Madeleine McCann: Ben Needham Is Missing, Operation Predator And Maddie’s Cops
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
Posted: 11th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,683) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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October 12th, 2007 at 5:05 am
On sedatives:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/multimedia/pa/article263025.ece
“Kate’s father Brian Healy says the treatment of Kate has been “disgusting” and the accusations are hurtful. Mr Healy said: “I know Kate and Gerry would not harm Madeleine at all. “Kate may have used Calpol (to help her sleep), but it’s just outrageous to think of anything else.””
How many parents on this forum would give their children Calpol, unless the child was ill? Is it responsible for a doctor to administer drugs to someone who is NOT ill? If a child is ill, is it responsible for a parent (never mind one who is a doctor) to leave the child alone so that they can go out on the piss?
In the famous Portuguese TV segment (available on youtube), in which Gerry denies using sedatives (while pulling at his ear, a classic indictation of a deliberate untruth), the interviewer specifically mentions “Calpol” in her question. So why is Kate’s father so sure that “Kate may have used Calpol”? Was this something they did regularly and of which the whole family was aware? Will Mr Healy be sued? What does the BMA think?
October 12th, 2007 at 5:04 am
Will - are you still up? What’s going on?? How are the piggies and the swordfish???
October 12th, 2007 at 5:03 am
Dang… being 7 hours behind the primary contributors on this forum leaves me at a terrible disadvantage!! There’s no one here to discuss!
October 12th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Dee. Well, we can agree to disagree on the subject matter of Mr. Potato Head here. I haven’t much noticed him actually, as I don’t find his general statements on Madeleine to be too idiotic, but then he attacks me randomly out of nowhere when I’ve made no reference to any of his posts. I guess he is in Defense of Stevo who, I’m sorry, makes about as much sense as my 3-year-old.
October 12th, 2007 at 5:00 am
1404 - Wasn’t he from Wigan? Are you thinking of Eric Morecambe’s famous line, “I used to be called Eric Blackpool, but my parents moved”?
October 12th, 2007 at 4:58 am
Will, sorry, I missed about four hours of the ruckus this afternoon, as I had job/kids/dinner to attend to, and so I did not see Shantilly defend the IRA. I missed a whole lot of that, actually (I was here to help get it started, then split).
But it was 9-11, not 7-11. 7-11 is a convenience store chain where they sell cigarettes, soda and salmonella burritos.
I would not have found that amusing. However, I did really enjoy her attack on Judge Dread re: Proper English, and I did find her to be rather smart (or at least witty), and I admit that Americans probably have very little sense of decorum at times, and I admit that I rather like it that way. I have Texan relatives. They’re loud. I like them.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:57 am
1461 Shantilly Lace Says: “Anna, you are right! I love the Irish too!! Such a beautiful country and the people are even more beautiful. I can still smell the beautiful green air and the irish mist - my skin and hair were never so soft as when I lived in Ireland. The family I lived with wanted to adopt me - LOL - but my family wanted me back home….I still keep in touch with them.”
The LOL (Loyal Orange Lodge) wanted to adopt you? How does one smell mist?
October 12th, 2007 at 4:56 am
Krissie - admittedly when I started reading Shantilly’s posts I thought one of your personalities had made a major split and left ranks.
But I should confess that I love Spudguns!
Will - what have I missed and why are you up so late/early????
October 12th, 2007 at 4:47 am
Jolie, I think here in the US the general public opinion is similar to this– McCanns guilty. Once you name someone as a suspect, we all sort of assume it’s true they are guilty. Innocent until proven guilty is a legal requirement, not a social one, unfortunately.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:47 am
Krissie
Saying Shantilly was amusing is only going to incite things further.
Saying to the majority of Brits that the IRA were justified in their terror campaign is rather like saying to the majority of Americans that the 7/11 bombings were justified. It is not likely to endear yourselves to them.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:47 am
On sedatives:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/multimedia/pa/article263025.ece
“Kate’s father Brian Healy says the treatment of Kate has been “disgusting” and the accusations are hurtful. Mr Healy said: “I know Kate and Gerry would not harm Madeleine at all. “Kate may have used Calpol (to help her sleep), but it’s just outrageous to think of anything else.”"
How many parents on this forum would give their children Calpol, unless the child was ill? Is it responsible for a doctor to administer drugs to someone who is NOT ill? If a child is ill, is it responsible for a parent (never mind one who is a doctor) to leave the child alone so that they can go out on the piss?
In the famous Portuguese TV segment (available on youtube), in which Gerry denies using sedatives (while pulling at his ear, a classic indictation of a deliberate untruth), the interviewer specifically mentions “Calpol” in her question. So why is Kate’s father so sure that “Kate may have used Calpol”? Was this something they did regularly and of which the whole family was aware? Will Mr Healy be sued? What does the BMA think?
October 12th, 2007 at 4:45 am
I think I’m going to start loudly accusing Spudgun of being an alias for Stevo. The ony person I dislike more than those two is Ade. Obviously they are all the same person~!!!! Probably drunk all the time, too!!
October 12th, 2007 at 4:43 am
Oh and then there was this girl, Shantilly, who was on today and went no-holds-barred after Spud and others and apparently he thought I was her, too, which was stupid, we obviously have very different styles (although I admit I found her amusing). Not to mention it would not be humanly possible to type that much that fast.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:42 am
Dee, yes, Spudgun went after me today with a vengeance for no apparent reason. This is about the fourth or fifth time he has accused me of being someone else — I guess he had some run-ins early on with some other American females on here who he claims were kicked off the forum. I don’t know. He’s hostile and paranoid and I guess it’s related to a past confrontation, so perhaps if I’d been around for that , I’d understand it better. He also made me mad by generally insulting all Americans. F-ing uptight Britwad.
SPUD, by the way, I never said my husband was a powerful political lobbyist. I said I’m a journalist without a real job (since having kids, I write fluff) and my husband is a garlic farmer. If you want to fight with the women you fought with before, go fight with them, but I’m not them. So bug off, you jerk.
Anyway, back to Madeleine…
October 12th, 2007 at 4:40 am
Someone with a fair amount of power here in the UK is taking a little bit more of an interest than they should in this case.
They will though, I believe live to regret their interest and come to see their interest as a grave error of judgement.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:30 am
Further to earlier discussions about the McCanns’ behaviour not fitting expected “normal” model of parents whose child could be anywhere in any condition of ill-health or abuse, this comment from a Scottish-Panamanian (!) site:
“The sad fact is that this man (Gerry) cannot speak properly about what is happening to himself and his wife, and about what he wants. The language he uses is more appropriate to a corporate executive than to a desperate father. This may be just the way he is made. This may be all he has of himself to give the world, just now. But we are all used to the idea of corporations lying to us, one way or another – it’s part of our mass paranoia, as indeed are the couple we see on the screen. ”
http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/oct2007/disliking_mccanns.html
Also, in this piece:
“It is very difficult to kill a child by giving it sedatives, even if killing it is what you might want to do. I asked a doctor about this, one who is also a mother… It would also be difficult, she told me, to give a lethal dose of prescription sleeping tablets, which these days are usually valium or valium derivatives, ‘unless the child ate the whole packet’. If the child did so, the short-term result would not be death but a coma. Nor could she think of any way such an overdose would lead to blood loss, unless the child vomited blood, which she thought highly unlikely. She said it was possible that doctors sedated their children more than people in other professions but that, even when she thought it might be a good idea… she herself had never done so, being afraid that they would have a ‘paradoxical rage reaction’ – which is the medical term for waking up half out-of-it and tearing the plane apart… How much do doctors drink? ‘Lots,’ she said. Why are the McCanns saying they didn’t sedate the child? ‘Why do you think?’ Besides, it was completely possible that the child had been sedated and also abducted – which was a sudden solution to a problem I did not even know I had: namely, if the girl in the pink pyjamas was being carried off by a stranger, why did she not scream? Sedation had also been a solution to the earlier problem of: how could they leave their children to sleep unprotected, even from their own dreams?”
More or less what many of us have been saying already, but from a different source.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:13 am
I missed a lot of tonight’s commotion but from glancing through the posts, I think I’m glad I did.
Monday/Tuesday of next week should be extremely interesting, don’t you think? I would expect some sort of action to be taken after reviewing the test results, even if no formal public announcement is made.
Some of the comments following the article questioned why the McCanns would get a copy of the results, since they have not been formally charged and are only arguidos. From what I understand of Portuguese law, the investigation details are not available to suspects until they are charged. Do you know if that’s usually the procedure?
Perhaps because of the newspaper report regarding questions on who Madeleine’s biological father is, they feel it is necessary (and perhaps beneficial to the case to confront them with the evidence and then question them further) to share this information.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:12 am
1480-Jolie
I do believe that Mccanns lost some of their supporter. Looks like harder they try- less they obtain. It is a natural thing: The bigger is the the transplant - the more rejection will trigger.
Good night to everyone
October 12th, 2007 at 4:11 am
Sorry guys the Road Runner keeps stubbing his toes here.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:07 am
Jolie - thanks for the link.
(I am glad to hear that Mr Ribeiro is calm and patient.)
Most people I talk with are only aware that a cute little blond British girl was kidnapped (if that) and not much more.
In catching up on the posts I would like to disassociate myself with our new “merican” counterparts. We aren’t all like that.
Krissie - still trying to catch up - have you been accused of being someone else?
October 12th, 2007 at 4:05 am
Jolie - thanks for the link.
(I am glad to hear that Mr Ribeiro is calm and patient.)
Most people I talk with are only aware that a cute little blond British girl was kidnapped (if that) and not much more.
In catching up on the posts I would like to disassociate myself with our new “merican” counterparts. Geeze and you wondered how GW grabbed the power!
October 12th, 2007 at 4:00 am
Well I, for one, hope this mysterious June Johnston returns shortly so she can clarify for certain people that Krissie posts from a computer that has not posted under any other name.
October 12th, 2007 at 3:55 am
It’s difficult to know. Being that I’m here on Anorak, where healthy (and unhealthy) criticism of the McCanns is allowed, it seems that a large portion here think the McCanns are unsavory and culpable of neglect, at the very least. We cannot gauge what the true public opinion is by a lot of the comments on UK articles as they seem to be censored and printing primarily positive comments, from what I’ve read here.
I live in the US, not the UK, and I don’t think many here are following the case, and I don’t have personal knowledge of people’s views on the subject other than on the net.
October 12th, 2007 at 3:49 am
Jolie - Do you really believe that public sentiment has turned against them?
I thought they have more supporters than the case deserve.
October 12th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Laura,
With the way public sentiment has turned against them, I would think they would be reluctant to leave their houses for any reason, at this point.
October 12th, 2007 at 3:39 am
The results of the forensic tests will be presented on Monday, per this Oct 12 article in The Daily Express http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/21784/Parents-are-still-the-main-suspects
PARENTS ARE STILL MAIN SUSPECTS
(excerpt from the bottom of the article)
QUOTE
Such is the political sensitivity of the case that the Portuguese ministries of foreign affairs and justice will see the results before they are passed on to detectives.
The new detective in charge of the case, Paulo Rebelo, was brought in to replace Goncalo Amaral, who was sacked after a series of blunders.
But at a press conference to introduce Mr Rebelo, police chief Ribeiro was full of praise for Mr Amaral, who was largely responsible for the McCanns being made official suspects or arguidos, describing him as an “excellent officer”.
Mr Ribeiro said: “We await further advances with calm and patience.”
UNQUOTE
See you all tomorrow!
October 12th, 2007 at 3:35 am
OMG!!!!
I leave here and we are discussing
Aliluminuminium vs Aluminum
pohtahto - pohtayo
and I come back and we are at WAR!!!
Shantilly - you’re not really Condeleza are you??? lol
October 12th, 2007 at 3:34 am
This store is not about little girl any more. It is about what money and power, and relations can do. It is about the law that became an applied science.
DNA, and dogs traces , witnesses statements can be applied as crucial evidence against some people and can be questioned and doubted to the root against other people.
Is DNA a science or just a hole in the packet of taxpayers if the lobs results are viewed by some hired by maccans “specialist” as not absolute, not 100% , not conclusive and so on.
This store is about :who treat us on and who is governing us
October 12th, 2007 at 3:09 am
So, what have we learnt
Some Americans hate the English and some English hate the Americans … facinating stuff, but they are at least united in enjoying a slanging match, how lovely.
Now, about that little girl
October 12th, 2007 at 3:09 am
By the way at the beginning (BEFORE MEETING THE POPE) do you remember how religious Maccans appeared to be. No day without church and pray.
When now last time you herd that they went to church?