Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

Madeleine McCann series to go on Netflix after delays and rows

Show set for Friday release amid speculation makers failed to access key people in the case

13th March 2019

Netflix is to release its long-awaited documentary series on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann on Friday, despite opposition from the missing child’s family and TV industry speculation that programme-makers failed to gain access to key individuals involved in the case.

The US streaming service first commissioned the programme in 2017, as interest grew hugely in true crime and cold case TV programmes following the success of Making a Murderer.

However, despite spending enormous sums to produce eight hour-long episodes, its release has been repeatedly delayed, raising speculation over what, if anything, the show has uncovered, and the state of behind-the-scenes wrangling over its content.

Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter went missing in 2007 when she was three, while on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, have repeatedly refused to take part in the show. They have also urged those around them to resist efforts by London-based Pulse Films, which is making the programme on behalf of Netflix, to get them to give interviews.

Clarence Mitchell, the family’s former spokesman, who still assists with media inquiries, told the Guardian: “Kate and Gerry and their wider family and friends were approached some months ago to participate in the documentary. Kate and Gerry didn’t ask for it and don’t see how it will help the search for Maddie on a practical level, so they chose not to engage.”

Instead, the programme is expected to lean heavily on interviews with the Portuguese officials who originally investigated the case, many of whom have since established media careers discussing the incident.

Production staff are thought to have interviewed more than 40 individuals, although some leading Fleet Street journalists who covered the story at the time have said they declined to take part.

Those who are thought to have given interviews include the Portuguese detective Gonçalo Amaral and the journalists Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, who wrote a book on the case. Others include people questioned by the Portuguese police such as the Briton Robert Murat and the Russian Sergey Malinka, plus the child protection experts Jim Gamble and Ernie Allan.

Some associates of the McCanns did take part. Brian Kennedy, the millionaire businessman who helped fund the initial search for Madeleine, has also talked to the show.

The McCanns have kept a lower profile in recent years, being selective in their media appearances. Despite £11.75m being spent by the British police, there remains no sign of Madeleine after 12 years, although the Metropolitan police have continued to fund Operation Grange until the end of this month.

Earlier this month, the programme was listed on Netflix’s new release schedule for 15 March, only for the show to be removed from the public list. Although the Netflix programme is subject to delay, it is expected a trailer will be released on Thursday, with the rest of the show to follow a day later, concluding a sometimes torturous route to screen for a programme that was at some points speculated to have vanished for ever.

In line with Netflix’s secretive style, the show was never formally announced as a commission, aside from speculation in the industry press. The streaming service also has a tendency to drop shows with a minimum of advance publicity, instead relying on the power of its home screen’s algorithm and word-of-mouth publicity to spread awareness of its new shows.

However, individuals with knowledge of the production say a trailer was due to be released last week, only for that to be pulled at the last minute.

British documentary makers are also looking enviously at the programme’s production values and wondering what Netflix will have to show for its enormous investment, amid speculation that it is heavily reliant on archive footage rather than new material. The show’s executive producer, Emma Cooper, recently left the independent production company, which is owned by Vice, for unknown reasons.

While the Netflix show is speculated to cost more than £1m for each hour-long episode, the 2017 BBC Panorama documentary Madeleine McCann: Ten Years On is understood to have cost less than £200,000. Netflix declined to comment.

One rival documentary producer said: “There’s been a lot of speculation about the series ever since it was first heard about, but particularly since the trailer was delayed.

“Around 50 people are thought to have been interviewed for it, so it’s taken a while to make and get everything signed off. Although there are eight episodes, it looks as though it is not going to be a big ‘reveal’ kind of show that some were expecting, more of a narrative piece, although apparently some people are talking for the first time in it.”

The McCanns have been offered the chance to view the Netflix documentary in advance, although they declined to do so. The family, who are known for keeping a close eye on claims made about them through their lawyers, Carter Ruck, are not thought to be considering any legal action at this stage.

However, media lawyers pointed out Netflix documentaries remain available to view for substantial periods of time, meaning the risk of libel damages could be higher than with a traditional one-off TV broadcast.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/13/netflix-to-stream-madeleine-mccann-series-after-delays-and-disputes
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What a load of old Grauniad   .

McCann reconstruction called off

27th May 2008

Kate and Gerry McCann did not refuse to take part in a reconstruction

A reconstruction of the night Madeleine McCann disappeared will not happen after friends her parents dined with that evening declined to take part.

Police had invited Kate and Gerry McCann back to Praia de Luz, Portugal, along with the so-called Tapas Seven.

But the friends had "serious questions" about the value of the reconstruction, Mr and Mrs McCann's spokesman said.

Madeleine, then aged three, of Rothley, Leicestershire, vanished from a holiday apartment in the resort last May.

Spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the McCanns had not refused to go back but had been aware of their friends' views and were not now needed by the police.

He said: "The bottom line is that there were a number of serious questions. For instance, why did they [Portuguese officers] want to hold a reconstruction more than a year after the event?

"There was a suggestion of doing a reconstruction at the Ocean Club last year but that was rejected out of hand because that was not the way they wanted to do things.

"Why was the reconstruction [the Portuguese suggested] not to be televised? That would have generated new leads and information but if it is not televised, how on earth is that going to help find Madeleine?"

He also questioned why only Madeleine's parents and their friends had been asked to take part in the reconstruction and not the other holidaymakers who were there when she disappeared.

It is thought the reconstruction had been due to take place later this week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7422787.stm

From my local, free, What's On magazine:

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann (Netflix)

Essentially, a decent summary of every possible angle of the case of Madeleine McCann, who went missing from her hotel room in Paris Da L uz 12 years ago, aged three.  Maybe its success illustrates society's demand for closure on an undeniabl y tragic abduction case that swept the nation, and maybe it is feeding a borderline-delusional helpfulness in this case being 'solved' like some real-life, grand-scale CSI episode.  Either way, whether we needed it or not, 'The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann ' is well-made and gives a comprehensive explanation and timeline of everything we need to know, offering no new insights but presenting the facts clearly. ***

Someone needs a proof reader ^^^ !

   It's my tablet's auto-thingy.

Drat - My mistake, I thought it was the 'What's on' magazine's error

Whatever, it's gobbledegook. Unless one prefers the word of 'Winter and Goose' + assorted comedians against the PJ files, then what hope is there?

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 BST, 22 April 2017 | Updated: 01:12 BST, 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?'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4435038/Did-Madeleine-McCann-wander-accident.html#ixzz4ezFjPZug
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Colin Sutton. Friend foe or gold digger - you decide.

UK government agency to monitor blogs

Carlos Grande August 15, 2007

The COI, the UK government’s communications agency, is working on a way to monitor what people say about policy on blogs and internet forums for the media briefings it sends to ministers.

A project by the COI’s Media Monitoring Unit is considering how to add blogs to its regular summaries of government coverage in mainstream press or television.

The summaries are used across Whitehall from ministers to departmental communications teams, often as an early warning service on issues rising up the public’s agenda.

The blog project was in part prompted by departments’ concerns at being caught unawares by debates spread on the web.

It reflects the growing media profile of the format and the fact some individual bloggers are moving from niche self-publishers to establishment opinion-formers.

Clarence Mitchell, director of the MMU, said though there was debate about the objectivity of some bloggers, several were taken increasingly seriously within government.

Mr Mitchell said: “There’s a whole level of debate taking place online which simply didn’t exist before and departments feel they need to be fully engaged in that.”

He insisted any future service by the unit would not intervene in monitored blogs.

However individual departments which took any service might choose to reply directly to bloggers’ criticisms – as they would any commentator – or address points through general media statements.

Pilot studies have looked at pensioners’ online reactions to a recent budget and internet opinions on counter-terrorism measures. They have tracked web traffic generated as well as the tone of discussions.

The blog monitoring would need a sufficient number of individual government departments to agree to cover the extra costs involved. If this happened, MMU estimates a service could operate by the end of the year.

A growing number of companies already monitor blogs in sectors such as technology where online product reviewers can be highly influential.

Universal McCann, the media buyer, recently estimated that more than 50 per cent of UK respondents to an online survey said they had read a blog within the last six months and about 20 per cent had posted comments on their own.

The media buyer said this lagged far behind China and south Korea where blogging – mostly devoid of politics in China – was more widespread, and less likely to be seen as self-interested as it is in the west.

The vast majority of blogs in the UK and the US are abandoned after a relatively short period of time or read by only a handful of friends or contacts.

The Financial Times

The Madeleine McCann Syndrome

By Vicky Allan - 30th April 2017



FEW can have missed the fact that this week marks the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Even before today’s official BBC interview with the McCann’s, the coverage, over the week has been building, like a familiar wave coming back into shore, here to remind us, as if we could ever forget, about the girl who went missing from an apartment bedroom in Praia de Luz and has never been seen again — at least, not outside the recurring images of her that teem across our media.

Last week, brought those familiar photographs of “Maddie”, her face frozen at three years old, back into the news again, along with a spew of articles on the case, most of them saying very little of substance, many of them just reviewing what we already know, or don't know. There were reports that investigators still have a "critical line of inquiry" to explore, a forensic expert who said Facebook facial recognition software could help solve the crime, but mostly this last week’s 'Maddie coverage' has been about marking time. She’s been gone for ten years, we are reminded. A decade on, and the obsession with this one missing girl still has us in its hold. Hope still lingers. We see her everywhere. She haunts our fiction and television — shows like the abduction drama, The Missing – yet we never see the real, live her.

It’s natural to remember such an anniversary, particularly when, as for the McCanns themselves, it is a marker of personal loss and time passed. The official website of the Find Madeleine campaign, carries a message from Kate and Gerry that says: “Ten years - there's no easy way to say it, describe it, accept it. I remember when Madeleine first disappeared I couldn’t even begin to consider anything in terms of years. Shawn Hornbeck abducted and kept hidden for over four years, Natascha Kampusch for over eight years. I couldn't go there. And now here we are...Madeleine, our Madeleine - ten years.”

But for us, the public, and the media, the anniversary marks ten years of an obsession with a still unsolved crime. Throughout all this time it has felt as if Madeleine has never been out of the papers for very long. Partly, of course, that was because her parents doggedly and eloquently kept her there. Partly it was because the media saw that Maddie sold papers and brought in television viewers. Partly it was because people became fascinated with what was one of the first big reality whodunnits of the online age. They became hugely invested in their own opinions on how the investigation was being conducted, what the McCanns were like as parents.

When the story first broke, it triggered a nationwide surge of sympathy, and panic, touching on that fear that lurks in the soul of all parents – for what mother or father hasn’t felt that lurch of panic after losing site of their child for a few minutes in a supermarket or the park. Stories of missing or lost children have long tugged at our hearts, populated our fairy tales. No doubt we are hardwired to respond to them.

What was it about the Madeleine case that turned it into such a global preoccupation? “It’s hard to imagine any one story,” said PR consultant Michael Cole, in the documentary, Madeleine McCann A Global Obsession, “that could have ticked more boxes, rung more bells in the human psyche than this one. It’s every parent’s nightmare.” But it was more than that. It was every parent's nightmare wrapped up in the right demographic packaging. It brought together a kind of perfect storm of factors, starting with a pretty, very young, blonde white female victim - the so-called Blonde Angel Syndrome, which sees the press fixate on a young blonde white female more than any other type of victim. Couple that with good-looking, middle-class parents, one a cardiac surgeon, the other a GP; a holiday crime location, outside the UK, in Portugal, and hence a fear and suspicion of the foreign - and you have a crime almost designed to captivate the public.

Where it happened was of significance, and revealed a whole layer of prejudice. “The fact that the Madeleine mystery – and I use my words carefully – began abroad,” wrote Dr John Jewell, of the School of Journalism, Cardiff University, “ in less affluent, less prosperous Portugal may also be significant in why we’re so interested. This is because (in a sense) we as nation can absolve ourselves from responsibility. Despite evidence to the contrary in terms of crimes committed against children in Britain, we can tell ourselves that this is a crime that happened because the family was abroad.”

What we observed with Madeleine McCann was a kind of moral panic. Initially it tapped into the intense cultural fear, around paedophiles, the fairytale fear that some “other” was lurking out there, ready to steal our children, particularly those that are cute and blonde and very young.

Actually Madeleine was just one of many British children who go missing in a year. In the UK around 50 children are abducted by strangers annually, but we hear very little of most of them. Not every missing child becomes a Madeleine McCann. This is partly because not every missing child is white, blonde, female, and the daughter of middle-class parents.

As feminist writer, Joy Goh-Mah has said: “In the UK, if asked about cases of missing children, most will be aware only of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007, despite a child being reported missing every 3 minutes. While her disappearance is no doubt a huge tragedy, we have to wonder why it is Madeleine McCann, a pretty white girl, who has captured the sympathy of the public, and not girls with names like Aamina Khan, Elizabeth Ogungbayibi, or Folawiyo Oladejo, all of whom are listed on Missing Kids UK.”

American comedian Jon Stewart once pointed out wryly that the following equation might give an indication of how much airtime child abductions get on TV: “y (minutes of media coverage) = Family Income x (Abductee Cuteness ÷ Skin Color) + Length of Abduction x Media Savvy of Grieving Parents”. Madeleine MCann had all those factors in spades.

The 'Blonde Angel Sydrome' was also termed “Missing White Girl Syndrome” by the journalism academic Sarah Stillman. “International headlines,” she wrote, “deliver the lurid details of British three-year-old Madeleine McCann’s disappearance while on holiday with her family in Portugal, but offer few clues about the fate of Esmeralda Alarcon, one of more than 400 young women to go missing in the border [town of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico].”

When we look at the other tales of missing, abducted or murdered children and young women, that have dominated international headlines in recent years, it’s clear that the obsession with Madeleine is part of a pattern. Even if one looks at the media just in the last week, it's possible to see that same story being told again and again, our ongoing obsession with this particular type of victim. Last Tuesday, for example, the British tabloids threw up in quick succession the following stories involving white, middle-class, mostly blonde, girls: Natasha Kampusch talking on Good Morning about her eight years of hell, kept as a slave in a cellar in suburban house near Vienna, Austria, and sending out a message of hope to the McCanns; a report on a new Netflix film which asks if the six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenet Ramsay was killed by members of a Colorado child porn ring; a story on how the daughter of Soham murderer Ian Huntley has said she'll never call the notorious killer her 'dad', with, yet again, that poignant photograph of Holly and Jessica in their football tops.

The constant reiteration of the story of the stolen white girl has to correspond to some kind of myth that is being sustained. Washington Post writer, Eugene Robinson, described it as the “damsel in distress” saga. Writing on the way the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Haywood, a blonde, white American on holiday on the Caribbean island of Aruba, had caused a similar international media frenzy, he criticised what he saw as a “meta-narrative of something seen as precious and delicate being snatched away, defiled, destroyed by evil forces that lurk in the shadows just outside the bedroom window. It's whiteness under siege. It's innocence and optimism crushed by cruel reality. It's a flower smashed by a rock.”

But, for all the McCann's middle-class identity helped secure the story a profile, it also helped created a backlash. The fact that the McCann case was getting the kind of attention that other disappearances, of working-class, black or boy children, might have not done, seemed to fuel some of the criticism. Right-wing columnist Amanda Platell has observed: “Her disappearance divided the nation on class lines, because I lost count of the number of people who wrote to me and said, if she had been the daughter of a couple of unemployed people living in Liverpool, she would have been off the front pages in a matter of days.”

Would a working-class story have generated such coverage? In some ways we found out – since the following year the story broke about the disappearance of Shannon Matthews, daughter of Karen Matthews, a mum living on benefits in Dewsbury, Yorkshire. As writer Cole Moreton observed when he reported on the story, both the reward money raised and the media presence there in Dewsbury, were far smaller than had been drawn to Praia da Luz the previous year. Of course, it would soon be discovered that the whole thing had been a scam and Karen Matthews was dubbed “Britain’s Worst Mother”. But was that lack of coverage, till then, because the child and parent involved were working class, and not as obviously photogenic as the McCanns?

Both Karen Matthews and Kate McCann have been criticised, and for different reasons. Matthews because she lied and put her child at risk, Kate McCann because she was considered, by some, guilty of a kind of middle-class neglect when she went out and ate at tapas on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, leaving her daughter alone.

Indeed one of the things that has marked out the Madeleine McCann story, is not just the intensity of feeling around her disappearance, but also the ferocity of the backlash against her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who some saw as publicity-hungry and attention-seeking, and others considered to have been let-off-the-hook because of their class and connections.

One study by a team at the University of Huddersfield revealed that around 150 abusive tweets are directed at the McCanns every day. Inevitably, with the McCanns back in the media spotlight again, there has been a fresh surge of such abuse. A search of “McCann” on Twitter last week revealed comments such as: “Why are they still looking for Madeline McCann when thousands of kids with regular backgrounds have gone missing & we never hear about them?” Another questions: “What normal parents leave 3 young children on their own, whilst on holiday in a foreign country.”

This is typical of the relatively low levels of empathy often exhibited for the parents of children who have been mysteriously abducted or murdered. Suspicion, of course, is natural. We know that most child murders are committed by family members. But there is something more going on here. Clarence Mitchell, who has represented the McCanns for 10 years, spoke on Australian television last week and described how he thought that for many members of the public "the situation just didn't fit the stereotypical ideal that many people have, wrongly, that something like this can't happen to a family like them…Once it was reported that the family weren't with the children when Madeleine went missing, then the judgment squad kicked in and they were 'guilty of neglect' at the very least.”

That this happens isn’t surprising. We are hard on each other as parents, suspicious, and keen to accuse other parents of neglect, or worse. Part of this, maybe, is a way of comforting ourselves. If we can find fault, that allows us to tell ourselves that if we do things right, we can protect our children. We can, even in this age of moral panic over paedophilia, keep them out of harm's way.

Ten years on and we can see the way our society has been marked by the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. We can also see the way in which, our response to the tragedy says so much about who we are, and who we value. The McCann story is also now an integral part of our narrative of modern childhood and parenting, a kind of fairy tale warning that works its way into the arguments that exist over stranger danger, hyper-protectiveness, and what a good parent and, in particular, a “good mother” is. What parent now, after all, could possibly leave a young child alone in a hotel, apartment, or any other room, and not think for a moment of missing Maddie?

https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/15255912.the-madeleine-mccann-syndrome/

Madeleine McCann: How Sir Alex Ferguson helped Kate and Gerry in search for Maddie

MADELEINE MCCANN’s parents, Kate and Gerry, were given a helping hand in the search for their missing daughter by legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, Kate recalled during her book.

By Callum Hoare

PUBLISHED: 11:28, Fri, Apr 12, 2019 | UPDATED: 11:28, Fri, Apr 12, 2019

Madeleine McCann disappeared from Apartment 5A in the Ocean Beach resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. The youngster vanished at around 9:30pm, while her parents enjoyed dinner just metres away with friends. For the last 12 years, Kate and Gerry McCann have focused their lives on trying to find out what happened to their daughter and where she could be today.

On May 15, 2007, 12 days after her disappearance, the McCanns set up the fund "Leaving No Stone Unturned" to help raise awareness.

Over 80 million people visited the website, "Find Madeleine", in the three months after the disappearance and almost £2million was raised.

Appeals were also made by public figures and support was shown at Premier League football matches.

However, what many do not know, is that Manchester United’s legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson was instrumental in bringing some of the biggest names in the game on board.

Kate McCann recalled during her book “Madeleine” how the Scot pulled some strings to get David Beckham on board first.

She wrote in 2011: “We tried to focus on the imminent launch of Madeleine’s fund and on coming up with ways to put the accumulating donations to the most effective use.

“The response of prominent philanthropists and the general public alike to our daughter’s plight and Gerry’s call to arms had already been fantastic.

“That weekend, well-wishers had queued at St Andrews Cathedral in Glasgow to join a vigil for Madeleine.

“Football star David Beckham appealed for information alongside Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown.”

Kate went on to detail how they managed to get Sir Alex on board.

She added: “It was an ex-colleague of Gerry’s in Glasgow who had suggested the Beckham appeal.

“Gerry’s ex-boss, who was the Scotland football team’s doctor, spoke to Sir Alex on our behalf, and Sir Alex got in touch with Beckham, who instantly agreed.

“Sir Alex was also behind the appeal made by Cristiano Ronaldo, who played for him at Manchester United.

’That sparked more messages from other players, including John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho and Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko, who made his in several languages.”

Sir Alex, 77, has now retired as Manchester United manager, following a long and successful career that spanned over 26 years.

During his time at the club, he won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, and two UEFA Champions League titles.

He was knighted in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours list for his services to the game.

While Kate and Gerry have been very supportive of public appeals like these to find their daughter, they have only supported them if they believe they will genuinely help.

Last month, controversial Netflix series “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann” was released in a bid to learn more about the case.

However, Kate and Gerry did not believe it would help bring their daughter home.

A statement on behalf of the couple argues that the show could actually hinder police investigations.

It reads: "We did not see – and still do not see – how this programme will help the search for Madeleine and, particularly given there is an active police investigation, it could potentially hinder it.

"Consequently, our views and preferences are not reflected in the programme.

"We will not be making any further statements or giving interviews regarding this programme.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1113355/madeleine-mccann-kate-gerry-premier-league-man-utd-news-sir-alex-ferguson-spt

Madeleine McCann parents' fury at empty doll box being made as sick 'missing' joke

THE furious parents of Madeleine McCann have ripped into the revolting trolls who made an empty Maddie doll box without a figurine inside because “she’s missing”.

By David Rivers / Published 12th April 2019

A sick image appeared on Instagram of a "pop vinyl" gift and a picture of Madeleine McCann on the box.

But the box is empty in a twisted joke after the tot went missing from Praia da Luz in 2007.

The troll writes: "Blame it on Netflix."

Pop vinyl dolls usually contain chart acted including the Incredible Hulk and Betty Boop.

Maddie’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, shamed the troll as "rude and unpleasant".



A family friend told The Sun: "This is offensive, rude and unpleasant.

"Kate and Gerry think people like this are just idiots but they have had a lot worse."

They added: "This is the problem with social media, there is no control.

"Kate and Gerry have had to put up with all this abusive nonsense for nearly 12 years."

The friend also said the couple vowed "not to let the hate brigade get under their skins".

But unfortunately, an image of the gift has been liked more than 12,000 times with hundreds of comments, many vile.

However, it was also met with an angry backlash.

One user said: "This is not funny. A little innocent girl actually went missing and everyone is making jokes about it.

"Imagine a friend or family member went missing and people were joking about it like this."

Maddie’s disappearance has been thrust back into the headlines lately after the broadcasting of new Netflix documentary "The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann".

It details how, 12 years later, there is still not sign of the world’s most famous missing child and theorises what may have happened.

Maddie was three when she vanished while parents Kate and Gerry were eating at a nearby tapas restaurant.

They had been checking the room regularly, before finding her missing when they went to check at around 10pm.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/771661/madeleine-mccann-doll-missing-parents-mystery-documentary-netflix

End this witch hunt and find Madeleine

The real crime and the real tragedy is that nobody is looking for Madeleine McCann anymore

By Tony Parsons: 00:00, 17 SEP 2007Updated05:12, 3 FEB 2012

That little girl is out there somewhere, either dead or alive, but all of the energy of those Keystone cretins, the Portuguese police, are being poured into attributing guilt to Kate and Gerry McCann.

We are little better. Back home, the search for Madeleine has been reduced to a grotesque who dunnit, adult entertainment of the blackest kind.

The big question is no longer "What happened to Madeleine McCann?" The question now is "Which side are you on?"

Are you still completely convinced of the McCanns' innocence? Or are you one of those sad, spiteful souls - and there are plenty of them - who is asking for a refund of the money you donated to the Find Madeleine fund?

I cannot recall a news story that so totally divides public opinion.

We were told all along that the McCanns were brilliant media manipulators, but I wonder if they truly understand the nature of the beast. The media - like the mob - can turn in a moment.

I would not have thought it possible, but with frightening speed Kate and Gerry McCann have gone from tragic victims to the worst thing in the world - suspected murderers of their own child.

I don't believe for one second that they did it. If they did, then they are the greatest actors who ever lived.

The bewilderment, the grief, the overwhelming sense that their world has collapsed - it was there at the start and it is there now.

Kate and Gerry McCann would need to be better than Streep and DeNiro to play the roles they played in front of the world's media.

They would also need to be criminal masterminds. To kill - accidentally or otherwise - little Madeleine, and then court the attention of all those cameras and reporters, and then dispose of the body under that glaring spotlight. They did not do it.

I do not much care what the Portuguese spoon-feed their tame hacks in the local rags - that man and woman are innocent, and it is an obscenity that the world is playing Cluedo with their lives and the fate of their little girl.

No smoke without fire, right? But there is no smoke.

A lot of the innuendo and propaganda that the Portuguese cops have slipped to their flunkies in the Portuguese press turns out to have absolutely no basis in the real world. We were informed that the woman who lives above the apartment where the McCanns were staying often heard Madeleine crying and "sounds of violence."

Now the real woman - Pamela Fenn, 81 - says that these claims are "absolute rubbish."

Reports of hair in the hire car, blood on the curtains, the 'smell of death' in the apartment - none of these lurid titbits prove that Madeleine McCann is dead, and still less that her parents murdered her.

Forensic experts in this country say that all the evidence stacked up against the McCanns would never lead to a conviction in a British court. We are told Kate McCann "struggled to control" three children under the age of five.

Well, who the hell wouldn't? Most of us struggle with just one.

That doesn't make her any less of the calm, loving mother that she has always appeared to be.

But chuck enough dirt and it will stick. The Portuguese cops seem stupendously stupid - but they are smart enough to understand that.

It is right that the McCanns should be potential suspects. But it should all have been done months ago - not when the Portuguese cops have become a sick joke because of their blundering incompetence.

Those swaggering plods in their dark glasses clearly wanted the media circus to go away from their sleepy, sunny doorstep, and they have been granted their wish.

As the months have dragged on, they must have felt like lumbering yokels, despised by their north European neighbours. They are not the type who would enjoy that feeling.

Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, the fat, sweaty cop who is co-leader of the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, faces investigation himself for the torture of Leonor Cipriano, the mother of an eight-year-old girl who disappeared in the Algarve in 2004.

Official mug shots show the mother with her eyes battered so badly that she is unable to open them. She allegedly confessed to the crime and is now serving a 16-year-jail sentence.

The missing child has never been found.

That is Portuguese policing in action, and I would suggest that the smear campaign that has been unleashed on the McCanns is just as bad as being given a kicking in a police cell.

The Portuguese plods are not desperate to solve this crime - such a task was way beyond them.

They just want a convenient confession, true or false.

They just want the case of Madeleine McCann to go away so they can salvage what is left of their fragile macho pride and return to their siesta.

And somewhere a tiny child is still out there, whether she is dead or alive, separated from all she ever knew and loved.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/end-this-witch-hunt-and-find-madeleine-506521

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16085-paulo-reis-remember-remember-the-quality-of-british-journalism#400369

MADDIE AGONY Kate McCann’s agony on 12th Mother’s Day without missing Madeleine – amid fears £12m probe will be shelved

Madeleine McCann's mum Kate is spending her 12th Mother's Day without her daughter

By Tracey Kandohla
31st March 2019, 11:30 am
Updated: 31st March 2019, 12:54 pm

KATE McCann faces more heartache today as she spends her 12th Mother’s Day without daughter Madeleine and has "no idea yet” if the police hunt to find her will continue.

The anguished mum, due to be attending a special church service with husband Gerry and their twins, has been left on tenterhooks yet again over the future of Operation Grange which could be shelved.

Today is another “D Day” for the couple - the end of the financial year when current funding for the high profile Scotland Yard investigation, which has cost nearly £12million over eight years, officially runs out.

Whilst the Met Police have applied to the Home Office for more cash, the overstretched Government department has still not made any decision about future funding.

A Home office spokesperson told The Sun Online: "We have received and are considering a request from the Metropolitan Police Service to extend funding for Operation Grange until the end of March 2020.
£11.75 MILLION

“The Home Office maintains an ongoing dialogue with the MPS regarding funding for Operation Grange.”

He added: "The cost of Operation Grange – which to date is £11.75million – has been met through Special Grant funding.

“That funding is usually available to police forces when they face significant or exceptional costs.”

He declined to say when a public decision about funding would be made.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson told The Sun Online said: "The work on Operation Grange in ongoing. It is a very high profile investigation and closing it would be a massive decision.

“It is being kept open for a reason because there is still important work to do and focused lines of inquiry to pursue. It has not reached a conclusion.”

But he refused to say if their application for more cash for their controversial inquiry - which has been slammed in the past by former police chiefs as a waste of taxpayers’ money - had been granted for another year’s work.

We have received and are considering a request from the Metropolitan Police Service to extend funding for Operation Grange until the end of March 2020
Home Office

The Maddie Op Grange squad - scaled down from 31 officers to just five - is run from a Met Police branch station in Putney, South West London.

It is headed by Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall working with one detective sergeant and three detective constables.

He said: “They all work from an office in Putney.”

He wasn’t aware how often they travelled to Portugal & Europe for inquiries.

The police spokesperson added: “There are no immediate plans to reduce officer numbers further at this time.”

When asked if they were still chasing a vital “line of inquiry” which first surfaced four years or if they had ruled this out and were now following up a new lead, he declined to comment, saying: “We cannot provide a running commentary on our investigation.”

A McCann family spokesperson said: “If and when the Met Police investigation comes to an end, Kate and Gerry remain incredibly grateful for all the work that has been carried out over the past years.

CAN'T GO ON FOREVER

“They know it can't go on forever. They appreciate everything the authorities have done to try and get a resolution after all this time.”

He said that Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leics, would consider using money from the Find Maddie Fund, standing at £1million, to re-employ private investigators to continue their own search in the eventuality Op Grange ends.

Like millions of families the country, the McCann’s are trying to put worries behind them by enjoying Mothering Sunday. But for Kate and Gerry it is tinged with huge sadness.

Kate, previously speaking about the tough day on the calendar, said: “I am still Madeleine’s mum and always will be. I just want to bring her back into the warmth and love of our family.”

I am still Madeleine’s mum and always will be. I just want to bring her back into the warmth and love of our family
Kate McCann

Kate is understood to have attended a special church service with husband Gerry and their 14-year-old twins Sean and Amelie where prayers were said for Maddie and other missing children.

A pal said: "It’s even more poignant this year because she doesn’t yet know if the investigation into her daughter’s disappearance will carry on or be shelved.”

Worshippers at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church will remember Maddie as traditionally the children hand their mothers a symbolic spring flower after the final hymn is sung.

One local said: “It is a beautiful service and at the end it is custom for the children to file up to the doors and pick a daffodil from the basket to give to their mums.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8758770/kate-mccanns-agony-on-12th-mothers-day-without-missing-madeleine-amid-fears-12m-probe-will-be-shelved/

Madeleine McCann: Friends deny 'silence pact'


A couple made a tearful appearance on Spanish TV to publicise a new hotline

By Caroline Gammell

1:23PM GMT 29 Oct 2007

The group of friends who were on holiday with Madeleine McCann’s parents have denied making a "pact of silence" about the four-year-old’s disappearance.

Kate and Gerry McCann and their seven friends were eating dinner only a short distance from where Madeleine vanished on May 3 in the Algarve resort town of Praia da Luz.

Alleged discrepancies in the friends’ versions of events, as well as their refusal to comment on what happened that night, sparked frenzied speculation in Portugal, with reports claiming they agreed to keep quiet to protect the McCanns who remain official suspects in the case.

News that the Portuguese police wanted to re-interview some of those on holiday with the McCanns was seen by the Portuguese media as further confirmation of this theory.

But the seven friends - Russell O’Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, Rachael and Matthew Oldfield, Fiona and David Payne, and Mrs Payne’s mother Dianne Webster - have made a public statement to insist they had nothing to hide.

"We wish to state that there is categorically no ‘pact of silence’ or indeed anything secretive between us - just the desire to assist the search for Madeleine," they said in a joint statement, released by the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell.

"From day one, the police in Portugal told us not to discuss our statements.

"It is incredibly frustrating for us that the fact we have done as we were asked to by the Portuguese police is still being looked upon as suspicious.

"Everything we have done, and continue to do, has been to help with the search for Madeleine and to end this nightmare for Gerry and Kate."

The denial from the group, known together with the McCanns as the Tapas Nine, came as a source confirmed 39-year-old Mr McCann will return to his work as a consultant cardiologist this Thursday, just a few days before the six-month anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.

He has not been back to work at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester since his daughter went missing although he has kept in regular contact with his colleagues.

It is understood Mr McCann will initially work three half-days a week, focusing on administrative matters.

He will only return to direct contact with patients when he and his employers at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust feel he is ready.

Mrs McCann, also 39, has said she will not return to work as a part-time GP.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1567702/Madeleine-McCann-Friends-deny-silence-pact.html

MADDIE HOPE Hero cop says Scotland Yard could be sitting on Madeleine McCann mystery ‘game changer’

Ex-detective Colin Sutton urged British cops to carry out new tests on the complex DNA samples found in the Madeleine McCann case
By Jenny Awford
11th April 2019, 4:17 am
Updated: 11th April 2019, 7:45 am

A TOP detective who snared Levi Bellfield has claimed that Scotland Yard could be sitting on "a real game changer" in the Madeleine McCann mystery.

Colin Sutton urged British cops to carry out new tests on the complex DNA samples found in the case that were ruled "inconclusive” in 2007.

The former detective, who solved more than 30 murders during his career at Scotland Yard, said advanced new testing methods could crack the case.

DNA samples were taken from swabs lifted from the McCann family's holiday flat and hire car after sniffer dogs allegedly detected the "scent of death".

Leading forensics expert Dr Mark Perlin offered to re-test the "inconclusive" DNA samples – but detectives snubbed his offer to analyse samples for free.

In the latest episode of Nine News' Maddie podcast, Mr Sutton was asked what it would mean if new tests found Madeleine's DNA in the family’s rental car.

He said: "On that basis, that that car was hired by the McCanns three weeks after Madeleine disappeared, then it is a real game changer, isn't it?

“Because there is no way, according to information that we have, that she could have been in that car.

"The big question then is how can her DNA get into that car three weeks after she disappeared?"
CRUCIAL SWAB

This crucial swab was from the boot of a silver Renault Scenic that Kate and Gerry McCann leased 25 days after Madeleine vanished in Praia da Luz.

It was one of 18 complex DNA samples, which are potentially loaded with vital clues about Madeleine's disappearance.

Cops reached a dead end when the tests came back inconclusive 12 years ago.

But Dr Perlin reckons new techniques could blow the case wide open and finally reveal what happened to Maddie.

He claims his Pittsburgh lab Cybergenetics, which helped identified 9/11 victims, can routinely unlock the kind of samples the FSS struggled with.

He told Nine's podcast investigation: "If a lab can produce informative data, even if it is complex and mixed, but they can't interpret it then you can have tremendous injustice - of guilty people not being convicted, or innocent people staying in prison.

"What is needed is an objective and accurate interpretation that can scientifically resolve the DNA."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8838044/madeleine-mccann-dna-test-game-changer-colin-sutton/

Madeleine McCann: What gives Kate and Gerry McCann hope Maddie WILL be found

MADELEINE MCCANN disappeared at the age of three in 2007 – but her parents Kate and Gerry McCann have spoken about the cases of recovered missing children that still give them hope years after their daughter vanished.

By Anna Kretschmer
PUBLISHED: 09:05, Wed, Apr 17, 2019 | UPDATED: 09:05, Wed, Apr 17, 2019

Madeleine McCann disappeared 12 years ago from the holiday resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, where she was staying with her family. Her disappearance is still unsolved but Kate and Gerry still campaign for new information on their missing daughter. The McCanns spoke to the BBC’s Fiona Bruce in 2014, seven years after their daughter went missing, and discussed the advice they had been given by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which gave them hope for a “best scenario”.

Gerry said: “Very early on we got advice from NCMEC, saying that there a whole lot of reasons children get taken, that's the first thing.

“They’ve recovered hundreds of children in unusual circumstances.

“I suppose the scenario, and its not been ruled out, Madeleine was taken by someone who wanted a child and she’s being loved and cared for, that’s the best scenario, but of course there are many others.”

In Kate’s 2011 book, “Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her”, she also discussed the cases of recovered missing children that help her sustain hope.

She wrote: “There are many examples of abducted children being recovered years later.

“One of the most recent to hit the news, in China in February 2011, was that of six-year-old Peng Wenle, taken at three years of age, whose father had combed the country in search of him, putting posters and pleading with local police for help.

“With the assistance of a campaign on the internet and the Chinese version of Twitter, Peng Wenle was discovered begging on the streets.

“In January 2011, Carlina White, stolen from a hospital in Harlem, New York, as a baby in 1987, was reunited with her family after 23 years. She had been brought up by her female kidnapper and, suspicious of her history, had turned to the NCMEC for help.”

Kate also recounted some more famous examples of recovered missing children in the US.

She wrote: “Shawn Hornbook was abducted at the age of 10 and recovered four years later.

“Crystal Anzaldi was found seven years after being snatched at 14 months old.

“Steven Styner, kidnapped at seven, escaped from his abductor seven years later.

“Jaycee Lee Dugard spent 18 years with hers.”

Kate concludes: “How many more children are out there waiting to be found?”

On last month’s controversial Netflix documentary series “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann”, which was made without the involvement of the McCann family, experts spoke about the happily-resolved case of Jaycee Lee Dugard who was reunited with her family in 2009.

The case of Elizabeth Smart, the 14-year-old who was kidnapped at gunpoint in 2002, and who was recovered in 2003 after witness sightings were confirmed, was also featured.

Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, spoke in a TV interview about his conversation with Kate McCann.

He said: “I spoke with Kate, [and] she said to me that she’d had some dreams recently and she felt that Madeleine was there and she was going to come back.

“I told her that’s what I thought about Elizabeth.”

Speaking on the Netflix series, former CEO of NCMEC Ernie Allen added : "There are many, many cases we can point to in which children have been found, have come home alive, after months, after years.

“There have been cases in the US in which witnesses, people who have information, haven’t come forward for decades.”

Just last month, hopes were high that missing child Timmothy Pitzen, had been found, after a teenage boy was found wandering and agitated in a Kentucky town on April 3.

However, DNA tests later established that the boy was not in fact Timmothy, who remains missing after vanishing at the age of six in 2011.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1114935/madeleine-mccann-disappearance-netflix-documentary-kate-gerry-mccann-hope-will-found-spt
...................



Geeeez, how many more times is this tripe going to be regurgitated?

Still, it's only a matter of days before the next anniversary - I've lost count. I guess the tabloids will all be vying for pole position for first past the post with the latest exclusive.

Very loudly YAWN !!!

Madeleine McCann: How Gerry suggested what 'best scenario' would be after disappearance

MADELEINE MCCANN’s disappearance remains unsolved after the three-year-old went missing in Portugal in 2007 – however her father Gerry spoke of his hopes for the “best scenario” for his missing daughter in a 2014 interview.

By Anna Kretschmer

PUBLISHED: 10:25, Fri, Apr 19, 2019 | UPDATED: 10:31, Fri, Apr 19, 2019

Madeleine McCann disappeared at the age of three in 2007, when she was on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry, and siblings Sean and Amelie, in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The disappearance is still unsolved 12 years later but Kate and Gerry continue to campaign for awareness of their daughter’s plight in the hope of her safe return. On the seventh anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2014, Gerry McCann spoke about his hopes for the “best scenario” for his missing daughter.

He said: “Very early on we got advice from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), saying that there a whole lot of reasons children get taken, that's the first thing.

“They’ve recovered hundreds of children in unusual circumstances.

“I suppose the scenario, and it's not been ruled out, Madeleine was taken by someone who wanted a child and she’s being loved and cared for, that’s the best scenario, but of course there are many others.”

In the BBC interview, Fiona Bruce asked the couple: “You’ve talked about the young women that have been found, that went missing as girls and were found many years later.

“Sometimes they did have access to television, they did have access to newspapers and the internet but they couldn’t escape.

“It’s a long shot, but if Madeleine is alive, if she could hear you, what would you say to her?"

Kate replied: “We love you Madeleine, we miss you every day as we did that very first day.

“We’re waiting for you, we’re never going to give up.

“We’ll do whatever we can to find you.”

Kate wrote her own book in 2011, titled “Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her”, and spoke about cases of missing children who were later reunited with their families that give her hope that Madeleine will be safely returned home, too.

She wrote: “There are many examples of abducted children being recovered years later.”

Kate spoke of Carlina White, who had been lovingly brought up by her abductor, who stole her as a baby in 1987 from a hospital in New York.

Carlina was reunited with her family 23 years later in 2011 after she turned to the NCMEC for help.

Kate concluded: “How many more children are out there waiting to be found?”

The McCanns, in addition to campaigning for awareness of their daughter’s case, have also taken petitions to Brussels to help in establishing a Europe-wide missing child alert system.

Modelled on the US AMBER alert system, the AMBER Alert Europe scheme was introduced in 2013 and operates across 20 European countries including the UK.

Kate concluded: “How many more children are out there waiting to be found?”

The McCanns, in addition to campaigning for awareness of their daughter’s case, have also taken petitions to Brussels to help in establishing a Europe-wide missing child alert system.

Modelled on the US AMBER alert system, the AMBER Alert Europe scheme was introduced in 2013 and operates across 20 European countries including the UK.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1115418/madeleine-mccann-disappearance-netflix-documentary-kate-gerry-mccann-best-scenario-spt



What the friggin' heck has that got to do with anything? Oyling the wheels in preparation for the imminent anniversary per chance?

Or is the Express taking the wee-wee..

Madeleine McCann: How Gerry McCann 'became man POSSESSED' after daughter vanished

MADELEINE MCCANN’S father Gerry claimed he became “a man possessed” just days after his daughter went missing during their family holiday to Portugal.

By Callum Hoare
PUBLISHED: 13:45, Sun, Mar 24, 2019 | UPDATED: 13:50, Sun, Mar 24, 2019

Madeleine McCann disappeared on the evening of May 3, 2007, while on holiday with her family in the Algarve's Praia da Luz resort. The youngster vanished from Apartment 5A of the Ocean Beach complex while her parents enjoyed dinner just metres away. Last week, a controversial Netflix series was released attempting to shed some light on the 12-year-old case.

The eight-part series, titled “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann”, features original interviews given at the time Madeleine went missing as well as new accounts from those involved.

There is also an interview with Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swann, whose book: “Looking for Madeleine”, became a bestseller.

One chapter of their text gives a detailed account of how Gerry McCann had a “moment” that changed his whole perspective on the case.

It reads: "It was a visionary moment that transformed Gerry’s stance on the crisis.

While the couple were praying at the local church, he would recall: ‘I started thinking how I was feeling really very down and not sure which way to proceed.

“‘I had this mental image of being in a tunnel, and instead of the light at the end of the tunnel being an extremely narrow and a distant spot, the light opened up and the tunnel got wider.’”

The book went on to explain how the experience helped spur Gerry on to find his daughter, instead of waiting for help.

It detailed: “‘It was almost like something – and I am not saying it was the Holy Spirit – came into me and gave me that image.

I became a man possessed that night

Gerry McCann

“‘I can’t say it was a vision because I am not clear what a vision is.

“‘But I had a mental image and it certainly helped me decide.

“‘I became a man possessed that night and the next day I was up at dawn making phone calls.’”

The same book also details some of the emotions that Kate McCann experienced on the night her daughter went missing.

It reads: “At Apartment 5A, the McCanns’ emotions were spiralling out of control.

“Kate and Gerry were both, Rachel Oldfield recalled, ‘pretty much most of the night hysterical and screaming, it was awful.’

“Fiona Payne, who is a hospital anaesthetist, said of Kate: ‘I’ve never seen such horrible raw emotion in my life.

“‘She was just bereft, extremely frightened for Madeleine.’”

Despite the coverage the new Netflix series has received, Kate and Gerry McCann do not support its release.

A statement on behalf of the couple argues that the show could hinder police investigations.

It reads: "We did not see – and still do not see – how this programme will help the search for Madeleine and, particularly given there is an active police investigation, it could potentially hinder it.

"Consequently, our views and preferences are not reflected in the programme.

"We will not be making any further statements or giving interviews regarding this programme."

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1103886/madeleine-mccann-disappearance-gerry-mccann-possessed-spt

Lest they forget..

Thank you Sharon - I might have missed this..

DESPERATE HUNT Sister’s plea to find missing Brit DJ ‘who fell overboard Ibiza ferry’ as Madeleine McCann media guru drafted in to help

Brit Rem Kingston, who was last seen five weeks ago, is believed to have jumped overboard into Spanish waters.

Exclusive
By Danny De Vaal and Tracey Kandohla

25th April 2019, 5:52 pm
Updated: 26th April 2019, 8:01 am

THE family of a missing DJ believe he is still alive and have turned to Madeleine McCann’s parents’ PR guru to highlight their desperate hunt to find him.

Brit Rem Kingston, who was last seen five weeks ago, is believed to have jumped overboard into Spanish waters.

But his parents and sister are not convinced and say the paranoia-suffering 31-year-old, who at times gets scared of people, could easily have gone into hiding on the ferry and then disembarked in Majorca.

There have been several possible sightings of Kingston over the past month.

His anguished sister Megan Kingston said: “We have a strong hope and belief that he is still out there waiting to be found.

"He had everything to live for. He had a beautiful girlfriend and they had plans for the future and to work together."

In a heartfelt message to her older brother she pleads: “Rem, just let us know you’re safe and OK and we can get you some help.

"We all love you and miss you so much. You are my amazing brother."

Megan last saw her only sibling during a family party in March to celebrate her 29th birthday at a restaurant in their home town of Billericay, Essex.

She recalled: “I said to my partner ‘I’m not too sure how Rem’s going to be' but he was really happy and on good form."
HOLDING OUT HOPE

As her mum Melanie Kingston and step dad Jamie Ward are out in Majorca co-ordinating £500-per-hour helicopter searches for Rem, Megan has instructed Clarence Mitchell, the well known spokesperson for missing Maddie’s family, to help them.

The former BBC journalist turned PR supremo has told the family that publicity is paramount and is now organising a press conference for Rem’s loved ones to make an appeal.

Megan said: “We never thought we’d be in this situation but having this focus and daily determination for Rem’s safety keeps me going. It only needs one person to recognise my brother’s face.

"We need to get my fun loving, beloved brother back home."

Clarence, who has been helping Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry keep their daughter’s disappearance in the global spotlight as they face the 12th anniversary without her next week.

He told The Sun Online “This is another desperate family who approached me for help. Rem’s family are absolutely convinced he is still alive and they want to make sure people are still aware of him and they are doing their utmost to find him.”

He added: “They will not give up searching and they want to bring him home.”

The family has also been seeking guidance from charity Missing People, for which Kate is a high profile ambassador.

Rem, described by his sister as “a people’s person, very much loved and with friends globally”, is believed to be on holiday isles Majorca or Ibiza - where he has spend past seasons working as a DJ - or in mainland Spain.
APPEAL FOR INFORMATION

But since his disappearance when he was carrying a wallet with €200 in cash, credit cards and a mobile phone, there has been no contact.

His heartbroken family are urging anyone who sees Rem or has any information about him: “Please contact your local police immediately.”

His mum and step dad have funded privately and through some donations their seventh sea helicopter search in a month in their frantic bid to find him.

Rem, who used to work in his family’s successful recruitment agency business in Billericay, moved to Luxembourg in autumn last year to be with his partner Natacha (crct) De Silva, 37.

After celebrating his sister’s birthday in the UK he and his mum travelled to Malaga to pick up a new car to take to their holiday home in Santa Ponca, Majorca.

Rem was last seen at 5am on March 22 after boarding Balearia ferry Hypatia de Alejandria.

Megan explained, in her first exclusive interview with The Sun Online, that her brother, who suffers mental health issues and has a borderline personality disorder sometimes gets confused and stressed.

But she said: “We are 100 per cent sure he was not suicidal at the time he disappeared, he would not have jumped from the ship, bless him, he wouldn't have been courageous enough too.

He may have been in a paranoid state and in his non rational mind felt the need to hide. He sometimes becomes fearful and distrusting of people.”

Megan, a manager at the family business, said: “Mum was with him on the ferry, his suitcase with his passport was in the cabin and he went off to reception to get a new remote control for the TV.

He told mum ‘I’ll be back soon.’ He never returned."
PUBLIC SUPPORT

Spanish authorities carried out a two day sea and air search for the missing passenger but to no avail. Today, he is sadly still missing despite several possible recent sightings.

His family started their own hunt from their pocket and with public donations on a Just Giving page which has so far raised £8,100 of the £10,000 target.

Megan said: “We’ve tried sea searches and now we’re concentrating on land.It’s painstaking but we’re doing everything possible.

"We’re trying to stay strong. Everyone is behind us - the support back home is keeping us going.

“Rem was at a phase of life where everything was going for him. He had travelled to the Isle of Wight shortly before he went missing to look into undertaking a Yacht Master Commercial Skipper course.

"He was working towards him and Natcha working on flotilla yachts in the Mediterranean, Rem as the Skipper and Natacha as the house-keeper looking after guests.

"With Rem’s skipper course and Natacha’s background in nursing and fluency in five languages they were set to be successful in this dream."

She told how her brother, who also had a spell living in Australia, had "travelled, DJ-ed, hosted parties and run comedy nights for the enjoyment of others.

"He has a pure heart and soul and I really hope we can all drop whatever mundane thing we are moaning about or not appreciating and just take a pinch of that warmth and club together to support him back and bring him home.”

The UK Foreign Office said: "We are assisting the family of a British man who has been reported missing at sea in Mallorca,and are in contact with the Spanish police.”

Spanish authorities are still helping if an alert should be issued.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8939520/sisters-plea-missing-brit-media-guru/

Good old Auntie Phil - what a pity they shut her up. She was great for putting foot in mouth -

Irish Times May 19th 2007 ( Mary Fitzgerald, Irish Times in P da L)

"Madeleine's aunt, Donegal-born Philomena McCann, told The Irish Times the blanket coverage had also been something of a consolation for the family. "We have courted the media and in many ways the huge coverage is a comfort for us," she said. "The media is wholeheartedly supporting us, as well as helping to get Madeleine's face out there." 

Apparently there is a new documentary (advertised as new duuno if it is?) on Quest Red TV - Sky channel 149 at 11pm tonight

Brookers wrote:Apparently there is a new documentary (advertised as new duuno if it is?) on Quest Red TV - Sky channel 149 at 11pm tonight

It's channel number 38 on Freeview. I've just watched a trailer. It's hyped up American style.

Am only 10 mins in and already it is a load of B××××cks as expected

I'm ten minutes into this American trash. Colin Sutton and Mark  Williams-Thomas, a wooden floor in apartment 5A which has been described as a 'cottage', the Tapas Bar resembling something Italian and Kate shown in a flowing off-the-shoulder frock.

Shocking. This is the life and death of a little girl.

Brookers wrote:Am only 10 mins in and already it is a load of B××××cks as expected

I posted at the same time as you Brookers. It's just awful.

Summers and Swan are centre stage.

Apparently Goncalo Amaral speaks to the McCanns and the Tapas 7!!!

What is the life of a little girl worth to the media?

I don't think I can watch anymore of this garbage

Am off to watch the Geographical channel