Madeleine McCann: Let Us Pray, Light The Way, It’s A Year Today
MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE SUN (front page): “MADDIE: 1 YEAR ON”
A year of headlines, sensation and speculation. A year of Watching The Parents.
DAILY MIRROR (front page): “LIGHT A CANDLE FOPR OUR MADDIE”
And leave a chair empty at the dinner table, too? And when should the candle be lit?
“9:15 tonight… A YEAR ON”
Did you light a candle a year after 7/11, the end of the Falklands War, the Hillsborough disaster?
Did the Mirror forget to tell you to?
It is “A DAY TO PRAY”.
FIONA PHILLIPS: “A year ago today Madeleine McCann’s mummy and daddy, Kate and Gerry, became victims of the most colossal crime.”
Mummy and daddy… Are Mirror readers being asked to empathise with Madeleine? The fact is, it could. It could happen to any of us.
Grip hands tighter. Avoid Portugal. Spread the anxiety. The rare crime of a chid abduction, as Phillips supposes, might find a victim in your child.
I fill my car up with petrol and sometimes leave the children in the back when I go and pay for it. It could happen to me.
I’ve seen mums chatting to friends in supermarkets and on busy pavements while their children wander off. It could happen to them.
It happened to the McCanns in a child-friendly, family holiday village. It could happen to you.
YORKSHIRE POST: “The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has written a special prayer to mark the first anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.”
Church of England PR?
Father God, we pray for Madeleine McCann Keep her safe and take away her fear and anxiety May your holy angels guard and protect her We pray that she may be reunited with those who love her Give hope to all her loved ones And hear our cry for her safe return We offer our prayer in the name of the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord. Amen.
DAILY TELEGRPAH: “McCann haters - the lowest of the low”
SIMON HEFFER:
Just when one thinks one’s capacity for shock is exhausted, one reads some of the charming, expletive-rich comments sent to Kate and Gerry McCann in the last year since their daughter Madeleine evaporated in Portugal. I know some nutters are convinced they killed her, which I am equally convinced is balderdash: but what shocks me is that even those who accept that someone else abducted her cannot resist delving into the still-open wound the McCanns have, and attacking them for their supposed negligence on that evening last May.
I try to envisage the sense of smug satisfaction these people have when the letter is posted or the send button pressed on the email: but, despite a long study of human degeneracy, I simply can’t.
THE SCOTSMAN: “In the shadow of the bogeyman”
There is no such comfort for my children’s generation. They know the worst can happen because it did. The bogeyman came and took Madeleine from her bed. And for weeks on end they could not turn their heads nor take a breath without being reminded that he had. The press picked up our fear and shone it back at us.
THE GUARDIAN: “Services to mark year since Madeleine vanished”
His wife added: “It’s funny in some ways, because you kind of think it’s just another day, really, almost like a media landmark than anything else. But I think we’ve maybe underestimated it, and it’s probably more significant than we felt. I don’t think we’ll know until the morning really what feels right.”
NEWSWEEK: “TABLOID FODDER - One year after Madeleine McCann disappeared in Portugal, lurid reporting continues to cash in on her disappearance.
She’s so famous that she only needs one name: Maddie.
Or Maddy?
Her image—those trusting eyes, that innocent grin, the shiny blond hair—haunts Britons, who may think that by now, they’ve heard everything about Madeleine McCann, the young British girl who vanished from a holiday resort in Portugal’s Algarve one year ago Saturday. Her disappearance is probably the most intensely followed mystery in modern British history. Tabloid sales skyrocket with coverage of even the most minor details, which could be why Kelvin MacKenzie, the former editor of The Sun, has called it “the most significant story of my lifetime.”
Posted: 3rd, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (600) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Is it finally at long last starting to unravel?
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
evening all busy with lots of slippery customers over the last few days …probably already posted but whats this about? Brunty is this a slip or something new?
http://news.sky.com/skynews/fixed_article/0,,30200-1314574,00.html
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
03.05.2008
Maddie: “it is a very difficult crime to clarify”
According Pinto Monteiro, Prosecutor General of the Portuguese Republic (PGR), investigators from the Judicial Police would not otherwise be ashamed if their investigations in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann were to prove fruitless because “it is d ‘A crime very difficult to elucidate. ”
“This type of crime is still extremely difficult to investigate. There are a million children a year worldwide and less than 20% are found,” said Pinto Monteiro stressed that the Portuguese police did everything possible.
“Our police do all what would any other police,” said Pinto Monteiro stressed today that he will have to wait until the end of the investigation to understand the work of investigators.
The Prosecutor General of the Republic is appointed and relieved by the President of the Republic, under Government’s proposal. This is the only post in the Public Ministry and the Judiciary Courts subject to appointment by political power. It is to have the direction, coordination and monitoring the activity of the Public Ministry.
Gone to translate more
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Evening all, what on earth is going on now, why are they admiting that they met with murat? this case just gets more wierd by the day!
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
289 Jass
Apparently both CM and Justine were driving around in one of the hire cars rented to
the Tapas 9.
The interview on Spanish T.V. yesterday with Sandra was very incisive, she certainly
doesn”t pull her punches.
I think the Press will turn against them now, but having a feeling the case will be shelved because there is not enough evidence to have a trial. wouldn”t be surprised
if some of the Witnesses will be charged with trying to pervert the course of Justice.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
chenier, chenier,
Give me your answer, do!
10 or 15 denier
For a nice stocking-mask for you?
There’s every chance you’d fold up
If I proposed a hold-up;
But you’d look sweet
Upon the seat
Of a getaway-camel for two..
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:39 pm
291 val Says:
” don”t know if you know the latest, it seems Peter Sissons on BBC 24 said Brian Kennedy was seen talking to Murat in PDL ”
That’s correct. Kennedy offered Murat a plea bargain.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Hello everyone.
don”t know if you know the latest, it seems Peter Sissons on BBC 24 said Brian Kennedy was seen talking to Murat in PDL, CM says it was nothing, just Kennedy wishing Murat well.
Have you ever known anything like this? sky News have been reporting all day on the
McCanns, but havn”t mentioned it.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
286 Liza - Yes, the other risks.
the risk of them waking and being afraid.
the risk of them wandering out of the flat and falling down the stairs or wandering into traffic or into the ocean
the risk of them falling out bed
the risk of them going to the bathroom and turning on the taps - of starting a flood or scalding themselves with the hot water or drowning in a bathtub
or wandering into the kitchen and swallowing kitchen cleaner or leaving the fridge door open or choking on something they shouldn’t have been eating.
the risk of them playing with knives or fire or turning the oven on or sticking their head in the washing machine
or climbing on the television, or having the television fall on them or turning the tv on and seeing something distrubing…
or playing with the mains (the electrical outlets) and getting electrocuted.
or
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
This is strange news about Brian Kennedy visiting Murat and apparently trying to get him onside with an abductor viewing.
Also, just read somewhere that Clarence and Justine have admitted to the PJ about being in PdL on May 3!!!!
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
279
Maria Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
It seems strange that Maria always fails to notice these reports…
214
chenier Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
208
Maria Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
‘She was stressing the vital importance of the speed of the response and widespread, massive and continuous publicity. Said more children are returned thanks to such a strategy than as a result of anything else.’
—————————————
It seems strange that Maria always fails to notice these reports…
——————————
What on earth makes you think I fail to notice them??!!
It is always wise not make statements without evidence. I may fail to have commented on the particular reports you refer to. That is not to say I didn’t notice them. The two things are very different.
You are wrong in your assumption, by the way. I did notice them. I also notice what the British police actually do in cases of missing children.
Not that I automatically assume that the police, anywhere, have all their procedures right anyway.
Organisations like PACT, with a specific focus, play an important role in shaping policy and practice, and the police, and, indeed, governments, change and develop both in response to research and to actual cases. Changes were made after Soham, for example, to bring our procedures more in line with the USA Amber alert system. The PACT spokeswoman referred to that today.
I believe the Portuguese police themselves have changed their own secrecy laws in the very recent past.
Please do not jump to conclusions about what I think about anything in this case, based on your hunches. Far too much jumping to conclusions on little evidence in this case.
I have, more than once, said that I would certainly not have publicised the coloboma. Of course, that might have been a wrong decision on my part. Fortunately I have never (yet) been faced with the agonising decisions on what to do for the best in such a case. But that was my opinion. You may or may not have noticed my posts on that. I don’t expect you to read or notice all my posts. I don’t notice or read all yours. Mea culpa?!
Neither can you know what my private thoughts are about what happened to Madeleine, any more than you can know what the Mcs’ feelings or motivation are. You do not have sound evidence. You cannot know although you may like to think you do. You may jump to as many conclusions as you like but you cannot know.
The investigation continues. The police continue to gather evidence. That’s a good thing. The results will, hopefully, be known before too long. I believe it’s a mistake to think that, because the investigation has been going on for twelve months, no charges will be brought and the case simply closed. We cannot know. We can only guess at the evidence in the files. I guess to myself, believe me!
BTW, I did not claim to be actually quoting Ribeiro (he’s the one who said the police were hasty in making them arguidos, isn’t he?) but something reported in one of the many news reports I’ve read today. I never attribute actual words to people if I don’t know what they said, and even when I refer to supposedly reported comments, given in inverted commas, unless I have actually seen or heard them (as I did Ribeiro on the “hasty” thing), I am still pretty sceptical. (Just call me Thomas!) And, yes, I do know he had to apologise to the police union!
I have just come in after shopping so may have missed some posts in hastily reading through.
Out for meal with friends this evening so must tidy up and get ready.
Have a good evening, all, whatever you are doing!
———————————————————-
I don’t have hunches; my school was very keen on good posture.
I was pointing out that your claim that ‘the police who, according to Sky (online) don’t know whether they will press charges or exonerate the Mcs’ was factually incorrect.
Sky online says no such thing.
What it does say is:
‘Police say they are still gathering evidence following reports that officers were on the verge of exonerating the McCanns, who are official suspects.
Alipio Ribeiro, national director of the PJ, told Portugal’s Lusa news agency that officials had not decided whether to bring charges or drop the investigation.
He said: “At this stage nothing has been determined regarding possible charges or closing the case.
“The PJ continues to gather and analyse all available evidence.”
I was, politely, assuming that you had failed to notice not only that your statement was factually untrue but also that it wasn’t even a fair summary of the Sky online article.
But since you now assure me that you had indeed read the text the only remaining logical conclusion is that you were deliberately misrepresenting the content…
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
What really bothers me is to hear them repeat on and on that there was no risk in leaving the children alone in the apartment ‘because you would never imagine a stranger would come in a take the child from the bed’
Well, buster - first of all, you have to foresee all possible risks and although abduction is very very very low on the risk scale, it might still be a possiblity (or how about a drunk person stumbling in and scaring the kids - strange they didn’t think of that since they too were freely imbibing). He’s a doctor and used to calculating risk factors - this is like saying that ‘Joe’ can’t suffer a heart attack since Joe has no prior cardiovascular risk factors….
But even if no child had ever been abducted in the history of mankind, it really bugs me to hear two doctors repeat that leaving children alone in an apartment is safe. I really, honestly can’t believe my ears (and I can’t believe now journalist ever mentioned the other risks… Or is it only Anorakians who are aware of all the dangers?
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
babelfish doesn’t provide a direct link to it’s translations, you have to go there first and input the url and select the language you want the page translated from and too.
babelfish’s page is here:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
281
I backtracked to the link, but what IYO is dynamite?
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
281
firestar Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
he link to the blog i posted earlier is dynamite actually.
did you post this link ?
http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/
i went to babelfish (google it) and got it to translate the whole page.
incredible reading, i dont’ know what else to say about it, but it’s full of stuff like:
“what we ask you to do it is, if you provided information to the police force (British), Crimestoppers, or the Portuguese police force, we ask you to also communicate them to us,”
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
281 firestar
how ’bout providing the link?
time is scarce, you know
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
the link to the blog i posted earlier is dynamite actually.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Chloe Spain……
only just flicked thru mails… you’re right about the UK priest (saw it somewhere else) and I’m right about PDL. News changes by the minute…
………………………………
Events were held in Britain and Portugal for the anniversary as the McCann family seek to keep the hunt in the spotlight.
Gerry McCann’s brother, John, who is in Praia da Luz, said the parents would probably not make a public appearance during the day.
John McCann and two other members of the family were to attend a religious service in the resort on Saturday night. “We will thank the people of Praia da Luz by attending the service,” the brother said.
Local priest, Father Manuel Pacheco, said there would be a simple service which would be followed by a “gesture” of solidarity outside the church.
Church services were also to be held in Britain.
One of Britain’s most senior churchmen, the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, wrote a special prayer to mark the anniversary which called on people across Britain to pray for Madeleine’s safe return.
“Keep her safe and take away her fear and anxiety. May your holy angels guard and protect her,” said the prayer.
edit………….
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
It seems strange that Maria always fails to notice these reports…
214
chenier Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
208
Maria Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
‘She was stressing the vital importance of the speed of the response and widespread, massive and continuous publicity. Said more children are returned thanks to such a strategy than as a result of anything else.’
—————————————
It seems strange that Maria always fails to notice these reports…
——————————
What on earth makes you think I fail to notice them??!!
It is always wise not make statements without evidence. I may fail to have commented on the particular reports you refer to. That is not to say I didn’t notice them. The two things are very different.
You are wrong in your assumption, by the way. I did notice them. I also notice what the British police actually do in cases of missing children.
Not that I automatically assume that the police, anywhere, have all their procedures right anyway.
Organisations like PACT, with a specific focus, play an important role in shaping policy and practice, and the police, and, indeed, governments, change and develop both in response to research and to actual cases. Changes were made after Soham, for example, to bring our procedures more in line with the USA Amber alert system. The PACT spokeswoman referred to that today.
I believe the Portuguese police themselves have changed their own secrecy laws in the very recent past.
Please do not jump to conclusions about what I think about anything in this case, based on your hunches. Far too much jumping to conclusions on little evidence in this case.
I have, more than once, said that I would certainly not have publicised the coloboma. Of course, that might have been a wrong decision on my part. Fortunately I have never (yet) been faced with the agonising decisions on what to do for the best in such a case. But that was my opinion. You may or may not have noticed my posts on that. I don’t expect you to read or notice all my posts. I don’t notice or read all yours. Mea culpa?!
Neither can you know what my private thoughts are about what happened to Madeleine, any more than you can know what the Mcs’ feelings or motivation are. You do not have sound evidence. You cannot know although you may like to think you do. You may jump to as many conclusions as you like but you cannot know.
The investigation continues. The police continue to gather evidence. That’s a good thing. The results will, hopefully, be known before too long. I believe it’s a mistake to think that, because the investigation has been going on for twelve months, no charges will be brought and the case simply closed. We cannot know. We can only guess at the evidence in the files. I guess to myself, believe me!
BTW, I did not claim to be actually quoting Ribeiro (he’s the one who said the police were hasty in making them arguidos, isn’t he?) but something reported in one of the many news reports I’ve read today. I never attribute actual words to people if I don’t know what they said, and even when I refer to supposedly reported comments, given in inverted commas, unless I have actually seen or heard them (as I did Ribeiro on the “hasty” thing), I am still pretty sceptical. (Just call me Thomas!) And, yes, I do know he had to apologise to the police union!
I have just come in after shopping so may have missed some posts in hastily reading through.
Out for meal with friends this evening so must tidy up and get ready.
Have a good evening, all, whatever you are doing!
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/05/pj-waits-for-9-months-for-complete.html
Irish advances and backtracks
“Apart from the results of the analysis made to the vestiges, the PJ has several depositions. An Irish that spent holidays with the family at Praia da Luz, in May last year, guaranteed to the PJ that he saw a man with a child in his lap in the night of 3rd of May. Later he said informally that that man seemed to be Gerry McCann.
This comment of the Smith’s family appeared when they observed the images of the McCanns arriving in England at 9th of September. The way Gerry held Sean in his lap when he got out of the plane in the East Midlands airport and the clothes he was wearing, described in the first deposition, were useful to the witness “to clarify the ideas”.
Irish advances and backtracks
Apart from the results of the analysis made to the vestiges, the PJ has several depositions. An Irish that spent holidays with the family at Praia da Luz, in May last year, guaranteed to the PJ that he saw a man with a child in his lap in the night of 3rd of May. Later he said informally that that man seemed to be Gerry McCann.
This comment of the Smith’s family appeared when they observed the images of the McCanns arriving in England at 9th of September. The way Gerry held Sean in his lap when he got out of the plane in the East Midlands airport and the clothes he was wearing, described in the first deposition, were useful to the witness “to clarify the ideas”.
But when the PJ wanted to formalise that deposition the witness backtracked and revealed that he was not sure that the person he saw was Gerry.
Gone now
Half an jour and sick of it
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
276
jo Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
thought that was interesting, yes :0
original reply with the link went to mods , no idea why, sorry mods.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
276
jo Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccanns-targeted-by-pj.html
interesting, yes:)
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccanns-targeted-by-pj.html
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
267
firestar Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
“Kate and Gerry McCann got a massive boost last night as Portuguese police finally acted on their unwavering conviction that Madeleine was kidnapped”
Could you post a link for this,please? thank you
Well,Fox,mail.sky…all the same crap but once in a very while,there is the odd comment like in Fox about “shelving the case” or “bringing charges”
Anyway,even if th PJ brings charges,it wont be done before a reconstruction takes place….
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
264
PeterMac Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
262b chenier
“I get the impression that journos are beginning to worry that they have been taken for absolute suckers.
I could be wrong, of course…”
I think you are.
—————————————–
What is your interpretation of the BBC actually transmitting that footage?
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
dont worry maddy, kate n gerry will be ok.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
nice catphrase the site has.
“Don’t worry Maddy, we’re here to support mummy and daddy.”
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
268
yes, but the mods have eaten it.
go look for http://www.freekatemccann.com/blog in google, and press the ‘cached’ link.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
jo
to be honest, if fox news told me the sun would go down tonight i’d have doubts.
the storys true though, its all over the place.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
266
firestar
Any link to this?
May be the PJ is spinning them about?