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

SUNDAY MIRROR: “COSTA PAIR TRIED TO STEAL OUR CHILDREN - EXCLUSIVE THIRD attempt to snatch young Brits from their parents in Spain”

Nigel and Lesley Atkinson’s sons Jason, 10, and Jake, eight, were playing outside their home in Moralet, near Alicante, when two men drove up and tried to entice the boys into their car…

“The boys were confused but thank God they were sensible enough to get back in the house. As they did, the men shouted at them to come back. But at this point our baby-sitter came out and the men sped off in their car.”

Spain? Not Portugal, then?

Yet Nigel and Lesley, both 46, claimed Spanish police had barely bothered to investigate the incident which follows two similar cases nearby as well as Madeleine McCann’s abduction in neigbouring Portugal.

“When an officer saw me he shrugged his shoulders and asked ‘what are we supposed to do’?” said Lesley “I’m horrified as there is a gang in the area trying to steal children and people are frightened. For all the police know this gang could be linked to Madeleine’s disappearance.”

DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Lady Meyer in pursuit of abducted children like Madeleine McCann”

The wife of our former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, tells me that she is trying to persuade Boris Johnson to establish a headquarters for such searches.

The former ambassador’s wife needs a cauase:

“There are hundreds of charities in London who offer services to missing or abducted children,” she said at the launch of Rachel Johnson’s novel Shire Hell. “I’m proposing one centre of excellence which amalgamates all the charities and would be much more efficient in helping people.”

A centre of excellence in child abduction?

Catherine Meyer speaks from experience: she set up the charity Parents and Children Together after her former husband denied her access to her two sons.

Were her children abducted, like Madeleine McCann?

DAILY MAIL: “ ‘Human bone’ at centre of Jersey children’s home inquiry is actually a piece of wood or coconut shell”

To the cellar. No, not that one. This one at the Haut de la Garenne home.

Jersey’s “controversial deputy police chief, Lenny Harper, who is heading the investigation, has found something that looks like human bone.

His murder inquiry began when Eddie, an “enhanced victim recovery dog”, began barking in the cellar of Haut de la Garenne – the sign, according to its handler, that he had detected the scent of human remains.

By coincidence, the dog, from South Yorkshire Police, is the same animal that supposedly picked up “the scent of death” in the apartment where Madeleine McCann was last seen in Praia de Luz in Portugal.

SPORTING LIFE: “TRAPATTONI’S MADELEINE PLEA”

It’s Giovanni Trapattoni, legend of Italian football and new manager of the Republic of Ireland. Does he have news of the missing child?

The Italian and his squad are currently on a six-day training camp in Portugal and are based at Estrela da Luz, just minutes away from the Praia da Luz resort from which the four-year-old disappeared a little more than a year ago.

Trapattoni said: “Our hearts go out to the McCann family and if anybody has any information or anything like that that could be helpful, they should contact the police.”

Is it now the case that anyone of note who visits the Algarve must comment – should comment – on Madeleine McCann?

Says Eire Striker Kevin Doyle: “I only realised last night that we were staying in the same resort. I don’t know what we can do, but if us being here focuses a bit of media attention again…”

Madeleine McCann - Everybody’s pet cause… 

Posted: 18th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0