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

THE SUN: “Cops plot McCann pals’ quiz.”

“It could involve British police putting questions to the ‘Tapas seven’.”

“Gran’s plea over missing Shannon”

A picture of Karen Matthews wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of her missing daughter. The mother is smiling. Why show this picture?

MISSING Shannon Matthews’ heartbroken gran fought tears yesterday as she pleaded: “I just want to see her little smiley face at my window again.”

June Matthews is a “pensioner”. She suffers from “ill health”. Is interviewing the grandmother now part of the protocol for reporting on missing children?

THE SCOTSMAN: “Madeleine: police may quiz ‘Tapas Nine’ again”

The Sun’s Tapas Seven becomes the Scotsman’s Tapas Nine. Such are the facts.

Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, of Leicestershire Police, returned from the Algarve yesterday after meeting counterparts in Portugal about how the fresh interviews would be conducted.

The Leicestershire Police spokeswoman says: “Since Madeleine’s disappearance, we, together with other law-enforcement agencies, have been working closely with the Portuguese authorities.

“Mr Prior has attended a series of meetings with his Portuguese counterparts,” she said yesterday. “He travelled to Portugal on Tuesday and returned this morning.

“He went to discuss how the request for mutual legal assistance is to be executed and to seek clarification over elements of the request.”

DAILY MAIL: “Madeleine: British police meet Portuguese detectives to plan fresh interviews with Tapas Nine”

The “so-called Tapas Nine - the McCanns and their seven friends - could still hold the solution to the unsolved mystery that began in May last year”.

Says the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell: “The sooner this re-interviewing takes place the better. The friends are very keen to help police understand their original statements. No one will be changing their story. We are not aware that Kate and Gerry are to be re-interviewed at this stage, but if so, that’s not an issue.”

Tapas Nine minus Tapas Two equals Tapas Seven.

The McCanns, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were joined at the tapas restaurant on by Dr Matthew Oldfield and his recruitment consultant wife Rachael, Dr Russell O’Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, and medical researcher David Payne, his wife Fiona, and her mother Dianne Webster.

Gerry McCann is a heart consultant. Kate McCann is a GP. Such are the facts.

THE TIMES: “Shannon’s mother, Karen Matthews, defends her partner on TV.”

The mother of Shannon Matthews, the missing nine-year-old girl, insisted yesterday that her boyfriend had nothing to do with her disappearance. Karen Matthews, 32, said that Craig Meehan, 22, “would not hurt anybody”.

The Times hacks are watching mid-morning telly. It was ever so.

Ms Matthews chose an interview on GMTV to confront those making accusations against Mr Meehan, her partner for the past four years, whom she called her “rock”. She said: “I know it has nothing to do with him. He would not hurt anybody. It is very hurtful to think people think he would do something like this, because he would not.”

Mr Meehan said that he had taken no notice of the fingers being pointed at him. He added that the police activity surrounding the family was routine in such cases. “They do it to every family this happens to,” he said.

We watch, voyeurs to suffering. We watch, playing amateur detectives on our sofas. It’s interactive entertainment. It’s just routine questioning on the GMTV sofa.

The family have received messages of support from around Britain, including the family of Madeleine McCann. Mr Meehan said: “They know what we are going through.”

Will GMTV unite the families for a special show?

DAILY EXPRESS: “Shannon: Police dig wasteland.”

It is “grim twist” as police call in a digger to search wasteland.

Says the Express: “There are 1,327 registered sex offenders living within a 20-mile radius of Shannon’s home”

It was 1,400.

No mention of Madeleine McCann in the paper that led with her image for weeks on end.

DAILY STAR: “SHANNON COPS START DIGGING UP WASTELAND”

A “dramatic move” close to Shannon’s fmaily home in Desbuery, West Yorkshire.

Says the Express’s sister paper: “Detectives have been orderd to trace 1,387 convicted sex offenders” in the area.

The number grows.

DAILY MIRROR (front page): “WE SAW SHANNON SOBBING.”

Says a boy, aged 12: “There were tears running down her face. She was proper crying.”

Pages 4 and 5: “THE HUNT FOR SHANNON.”

“’It breaks my heart to think she was so upset on that wall. Why did no one comfort her and bring her home to me?’” Karen Matthews. The missing child’s mother.

A last poignant sighting of vanished Shannon Matthews by two boys has pierced the heart of her stricken mum Karen. Clutching the hand of partner Craig Meehan, despairing Karen, 32, said: “It breaks my heart to think she was so upset and we don’t know why. Why did no one comfort her and bring her home to me?”

Readers are invited to empathise with her pain.

Speaking exclusively to the Mirror from her home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorks, Karen said she was mystified by her daughter’s tears and convinced she was still alive after being snatched. She said: “Shannon was perfectly normal on the day she disappeared. “She came running downstairs already in her uniform because she was so excited about going swimming. “Then she was out of the door, shouting ‘See you at teatime - love you’. She didn’t tell us about being bullied at school and I didn’t think she was upset about anything. I’m sure she’s still alive. It’s just a feeling I have - a mother’s feeling. “Wherever she is, she’s going to be frightened. It’s breaking our hearts. I don’t think she’s run away. I think something sinister has happened.”

We can join in the speculation:

Karen said: “I even hate going upstairs. Just walking past her open door is painful. She loved her room. It seems so empty since she’s been gone. Courtney, who shares the bedroom with her half sister, now sleeps cuddled up to Shannon’s favourite teddy. Karen said: “You can hear her shouting out for Shannon. It’s heartbreaking.” At her side, Craig said: “With 200 police on the case you’d think they’d have picked up something by now. But Shannon hasn’t been seen anywhere. I think someone must have taken her. It could be a person with a grudge or who can’t have children of their own. If someone has her, just let her come home. That’s what everyone wants. That’s what Shannon and her family want. We’re all missing her.”

TYPICALLY SPANISH: “Two Million Euro ransom demanded in Marí Luz case”

A phone call was made to the family yesterday, but it is not considered by police to be genuine
The family of the missing five year old girl, Mari Luz Cortés, who vanished from Huelva in the middle of January, says they have received a ransom demand for two million Euros. They say they received a phone call from an individual yesterday, who demanded two million € to release the child.

But at a press conference held today in the Plaza Rosa del Torrejón, in Huelva, the missing child’s uncle, Diego Cortés, lamented the call which he described as ‘upsetting and senseless’, as it was believed the call is a hoax. He said that the family ‘was prepared to negotiate’ in the case of serious calls, adding that if the family would go personally to rescue Mari Luz if necessary. He said there was no chance of the family raising a sum of two million €, but that 300,000€ was possible.

And: 

Speculation continues in some media over a possible link to the Madeleine McCann disappearance, but there is no evidence of any relationship, apart from the geographical location of the two cases.

Missing children and no news

Posted: 7th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0