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
July 25th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Jo
I’d settle for beheading a few hacks (journalists).
July 25th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
jo Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Well…it was thanks to my calculator and fingers….and three toes, really.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/echo-columnists/2008/07/25/mccanns-betrayed-100252-21402913/
Matt
You are brilliant
I could never keep up
July 25th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
awwwwww
McCanns betrayed *what about MADELEINE”s betrayal?*
Jul 25 2008 by Susan Lee, Liverpool Echo
THE publication of a book by the former Portuguese head of the Madeleine McCann enquiry, Goncalo Amaral, must be a blow upon a bruise for her parents. *OUCH!!
Police officers have hardly covered themselves in glory for the past 14 months and now it seems the bloke who led the flawed investigation is cashing in on the whole thing.
He is entitled to his opinion, of course.
God knows the McCann enquiry is one of those where it’s difficult not to have a point of view.
But at best it’s distasteful and at worst downright vicious to capitalise on his unique place in the enquiry and publish a book when the case is still very much active. *isnt it shelved,closed,and forgotten?*
I hope it quickly ends up where it belongs – in the recycling bin. *sure mate,and them in a nice cool shady place for the years to come*
July 25th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
jo Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I counted.
Your post was number 13 on page 13.
Previous 12 pages multiplied by 20.
240 +13 = 253.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Matt. Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
253…jo Says:
******
Did I say something under “253″
Please,post a link!
How comes you can see numbers and I cant?
July 25th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Karen
The nation needs to be saved!
YEAH….lets have a revolution
July 25th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
253…jo Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Elena
I’ll accept that as a compliment then.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
The Pj report gives the impression that Eddie is difficult to fool, otherwise he would have gone crazy all over the place.
The best way to fool him would be by the scent of human remains that weren’t the “victim’s” that is evidence of death but not Madeleine’s.
Another thing that has foxed me in the light of recent events are the reports of Rebelo leaving Enderby before the interview with the Paynes.
Nothing adds up.
Back later.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Dear M & A
Can have a quick little moan?
Would it be possible to have numbers attached to the posts?
Is the new anorak format irreversible?
July 25th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Elena
I suppose the McCanns might be alright (bar an inability to admit unlocked doors are a bad idea) - but the press coverage??? The nation needs to be saved!
July 25th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Karen,
The nurse is the best character in the play imo, and don’t forget Juliet was not yet 14, so the nurse who had a daughter, Susan,who died before she became Juliet’s wet nurse may have been less than 25! Lady Capulet told Juliet that she was her mother at a similar age and Paris said of Juliet that younger than she were already mothers in Verona.
Anyway the nurse is lively and fun and has a big heart.So you should be flattered.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Karen-yes, but they are an exceptional couple in so many ways!
July 25th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Just Me,
I don’t believe it my comment was just published.
I have seen nothing but self and profit serving motive coming from this couple.\nThose who defend their pain and say they have suffered enough, when days after their precious baby girls disappearance they are jogging and traveling. Leaving their precious twins with friends.\nI can imagine nothing more shocking than losing a child. I think had that happened to me I would have glued myself to my other children in a total way. Kate and Gerry I don’t want to hear about your pain anymore. As it becomes clearer what happened to your child and your reluctance to help this police force find her, i feel nothing but contempt and loathing for you. In the begining you had my prayers, but they have recoiled and now my prayers are for truth and justice.
Posted By :susana Report This
July 25th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Elena
The nurse? That’s so mean - I’m only 20.
I need to lay off the alcohol.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Just me
Saw it on Sky but the link is so super long that I fear I might get send to jamville.
Good comments from all.
Atta girl.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Why would you accept anything at face value, the nonsense of infallibility, if the dogs are so good and their handlers so expert in reading the dogs alerts……. why isn’t this a homicide inquiry, that will be because no evidence of a death has been produced, by anyone
July 25th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Karen,
Even though we disagree on a very important matter, I cannot understand how anybody could possibly cast you as the dark lady. The nurse in Romeo and Juliet or Emelia in Othello maybe even the Gentlewoman or doctor in the play that shall not be mentioned. Essentially I do think your heart is in the right place, but you are wrong imo about the mcs
Actually I am flattered to think you presume me to be either Gandy or Stig. No I am afraid I am rather more boring.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Gandolf
Well, at least they didn’t take it to trial.
The guy in for the Jill Dando murder might be guilty - but I don’t think they’ve got enough evidence for him to be in jail right now IMO.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
gandolf, if we accept the professionalism and integrity of Martin Grime, what are we left with?
July 25th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Jo
Thanks.
Elena
‘Fes up - who are you - Gandy or Stig?????
I was Lady MacBeth once - it didn’t work out well. 
July 25th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
My leg my dear Karen is still attached to my body, but by fewer mechanical parts, all should be well in the near future, incidentally, as I was in Partick today, I had a pint with a former colleague, who is now rather well thought of in the Uni pathology department. His take on the forensics and the general history of them was absolute bollox, to many people watching CSI he reckoned, maybe to near the truth for many, the Portuguese actually sat on the results……..they didn’t suit the case they were….ahem…building. Now if the removal of Amaral was not a political decision, what was it, incompetence attributed to him …..or something more sinister.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Just been and looked back over 11 pages.
It was on page 10 or so.
Looked and it was gone.
Then went back over all the pages assuming I was mistaken that
it was so far forward.
But it is gone.
They’ve taken it!
Your beautiful post.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
chenier Said:
July 25th, 2008 at 10:11 am
“I rarely wear black leather in bed, though, for the right price, sorry, right guy, it could be arranged…”
—————————————————————————————–
Chenier? No…? No…! Really?
Chenier…?????????
July 25th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Karen Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Who is Chatta??????
******
Short for “horchata ” which is an spanish excellent vegetal summer drink
July 25th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Abraham Zapruder Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Eddie also reacts to spermine
it does depend on how the dogs were trained, that’s why their scenting, also, cant be used as evidence.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
hannasus - maybe you meant just_me_rfh? still not me though
July 25th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Eddie also reacts to spermine
July 25th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Gandolf
How’s the leg? Better I hope. x