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Madeleine McCann, Shannon Matthews And Missing Child Protocol
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
Shannon Matthews is missing. Is the media treating her case the same way as it views Madeleine McCann? And, in light of missing Madeleine, is there now a protocol for what occurs when a child goes missing?
DAILY MIRROR: “LOST TO US ALL”
Sue Carroll: Most of us won’t have an instant recollection who Shannon Matthews is. After thinking twice, of course we all know she is the nine-year-old missing from her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire.
But what a terrible indictment of the media that, when a child has disappeared in Britain for over a week, her name doesn’t spring to our lips, we don’t know her school, favourite toy or what she was wearing when last seen.
Shannon is as precious to her family as Madeleine McCann, missing for 300 days, is to hers. But where are the front-page pictures, campaigns, the furore? Would this be different if she was the daughter of two middle-class, mediasavvy parents? Not a working-class child from up North.
THE SUN: “Marchers wants Shannon home”
THE family of Shannon Matthews led a poignant candlelit vigil for the missing nine-year-old last night – as police admitted hopes of finding her alive looked “bleak”.
Anguished mum Karen and stepdad Craig joined 300 neighbours on a march through streets near their home.
Children carried a banner showing the youngster’s face and a hotline to ring with information.
A hotline. Like Madeleine. A vigil. There is picture of Shannon on her birthday.
Balloons bearing pleas for Shannon’s safe return were released during last night’s vigil.
THIS IS LONDON: “Police search house of missing Shannon’s uncle as detectives treat case ‘as seriously as a murder’”
A dozen police officers conducted a fingertip search of the house belonging to the uncle of missing nine-year-old Shannon Matthews today.
Officers from West Yorkshire Police filed into the property in Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor which adjoins the home of the schoolgirl who disappeared last week.
The house belongs to Neil Hyett, Shannon Matthews’ uncle, and his wife, Amanda.
Detective Superintendent Brennan, who is heading up the search, says:
“I’m convinced that if Shannon had run away that night of her own volition, in a den or hideaway of some sort, we would have found her by now - over a week on from when the investigation opened.
“It is very rare in searches of this kind that a girl of Shannon’s age should be missing for this long without any clues pointing to her whereabouts.
“It is extremely concerning and we are now looking at this on a scale as serious as a murder investigation.
“It can now be said that the tone of our enquiry has changed to a bleaker outlook.
“The shift in emphasis is that we are now looking for individuals who may have been seen on the day of her disappearance, acting suspiciously, or unknown to the local community.
“We are also appealing for anyone who may have friends or family that may have been behaving strangely since Shannon went missing, to come forward.
“At this stage, any shred of information, however insignificant it seems, may help.
“We have a grave concern that she may have fallen into the wrong hands but no arrests have been made at this point, and I must stress at this point that we are not ruling out any possibilities as to what might have happened to her.”
DAILY MAIL: “Now police say missing Shannon, 9, could have been abducted”
A week after Shannon Matthews was last seen walking away from school in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, it also emerged that another girl called Shannon escaped an abduction attempt 10 miles away earlier the same day.
Shannon Selby, 12, was walking to school alone in Wakefield when a man pulled up and ordered her to “get in this car now”.
She ran away as the man parked and made to chase her on foot.
She reached home safely and her mother rang the police.
An efit of the attacker was released yesterday.
Allison Pearson: “Poor Shannon was already a lost child”
When Madeleine McCann went missing, her parents soon came under attack for leaving their daughter alone in a holiday apartment just a couple of hundred yards from where they were having dinner.
At the time, critics claimed that if the middle-class McCanns had lived on a council estate, they would have been in trouble with the police for neglect. So where is the outcry over the disappearance of Shannon Matthews?
Only nine years old, Shannon was reported missing by her mum, Karen, at 7pm last Tuesday when she had still not walked the mile home. She was last seen leaving school at 3.10pm.
Four hours is an eternity for a little girl to be out on a dark winter’s evening. And Shannon was afraid of the dark. Why did no one walk with her or care where she was?
Karen, who has seven children by five fathers, admitted that she had found a note scrawled on her daughter’s bedroom wall saying that she wanted to go and live with her biological dad in Huddersfield.
Shannon’s friends say she told them she didn’t want to go home. But Karen insists Shannon was fine and enjoys a good relationship with her current boyfriend, 22-yearold Craig.
“Only on Monday, they were having tickling fights and telly cuddles. She views him as her dad.” Oh really? In that case, why was Shannon so desperate to be reunited with her real father? No one can doubt Karen’s anguish.
The poor woman can hardly speak, except to sob to the cameras: “Shannon, come home, please come home.” But allowing a passing parade of boyfriends to play tickling games with your vulnerable small girl is, at best, naïve
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Shannon ‘may be in the wrong hands’”
Reports that an alleged abduction attempt of another girl on the same day that Shannon disappeared a week ago were being looked into by police.
According to reports, a man in a gold Ford Mondeo tried to coax a 12-year-old into his car at about 9am in Wakefield, about six miles away.
The girl ran away from him.
THE TIMES: “Abducted, abused… survived”
Lisa Hoodless and Charlene Lunnon were abducted and raped nine years ago, aged 10. They found strength in each other to survive the four-day ordeal and, remarkably, to rebuild their lives
Alan Hopkinson was found by police with the girls huddled together in his front room. He pleaded guilty to the crime and was given nine life sentences.
And that, for the public at least, is where stories like this usually end. Children don’t often survive adbuction by men such as Hopkinson, a truth that weighs heavily on the mind as we await news of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews, missing now for more than a week. If they do survive, we rarely hear from them again.
Hope:
They say that in some ways what happened has had a positive effect on their lives. Both seem vaguely surprised that anyone would want to interview them about it because it is “not that amazing” but, in a climate in which missing girls such as Madeleine McCann dominate the news, they want to urge people never to give up searching because “children can come back”.
Posted: 27th, February 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (1,154) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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October 18th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Ahh, my wasted youth.
I should screen-print this stuff - sow it into a tent - and sell it to the Tate.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
i would uphold the view that Madeline is still safe, I believe she must have been kid-knapped and sold perhaps to another family. I strongly condemn and oppose the theory that her parents had anything to do with it. Yes, sadly many cases of child abuse are by the children’s own family, however it is ovbious when a child comes from an abused family and noted by many people including the socail services. However, with Maddy, there is no history of child abuse. Furthermore, with many cases of child obduction, the parents are immediatley accused and always proved wrong. ie. Lisa & Charlene, [name removed - dr]..
February 28th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
sorry
wrong window opened..
February 28th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
868
Hi Julie,
Come on admit it, this last poster lØoked quite unreal and gave you a good laugh!
S/he nearly got me out of my rollercoaster into the anti-camp…
February 28th, 2008 at 11:19 am
1156
Ian Says:
February 28th, 2008 at 9:07 am
!
We could join forces in dismissing this maybe!
————-
Yeah right!
February 28th, 2008 at 9:53 am
1169 Coco
Your English is not dreadful at all - it’s excellent. What is your native language? (if I may ask).
I just imagined that the taxi driver hadn’t told the press before. Maybe someone has “encouraged” him to come forward now. But, if you are right and it was intentionally buried, it would confirm the power of the McCann entourage.
The other possibility is, of course, that it never happened at all. The account that has reached us has very little detail. I still don’t see clearly that the woman was a Kate lookalike. The taxi driver says he thought that the woman was the girl’s mother. I interpret this to mean (possibly) that that he believed the woman in the taxi to be the mother of the girl in the taxi, rather than to mean that she looked like Kate.
Also, why on earth did he supposedly investigate whether they were staying at the hotel. I can think of no reason for him to do that.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:41 am
1138
catkidd Says:
**************
heheheheheheheheh
February 28th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Chloe:
The police interviewed him at the time he reported it! My concern is that the press have not printed this before. Why was this buried when other journalists informed their bosses. Why did this go unheeded. Why was it buried before it was unearthed? - So to speak. Please forgive my dreadful English.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:23 am
1159 Coco
“Why was the taxi-driver not heeded? Who said that he should not be heeded?”
—————————
Who says he wasn’t? Maybe the PJ looked into it at the time. Remember, their work is secret.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:20 am
1162
Carmen
Thanks Carmen. I haven’t catched up all posts.
Will do when I return after work.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:18 am
1153
Ferdinand,
Don’t worry, Paolo will inform us all in time about it.
I think you’d better go out and buy the make-it-yourself popcorn, that’ll stay fresh for ages
off to work now bbl
February 28th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Morning all
The trouble with the taxi theory is that it flies in the face of Eddies indications. The more work Eddie does, the better his credentials seem to get.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Ian 1158
Jolly well said! I missed that whilst I was ranting away.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:12 am
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080228/tuk-network-rail-handed-record-fine-45dbed5.html
This is not about Madeleine but is illustrative of the world of Harry Hindsight and the UK establishment ‘Sir’ this and ‘Baroness’ that, totally archaic and belonging to the days of Prince John and pre-Magna Carta.
Absolutely disgusting and abhorrent.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:11 am
1157
catkidd
Its just mad and madder by the day.
You could well be right tho”
February 28th, 2008 at 9:11 am
morning…new thread
February 28th, 2008 at 9:10 am
If clarrie is denying it, maybe its true? They sold Mads, split the cash and thats why they all stuck to the story of abduction
February 28th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I have to flick through this site regularly to prove to myself that I am not going mental!
A teacher in the UK was recently suspended from teaching in her school whilst her recently discovered porn films were investigated.
This was to save embarrassment for her and her colleagues and pupils.
I recall some 10 years ago a nurse leaving her post in tears after her manager asked her to resign. The poor nurse was cam-corded by her boy-friend, fooling around with a dog in distasteful way and the film was passed amongst his friends.
One of these friends was knocking off the hospital manager. He invited her to watch some porn with him one night. Of course she recognised the woman in the film and dealt with the whole matter in a discrete way.
Why has GM not been suspended since becoming a suspect in Portuguese law? I tried emailing the Clan last night but the contact button would not work. Surprise! I was going to ask him what makes it so easy for him to keep from being suspended. Is the hospital not embarrassed? Innocent beyond reproach or not.
Harold Shipman was a well-loved GP but at least he was suspended whilst an investigation took place.
I wonder if people are refusing to work with GM or even have consultations with him. Thinking about it people are probably queueing up to see him more than ever - just so that in future they will be able to say they met him lol. For whatever reason!
I bet GM’s colleagues don’t get any peace at home with their partners asking if they have bumped into him or asking them to ask him round for drinks. Only so they can get an exclusive in whichever newspaper dares to still print about the Clan of course.
We’ve always said on here that the PJ were biding their time and I still think that it’s in the PJ interests not to rush. CM has more than two loose cannons about to cause a very smokey screen.
Bravo to everybody who predicts when the sightings will be and which one of the Clan will say what and when.
It’s utterly fabulous. It’s like an extra-scary version of Basic Instinct. Extra-terrifying because of the concentric circles that radiate out from every bit of a splash.
Why was the taxi-driver not heeded? Who said that he should not be heeded?
February 28th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Clarence dismisses stories that dont suit him, I think thats blatently obvious. He has been totally discreditted anyway with the lie about the involvement of the man accused of involvement in drugs who works for m3 and DID work on the Madeleine case.
They really ought to sack him for that one. His credibility is in tatters and cannot be recovered.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:07 am
jo;actually just had a thought, to discredit the taxi man might be a ploy to try lift the suspect status.maybe its just a new tactic
February 28th, 2008 at 9:07 am
1148
Karen
Interesting this one, its in effect saying that the McCanns have had Madeleine adopted or taken into hiding whilst they run a campaign to raise money to pay their mortgage.
So its a combination of Pro and Anti McCann, an abduction - but not a stranger abduction!
We could join forces in dismissing this maybe!
February 28th, 2008 at 9:01 am
1152
Karen
No worry!
My pc “works” but dunno for how long.
No further news anywhere.
I find it very weird the-taxi-driver-story-that-clarrie-discredit
The timing is wrong….but then who is spinning this time?
February 28th, 2008 at 9:00 am
were could or what could kate have done with maddie, she was obiously alive at the time
February 28th, 2008 at 8:58 am
1150 Totje Says:
“Ferdinand
And that caused the euphoria?”
Amusing.
I’ve allready bought some pop corn for my Anorak lurk time on the day it will be leaked that interviews will take place in the following week.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Hi Jo
I meant to put your name above my last post.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:53 am
steve t;not to worry 14 bottles of wine should numb the pain..
February 28th, 2008 at 8:53 am
1143
Ferdinand
And that caused the euphoria?
Hmm …..
February 28th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Mystery solved.
Clarrie dismissed a sighting because the taxi driver saw a Kate look-a-like.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:51 am
That’s a subtle way of kidnapping a child - use a taxi.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Morning all
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=520929&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490
February 28th, 2008 at 8:50 am
1145
catkidd
Probably feeling a bit to sick to eat!