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 1:08 pm
None of us may forget that the British police was working with the PJ, all the time.
m and A
A very good point Maravilha
July 25th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I’ve grown comfortable with my hippodom now.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Well I can’t use the excuse of having a drink this time ….
ammuntion = ammunition ( I think)
July 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Hippy!
But what about the mud?
Glastonbury?
Woodstock?
we should be told!
July 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Yes, if the potential fathers are clamouring to disown him, they might as well get his name right.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
We don’t want to give the potential fathers any ammuntion when they contest the paternity suit!
So Melvyn it is then
July 25th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Reggie has what Old Smuddy refers to as “football eyes”; one at home and one away.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
MrsT Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
See how easy rumours start ….. one wrong letter pressed on a keyboard and a whole new world of speculation starts.
……………………….
Exactly. I’m actually a hippy.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Well, if you play your cards right on the swivelling the good eye front you could become the next leader of the Labour Party!
The present PM has the eye bit sussed but the rest of it seems to be causing him problems…
July 25th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Mrs T
That’s the fun of it!
July 25th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I won’t be going on Jeremy Kyle’s programme until I’ve lost a few more teeth and perfected swiveling my one good eye. I don’t want to be accused of bringing a touch of glamour to the show…
July 25th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Mrs T, please keep your voice down; there are vast numbers of things I should be doing, but I’d rather not be forcibly ejected from the blog by an enraged artiodactyl ungulate.
We hippos have our pride…
July 25th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Maria
The search for Madeleine has produced nothing but false sightings - so I don’t think that was hindered in any way.
And I do think criticism of the McCanns is appropriate. They made themselves into public figures - Gerry has more than once talked about the wider agenda - and their child being missing doesn’t make them infallible or even particularly likable if it comes to that.
It’s like the Emperor’s New Clothes - if I think he’s naked, I’m not going to go with the crowd and pretend he’s fully clothed.
It might be the done thing to be sickly sentimental about the McCanns plight - but I’m not sentimental - they’re grown-ups and they don’t need protected.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Jeremy Kyle might not be so forgiving chenier ….
July 25th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Good morning June! Sad to report I still have the large head, short legs and complexion of a large African artiodactyl ungulate so I might as well just give up the mud masks and bask in the splendid glory of my size and personality.
Gloria, but soooooooooooo cooling in this heat
July 25th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Gloria
Hi good to see you, how are the mud baths coming along?
July 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Mrs T, have I got the young ‘uns name wrong?
Well, hippos are forgiving souls, as we all hope, sorry, know…
July 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
See how easy rumours start ….. one wrong letter pressed on a keyboard and a whole new world of speculation starts.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Karen
But that’s just how I react to them - it doesn’t mean anything in the scheme of things.
——————————————
I agree, at one level. The massive press and media smear campaign, especially in Portugal, but here too, the bloggers etc. did not stop the Portuguese police from removing their suspect status. when they concluded that there was no evidence to connect them aith any crime. Justice has still been done, agreed.
But I don’t think that means it isn’t a damaging process, all the same. Sorry, Karen, definitely NOT getting at you, and you’ll say, correctly, that the Mcs sought publicity and must live with the consequences. But, as Kate said, many people might have taken the campaign less seriously once they were made arguidos. The more people who smeared them, the more the idea that they were guilty might have taken root. (I personally don’t think it did, actually. I think the majority of people still pitied them, never believed them guilty. I think the bloggers just aroused more sympathy for them. That’s just my personal opinion based on conversations I’ve had or overheard. I’ve no doubt there are many exceptions…apart from the ten of you here, I mean!)
But it COULD have been very damaging.
And I still think it’s inappropriate.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
MrsT!
It is Melvyn, chenier has got it wrong (Mervyn indeed - as if I’d call my love-calf Mervyn)
July 25th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Well, obviously upping the fibre content is good; you could get those baby vegetable things from waitrose and float them in the punch bowl.
The neighbours will be dead impressed, and you can throw them at Ronnie and Reggie when you want them to come back down from the tree!
July 25th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Don’t report me to the library police!
July 25th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
It’s not Melvyn then?
July 25th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Multiple charges of misusing a library card are almost sure to follow, but what the hell! People have to realise that hippos are people, just like everybody else, and young Mervyn is going to have to get into the Internet swing of things if he wants to succeed in the rat race of modern education!
I shall come and support you both in Court, and, entirely free of charge, report it on Anorak…
July 25th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Brandon
I was so happy to hear that Kate and Gerry had been cleared of any involvment in Madeleine’s disaperance. I, like may others, do not beleive they could have harmed their beautiful daughter. I hope now they can go on to finding out what has happened to her and ease their pain somehow. Nasty people will continue to say nasty things but im sure Kate and Gerry will be able to deal with this and ignore the nastiness. Its nothing compared to havng to deal with life without the beautiful little girl.
If anything could turn you to the dark side it’s barf like that.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Yes, Ronnie and Reggie get to venture out today and I won’t be returning home without a nice bottle of Pimms; my own recipe favours cauliflower and a few slices of leek rather than poncey borage …
July 25th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Deffo off !!!
July 25th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Kitten freedom day?
I hope you have laid in plentiful supplies of ladders and even more plentiful supplies of alcohol…
July 25th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
chenier - aye, it’s library-land for me again this morning but I’ve got a Smuddlet’s library card as well as my own today so I can be here for an extra hour! Just think of the drivel I can contribute!
July 25th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Maria
There’s no point getting yourself distressed about other people’s opinions.
I don’t think that K & G come across well as people (I hate their interviews, loath their cheesy pictures and think their version of what happened that night is self-serving at best).
But that’s just how I react to them - it doesn’t mean anything in the scheme of things.