Having An E-fit Over Madeleine McCann
MADELEINE McCann in missing in Portugal.
Madeline McCann’s mother is appealing for help.
“Her face is frozen with grief and fear. She smells her Madeleine’s favourite cuddly toy. And never out of her grasp is a mobile phone which she wills to ring. The wait never ends.”
So says the Mirror’s Sue Carroll on the Mirror’s front page.
“Maddy’s mother shows the strain,” says the Mail. The Sun offers hope in “MADDIE COPS HAVE E-FIT”. And more headlines inside:
“SCRUFFY WEIRDO HUNTED OVER BRIT TOT”
“PROWLER SPOTTED BEFORE MADDIE TAKEN”
“Brit police send two paedo hunters”
The investigation is ongoing. But the Sun says Portuguese police refuse to show the E-fit image of the wanted man because it breaks the law. It’s an “E-fit farce”.
Only it doesn’t seem to be. Reading on we learn that Portuguese police have shown the image in Praia da Luz, the area near to where Madeleine went missing.
The Sun’s farce is the police’s decision not to let it see the picture and broadcast it back to readers many miles removed from the crime scene.
And the Sun is not alone in its criticism of Portuguese law. In “TEN BLUNDERS”, the Mirror lists the errors. It includes the decision not to show it this E-fit picture of the wanted man. Portuguese police have only shown it to locals, to those people who might have seen the man and seen what he did.
But concerned of Leicester wants to see, so too Bianca of Waltham Forest and Gwen of Plymouth. They want to see the face of the devil. They want to know.
And here comes Dep Supt Alan Ladley, the man who caught Sarah Payne’s killer, Roy Whiting. Ladley says that “basic coppering” might have found Madeleine’s abductor by now.
Like Madeleine, Sarah went missing on a family holiday. Sarah was found dead.
Madeline McCann is missing and we are led to believe it would have been better for mum and dad and Madeleine McCann had she been taken in Britain, preferably on Ladley’s patch. But not in Soham. Not there.
But whatever the paedo panic, instances remain rare, all the more so when a stranger is involved, as appears to be the case with Madeleine McCann.
The story features what the tabloids call “every parent’s worst nightmare”.
But this is an awful reality for Madeline McCann and Madeline McCann’s parents…
May 9th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Why don,t we, the honest good living people of our society campaign for the death penalty or at very least castration for these monsters who prey on innocent children.
I and many others do not believe these sub humans (paedophiles) can be rehabilitated in order to be part of our society.
They should not be treated with any human rights,respect,remorse or pitty because they do not treat our children with any of these.
They should be erradicated from our society. Not only would this lessen the constant worrying over the safety of our children, it would save us money.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Ten Blunders? The parents made the first blunder when they chose to vacation in such a backward country.
May 9th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I am so behind Anela Mitchells comments. I cannot express my deep rooted anger over the fact that paedophiles are allowed to roam our streets. How can any human being find a young child an object of sex. Moreoever, what happened to self constraint - our society has become too used getting what it wants - even if it is illegal or totally abhorrent.
They do not deserve to exist.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
my heart goes out too all concerned,god help her parents,i think if her parents were asleep in their beds beside her that the shit who took her would have got her anyways..so i have no blame for her parents only the shit who has her.i pray he gives her back and all my family and friends in Ireland are praying also.i hope they cut the balls off him when they find him!!!!!!!
May 9th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
How did this become a story about Britain and Portugal - Portugal is our oldest ally? This is the theft of a child - it could happen anywhere. Yes, chemical castration - why not?
May 9th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Look at the end of the day stop think! i could never imagine being maddies parents now, also what maddie is going through, or as gone through, its the worst thing ever it makes me feel physically ill. i pray this sicko brings there daughter home safe.
May 9th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
God bless Maddie and we pray she makes it home safely. Our hearts go out to the McCann family and they are constantly in our thoughts, when we wake and as we go to sleep.
May 10th, 2007 at 5:21 am
The blunders of British media covering the case of Madeleine McCann
Part of the British media is giving an image of the Portuguese police - and of the Portuguese people - as a lost Neanderthal tribe that survived the Ice Age and is still living in a remote corner of Europe, with its primitive traditions and culture. Some British journalists, reporting from Algarve, behave as if they were following a National Geographic expedition to study the not-so- long-ago-cannibal tribes in the deep jungles of New-Guinea.
Of course, they do it with the usual British refinement, putting a word here, a word there, an apparently simple question in the middle and, at the end, touching phrases like “Madeleine parents went to the Church to pray for her daughter and maybe, also for those trying to find her.” Of course. With so much incompetence from the Portuguese police, only God and a miracle can take the investigation to a good end.
They wrote between the lines, creating the idea that sheer incompetence and shocking incapacity are trademarks of our police force and CID investigators. They brought with them the “real experts”. Some of those “experts” seem to me a couple of funny characters, who have a main purpose on this trip to Portugal: to put a show in front of the cameras of TV station’s hungry for audience at any price and explain how incompetent Portuguese police is, how things should have been done if there was a efficient police in the field - British police, of course - when Madeleine disappeared.
Let me remind that British police SPEND 13 DAYS SEARCHING FOR JESSICA CHAPMAM AND HOLLY WELLS AND THEY GOT NOTHING. Only after three members of the public found the bodies they were able to connect all the dots and arrest Ian Huntley, the Sohan Murder, on August 17. What a demonstration of incompetence, right?
I never saw details of an ongoing investigation, in UK, coming to the public knowledge through a press conference, before the case is closed and the suspects arrested. British police has a couple of very good public relations officers that know how to entertain blood-thirsty tabloid journalists, willing to kill – or let someone be killed – to have a story to help them to keep their jobs.
Let me quote Mrs Ros Taylor, journalist at Guardian Unlimited, editor of the subscription paper review, the Wrap: “[…]In Britain, certainly, the voracious need of the media for new information has been a huge factor in the manner in which the police ‘handle’ such cases.”
I know that British police makes a lot of high-profile, TV-prime-time oriented public appeals, in cases similar to this. And I wonder why they do it. Do British citizens with important information concerning a crime need to be almost coerced in going to the police and sharing that information? They don’t do it by their own initiative? Or is it part of that “circus” British police need to set up, in order to placate a pack of howling journalists, throwing them some old bones to chew?
I hope that, next time British journalists come to Portugal to report about something, they try to do some research, before. We, Portuguese, are no more living in caverns, or dressing with animal skins and hunting with arrows to have our daily meals. Next time, call some British expatriates living here and ask them those basic things that took you so long to discover, like the existence of a different legal framework in Portugal.
Talk with some Portuguese journalists. We can speak, and we use computers (typewriters are a thing of the past..). Most of us have a good command of English, French and Spanish (I, myself, can also speak a little bit of Cantonese…)
Paulo Reis
Journalist (Press Card 734)
Email: pjcv.reis@gmail.com
URL: http://gazetadigital.blogspot.com/ (Gazeta Digital)
PS – Forget to mention: our country is a member of the European Union…
May 10th, 2007 at 9:24 am
I think there must be a wake-up call, and that there must be an international stand against this heinous crime of paedophillia.
This should be a matter of political and judicial change with a deliberate and sustained course of action worldwide to control and eradicate paedophillia within an agreed lenghth of time, taking whatever measures necessary to achieve this.
Until we have this level of reaction then the news will continue to be dominated by babies and children being raped, tortured enslaved and murdered. A sick condemnation of a world that doesn’t care.
May 10th, 2007 at 10:16 am
To hell with laying blame at anyones feet…..it is a waste of time! The important thing right now is to channel all energy into finding this poor little girl……whoever has her, shouldn’t…..that is the only certainty.
Madeline needs to be brought home…..I dont really care by whom!
Blessings and prayers to all who know her and also all involved in the search for her return…..x
May 10th, 2007 at 10:43 am
My comment is for Paulo Reis.
At this moment in time, my thoughts are with Little Madeleine McCann, and her family. And like the other, caring, good natured individuals who have left blogs on here (apart from yourself), our thoughts are purely for them, mixed with anger and hatred towards paedophiles who should never, for one minute be allowed to roam any street.
Your blog entry really did piss me off. If you are that pissed off with British journalists, take it up with them, we don’t want to bloody read it. I couldn’t give a hoot that you can speak a little cantonese, good for you. The general British public love Portugal and the portuguese. This is not a war between two countries. An innocent little girl has gone missing for goodness sake.
So, I can only suggest you take your jumped up journalistic justifications somewhere else, and leave this space for the people who have opinions really worth sharing, rather than justifying themselves or retaliating against another country’s methods of media portrayal.
If British journalists have said something wrong with regards to this case, then open up Paulo and tell us everything. As good natured citizens, we don’t want to read rubbish in the press. Stop the high school tit for tat and why not work alongside them?
At the end of the day, I don’t care about the nonsense that you seem so bitter about, I sit here as a mother of two little children waiting to hear the news of Madeleine’s safe return to her parents.
P.S Next time you leave a blog, could you show a little heart for the family concerned?
May 10th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Stop to blame McCann’s for Madelein’s disappearance. I thing that they had not been negligence, this could happen anywhere. Portuguese police are doing a good job in order to find Madelein and I hope they bring McCann’s daughter home safety. Well done Paulo Reis and good work.
May 10th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I cant not describe the hate and disgus that I feel right now. I just hope that these human beasts (paedophiles) would be destroyed from this planet. They don´t deserve to live here with us and our innocent children.
I am not religious but now I really, really pray that little girl will be found safely. I think about her and her parents every minute.
May 10th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
it’s horrific - you cannot but help the child may be better off dead and the parents knowing than a life of never knowing the truth
May 10th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Helena - I agree. The parents did nothing wrong - although they will surely blame themselves
May 10th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
God Bless this familly and we hope that Madelein returns home safe.
Paulo Reis is right because the British media as been treating portuguese police as useless. But Portuguese police are doing all that is possible to find this little girl. So please don’t judge them.
May 10th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Well said Kate, I hope Paulo got the message…….. off his carrier pigeon!
As a Father of three girls one the same age as Maddy, I would if asked and new I could help fly out tomorrow.
Why in this age do we allow such creatures to roam the planet unhindered and sometimes protected by human right laws, these are not humans and should not be treated as such. I think castration is far to civilised for these monsters, put them down with a lethal injection.
‘Come on ‘ let out this e-fit picture so millions of people can help identify the person/persons who carried out this awful abduction.
My heart goes out to the McCanns and hope Maddy is found soon.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
As a mum myself I am absolutely heart broken about the abduction of little Maddie, and like millions of people world over, I keep praying that she has not been harmed and will be returned home safely and soon. It’s just horrifying to think that there are animals out there who pray on the innocent and defenseless. And yes, like many of you, I also agree that perpetrators of such heinous crimes should be chemically castrated.
However, I must agree with Paulo Reis observations about the English media’s portrayal of the Portuguese authorities. As a non English and non Portuguese individual who has been following this heartbreaking case on the other side of the planet (in Australia) I am saddened to see that elements of Britain’s tabloid press have turned this cruel crime, which could have happened anywhere, into some kind of racial issue. The divisive, unsubstantiated and at times racist and offensive nonsense being bandied about by the British press is simply unnecessary and arrogant, especially when considering that there is a young and innocent life at stake.
From what I can gather from the information I have read, the Portuguese authorities are well equipped and doing everything in their power to find little Maddie. The fact that the authorities around the resort area may not be as experienced as the British authorities with regard to child abductions means that the area is usually a safe one.
Neither Maddie’s parents or the Portuguese authorities are to blame for the fact that she is not yet home. The fault lies only with the soulless monster who unlawfully stole her from her safe surrounds.
My thoughts are with the McCann family. I can’t imagine the hell they are going through.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
since when did all this become about who is to blame and which country is better? The only thing we should focus on right now is getting Madeleine home, lets worry about the rest once she is safe in her mothers arms. Do something proactive, download the e-poster, add it as an attachment and start emailing every single person you know. i spoke with my mother in Canada yesterday, she had been so busy this week she hadnt watched any news and had no idea what had happened. People out there don’t know, and they need to. Madeleines family started the e-poster to bring awareness to spain of what was happening, so they could recognise Maddy if they saw her. Well we have the power to do something pro-active even if it is only small. Lets make the whole world know what she looks like, because we really dont know where she is at this stage.
What shames me about reading all these comments is the fact that the two most positive people in all this are Madeleines parents. They are the ones holding on to hope, doing all they can, and yet they are the ones who have the most reason to lash out at anything and everything, to breakdown, to give up, yet they don’t. Instead everyone else does. Lets step up to the plate and learn a lesson from these two remarkable people, in what its truly like to possess strength in one of our darkest moments
May 10th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
For Vanessa…
This has not become a question of who is to blame and which country is better at all, although yes there are elements in the media and members of the public who seem to have pointlessly embraced the blame game. Many of the comments are just human reactions to the horrifying abduction of a little girl coupled with reactions to the litany of media articles surrounding it.
You claim that, based on the above comments, “everyone else” is lashing out at anything and everything, breaking down and giving up – this is simply unfounded. People, my self included, are just self expressing as we all find it difficult to make sense of such a needless and heinous crime. If reading these opinions shames you, then maybe you shouldn’t be reading opinion pieces.
Maddie’s parents must remain hopeful as without hope, well it’s not even worth considering.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
How much suffering would it take before you wished your child were found dead or alive..?
May 10th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
For Anorak
I don’t think any of us can truthfully answer that question until we’ve been in the McCann’s shoes.
May 10th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
I truly believe that this is our wake-up call to put pressure on governments in the EU to have an across the board law on paedophiles. This case has shown that it is pointless when one country monitors the movements of its paedophiles whilst another country doesn’t, although god knows why these beasts are allowed to come and go of their own free will in the first place. I was shocked to find out only from the disappearance of little Maddy that the Algarve is considered a paedophile haven and whilst I am not attacking Portugal as a country I find it inexcusable that this is the case what with it being a popular family holiday destination. As result of this case we should all demand far more from our governments as far as the safety of our children is concerned. I only hope that Maddy comes home safe and unharmed.
May 10th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
What do you suggest a Government does?
Join the forums
http://www.anorak.co.uk/forums/
May 10th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Well, for a start known paedophiles should not be allowed to move from one country to another as it’s too difficult to monitor movements. Inter-country access to paedophile information should be available so that we are all working from the same page and logging and monitoring paedophiles has to be passed as law as this case has starkly highlighted. Having followed this case I will refuse to visit a country with my daughter that is known as a paedophile hotspot as I believe that only when this kind of stand is made will holiday companies, governments etc do anything about it. This family were staying on a Mark Warner complex for which you pay a premium for the safety of your child and yet the apartments can be readily viewed and accessed from the street which is utterly appalling. The list is endless and I don’t pertain that it would be easy but if anything comes out of this case it has been that alot more needs to be done.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Increase reward
I want to see the reward increased into the millions!
If everyone donated a small amount the reward would
hopefully be enough to encourage the return of this beautiful little child!
Please make this suggestion on each site you visit in the hope someone will
set it up.
Just a small amount from each person who has been touched by this deplorable act
Should be enough to encourage the safe return of little Maddy MaCann!
God Bless this little Angel and her family xx
May 10th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Amazing - as yet no reward posted by the tabloid press…
May 10th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Do any other parents on here leave 3 children unattended while you go out enjoying yourselves.
What is more important than being a parent? If you don’t want your kids interrupting your dinner plans then leave them at home instead of taking them on holiday.
What would the press reaction have been if this abduction had happened to a single mom leaving her child in a caravan at Butlins?
I hope they find her safe and sound soon
May 10th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Dear Simon,
I am one of those mothers who relishes a child-free meal with my husband after a busy, fun family day at the beach on holiday. We are friends with many others who relish the same joy of an uninterrupted meal without children. Does that suddenly make you a neglectful, selfish parent? Good God - have people lost their minds. We love our children like nothing else, but for people to suggest that parents should have their children basically glued to their sides in absolutely ridiciulous. What Maddie’s parents did, was what we would have done. We will no longer be so uninhibited. We realise what a sad and sick world this is. Suddenly I find myself double checking the locks on windows, the bolts on doors. Suddenly I am more frightened than I have ever been before.
I have been sick to my stomach with this story. I am so so sad that people who love their children should have to suffer this unimaginable horror. I am so sad that we have to learn to accept this behaviour in our world and feel this fear for our children. When I imagine the fear her parents are suffering, it absolutely breaks my heart - yet I don’t seem to be able to think about much else. This is a parents worse nightmare.
Our prayers are for the family, the extended family and friends in these dreadful days.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:32 am
Interesting comments from Millie who says she will refuse to visit a country that is known as a pedophile hot spot. Interesting because most of the known pedophiles that operate in the area are foreigners (non Portuguese). According to the reports coming through here in Oz, up to 130 known sex offenders that were recently in the area were British. I can’t understand how Millie can justify those sorts of comments when she lives in a country where pedophilia is rife. Look at all the westerners being arrested in Asia for having sex with minors – most of them are from the UK.
England has one of the developed world’s highest rates of child abduction and sexual abuse. The UN also recently voted the UK as the second worst developed nation to bring up a child – second to America.
Scapegoating the Portuguese achieves nothing. This unfortunate case of child abduction has also really highlighted the fact that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Can we also spare a thought for the countless other children around the globe who have been stolen. Why isn’t the same attention being given to each and every one of these cases?