Madeleine McCann: Kate’s ‘suicide’, an ‘evil’ plot to kidnap a twin and another libel trial
MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news: the Goncalo Amaral libel trial is underway in Portugal.
The Daily Mail reports:
‘Anti-McCann’ websites plotted to kidnap one of Madeleine’s siblings ‘to find out what they knew about her disappearance’, court hears – Friend of the McCanns found examples of forum members encouraging kidnap so one of the twins could ‘throw some light on the matter’
Gerard Couzens writes:
Internet trolls fuelled by an ex police chief’s claims about the McCanns incited conspiracy-theorists to plot to kidnap the couple’s twins Sean and Amelie, a court heard today.
The Mail provides no web links and names no forums where the alleged plot was hatched.
Goncalo Amaral’s claims they faked daughter Madeleine’s abduction to cover up her death in their Algarve holiday apartment was to blame for the threats, close family friend Michael Wright said. Gerry and Kate McCann, 45, from Rothley, Leics, are suing the former Portuguese detective over his bombshell July 2008 book ‘The Truth of the Lie.’
Adding:
Mr Wright, husband of Kate McCann’s cousin Anne-Marie, told the court the theories in Mr Amaral’s book gave conspiracy theorists on anti-Mccann Internet forums ‘focus’ because he had been in charge of the botched investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
He said: ‘There were several examples of them inciting forum members to abduct one of the twins as they felt they would be able to throw some light on what may have happened. On one of the Internet forums, called The 3 Arguidos, there was an Internet conversation in great length where a member was suggesting that someone should abduct Sean or Amelie because they may be able to get information out of them that would confirm Mr Amaral’s theories.’
Was that a serious threat? Can anyone identify who made it and when? It’s all every unpleasant. To even joke about abducting a child to prove your theory that their young sibling child was not kidnapped reveals a deep level of stupidity.
The claim is picked up other news organs:
Daily Star: “Internet trolls threaten to snatch one of Madeleine McCann’s siblings”
Daily Express: “Evil internet plot to kidnap Madeleine McCann’s brother or sister”
Evil? No-one was arrested. No-one tried to snatch one of the twins. Might this alleged plot have been idiotic, vicious or cynical than evil?
He [Mr Wright] told the court how he and his wife, Kate’s cousin Anne-Marie Wright, had spent the weekend with the McCann’s on the second anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. This followed a documentary broadcast on Portuguese TV channel TVI in April 2009.
He said: “The weekend we all spent together was horrible. They arrived at the cottage having received phone calls from friends they had made in Praia da Luz telling them that people were tearing down posters we had put up saying ‘we know what happened. The child is dead.´ That news had a terrible impact. To hear that people were accepting the thesis of the book caused them huge, visible distress and great anger.”
The Times speaks of Kate McCann’s state of mind:
Kate McCann considered suicide after detective’s book, says her counsellor
Alan Pike has counselled Mrs McCann since her three-year-old daughter vanished at the Praia da Luz resort in the Algarve in 2007. Yesterday he told a libel hearing in Lisbon’s civil court that the book and subsequent film which claimed that Madeleine died in their villa had left her “devastated”.
He said:
“To understand the effect of the publication of the book and the following broadcast of the documentary, it’s important to understand Kate and Gerry’s recovery process in the 12 months after Madeleine’s abduction. About a year on, they were recovering from the most traumatic experience of their lives…
“When they learnt about the contents of the book and its conclusions, this caused even more distress.”
The Mail adds mote of what the counsellor said:
“I deduced it [suicide] was an indicator of how she felt rather that something she ever intended to do. Kate in particular wasn’t very well and she shared with me some very dark thoughts which she hadn’t done before. When people are going through trauma they sometimes feel helpless and one of the things they say is, ‘I wish I wasn’t here’. ‘One solution some people formulate is to take themselves away from it all. To share that with anyone will often alarm or worry the people they live with so I think I was the only person Kate shared this with.”
It was not a suicide bid, then. But the Express bills it as more:
Kate McCann was suicidal over detective’s lies about Madeleine
KATE McCANN contemplated suicide after a police chief wrongly accused her of covering up the death of her daughter Madeleine, a court heard yesterday…
But she was not suicidal. Why can’t the Express – which libelled the McCanns – stick to the simplest facts?
Posted: 21st, September 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
