Madeleine McCann: Gail Cooper Feels, Clarence Mitchell PR PI And Armchair Detectives
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
GLASGOW DAILY RECORD: “Find This Man New Suspect Sketch Prompts Family Plea”
“THE family of Madeleine McCann yesterday issued a desperate message to the world saying: ‘Find this man’. Gerry and Kate McCann have called for an international search after an artist’s impression of a man they believe may have been involved in their daughter’s disappearance was released”
McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell says: “Who is he? Where is he? What, if any, is his connection to Madeleine’s disappearance?… If he is innocent, we want him to come forward for his own sake so he can be ruled out”
Would you go forward and enter the circus?
DAILY MIRROR front page: “New hope for Kate – NEW CLUE IN HUNT FOR MADDY”
Each new clue gives a new headline and story. Play along at home. You the sleuth
“WHO IS HE.. WHERE IS HE? THE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE Sinister stranger in paedo gang fear”
“Kate and Gerry McCann yesterday issued a desperate plea for information about a bogus charity collector whose gang are feared to have snatched Madeleine”
Gail Cooper says she saw him. So did Paul Gordon
Says Gerry McCann: “We appeal to anyone who knows him or may have seen him to contact our investigators” – Not the police?
A McCann family source says: “It’s significant. This is the first time we have been able to produce a detailed picture of someone who could have taken Madeleine. Our agents have been speaking to a witness who has told us about another man seen around the area. We’re doing all we can to get a similar image of him”
THE SUN: “FIND THE WEIRDO – Hunt for scruff feared to have taken Maddie”
A picture of Clarence Mitchell holding up the sketches of the “oddball”. No, not Robert Murat, another “oddball”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Kate and Gerry are quite buoyant. Every time we do something like this it gives them strength”
As for the man: “The McCanns’ investigators Metodo 3 followed up the April sightings. Gail said the suspect was aged 38-45, long-haired with a handlebar moustache and big teeth. He may have been North African”
Gail Cooper says she saw him. She tells us: “He was very unpleasant and creepy. I felt vulnerable in his presence. He made my blood run cold”
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: SIGHTINGS OF WANTED MAN FLOODING IN”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “Calls are coming in. One man rang to says he distinctly remembers seeing this man during a visit to Portugal two years ago. Others are being co-ordinated by the investigation team in Spain”
The Express says this image “bears a close resemblance to an earlier drawing of a man seen carrying a child on the night Madeleine disappeared. That would be the picture rooted in Jane Tanner’s sighting. The picture of the man with no face
“WORLDWIDE hunt for suspect”
Says Gail Cooper: “In my job I have to assess people and make a judgment. My judgment is that this man could have been the kidnapper. I would recognise him immediately if I saw him again. His appearance has really stuck in my mind. What happened is still very vivid to me”
Everyone’s a sleuth looking for Madeleine McCann
DAILY MAIL: “Is this the man who snatched Maddie from bed?”
No! Yes! Maybe!!!
THE SCOTSMAN: “More like the police than the police - new tactics in hunt for Madeleine”
“It had all the features of an official police press conference: a solemn appeal for sightings, delivered with detective-speak phrases such as ‘eliminating suspects in the investigation’. However, the man standing behind the lectern was not a senior policeman but a PR consultant hired by a family determined to find answers even if it means going it alone”
One former senior officer with Strathclyde says: “The language and the presentation that are being used imitate the police thanks to their PR people. They know that’s a good way to catch the public’s eye. It’s an authoritative approach and it captures people’s attention. I don’t think there’s any real policing expertise, though. I’d say it’s highly unlikely they have anywhere near the resources of an active policing force. The parents don’t know how to conduct an investigation and they’re dependent on people they are hiring, who, in some cases, may not be best suited for the job. I think, as time goes on, it’s unlikely they will find any new information on their own, outside of the chance someone will respond to this kind of public appeal”
DAILY STAR: “MADELEINE SUSPECT’S FAKE ORPHANAGE”
He’s the “creepy-looking oddball”. He’s the “weirdo”. Fail Cooper saw him “ogling” children
THE GUARDIAN front page: “Is this the man who abducted Madeleine? Two witnesses give similar descriptions”
“The long-haired man seen by Gail Cooper, 50, three times in late April last year, was said by Jane Tanner, a friend of the McCanns, to bear a “strong resemblance” to the man she saw carrying a child in pink pyjamas and bare feet from the complex on May 3, the night Madeleine vanished”
THE TIMES: “Kate and Gerry McCann release sketch of suspected abductor”
“One million copies of the sketch will be distributed throughout the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco after a description given to police by Gail Cooper, 50, a British tourist who stayed near the McCanns’ apartment”
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “The man suspected of kidnapping Madeleine McCann”
Says Clarence Mitchell: “It is for Madeleine and for Madeleine’s sake. This man has to be traced”
Madeleine McCann: trials by media
Posted: 21st, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,286) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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January 24th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Forever Searching is a group of Caring dedicated people raising awareness to missing children worldwide. Please visit our website to see a little of what we do http://www.foreversearching.com
We are looking for volunteers to help within our small, friendly, professional group. Can you spare some computer time? As a volunteer, you will need to use the internet to research possible target audiences, as well as emailing posters of missing children worldwide.
You will be allocated a Team Leader who is there to assist you whenever needed. You will be required to email your weekly progress reports to your team leader and discuss where to focus next.
We just need you to be computer literate, reliable and have a passion for children.
Application procedure: Please send an e-mail to register@foreversearching.com.
Thank you
M Black (please quote when registering)
http://www.foreversearching.com
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:59 am
Katy, thank you for the link to the article. If you read it, it says that her husband was carrying his three year old daughter and would be in pyjamas as it says she had woken up. So that could be where Jane Tanner saw this event earlier that same evening.
It also says that the fee for this article was paid to the Madeleine Fund. So an unbiased report then.
It shows that this man had carried his daughter who was sleeping in a manner fathers do with reverence to her own bed with her nightware on. Discount that of two men all carrying on the same night at the same location a child of three in their arms down that lane and you have odds of it not happing that are off the scale in risk factoring. Here is a man carrying his own child as his wife says, so who was Jane carrying?
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:34 am
There are orphanages in the region and local businesses support them. They depend on church known ones such as the one on the coast road to Portimao on the way to Praia de Rocha, and the one Rosco Foundation in Lagos. I know that there are two other church led homes for children.
I also know from the towns business people that they have many children and adults with mental deficients who they ‘adopt’. Tracking the accident one could go to the paper ‘The Resident’. But as we know when someone who is mentally deficient comes to the door to sell pegs or some other trifle with the card we often do not listen to all they say..
We interpret what we think they say. One has to listen without a bias. One can only do that if not engaged in other normal situations. Therefore, that is why Crimewatch has seasoned officers who have taken psychoanalytical courses and psychometric profiling too. They are in the main individuals that listen without bias to the caller whatever linguistical tone, or method of delivery they use.
The fact is no one can put on the same hat of legitimacy that is either a casting director or is an actor reconstructing the crime. It has to be police trained and psychiatric, psychology persons who do the assessing and the reviewing, the rest is how to deliver the impact to the public for the best return of information that is not speculative. Hence the person they are interested in is not a suspect, but has been seen in the area on cctv usually, so much clearer than biased memory. Memory of us all in recounting what we saw is contaminated by our own environment. A careworker might see all of her charges as beautiful and not creepy, she or he would have to be unbiased of the appearance of those she or he is sent to ‘look after’.#
Hence, they have to be more humanitarian on what is disgusting and what is humans who are not in ‘uniform’. Go to any drop in centre and you will see some very educated and high status people sat looking creepy and dishevelled, some picking up fag ends from the floor, and oh yes, the penny that no one else will stoop for.
Is this the same as the man on the beach doing what most do in Blackpool when the tourists have gone. Or could this man be looking for the marine life that comes up in the rain from below the sand for fishing bait?
The answer is we do not know if the biology of the man fits with the sketch as one is a picture/drawing, and the other an organic mass of a living person. This face is now hunted by vigilantes salivating as the reward money for the first one to find this ‘face’. It is now bounty hunter time, that is the difference between the fact and fiction.
And if this is right, and if this is the killer or extortionist, paedophile gang master someone is going to get killed……………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Think before challenging anyone or collecting a posse among the flock.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
1266 Pilimary
The most important thing is that the Policia Judiciaria and majority of level minded people do not take Mitchell or the McCanns seriously. The P.J have had them twigged for ages and is simply a matter of clearing up some minor details before they take action.
To K & G and C.M these words from a famous song sum it up (BAD BOYS, BAD BOYS, WOTCHA GONNA DO, WOTCHA GONNA DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU).
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Hallo Katy, I’m sorry, but probably every one is watching the football. I will be back at half time.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Is there anybody there?
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:49 pm
cool!
Do these emoticons work on other blogs or just this one? Where do I learn them?
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I love Portugal and Luz, but have you ever ordered a meal in a restaurant? You wouldn’t want to be hungry …. no hurry….
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
There is no orphanage in Luz, or convent - cleared up on another blog.
Jeremy Wilkins’ partner Bridget o’donnell who wrote in the guardian on 14 November about this case used to be a TV producer on crimewatch. Read her piece on
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2227416,00.html .
and read between the lines.
Actually by coincidence she looks like Beach man’s sister -
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Crimewatch is a legitimate televised police initiative in Britain that has trained and expert negotiators and qualified analysts. This private investigation with a none police, none trained workforce that has an agenda before the caller picks up the phone is making the public believe this is Crimewatch UK endorsed.
It is not. The funds whilst they last are for what? The sketch is a face of a man who is said to be creepy, to some he might not be. I am told there is an orphanage in Luz and in the place this man with pidgeon English is said so fluently to have represented. Just as fluently as one cares for dementia persons, one knows instantly what they mean. My point is this man may have either mental and physical conditions that make him appear creepy. Now that is a real thought for all of us. How do we judge?
Do we judge by poverty, do we judge by our own concepts, or do we fear the vagrant amongst us? This man in the photofit is not in an identity parade do not forget - or a police line up. He is a travelling gypsy characature that is on every face like the Turin Shroud, except this one is not on margarine and milk cartons - YET.
Will the real face please stand up.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
1265 Jolie Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 am
Totje
I think I know why there is no sound in any of the videos of Madeleine that are aired/posted. They don’t want someone to have access to her voice to duplicate/manipulate and use for a false demand for ransom, etc. In which case, I would agree with this decision to keep Madeleine ’silent.’
****************
Yes, that’s what I was thinking, which leads me to the next question.
However, since I’m having a quick coffee break, no time to discuss. So I’ll wait till this evening.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am
890 can’t say no Says: January 21st, 2008 at 8:06 pm
soon I’ll believe pigs can fly….
************
Sorry, I really couldn’t resist, I knew I could find this picture :
I’ll give you the link, because I think I’m still doing something wrong because I posted the html line but the picture isn’t visible [or may be it's still caught in the spam]:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff265/totje2004/8.gif
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 am
895 Jolie Says:
“But would you want your neighbor or a stranger to be able to make the claim that you are a suspect and going public with a sketch of you on the international media, without having the police backing up such a proclamation? I would bet not. The law should protect people from such actions being taken against them.”
Things are a bit more tricky here. There is no person named, just a photofit picture. I cannot remember that a person who only resembles a suspect has ever sued the police or anybody else for issuing a photofit. Everybody knows anyway that you are not necessarily guilty if you look like a sketched person.
But if we talk about the person Mrs. Cooper has seen - he has allegedly collected money for an orphanage that doesn’t exist. If that’s true, it IS suspicious. If this person liked to sue, he would at first have to come over and say: “I am the person who has talked to Mrs. Cooper in April, and has asked her for a donation.” He could then possibly be cleared of the abduction allegation, and if cleared, this should be announced by Mr. Mitchell as well.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 am
37 chenier Says:
Ferdi: “well in my life I have certainly had to listen to more strange babble from woman than her idea of becoming involved in childcare.”
chenier: “Is that intended to be ‘women’ rather than ‘woman’?”
Yep.
“I doubt that anyone with more than two functioning brain cells would fail to note the extreme improbability of anyone taking Kate McCann’s advice on how to care for children…”
Reminds me of: “How do you call a blonde with two brain cells?”
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 am
977 Marie Nicholas Says:
“Ferdinand seemed to say that there was no law against it in GB.”
A misunderstanding. I was talking about the law of most of the countries on the continent. The situation here could be described as follows:
- It’s criminal only if there is a paragraph in the criminal code that prohibits it. Since the media campaign seems to be without precedence, I doubt that there is a paragraph in the portugese criminal code that fits on the situation. (Though I’m not sure. But portugese prosecution seems to have taken no action so far.)
- George H. may try to sue in a civil court if he suffers some damage from this camaign. But he will generally only get a compensation for his proven damage - as opposed to anglo-saxon law, where “punitive damage” would be considered.
If Marie thought about George sueing british newspapers under british law, then I leave that question to the british posters here.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:56 am
1269 - Val
You should have some company soon.
The morning crowd will be wiping the sleep from their eyes, fingers poised over the keyboard, attempting to be the 1st to post on any new Maddie thread!
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:44 am
1268 Duncan
Good Morning to you too!!!!!
I think I scared everyone away, there doesn”t seem to be anyone else around now. Not like the
Midnight posters are they…………they usually tell you when they are leaving and wish you
Goodnight.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 am
Morning Val
No matter the time of the day (or night) there’s always someone around here at Anorak!
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:27 am
Hello there,
Surprised to see people still posting. I woke up, couldn”t get back to sleep , made a cup of tea,found the site and lo and behold, it is still active!!!!!!!!
I”m not going to scroll through, just pick up on this page.
Willo, I agree with you about the McCann PR machine, but there are signs of a running
scared approach, hence all the nonsense about these sightings. As the Editor of the Daily
Telegraph said,”After 8 months, WHY NOW?”
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 am
Marie Nicholas
Jolie
I will write to some Spanish papers, I cannot believe they have published the sketch without noticing that a individual cannot name anybody “a suspect”, only the Police. I m terrifed about the power of C.Mitchell, who delivers a picture (or drawing) and everybody takes it as “official”. I will write the papers (ABC, El Mundo, El País and Televisión Española (TVE). Team McCann. ave gone too far!!!
aw22j525
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 am
Totje
I think I know why there is no sound in any of the videos of Madeleine that are aired/posted. They don’t want someone to have access to her voice to duplicate/manipulate and use for a false demand for ransom, etc. In which case, I would agree with this decision to keep Madeleine ’silent.’
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 am
1261
Q Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 am
1254
willo
If the PJ were right and efficient, and the MC’s are guilty, they’d already be behind bars.
And if the MC’s are innocent, the PJs are completely off mark and therefore absolutely incompetent.
Either way, I don’t see how they can came across as “efficient” and worthy of your “faith”.
……………………
I’m sure that the PJ are efficient. They have a purpose will not be rushed and although frustrating I’m sure they will evetually nail the murderers? and nail them properly.
The reason they are viewed other than efficient is due to the McCanns actions not their own. They leaked lies and continue to do so and people might say their PR is not that clever but they sowed the seeds of PJ incompetance early on in the piece. That really was great PR.
In the beginning the PJ were mentioned favourably by the McCanns but when the tide was starting to turn the PJ went from being McCanns best friend to being subjected to a tirade of abuse and fed a constant stream of lies. Lies which the PJ had to follow up. Being efficient and all that. The new sightings, statement changes, unexplained discrepancies etc probably spread the PJ thin on the ground.
The reality is that if anything leaks out? that threatens the McCanns innocence the PR machine hits back very quickly to address the balance. Where there is confusion there is profit.
A girl in Spain goes missing 120 miles away. British paper reports 15 minutes away? Immediately the two cases are blindingly similar according to the McCanns. The fact that the story lost momentum quickly still doesn’t alter the fact that comparisons were made and maybe there is now a serial abdutor on the loose, in a lot of peoples minds. It was bullshit.
Just as people were refocusing on that, wham, a new witness. Wham, new identikit, wham, Tanners conformation and endorsement, wham. Metedo3? back in the news. It’s a fucking circus. And people take it seriously, that’s the big worry, most people take it all seriously.
As for the McCanns being innocent. Tosh!
They are guilty of some crime, I don’t know to what degree but they are covering up something. I hope my worst fears are not recognised.
Maybe they could plead insanity (which is a good call) and be put away in a nuthouse. For ever.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:43 am
1254
willo Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 am
________________
REPLY: It was in the papers over here today. But ’sucked in’? Do you know how many wanted people are found over here in the states by programs (Most Wanted) that broadcast their pictures nationwide every week? Murderers missing for years from here on the East Coast are found after years living on the West Coast or mid-west, as an example. We have many cases of murderers, rapists or whatevers running over to Europe to ‘disappear’ in those countries. Our FBI sends pictures over to those countries, it is circulated, person is recognized even after years and we get quite a few back that way.
That little girl’s picture has been posted in the CFM&EC site since she was reported missing - it is on the internet and can be seen world-wide with many hundreds of others’ pictures who are missing.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:25 am
1258
Karen Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 am
Cheryl
__________
Karen to be truthful with you, I look at this way with all the supposed sightings from there and yonder of her being seen with people in other countries - and they obviously look like they are from that country but one suspects they have the little child missing with them - say ‘hello’ or something to the child and see if she responds in a British speaking voice. Maybe that is too simplified what I am trying to say but…all these sightings who has thought to speak to the child or even shout to her? That would somewhat solve is she or isn’t she the missing one. I could probably when walking through the malls shopping see about 20 plus young children fitting her description. However, I do agree with the ‘updated’ picture put out on her by the artist - by now if she is alive, if she was abducted as alleged, her appearance has been changed.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 am
1254
willo
If the PJ were right and efficient, and the MC’s are guilty, they’d already be behind bars.
And if the MC’s are innocent, the PJs are completely off mark and therefore absolutely incompetent.
Either way, I don’t see how they can came across as “efficient” and worthy of your “faith”.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:04 am
1258
Karen Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 am
Cheryl
It’s very rare in Europe and unheard of in Britain for a child to be found alive after this length of time.
But the point is - it’s yet more crap from the McCann P.R. machine. I doubt anyone saw that man - they have no evidence of a paedo gang casing the apartments and the only reason to say it - is to get back in the press.
____________
REPLY: Wasn’t there a case but I forget in what country over there the last two years of a young girl by then a young woman found after so many years - the man had kept her in his house? Those who intend to keep them ‘groom’ them, brainwash them a way - get a chance read about the brainwashing that can be done on people. We’ve had several cases of young girls/teens taken and over the last few years one broke away after 10 years of being kept captive but yet was brainwashed to stay with him.
Now, there have been to my belief, stories on and off in the papers over there about different people saying the saw ’strange’ men hanging around that resort. Did not the UK send the PJ a list of all their known paedos that go over to Portugal? Horrible part to me is that Portugal does not keep a register of their paedos. Our system is not perfect over here but all sex offenders must register and when they move the police have to be notified of where they are living in the new state, area, etc. and the police in that state keep track of them.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:53 am
Unbelievable. The McConn’s are still walking the streets
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 am
Cheryl
It’s very rare in Europe and unheard of in Britain for a child to be found alive after this length of time.
But the point is - it’s yet more crap from the McCann P.R. machine. I doubt anyone saw that man - they have no evidence of a paedo gang casing the apartments and the only reason to say it - is to get back in the press.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:17 am
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:16 am
: roll :
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Poppy
Don’t leave a space between the colons and the word roll and you will get
Duncanr