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

DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – McCANNS ‘GUILTY OF EXTREME NEGLIGENCE” – Mayor’s astonishing attack”

The mayor of Paria da Luz is called Manuel Domingues Borba. We had not heard his name mentioned in the British press, until now. Can he inject some newsworthiness into the story?

Says Senor Borba: “I would never leave my children sleeping alone and go to dinner in a foreign country – especially as there are babysitters for that very purpose…I consider the parents guilty of negligence at the very least. There was a total abuse of trust and extreme negligence”

Mr Borba is 71. The ages of his children are not given.

Says he: “I think the majority of locals, Portuguese and British too, all believe that the parents created this situation”

Pages 4 and 5: “How could they leave a child?”

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ media voice, says: “We’re not going to dignify this sort of nonsense with much comment”. But he will comment. “This man is not a police officer and has no access to any details of the case”

Indeed. The media have no access either to the police files, nor the people who listen to Clarence Mitchell’s daily comments. But you can still form an impression

And we hear from Jenny Murat, Robert Murat’s mother. “We did nothing wrong and we have been penalised for their mistake. It is really upsetting. I cannot tell you what has been going on here. It has just been horrendous,” says she.

She goes on: “Metodo [the McCanns private detectives] were getting people to change their statements, following everybody everywhere. They were certainly following me. If they [Metodo 3] have anybody who saw Robert, they are paying them to lie. They were following me everywhere. Why? I don’t know. It’s pretty scary, I can tell you.”

Says Clarence Mitchell: “It is a ridiculous suggestion to claim M3 are paying witnesses to change their story. That is entirely untrue and M3 are acting completely within the law in what they are doing… We are not going to get into a row and she is entitled to her own opinion, but Kate and Gerry felt they had done everything possible for their children on May 3 and that they were perfectly safe”

We listen to opinions. And Madeleine McCann is missing…

THE SUN page 8: “MAYOR: McCANNS GUILTY OF NEGLECT”

Says Senor Borba: “This tragedy occurred because of the parents”

Says Clarence Mitchell: “We feel these comments are unrepresentative of the majority of the Portuguese people”

DAILY STAR page 15: “MADDIE’S ‘GUILTY’ PARENTS RAPPED”

Manuel Domingues Borba “has been president of Luz for 14 years”. Fact!

Mr Borba says “GP mum Kate and heart consultant dad Gerry, both 39” should have been forced to remain in Portugal after being named suspects

More facts

Says he: “As soon as they were made ‘arguidos’ they did what they had said they would never do – leave. They did so in a great hurry. They never even passed through security. They went through the VIP gate”

Does Mr Borba think they should have been searched and asked if they packed their bags themselves?

DAILY MAIL page 13: “’A total abuse of trust’ - Portuguese mayor condemns Maddie’s parents for leaving her as the backlash against the couple grows”

The picture of Kate McCann shows her smiling as she goes to church

“The backlash against Madeleine McCann’s parents gathered pace as the mayor of the town from which she disappeared described the unresolved case as ‘a stain’ on his community”

Says Clarence Mitchell said: “We are disappointed that this sort of comment is still being made, particularly when it is based on no truth whatsoever”

DAILY MIRROR front page: “McCANNS FURY OVER MAYOR’S CRUEL SLUR”

It is now the 105th time the word “FURY” has appeared in a story about the McCanns’ reaction to news

Page 7: “I BLAME THE McCANNS FOR MADDY’S FATE” – more from Mr Borba

Says Clarence Mitchell on the McCanns: “No one regrets it more then them”

THE TIMES page 18: “A job offer for speakers of fluent gibberish”

Matthew Parris has been to the Algarve. He was filming “an authored commentary for BBC2’s What The Papers Say review of the year on the way the British press have handled the Madeleine McCann story”

Says he: “It is awful to recognise, with a sense of nameless heaviness, a place you do not know: like déjà vu from some disturbed nightmare. As I paced too and fro reciting the script I had written, the melancholy thought struck me that commentary truly finds its second wind when secondary commentary — commentary about the commentary — is launched”

“Diplomats abandoned me, says Madeleine McCann case suspect”

According to Robert Murat’s lawyer, the Foreign Office told diplomats to avoid offering Mr Murat consular assistance due to “the specific nature of the case” and because they “were already helping Madeleine McCann’s parents”

DAILY TELEGRAPH page 7: “Murat’s mother criticises McCanns for leaving girl”

Jenny Murat says…

THE SCOTSMAN: “Madeleine suspect’s mother says parents ‘did wrong’

THE INDEPENDENT and THE GUARDIAN : No Madeleine news

Lots of Medeleine news 

Posted: 13th, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0