newsletter, I will sign the petition.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Christoph ….buy a dog or a cuddle cat for that matter
September 28th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
189 Eddie,
I loved a study which showed a dog could tell when his master was about to turn the corner into the street where he lived…he immediately jumped up and started wagging his tail. I think the explanation I could simply not believe (!) was supposed to have something to do with nano-particles the dog could sense. Then there was the story of how mice talk to each other…..sometimes we don’t give animals enough credit for what they can do!
September 28th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
213 - Stevo….I do agree with you about leaving children of that age alone, but that is something they have to live with for the rest of their lives, I just dont like all this supposition……and the disrespectfull way the McCanns are referred to.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
215 Brando - by a slip or a clue do you mean
“How did that happen?’ You can’t imagine in your wildest dreams that anyone would do something like that… ”
Pausing to hold back tears, Mrs McCann added: “How can someone do that to a child?”
September 28th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
190 - Real Stig
In typical fashion, you can never address the issues and choose to sum it all up by saying “rubbish”. You then pluck out another newspaper article to add to the others you’ve shown. All the evidence you’ve ever shown is someone elses’ story. When will you give real evidence - a video or a photo? You can’t because there are none.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
http://mara-gamiel.blogspot.com/search/label/Madeleine%20McCann
and before I get shot down in flames, i do beleive in this to an extent and I do believe that their friends (unbeknown to them) had somethng to do with this whole sorry story of missing maddie,
this is MO in no way meant to pee ppl off
September 28th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
183 - Gareth the posters here express their opinions which they have a lawful right to do if you don’t like them you have the freedom of choice to go elsewhere. No one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to be here.
Why should anyone appologise for discussing thing in the public domain. Nobody is detroying the McCann family they are doing a pretty good job of that themselves with their constant changes to their stories.
No matter what you think, and I will assume you are pro-McCann, the one true fact is they were negligent. Whatever the circumstances of Madeleine’s disappearence they raised money to help find Madeleine but have done nothing to actually search for her.
If you want to see what a mother searching for a missing child looks like, check out BBC news, and the mother who has come to London to search for her 14 year old. She is on the street with a poster asking people if they have seen her son. It hasn’t taken £1m, there is no fund or reward. Just a mother who wants her son back.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
182 batman
Have you seen the post that preceded yours - 181
Rather unfortunate for your argument that.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
i wish i had a girlfriend, failing that i wouldn’t mind a boyfriend
September 28th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
203. Gareth. Yeah, but it would be even worse if they did it and no one dared ask any awkward questions because we were all menaced into silence.
If they’re innocent, it must be awful - but are you saying the police should never investigate the parents in a missing child case because they might be innocent?
Are you saying no one can mention any misgivings they have?
And this is a satire site. Most of the hanging, drawing and quartering is a joke - and most of the real irritation is directed at the unprecedented media coverage.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
213
and everyone conveniently forgets the bit about them leaving the kids 5 miles away the night before.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
tony bennet, i agree with you that the mccanns are guilty of something.
this is not an attack but i would like to know, you went along with a prosecution against barrymore for buggering stuart lubbock to death, because you were their solicitor. you then wrote a book with terry lubbock about the terrible fate the buggered boy and his family suffered. terry lubbock ( the father of the deceased) then met up with with the mccanns to offer his support. What is father lubbocks view now, about:
A) the mccanns?
B) you broadcasting and threatening to bring action against the mccanns since you seemed to have a fairly close relationship with the lubbocks?
September 28th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/05/wmaddy205.xml
I keep reading this interveiw as it seems to hold a slip or a clue or something.
It was k first interveiw on her own.
can anyone tell me did she ever do another one on her own?
Or did Gerry and co forbid her?
September 28th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
210
i thought moriarty was the only one who paid the ‘lard arse’ licence fee.