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

THE SUN page 21: “CASE CLOSED – Portuguese cops to quit on Maddie as suspect’s girlfriend linked to case”

“BAFFLED Portuguese police [surely, “bungling”] are set to CLOSE the Madeleine McCann investigation - despite startling new evidence emerging”

A police source tells Portuguese newspaper 24 Hors: “We are practically back where we started. The parents are still the prime suspects in hiding their daughter’s body - not of her death, which was probably accidental. But there is no firm proof”

And of the McCanns – the “Leicestershire doctors Kate and Gerry, both 39” - and Robert Murat? Suspects forever…

But never fear “the private detectives hired by her frustrated parents Kate and Gerry are working on sensational new leads that suggest she could be alive”

DAILY MIRROR page 15: “I HAVE AN ALIBI – Murat’s girl ‘in church’ when Maddy abducted”

Madeleine McCann goes missing and at the same moment Michaela Walczuch “was four miles from the family villa with Jehovah’s Witnesses”

Says a friend of hers: “She was at a church meeting in Lagos on the night. She told police this when questioned and they confirmed her story”

Says Clarence Mitchell: “Everything Metodo 3 does is within the law” – and on the meter?

DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANNS ATE STILL THE MAIN SUSPECTS – Police ‘have closed case’”

Says a source to 24 Horas: ““Detectives are getting ready to pack their bags. Given the current state of the investigation, police chiefs are considering demobilising the team sent specifically to investigate the case and are even planning on moving Paulo Rebelo, the head of the investigation, onto tasks of greater responsibility”

A family friend of the McCanns says: “The worst thing that could happen is for the case to close and Gerry and Kate to remain official suspects” – That’s the worst thing?

Page 9: “Alibi will prove me innocent” - Ms Walczuch said she had an alibi that proves she is “absolutely not involved” in Madeleine’s disappearance

Says the Express: “Walczuch lives five miles from Praia da Luz in Lagos with her estranged husband Portuguese husband pool-cleaner Luis Antonio, 47, and their eight year-old daughter. She set up a property business called Romigen with Murat. In a bizarre living arrangement Murat lived at the flat for six months to conduct an affair with Walczuch while Antonio was still there”

So was she in Silves, where the Portuguese truck driver says he saw her hand over a child?

The “WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER” reports: “Silves was the scene of the attempted child abduction last year. Three-year-old Carolina Santos, who is blonde with blue eyes, was found being led away from the family cafe near the town of Silves by a man last year… Father Abel Santos, 40, said: ‘We were busy working in the kitchen and came out to find out she wasn’t there. ‘I searched around for her and saw her some way away on the road with a man I took to be Moroccan. We started towards them shouting and Carolina stopped and turned towards us. He disappeared around the bend.’ His wife Lina, 28, added: ‘It was very strange because Carolina is very shy and doesn’t go with strangers. When I asked her what happened she said he told her that he had another little girl for her to play with’” – Was Madeleine McCann kidnapped in Portugal before she went missing?

DAILY STAR page 11: “Parents still in police sights”

“A probe by new police chief Paulo Rebelo has concluded the four-year-old’s mum Kate and dad Gerry were rightly named suspects. But there is not enough evidence to charge them, according to police sources”

“MADDIE: COPS TELL PRIVATE EYES TO BACK OFF” – “THE £2,000-a-day private eyes hired by Madeleine McCann’s parents to find her were dismissed by police last night as ‘irrelevant small fry’”

How much do the Portuguese police cost to run?

Says a police source: “The McCanns’ investigators are small fry. The information they have gathered lacks credibility. They are only in places that have already been talked about. They are going over old ground. Miss Walczuch is not a suspect. She was at a prayer meeting. This was established months ago. There are no new leads. We know when the private detectives come and what they are doing here”

A source close to the prosecutor handling the case says: “If they speak to any witness who has been named in the case, or have access to a procedural piece of evidence or a case document, they are committing a crime which could be obstruction of justice”

So the Private detectives can’t even speak with Michaela Walczuch…

DAILY MAIL page 11: “Murat lover ‘was at Jehovah’s meeting as Maddie vanished’”

“German-born Miss Walczuch” was in church when Madeleine went missing

But: “She has failed to reveal, however, where she was on May 5 and June 15, when two separate witnesses claim to have seen her with Madeleine. Mr Murat’s lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, claimed yesterday this was because her diary had been seized by the police some months ago and has not been returned”

Her estranged husband, Luis Antonio, is “a pool cleaner and gardener”

“McCANN DETECTIVES ATTACKED” – “Police launched a contemptuous attack yesterday on the private detectives working for Kate and Gerry McCann”
Police call the PIs “small fry”

DAILY TELEGRAPH page 11:” Portuguese detectives ‘ready to abandon Madeleine inquiry’”

The team of detectives led by Paulo Rebelo are “on the brink of shelving the investigation”

THE INDEPENDENT, THE TIMES and THE GUARDIAN: No Madeleine news today

Posted: 22nd, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0