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Anorak News | Madeleine McCann: Ben Needham Is Missing, Operation Predator And Maddie’s Cops

Madeleine McCann: Ben Needham Is Missing, Operation Predator And Maddie’s Cops

by | 11th, October 2007

MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.

DAILY EXPRESS front page: “McCanns warn: We’ll sue over claims we drugged our children”

Page 7: “Madeleine parents: We have never sedated our children” – The “slurs” are “outrageous” and “hurtful”.

The theory that they sedated all of their children is a “wild theory”. It appears in Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas, a source for “some of the more outlandish reporting”. The Express reproduces the outlandish reporting for its readers to digest and marvel at

“Grim hunt for images as child-porn ring is smashed” – Operation Predator is a clamp down on child porn in Portugal. A friend of the McCanns says: “This shows the scale of the problem in Portugal and appears to show that the Portuguese police seem to be looking in the right direction. It may provide vital leads”

But the raids were not directly connected with the Madeleine case. Operation Predator was six months in the planning

THE SUN front page: “Maddie: cop raid on pervs”

Page 7: “McCANNS’ DELIGHT AT PAEDO SWOOP” – Kate and Gerry McCann are “encouraged” that 300 Portuguese police “smashed” a 80-strong paedophile ring

“’FIND OUR KIDS TV’” – Kate and Gerry have backed a TV channel that features the 150,000 UK children that go missing each year. Pictures of missing children will be shown at GP surgeries, shopping malls and hospitals

Page 37: “MISSING BEN AGONY – We were too working class to get help like Maddie’s family” – The mother of Ben Needham, who disappeared 16 years ago on the Greek island of Kos – sees haves and have nots

“I was 19,” says Kerry Grist. “Just an ordinary girl from a council estate and people thought, ‘She will just go away in a few months, have another child and forget about it…I don’t think people thought Ben was important enough.” Or the media didn’t…

Kate McCann is a doctor. Gerry McCann is a heart specialist. Both Madeleine and Ben are blonde

DAILY MAIL page 5: “Huge porn swoop offers hope of a Maddie clue”

“Could Ben still be alive?” – Ben Needham disappeared from near his grandparents’ farm house

Says Mrs Grist, Ben’s mum: “Madeleine’s parents are middle class people with important jobs and seemed to have had a publicity machine behind them straight away”

DAILY MIRROR page 15: “WHY STAY IF SHE HAD SOMETHING TO HIDE?”

A pal of Kate McCann says: “She could not tear herself away [from Portugal]. What mother could leave the place where her daughter vanished? …If she had something to hide why would she hang around in Praia da Luz waiting for the police to come knocking on the door?”

We don’t know. Why?

DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE POLICE ARREST 80 PAEDOS”

Madeleine McCann does not have her own police force – not yet. But the police working on one case are Portuguese, like the police in her case. It’s an “EXCLUSIVE”

Page 7: “MADDIE COPS RAID PAEDOS” – The Star sees Gerry McCann leaving his home in a car. “STRAIN” reads the caption

DAILY TELEGRAPH page 17: “Madeleine police turn spotlight back on paedophiles”

“Missing children TV hopes to jog patients’ memories” – Ben Needham is missing. Xiao Xiao is missing. Lee Thomas Wedge is missing. Leanna Petrenko is missing. Abigaile Sommerville is missing. Andrew Paul Gosden is missing

THE INDEPENDENT page 24: “Mother in plea to missing son” – Ben Needham is missing

THE TIMES page 11: “Madeleine police return to kidnap theory”

German and Dutch police are believed to have been asked to trace and interview guests staying at the Ocean Club when Madeleine went missing

THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today



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