Madeleine McCann: Robert Murat Seen, The News As A Novel And Indecision
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
DAILY MIRROR: “Sisters saw Murat at McCann flat”
“Sisters Jayne Jensen and Annie Wiltshire say they are 100 per cent sure they saw Robert Murat nearby minutes after Madeleine McCann vanished”
After… They were in Praia da Luz on holiday. Was Murat alone?
Says a source: “Jayne remembers seeing him outside the entrance, smoking cigarettes, between 10.30pm and 11pm. So every time they see him claiming he was not there on the night, they find it ridiculous”
And a first: “The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell also refused to comment”. Can a spokesman make no comment?
DAILY MAIL: “Madeleine: Now two British sisters question Robert Murat’s alibi for the night she disappeared”
“Annie Wiltshire and Jayne Jensen told police they saw Mr Murat near the Ocean Club apartment complex at about 10.30pm on May 3, about 30 minutes after Mrs McCann, 39, raised the alarm that her daughter was missing.
“Mrs Jensen, 54, recognised him when they saw him again the next day, when he was working as a translator for police investigating the disappearance. The sisters said his behaviour was ’strange’ and described how he changed his clothes at least once during the day of May 4, but then insisted to them that he had been wearing the same outfit all day”
Eight people claim to have seen Murat on the night Madeleine disappeared - “The two British sisters, Mark Warner nanny Charlotte Pennington, two tourists who contacted Metodo 3 independently and three of the McCanns’ friends, Fiona Payne, Rachael Oldfield and Russell O’Brien”
DAILY EXPRESS: “SISTERS TELL POLICE: WE SAW MURAT NEAR THE APARTMENT”
A source close to Metodo 3, the private detective firm hired by the McCanns and contacted by the sisters says: “On May 3 in the afternoon they saw two men on a ground floor balcony. It was the first time they had ever seen anyone there. They thought it was strange because they had always thought the apartment was empty
“The next day they went and told a policeman about these men they had seen. An officer walked back with them to the apartment to check it. As they did so, Murat appeared and acted as an interpreter for them. He was dressed in a navy blue T-shirt and jeans, he was very sweaty, and his comment was, ‘I must go and shower and change, I’ve been in these clothes all day.’
“They felt that was strange as he had been in a striped shirt and trousers earlier”
Sweaty. In Portugal. In the summer…
THE SUN: “MURAT’S MADDY ALIBI BLOWN”
“TWO British sisters have revealed they saw oddball Robert Murat lurking by the Portuguese holiday apartment from which Madeleine McCann vanished”
Oddball… Lurking…
Jayne Jensen’s son Joe says: “They feel their evidence is very circumstantial but realise it could be crucial when taken into the wider picture. They saw Robert Murat on the night Madeleine disappeared and they want to help. They decided to report what they saw. It’s not a question of having a go at Murat”
Circumstantial. Not to the Sun…
DAILY TELEGRPAH: “Robert Murat ’seen near Madeleine McCann’s flat’”
“They also claimed they saw two blond, tanned men acting suspiciously near the McCanns’ holiday home on the afternoon before Madeleine went missing”
Robert Murat has dark hair
“The women, both thought to be in their 40s from Aylesford in Kent, were on a two-week holiday in the Algarve at the same time as the McCanns and became friends through tennis”
The Express, Mirror and Mail report on “Annie Wiltshire, 58, and Jayne Jensen, 54”
Says Clarence Mitchell, now willing to talk: “These women have given a statement and we are very grateful to them for the information. We continue to appeal for any witnesses who have not yet come forward to do so”
THE GUARDIAN: “Bad Science”
“The papers went even wilder over the South African ex-cop with his magic quantum box: it could locate anyone - including Madeleine McCann - anywhere in the world using its secret “matter-orientation system”
“The year of indecision - It was a year dominated by a toddler. Opinions on her disappearance swung back and forth. And that was the theme of 2007, as politicians and military leaders, royals and voters - and lastly Canoe Man - all had a change of heart”
We cried for the McCanns. We booed the McCanns. “Outside the Portuguese police station, crowds booed and jeered as the McCanns emerged, their blank faces bleached with disbelief. And suddenly everything - even Maddy’s Cuddle Cat, bathetic emblem of their grief - was recast in suspicion.” We were unsure about the McCanns
“In this one respect, the story of the McCanns was perfectly emblematic of this year, so precisely did its narrative mirror the shape of the many other events it overshadowed. It was a story about people changing their minds. And in 2007, people changed their minds about an awful lot of things”
A NEW BOOK: “In what looks set to be one of spring’s most interesting novels, Gordon Burn is rushing the very recent past into print. From his award-winning debut novel Alma Cogan to his Fred West biography Happy Like Murderers, Burn has long blended fact and fiction, and in Born Yesterday: The News as a Novel (Faber, April) he finds his natural subject: the news as entertainment. Twenty-four-hour rolling news, the blogosphere and digital interactivity feed our culture of speculation and spin. Burn takes a few highly charged weeks in 2007 - the summer of floods, terror attacks, the Blair/Brown changeover and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - to investigate media manipulation and the boundaries between fact and fiction”
Months Of Indecision - Madeleine McCann Day By Day
December 29th, 2007 at 7:59 am
Good morning people.
December 29th, 2007 at 8:12 am
566 Chateleine
from yesterday
Thank you for your concern. I am still here, but simply do not respond to stupid comments or bad language. I had a full career in the police and have learned that I don’t have to.
December 29th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Great that this surfaces now. A real ring of truth/b011ocks about this don’t you think?
December 29th, 2007 at 9:05 am
“The women, both thought to be in their 40s from Aylesford in Kent, were on a two-week holiday in the Algarve at the same time as the McCanns and became friends through tennis”
The Express, Mirror and Mail report on “Annie Wiltshire, 58, and Jayne Jensen, 54”
————————–
They are close in age to Dianne Webster. Did Dianne play tennis after all?
December 29th, 2007 at 9:07 am
With your experience in the police, I’m interested to hear your view on Robert Murat’s status as a suspect
December 29th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Why only come out now with the news. Is there something for them in the New Year stocking.
December 29th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Anonymous (yesterday)
Anonymous, I’ve posted the ‘19 Reasons’ for you before. Yesterday you asked me to post them again at ‘9.00am sharpish’ or words to that effect.
Here they are again, expanded now to ‘21 Reasons’ with the help of a couple of contributors to this Forum. I would be grateful for any observations on Reasons Nos. 20 and 21.
It is a remarkable fact that despite the abuse and general denunciation of McCann-sceptics by the likes of Garth and others, and claims that the ‘19 Reasons’ are just ’speculation and innuendo’ or even ‘libellous’ (Cheryl), I have not yet seen any pro-McCann poster seriously attempt to demolish even *one* of the 19 reasons.
I welcome constructive debate, so if there are any pro-McCanns visiting the Anorak Forum today, please let us have a detailed analysis of why *any* of thse 21 reasons is not a reason for entertaining serious doubts about the McCanns’ claim of an abduction.
Your failure to provide a detailed rebuttal of any of these reasons is very telling:
============================================================
19 REASONS FOR DOUBTING THAT MADELEINE WAS ‘ABDUCTED’
NOW EXPANDED TO 21 REASONS
1. UNLIKELIHOOD OF ‘STRANGER ABDUCTION’
Because the statistics on alleged ’stranger’ abductions from a person’s home show that a member of the ‘abducted’ child’s family is usually the perpetrator, and the child is usually dead. Something like 99% of all claimed ‘abductions’ from a house turn out to be intra-family murder. There have been two high profile cases just in the last few weeks - ‘Baby Grace’ found battered and decomposing in a plastic box on sand dunes near Galveston, and the ‘dead baby in the attic’. Both were claimed abductions - hoaxes
2. REFUSING TO ANSWER PJ QUESTIONS
The McCanns didn’t answer the PJ’s questions – those are the not actions of innocent parents, who would bend over backwards to assist the police in every way they could
3. ANXIETY ABOUT ‘PHONE CALLS BEING MONITORED
The McCanns expressing anxiety about their ’phone calls and e-mails being intercepted. What innocent parent would worry about that?
4. COCEALING RECORDS OF THEIR MOBILE PHONE CALLS
Their refusal to supply their mobile phone bills to the PJ
5. IGNORING ADVICE NOT TO HIGHLIGHT MADELEINE’S EYE DEFECT
Their ignoring the clearest possible PJ advice not to highlight Madeleine’s eye defect - the coloboma (iris defect) - if Madeleine were still alive, it would have put Madeleine at much greater risk of death. Their conduct suggests they knew she was already dead. They deliberately ignored the advice not to make Madeleine so recognisable that the abductors (if she was abducted) would kill her. All the posters emphasising the coloboma, and then the announcement of all the sightings and claims of being right on the kidnappers’ trail…all made Madeleine more at risk
6. IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE ANDUCTION HAPPENING AS CLAIMED
The sheer impossibility of the abduction – so many questions, e.g. why did the abductor wait for 35 minutes after the McCanns sauntered down to the Tapas bar, was he hiding behind the door as Gerry McCann checked the children (that’s what he claims), did he really walk in through patio doors, then climb out through the window and shutters with Madeleine? And so on
7. CHANGING STORIES OF WHAT THE ABDUCTOR LOOKED LIKE
Jane Tanner’s changed story of what the abductor looked like. Initially ‘his head was egg-shaped, he had some short hair, and was carrying a bundle, maybe a blanket’, then, a full 3 weeks later - to make sure that the PJ issued a description - ‘I definitely saw him carrying a girl in pink pyjamas’. Then after *six* months we get an artist’s impression of the abductor and are now told: ‘Head not egg-shaped, hair long ,sleek, black and shiny, abductor not white but ’swarthy and Mediterranean’ etc.
8. THE PARENTS’ ABSOLUTE INSISTENCE THAT ABDUCTION WAS THE ONLY EXPLANATION FOR MADELEINE GOING MISSING
The parents’ immediate and insistent cry of abduction - excluding all other possibilities
9. CLAIMING THE ABDUCTOR WAS A MAN ALLEGEDLY SEEN BY JANE TANNER
Gerry McCann proceeding, after 3 weeks, to issue a description of the abductor based *solely* on Jane Tanner’s dubious sighting - against PJ advice and only after Gordon Brown ’phoned PJ
10. THE ‘TAPAS 9’ PACT OF SILENCE
The ‘Pact of Silence’ or ‘Circle’ of the ‘Tapas 9′ - the notorious agreement between them all to keep silent about the events of that night
11. CHANGES OF STORY
Changes of story. Example –
Day 1: “Shutters jemmied open, windows open, patio doors locked, abductor must have forced his way in”.
Days 2 and 3: PJ and Mark Warners say: “No way shutters and window were forced from outside”.
Several days later, McCanns: “Oh, we left the patio doors open, so abductor must have walked in through the patio doors and then climbed out of the window and opened the shutters and climbed out of the window with Madeleine”
12. HIRING DUBIOUS PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS
Hiring dubious British private investigation agency and dubious Spanish ‘detective agency’ Metodo 3 at cost of several hundred thousand pounds - no obvious benefit or results
13. HIRING BRITAIN’S TOP EXTRADITION LAEWYER
Rushing to hire U.K.’s top extradition lawyer – Michael Caplan Q.C. (who represented General Pinochet) - the moment they became formal suspects
14. PUBLICLY AGRREING TO TAKE A LIE DETECTOR TEST – THEN REFUSING
Publicly agreeing to take a lie detector test and then refusing
15. STRANGE EXCUSED FOR BLOOD, DNA AND THE ‘SMELL OF DEATH’
The extraordinary excuses offered by the McCanns in response to the forensic findings of blood, DNA, cadaverine (smell of death) etc., including these six examples:
(a) I took Cuddle Cat to work - that’s why the smell of death is on Cuddle Cat
(b) I dealt with 6 corpses in the last fortnight at work, that’s why the smell of death is on my clothes
(c) we’ll get on to lawyers in Ireland/America who say these cadaver dogs’ evidence is useless
(d) the DNA was the children’s dirty nappies in the boot
(e) the ‘smell of death’ was rotting meat that Gerry was taking to the dump
(f) the blood in the flat (found underneath the tiles in the children’s bedroom) might have been from Madeleine grazing her leg when she boarded the plane, or maybe a nosebleed.
16. NOT STAYING CLOSE TO THE TWINS WHEN MADELEINE DISAPPEARED
Leaving the twins at the creche within days of Madeleine disappearing - and spending as much time as possible visiting the Pope, the White House etc. and campaigning - no parents whose child had truly been ‘abducted by a stranger’ would let those twins out of their sight, they would cling to the precious two they had left
17. REFUSING A URINE TEST ON THE TWINS
The McCanns, both doctors, refused urine tests for their 2-year-old twins, though later admitting that they ‘could have been drugged by the abductor. They then waited 5 months before going to an agency to carry out ‘independent’ tests. The results of those tests have never been publicly disclosed and it is not known what drugs the agency test for
18. ONLY ANSWERING PRESS QUESTIONS GIVEN TO THEM AT LEAST 2
HOURS INADVANCE
The McCanns stipulating that for all interviews, the press had to present all questions to them at least two 2 hours in advance of the interview, and that they would only answer these questions and no others
19. THE MCCANNS ATTEMPT TO CLAIM THAT THE ABDUCTOR DRUGGED THE CHILDREN
The McCanns explaining away the fact that the twins didn’t wake up - amidst all the shouting when the alarm was raised about Madeleine - by hinting that they must have been drugged by the abductor. They came up with this theory when being filmed by close family friend Jon Corner in August - after leaks from the Portuguese police suggesting that the children had been sedated
20. THE MCCANNS’ FRIENDS FAILURE TO SEARCH FOR MADELEINE THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED
According to a number of reports which have never been contradicted ,whilst hundreds of people, including staff of Mark Warners and many local people, searched the area around the Ocean Club apartments for hours after Madeleine went missing, not one of the McCanns’ friends, known as the ‘Tapas 9’, bothered to do so. They all went to bed. That is as clear an indication as you could get that they knew it would be pointless searching for Madeleine. It is entirely consistent with them knowing that Madeleine was already dead
21. THE MCCANNS’ FAILURE TO TALK TO JANE TANNER FOR TWO DAYS ABOUT HER ‘SIGHTING’ OF THE ALLEGED ABDUCTOR
According to many reports, and confirmed in an article by David Smith in ‘The Times’ in late December 2007, the McCanns did not bother to talk to Jane Tanner for two whole days about what she claimed to have seen at 9.15pm that night - namely a person walking off with a child looking like Madeleine. This is despite the McCanns’ absolute insistence that an abduction had taken place. According to David Smith’s article - which included an exclusive and extended interview with Gerry McCann - he and Jane Tanner did not speak to each other because they were ‘too busy’. If there really had been an abduction, the McCanns and Jane Tanner would have spoken to each other about what she saw without a moment’s delay
December 29th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Sorry my post #4 is for #2
December 29th, 2007 at 9:32 am
3 Hideki
5 lyn says (December 29th, 2007 at 9:08 am): “Why only come out now with the news? Is there something for them in the New Year stocking?”
REPLY: It is clear I think that this story has been carefully co-ordinated, perhaps
‘orchestrated’ would be the right word. No doubt the two ladies conferred with Gerry and Kate McCann and their team of advisers well before the news of their telephone call to Metodo 3 was carefully and strategically released at just the right moment in the last couple of days. They would have been told by Team McCann to ‘phone Metodo 3, and presumably they have given a statement to them, whether by telephone or in person would be interesting to know.
If you look at this comparativley short news item as it’s been reported in a variety of newspapers, it’s amazing to think how many different purposes it serves all at the same time:
* pictures the McCanns happily playing tennis and easily making lots of friends through tennis whilst on holiday
* shows Metodo 3 at their best, doing the job they are paid to do i.e. hunt for Madeleine and find the abductor
* justifies the huge expenditure that the Find Madeleine Fund is incurring on Metodo 3
* points the finger of suspicion once again at Robert Murat (though why the McCanns need to do that again I am not sure)
* portrays the Portuguese police in a very poor light - not bothering to take a statement, forcing the poor ladies, over 7 months later, to ring the premium-rate Metodo 3 ‘hotline’ so that they can give a vital piece of evidence about the night’s events to Metodo 3 that the ‘incompetent and corrupt’ (McCanns’ own words) PJ have deliberately ignored
* keeps alive the abduction claim
December 29th, 2007 at 9:33 am
7 Tony Bennett
very, very good. Brillant.
And the cry from K.
They have taken her…
And the call to K. Mum
“it is a desaster”