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

SUNDAY EXPRESS: “I’VE SEEN MADDY IN BRITAIN”

A man claims he saw her with a Portuguese couple in Dorset

SUNDAY PEOPLE: “Cocaine rap for ‘tec with Maddie firm”

“A private detective linked to the agency hunting Maddie McCann was last night behind bars accused of helping steal £25million worth of cocaine. Antonia Jimenez, 53, is a business partner of the founder of Metodo 3 which is charging £50,000-a-month to search for the missing British toddler”

Gerry and Kate McCann’s spokesman said: “Jimenez has worked with Metodo 3 but has not been involved in the Madeleine investigation”

The paper reminds readers how Metodo 3 were going to find Madeleine by Christmas – last Christmas. Not a white Christmas

DAILY MAIL: “Madeleine: Detective linked to McCanns’ private investigators in £25m cocaine probe”

“Retired police officer Antonio Jimenez, 53, was remanded in custody on Thursday by a judge investigating the loss of half a ton of cocaine from a container docked in Barcelona in 2005. Jimenez was a business partner of Maria Fernandez Lado, 57, founder of Metodo 3, the agency charging £50,000 a month to search for Madeleine”

The caper: “The cocaine was smuggled into Spain in 974 packets on the ship Hispanota, which was transporting frozen prawns from Venezuela. It docked in Barcelona in November 2004 and the drugs were taken on January 24, 2005”

DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann: detective agency link held”

“It has also emerged that, in 1995, five senior members of the agency were arrested in a phone-tapping case. They were never charged, however, and an investigating judge threw out the case, condemning police entrapment”

Which means what?

Says Clarence Mitchell: “He is nothing to do with us. He collaborated with Metodo 3 on a project, but that was two years before the company was hired to find Madeleine. We still have faith in the work of Metodo 3.”

“He insisted that Jimenez was, until three weeks ago, a business partner of his mother, Maria Fernandez Lado, who founded Metodo 3. He said Jimenez had been involved with a separate company. Spanish records, however, reportedly showed that this business had the same listed address as Metodo 3”

THE TIMES: “Should Britain have a compulsory DNA database?”

“Without DNA evidence they might never have been caught. So the convictions last week of two savage killers might seem a powerful argument that Britain should have a compulsory DNA database covering every person in the country.

The first strand in this gruesome double-helix involved Steve Wright, a quiet man who led a deadly secret life. In 2003 Wright was convicted of stealing a small sum of money while working as a hotel barman. His profile was routinely added to the national DNA database”

Wright has been convicted of convicted of five murders and sentenced to life in prison

“The second case centred on Mark Dixie, a pub chef from Surrey. Dixie was regarded by friends as an ordinary guy who enjoyed a party. He had managed to keep hidden a history of violent sexual assaults and had emigrated to Australia in 1993 before the collection of DNA became routine. He was not on the national database when he returned to Britain.

“In September 2005 Dixie was prowling the streets in the early hours when he chanced upon Sally Anne Bowman, an 18-year-old aspiring model, returning home. He pounced in the driveway of her house and stabbed her repeatedly, inflicting wounds that one detective said were “off the scale”. Dixie sexually defiled Bowman’s corpse. Although police recovered DNA samples of the attacker, the database held no match. For nine months the murder investigation made little progress. The police, believing the killer lived locally, had a list of more than 22,000 suspects.

Then in June 2006, Dixie was arrested after a fight broke out among football fans watching an England match in a pub.

The police were puzzled as to why he burst into tears as he was taken away. Dixie knew what was coming. His DNA was taken and within days was matched to the Bowman murder case. Dixie was last week sentenced to life.

And Madeleine McCann is linked how? DNA. Like Sean Hoey?  

“In the conventional system, you need maybe 200 cells or 100 at a push to give you the profile,” said Duncan Woods, a forensic scientist at Keith Borer Consultants. “In theory, LCN can do it with just one cell, although in reality you will probably need five or six.”

It is a system that has not been validated by scientific peer review, although a report is due soon. It was LCN analysis that led Portuguese detectives to believe Madeleine McCann had been in a hire car that was rented by her parents after her disappearance.

THE TIMES (SA): “In Transit - Tips, hints and information to help your travel planning”

“Baby care - PARENTS are less likely to use hotel baby/childcare services following the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann while on holiday in Portugal last year. A survey by family travel website www.takethefamily.com showed that 62% of parents were now less likely to leave their children alone in their room using baby listening, or in the care of hotel or resort staff”

The Case of Madeleine McCann

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