MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.

DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE – POLICE QUIZ WAITER FOR THIRD TIME – Tapas bar worker holds the key”

The Tapas One! Is he Jose Baptista, the Tapas Waiter? The Express says it is another waiter. The Tapas Two?

The Portuguese man is “said to have been the first person to see Kate McCann as she raised the alarm after discovering her daughter had gone missing from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz. He has allegedly given a dramatically different account of the events on May 3 from statements made by the McCanns and their friends”

Page 7: “Waiter’s evidence ‘will be trump card in police case against McCanns’” - Says the police? Says Metodo 3? No, says “a report”. One newspaper’s opinion is now another paper’s front-page news

Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias notes: “This waiter is a witness considered crucial to the investigation. The investigators want to find out about what happened during dinner – the conversations and the McCanns’ behaviour as well as their alleged trips to the apartment. The employee still insists it is not true that the child’s parents checked their children every half hour”

Kate McCann is a “39-year-old GP” – Such are the facts

Baptista told investigators that Kate screamed: “They’ve taken her. They’ve taken her” when she discovered Madeleine gone

Says McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “Kate has consistently and categorically absolutely denied she said that on the verandah. She may have said it at some stage as a general remark, but she did not run out with this phrase. Whoever this guy is, and if he is saying this, he is either making it up or he is mistaken. Kate, Gerry and their friends told the truth. They will continue to maintain their stories, because it is the truth. Whatever this guy is saying we reject it – it is not true”

DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: WE FIND MISSING WITNESS – REAL breakthrough as first man at scene tells all”

There is “BOMBSHELL evidence from a tapas bar waiter. And the Star has found him. Only it can’t name him. It found him in the pages of the Portuguese newspaper. And as soon as they have named him you can rest assured the Star will reveal the results of its investigation to its readers

DAILY MAIL front page: “MADELEINE – Murat sat in as police questioned Tapas Nine”

Page 7: “Murat, translator for the Tapas Nine – Friends of the McCanns reacted with disbelief and anger to the news. There were also fears that Mr Murat could have influenced the police’s understanding of the statements of the Tapas Nine”

But Murat didn’t meet all the Tapas Nine with the police, just Rachael Oldfield and Dianne Webster, the mother of Fiona Payne, who was at the Ocean Club’s tapas restaurant with the McCanns that night. A misleading headline?

Says Murat’s lawyer: “My client did not preside over police interviews of multiple witnesses. The only interview of which he translated was that of Dianne Webster”

Says one of the McCanns’ friends: “It beggars belief. It’s absolutely outrageous that someone who a few days later is declared an arguido was aware of much of what initial witnesses said” – Murat was later named a suspect. He was not a suspect at the time on his translating. Just as the McCanns would surely have been given some information on the case, and they were later named as suspects

“This disgusting soap opera, by suspect’s lover” – Michaela Walczuch says her “ordeal” is a “stupid, disgusting soap opera”

THE SUN front page: “MADDIE SHAMBLES – Daft police let suspect translate during quiz of Tapas 7 – SHE DESERVES BETTER”

But Robert Murat was not a suspect when he sat in as a translator in an interview with one member of the Tapas Seven/Tapas Nine. But then, who’s counting? Not the Sun…

Pages 4 and 5: “MADDIE COPS’ SHOCKING MURAT BUNGLE” – In allowing a man with no previous form to sit in on interviews with his countrymen, the so-called Tapas Seven, the Tapas Nine, the Tapas Two? Such are the Sun’s facts

Murat the helpful translator? The Sun: Murat the “oddball Brit expat”

A friend of the Tapas 7 says: “They are all furious – they thought Murat was a legitimate part of the investigation. He infiltrated himself and was privy to what was said by many of the key players. It’s just the sort of information a suspect would want. It beggars belief. Portuguese police have made mistake after mistake. This just adds to the list”

A source says: “It compromises an investigation when someone who turns out to be a suspect is given intimate details of what witnesses are saying. These are some of the people who have blown apart his alibi, yet police have allowed him to listen to them giving their evidence. He was not present when Rachael told police she had seen him on the night, but she gave plenty of details that would be handy for him”

Blown apart his alibi? Not according to his lawyer, or his mother…

“Family Xmas vigil at church” – “The McCanns plan to spend much of Christmas in church praying for Maddie. Kate and Gerry will be attending the midnight mass on Christmas Eve. They will also go to an earlier special children’s service with their twins Amelie and Sean, two”

How does the Sun know this? Say the McCanns: “We plan to have a very quiet, private Christmas with family in the UK.” But if the press know their movements in advance, surely they will be there to watch. What chance of quiet?

DAILY MIRROR front page: “McCANNS SHOCK – MURAT HELPED COPS QUIZ TAPAS 7″

“EXCLUSIVE” news on the Tapas 7

Page 4: “’People just don’t feel like celebrating Christmas..it’s all about keeping our children close rather than razzle dazzle,” says Gwyneth Green who runs a flower shop in Rothley, where the McCanns live

Increase the fear. Spread the anxiety

But Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal, not in Leicestershire. But in Rothley “celebrations have been more subtle and sedate as people worry for the lost little girl”

Says the Mirror: “Around the trunks yellow ribbons, now faded and frayed, hand rigid in the frosty air”

The Mirror no longer equips its masthead with yellow ribbon.

Madeleine McCann – the news so far

Posted: 17th, December 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0