Madeleine McCann: Suing Amaral, Mark Lawson’s Fact And Fiction, And Bloggers Beware
MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE GUARDIAN: “The Panama Mystery - Mr and Mrs Canoe’s case fascinates but can’t match crime fiction’s satisfying motives and denouement”
Mark Lawson does so love a good ending to a work of fiction and fact. A super-fiction. Take care you don’t confuse the two.
In his piece Lawson name checks them all: John and Anne Darwin, Radovan Karadzic, Fred and Rose West, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, Ian Huntley, Harold Shipman and…
As the trial was coming to a close, I was at the Harrogate Crime-Writing Festival, and newspapers were reporting the latest developments in the Madeleine McCann case.
Bingo! Where were you?
One of the reasons for the huge popularity of crime fiction is that the genre explores, in a sanitised environment, the fear and prurient fascination we feel when faced with murders and abductions. Real-life criminality and fiction have become a loop, communicating with each other: several of the books discussed at Harrogate featured missing children; in two years, expect a slew of novels about husbands and wives who mysteriously disappear.
Can you tell the difference between fact and fiction? Now read on…
THE SUN: “McCanns to sue cop over book”.
DEVASTATED Kate and Gerry McCann are to launch a legal blitz in Portugal after the publication of a scandalous book about the disappearance of their daughter Maddie.
In The Truth Behind The Lie, ex-police chief Goncalo Amaral details ludicrous allegations about the couple and the pals they dined with when Maddie vanished in Portugal last year.
Who gets sued?
The McCanns plan to take action against Amaral, Portuguese newspapers which reprinted parts of the £10 book and bloggers who discussed it.
Anorak did not discuss the book’s merit. We did not reproduce a single quote from the book. But can bloggers who did be sued effectively? Many are men and women of straw. What can the outcome be? Best for bloggers, perhaps, to avoid the matter? Or get a crack moderation team – like Anorak. But what, then , of freedom of speech?
Says Amaral: “This book is not revenge, it is not persecution. We can discuss the case in court if they want.”
In the context of a libel case, they might well…
DAILY MAIL: “We failed, says Maddie police chief… but he refuses to apologise to her parents”
Says Amaral: “’There will be no apology, I was just doing my job.”
As a writer…?
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann case: Portuguese police admit failings
The police detective who led the search for Madeleine McCann has admitted that there were some failings in the investigation but refused to accept responsibility for not solving the case…
Several hundred people queued up to collect copies of “Maddie The truth of the Lie” and many congratulated Mr Amaral for his courage to speak out.
BELFAST TELEGRPAH: “McCann case detective’s book to get English translation”
Who will review it if it published in the UK?
THE HERALD: “Sympathy for McCanns must be tempered”
Letters to the editor:
How kind Colette Douglas Home is to Gerry and Kate McCann (Comment, July 22). She uses many column inches pouring scorn on the Portuguese police (perhaps justifiably, I don’t know), showering Gerry and Kate with sympathy (I, too, feel for them), but only makes passing reference to the action that, had it not happened, would have prevented this heartbreaking event from occurring in the first place.
This is clearly their “decision to leave her sleeping while they met friends for dinner”.
- Allistair Matheson, Selkirk.
Colette’s opinion - that Gerry McCann is handsome and Kate McCann beautiful - is irrelevant. The eye of the beholder? Colette states: “And they will always carry the burden of their decision to leave her sleeping while they met friends for dinner.” What kind of parents, in a foreign land, needlessly leave their child, not yet four years old, asleep without a child-minder and out of sound or sight, while they indulge themselves with their friends?
The McCanns deserve all the anguish they brought upon themselves through poor judgment, and not endless public sympathy. Madeleine is the victim. I hope and pray that she is unharmed and is being looked after in loving care, however wrongfully.
- Donald C Irving, Ayr.
And on it goes…
Posted: 25th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (626) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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July 25th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Did any of you read the book yet?
July 25th, 2008 at 11:33 am
me too x
July 25th, 2008 at 11:32 am
hannasus
It goes round many times every time they spin it, but the arrow always points in that direction when it stops !
July 25th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Chenier
Oh for a school bus
Actually the school bus passes in front of our gate, but my children are not allowed onto it, because we live too close to the school.
now you’ve got me going again…
see you later
July 25th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Matt
July 25th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Who says no smoke without fire, never tried to do some cooking on a camping.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Noseycow Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Chenier
thanks for that - could’ve written it myself! Bring Back school buses
—————————————–
I’m beginning to wonder whether you did write them yourself:
‘But, according to [James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University professor of criminal justice] if we want to save children’s lives, we’d do better to worry about loosely enforced bicycle helmet and seat-belt laws, or the safety standards of school buses — all of which are much more statistically dangerous but lack comparably high-profile systems for stoking public concern.’
July 25th, 2008 at 11:28 am
hannasus
you don’t suppose that hideki is a W midlands GP do you?
July 25th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Time for some brunch.
Good sleuthing !!!!
July 25th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Brandon Flours,
That P word again.
Come back Hideki, you might have been on track.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:25 am
brandon flours Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Oh yes….remember now.
But I also remember telling you that I did not depend on a barnet.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:20 am
sammy malone
July 25th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Does anyone remember when my dog found the doctors case in the park last year, and I called the doctors sec to tell him.
He was from kingston hospital, not mr oldield though this one was in renal if i remember
July 25th, 2008 at 11:18 am
brandon flours Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Tolled you wot ???
July 25th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Remember !! You told me
July 25th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Chenier
thanks for that - could’ve written it myself! Bring Back school buses
Brandon
Dr Matthew Oldfield, 37,. Dr Oldfield, an endocrinologist at Kingston Hospital in South-West London
From the daily mail.
Must dash now and search the shops for the cheapest highest effective suntan lotion;)
later all
x
July 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
brandon flours Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Who is Sammy ?
July 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Maria
No - honestly - I just thought you might be joking about having written a book.
I thought you might have meant something like - if Jo can claim to be paid, I can claim to be writing a book…. that sort of thing….
I thought maybe I was being a bit dim in not realising it was a joke.
However if it’s not - and there is a book - I definitely would read it.
My friend just sent me a review of her 1st published book (it’s academic - she had to have it published for her PhD - but it’s still kind of cool).
July 25th, 2008 at 11:14 am
sammy !!!!!
July 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am
brandon flours Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 11:10 am
July 25th, 2008 at 11:10 am
You little……..
avoiding my age question
July 25th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Madeleine Team Hope To See Files
8:11am UK, Friday July 25, 2008
Lawyers acting for the parents of Madeleine McCann expect to be granted access to police files later today.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/
Madeleine-McCann
“Mr Mitchell said: “It’s going to be a long, slow process, both for the lawyers in examining the volumes and for Kate and Gerry to be informed of their contents and whether there’s any need for legal redress.
“The priority has always been finding Madeleine so the investigative work is first and foremost.
“If there are any leads from the files, for instance new sightings, that’s what the private investigators will focus on in the first instance.”
No problem,clarrie.We”ve got all the time on earth to look for Madeleine….coz thats still the “long term project”,isnt it?
I sincerely hope the mccanns will find all the necessary elements for “legal redress”.No doubt, it is all there
July 25th, 2008 at 11:09 am
brandon flours Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Am a 2008 one.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Matt
Are you a 70s colombo or a 90s one?
July 25th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Maria Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Of course the Telegraph could have got it wrong also.
Won’t be the first time for either you or them.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Karen
I know nothing about pay. I suppose some people work on a voluntary basis? She said last night that she was here because
“It’s my job,…you twit.”
(I quote verbatim what she said to me, I hope, though haven’t looked back. She was talking about why she spent so much time on Anorak.)
May have meant she’s paid to be here.
May have meant her paid job gives her good reason to want to spend a lot of time on Anorak.
May have meant she does voluntary work which involved posting on here, although “job” usually implies getting pay, however meagre!
May have meant nothing at all.
I know not, neither do I care. BUT, whatever was meant, it puts her posts in a different light for me personally. “Scrolling….just scrolling!”
Yours, Karen, are a different matter. It certainly does seem daft to be on a site with so few people following the conspiracy lines…. It certainly does. Especially as it could, just possibly, be one big conspiracy theorist multi-posting. Doing a job, even.
Yes, it certainly isn’t very sensible……..you’re right!
July 25th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Maria Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 10:57 am
The Police are, and always were, on Madeleine’s side.
Pity the parents weren’t.
The interview with Dr K , when asked a question and advised that the answer
could help in the search for Madeleine’s fate…showed self-interest..when she
refused to answer.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:58 am
brandon flours Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 10:53 am
And leather elbow sew-ons.
But am a Columbo Tec….through and through.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Matt
Hi.
Yes, I’m upset. It looks possible that there is someone out there who knows precisely what happened to M (as that fool of a judge said) and is still free to strike again.
I happen to accept what the Portuguese have said so I am left with the theory that M wandered out of the apartment or was taken from her bed. Even if the former is true, it’s possible someone picked her up in the street.
I do not like that thought. Not one bit.
Since the Portuguese (bunglers?) have found nothing to associate RM or the Mcs with the disappearance, what are we left with? (Why on earth haven’t the PJ been following Anorak? THEN they’d know the truth!)
BTW, the Telegraph used the word “sacked” of Amaral yesterday (paper copy). Think it depends on what you mean by “sacked”. Can obviously mean “removed from the job” rather than from the force as a whole. Of course, he “retired” soon after, knowing what a little money-spinner he had ready!
So, being in the company of the august Telegraph, I grovel not, after all!
But maybe it was the “by the police” that you objected to?!!
Have a good day.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Matt I have visions of ken barlow and mittens