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

THE SUNDAY EXPRESS (front page): “IS THIS WHO TOOK MADDIE?”

A change in the quotidian Express story. No longer is Madeleine, “MADELEINE”. Madeleine McCann is now “MADDIE”. It’s the name the media, mostly, have dubbed her.

Maddie is what the missing child has taken to calling herself when she visits party shops in Amsterdam…

So who took her. The Express has a photfit.

NEWS OF THE WORLD (front page): “I spotted Maddie’s tell-tale eye”

This is the least savoury headline Anorak has read on the matter for some time…

“I WAS AFRAID TO GRAB HER - Witness was sure restaurant girl was Maddie but feared causing a scene”

A VITAL new witness in the hunt for Madeleine McCann has told cops: “I saw Maddie. I know it was her—I saw the unique blemish in her eye.”

Go on…

Businessman Trevor Francis is certain he spotted the missing five-year-old in Venezuela just WEEKS ago. Because of the remarkable eye detail, Gerry and Kate McCann regard this as one of the most significant sightings.

Trevor, who swears he spotted Madeleine McCann in the Caribbean just weeks ago, has told of the haunting moment he saw the tell-tale blemish in her eye.

So he called out her name and asked her if her mum was called Kate and her dad Gerry? He took a picture on a camera phone? He tugged the arm of a passing copper and told him? He asked the restaruant’s manager for the names of the adults the girl was with?

He recalled: “Her eyes met mine as I walked past and that’s when I saw the little blemish in her right eye—it was like a little fleck. I wanted to grab her or shout out her name and see what reaction I would get. But I was afraid to do anything and cause a scene. . . a huge ruckus would have erupted and it could have made things worse. I decided to get a good look to make sure it was her so I could come back to England and report it.”

Yea, that’s right. He was so certain he waited until he’d flown abck to the UK to tell anyone. Vital evidence, indeed…

Witness Trevor’s son Ben, 22, of Worthing told us last night: “My dad is a very serious, credible and intelligent man. He’s not the sort of person who would make things up. And he’d certainly never lie about something like this.”

Sure. Read all about it…

We reveal two new suspects

TODAY we reveal TWO MORE e-fits of suspects Portuguese cops refused to publicise during their investigation. Both the men above were seen acting suspiciously in the area around the McCann apartment before the kidnap.

The one on the right approached holidaymaker Iris Morgan asking for money to help “young boys and girls”. The man in sunglasses was also seen nearby by an unnamed witness. These new images emerged from the case files after two other e-fits of suspects were released last week.

SUNDAY MIRROR (front page): “MADDIE: Probe into sighting in Caribbean.”

Is the Caribbean near Belgium?

SUNDAY TIMES: “Stung by the Portuguese men of law - Evidence from files on the Madeleine McCann investigation show how badly her parents were treated by Portuguese police”

In a document translated by The Sunday Times yesterday, Tavares Almeida, a chief inspector with the Portuguese police, accused the McCanns and the friends on holiday with them of “lying”. In a memo dated September 10, Almeida noted: “The statements from the whole group result in a total lack of coherence, from which we easily conclude that they’re all lying.”

A copper was suspicious of the parents and their friends? Hmmm…

Also in the file was a letter Kate had written to Paolo Rebelo, the head of the investigation, begging to be kept informed of developments. “I am appealing to you as a fellow human being to work with us (if possible to include us) and to remember that we are Madeleine’s parents . . . lack of communication is torture,” she wrote.

She appears to have received no reply. Once again the file rams home how coldly the Portuguese had treated the family.

We need hard evidence. Got any?

Last night it was reported that a girl matching Madeleine’s description had been seen a few weeks ago in a restaurant on the Venezuelan island of Margarita. Trevor Francis, 64, a British nursing home owner, said: “Her eyes met mine as I walked past and that’s when I saw the little blemish in her right eye - it was like a little fleck.” Private investigators employed by the McCanns are understood to be making urgent inquiries into the sighting on the Caribbean island.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann: ‘Strange Englishman’ photographed children on beach
A “strange Englishman” was spotted taking pictures of children on a Portuguese beach visited by Madeleine McCann just before she went missing, police files reveal.”

Oh?

According to the account in a Metropolitan police email sent to the Portuguese and Leicestershire forces, the picture was sent to a child abduction ring in Belgium, which had placed an order for a “young girl”. Having seen the image, the gang agreed that Madeleine should be taken. The files reveal that on May 9 last year – six days after Madeleine disappeared – officers interviewed Ernesto Mochacho, owner of a restaurant on Zavial beach, a 20-minute drive from Praia da Luz, which has a naturist area.

Mr Mochacho recalled seeing the McCanns with their three children for the last time at his restaurant in April. His son, who also works at the restaurant, the only one on the beach, said he told police he had seen a “tall, thin Englishman in his forties” taking photographs.

“He was weird, a strange guy,” Ivo Mochacho, 23, told The Sunday Telegraph. He said police visited the restaurant just after Madeleine vanished. “Madeleine came here for lunch with her parents not long before she disappeared,” he said. “I don’t know if this guy took a picture of Madeleine. It’s impossible to say. But he took a lot of photographs on the beach.

PUNCH (Nigeria): “A holiday to remember”

It’s Tabloid Bingo Africa!

Nine months after Madeleine McCann vanished into Portuguese air, Shannon Matthews, a nine-year-old girl, who lived a jogging distance from my neighbourhood, went missing on her way home from school.

Hear ye!

It is likely that each parent assumed the child was with the other, just like Mary and Joseph thought when the boy Jesus went missing during a trip to Jerusalem.

And on it goes…

Posted: 10th, August 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0