Anorak

Anorak News | Madeleine McCann: Portugal Police Search And Eilis O’Hanlon Empathises

Madeleine McCann: Portugal Police Search And Eilis O’Hanlon Empathises

by | 27th, July 2008

MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann

SUNDAY PEOPLE: “Police hunt for Maddie ‘is still on’”

Portugal’s top cop has vowed to search “to the ends of the Earth” for Maddie McCann even though prosecutors have shelved the case. Almeida Rodrigues, head of the Judicial Police, said his detectives will chase up all leads until the 15-month mystery is solved.

No end in sight.

He said: “A case only stops being investigated if there is a successful criminal trial.”

IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Only McCanns know full pain of never-ending story – If you find the ambiguity hard to live with, imagine the trauma the McCanns have to endure, writes Eilis O’Hanlon”

Let’s empathise. Says O’Hanlon:

It’s difficult to know where the story can go from here.

But you’ve got a column to fill. Dig deep.

But it still feels as if an ending of sorts has been reached. The disappearance of Madeleine has become a part of history. That’s probably a shocking indictment of the shortness of our collective memory — but, reprehensible or not, it’s true.

It’s living history. Read about it today’s Irish Indy.

The internet obsessives will keep the flame burning a little longer, having determined long ago not to let a little thing like the facts stop them witch-hunting Kate and Gerry; but even they will give up eventually.

Read O’Hanlon’s column online.

And that’s why there’s still such an unwillingness among many to accept that the McCanns’ names really have been conclusively cleared. Take the Portuguese statement at face value, rather than deciphering it for clues that Madeleine’s parents really were guilty of her murder and are only being exonerated because they have powerful friends who put pressure on the authorities in Praia da Luz, and what it means is that there still isn’t closure and there’s precious little prospect of there ever being so. It means living with ambiguity.

Well, no. The McCanns are no longer suspects because there is no evidence to say otherwise. But hasn’t it all ended, O’Hanlon?



Posted: 27th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (368) | TrackBack | Permalink