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

DAILY EXPRESS: “LOOKALIKE ‘WILL PUT NO 1 SUSPECT MURAT IN CLEAR’”

Meet Praia da Luz estate agent Angus Symington (pictured). Look like anyone? Robert Murat, perhaps?

“Their resemblance shows that witnesses who claim they saw Mr Murat outside the McCanns’ apartment on the night Madeleine vanished may have named the wrong man. Expatriate Mr Murat has always insisted he was with his mother”

Doesn’t Robert Murat also look like David Payne?

Says Robert Murat of Symington: “I’m amazed by the likeness, The hairline and the nose, it could be me. Just the chin is different. This guy has every reason to be at the Ocean Club. Remember – people work. I wouldn’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else”

Says Mr Murat’s uncle Ralph Eveleigh: “Bloody hell – it’s Robert. They are very similar”

The WORLD’S BEST NEWSPAPER says “The lookalikes could force police into a total rethink of their eight-month investigation”

Or the police could just speak with Mr Symington. Says he: “I had been away in England for 10 days and came back the day before Madeleine went missing. I was here on the day, and for a few days following, but then I left again for a week. I categorically wasn’t around on the night she vanished. I left Praia da Luz at close of business at 6pm to go home. It couldn’t have been me. The first I was aware of the story was when I arrived at work the next day”

So how will this lookalike put Mr Murat in the clear?

A MILLION posters go up” – Posters of Madeleine in French, Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish. But not in English? The poster will feature the likeness of the man Gail Cooper says she saw

DAILY MIRROR: “MURAT’S DOUBLE”

Angus Symington is British. He is an estate agent in Praia da Luz. He looks not a lot unlike Robert Murat

But Symington says he wasn’t there. So how could his looking like Murat be relevant?

DAILY STAR: “MURAT: MURAT LOOKALIKE No2”

Two lookalikes. Angus Symington. David Payne. Anyone else look like Robert Murat, apart from Robert Murat..?

A “source” close to the investigation “said it mans indetification evidence againt Mrs Murat, 34, is worthless”

How so? Mr Symington says he was elsewhere and is not a suspect. And Mr Payne was dining with the McCanns. Robert Murat say he was at home all night…

THE SUN: “Murat has holds double”

Angus Symington again

“MADDIE WEIRDO HAD ACCOMPLICE – 2nd prowler spotted”

The weirdo looks like Killer Bob from Twin Peaks, George Harrison and a waiter who used to work in a cafe off the Holloway Road

Says Clarence Mitchell: “It’s a sinister development because there could be at least two paedophiles working together. We are investigating this closely”

How is it being investigated? Are the police helping?

THE TIMES: “Defence lawyers ready to seize on DNA doubts”

“Dozens of serious criminal cases, including prosecutions for murder, rape and terrorist offences, could be in jeopardy because of growing uncertainty over a controversial DNA technique. The Times has discovered that prosecuting authorities in different parts of Britain have adopted contradictory positions on the use of the Low Copy Number (LCN) method of DNA testing, which was heavily criticised by a judge in the Omagh bombing case last month”

And: “LCN, or low template, DNA, was pioneered by the government-owned Forensic Science Service and has been used in cases around the world, including the Peter Falconio murder trial in Australia, the conviction of the serial rapist Antoni Imiela and in the search for Madeleine McCann”

BELFAST TELEGRAPH: “’Maddy factor’ could see Amy pick up Oscar”

“The ‘Madeleine McCann factor’ could well play a part in this year’s Oscar ceremony after Amy Ryan was nominated yesterday as best supporting actress. New Yorker Amy plays a Kate McCann-type role in ‘Gone Baby Gone‘, a movie that bears so many remarkable similarities to the Maddy case that its UK release has been delayed”
So some good news, then…

“And, in a further twist, the role of the Amanda McCreadie, the little girl who goes missing, is played by a five year old called who just happens to be called Madeline (O’Brien)”

That’s a twist?

GLASGOW DAILY RECORD: “Maddie Witness Flies Back To Portugal”

“A British gran who saw the Madeleine McCann kidnap suspect has flown to Portugal to help in the hunt for the toddler. Gail Cooper, 50, has returned to the resort in Praia da Luz where she spotted the long-haired man lurking days before Madeleine vanished. She’ll meet private detective agency Metodo 3 and retrace the suspect’s movements”

Is her being a “gran” relevant?

Posted: 24th, January 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0