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

THE SUN: “Shut up: Maddie cop by judge”

Police national director Alipio Ribeiro “stunned his men” by “admitting” the decision to make “doctors” Kate and Gerry McCann suspects was “hasty”

Judge Eurico Reis said it is “not the cop’s role to publicly comment on cases under investigation. The judge raged: ‘It is his duty to SHUT UP.’”

And: “Portugal’s top prosecutor Antonio Cluny branded Ribeiro’s comment ‘extremely worrying’” – Why worrying? Because of what he said? Or because a policeman has given his personal views about an ongoing case? The Sun fails to make this clear

The McCanns spokesman tells us: “You cannot have the head of the police force openly questioning the validity of the way in which they were made suspects and then not have a review”

Can’t you? Can someone expert in Portuguese law tells us if you can or cannot…

FERGUS Shanahan: “COPS SO WRONG”

Alipis Ribero is on the radiop. Says Shanahan: “In effect, Mr Ribeiro is saying: ‘We never had any evidence agsint Kate and Gerry. We didn’t take Madeleine’s disappearance seriously… Some of our detectives thought Kate and Gerry looked dodgy. So we made them suspects and hoped something might turn up.”

The tabloids, meanwhile, look at “creepy” Robert Murat, also a suspect - you know, the one the Sun calls an “oddball“ 

DAILY STAR: “BLOW FOR MADDIE PARENTS”

“TORMENTED Kate and Gerry McCann are to remain official suspects over their daughter’s disappearance. They hoped to have their ‘arguido’ status lifted after Portugal’s top cop Alipio Ribeiro admitted it may have been a mistake to put them in the frame. But government legal advisers yesterday denied they were planning to clear their names”

So the personal views of a policeman are not a deciding factor in an ongoing investigation?

“The 39-year-olds may be considered suspects for as long as the investigation continues – possibly years”

Read all about it!

DAILY MIRROR: “STILL SUSPECTS – Maddy probe team in row over letting McCanns off hook”

Says Judge Eurico Reis: “This case has had more than enough media exposure”

Mr Ribeiro is on the radio…

Says “media pundit” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa: “He killed the investigation when he said there was haste in making the McCanns arguidos in the case”

Says Antonio Cluny, who we heard from earlier in the Sun: “I don’t know if he’s right or not but this conduct of speaking about pending cases is extremely worrying”

Why did the Sun end its Mr Cluny quote short?

LIVERPOOL DAILY POST: “Madeleine McCann: Liverpool grandad hoping for a miracle”

Says Mr Healy: “Like most people I would like to think that if there is a spark of hope I have to hang on to it. They haven’t found anything yet. We have to believe a miracle can happen. I still believe she is alive and until someone tells me different I will believe”

IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Maddy’s grandad hopes for miracle”

Brian Healey says he is pleased that “Alipio Rebeiro, national director of the Policia Judiciaria, said detectives were too hasty in making the couple suspects over their daughter’s disappearance”

Says he: “I am glad he has said it, it will get things moving to reinstate the fact they’re innocent”

Posted: 5th, February 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0