Breaking Media, Politicians & Celebrities Since 1995

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

DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADDY: THREE ACCUSED – Investigators think friends may have plotted kidnap”

“Private detectives fear Robert Murat, girlfriend Michaela Walczuch and her estranged husband Luis Antonio were part of an organised ring that snatched the four-year-old”

Oh. Any evidence?

“Pool cleaner Antonio worked at the resort where Maddy vanished and had full access to the complex. He could have spied on her before the plot was hatched”

Murat’s lawyer Francisco Pagarete says: “These allegations are ridiculous”

Page 5: Jane Tanner sees man with a child in his arms.

“He had his face turned away from me, sort of sideways, and it was very dark. I just didn’t see it properly. I wish to God I had. I wake up to that image every day. [Daily Mirror readers empathise.] Every day I seem striding away, carrying Madeleine away. I try desperately to remember more detail, what his face was like. I think about it over and over. It’s horrible,” says Jane Tanner

And Robert Murat… Is it him?

Says Jane Tanner: “I’ve never pointed the finger at Robert Murat. I don’t know if it was him. I would say the man I saw that night was more Mediterranean looking”

It was Lori Campbell, the Mirror’s hack, who pointed the finger at “creepy” Murat

DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE QUIZ PRIEST AGAIN, Church searched and he is questioned over close links to McCanns”

Portuguese police carried out a detailed search at Our Lady Of Light church in Praia da Luz, including the old cemetery.

The operation was carried out “informally and with maximum discretion” by agents from the Policia Judiciaria. Officers “spent the day” with Father Jose Manuel Pacheco, visiting his home

This is the same Father Pacheco who went missing, who felt “deceived”

Says a friend: “Whenever anybody talks about Madeleine he steers the talk on to other subjects. He has stopped going to all the places he used to go, especially the coffee shops. There are two completely different Pachecos, the one before the McCanns and the one after”

Pages 4 and 5: “Jane Tanner: “I’m haunted by her kidnapper.” Says Jane Tanner: “I DID see a man that night carrying away Madeleine,” says Jane Tanner. “She WAS abducted”

“No DNA on the holiday hire car” – Test on the McCanns’ Renault Scenic find no evidence of the missing girl. These are tests funded by “home improvements tycoon” Brian Kennedy. He supports the McCanns

DAILY STAR front page: “Maddie cops dig up graves – Horror scenes you didn’t see on last night Panorama”

“Police hunting Maddie McCann have secretly searched the church and its graveyard where her parents prayed for her safe return”

Police “think her GP mum Kate and heart consultant dad Gerry disposed of her body to mask their negligence after leaving her while they dined with pals in a nearby tapas bar”

All lines of investigation remain open

Says Clarence Mitchell: “We continue to work very closely with the private investigators. We are encouraged by any developments they feel are significant”

Pages 8 and 9: The Star’s phone poll asks readers to answer “YES” or “NO” to the poser: “SHOULD THE McCANNS BE CHARGED WITH NEGLECT?”

Anorak reader Anthony Bennett says they should be

Jane Tanner: “Snatching haunts me every day.” Says she: “I think we were lulled into a false sense of security by the fact it was very much a family resort and quite quiet at that time”

THE SUN pages 12 and 13: “McCANNS’ PAL TALKS TO THE SUN”

It’s Jane Tanner. It’s an “EXCLUSIVE”. It’s her “first interview with any newspaper”. It most likely took place just before her interviews in the Mirror, Express, Star, after she had spoken to the BBC…

Says “Tapas Jane”: “The man was about ten to fifteen feet in front of me and was walking quite quickly and I can remember thinking, ‘That’s odd’”

DAILY MAIL page 13: “It was dark. I just can’t say for sure who took Madeleine”

Jane Tanner needs some help. So the Mail puts a picture of the “figure” Tanner says she saw carrying Madeleine alongside a shot of Michaela Walczuch walking. Similar?

Note that Wallczuzh is a woman, blonde and not “more Mediterranean looking” than Robert Murat

“WHY WERE THE CHILDREN LEFT?” – “Says Kate McCann’s mother Susan Healy: “I have to say that I’m surprised that Kate and Gerry left their children at all”

THE SCOTSMAN: “Girlfriend of suspect denies Madeleine link”

“Tuck Price, family friend, said that any suggestion Ms Walczuch was involved in the case was ‘ridiculous’, adding: ‘She would deny that 100 per cent’”

Says Mr Price, who has spoken on Mr Murat’s behalf: “Michaela has a daughter, she is a decent woman. The police have known Michaela’s story from day one”

THE TIMES page 33: “McCanns’ friend haunted by glimpse of mystery man”

“Ms Tanner, 34, has told police previously that she did not believe the man was Robert Murat, the first official suspect in the case. But yesterday she claimed that she did not get a good enough look at the abductor’s face to rule him out”

DAILY TELEGRAPH page 13: “Madeleine: McCanns’ friend ‘haunted’ by night”

Jane Tanner: “The woman who says she saw Madeleine McCann being carried away by her abductor has said she is haunted by the images of the man she knows she will never be able to identify”

THE GUARDIAN: “Madeleine witness speaks of ‘guilt’”

Says Jane Tanner: “I would say the man I saw was more local, or Mediterranean-looking, rather than British, or a tourist. He had dark, almost black, long hair and had swarthy skin. He was dressed in that sort of smart casual way European people dress, not the way Brits on holiday dress normally”

THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today

Posted: 20th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0