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 3:30 pm
488
dcb Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
480
Lone Pigeon
++++++++++
Passes you a bottle of Bud.
cheers..
February 27th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
490 Matt.
Getting like 25 Cromwell Street.
good point
and they flattened number 25 - it’s not there any more
i wonder if they will do the same with this place
February 27th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
481
RR
Whats even more amazing is that clarrie doesnt bark nor jump like a mad dog at this innocent news!
February 27th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
487 Maria
use copy and paste
February 27th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
483…just_me
Getting like 25 Cromwell Street.
Wonder if Fred ever did some construction work there ?
February 27th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
486 jo
i like it
i expect eddie and keela will be given nice retirements
just like race horses
February 27th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
480
Lone Pigeon
++++++++++
Passes you a bottle of Bud.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
479 ade
(Can’t do accents. Sorry!)
Yes. Thought so.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Ade
The DSTeam
The Doggy Sniffers Team
The Deads teach the Livings.I love this quote.It is so true
February 27th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Am off work ill and as I was very bored I have re-read all Gerrys blogs from the start - the man is unbelieveable!!!!! He sounds almost chipper! One of the blogs (3 weeks after his child is ‘abducted’) has 16 small paragraphs and MM is only mentioned in passing twice…..
….in fact GM only gets a bit p*%&ed off after being made an aguido……
…have they no shame……….
February 27th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Ade - yes, Eddie specialises in searching for decomposing human remains, including blood. not sure what Keela’s speciality is, but excellent team and travel all round the world working.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Another ‘hotspot’ in the cellar, and another bricked up chamber joined to the one they are excavating now and a further at least 6 other hotspots in the area
February 27th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
477 just_me
“Eddie is trained to sniff out decomposing human remains and blood.”
i think eddie finds “smell of death” and keela find small traces of blood
it seems that they are very different but work as a team
i like smart
that’s why i dislike the mccons and their junta
fun fun fun
February 27th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Sounds like Eddies found some more remains in the cellar
February 27th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
475
jo Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
464
Lone pigeon
Fluff up those feathers haver a prawn cocktail pat the dog and cheer up!
It is taking time an awful long time but nothing at all has been said officially or not.We know less than before but something must be cooking.
Time will tell.
It crossed my mind they could be arguidos for an other 3 months.
Wish i could but I have lost all faith in the UK and especially our corrupt government. I really feel let down by the scumbags that run us in many ways. it’s all a bunch of arse living here. What’s the point? They work us to death, tax us to the hilt but look after their own i.e. GM and rob us blind. Look at the way they can use their expenses. It’s a joke. No justice whatsoever and poor ol mr average pays the most. I’d be better off doin crime and payin teh time if I got caught. Every seems to be bent as anything these days and shrug it off as ok. This country has become rotten to the core. it’s failing in every way and trust me it’s only gonna get worse and worse and worse. What hope is there for anyones children and their children in teh future if this is what it’s like now? I honestly feel like being physically sick soemtimes when I think about it
February 27th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
476 Maria
348 Saloman
i recall that this cctv was taken at a beach-side cafe
and it was discredited
either the wrong day or other people not the mccons
February 27th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Good Afternoon all…….sounds like Eddies working hard for his tea
February 27th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Eddie is trained to sniff out decomposing human remains and blood. They said there could be innocent explanations for the dog sniffing out blood.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
348 Saloman
I’m useless at keeping links but I’m sure that story of the waiter/owner/manager of the restauarnt was proved to be wrong. The McCanns were reported as insisting that they did NOT go to the Paraiso that particular afternoon (3rd) and that Madeleine was at the kids’ club. I thought it was reported that either the waiter had mistaken the day, or the CCTV date was wrong or it was another party. The nannies seem to have supported the view that Madeleine was indeed at the club until high tea.
(Of course, you may believe the theory that the tapas friends substituted another child in her place and the nannies didn’t notice the difference. That view has been put forward. Maybe the McCanns or friends had already killed Madeleine and hidden her body somewhere, or she had had a fatal accident which the friends sought to help the McCanns cover up. BTW…..why?)
One thing is sure. We can be certain the police will have double and triple checked the McCanns’ statements and will know exactly where Madeleine was on 3rd and who exactly saw her. They will not have been able to fool the police on this one and nor, I suspect, would they ever have thought that they could !
February 27th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
464
Lone pigeon
Fluff up those feathers haver a prawn cocktail pat the dog and cheer up!
It is taking time an awful long time but nothing at all has been said officially or not.We know less than before but something must be cooking.
Time will tell.
It crossed my mind they could be arguidos for an other 3 months.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
just_me
Keep watching and fill me in later please!!!
February 27th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Pitty I can’t stay here all day long! Its much funnier than TV… And inmensely much funnier than work…
Talking about work… bye gang, sya tonight
February 27th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
467 jo
quite
February 27th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Jo
Se van a cagar!
(they will end up shitscared!
February 27th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
465
Pilimary
Hola
Time is whats running out …for the mcChorizo
February 27th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
292 Salomon ES
http://www.jornaldoalgarve.pt/artigos.asp?varNumero=7317Taxi driver
The original portuguese says - Durante o curto trajecto de quatro quilómetros..
The so called translation says - During the short four miles journey…
4 km is NOT 4 miles. It is 2.4855 miles. Not even two and half.
The difference is enormous.
A kilometre is not ‘Nearly a mile’, it is just over half a mile.
Bit like GMs 50 yards turning out to be 67 yards.
Does it matter ? Yes if you are trying to triangulate or draw a circle for searching for a particular hotel or other location.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
451
Ade
It did cross my mind…. it would be sooooo much fun especially after vomiting on the PJ during months on end….jajajajajaja
February 27th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
462…just_me
I don’t think so….the one who said “perks of the job” was someone else
who had been employed there.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Hola Jo!
Im on and out all time (if I dont want to be fired) As ADE says, Im enjoying this phase. Comical has run out not only of trumps, but of any other card. Its going to dumped out from the casino
February 27th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
In my opinion that is it as far as the Mcconns are concerned. There will be no follow up on the letters. The status will be lifted and they will just keep on with the website and chirping up everytime a child goes missing. I think it’s all over. The press has finished. Public opinion has dulled and moved on to other things happening in the news. It just goes to prove that if you’re clever enough you can still get away with anything….