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

THE SUN front page: “Crunch day on Maddie”

It’s “D-Day today” as forensic experts meet with Portuguese police. Portugal’s “top forensics expert” Francisco Corte-Real and Inspector Ricardo Paiva, “one of the cops in charge of the case”, will hold talks with UK police and scientists from Britain’s Forensic Science Services

What’s the D in D-Day for?

A “legal source” says: “This is D-day for the McCanns…Whatever is in that report is crucial to whether Kate and Gerry are charged, or cleared”

D is for Dunnit?

DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE IN MAKE OR BREAK SUMMIT. Portuguese detectives fly to Britain”

The visit has been “dubbed a DNA summit”.

D for DNA?

Says a source: “They are going to England to decode the results of the tests so we are not caught by surprise…The team that is going to the UK is going to examine everything microscopically to make sure the tests have not been manipulated by someone linked to the suspects. We want to be sure all the information that reaches us has not previously been interfered with”

Why would it have been? All forensic materials are in police custody…

Page 5: “Madeleine: “’Someone’s holding back the truth’”

And: “Kate and Gerry McCann are behind a deliberate campaign of misinformation about the disappearance of their daughter it was claimed yesterday”

Says who? Says a “high-ranking police source in Portugal”. Has he any proof?

He tells Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas: “We have analysed all the information reaching the public. None of the reports indicating sightings of the McCanns’ daughter have been confirmed. And there’s also someone who wants to bring down an investigation that has been carried out honestly and rigorously”

So no mistakes were made? And if they were made, there were just honest ones..?

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ official spokesman, says: “We understand there is no intention for the McCanns to be interviewed or indeed anybody else. That such a meeting is taking place is not particularly surprising and we do not see this as a significant development”

Pages 28-29: “More extracts from the Daily Express’ book Madeleine: A Most Heartbreaking And Extraordinary Disappearance. Can you the difference between the paper’s reporting and its book?

DAILY MIRROR page 15: “MADDY SUMMIT”

Says a source: “There are no witnesses – no smoking gun. The whole care rest on these tests”

What about Jane Tanner? And Mirror hack Lori Campbell and her outing of “creepy” Robert Murat? And other witnesses?

DAILY MAIL page 13: “D-day for the McCann as DNA team fly in for summit”

D-Day and a summit. The Mail has both.

D is for Double

And it has facts: Both Gerry and Kate McCann are “doctors”

“Irrelevant’ private eyes are costing the Madeleine fund £2,000 a day” – Spanish private detective agency Metodo 3 is charging the McCanns’ £50,000 a month. The Mail does some maths and works it out at “around” £2,000 a day. There are 31 days in October

Portuguese police say the private detectives are “irrelevant”. How much a Portuguese police detective earns is not reported

DAILY STAR page 11: “MADDIE: D-DAY FOR PARENTS”

Kate McCann is a “GP”. Gerry McCann is a “heart consultant”. Facts!

D is for Doctors

“In the dark: Gerry and Kate McCann were unaware of the meeting,” says the paper.

Says Clarence Mitchell in the Star’s sister paper, the Express: “We have been informed by Leicestershire police that a meeting between forensic scientists from Portugal and the Forensic Science Service laboratory will be taking place”

DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann: Portuguese police fly to UK

A spokeswoman from Leicestershire Constabulary says: “There is a meeting taking place but it is not due to any specific development. There has been excellent dialogue between the British and the Portuguese authorities but they found it was time to have a face-to-face meeting. They are not going to be speaking to anyone else while they are in the UK, they are just here for the meeting”

An “insider” tells Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas: “The team going to the UK is going to examine everything microscopically. Portuguese police have already indicated they expect the DNA tests to be ‘indicative’ rather than ‘conclusive’ but are said to be frustrated at the delay”

So not quite D-day, then. More C(ould Be) Day

Says a source: “We cannot understand how the tests which could have been carried out in Portugal in six or seven days have taken almost four months to be concluded”

THE TIMES page 27: “Madeleine police meet to discuss evidence”

And: The Find Madeleine Fund today launches a poster campaign across Southern Spain, part of a new £80,000 publicity drive

D is for Disappeared

THE GUARDIAN and THE INDEPENDENT: No Madeleine news today

The speculation so far

Posted: 29th, November 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0