Madeleine McCann: The Great War On Paedos
“SURROUNDED by a mass of yellow ribbons, he kneels alone with his thoughts and reads the countless messages from well-wishers.”
Of course, Gerry McCann is not alone, not even in the Mail. Amid the teddy bears, yellow ribbons and cards are the gentlemen of the press, massed in the McCanns’ home village of Rothley, Leicestershire. McCann is at the midst of swarm of media workers, well-wishers and the ghoulish who want to see the poor man. “FATHER’S PAIN,” says the Mirror’s front-page headline. “DAD FIGHTS BACK TEARS.”
The Mail says that local traders have supplied an estimated 14miles of yellow ribbon, to tie around old oak trees, a bench and a sign hand-painted by local children that reads: “Maddie. Please bring her back.”
Gerry McCann spends 15 minutes at the “shrine”. Says he: “The support is fantastic. It really does help us. The incredible support gives us strength.”
Madeleine McCann is now a public figure. The McCann family’s pain has been transmuted to our collective suffering. “Every parent’s worst nightmare” is the nightmare for all of us.
Lest We Forget
This shrine to a missing girl is founded on the village’s old war memorial, that memory to they who gave their lives in battle.
But Madeleine is not dead, is she? She did not die in a brutal war. The call to have Madeleine McCann brought back echoes the call for our boys to return from the dangers of Iraq. Who knew that one missing child was symbolic of so much? One tragedy becomes indistinguishable from another.
“BRING MADDIE HOME,” says a banner held up by the Liverpool football team. Madeleine, renamed Maddie by the press, is pictured. There are two numbers for anyone with information to ring.
But look at the cards and the flowers and the ribbons. And wonder if any information will amount to more than well-wishers keen to inform the world of their concern and anxiety.
In The Frame
If you want to help, the Sun says British police want anyone in the area at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance to check their holiday snaps.
Have you taken a picture of Madeleine McCann? Are you the kind of person who takes pictures of other people’s children on holiday? Are you a paedophile?
These photographs will be analysed by a computer programme that can pick out “600 facial features”. Detectives say they only want photographs that include strangers.
So look over your holiday snaps. And see if you can spot Madeline McCann. And then work out how you can get the shots to the police without giving the speculation-happy press a new name to talk about – yours…
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:25 am
quote:-So look over your holiday snaps. And see if you can spot Madeline McCann. And then work out how you can get the shots to the police without giving the speculation-happy press a new name to talk about – yours…
Anorak ur starting to sound like the news of the world
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:33 am
Oh dear. Am I? Sorry for that. The point I was trying to make is that at the start of this story there was talk of the mysterious man taking pictures of children on the beach in Portugal . And now the police want anyone with pictures of Madeleine to hand them in. And pictures of any strangers. Such is the NOTW’s anti-paedo frenzy that the papers could get hold of this and haul the hapless holiday snapper over the coals…
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:35 am
And their family, and friends, and possibly anyone who has ever taken a photograph of them.
THe sooner people realise that there is not a paedophile on every street corner waiting to steal their children the sooner we will be able to get away from this hysteria.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:44 am
Stealing a child is a rare crime.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:47 am
The trouble with this report is that it might create doubts in the minds of those that may have useful photos to send in and thus prevent them from doing so!
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:56 am
Yes, Anorak, fortunately it is a very rare crime, but the hysteria and paranoia which is spouted by the media would not lead you to believe that this was the case…
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
hey …if you want the press to keep your good name clean….send your pics to Max Clifford….his agency now specialises in making suspects into celebrities……and he only charges a fair fee…..a paltry percentage of the profits. Just imagine how much a pic of dear little maddy must be worth……
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
HAS ANYBODY EXAMINED THE PHOTOS OF THE DOCTOR FRIENDS THEY WERE ON HOLIDAY WITH, YOU KNOW, THE ONES WE ARE TOLD THAT ALSO LEFT THEIR KIDS ON THEIR OWN, OH NO SPIRITED AWAY. JUST IN CASE THE WORLD HATES THEM AS WELL AS THE NEGLECTFUL McCANNS
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:34 pm
You guys are dweebs, but thank you for your occasionally odd angle which helps the brainstorm. Maddie is our child, a daughter of the human race and we are human. Where’s your by-line?
Posted to Sky News and Ian Woods - if you have investigative reporters in the field or just good at commenting why not take a crack:
Want some news? Stop being so nice about the inabilities of national police forces to work together and the great lengths of time between potential sightings and police follow through.
Also why not report on the efforts in Africa?
And educate us on the black-market in adoption and organs. What happens to abductees?
The public should be outraged. Good, objective reporting will incite that and then change is possible.
John Adams
Philadelphia
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:34 pm
How very sad. In all of this, people seem to be forgetting that if little madeleine is still alive, she is out there, afraid and hoping to be found.
In the meantime, forums are filled with cynical slurs against tha family, the media who are keeping her profile raised and just about anybody who is willing to try and help in any way they can.
So many people seem desperate for the tabloids to shut up about madeleine, simply because she is a white middle class girl.
She NEEDS to be kept in the public eye. First, this will encourage donations to her fund and therefore may pay for more resources to find her and second, so when everyone takes their holidays abroad this summer, they are mindful of madeleine and watching out.
What is wrong with you all? Please remember what this is about.
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Aardvark Says:
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:47 am
The trouble with this report is that it might create doubts in the minds of those that may have useful photos to send in and thus prevent them from doing so!
exactly my point, well said !
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:25 pm
The point of the holiday snaps is not to see if someone has photographed Madeleine. But to see if there was someone in the area around that time who is known to the police.
Do you not have kids??? How would you feel if it was one of your children or a family member. Would you want people to shut up and forget about them?
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:25 pm
hey jon adams……”you guys are dweebs” ????????
Pardon me mate but do they not speak English in Philadelphia???
Is Kath really a “guy”?
please translate
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:26 pm
….or are you all “plonkers” in Philly??
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:38 pm
When you’ve all finished emoting over this kid just remember this point… 99% of abducted girls are raped and murdered with 12 hours of being grabbed. The chances of Madeleine McCann being found alive after 19 days are somewhere between zero and non existant. As Dr McCoy would say…’She’s dead Jim’… it’s a big bad world and bad things happen in life, get over it.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm
dweebs, you douchebag, dweebs
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
‘The Realist’??? or The Pessimist. Where do you get your statistics from? Were you always so cynical, cold-hearted and flippant. There is a child missing and people are trying to find her. If you can contribute nothing, then shut your cake-hole and crawl back to where you came from. I trust you will be as pragmatic should something so horrific happen within your own family circle, if you have one.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
If I had left my child in my house and gone for Tapas, 200 yrds from my house in Manchester I would have been arrested.
What makes it ok to do so in Portugal?
They neglected their children and paid an expensive price. Maybe because they are white church goes that save lives for a living - that makes their actions justified. If a single parent had of done the same in Magaluf there would have been no story….
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
no i’m not a ‘guy’, what is your point exactly?
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I can see the author’s point. Suppose Murat turns out to be nothing more than an overly helpful guy. His crime was to try to help and for that trouble, he is known the world over as man who is a suspect in the disappearance of a lovely child. His name may never be cleared if no one else is convicted.
The story was slowing down and maybe I am cynical, but it sure seems too coincidental that a newspaper then CREATED news by implicating Murat as a suspect. That got at least another week of stories going. Oooh, he was suspicious because he wouldn’t tell them everything about his life. Maybe he’s seen you at work. Uh-oh…..They checked out the info he DID give them and it all was accurate. But let’s turn him in anyway. He seems suspicious….Can’t trust a man with a glass eye, I always say.
Let’s say two single men were on vacation and took some photos that Madeleine wound up in. They realize this and send them in. Next thing you know, it’s why did you take these pictures? Where were you the night of her disappearance? Can you prove that? Can we check all your computer files, etc.? What if one of them had a hangover and stayed in while the other went out to party that night? He is &%#&$#%. We now have a new suspect! It really is not that farfetched given what has happened so far.
I don’t even know if you can send in photos anonymously nowadays, because they can trace where they were printed, etc. Because of how the media has pounced on (and perhaps even created out of thin air) potential suspects in this case, I can understand why those with photos would be reluctant to share them, unless they have a 100% ironclad alibi for that night.
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I wasn’t suprised to see Jim Gamble (CEO, Child Exploitation & Online Protection) get his mug on the main BBC news last night. It was only a matter of time before CEOP barged their way onto national TV in connectionn with young Madeleine. Still, this is going to be interesting. CEOP had better tread very carefully with this, after the massive miscarriage of justice known as Operation Ore (39 suicides and rising).
I really hope more innocent people are not going to have to endure CEOP’s six o’clock knock. Well, Jim (for it is he) claims he never takes the decision to arrest anyone under suspicion in connection with crimes against children lightly, so let’s hope he can ruin a few less lives this time around, once those candid family holidays snaps start spilling across his desk and into the Police National Computer.
I await further news of CEOP’s triumphant breakthrough with fairly mixed feelings…
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:26 pm
i pray that this never happens to any of your family’s. and if you have any pictures of Madeleine or the surrounding area then it is imperitive that you send them in as its quite innocent to get pictures of children whilst on holiday in a holiday resort seeing how its a family resort. besides the police are looking for people in the background who are well known to the police.
have you never been sad to leave your holiday when you leave back to your boring routine at home and thought i wil take some last pictures of the resort to remember, then these would be ideal for the police as they are likely to have ppl in them really, so it is quite possible to have innocent pictures of people in and including children.
i think its time to stop debating about madeleines parents now and concentrate on finding madeleine if she is still alive which i very much believe she is as this was to well planned for a simple pedo to kill her now and surely they would have found a body as you cant get far with a body, so she is alive somewhere and will be found. so please stop biting each others heads off and try and help if you can and snapping at each other isnt going to get you anywhere in the long run except maybe hospital with high blood pressure.
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:42 pm
The holiday snaps idea is barking up the wrong tree. Plus, as you said, it could lead to innocent people being accused of taking photos of kids. Perhaps it’s a police scheme to make Murat think he’s ‘off the hook’.
All it would take would be one local man, familiar with the area, to happen to notice that the McCann’s children were unguarded for half-an-hour to an hour. Perhaps if they’d hired a babysitter, he or she could have prevented the abduction. If the McCann’s didn’t trust a babysitter, at least there would have been someone accountable for Madeline’s disappearance.
I agree with ‘The Realist’ where he said “The chances of Madeleine McCann being found alive after 19 days are somewhere between zero and non existant”. I reckon Murat and his Russian friend murdered Madeline and hid her body. Why was Murat in such a hurry to hire a car on the first Saturday Madeline disappeared? To hide a body? While his mother set out her stall for people to give information that they didn’t want to give to the pole? Did she keep Murat updated on the progress of the investigation? Funny how he wanted to know the progress, not whether she had been found or not. Murat seems to be a sly fox covering his tracks, but sooner or later the truth will come out. If Madeline has been murdered, there will be world-wide fury.
When she first disappeared, I did hope that a woman desperate for a child had her abducted, but imagine trying to play ‘happy families’ with Madeline with the intense media attention plus the £2.6 million reward for her safe return. All is silent and no concrete leads
Regards
Phil
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Why are people so keen to persecute Murat?
There is concrete vidence that Team McCann were willfully neglectful in their (lack of) care for their three children.
As such, the people responsible for the disappearance of this child are her parents.
There are people very eager to ‘find maddie(sic)’ but in doing so they seem very happy to disregard the most vital tenant of justice - you are innocent until proven guilty….IN A COURT OF LAW…not in the red top rags!
I will ask again - WHY is this case being promoted ahead of every other child who has gone missing?
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Quite agree with Anorak, no sane person would send anything to CEOPS.
Unless that person is female, married, not divorced, with child, sociable, a team player, has no glass eyes, doesn’t live with Mum, has no access to the internet, does not overly help press reporters, has no Russian friends or hires cars in a hurry.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:40 pm
A small, fragile, little girl is, at best, petrified and being subjected to God knows what, right now. Forget what the parents did wrong, for now, the childs safety is more important. Let the police deal with their wrong doings later.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Yes Rich, but there are a million other kids missing right now.
The McCant’s will be feeling terrible, but I would imagine that the parents of any other mising children will be feeling worse, as their son or their daughter is ignored by the racist and class biased media.
I am not saying that every case should be covered like this, I am saying that NO cases should be flooded like this.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Young children go missing every day, in every country, but never has any case been given so much prominence. If Madeliene was black and from an under-privileged background, the media would have disappeared a long time ago. However she is white, pretty and from a middle class background with successful, prosperous parents. The way people are hand-wringing over it, and allowing themselves to be manipulated by the unsavoury salivating media, is pathetic.
Now, we hear, the family are lobbying and demanding that the government get involved. A lot of British people these days refuse to accept responsibility for their actions, and expect the government/nanny state to come to their aid when things go wrong, in this case tragically wrong.
I feel sympathy for Madeliene’s parents in their loss, however, the fact is that they left their very young children alone - THREE children, all under the age of four. It needs to be said (and it is not being said), they have betrayed the trust their young daughter put in them, and they have let her down, with tragic consequences.
Notwithstanding the bland and smug assertion in the UK media that the majority of parents have done something similar, the vast majority of parents would never leave their very young children alone. They would not do it at home, it is against the law and they would be charged with an offence. Why then do it when on holiday abroad, no matter how “safe” the environment appeared to be. Madeliene’s parents and their friends apparently did it every night of their stay at the resort. Just because all the other parents were doing it does not make it right. The British are increasingly unable to make intelligent decisions and to think for themselves, which is the legacy of Blair and the nanny state he has created.
Gerry McCann is a heart surgeon. Would you want such a gambler operating on your heart?
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I agree, the media coverage maybe disproportionate considering the thousands of other children missing, and maybe the McCanns are fortunate that the press haven’t a spicy celeb story to fill their front pages, for now.
.
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Once this dies down there will be front page splashes about the McCant’s, no doubt about it.
They will regret inviting the media bear into their house for lunch.