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 7:01 pm
Maria-just catching up had a funny half hour and decided to vacuum under the beds. Your list was very well written-I loved No 9-the girl who was ill after pretending to be Madeleine all day.
Shame on you-You wouldn’t help a friend hide a body? Me-no problem-Do it all the time,me-shifting couple of corpses tonight for a mate-least I can do he lent me his screwdriver for an hour last week and his missus always gives me free scrumps in the chippy where she works.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Elena
I don’t think anyone would put their kid in an actual fridge - what if someone wanted to make ice-cubes?
Although a woman in Germany had 3 babies in a freezer and her adult children found them when they threw out out-of-date food (that’s actually true…
)
But I’d say the only way that theory could work is if it was a freezer bag that could be left in a boot or a wardrobe or under the bed and no one who wasn’t them would bother opening it. (I’m not saying that’s what happened though).
July 25th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Typical.
I copy and paste from a newspaper and the bleedin’ thing has grammatical errors.
And it’s not even the Grundion.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Brandon,
Tried that, got a toaster oven, microwave , coffee maker,juicer nice shower,but tiny fridge freezer.
I don’t cook dinners on holiday we eat out, but the kids were costing a fortune in ice cream which I normally buy in bumper packs in the supermarket.Add to that snack food,sandwich fillers, beer, milk, juice, white wine etc. Well lets say that I always noticed the tiny fridge freezer.I’ve been to a number of countries and resorts too. So …..
July 25th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
It seems traces of pills can be found in hair….
I think a while back it was said you couldn’t find sedatives in hair - but seemingly you can.
(from the Daily Mail website)
Beauty student, 17, dies after taking powerful back painkiller to calm her nerves before exams
By James Tozer
Last updated at 6:05 PM on 25th July 2008
Investigators used pioneering technology to analyse a strand of her hair to find out how long she had been taking the tablets, which had prescribed to a friend with a slipped disc.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Nite Brandon!
July 25th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Nite XXXXXXXXXXXX
July 25th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
chenier
Its part of their plan to conquer the world !
July 25th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
To get a bigger freezer, you will need to upgrade
July 25th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
BF,
I’m told that they speak English in the US and some parts of Canada. And then there’s Australia, and the Falkland Islands and some parts of the Caribbean…
It might be difficult to persuade a Court here that all of those places should be ignored for the purposes of working out the purposes of the translator…
July 25th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Brandon????
July 25th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Elena
You need to be as posh as the doctors !
July 25th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
not enough !!!!
July 25th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Maria Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
—————————————————————————————–
Very well composed Maria. You know if it didn’t concern a little 4 year old child and her family it would be hilarious. As it is, its too sad for words.
I never got the freezer bit. In any resort I’ve ever stayed in the apartment freezers would fit two ice trays,and some icecream if you were lucky and the fridges were about the size of an under counter fridge here.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
The lack of logic in some windylickers posts, is well ….logicless. Portugals chief law officer says no evidence and shelves the case, so what makes the windylickers think that the McCanns legals wont’ lead with that, when they take Amaral to the cleaners, or has Amaral kept the alleged evidence for himself…
July 25th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
the above from proud of the pj site
July 25th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Brandon
Night. x
July 25th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
jo say
Please,tell her I am mental and the process is irreversable
——————————–
Don’t worry! They don’t need to tell me!
July 25th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
It will be really embarrassing for them if the dont sue, and even more embarrassing if they do!
They have been snookered !
Night everyone
xxx
July 25th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Karen Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Jo
I have to avoid the same temptations since they opened a candy shop that sells ice-cream in Buchanan Street. I give in a lot. x
******
One an ice cream a day keeps the doctor away….although I start wondering if this is totally true though
Do NOT avoid anything,its a health hazard
SAM
Lets them sue Amaral: it is fab!
Veritablequery
It looks like Matt deserves a crown
Just seen Maria is back full blast so I am legging it before she sees me otherwise she will ask me to answer awful stuff I dont understand and I will be very embarrassed
Please,tell her I am mental and the process is irreversable
xxxx cave canem woof woof
July 25th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Ferd is clever with the numbers too, a lot of good it did him.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Time for eats.
Good sleuthing !!!!
July 25th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
veritablequandary Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I tries me very very best.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
jo Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
To Clarrify…I only required 3 of my ten toes to make additions to my calculations.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
jo Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
‘I am off for a wander in the big wild world…. and have an ice cream before diner ñam ñam ñam’
enjoy
July 25th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Jo
I have to avoid the same temptations since they opened a candy shop that sells ice-cream in Buchanan Street. I give in a lot. x
July 25th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
i wrote
‘ evidence against them.’
that’s too strong, i’ve no idea if the evidence was against them or not, and now it seems not considering the shelving of the case.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Matt you are very clever, good with figures.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Matt
3 toes? wow….are you an alien or somefink…arggghhh dont come too close! do you belong to the band that kidnapped Cocos kids sometime ago?
I am off for a wander in the big wild world…. and have an ice cream before diner ñam ñam ñam
I know,I know,I should not but hey….I deserve it
Bbl
July 25th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
jo Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
‘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.’
its so curious that even now no or hardly any mention is given to the fact that british police were involved in the investigation practically right from the beginning of madeleines disappearence, that a british police force provided the dogs and that the forensics were done in england, also, not to forget, the the ag and soca got involved when the mccanns tried to force revelation of evidence against them.