Madeleine McCann: Praia da Luz Calls, Maddy Shunned And Portugal On The Edge
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY MAIL page 36: “Madeleine: Portuguese detectives trawl thousands of phone records”
Police are looking through phone records of Praia da Luz’a 27,000 residents at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance. They are looking for unusual call patterns. Bugging calls
A local resident of Praia da Luz says the police questioned her, saying: “We are investigating all calls made within Praia da Luz from 9.30pm onwards on May 3″
Says the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “Any information could prove vital”
THE SUN page 15: “Maddie cops seize local phone bills”
“They are using a method of triangulation which pinpoints a person’s location via their mobile and are also checking land-line calls”
Can it work? Says the Sun: “Mobile phone evidence exposed holes in the alibi of Soham murderer Ian Huntley”. And that is similar to this case because..?
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADDY – Blitz to fined phone clues”
Page 10: “COPS CHECK EVERY CALL ON DAY MADDY VANISHED”
Well, not every call. Just calls made in the area of Praia da Luz by those 1,000 persons on a police list
DAILY EXPRESS page 19: “Now Madeleine police seize all phone records”
The papers says the search is in light of talk of a “massive conspiracy”. The Express is belived to be fond of a conspiracy
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry are encouraged by this police work because it shows the investigation is now active and thorough…Crucially they also hope it may lead to them being reunited with Madeleine”
DAILY STAR: “PARENTS SHY AWAY FROM NAME ‘MADDY’”
Or Madeleine, for that is her name
The name Madeleine is “now lower than at any time in the past five years”. It is now the 80th most popular name. Says a child psychologist called Ruth: “The majority of people who hear the name Madeleine automatically associate it with her”
What the top girl’s name is readers are not told, nor where Kate features. The Telegraph says it is “Grace”, as in Baby Grace
NEW YORK TIMES: “Portugal Polishes Its Image as the ‘West Coast of Europe’”
Portugal wants to reposition itself. Portugal is exciting, shiny, new and historical.
But: “The unsolved case remains a big story for the British tabloids, and there have been reports of declines in tourism from Britain, an important market for Portugal.
“Over all, though, tourism remains strong, Manuel Pinho, Portugal’s minister for the economy and innovation said. ‘This is a tragic case, of course, but it has not affected the numbers,’ he said. ‘It’s a very peaceful country, a very safe country’”
The demonising of Portugal and the case of Madeleine McCann
Posted: 20th, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (547) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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December 20th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
490
DuncanR
clingons on the starboard bow ?
December 20th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
484 Annie_M
‘ …. Jeez there is life out there.’
++++++++++++++++++++
Aye, - but not as you know it!
December 20th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
487
DuncanR
Don’t diss American Football!!
Have got a “Raiders” tattoo.
December 20th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
http://www.hemeltoday.co.uk/news/Charity-cash-will-not-go.3606030.jp
Charity cash will not go to Maddy fund
By abena bailey
The Bull pub in Hemel Hempstead, which raised more than £1,500 towards the fund for missing toddler Madeleine McCann, has now decided to donate the money to Iraq soldiers instead.
Pub landlord Ricky Hampton made the decision after the parents of the four-year-old, who went missing in Portugal six months ago, became suspects in the police investigation.
The £1,570 total is now earmarked for Help For Heroes
December 20th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
483 Stevo
‘Rugby - best game in the world!’
+++++++++++++++++++++
Certainly more of a ‘man’s’ game than American football, what with all that padding and protective clothing they wear!
Duncan , its been quiet in ’spam’ too, and it has been very busy in there JJ
December 20th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
485
DuncanR
Jeez there is life out there.
Was thinking it had gone Pete Tong again…..
December 20th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
AZ have equalised.
Score now ….
Everton 2, AZ Alkmarr 2
(You’re missing a smashing game, folks!)
P.S. 20 minutes left to play. Allow some time for folk to get back from the pub and it won’t be long now till the posts are flying thick an’ fast here on Anorak
December 20th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Stevo
“investigating all calls made within Praia da Luz from 9.30pm onwards on May 3″
What about May 1st and 2nd?
December 20th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
476 bountyhunter
Rugby - best game in the world!
December 20th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
? did the site go down?
December 20th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
478
bountyhunter
yes, I thought everyone had been abducted or nipped out to the local Tapas bar.
December 20th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Goal !!!!
Latest score now ….
Everton 2, AZ Alkmarr 1
(Watch the activity increase on Anorak once the match is finished!)
December 20th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
hello, is anybody out there?
December 20th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
ciara louise
Thought the same ? Do you think we are the only 4 people left on planet earth, there was an earthquake in New Zealand earlier today ?
December 20th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Been staring at Tinsel’s post for over an hour and kept refreshing page but nothing.
December 20th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
DUNCAN R
Thanks all Soccer fans on here, am in RSA here its Rugby
December 20th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Re ‘where is everyone? Why has it gone quiet?
Watching the Eufa Cup footbal (soccer) match on TV, perhaps?
(current score … Everton 1, AZ Alkmarr 1)
December 20th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
MIKE HOMDENBURST
heard what ? Please tell
December 20th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
sTEVO HAVE ALL THE OTHERS BEEN ABDUCTED BY CLARRIE ?
December 20th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Havent You all Heard?
December 20th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
STEVO,
Quite strange, have they gone to another thread , something on the news
December 20th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
468
bountyhunter
I noticed that too - that’s why my last post just said ‘test’
December 20th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
STEVO Whats going on, nothing posted for an hour
December 20th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Anybody still posting ?
December 20th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
test
December 20th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
This article is from Sol,
published in Sol, on June 30, 2007
an article by Felicia Cabrita and Margarida Davim
***
SNIP>
The children’s routine
The story of Madeleine looks like a tangled ball of wool. In the last days of April, Kate and Gerry, both 39 and doctors, arrive with their friends in Praia da Luz. The weather is not very good, but the group makes the best of it. The children seem to exist outside of the adults’ world. In the morning, Kate would take Madeleine, almost 4, and the 2-year old twins, to the Kid Club. The other couples in the group did the same. While the little ones entertained themselves with collages and paintings, the group divides itself between tennis and jogging until lunchtime. In the creche, the girl’s picture is taken: “She was shy and had some difficulty in adapting to the group. She always stayed close to the english children she already knew”.
It is at lunchtime that the families socialize a bit. After a short nap, the children go back to the Kid Club, while the parents use the activities that the club offers. They only get to meet again in the late afternoon, when the children’s dinner is served. Before 8 p.m., Madeleine and her siblings, who seem to function like a clock, are already asleep. Half an hour later, the group of friends meets at Tapas. The staff remember that they only leave at midnight: “They were very lively and drank a bit too much. I didn’t even realize they had children, because I never saw them around”.
Mathew Oldfield, one of the elements of the group, is back in England. He reacts with surprise upon the contact of Sol, but he does not avoid the conversation: “We drank. We were on holidays. So what?”.
And thus the days followed one upon another, at the Ocean Club. The holiday week is almost over and the group’s spirit does not change. Nobody had noticed until then, how the children were kept at a distance.
The most reliable way to undrestand what happened on May 3, when Madeleine disappeared, is to analyze the various versions that emerged.
It would have been 10 p.m. when Kate decided to check the children at the apartment. This is the only moment in the story that gathers consensus. Madeleine had vanished from her bedroom and the twins were sleeping like nothing had happened. The mother was back at the restaurant in one leap. She was disoriented.
SNIP>
An aerobic instructor from the resort entertains the dinner guests at Tapas with a `Quiz’. At 9.30 p.m. the game ends, and Gerry invites her to their table, where she stays for half an hour. During that time, as she later confided to friends, nobody left the table, but one of the chairs was vacant. Najova Chekaya refuses to talk to Sol. And Russell, when the questions start to surround him, loses his sympathy: “I have nothing further to tell you. I am not going to dishonor the compromise I assumed with Kate and Gerry. They want to control all infornation that is disclosed”.
Gerry changes his version several times, but he maintains that the door to his children’s room was open. Mat revokes his first statement: when he entered Madeleine’s room, the door was open and there was more light, as if the shutters had been raised. Here starts to develop the theory that there was already someone inside the apartment.
SNIP>
The Murat contradiction
Contrarily to the GNR elements and the Ocean Club’s staff, who participated in the searches on the night before and assure they did not see Murat around, Gerry and some of his friends guarantee that he was there. And thus he becomes an arguido.
Gerry and Kate’s friends, who are interrogated tightly by the PJ over almost a month, refuse to clarify this contradiction, when asked by Sol. “We have a pact. This is our matter only. It is nobody else’s business”, says David Payne, another element with the group. Minutes after we tried to contact Kate, Gerry, in a fury, calls the Sol journalist: “What do you think you are doing? Do you think you’re better than the portuguese police? I’m going to forward your contact to PJ and you will have to explain yourselves”.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Craige1 in the Mirror Forum was in PDL (allegedly). He wrote:
Sorry I just had so much to say ..,.,.,,.!!!! started own thread but they did dine at chaplins on 2 nights .,..didnt establish which ones!!!! and this was from several reliable sources and I have to say chaplins was a wee bit nearer apt than I thought about 5or 6 mins walk……the locals cant understand how they could leave the children to go to tapas bar let alone chaplins…..especially as were offered babysitter …,free!!!
December 20th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
On second thoughts…this guy from PDL posted this story:
Hello.
some facts for you.
Tuesday 01/05/07 - McCanns dined in Chaplins until 23:45. Children stayed in. 1 was crying loud from just past 22:25. Heard by upstair neighbour. From their apartment to the Chaplins restaurante is 508 metres or 1666 feet. On Thursday 03/05/07 - McCanns dined in Tapas until 22:00. Children stayed in. 1 disappeared. From their apartment to the Tapas bar is 130 metres or 425 feet. On none of these times Drs McCann nor friends nor staff nor nobody checked on children. Please Drs McCann admit you were wrong and you committed this crime habitually. Then you stop getting hate mail. I believe you is very sorry. I believe you don’t do this no more again with Sean and Amelie. Please admit on tv you were much wrong and that you don’t ever do it again then I believe people are to concentrate on the real matter - Madeleine is missing. Poor Madeleine. God bless her soul. I pray she is alive and being cared well. Please sky post this not like others hoo choose not to because they don’t like what i tell them. Please pray for Madeleine.
Posted by: João Filipe - Luz, Portugal 29 Jul 2007 20:42:54
December 20th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
438
Peter O Says:
December 20th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
422 brandon flours Says: December 20th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Edit…
Madeleine missing since May 3This was a far cry from Mr Marco’s astonishing claims just a few days before that he knew who had kidnapped the little girl.
His comments sparked reports of a stand-up row with the McCanns, who accused him of harming the chances of finding their daughter alive.
On calling the spokesman the day after Mr Marco made his claims, Mr Mitchell said he knew nothing about them.
He questioned why, if Metodo 3 knew where the vanished girl was, they did not go and get her.
Edit…
++++++++++++++
Perhaps the “row” is part of the necessary charade to end to end the relationship in March, having of course moved circa £700,000 out of the fund? Just my opinion.
————————————————————-
Seems reasonable to me.
We know that Clarence was the one who released the license plate number of the car that little Tea was travelling in to the Press, at a time when Clarence was claiming that Metodo 3 were going to Bosnia to find her, and we know that the Press is not averse to cleaning up after Clarries’ little mistakes, for example ‘where’s the damn proof’.
It would, however, require a lot more than a little cleaning up to get rid of all the Press releases that Clarrie had issued about Metodo 3, including the fingering of Michaela Walczuch.
And a libel case against the McCanns would not encourage journalists to do Clarrie yet more favours.
So unless Clarrie’s brain has gone into terminal shutdown, he has to be keeping both fingers crossed that Marco and his Mummy will keep quiet about just how this information has made its way into the media.
Though I suppose that it is possible that Clarrie has deluded himself into believing that the rest of the world didn’t notice when he was issuing press releases which would ensure that any alleged abductor would kill the child…
December 20th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Tinsel
“If it’s true that all the little girls tended to blend into the group, there is credence to the story that she could have died earlier and give them more planning time. It seems the abduction show was hastily planned during the vacation. They didn’t have time to get up all the blood. There was blood found on the wall, for instance.
It’s as if O’Brian chickened out that evening. Made himself scarce. Oldfield too. It’s as if they were trying to physically distance themselves from the apartment crime scene.
You have G constantly trying to shore up the story.
_____
I never looked at it like this but I’m sure you’re right in that O’Brien seemed to make himself scarce. I like it put that way. That describes his alibi to a tee.