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
February 27th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
548…Maria
Never underestimate the ability of Sun/Mail/Star readers to swallow
hook line and sinker.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Thanks Brandon.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
547 Totje
Sounds lovely!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Totje - clever!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ lone pigeon XXXXXXXXXXXX
(thanks Totje)
February 27th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
February 27th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Has anyone ever met anyone in “real life”, as opposed to “virtually” who thought the McCanns were guilty (other than irresponsible to leave children out of earshot)?
Just interested. I don’t think I have, though I know several who think they should have known better than to leave the children and many who think they were misguided to think they could keep the media on their side forever.
I don’t think anyone really believes those lurid press stories, the DNA stuff, body in boot etc, because the reports were so confused and contradictory and changed all the time. People definitely do not take the “sightings” seriously. There could yet be a few shocks if the PJ have something else up their sleeve. They are being wisely discreet.
Sadly, most people are bored by the story now, exactly why the McCanns were trying to take advantage of publicity while the story was still big news. Only faint chance of finding Madeleine, I suppose. They must have given up any realistic hope by now but will probably never stop searching.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
♥ ♫ testing..
February 27th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
529
dcb Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
522
Lone Pigeon
++++++++++
If they drop arguidos status then at least any evidence will be released - whether it gets into the press is a different matter though.
This is the sort of thing i’m talking about. I believe the press have been forced into only reporting on the side of the Mccanns. Noone has told me why, with so much potential evidence to the contrary, the press haven’t been all over the Mccanns. it’s like they are shit scared to. Something or someone is stopping it. This is why I think it’s all over. If someone is connected enough, for whatever reason and to whomever, if they fuck up they will be looked after. like everyone on here has said before. Who on earth gets such major people on board so easily. i don’t think the mccanns contrived the whole thing from the start to make money. I think they fucked up big time. I think they are extremely lucky that they know who they know and have been able to smooth over, lie, spin, massage every truth and twist every single fact and wriggle their way out of it. yes they will live with it. They will never be seen as decent to the majority but two worngs don’t make a right. They need to pay for it but again they’re gonna get away with it because of our system and elected government. Life’s a bitch huh!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
They certainly seem to be doing everything they can:
“SEVEN days. 300 police officers. 60 detectives. 300 calls from the public. 2,000 homes being searched.
And yet, one little girl is still missing and one mum’s heart is still breaking.
The statistics for the massive police operation that has surrounded the search for Shannon Matthews are staggering but no real breakthrough has emerged.
As strong winds hit West Yorkshire yesterday, scores of police were again out in force, this time carrying out an ‘infoseek’ in the major roads around Shannon’s house.
Stopping motorists one by one, clipboard-carrying officers dug away for the tiniest shred of information.
Earlier, officers had been rummaging bins for any clues to Shannon’s whereabouts.
Police sniffer dogs have also been called in, and it is rumoured that experts from the anti-terror squad are helping to examine CCTV footage.
The ‘Find Shannon’ police operation has been amazingly well-co-ordinated and senior officers have been very keen to tell us how many resources they have thrown at it.
As rows of uniformed officers stopped cars yesterday, it was hard not to wonder how useful the exercise would actually be, when so many others had produced nothing…”
February 27th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
529 dcb
i reckon it will get into the portuguese, spanish and other press.
knowing what money-grabbibg tarts our tabloids are they will probably follow
and probably tell us they suspected them all along really
such fun if you don’t take it too seriously
February 27th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
539 - I do tend to agree with you Ade, but I take hope in the fact she did speak of running away, and hopefully there is still a chance she is staying somewhere safe. The more time goes by though, it looks less likely I know
February 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
lone pigeon
Thats not the pigeon I know and love !!!
Pull yourself together man!
(((((((((((((((( HUNK OF BURNING LOVE )))))))))))))))))))))))))
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Have another bud and then take a look at mine
February 27th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
dcb - for sure. IMO Shannon is far more important than Jersey and earthquakes. Dont get me wrong I have evry sympathy for the victims of the Jersey case, but when all is said and done, whats happened has happened and can be dealt with, but Shannon is still out there somewhere, hopefully still alive.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
é
February 27th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
531 dcb
All this hunting for corpses, however sad, is really taking the spotlight away from the hunt for what is hoped is still a live missing girl.
sadly i feel they are looking for the same thing
February 27th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
534
so much nastyness in the world hey….? 
just_me Says:
*************
February 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
534
just_me
+++++
Strange priorities some “news” channels have.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
526 Maria
i use an apple with os x
acutes alt e followed by letter e.g alt e e gives é
graves alt i followed by letter e.g alt i e gives ê
umlaut alt u followed by letter e.g alt u u gives ü
it probably takes weeks on windows
February 27th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
530
Lone Pigeon Says:
***************
thats more like it
February 27th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
531 dcb - I totally agree. they really should be spending more time showing Shannon.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
528
SteveT Says:
*************
February 27th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
531
dcb
+++++
Shannon I mean.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
All this hunting for corpses, however sad, is really taking the spotlight away from the hunt for what is hoped is still a live missing girl.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
527
RedRooster Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
come on pull yourself together
hehehehehe
I ain’t THAT bad!!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
522
Lone Pigeon
++++++++++
If they drop arguidos status then at least any evidence will be released - whether it gets into the press is a different matter though.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
527
RedRooster
Stick together you flockers!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
522
it aint over mate, come on pull yourself together, you need to stay positive 
Lone Pigeon Says
******************
us winged creatures should stick together
February 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
âde 491
Right!
And acutes and graves please?!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
505 Matt.
200 have lodged a complaint(s)….and that doesn’t include those
unfortunates who are reputed to have committed suicide.
good point
of course there may be some suicide activity from those guilty
rather than face the music…