Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

Unofficial sources and the demands of 24-hour news have led to a media storm around Gerry and Kate McCann that gets darker by the day

Giles Tremlett
Mon 17 Sep 2007 08.02 BST

Inside the drab, tile-clad police station in Portimao, there is a television tuned to Sky News. Officers are monitoring the UK news network, which has mounted rolling coverage of the case they are investigating, for one reason: they want to know what the world is saying about them.

That explains the outrage 10 days ago, on the evening that Gerry and Kate McCann were declared formal suspects, or arguidos, in the disappearance of their daughter. Police were still questioning Gerry McCann when, already, his sister Philomena was telling Sky they had offered Kate McCann a reduced two-year sentence if she admitted to killing her daughter accidentally, hiding the body and then secretly disposing of it weeks later.

On this occasion the police officers were right to be angry. Like many things said about the McCann affair over the past days and months, the story was wrong. There was no offer of a plea bargain. It had all been "a misunderstanding", the McCann lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, explained the following day.

That did not mean, of course, that Philomena McCann - one of many people speaking for what might broadly be called "the McCann camp" - was wrong about the rest of it. Portuguese police do seem to be considering accidental death followed by disposal of the corpse as a possibility in this most bizarre of cases. In this story without on-the-record sources, however, they have not even publicly confirmed that much.

It now seems incredible, however, to recall that the McCanns started suing Portugal's Tal & Qual magazine for saying just that a little over two weeks ago: Philomena McCann's statement gave British journalists the green light to start reporting the allegations against the McCanns - even though, if they are found not guilty in any future trial, editors could be sued.

The scene inside the police station helps explain something of the nature of what has become one of the world's biggest media storms. The journalists watch the police, the police watch the journalists and the world watches them all - showing an insatiable appetite for even the flimsiest reports about the McCann case.

Stir into the mix the relentless demands of 24-hour rolling journalism and some bitter, nationalistic warfare between sections of the British and Portuguese press and you get a messy, and occasionally nasty, story.

"The British press ... treats Portugal as a place full of incapable, careless incompetents," complained Francisco Moita Flores in Correio da Manha after a recent round of criticism of the Portuguese police.

Frustration reigns among journalists covering the case. Everybody who knows anything worthwhile is bound by Portugal's judicial secrecy laws not to talk. That includes the police, lawyers, court officials, the McCanns and almost anyone who has given evidence. That has not, of course, prevented the media providing a daily feast of "details". So where do these come from?

Kate and Gerry McCann might not be able to talk, but their extended family and a network of friends can, and do. Philomena, with her colourful Glaswegian vocabulary and willingness to attack the police, is among the most quoted - but there are many more.

The Portuguese police also talk, though the few gruff words issued by official spokesman Chief Inspector Olegario de Sousa rarely add anything to the story. Like any police force, however, they leak - especially to Portuguese journalists. Unfortunately the things they leak are often contradictory. For every "police source" claiming the evidence against the McCanns is strong, for example, another is ready to say it is not.

The McCanns have their own favourite journalists. Gerry McCann, for example, likes Sky's Ian Woods - who conducted the first television interview with them back in May. It was Sky who told the world the McCanns were leaving Portugal on September 9.

Although many commentators have professed amazement at the McCanns' supposedly skilful media management, this has, at times, proved chaotic. It was naive, for example, to believe that the respect showed to them in the days immediately after three-year-old Madeleine vanished would hold.

Muck-raking stories

In the early days the McCanns were allowed to set the rules for the press. They decided what happened, and when. The British media succumbed, largely, to a bout of communal sympathy. Police had said it was a kidnap. Robert Murat, an expatriate Briton, had been declared a formal suspect. He, as the McCanns do now, denied any involvement. That did not stop, however, pages and pages of muck-raking stories about him from appearing in newspapers in both Portugal and the UK.

The McCanns' early success with the press can be put down, in part, to the media experts they found working alongside them. The Mark Warner company, whose holiday apartments they had been staying in, already had a deal with PR company Bell Pottinger. That meant that Alex Woolfall, the company's crisis management head, was in Praia da Luz the day after Madeleine disappeared. When Woolfall left 10 days later, the Foreign Office stepped in. Media handlers arrived from London. They included former Daily Mirror journalist Sheree Dodd and, later, former BBC man Clarence Mitchell. Both Woolfall and Mitchell are remembered by reporters as key and immensely helpful sources as the McCann phenomenon took off.

After they left, however, things started going wrong. Portuguese newspapers started to publish unsympathetic stories at the end of June. As Portuguese journalists caught the mood music from police the relationship disintegrated further. Sandra Felgueiras, a feisty state television journalist obsessed by the family's supposed use of Calpol, became a particular bete noire.

Some Portuguese commentators are aware that their press, like some of their British counterparts, have gone too far. "The crowd now wants the parents to be the murderers because they are British (and, therefore, not Portuguese) and so that the worst of the British press has to surrender to the worst of the Portuguese press and admit that the latter were right," commented Mario Negreiros in Portugal's Jornal de Negocios.

Justine McGuinness, the campaign manager who took over after Mitchell left, stood down from the job last week; she is understood to have been exhausted by the intensity of the campaign. The McCanns have talked to, among others, former News of the World and Hello! editor Phil Hall about their future media needs, but seem to be finding it hard to hire a permanent replacement. Hanover PR, run by John Major's former press secretary Charles Lewington, was taking calls over the weekend, but stressed it was not working for the McCanns permanently.

It is hard to overestimate the global reach of the McCann story. The Associated Press, which rivals Reuters as the world's biggest global news agency, took reporters away from a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in northern Portugal to cover the McCanns' sudden change of fortune at Portimao police station. The decision paid off. The AP story was the most-read story on many US newspaper websites that day.

The strain on journalists in the Algarve has been immense. Working days have stretched for up to 18 hours or more. The McCann story has provided the British print media with the same test of modern, 24-hour, seven-day web-driven journalism as Virginia Tech gave their US counterparts.

Editors at newspaper websites realised back in May that McCann stories quickly shot to the top of their "most read" rankings. The best summary of the McCanns' current situation came from a Portuguese commentator, Joao Marques dos Santos of Correio da Manha. "The theory of the presumption of innocence for an arguido is a joke. When someone is declared an arguido, the exact opposite occurs. That person, whether innocent or not, is considered by investigators to be potentially guilty. The effects are devastating and irreparable."

The media, said McCann lawyer Pinto de Abreu, may be doing even more damage than that. "The media coverage could prejudice not just people's reputations but also the investigation itself," he told journalists last week.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/sep/17/mondaymediasection13

EXCLUSIVE - Brigitte Brueckner spotted outside her home near Wurzburg

Adopted son, Christian, linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Ms Brueckner was seen sitting on a park bench and feeding local cats
Her friends say that the allegation has left her 'distraught' and 'dismayed'

By Nick Fagge In Wurzburg, Germany, For Mailonline

Published: 11:44, 7 June 2020 | Updated: 13:38, 7 June 2020

Distraught and alone, the adoptive mother of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has been spotted for the first time since her son was linked to the youngster's disappearance and the rape and murder of many others.

Brigitte Brueckner left her modest home near Wurzburg this morning to seek comfort in the company of the stray cats that stroll through the village of Bergtheim where her adopted son grew up.

Looking down-cast and lonely, the widow carried her red shopping bag full of food to a local park where she sat on a park bench and spread out a meal for her felines friends.



She appeared lost in her thoughts as the magnitude of her son's crimes weighed heavily upon her.

Frau Brueckner has struggled to deal with her Christian's alleged involvement in Madeleine's disappearance and his other crimes that stretch back over decades.

Brigitte and Fritz Brueckner had taken baby Christian into their family as an act of charity for the tiny foundling who had been given up by his mother.

But the kind-hearted parents sent him to live in a reform home for delinquent teenagers after Herr Brueckner was seriously injured in a car crash and could no longer discipline the boy.

She maintains she has had nothing to do with his actions and has not seen Christian and her two other adopted sons for years.

'Brigitte is dismayed, distraught,' a family friend revealed. 'She is an old woman and is confused.



She says this is not her fault and she has nothing to do with it. She is on her own now, after the death of her husband Fritz.

'She does not have any contact with anyone, any relatives, and she hasn't seen Christian or her other two boys for years now.

'She cannot bear to talk to anyone about all of this. But she maintains it was not obvious that Christian would do something like this.'

A neighbour added that Frau Brueckner she has become lost in her thoughts.

He said: 'She is an old and lonely woman. She is normally quite chatty when she feeds the cats. The animals are always happy to see her.

'She feeds the cats because they were abandoned by a former neighbour who moved away and left them here.

'But she is now lost in her thoughts. She is very sad. She has done nothing wrong. All she did was to take in a child that had been abandoned by its mother.'

Yesterday, widowed Frau Brueckner today told MailOnline she knew nothing about her estranged son's alleged crimes.

Standing inside the doorway of her modest home in Bergtheim, near Wuerzburg, she told MailOnline: 'I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it.'

She distanced herself from the 43-year-old prisoner as neighbours revealed the family's difficulty in controlling Christian.

They told of how Frau Brueckner could not cope with Christian's disruptive and increasingly criminal behaviour and simultaneously look after her disabled husband who suffered brain damage and was confined to a wheel chair following the smash in 1992.

Brueckner, now 43, is the key suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine from Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.

He moved from Germany to the Portuguese coastal town in 1995 after serving part of a two-year sentence for molesting a six-year-old girl in Wurzburg.

Following his naming by German police, he has further been linked to the disappearances of six-year-old boy René Hasse in the Algarve, 1996, and five-year-old girl Igna Gehnricke in Germany, 2015.

Now languishing in a German prison in Kiel on a drug-related sentence, at the time of Madeleine's vanishing he was living in the area about a 10-minute drive away.

In 2005, two years prior to the infant's disappearance, he raped a 72-year-old American woman on a waterfront villa less than a mile from the Ocean Club hotel where Madeleine went missing.

Prosecutors in Germany are now desperately trying to build a case against Brueckner, who is eligible for parole this weekend but unlikely to be granted a release from custody.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8396251/Pictured-Mother-Madeleine-McCann-prime-suspect-Christian-Brueckner.html

Christian Brueckner was flagged as a key Madeleine McCann kidnap and murder suspect SEVEN YEARS ago

Christian Brueckner was flagged as a key Madeleine McCann kidnap and murder suspect seven years ago by police but the report was ignored by German authorities.

According to German magazine Spiegel, police in Braunschweig sent a report about him being a prime suspect to the Federal Criminal Office (BKA) in 2013, two years before Inga Gehricke, 'Germany's Maddie McCann', disappeared. It was ignored.

Braunschweig police were monitoring the 43-year-old around the clock at the time.The report was triggered after an appeal from British police on a German unsolved crime show, on which the news about Brueckner was also broadcast this week.

Spiegel went on: 'One person did submit a tip about Brueckner but the resulting report from police in Braunschweig to the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation was apparently not acted upon, much to the consternation of the local investigators.'

Brueckner was born to a woman named Fischer but given over to youth authorities at an early age. Between 1992 - when he was 16 - and 1994 he lived in a facility for young people with learning difficulties.

A neighbour told German newspaper BILD: 'There were only bad young people there.'

During this time he committed his first burglary and received a suspended jail sentence. He finished his high school education and embarked on an apprenticeship as a car mechanic.

I can't locate the original source of this Telegraph report at present, so I've pinched this from another forum in the hope it hasn't been doctored for some reason.

My computers have all gone up the proverbial   so I'm stuffed.  It all happened after I posted a reply on CMOMM to a new member some nights ago - curious!

I blame 'the virus' !

Without further ado..

Daily Telegraph

'What about our missing children?'

By Fiona Govan
Published: 12:01AM BST 10 May 2007

The mothers of three Portuguese children who have disappeared in recent years claimed yesterday that police are putting more effort into finding Madeleine McCann than their own children.

Filomena Teixeira, whose 11-year-old son Rui Pedro disappeared in March 1998, told a newspaper: "It is clear they didn't do the same when Rui Pedro disappeared. The extent of the authorities' mobilisation was not as big."

Maria de Jesus Sousa, whose seven-year-old daughter, Claudia, went missing in May 1994, said police had not taken the disappearance of her daughter seriously." I feel treated unfairly," she said. "The authorities doubted me and did nothing."

A Portuguese tourism official yesterday admitted that Madeleine's disappearance had awakened tensions in a region that relies on tourists being drawn to its warm climate and sandy beaches.

"There is no doubt that this case has a much higher profile because Madeleine is British and was on holiday here and this is causing resentment amongst the Portuguese," said Jose Dias, the vice president of the Algarve tourist board.

"It certainly doesn't help to learn that we may have dozens of known British paedophiles visiting the Algarve," he said in a reference to reports that British police had handed over a list of sex offenders thought to have visited the region in recent weeks.

And he said that criticism of the Portuguese police by the British press was not going down well.

"In Portugal we do things our way," he said. "It's not right that you come to a country and criticise how things are done."

In some areas the backlash against the large British ex-pat community was palpable.

"The Portuguese are very patriotic and do not take well to criticism," said one British shop owner in Praia da Luz, who asked not to be named. "They are not happy about us questioning their ability. The animosity can be felt."

There are fears that Madeleine's disappearance could have a lasting impact on tourism in the region, which attracts 10 million foreign visitors a year.

The Portuguese government yesterday decided that it would be a "sensible move" to suspend a campaign to promote the Algarve region.

The "Allgarve" campaign was to begin next week with Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea football club manager, promoting Portugal in the British media.

A launch party planned for next week has also been postponed

Old news

Maddie Police quiz convicted murderers as Kate McCann gives chilling account of moment she found daughter missing

By Ian Gallagher for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 14:38, 8 May 2011

Two convicted paedophiles have been questioned by British police over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Charles O’Neill, 48, and William Lauchlan, 34, were jailed last year over sex attacks on children and the murder of a mother who had threatened to expose them.

The Mail on Sunday has learned they were interviewed in prison by detectives after inquiries revealed they were touring Spain, and possibly Portugal, on false passports when Madeleine vanished in May 2007.


Jailed: Charles O'Neill, left, and William Lauchlan have now been quetioned over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

It is the first time that it has become known publicly that British police have interviewed anyone in connection with the case. Both men are described as highly dangerous.

Police interest in O’Neill, in particular, was heightened because of his resemblance to a thin, spotty suspect seen hanging around the holiday complex in Praia da Luz on the Algarve shortly before three-year-old Madeleine vanished.

A senior officer involved in the investigation said: ‘Lauchlan and O’Neill have been interviewed in prison but the whole Madeleine McCann inquiry is being kept extremely tight at the very highest level.

‘Basically nobody outside Leicestershire Constabulary knows exactly what is going on with the McCann inquiry.’

Leicestershire Police said they could not comment because the inquiry is being led by the Policia Judiciaria in Lisbon.

The development came as, for the first time, Madeleine’s mother Kate described in chilling detail the moment she discovered her daughter was missing from her bed at their holiday apartment.

Madeleine disappeared from her room at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007. Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry, on holiday with seven friends, had been dining less than 100 yards away in a tapas restaurant on the Mark Warner complex.

The adults had taken it in turns to check on the sleeping children. In a book to be published this week, Mrs McCann, 43, relives the moment she returned to the apartment, where she had left Madeleine beside twins Amelie and Sean, then aged two.

She tells how she realised something was wrong when she noticed that the door to the children’s bedroom was wide open – not as she and her husband had left it. She glanced at Madeleine’s bed but couldn’t make her out in the dark.

When she was sure Madeleine wasn’t there, she went to check her own room. When she could not see her daughter there either, she panicked and ran back to the children’s room.

‘My heart lurched as I saw now that, behind them, the window was wide open and the shutters on the outside raised all the way up. Nausea, terror, disbelief, fear. Icy fear. Dear God, no! Please, no!’

Mrs McCann, a former GP, said she went automatically into what she calls a ‘well-practised medical emergency mode’, scouring the apartment to exclude all other possibilities, ‘mentally ticking boxes I knew, deep down, were already ticked’.

She then ran back to her husband and their friends in the restaurant. ‘As soon as our table was in sight

I started screaming, “Madeleine’s gone! Someone’s taken her!” ’

The group returned to the apartment to widen the search and raise the alarm.

Mrs McCann said: ‘I vividly recall sobbing, “Not Madeleine, not Madeleine.” I was trying so hard to suppress the negative voice in my head tormenting me with the words, “She’s gone. She’s gone.”

‘Even now, when the dark clouds close in on me, I find myself shaking my head manically and repeating over and over again, “Not Madeleine, not Madeleine. Please God, not my Madeleine.”’

The book, Madeleine, took Mrs McCann nine months to complete. It is based on diaries she has written for her daughter to read if she is found. It will be published on May 12 – Madeleine’s eighth birthday. The McCanns say all proceeds will go to the fund that was set up to cover the costs of the worldwide search for their child.

That search has now focused on Lauchlan and O’Neill, who are childhood friends originally from Largs, near Glasgow. They were jailed for a total of 56 years last June for a catalogue of abuse both in Britain and abroad.

A source said: ‘It cannot be overestimated how violent these two are. They are known to have strong links to other paedophiles. Without doubt they are among the worst serial paedophiles in Britain.’

At the High Court in Glasgow last year, Lauchlan and O’Neill were convicted of murdering mother-of-three Allison McGarrigle at their Largs home in 1997 and dumping her body at sea after she threatened to expose their abuse.

Following their conviction, officers throughout Britain and Europe were alerted after it was revealed that the pair had left the country on fake passports in October 2006, weeks after being released from an earlier sentence for sickening child abuse crimes.

Masquerading as cleaners, the pair were given easy access to holiday villas and apartments by unsuspecting clients.

They were living in Vecindario, an industrial town in Gran Canaria, when seven-year-old schoolboy Yeremi Vargas vanished while playing near his home. The youngster is still missing but his mother remains convinced that the Scottish killers are responsible.

Detectives involved in both the Madeleine McCann and Yeremi Vargas inquiries have worked closely together.

Lauchlan and O’Neill are known to have toured extensively and some reports suggested they were in the Algarve at the time Madeleine disappeared. A spokesman for the McCann family said it was ‘encouraging’ that information was still being sought by police.

Many of O’Neill and Lauchlan’s crimes are thought to have gone unreported because their terrified young victims were too scared to come forward.

Masquerading as cousins, the gay lovers were first jailed in 1998 at the High Court in Glasgow after admitting a five-year catalogue of abuse involving youngsters in Scotland.

During his sentence, O’Neill was said to have told fellow prisoners at Glasgow’s Barlinnie jail that he had killed Rothesay mother-of-three Mrs McGarrigle, who had disappeared a year earlier, and thrown her body in the sea to stop her exposing his sex crimes.

Both men served four years before being released in 2002. Lauchlan was released on licence but broke his parole conditions and fled to Spain after being told he would be returned to prison.

O’Neill remained in Scotland but fled to join Lauchlan in Spain in 2003 after abusing a 14-year-old in Irvine, Ayrshire.

In 2004, the two men were arrested by Spanish police near Alicante on the Costa Blanca after abducting a 14-year-old boy to abuse during a camping trip. They were deported to Britain and while in prison for breaking their parole conditions, were charged in April 2005 with the murder of Mrs McGarrigle.

But prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence and both men were released.
It was at this point, late in 2006, that Lauchlan and O’Neill evaded the British authorities and fled to Spain to prey on new victims.

After their true identities were exposed in the summer of 2007, they returned to Britain and a homeless hostel in Blackpool. Within weeks they were again grooming youngsters for sex.

Then an associate came forward with fresh information about the death of Mrs McGarrigle. Lauchlan and O’Neill were arrested, going on trial early in 2010.

They were convicted of grooming a six-year-old boy in Falkirk, an earlier sex attack on a 14-year-old in Benidorm and of the murder of Mrs McGarrigle.

O’Neill was sentenced to a minimum 30 years behind bars and Lauchlan to 26 years.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384705/Madeleine-McCann-Police-quiz-convicted-murderers-Kate-McCann-gives-chilling-account-moment-daughter-missing.html

The Waily Snail wrote:Police interest in O’Neill, in particular, was heightened because of his resemblance to a thin, spotty suspect seen hanging around the holiday complex in Praia da Luz on the Algarve shortly before three-year-old Madeleine vanished.

Now that's more like it!

When Translation Changes Lives – The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

December 15, 2014

n the first article of a brand new series, ‘Crime in Translation’, which is set to look at the role of translation, the press and social media in crime, Steph Fairbairn discusses the world famous Madeleine McCann case, and the hand which translation, or lack there of, and the invasive and unreliable Portuguese and British media have had in the case remaining unsolved.

On the 3rd of May 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann was abducted from the holiday apartment her family was renting in Praia da Luz, a tourist hotspot in the Algarve region of Portugal. It was a case which was set to grip not only the British nation, but the world, the way in which only the death of Princess Diana had previously done. To this day, the case remains unsolved. There have been numerous suspects (including, at some points, Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s parents, who have faced what can only be described as a disgraceful and unjust backlash from the media and the public alike), hundreds of rumoured sightings and a number of different investigations, led by Portuguese police, English police and private investigators.

As we approach the eight-year anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, we are no closer to finding her whereabouts, or even knowing if she is still alive. The contempt felt towards the Portuguese police is clear – there are numerous claims that they were far too slow to respond; too slow to close off roads, to follow up leads, to track down suspects. They even allowed the apartment from which Madeleine was abducted to be rented out again before they thoroughly searched it for forensic evidence. So where does the issue of translation come into this?

On the most basic level, the fact that Madeleine’s abduction took place in Portugal made it more difficult for her British parents in numerous ways, due to the language barrier. They, as primarily English speakers, were forced to explain their situation to a police force made up of Portuguese natives. In a high intensity situation which requires almost instant action, a severe language barrier can only add to the list of potential errors which can be made in a case like this. We would like to think that modern police forces would be equipped for such events, but with regards to Madeleine’s disappearance, this did not seem to be the case. In fact, Robert Murat, the first person to be given ‘arguido’ status (this is a Portuguese term which equates to an English ‘suspect’ who has a few more rights, for example the right to remain silent), first came to the attention of a British tabloid journalist when he offered his translation services to the Portuguese police, eventually being signed up as an interpreter before his arrest, which occurred 12 days after Madeleine’s disappearance. Murat was, of course, not permitted to do any further interpreting, although he was later cleared of all involvement in the McCann case, and won a large amount of money in legal damages.

Perhaps the key translation issue in this case is that which involves the witness statements of both the McCanns, and the group which came to be known as the ‘Tapas Seven’. The ‘Tapas Seven’ were the seven friends who were dining with Kate and Gerry McCann at the local tapas bar, located 50 metres away from the McCann’s apartment, at the time of the abduction. Early on in the case, the media picked up on the fact that there were said to be many discrepancies between the statements of the McCanns and the ‘Tapas Seven’, which only fed the ever-growing rumours that Kate and Gerry McCann had somehow been involved in the disappearance of their daughter. Allegations in the Portuguese press, which more often than not made their way over to the UK media, accused the McCanns of sedating their children and claimed that they, along with the ‘Tapas Seven’, were swingers who had sworn to a pact of silence regarding the night of the disappearance.


Two of the four newspapers (all owned by the Express company) which were forced to make front page apologies to the McCanns for the untrue accusations they printed about them

When highlighting the inconsistencies between the statements in order to further persecute the McCanns, what the media failed to pick up on was the potential real impact of the cliché ‘lost in translation’. In what almost became a game of Chinese Whispers, the interviews from which the statements were formalised were not taped, but instead recorded by hand, with police officers taking notes. The interviews involved interpreters, with the police asking the questions in Portuguese, the interviewees responding in English, and the interpreter translating between the two. Then, the interviews were typed up into a formal statement by the interviewing officer. In order for the interviewees to sign their statements, they were verbally translated into English for their benefit. It’s undeniable that these numerous translations and interpretations which were undertaken in such a short space of time and in such a high pressure environment were extremely susceptible to errors. The art and practice of translation is no mean feat: it requires not only a knowledge of equivalent words, but an understanding of gist, tone, insinuation and intended meaning. In a case as high profile as this one, it’s imperative that translations, when required, are done as accurately as possible. An example as simple as a translator interpreting the Portuguese ‘compromisso’ as ‘compromise’ instead of ‘promise’, leading to the English sentence in its entirety reading as the very misleading ‘I am not going to dishonour the compromise I assumed with Kate and Gerry’, is proof in itself of the numerous inaccuracies which are sure to have littered the statements of the McCanns and the ‘Tapas Seven’ and in turn, jeopardized the early stages of the investigation irreparably.

Putting the police aside, the media’s desire for a story irrespective of correct information was further illustrated when, after the Portuguese police closed against the McCanns, who had themselves become arguidos, in July 2008, excerpts from the private diary of Kate McCann were published without her permission. First, they were published in translated form by Correio da Manhã, a Portuguese tabloid, before crossing the Channel and featuring in editions of the, now defunct, News of the World, in which the extracts had been translated back into English from Portuguese, and read very poorly. These extracts provided what readers thought was a look into the psyche of a mother whose child had recently been abducted; many readers even still held on to some belief that she had had something to do with the abduction. In fact, what they were reading was poorly translated prose, twice removed from its original meaning.

Like the statements which went before them, it was impossible to take the reproductions of the diary entries as some kind of fact or evidence on which to base valid judgement. However, again, like the statements which went before them, that’s how they were received. In a case plagued by arrogance, ignorance and inaccuracy, the art of translation serves to do no more than contribute to the view of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann as a sham. It’s one of so many ‘what ifs’; in the grand scheme of it all, the issue of translation plays only a minor part; however, you can’t help but think that had the translation been properly executed, then the McCann family would have been spared a lot of extra heartache and grief, and the investigation could have taken a different turn. You could even go as far to say that maybe Madeleine would have been found. Just maybe.

For more information on the disappearance and the search for Madeleine McCann, you can visit this website : http://findmadeleine.com/home.html

https://theglossa.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/crime-in-the-modern-age-when-translation-changes-lives-the-disappearance-of-madeleine-mccann/



I certainly agree about the issue of translation but ....

Madeleine McCann: British detectives fly to Portugal

Published 29 January 2014

British detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have flown to Portugal and spoken to local officers, Scotland Yard has said.

Madeleine was three when she disappeared in 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Algarve.

Portuguese police said the detectives were in Faro on Tuesday.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, senior investigating officer in the case, is understood to be one of those who travelled to Portugal.

A high-profile campaign run by Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, and a Portuguese police investigation, have failed to locate the missing girl.
Burglaries

Last week, Portugal's attorney general's office acknowledged they had formally received a letter of request from the British authorities for assistance in their enquiries.

It was reported that the request concerned assistance to arrest three suspects who were carrying out burglaries at the Ocean Club complex in Praia de Luz, in the Algarve, where the McCanns were staying.

In the 17 days before she disappeared, there were two incidents in the McCanns' block, one burglary and one attempted burglary.

Police have said the possibility that Madeleine had been snatched by burglars as part of a bungled break-in was a key line of inquiry.

Between January and May 2007, when Madeleine went missing, there was a four-fold increase in the number of burglaries in the area.

Scotland Yard launched a new investigation into Madeleine's disappearance last July, two years into a review of the case, and made renewed appeals for information.

The detectives met their Portuguese counterparts at the Faro Judiciary. Scotland Yard confirmed a team of officers had been in Faro as one of a number of regular trips they have made in connection with the inquiry.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25945924

Daily Express editor Peter Hill defends Madeleine McCann coverage

This article is more than 12 years old

Stephen Brook
Tue 28 Apr 2009 14.04 BST

Daily Express editor says he did not offer to resign over stories about Madeleine McCann disappearance

Peter Hill, the editor of the Daily Express, told MPs today that he did not offer to resign over his newspaper's inaccurate reporting of Madeline McCann's disappearance.

Speaking to the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee, Hill also defended the Daily Express's extensive coverage of conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Princess Diana. "I do not publish stories that I believe to be untrue," he said.

Hill added that he had "certainly not" offered his resignation over his paper's Madeleine McCann coverage, because all other media organisations had reported allegations by the Portuguese police that her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were suspects in her disappearance.

In March last year Daily Express owner Express Newspapers paid £550,000 in damages to the McCanns for more than 100 "seriously defamatory" stories about Madeleine's disappearance published in Hill's paper and sister titles the Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday.

The four newspapers also printed front-page apologies, while Express Newspapers apologised to the McCanns at the high court in London.

"If editors had to resign every time there was a libel action against them, there wouldn't be any editors," Hill said today, giving evidence to the committee's inquiry into libel, privacy and press standards.

Had he been forced to resign, Hill said the chairman of the BBC and a host of other media executives would also have had to depart because they reported that the McCanns had been named as arguidos (official suspects) by the Portugese police.

At the time the Daily Express regarded the police as a credible source of information, he added. "I didn't know that they were behaving like tinpot Ruritanian idiots," Hill said.

The apologies and damages payment by the Express Newspapers titles last year came after the McCanns' solicitors, Carter-Ruck, sent a legal complaint.

In evidence to the Commons culture select committee last month, Gerry McCann said that the Express Newspapers titles had been the worst offenders in the UK media in their coverage of Madeleine's disappearance.

However, today Hill refused to accept that his newspaper's reporting had been worse than other titles'. He said the McCanns had complained about 38 headlines in the Daily Express but that the paper had published 80 other stories that were positive to the family.

Hill added that he advocated settling the legal complaint and paying compensation to avoid putting the McCanns through the ordeal of a libel action.

"I accept that we did libel Mr and Mrs McCann because under the law, we clearly didn't tell the truth about them," he said.

Madeleine McCann's disappearance generated huge amounts of public interest, with the Express receiving 10,000 messages a day about the story and its sales increasing by many thousands of copies each time an article about the missing child appeared on the front page, Hill added.

"You have got to remember that this was the most astonishing chain of events. Nothing comparable to this had been seen since the Lindberg kidnapping in 1932," he said.

However, Hill said he recognised that the story was not in the public interest. "It was certainly of interest to the public but I wouldn't say it was in the public interest," he added.

The Daily Express editor also defended his paper's publication of numerous stories on alleged conspiracy theories about the death of Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

Before the final verdict of the long-running inquest into Diana's death was issued in April 2008, the Daily Express published numerous stories questioning whether she had died as a result of an MI5 conspiracy.

"Of course we believed it. I do not publish stories that I believe to be untrue. That is something I do not do," Hill told MPs.

When further questioned about the frequency of Princess Diana conspiracy stories, Hill said that because the inquest had found no evidence to support these theories that was "pretty much the end of the matter". "It's not a crime to have an obsession," he added.

Hill said that circulation at the Daily Express had remained steady during his five-year tenure but there had been a slight reduction in the number of journalists due to difficult economic circumstances.

He also attacked press commentators' use of the word "churnalism" to denote the rewriting of press releases and falling standards in journalism.

"It's a rubbish word. It's a gimmicky word. The standards of journalism have massively increased over the years," Hill said.

He also echoed Paul Dacre, the editor of rival title the Daily Mail, who gave evidence to the Commons culture select committee last week, in attacking the British legal system and the ease with which people could launch libel actions against newspapers.

"We do not have a free press in this country by any means. We have a very shackled press. We should be looking at freeing these shackles not imposing more, which seems to me to be the tone of this hearing," Hill said.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/apr/28/daily-express-peter-hill-mps

Where the £2m you gave to find Madeleine McCann has gone

By Vanessa Allen for the Daily Mail

Updated: 08:28, 29 January 2009

The fund set up to help find Madeleine McCann raised almost £2million in the first ten months after she vanished, it was revealed yesterday.

The wave of shock and public sympathy that swept Britain after her suspected abduction led supporters to donate money at a rate of almost £260 an hour.

Accounts lodged with Companies House show the fund received £1.4million in bank donations, another £391,000 over the internet and £64,000 from the sale of T-shirts and wristbands.

In total, it received £1.85million in its first ten months and earned £33,424 in interest. It spent £815,113 on the search for Madeleine in that time.

This included £26,000 to fund the purchase of merchandise and £250,000 on the fees for private investigators.

But the accounts – which have been made public for the first time – have been published with a warning that donations had gone on to fall dramatically and were now ‘significantly lower’ than in the immediate aftermath of the three-yearold’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007.

Support for her parents – Kate and Gerry – was rocked when Portuguese police named them as suspects, and when it emerged they had used public donations to pay two £2,000 instalments on their mortgage.

Madeleine vanished from a holiday flat in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, while her parents ate dinner at a nearby restaurant with friends.

The accounts provide a fascinating insight into the surge of support the family received, but also the costs of their worldwide campaign to find their child.

The fund’s biggest expense in the first ten months was £250,000 spent on private investigators hired to try to find her, including the Spanish agency Metodo 3.

Agency boss Francisco Marco boasted he would find Madeleine within three months, but his ‘leads’ seemingly came to nothing and the firm is no longer involved with the hunt.

The fund spent £123,573 on campaign management, which is believed to include the salary of the McCanns’ temporary spokesman Justine McGuinness and the fees of a PR agency.

A later spokesman, former BBC journalist Clarence Mitchell, had his salary paid by one of the couple’s wealthy benefactors.


Vanished: Madeleine McCann, seen with father Gerry, went missing in May 2007

The fund spent £111,522 on legal fees and expenses and £81,904 on posters and television and newspaper adverts appealing for information about Madeleine. Mr and Mrs McCann, both 40, set up the fund in May 2007.

Legal restrictions meant it could not be set up as a charity, so it is run as a not-for-profit company by a board made up of McCann friends, colleagues and relatives.

Mr McCann’s brother John is its chairman and wrote a foreword to the accounts. He said: ‘As expected, the level of donations has fallen over time, although we have a number of loyal donors continuing their support.’

He went on: ‘However our expenses are ongoing and likely to increase . . . The release of the police investigation files has enabled our investigative team to access a wealth of new information to be followed up, resulting in increased search and investigation activity.

'We will continue to ensure that Madeleine is not forgotten and will leave no stone unturned in our continued search for her.’

The accounts cover the months from May 2007 to March 2008, when the fund had £1.05million remaining in its coffers.

It has since been boosted by several libel payouts to the McCanns and their friends, the so-called Tapas Seven, which they donated to the fund.

The McCanns were cleared as suspects last August.

Their spokesman Mr Mitchell said: ‘People will be able to see that every penny of the money they so generously donated has been spent properly in the hunt to find Madeleine.’



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1131284/Where-2m-gave-Madeleine-McCann-gone.html

TROLL BLAST Madeleine McCann trolls need to ‘take a hard look at themselves’ if cops prove German suspect guilty, blasts spokesman

Ellie Cambridge

9:10, 4 Jun 2020Updated: 16:44, 4 Jun 2020

MADELEINE McCann trolls will need to "take a hard look at themselves" if cops prove the German suspect in her disappearance is guilty.

The family spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, today blasted trolls who have abused her parents on social media in the years since she vanished.





He told Good Morning Britain: "Anybody who believes that Kate and Gerry were involved are categorically wrong.

"And sadly if this proves to be the man responsible and we find out the fate of Madeleine in time, then a lot of people on social media will have to take a long hard look at themselves and what they've said over the years."

Trolls have attacked the family constantly since the three-year-old disappeared, with the latest cruel jibe being a mockup of the NHS coronavirus slogan "stay at home and save lives" with a picture of Madeleine.

It was revealed yesterday there is a new prime suspect in the 13-year investigation - a German paedophile.



The 43-year-old prisoner has not been named by British cops but was living in a campervan in Praia da Luz in Portugal around the time the youngster vanished on May 3, 2007.

He is currently serving a seven-year jail term for raping a 72-year-old American in 2005 in the same tourist area, according to a report by Braunschweig Zeitung.

He was convicted in Braunschweig district court last year for the offence in Praia da Luz, according to the newspaper.

German cops believe the prolific burglar, who has previous convictions for sex crimes against young girls, may have initially gone to raid the McCanns' apartment before he "moved on to a sexual motive".

Detectives in Germany believe they have "almost enough evidence" to charge him, according to the Daily Mail.

The Metropolitan Police also revealed a 30-minute call was made to his Portuguese phone around an hour before the three-year-old is feared to have been snatched from her holiday apartment as parents Kate and Gerry dined with pals nearby.

German cops are treating Madeleine’s disappearance as murder - though the Met are still investigating the case as a missing person inquiry because there is “no definitive information” on whether she is dead or alive.

A close friend said last night the parents refuse to believe their daughter is dead until a body is found.

But Mr Mitchell added to the BBC today: "Kate and Gerry do feel it's potentially very significant.

"They've never given up hope that she may still be found alive but they are realistic."

It comes after the the heartbroken mum and dad said all they want is to "uncover the truth" and "bring those responsible to justice" as a new prime suspect was revealed in the case.

The man emerged as a “significant” suspect following a vital breakthrough in the case from a witness who came forward after a 10th anniversary appeal by the Met for information in 2017.

He was already known to British and Portuguese cops investigating the case but they had refused to disclose why the suspect is now in prison.

The suspect was aged 30 when Madeleine vanished and at the time is said to have been living a “transient lifestyle” travelling between Portugal and Germany.

Scotland Yard has now launched a joint appeal with the BKA and the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria (PJ) - with a £20,000 reward for information.

Met deputy assistant commissioner Stuart Cundy said: “The main line of inquiry is this suspect.

“All of us are determined to do whatever we can to establish what happened and to see if this man was involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.

“It is a significant development."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11780276/madeleine-mccann-trolls-cops-german-suspect/

'I know where Madeleine is buried' says body finder hired by McCanns

Last updated at 22:05 07 October 2007

A professional "body finder" hired by Kate and Gerry McCann says he has has pin-pointed the exact spot where Madeleine is buried.

Using cutting-edge technology South African scientist,and former police detective, Danie Krugel reportedly led police to an area 500 yards from where the four-year-old vanished 157 days ago.

Officers took Krugel's finding so seriously that they are said to have sealed off the entire area.

But in what could turn out to be yet another astonishing mistake, it is alleged that Portuguese police never bothered to dig at the spot.

Now, as sacked police chief Goncalo Amaral is off the inquiry and a new officer, Carlos do Carmo takes over, Krugel is heading back to reinvestigate.

A source close to the McCanns told the Sunday Mirror: "Kate and Gerry are pleased he's returning.

"They worked with him before and want to see his leads investigated."

The former South African detective says he has a 90 per cent success rate in tracing missing people.

He told the Sunday Mirror: "I'm preparing to fly to Portugal again because the investigation seems to have come to a halt.

"I'm convinced Madeleine's body is in Praia Da Luz."

The McCanns turned to him in July to spend a week investigating Madeleine's disappearance after being deluged with emails from members of the public recommending him as a "genius".

He said: "Gerry sent me a strand of Madeleine's hair for DNA purposes, which had been removed from her coat."

Krugel became a household name in South Africa when he created a DNA tracking device which solved a 19-year mystery about the whereabouts of six schoolgirls snatched by a paedophile.

He explained how he used the same method to track a potential burial spot for Madeleine on the beach in Praia da Luz.

The area was sealed off and Krugel suggested sniffer dogs be brought in to further pinpoint the spot where they needed to dig.

Yet ironically, when the dogs arrived they were used by cops to turn the finger of suspicion on to Gerry and Kate.

Portuguese police were more excited about the dogs' reaction when they searched the McCanns' Ocean Club apartment and hire car.

It means the area on the beach has still not been searched properly by officers and no dig has ever taken place.

And it came amid new reports from Portuguese newspaper Correio yesterday claiming police believe Madeleine was buried on the beach in Praia da Luz soon after her death.

Krugel added: "After I conducted my investigation I gave the police a map pinpointing the spot I think Madeleine is. And I handed over a 2,000 word report on what they should do next.

"I said sniffer dogs should be brought in to start the search. But I warned that this alone was not enough as dogs are only a success in missing person hunts three out of four times.

"That is why I also suggested a fingertip search of the area and a dig of the spot I located. But if this has not been done, the police really need to start from scratch and investigate that area again."

He added: "Too much time has been wasted accusing Kate and Gerry and not enough has been spent searching for Madeleine and following up on leads."

Krugel's device apparently combines quantum physics and global positioning technology to pin-point a body on a map.

Krugel landed in Praia da Luz with his machine on July 17 and embarked on a four day search - with the blessing of Portuguese detectives.

He said: "I had a meeting with Kate and Gerry where I explained exactly how my technology works and what I was going to do.

"They knew a lot about my work already because people had posted messages about me on the Find Madeleine website.

"The police were fully aware of the work I was about to do.

"I set off with some colleagues and we conducted an extensive search of Praia da Luz using the machine.

"I scoured many different places across the resort and spent time near ports and other exit points in Praia da Luz.

"We spent 16 hours a day searching everywhere - nothing was left unsearched."

But under Portuguese law Krugel is forbidden from revealing the exact spot as he has mentioned it in a police statement.

But sources close to the investigation told the Sunday Mirror that it is a spot on the beach in Praia da Luz near where Gerry regularly went running.

Krugel said: "The technology I use picks up a trace using DNA and complex and secret science techniques. Every day the trace was strongest in this one area.

"The machine was highlighting the same co-ordinate and it kept drawing me back there. It left me convinced that Madeleine was there.

"My machine has a 90 per cent success rate, so I am convinced this is the place where Madeleine is buried."

Krugel added: "The Portuguese police took my findings seriously at first, but now the work seems to have stopped."

Meanwhile, a former public relations consultant to the McCanns said their public composure in the immediate aftermath of Madeleine's disappearance masked their private turmoil.

Alex Woolfall said they reacted exactly as he would expect after Madeleine vanished and that their behaviour convinced him of their innocence.

"They were behaving exactly as I thought someone in that situation would be," he told The Times.

"They had not slept. They were trying to work out what to do that might help generate images of her.

They were desperately keen to publicise her face.

"I was struck at the perception of people who had watched Kate and Gerry: that they were very controlled and perhaps were not responding in a way people thought would be more natural.

"They were not at all controlled.

When I was with them, they were between being completely distraught and trying to do what they felt was the right thing.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-486196/I-know-Madeleine-buried-says-body-finder-hired-McCanns.html

MADDIE MYSTERY Madeleine McCann ‘chief suspect’ was never interviewed by cops despite ‘credible’ theory he’d abducted Maddie after losing job at Praia da Luz Ocean Club

Junkie Euclides Monteiro may have taken her to cause bad publicity for resort bosses who sacked him, it’s claimed

Patrick Knox

11:06, 1 Apr 2019Updated: 13:48, 1 Apr 2019

POLICE missed their chance to interview a chief suspect in the investigation of Madeleine McCann’s abduction.

Heroin addict Euclides Monteiro had been working as an employee at The Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz shortly before Maddie disappeared on May 3, 2007.

Euclides Monteiro, a convicted burglar and heroin addict, was sacked from the Ocean Club, where the McCanns were stayingCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

There has been renewed interest in the mystery as a Netflix documentary series is currently being aired called "The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann" which re-examines the facts of the 2007 case.

Monteiro, 40-year-old had been sacked from his job at the beach club for stealing from guests shortly before Maddie disappeared on May 3, 2007.

Monteiro aroused police suspicions after phone records showed he returned to the resort — where the McCanns were staying — a year after being fired.

Police say Monteiro may have wanted revenge against his former employers.

It was thought he may have stumbled across Madeline while attempting to burgle the McCanns' room, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The 6ft 2in ex-waiter is feared to have kidnapped the toddler after being disturbed as he broke into her ­family’s ­apartment.

'KIDNAP FORM OF REVENGE'

In 2013, Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha said: "The motives that could have caused the ex-employee to kidnap the youngster are still being investigated.

“The suspect could have taken the child to commit a sex crime before killing her.

“But he could also have committed the kidnap as a form of retaliation against the Ocean Club."

Police had lost crucial time to interview Monteiro because he was missing from a list of current and former Ocean Club employees that was given to police during the first investigation.

But having been identified as a suspect following suspicious phone records, detectives were set to question Monteiro.

FREAK TRACTOR ACCIDENT

But they never got the chance because he died in a freak tractor accident in 2009 when a trailer he was in crashed at a golf course.

Monteiro, originally from Cape Verde islands off West Africa, was convicted of theft in 1996 but escaped deportation.

When Maddie went missing he was living in Lagos, just a 15-minute drive from where she disappeared.

Nelson Rodrigues, a barman and waiter who worked with Monteiro in 2006 described him as a sketchy character.

In 2013 he told the Mirror: "On the surface he was a nice guy but there was something not right with him.

"He would turn up to work with bleary eyes, sometimes he didn't seem like he was all there.

"And things were going missing about that time – laptops, jewellery, mobile phones, anything that was lying around."

Monteiro’s family, in Argozelo, Portugal, have dismissed the police theory.

His sister Paula, 36, said: "He loved children — he had a son and a daughter — and would never have harmed a young girl.

"It's ridiculous the e-fit is a white man and my brother was black."

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8764213/madeleine-mccann-chief-suspect-never-interviewed/

Snipped from above.
Monteiro, 40-year-old had been sacked from his job at the beach club for stealing from guests shortly before Maddie disappeared on May 3, 2007.

Monteiro aroused police suspicions after phone records showed he returned to the resort — where the McCanns were staying — a year after being fired.






How could he have been fired for stealing from guests shortly before Maddie disappeared and return a year after being fired to steal madeleine?

Another ridiculous 'time line'. These people will print any old bs.

Did Madeleine McCann wander off and have an accident? Was she stolen to order? Or was it a burglary gone wrong? Detective lays out theories about her disappearance

Madeleine McCann went missing from Praia da Luz resort, Portugal in May 2007
Leading detective has revealed five fresh theories to explain child's appearance
Colin Sutton said 'most likely' scenario was she was taken by human traffickers

By Katie French For Mailonline

Published: 12:14, 22 April 2017 | Updated: 01:12, 23 April 2017

A former Scotland Yard detective believes he has come up with the five most plausible theories to explain the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Murder detective Colin Sutton said a trafficking gang could have snatched her to replace a dead child or she could have been snatched by a paedophile.

But he theorised the 'most likely and credible scenario' for Maddie's disappearance was a targeted kidnap.

Speaking to The Mirror, he questioned why traffickers didn't take one of Maddie's twin baby siblings instead – who would have no memory of their previous life and less physical identity.

As the 10th anniversary of Maddie's disappearance approaches next month, the investigator has analysed multiple theories for a new book.

Madeleine was just three went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, almost a decade ago.

He said those closest to Maddie, including her parents, would have been the first line of inquiry for police.

But he added he believed Portuguese police appeared make this their only line of investigation early on in the probe.

He said: 'By concentrating just on that scenario they may have missed tips or other lines that meant going down a completely different investigation route.'

He said: 'A trafficking ring is more likely than a lone paedophile or paedophile ring.'But unless the order was specifically for a young blonde girl, why her and not one of the twins?

'Has a young blonde girl died and their parents want to replace her? Or is there another reason for stealing to order?'

While cops initially believed Maddie could have wandered off and been killed, Sutton believes the tot would surely have taken her beloved toy 'Cuddle Cat' if she had walked out of the apartment.

He said: 'Incidents of children wandering off are much more common than a targeted or non-targeted abduction.

'However Cuddle Cat is a compelling fly in the ointment with this theory.'

He said it was highly unlikely that an opportunist had snatched her, saying that most predatory paedophiles are 'not interested in pre-school age children'.

He said: 'The chances of a predatory paedophile just happening across Madeleine and being able to abduct her without being detected are just so remote.

'I don't know of any other opportunistic abduction of a girl so young.'

And he also believes it is extremely unlikely that she was killed as part of a burglary gone wrong, as most burglars are drug addicts looking for something small they can easily sell.

He said: 'Junkies don't take three-year-old girls.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4435038/Did-Madeleine-McCann-wander-accident.html

He said those closest to Maddie, including her parents, would have been the first line of inquiry for police.

But he added he believed Portuguese police appeared make this their only line of investigation early on in the probe.

He said: 'By concentrating just on that scenario they may have missed tips or other lines that meant going down a completely different investigation route.'

Read the files Mr Sutton .... read the files.

Murder detective Colin Sutton said a trafficking gang could have snatched her to replace a dead child or she could have been snatched by a paedophile.

But he theorised the 'most likely and credible scenario' for Maddie's disappearance was a targeted kidnap.

So are we expected to consider the possibility that a paedophile/child trafficking scout just happened to be carousing the streets of sleepy out of season Praia da Luz and the Ocean Club complex, should a lone three year old fair haired girl be holidaying with her family and left alone at night with her two younger siblings without adult supervision?

Bit of a long shot ain't it?

Wouldn't it be more sensible to hang around school gates or public playground or park?

I acknowledge Bridgette O'Donnell's reference to the Ocean Club being full of little blond girls, I mean she would know she was there, in her Guardian exposé back in December 2007 but I think that to be journalistic poetic licence, as the rest of her story seemed to be.

My months with Madeleine

It was a welcome spring break, a chance to relax at a child-friendly resort in Portugal. Soon Bridget O'Donnell and her partner were making friends with another holidaying family while their three-year-old daughters played together. But then Madeleine McCann went missing and everyone was sucked into a nightmare.

Bridget O'Donnell
Fri 14 Dec 2007 11.54 GMT

We lay by the members-only pool staring at the sky. Round and round, the helicopters clacked and roared. Their cameras pointed down at us, mocking the walled and gated enclave. Circles rippled out across the pool. It was the morning after Madeleine went.

Six days earlier we had landed at Faro airport. The coach was full of people like us, parents lugging multiple toddler/baby combinations. All of us had risen at dawn, rushed along motorways and hurtled across the sky in search of the modern solution to our exhaustion - the Mark Warner kiddie club. I travelled with my partner Jes, our three-year-old daughter, and our nine-month-old baby son. Praia da Luz was the nearest Mark Warner beach resort and this was the cheapest week of the year - a bargain bucket trip, for a brief lie-down.

Excitedly, we were shown to our apartments. Ours was on the fourth floor, overlooking a family and toddler pool, opposite a restaurant and bar called the Tapas. I worried about the height of the balcony. Should we ask for one on the ground floor? Was I a paranoid parent? Should I make a fuss, or just enjoy the view?

We could see the beach and a big blue sky. We went outside to explore.

We settled in over the following days. There was a warm camaraderie among the parents, a shared happy weariness and deadpan banter. Our children made friends in the kiddie club and at the drop-off, we would joke about the fact that there were 10 blonde three-year-old girls in the group. They were bound to boss around the two boys.

The children went sailing and swimming, played tennis and learned a dance routine for the end-of-week show. Each morning, our daughter ran ahead of us to get to the kiddie club. She was having a wonderful time. Jes signed up for tennis lessons. I read a book. He made friends. I read another book.

The Mark Warner nannies brought the children to the Tapas restaurant to have tea at the end of each day. It was a friendly gathering. The parents would stand and chat by the pool. We talked about the children, about what we did at home. We were hopeful about a change in the weather. We eyed our children as they played. We didn't see anyone watching.

Some of the parents were in a larger group. Most of them worked for the NHS and had met many years before in Leicestershire. Now they lived in different parts of the UK, and this holiday was their opportunity to catch up, to introduce their children, to reunite. They booked a large table every night in the Tapas. We called them "the Doctors". Sometimes we would sit out on our balcony and their laughter would float up around us. One man was the joker. He had a loud Glaswegian accent. He was Gerry McCann. He played tennis with Jes.

One morning, I saw Gerry and his wife Kate on their balcony, chatting to their friends on the path below. Privately I was glad we didn't get their apartment. It was on a corner by the road and people could see in. They were exposed.

In the evenings, babysitting at the resort was a dilemma. "Sit-in" babysitters were available but were expensive and in demand, and Mark Warner blurb advised us to book well in advance. The other option was the babysitting service at the kiddie club, which was a 10-minute walk from the apartment. The children would watch a cartoon together and then be put to bed. You would then wake them, carry them back and put them to bed again in the apartment. After taking our children to dinner a couple of times, we decided on the Wednesday night to try the service at the club.

We had booked a table for two at Tapas and were placed next to the Doctors' regular table. One by one, they started to arrive. The men came first. Gerry McCann started chatting across to Jes about tennis. Gerry was outgoing, a wisecracker, but considerate and kind, and he invited us to join them. We discussed the children. He told us they were leaving theirs sleeping in the apartments. While they chatted on, I ruminated on the pros and cons of this. I admired them, in a way, for not being paranoid parents, but I decided that our apartment was too far off even to contemplate it. Our baby was too young and I would worry about them waking up.

My phone rang as our food arrived; our baby had woken up. I walked the round trip to collect him from the kiddie club, then back to the restaurant. He kept crying and eventually we left our meal unfinished and walked back again to the club to fetch our sleeping daughter. Jes carried her home in a blanket. The next night we stayed in. It was Thursday, May 3.

Earlier that day there had been tennis lessons for the children, with some of the parents watching proudly as their girls ran across the court chasing tennis balls. They took photos. Madeleine must have been there, but I couldn't distinguish her from the others. They all looked the same - all blonde, all pink and pretty.

Jes and Gerry were playing on the next court. Afterwards, we sat by the pool and Gerry and Kate talked enthusiastically to the tennis coach about the following day's tournament. We watched them idly - they had a lot of time for people, they listened. Then Gerry stood up and began showing Kate his new tennis stroke. She looked at him and smiled. "You wouldn't be interested if I talked about my tennis like that," Jes said to me. We watched them some more. Kate was calm, still, quietly beautiful; Gerry was confident, proud, silly, strong. She watched his boyish demonstration with great seriousness and patience. That was the last time I saw them that day. Jes saw Gerry that night.

Our baby would not sleep and at about 8.30pm, Jes took him out for a walk in the buggy to settle him. Gerry was on his way back from checking on his children and the two men stopped to have a chat. They talked about daughters, fathers, families. Gerry was relaxed and friendly. They discussed the babysitting dilemmas at the resort and Gerry said that he and Kate would have stayed in too, if they had not been on holiday in a group. Jes returned to our apartment just before 9.30pm. We ate, drank wine, watched a DVD and then went to bed. On the ground floor, a completely catastrophic event was taking place. On the fourth floor of the next block, we were completely oblivious.

At 1am there was a frantic banging on our door. Jes got up to answer. I stayed listening in the dark. I knew it was bad; it could only be bad. I heard male mumbling, then Jes's voice. "You're joking?" he said. It wasn't the words, it was the tone that made me flinch. He came back in to the room. "Gerry's daughter's been abducted," he said. "She ..." I jumped up and went to check our children. They were there. We sat down. We got up again. Weirdly, I did the washing-up. We wondered what to do. Jes had asked if they needed help searching and was told there was nothing he could do; she had been missing for three hours. Jes felt he should go anyway, but I wanted him to stay with us. I was a coward, afraid to be alone with the children - and afraid to be alone with my thoughts.

I once worked as a producer in the BBC crime unit. I directed many reconstructions and spent my second pregnancy producing new investigations for Crimewatch. Detectives would call me daily, detailing their cases, and some stories stay with me still, such as the ones about a girl being snatched from her bath, or her bike, or her garden and then held in the passenger seat, or stuffed in the boot. There was always a vehicle, and the first few hours were crucial to the outcome. Afterwards, they would be dumped naked in an alley, or at a petrol station with a £10 note to "get a cab back to Mummy". They would be found within an hour or two. Sometimes.

From the balcony we could see some figures scratching at the immense darkness with tiny torch lights. Police cars arrived and we thought that they would take control. We lay on the bed but we could not sleep.

The next morning, we made our way to breakfast and met one of the Doctors, the one who had come round in the night. His young daughter looked up at us from her pushchair. There was no news. They had called Sky television - they didn't know what else to do. He turned away and I could see he was going to weep.

People were crying in the restaurant. Mark Warner had handed out letters informing them what had happened in the night, and we all wondered what to do. Mid-sentence, we would drift in to the middle distance. Tears would brim up and recede.

Our daughter asked us about the kiddie club that day. She had been looking forward to their dance show that afternoon. Jes and I looked at each other. My first instinct was that we should not be parted from our children. Of course we shouldn't; we should strap them to us and not let them out of our sight, ever again. But then we thought: how are we going to explain this to our daughter? Or how, if we spent the day in the village, would we avoid repeatedly discussing what had happened in front of her as we met people on the streets? What does a good parent do? Keep the children close or take a deep breath and let them go a little, pretend this was the same as any other day?

We walked towards the kiddie club. No one else was there. We felt awful, such terrible parents for even considering the idea. Then we saw, waiting inside, some of the Mark Warner nannies. They had been up most of the night but had still turned up to work that day. They were intelligent, thoughtful young women and we liked and trusted them. The dance show was cancelled, but they wanted to put on a normal day for the children. Our daughter ran inside and started painting. Then, behind us, another set of parents arrived looking equally washed out. Then another, and another. We decided, in the end, to leave them for two hours. We put their bags on the pegs and saw the one labelled "Madeleine". Heads bent, we walked away, into the guilty glare of the morning sun.

Locals and holidaymakers had started circulating photocopied pictures of Madeleine, while others continued searching the beaches and village apartments. People were talking about what had happened or sat silently, staring blankly. We didn't see any police.

Later, there was a knock on our apartment door and we let the two men in. One was a uniformed Portuguese policeman, the other his translator. The translator had a squint and sweated slightly. He was breathless, perhaps a little excited. We later found out he was Robert Murat. He reminded me of a boy in my class at school who was bullied.

Through Murat we answered a few questions and gave our details, which the policeman wrote down on the back of a bit of paper. No notebook. Then he pointed to the photocopied picture of Madeleine on the table. "Is this your daughter?" he asked. "Er, no," we said. "That's the girl you are meant to be searching for." My heart sank for the McCanns.

As the day drew on, the media and more police arrived and we watched from our balcony as reporters practised their pieces to camera outside the McCanns' apartment. We then went back inside and watched them on the news.

We had to duck under the police tape with the pushchair to buy a pint of milk. We would roll past sniffer dogs, local police, then national police, local journalists, and then international journalists, TV reporters and satellite vans. A hundred pairs of eyes and a dozen cameras silently swivelled as we turned down the bend. We pretended, for the children's sake, that this was nothing unusual. Later on, our daughter saw herself with Daddy on TV. That afternoon we sat by the members-only pool, watching the helicopters watching us. We didn't know what else to do.

Saturday came, our last day. While we waited for the airport coach to pick us up, we gathered round the toddler pool by Tapas, making small talk in front of the children. I watched my baby son and daughter closely, shamefully grateful that I could.

We had not seen the McCanns since Thursday, when suddenly they appeared by the pool. The surreal limbo of the past two days suddenly snapped back into painful, awful realtime. It was a shock: the physical transformation of these two human beings was sickening - I felt it as a physical blow. Kate's back and shoulders, her hands, her mouth had reshaped themselves in to the angular manifestation of a silent scream. I thought I might cry and turned so that she wouldn't see. Gerry was upright, his lips now drawn into a thin, impenetrable line. Some people, including Jes, tried to offer comfort. Some gave them hugs. Some stared at their feet, words eluding them. We all wondered what to do. That was the last time we saw Gerry and Kate.

The rest of us left Praia da Luz together, an isolated Mark Warner group. The coach, the airport, the plane passed quietly. There were no other passengers except us. We arrived at Gatwick in the small hours of an early May morning. No jokes, no banter, just goodbye. Though we did not know it then, those few days in May were going to dominate the rest of our year.

"Did you have a good trip?" asked the cabbie at Gatwick, instantly underlining the conversational dilemma that would occupy the first few weeks: Do we say "Yes, thanks" and move swiftly on? Or divulge the "yes-but-no-but" truth of our "Maddy" experience? Everybody talks about holidays, they make good conversational currency at work, at the hairdresser's, in the playground. Everybody asked about ours. I would pause and take a breath, deciding whether there was enough time for what was to follow. People were genuinely horrified by what had happened to Madeleine and even by what we had been through (though we thought ourselves fortunate). Their humanity was a balm and a comfort to us; we needed to talk about it, chew it over and share it out, to make it a little easier to swallow.

The British police came round shortly after our return. Jes was pleased to give them a statement. The Portuguese police had never asked.

As the summer months rolled by, we thought the story would slowly and sadly ebb away, but instead it flourished and multiplied, and it became almost impossible to talk about any-thing else. Friends came for dinner and we would actively try to steer the conversation on to a different subject, always to return to Madeleine. Others solicited our thoughts by text message after any major twist or turn in the case. Acquaintances discussed us in the context of Madeleine, calling in the middle of their debates to clarify details.

I found some immunity in a strange, guilty happiness. We had returned unscathed to our humdrum family routine, my life was wonderful, my world was safe, I was lucky, I was blessed. The colours in the park were acute and hyper-real and the sun warmed my face.

At the end of June, the first cloud appeared. A Portuguese journalist called Jes's mobile (he had left his number with the Portuguese police). The journalist, who was writing for a magazine called Sol, called Jes incessantly. We both work in television and cannot claim to be green about the media, but this was a new experience. Jes learned this the hard way. Torn between politeness and wanting to get the journalist off the line without actually saying anything, he had to put the phone down, but he had already said too much. Her article pitched the recollections of "Jeremy Wilkins, television producer" against those of the "Tapas Nine", the group of friends, including the McCanns, whom we had nicknamed the Doctors. The piece was published at the end of June. Throughout July, Sol's testimony meant Jes became incorporated into all the Madeleine chronologies. More clouds began to gather - this time above our house.

In August, the doorbell rang. The man was from the Daily Mail. He asked if Jes was in (he wasn't). After he left I spent an anxious evening analysing what I had said, weighing up the possible consequences. The Sol article had brought the Daily Mail; what would happen next? Two days later, the Mail came for Jes again. This time they had computer printout pictures of a bald, heavy-set man seen lurking in some Praia da Luz holiday snaps. The chatroom implication was that the man was Madeleine's abductor. There was talk on the web, the reporter insinuated, that this man might be Jes. I laughed at the ridiculousness of it all and then realised he was serious. I looked at the pictures, and it wasn't Jes.

Once, Jes's father looked him up on the internet and found that "Jeremy Wilkins, television producer" was referenced on Google more than 70,000 times. There was talk that he was a "lookout" for Gerry and Kate; there was talk that Jes was orchestrating a reality-TV hoax and Madeleine's disappearance was part of the con; there was talk that the Tapas Nine were all swingers. There was a lot of talk.

In early September, Kate and Gerry became official suspects. Their warm tide of support turned decidedly cool. Had they cruelly conned us all? The public needed to know, and who had seen Gerry at around 9pm on the fateful night? Jes.

Tonight with Trevor McDonald, GMTV, the Sun, the News of the World, the Sunday Mirror, the Daily Express, the Evening Standard and the Independent on Sunday began calling. Jes's office stopped putting through calls from people asking to speak to "Jeremy" (only his grandmother calls him that). Some emails told him that he would be "better off" if he spoke to them or he would "regret it" if he didn't, implying that it was in his interest to defend himself - they didn't say what from.

Quietly, we began to worry that Jes might be next in line for some imagined blame or accusation. On a Saturday night in September, he received a call: we were on the front page of the News of the World. They had surreptitiously taken photographs of us, outside the house. There were no more details. We went to bed, but we could not sleep. "Maddie: the secret witness," said the headline, "TV boss holds vital clue to the mystery." Unfortunately, Jes does not hold any such vital clues. In November, he inched through the events of that May night with Leicestershire detectives, but he saw nothing suspicious, nothing that would further the investigation.

Throughout all this, I have always believed that Gerry and Kate McCann are innocent. When they were made suspects, when they were booed at, when one woman told me she was "glad" they had "done it" because it meant that her child was safe, I began to write this article - because I was there, and I believe that woman is wrong. There were no drug-fuelled "swingers" on our holiday; instead, there was a bunch of ordinary parents wearing Berghaus and worrying about sleep patterns. Secure in our banality, none of us imagined we were being watched. One group made a disastrous decision; Madeleine was vulnerable and was chosen. But in the face of such desperate audacity, it could have been any one of us.

And when I stroke my daughter's hair, or feel her butterfly lips on my cheek, I do so in the knowledge of what might have been. But our experience is nothing, an irrelevance, next to the McCanns' unimaginable grief. Their lives will always be touched by this darkness, while the true culprit may never be brought to light.

So my heart goes out to them, Gerry and Kate, the couple we remember from our Portuguese holiday. They had a beautiful daughter, Madeleine, who played and danced with ours at the kiddie club. That's who we remember.

Bridget O'Donnell 2007.

· Bridget O'Donnell is a writer and director. The fee from this article will be donated to the Find Madeleine fund (findmadeleine.com).

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/dec/14/ukcrime.madeleinemccann

So why now?

SICK JOKE SHAME Joe Lycett walked off stage in shame after telling Madeleine McCann joke

Isaac Crowson

1:12, 22 May 2022Updated: 1:12, 22 May 2022

COMEDIAN Joe Lycett revealed he once walked off stage in shame after telling a joke about missing Madeleine McCann.

The 33-year-old said he was doing a stand-up challenge at a club while at university.

Live At The Apollo star Joe told the Changes podcast: “People get up and the audience have cards.

“If they don’t like you they put the card up and you get gonged.

“I had one joke which was about Madeleine.

“Silence was the reaction of the room.

"I wasn’t gonged off, I just walked off.

"I was mortified.

“Friends there didn’t want to be with me.

"I thought comedy was saying something shocking.”

Madeleine vanished on holiday in Portugal in 2007 aged three.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/18646910/joe-lycett-madeleine-mccann-joke/

Well that's a non-event.

Desperate for attention, perhaps?

‘McCann twins may hold clues’ says criminal profiler

THE country’s most senior criminal profiler suggested Madeleine McCann’s brother and sister should have been interviewed about her disappearance.

By JAMES MURRAY
00:00, Sun, Feb 14, 2010




Lee Rainbow suggested Madeleine McCann’s brother and sister should have been interviewed
Twins Sean and Amelie were aged just two years and three months when Madeleine was snatched from a holiday apartment on the Algarve in Portugal in May 2007 shortly before her fourth birthday.
A month later, Lee Rainbow, senior behavioural investigation consultant at the National Policing Improvement Agency, wrote a report for Portuguese detectives which may have altered the course of the inquiry.
Mr Rainbow urged them to “consider the possibility of exploring the potential of interviewing Sean and Amelie McCann”.
The children, now five, were sharing a bedroom with Madeleine when she was taken. As reported last year in the Sunday Express, the McCanns believe the kidnapper may have entered the apartment the evening before because Madeleine complained she had been woken by Sean crying.
The last time British police seriously interviewed such a young child was in 1992. Rachel Nickell was murdered in front of her two-year-old son, Alex Hanscombe, on Wimbledon Common, south-west London. Despite his age, Alex was able to give detectives valuable and credible information.
Child psychologists worked closely with police to draw information from Alex in a painstaking exercise which lasted months. Former Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral has presented Mr Rainbow’s report to a civil court in Lisbon as he attempts to lift a ban on selling his book about the case, The Truth Of The Lie.
In the summary of the 30-page report Mr Rainbow wrote: “The potential involvement of the family in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann cannot be discarded, and it can be considered that, when pondering the basis for research, this hypothesis deserves as much attention as the criminal with sexual motivations that has been previously prioritised.
“It should be stressed that there is no evidence to directly support an involvement of the family, yet given the absence of decisive evidence to prove the contrary, such a scenario has to be explored.” At court last week, Mr Amaral’s lawyer, Antonio Cabrita, read out a section of 37-year-old Mr Rainbow’s report which said: “The family is a lead that should be followed.”
On Thursday the judge hearing the libel case is expected to rule on whether Mr Amaral’s book and a DVD should go back on sale.
Doctors Kate and Gerry McCann, both 41, from Rothley, Leicestershire, won an injunction to have them banned.
It was on the grounds that Mr Amaral’s theory that Madeleine died in the apartment was untrue and had damaged their global search for their daughter.
A spokesman for the couple said that any suggestion from Mr Rainbow would have been considered by investigating officers at the time.
It is not known whether Sean and Amelie were formally interviewed by police.T he children are thought to have slept through the kidnap. The McCanns have always insisted they had no involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/158018/McCann-twins-may-hold-clues-says-criminal-profiler?fbclid=IwAR2Y1yQgeu_XO7cResjmrHLHoaREGcjXBirkH26ghzqOFE5ucONxLeGGtEc