Madeleine McCann, Shannon Matthews And Missing Child Protocol
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
Shannon Matthews is missing. Is the media treating her case the same way as it views Madeleine McCann? And, in light of missing Madeleine, is there now a protocol for what occurs when a child goes missing?
DAILY MIRROR: “LOST TO US ALL”
Sue Carroll: Most of us won’t have an instant recollection who Shannon Matthews is. After thinking twice, of course we all know she is the nine-year-old missing from her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire.
But what a terrible indictment of the media that, when a child has disappeared in Britain for over a week, her name doesn’t spring to our lips, we don’t know her school, favourite toy or what she was wearing when last seen.
Shannon is as precious to her family as Madeleine McCann, missing for 300 days, is to hers. But where are the front-page pictures, campaigns, the furore? Would this be different if she was the daughter of two middle-class, mediasavvy parents? Not a working-class child from up North.
THE SUN: “Marchers wants Shannon home”
THE family of Shannon Matthews led a poignant candlelit vigil for the missing nine-year-old last night – as police admitted hopes of finding her alive looked “bleak”.
Anguished mum Karen and stepdad Craig joined 300 neighbours on a march through streets near their home.
Children carried a banner showing the youngster’s face and a hotline to ring with information.
A hotline. Like Madeleine. A vigil. There is picture of Shannon on her birthday.
Balloons bearing pleas for Shannon’s safe return were released during last night’s vigil.
THIS IS LONDON: “Police search house of missing Shannon’s uncle as detectives treat case ‘as seriously as a murder’”
A dozen police officers conducted a fingertip search of the house belonging to the uncle of missing nine-year-old Shannon Matthews today.
Officers from West Yorkshire Police filed into the property in Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor which adjoins the home of the schoolgirl who disappeared last week.
The house belongs to Neil Hyett, Shannon Matthews’ uncle, and his wife, Amanda.
Detective Superintendent Brennan, who is heading up the search, says:
“I’m convinced that if Shannon had run away that night of her own volition, in a den or hideaway of some sort, we would have found her by now - over a week on from when the investigation opened.
“It is very rare in searches of this kind that a girl of Shannon’s age should be missing for this long without any clues pointing to her whereabouts.
“It is extremely concerning and we are now looking at this on a scale as serious as a murder investigation.
“It can now be said that the tone of our enquiry has changed to a bleaker outlook.
“The shift in emphasis is that we are now looking for individuals who may have been seen on the day of her disappearance, acting suspiciously, or unknown to the local community.
“We are also appealing for anyone who may have friends or family that may have been behaving strangely since Shannon went missing, to come forward.
“At this stage, any shred of information, however insignificant it seems, may help.
“We have a grave concern that she may have fallen into the wrong hands but no arrests have been made at this point, and I must stress at this point that we are not ruling out any possibilities as to what might have happened to her.”
DAILY MAIL: “Now police say missing Shannon, 9, could have been abducted”
A week after Shannon Matthews was last seen walking away from school in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, it also emerged that another girl called Shannon escaped an abduction attempt 10 miles away earlier the same day.
Shannon Selby, 12, was walking to school alone in Wakefield when a man pulled up and ordered her to “get in this car now”.
She ran away as the man parked and made to chase her on foot.
She reached home safely and her mother rang the police.
An efit of the attacker was released yesterday.
Allison Pearson: “Poor Shannon was already a lost child”
When Madeleine McCann went missing, her parents soon came under attack for leaving their daughter alone in a holiday apartment just a couple of hundred yards from where they were having dinner.
At the time, critics claimed that if the middle-class McCanns had lived on a council estate, they would have been in trouble with the police for neglect. So where is the outcry over the disappearance of Shannon Matthews?
Only nine years old, Shannon was reported missing by her mum, Karen, at 7pm last Tuesday when she had still not walked the mile home. She was last seen leaving school at 3.10pm.
Four hours is an eternity for a little girl to be out on a dark winter’s evening. And Shannon was afraid of the dark. Why did no one walk with her or care where she was?
Karen, who has seven children by five fathers, admitted that she had found a note scrawled on her daughter’s bedroom wall saying that she wanted to go and live with her biological dad in Huddersfield.
Shannon’s friends say she told them she didn’t want to go home. But Karen insists Shannon was fine and enjoys a good relationship with her current boyfriend, 22-yearold Craig.
“Only on Monday, they were having tickling fights and telly cuddles. She views him as her dad.” Oh really? In that case, why was Shannon so desperate to be reunited with her real father? No one can doubt Karen’s anguish.
The poor woman can hardly speak, except to sob to the cameras: “Shannon, come home, please come home.” But allowing a passing parade of boyfriends to play tickling games with your vulnerable small girl is, at best, naïve
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Shannon ‘may be in the wrong hands’”
Reports that an alleged abduction attempt of another girl on the same day that Shannon disappeared a week ago were being looked into by police.
According to reports, a man in a gold Ford Mondeo tried to coax a 12-year-old into his car at about 9am in Wakefield, about six miles away.
The girl ran away from him.
THE TIMES: “Abducted, abused… survived”
Lisa Hoodless and Charlene Lunnon were abducted and raped nine years ago, aged 10. They found strength in each other to survive the four-day ordeal and, remarkably, to rebuild their lives
Alan Hopkinson was found by police with the girls huddled together in his front room. He pleaded guilty to the crime and was given nine life sentences.
And that, for the public at least, is where stories like this usually end. Children don’t often survive adbuction by men such as Hopkinson, a truth that weighs heavily on the mind as we await news of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews, missing now for more than a week. If they do survive, we rarely hear from them again.
Hope:
They say that in some ways what happened has had a positive effect on their lives. Both seem vaguely surprised that anyone would want to interview them about it because it is “not that amazing” but, in a climate in which missing girls such as Madeleine McCann dominate the news, they want to urge people never to give up searching because “children can come back”.
Posted: 27th, February 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (1,154) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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February 27th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Is it compulsory in portugal for children under five to wear a seat belt?
February 27th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Gandy - I’m not talking about you wanting to beat the crap out of Rockhopper. I’m talking about the lack of a thank-you for me actually backing you up with a link! C’mon it’s probably never gonna happen again that I actually side with you over something, so the least you can do is say thank-you for the one and only time it happened
February 27th, 2008 at 11:37 am
220
Marie Nicholas
More likely a diplomatic limo.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Jo 148
Last year, here, snatched child was found (locked up in a garage, and drugged - so not aware of the harm done), thanks to the taxi driver who had taken them there the evening before. The “plan alerte” reached him in his taxi.
But it was only the 2 of them in the taxi, the boy, and his abductor who had seized the opportunity to grab him, not from his home, but from some public area. The chap and the boy, were having fun and were joking all the drive. He was a recidivist paedo. Some children are very friendly to people they don’t know. I remember Winnicott (the great English doctor and child-psychologist) wrote about it, saying, normally, children would be slightly diffident with unknown persons, and when a child isn’t, as a psychologist, he would wonder why.
So, it happens, but those paedos are acting alone, on the spur of the moment. .
As you say, if several people were involved, and had planned this, they would never have taken a taxi.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:33 am
212
Gandolf Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Julie, here’s the deal, I will allow Mods to forward my email to Rockhopper, we can then arrange to meet, Rockhopper can make the innuendo to my face, problem solved, is that good enough manners.
Depends if you were man enough not to react in an abusive, violent or childish manner.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:32 am
211 Candy
Where? It would be illegal in Spain and I doubt that any taxi driver would openly admit to it, even if he did it.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:32 am
You should see the taxis over here (they’re mini-busses and carry 15 passengers) .. one got stopped by the coppers for overloading … there was 23 passengers and a goat … and that was excluding the driver
February 27th, 2008 at 11:31 am
This Jersey cover up shows how it can be done for a while!
February 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am
213
brandon flours
She may be some time!
February 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am
203 Lyn
Honestly, I think that, if a certain number of people know something, it will come out. Now, the only thing that occurs to me is that, if the drug test theory were true, there could be very high-level involvement and that could, perhaps, be strong enough to enforce a hush-up. `But there is a difference between a hush-up on the British side and a hush-up on the Portuguese side. If the Portuguese authorities (and, therefore, a hypothetical hospital) were involved in a hush-up, the PJ would have been called off long ago.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Rockhopper
The ‘aptly named nosey cow’ has gone to have her plumbing checked!
February 27th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Julie, here’s the deal, I will allow Mods to forward my email to Rockhopper, we can then arrange to meet, Rockhopper can make the innuendo to my face, problem solved, is that good enough manners.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:29 am
167
That is the least amusing thing, Solomon. You can squeeze even more people in the cab, I can assure you of that; I’ve been travelling like that myself (4 adults in the back and one in the front on the passenger’s seat).
February 27th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Rattled cages!
February 27th, 2008 at 11:27 am
191
noseycow Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:14 am
===============
Nosey, did you notice what Gandy said about you in his post 186?
February 27th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Poor kids.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I notice Allison Pearson stuck the boot into the working-class mother while slagging off anyone who criticised the middle-class parents.
What a hypocritical cow.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:25 am
That’s the wonder of Woolies.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I was in woolworths yesterday, and some posh tart named her poor kid Gandolph!
His brother was called bilbo
February 27th, 2008 at 11:24 am
195
Gandolf Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:18 am
193. you are obviously as thick as the shit you enjoy eating.
==================
When I got something wrong I had the guts to step up and apologize to both M&A and yourself, you on the other hand just get personally abusive to the person who notices your inaccuracy, you clearly have no intention of answering the question I asked, so I shall ignore you from now on.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:24 am
183 Chloe
Yes, the incident could have been reported, but what if the staff were promised something, if they kept quiet, ( or could they have been threatened) - just find the kid a good home when she recovers type of situation. Although, with all the publicity, someone would have broken ranks and just think of all the cash they would rake in. Just a thought on my part. I do hold onto the hope Maddie will be found alive.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Gandolf - where’s your manners
February 27th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Sniff and snort
Do you think shes alive?
February 27th, 2008 at 11:20 am
lone
Lovely day so it is
February 27th, 2008 at 11:20 am
193 nearly forgot, your cage rattling sounded like an earthquake last night.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:20 am
182 noseycow
After Maddie went missing, a few days I think later, one of the T9 said an old lady had asked him if she could donate some money….hence the fund. As if there was a little old lady! Do feel like everyone else, that Maddie probably had gone earlier, and of course the big cover up. Must be a huge fund to keep the Met 3 in pay!
February 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Doing great Lone - good to see you here
February 27th, 2008 at 11:18 am
if the reported hair mass is actuall,it would be conclusive proof and the only thing standing in the way of an arrest is their claims of contaminaton by lab tech
February 27th, 2008 at 11:17 am
192
Julie Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Hello birdie
Hey Julie - how are you?
February 27th, 2008 at 11:17 am
174
noseycow Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Salomon -During the initial reporting of the time line - there was some suggestion that the mcc’s didn’t get to the tapas until 9pm. It then changed to them being there before their friends arrived…
I think that initial news reports may hold more clues than we realise, once team mcc get hold of them they are spun into what they want us to think.
Would it take four people to abduct a child???
Are there any hospitals or medical facilities near where they were taken??
Did the same taxi driver bring them back??
so many quesions..
=================
186
Gandolf Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:11 am
174 perhaps because you have been exposed as a fantasist, and one who has been chided by Mods for your slipshod and lazy approach to facts and their investigation, hope you enjoyed the shit.
================
Well well Gandy, Slipshod and inacurate. Still no answer to my question in post 175. Have another helping yourself.