Madeleine McCann: Mrs Amaral, Kate McCann And Baby Jesus
MADDIE WATCH: Special Fury Edition. - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann - Today the Sunday Express has chatting thigns over with Goncalo Amaral’s wife, Sophia.
Daily Express: “WE FEEL THE MCCANN’S PAIN AS WELL.”
James Murray speaks not for a nation but for a woman:
THE wife of Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral has denied they are locked in a personal battle with Kate and Gerry McCann and has spoken of their pity for the distraught couple.
Pity? But surely the McCanns want only their daughter. And for Mrs Amaral’s husband not to write any more books that speculate on what could have happened to their daughter..?
“Everyone thinks we are fighting the McCanns but this is not true. I tell people all the time that they are having to endure the hardest pain in the world, which is losing a child.”
A pain she is well-placed to empathise with because…
As a mother I cannot imagine what kind of pain that is.
“As a mother…” Because if you’re not a parent you have even less chance of imaging what it must be like to lose a child. Being a parent is tabloid shorthand for caring. You can buy “Josef Fritzl - As A father…” at all good bookshops; “Ed Balls - As A father” was released as a press release; and “Karen Matthews – As A Mother” will soon appear.
“As A Parent…” is offered with “As a Catholic…” – an empathy double-header:
“Like Kate McCann, I am a Catholic. The image of pain in the Catholic church is not Christ on the Cross but Mary holding her child in her arms. It is the pain of the loss of a child and there is no worse pain in the world. We are sorry for that.”
Mary looks pretty chuffed with Baby Jesus in those iconic images, after all, he was an adult when the Romans killed him. And he was the Son of God, right? Madeleine McCann was a four-year-old child. Kate McCann is a GP from Leicester who journey by easyJet camel to Portugal on holiday. Make the link:
That pain was etched on the face of Kate McCann when she made a fleeting visit to Lisbon last week to meet her lawyers and to appeal for help in finding her daughter… Close to tears, Kate said: ‘‘She’s six now but we’ve just got to keep going. It has been very harrowing and draining. But there is no choice, she needs us to find her and bring her home.”
Kate McCanns went to Portugal to meet her lawyers and to appeal for help and…
The McCanns are suing him for £1million they believe he has made with his book about the case, The Truth Of The Lie, and a documentary.
They are particularly angered over his claims that Madeleine is not alive. Civil servant Sofia says her 49-year-old husband suffered post traumatic stress after he was removed as head of the Madeleine investigation in September 2007. He took early retirement the following month, even though he lost two-thirds of his pension.
As a mother… As a wife… As a Catholic… This article seems to be an open letter to Kate McCanns that readers of the Sunday tabloid are invited to study. Read the piece. Pick your sides. Later we read this:
His 25-year-old daughter from his first marriage, also called Sofia, has just passed a law degree. His wife has a daughter Rita, 11, from her first marriage and she has a daughter, Agnes, with Goncalo who will soon be six.
Six. That’s how old Madeleine McCann would be, or is.
“We will see all our family and friends and enjoy ourselves,” she said. “We are so lucky to have three beautiful girls in the family… “He never yells at them but he can also be a little overprotective. He is always worrying about them having accidents in the playground or wherever. I could not wish for a better father.”
Anyone else feeling queasy?
“It was a bad time for Goncalo,” said Sofia. Even in his sleep he was going over in his mind what had happened to him and how his career was brought to a premature end. I heard him talking in the night because of nightmares. Everything he did, every action he took was going through his head.”
And some of it making its way into a book. She then adds, damningly, perhaps:
“We know how Goncalo is portrayed in Britain, the caricature of a foreign detective missing the clues, but the reality is that you will not find a better detective in Portugal.”
Nor ex-detective. And you know where Maddie is… Look to the skies:
“…There are satellites which probably have close-up pictures of what was happening on the ground that day. He tried to get the images but he couldn’t. The US said the satellites were trained on Morocco at the time and that was it. That is what annoys him because he says the inquiry was not completed to his satisfaction. Goncalo loves me and our three girls very much but he lives for his job. For him an investigation is like a mathematical equation. One and one has to make two. Until the answer is found he will not give up.”
The Sunday Express delivers the facts:
From the proceeds of the book her husband has bought a Jaguar car but she insists he has not made a lot of money and that he will defend the legal action.
The hunt / case for Madeleine McCann goes on…
Posted: 27th, September 2009 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (14) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
- Desperate Dan on In Photos: Susan Boyle Sings Rockefeller Center Plaza In New York City
- CC on Madeleine McCann And The Wanted ‘James Bond’ Spy
- Mike on X Factor: Jedward, John & Edward Grimes, Are Voted Out At Last
- Cheryl on Susan Boyle: World Divided Over SuBo And Lady Susan
- June on Susan Boyle: World Divided Over SuBo And Lady Susan
September 27th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Has David Edgar sussed out who was driving the gold Nissan yet?
Come on, David, SEARCH FOR THE HERO INSIDE YOURSELF…
September 27th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Cheryl
I seriously doubt that Amaral is making millions from his book, possibly a couple of thousand.
I feel his publishers have made an error over the timing, it could influence very unfairly either way any court case.
The point is here what has happened to Madeleine McCann, not her parents involvement or lack of it in her disappearence.
The focus has shifted, and it shouldn’t.
It isn’t about Amaral, it isn’t about the McCann parents - it should be about Madeleine and her whereabouts.
September 27th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
The MF is up and running again!
September 27th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Coolandcalm, maybe this was a situation that was for him as Teresa Gorman MP stated was “…up with this I will not put!”
September 27th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Could that be because he put himself up there in the firing line by firstly leaking stuff to the media and secondly by writing a book, be it fact or fiction, so soon after the event?
If he had gone quietly when removed from the case and then carried on working on other cases then I doubt we’d even remember his name.
September 27th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
I see him as a victim because his reputation and career now lie in tatters. Of course, he’s as much to blame for that as anyone: his court case,long lunches, alleged poor detective work, etc. Still, no one else has yet proven what happened, so he remains a convenient scape goat, in my opinion. I honestly feel that most of the venom directed his way is because we like to see him as the inept foreign Policeman. Like the Pink Panther. Yet, British and American Police have proven many times over they are often unable to solve crimes like this, but are never attacked personally. That’s why I have sympathy for him.
September 27th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Cheryl, forgive me if I am wrong but don’t all police from Colombo to Dixon of Dock Green not first come up with theories and then as the investigation proceeds discard that which is impossible, improbable, and that which is just plain made up - until they have the truth in front of them and they can precede to an arrest. Or do the police that you know and admire miss out this step and just go for the conviction?
September 27th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Ineresting, Dr Eggman, note you have fallen for his attempts to portray himself somewhat as a ‘victim’. Victim of what? Ineptness; questionable conduct in investigating cases; making millions on the tragedy of a missing child; being convicted of a crime in a court of law?
His theory? Excuse me if I’m mistaken but I believe police are paid to do a job and investigate cases properly assigned to them and solve it - not come up with theories. After making a public spectacle of himself for 4 months he was removed from the case of a missing child and now makes millions with his ‘theories’ on why or how that child disappeared? .
September 27th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I found the article very interesting not only from what it said but also from the use of Catholic iconography in re-enforcing the message.
Sofia Amaral said that as a couple and parents they had “pity for the distraught couple” in the loss of their child. She spoke of being a mother but in particular a Catholic mother. “Like Kate McCann, I am a Catholic. The image of pain in the Catholic church is not Christ on the Cross but Mary holding her child in her arms. It is the pain of the loss of a child and there is no worse pain in the world. We are sorry for that.”
This is fine on the surface but for every Catholic that brings up the image of a Madonna and Child there will be many that see the image portrayed Michelangelo in his ‘Pietà’. A harrowing image of a mother who is holding her murdered child for the last time.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Perhaps there’s a future for Goncalo as an expert in the stylee of certain individuals whom I won’t name? I do actually feel sorry for him. As mentioned, he hasn’t got the backing of the media and presumably the PJ, so he’s been left another victim in this awful affair. Until we DO know what happened (and I’m sure we will one day), his theory remains, well, a theory. Along with all the others.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:44 am
She is sadly lacking in fury and not blond. I’m surprised the DE even bothered…….
September 27th, 2009 at 10:43 am
actually she and he have had many ‘friend of the family’ quotes, journo backing and interviews and huge amounts of publishing PR support.
Keep up at the back there!
September 27th, 2009 at 8:23 am
coolandcalm,
You mean she’s managed to say one thing and another without the aide of a PR expert and ‘a friend of the family’?
Remarkable, indeed.
September 27th, 2009 at 7:48 am
a touch of about turn there then. I wonder what changed her mind?