Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

Talking of dishonest journalists - well ex-journalist in this case..

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell says Madeleine WAS abducted by a stranger but he has not given up hope that she could still be alive

Clarence Mitchell, 57, said 'a child was taken to order from that room'
He said he and Madeleine's parents believe the lack of evidence she was harmed, and previous cases of missing children's reappearance, gives them hope
He continues to hope the entire case will end happily with a single phone call
Three-year-old Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal's Praia da Luz in May 2007 while her parents were dining in a nearby tapas restaurant

By Joel Adams For Mailonline

Published: 17:08 BST, 26 March 2019 | Updated: 01:34 BST, 27 March 2019

Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman has said he is convinced their missing daughter Madeleine was abducted by a stranger.

Former journalist Clarence Mitchell, 57, who has acted for the family since the time of Madeleine's disappearance in 2007, said: 'A child was taken to order from that room.'

With the case once again making headlines following the launch of a new Netflix documentary earlier this month, Mr Mitchell told the Daily Telegraph he and the McCanns remain hopeful that one day despite the odds, Madeleine will be found alive.

He he hopes the mystery 'could all end on one phone call tomorrow', adding 'so far, it hasn’t.'

He said: 'I asked the British authorities what they think happened and if there was any family involvement, and they assured me it was just a rare case of stranger abduction.


McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said he continues to hope Madeleine will be found alive

'It’s very rare, but it can happen.'

Mr Mitchell said that a 'sexual motive' is an 'obvious' possibility.

He said Madeleine's parents remain hopeful that as in 'other cases, where a missing child has been found alive after many years' all hope is not lost for their little girl.

That, and 'the complete absence of any evidence that Madeleine has been physically harmed,' feeds their hopes that their eldest daughter may still be alive.

Mr Mitchell was sent to Portugal in 2007 as the case was breaking, to work with his colleagues in British government media relations, but quickly switched to handling Kate and Gerry's media dealings.

And he said the couple's stoicism in front of the cameras - which was interpreted as heartlessness by some - followed police advice that in paedophilic kidnappings sometimes the abductor derives pleasure from seeing the parents upset; so the pair were told to control their emotions.

He said he understood the misinterpretation, saying: 'For someone who does not know that, they might think it looks a bit suspicious. It is almost like the public were expecting the parents to react in a certain way.'

Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal's Praia da Luz in May 2007 while her parents were dining with pals in a nearby tapas restaurant.

She had been left sleeping alone with her younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie with regular half hourly checks being made on the children.

Her parents cling onto a glimmer of hope their eldest child could still be found alive. She would now be aged 15, nearly 16.

It comes as the controversial new Netflix documentary - an eight-part series called 'The Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann' - claims Madeleine McCann might still be alive and could be being held by people traffickers - 12 years after she disappeared.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6852393/McCann-family-spokesman-Clarence-Mitchell-says-Madeleine-abducted-stranger.html

I wonder if Blair taught Clarrie to lie or the other way around,both of
them would win oscars for the art of telling lies.

This is not worth it's own space on the video of the day thread, so I'll stick it here pending the garbage collection..

Can't watch or listen to him,to borrow one from Hilary he is a 
deplorable.

Lorraine.......is she in the know or just stupid?

Cmaryholmes wrote:Lorraine.......is she in the know or just stupid?

Yes.

Piers Morgan paid tribute to her fluffiness recently. What does that say?

aquila wrote:Piers Morgan paid tribute to her fluffiness recently. What does that say?

An intelligent woman should be outraged by his patronising attitude.   No doubt she'll give him a blasting. Don't hold your breath, folks...

'Old yer 'orses - the errant stenographer extraordinaire is back in action..

Help find other children pleads Madeleine's mum

KATE McCann is urging the public to join in a campaign today to help find missing youngsters like her daughter Madeleine. The former GP is an ambassador for Missing People, the charity behind the annual Big Tweet event.

By Tracey Kandohla

PUBLISHED: 09:02, Fri, May 24, 2019 | UPDATED: 09:20, Fri, May 24, 2019

For the whole of today supporters will be tweeting an appeal every 30 minutes for a missing child. Kate, 51, is asking people everywhere to show their support by re-tweeting those alerts. She said: "The more of us who take part today, the greater the chance a child can be found. It's that simple." Three-year-old Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal's Praia da Luz in May 2007.

The official Find Madeleine campaign website, run by a close friend, is now appealing for all missing children to be remembered.

It says: "Once again, we will be participating in the Big Tweet on May 24. With every hour that passes, 24 more children are reported missing in the UK. As you read this, there are missing children who are alone, and vulnerable to harm and exploitation.

"You can help bring these children home by sharing appeals with your Facebook friends. The more people see the faces of these children, the more likely we are to find them and bring them home. Join Team Big Tweet today and help #FINDEVERYCHILD."

Glenys Gosden, whose son Andrew vanished aged 14 in 2007 - the same year as Madeleine - said: "Andrew going missing has had a profound effect, as I am sure all the families in our position would say. Your life seems to be split. It is like it is on two levels.

Sadness "On one level, you are functioning in your everyday life. On another, it feels as if you are stuck and just can't move on. And the sadness is always there."

During today's campaign, Missing People will tweet 24 appeals for lost children over 12 hours from Twitter HQ in London and encourage members of the public to join in to "increase the reach of the appeals to communities across the country."

The Big Tweet precedes International Missing Children's day which is tomorrow.

Jo Youle, CEO of Missing People, said: "By working together with our wonderful partners, we are aiming to make this a record year for The Big Tweet and Find Every Child Week. We are hoping that it will make a real difference to the lives of people who are missing and their families."

Three weeks ago Kate joined a church vigil to remember her daughter 12 years after she went missing as Portuguese police revealed they could be closing in on her kidnapper.

Kate and her 14-year-old twins Sean and Amelie were at the prayer service in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire, without her heart doctor husband Gerry, 50, who was working in Italy.

The couple cling to hope that Madeleine - who would now be aged 16 - could still be alive.

In a posting on the Find Madeleine website the couple vowed to carry on looking for their daughter "for as long as it takes".

Kate and Gerry told earlier this month how the fact that the police hunt to find their daughter continues brings them "comfort and reassurance" .

To mark their daughter's 16th birthday a fortnight ago they posted: "We love you and we're waiting for you and we're never going to give up."

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1131454/madeleine-mccann-missing-children-campaign

Madeleine McCann 'wandered off before disappearance’ – top Brit detective on theory

MADELEINE McCann could have wandered off before coming to harm on the night of her disappearance, a top detective has argued.

By Tom Towers / Published 25th May 2019


Jim Gamble was the UK’s most senior child protection police officer and heavily involved in the initial search for Maddie. 

The tragic three-year-old disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of May 3, 2007.

British and Portuguese police afterwards launched an enormous operation, but the desperate hunt continues 12 years later. 

One of the theories put forward is that Madeleine woke up and walked out of the property – reportedly probed by UK and Portuguese police last year.

Despite a backlash from parents Kate and Gerry, Mr Gamble believes the hypothesis has potential. 

He told Daily Star Online: “What we do know is, Madeleine is missing.

“Either someone took her – could be anyone – or in fact she wandered out that night, came to harm and her body has never been discovered.

“You’ve got to consider the hypothesis that in fact she was taken

Kate and Gerry attacked the theory after the line of inquiry was pursued. 

A family source said: "Kate and Gerry have always maintained that their daughter was abducted and simply didn’t get up and wander off to her fate.

"To suggest this is almost ridiculous.

"There were heavy shutters which would have been impossible for a small child to open."

Cops are still trying to trace 13 suspects seen acting suspiciously in and around the resort before Madeleine’s disappearance.

Jim Gamble wrote: “Either someone took her – could be anyone – or in fact she wandered out that night”

Despite high profile police appeals and the release of a series of sketches and e-fits in the 12 years since, none have come forward.

One suspect is feared to have carried out up to 28 sex attacks on other children within a 40-mile radius of the apartment from which then-three-year-old Madeleine went missing.

Wearing a surgical mask, he got into bed with a seven-year-old British girl but fled when she woke up and asked: “Is that you daddy?’’

Another was chased from a holiday apartment after a horrified mum caught him standing over her young daughter.

A Met Police spokesman said: "The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remains ongoing. We are not providing a running commentary."

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/780749/madeleine-mccain-2019-disappearance-news-missing-parents-wandered-off-theory
...................

Kandohla is to Olive as Towers is to Popeye.

Didn't he report this same rubbish some days ago?

So the intelligent tabloid #makesyerfinkdunnit runs the same story with a touch of poetic licence..

Madeleine McCann 'could have wandered off before disappearance,' top police officer says

Madeleine McCann vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of May 3, 2007

Bradley Jolly:  22:42, 26 MAY 2019

Madeleine McCann "could have wandered off" before her disappearance , a top detective has today claimed.

Jim Gamble, who was the UK’s most senior child protection police officer when Maddie vanished, has argued the youngster might not have been kidnapped from her room after all.

"Either someone took her – could be anyone – or in fact she wandered out that night, came to harm and her body has never been discovered.

"You’ve got to consider the hypothesis that in fact she was taken," Mr Gamble, who was heavily involved in the initial search, said.

He told Daily Star Online : "What we do know is, Madeleine is missing."

It is understood the girl's family do not support this argument.

The family source said: "Kate and Gerry have always maintained that their daughter was abducted and simply didn’t get up and wander off to her fate.

"To suggest this is almost ridiculous. There were heavy shutters which would have been impossible for a small child to open."

Madeleine was three when she went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of May 3, 2007.

And Operation Grange — the Met Police’s probe into her 2007 disappearance — has recently discussed a new theory with Portuguese police.

A source in Portugal said: "A meeting took place recently at the HQ of the General Attorney’s Office, which was attended by the prosecutor from Portimao who is in charge of the Portuguese inquiry.

"One of the lines of investigation that continues to be pursued is that Maddie could have walked out of the holiday flat herself."

So far £11.6million has been spent on the search, with a further £150,000 released by the Home Office this year.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-could-wandered-before-16206719

'Irreplaceable' Maddy photos stolen from father      

By Richard Edwards in Praia da Luz - 2:50PM BST 20th June 2007

Gerry McCann had his wallet stolen during a brief trip to London, losing two "irreplaceable" photos of his missing daughter, it emerged today.



Mr McCann was returning to Britain for only the second time since Madeleine was abducted, 49 days ago, to attend a series of meetings about his global campaign to find the four-year-old.

Around an hour after landing at Gatwick Airport, on his way to the meetings in central London, his wallet was stolen from his backpocket at a cashpoint at Waterloo station.

Inside were two "treasured" photos he has kept on him throughout the ordeal and not released to the media.

One picture is said to show Madeleine at 15-months-old while the other was taken in church more recently.

Susan Healey, the mother of Mrs McCann, said it was "yet another kick in the teeth".

She added: “It contained precious photographs which have now been lost forever.”

Philomena McCann, his sister, said that after all the goodwill directed towards Mr McCann and his family in Portugal, the theft in London was a "demoralising" sign of the times.

She explained that Mr McCann, who is due to return to Portugal tonight, had taken £100 out of an ATM and had the wallet snatched from his back pocket.

The 48-year-old teacher from Glasgow said: "There were two pictures, special ones that Gerry always kept with him, showing Madeleine and the wens. They were his favourites, really treasured pictures. They are irreplaceable.

"He bent down to put something in his rucksack and some dirty animal had the wallet out of his back pocket.

"We don’t care about the money, but we do care about getting the pictures back."

She added: "How can you do that to someone who’s been through what he has? He’s already demoralised enough and to be put on the back foot like this, you can’t believe some people can stoop so low.

"The whole family have been overwhelmed by the support and affection from all around the world, but it takes just one rotten article to bring you down. How can you be so selfish?

"I hope whoever took the wallet is so ashamed when they realise what they’ve just done that they get those pictures back to us as soon as possible.

"He’s desperate to get them back because they’re precious to him.

"They can contact any member of the family, or go through the website, hand it in to a police station, anything. We just want them back as soon as possible."

In an eventful trip, it emerged that Mr McCann, a cardiologist, had also come to the assistance of a stricken passenger during the inward EasyJet flight from Faro to Gatwick Airport yesterday morning.

He wrote on his blog on the official findmadeleine.com website: "I flew in to London to for a series of meetings. Helped a passenger on the flight who collapsed.

"He was ill enough to require a full assessment on arrival and went off to hospital in an ambulance."

Philomena said: "He told me he’d been called into action on the flight over but he didn’t give me any details.

"In a situation like that, you just go into your natural modus operandi and help.

"It’s what you’re trained to do, it’s who you are. He didn’t make a big deal out of it because it’s the kind of thing that he does all the time at work."

Mr McCann left behind his wife Kate and their twins, Sean and Amelie, to make the trip in which he attended a series of meetings about the Madeleine campaign and interviewed candidates for the role of campaign manager.

Writing in his blog, he said: "The role for Kate and I in the campaign will not be nearly be so public. We have to balance any campaigning in the search for Madeleine with protecting Sean and Amelie and making sure their privacy is protected."

Mr McCann is still working to a punishing schedule behind the scenes, organising events, writing the daily blog and reading through hundreds of letters still being sent to the family in Praia da Luz every week.

A main event is planned for Friday, to mark the 50th day since Madeleine has been missing. The family have organised for 50 green and yellow balloons to be released in more than 50 countries.

A spokesperson for EasyJet said Mr McCann saw an elderly gentleman faint midway through the flight and went to his assistance.

She said: "Mr McCann saw it happen and volunteered to help. He gave the cabin crew advice on what to do and helped them administer oxygen. We would like to pass on our thanks to Mr McCann for his help."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1555098/Irreplaceable-Maddy-photos-stolen-from-father.html

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14941p50-gerry-mccann-s-blog-highlights#402829

It seems the whole family are deceitful,they don't have a conscience
between them.

These police e-fits are so rubbish it’s amazing they catch anyone

8. The famous case of missing Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from her holiday apartment in Portugal, is no laughing matter. But local cops thought this sketch of a faceless man might help in the early days of their investigation. It didn’t…


Blank faces all round: police still have no clues to Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance

https://smashinglife.co.uk/10-rubbish-police-e-fits/

Local cops thought no such thing. Eggman was the product of the scrambled head of Ms Jane Tanner.

The search for Madeleine: a week of hope and heartbreak

Last updated at 14:13 10 May 2007

Within hours of Madeleine McCann going missing, her grinning face was peering out from television broadcasts across the country.

Her family and friends quickly knocked down suggestions by resort staff that the little girl could have wandered off, saying from the outset that she was snatched from her bed during an idyllic holiday in the Algarve village of Praia Da Luz.

Known by friends to be protective parents who idolised their children, 38-year-old doctors Gerry and Kate McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, had been eating at the Ocean Club's tapas restaurant on Thursday night just yards away.

They were checking on Madeleine and their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, every half hour.

At around 10pm, Kate McCann emerged screaming from the room having found the shutters pulled up and the window and door open, beginning what would be every parent's nightmare.

Staff and guests joined in the search, and the local police - the National Republican Guard - arrived within 10 minutes, launching a sniffer dog search and notifying border police, Spanish police and airports.

The Judicial Police - the Portuguese CID equivalent - arrived in force the next morning, sparking criticism from British talking heads in interviews that the "golden hour" opportunity to find Madeleine had been missed.

As the media descended on the seaside resort, questions about their handling of the case grew as it became apparent that they would not divulge any details about possible suspects or lines of inquiry.

In the UK, police would use the child rescue alert, established after the murder of Sarah Payne, asking television and radio to broadcast a description of the child, what they were last wearing and any details of a suspect or their vehicle.

In Portugal, the integrity of the investigation is tantamount and public appeals are considered to give criminals clues as to the direction police are taking.

As a result, it was Madeleine's parents who issued the first photographs and footage of their daughter, and they who made the first public appeal for information.

Later, they would be the ones to detail the clothes their daughter was wearing when she vanished: white pyjama bottoms with a small floral design and a short-sleeved pink top with a picture of Eeyore on it.

In one photograph released, taken while on holiday, Madeline wears a pink hat and grins up at the camera, clutching tennis balls to her chest. In another, she is cradled by her mother as she blows out birthday candles on a homemade cake. In another black and white shot, she sits surrounded by her mother, father, brother and sister: the picture of a perfect happy family.

Facing the cameras on Friday night, Madeleine's father and consultant cardiologist Gerry McCann, his voice cracking with emotion, issued a personal appeal to anyone holding his daughter captive to release her.

He said: "We can't describe the anguish and despair we are feeling as parents of our beautiful daughter Madeleine.

"Please, if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister."

By this time police had begun dusting window shutters for finger prints and had sealed off the apartment, but again their methods drew criticism from British experts.

Sniffer dogs are thought to have followed Madeleine's scent to a supermarket 50 yards away but the trail went cold and the store's CCTV cameras showed no sign of the girl.

Using a map provided by the local mayor and aided by extra maps downloaded from the internet, around 800 people took part searching an area from the resort to the next village of Quatro Estradas around three miles away.

The search was extended to six miles, and television footage showed groups scouring the beach and the hillsides and derelict buildings around the village.

One of the search coordinators, local resident Dave Shelton, defended the police, saying: "The police were great. You have to remember that the population of Portugal is about the same as London. They have shipped them down from Lisbon, from everywhere."

The next morning, detectives broke their silence to confirm what everyone had dreaded but come to expect: that Madeleine had been abducted.

They also brought some hope however, saying they believed she was still alive and not far from Praia Da Luz.

Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the Judicial Police in the Faro region, said calls had flooded in from all over Portugal with possible sightings, and made clear police were considering the possibility that she was abducted for sexual abuse.



Again, there was frustration that no details of a rumoured suspect were released, nor was a sketch of a suspect put together by experts - later said by people shown it to be featureless and look "like an egg with hair".

Speaking this morning on BBC Breakfast, Portuguese Ambassador to Britain Anton Santana Carlos acknowledged the release of e-fits could help trap a suspect, but added of the Portuguese police laws: "It's not a mirror wall that can be changed from one day to the other, this principle is enshrined in our constitution so we cannot change it easily."

As the search continued, tormenting reports of sightings filtered out.

Local expatriates spotted a young girl was spotted walking along a road in the nearby town with two people; a balding man was seen dragging a girl towards a marina in the nearby town of Lagos; another man was seen driving away from a central Portuguese village at speed; a tourist reported how, two weeks earlier, she saw a man trying to steal a pushchair at the resort itself.

With each, the watching world held its breath, only for another red herring to be confirmed.

Gerry McCann and his wife Kate, clutching Madeleine's pink cuddly toy kitten, emerged to make another statement. While careful to thank police for their efforts, they said they were glad to have Leicester Police family liaison officers helping them find out more, even though there was little more to know.

Mrs McCann made her first direct appeal to her daughter's captor, standing on the steps of a local church where she attended a Portuguese Mother's Day ceremony.

"Please continue to pray for Madeleine," she said, whispering afterwards: "She's lovely."

Later she appealed directly to whoever is holding her daughter. "Please, please, do not hurt her. Please do not scare her, please let us know where to find Madeleine or put her in place of safety and tell somebody where. We beg you to let Madeleine come home."

She added in Portuguese: "Por favor, devolva a nossa menina."

Police sources claimed detectives were now looking for a British, rather than Portuguese abductor, pointing to a working description detectives are using suggested someone of English appearance.

Local media suggested British authorities had provided details of British paedophiles with links to the Algarve.

Meanwhile police showed their frustration with the constant questions in another press conference in which they admitted they no longer knew if the Madeleine was alive or not.

Responding to another question, Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa said: "We are searching for the child until the moment she appears. We can say nothing more because we are not magicians."

By the end of the weekend, Interpol and Europol were involved and British offers of help were accepted. Two Cracker-style British criminal behavioural experts from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) - which tackles international child sex abuse - began work today.

Police, perhaps relenting to intense media interest, revealed they had received hundreds of calls from both Portuguese people and foreigners, interviewed more than 100 people, followed up 350 separate suspicious incidents, inspected 500 apartments in the holiday area and scoured fields across a nine-mile area.

Crimestoppers has set up a special number for information about Madeleine, which will be relayed to the Portuguese police by the Leicestershire force, and Ceop together with the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) launched a web appeal.

Footballers Cristiano Ronaldo, John Terry and Paulo Ferreira added their voices to calls for Madeleine to be freed. Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman confirmed he too was waiting anxiously for news.

A,n email address set up yesterday afternoon for the family by Ocean Club owners, holiday firm Mark Warner, received 400 messages by mid-morning today from 20 countries, including Zambia, the United States and Bahrain.

And Gerry and Kate McCann wait and pray, maintaining a brave face for their children and hoping their daughter will be found before she turns four on Saturday.

Their ordeal with either end with joy or the unthinkable - and clues as to which it will be prove frustratingly elusive.

• Messages for the McCanns can be sent to mccannfamily@markwarner.co.uk

• The Crimestoppers number for those calling from Portugal is 0044 1883 731 336 or information can be passed direct to the Portuguese police on 00 351 282 405 400.

• The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and Virtual Global Taskforce appeal is at www.ceop.gov.uk and www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-453948/The-search-Madeleine-week-hope-heartbreak.html
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Only seven days after the event.  Still, why allow truth to stand in the way of a good story.

BBC reporter claims he was offered exclusive access to Madeleine’s family if he spied on press pack for the McCanns

• Ten years ago today Maddie McCann vanished from apartment on Praia de Luz  
  
• Richard Bilton claims McCanns' investigators offered him 'exclusive inside track' 
  
• Claims they wanted him to spy on press pack opinion on 'arguido' Robert Murat
  
• Murat, who said accusation destroyed his life, was 'incredibly angry' at the offer
  
  

By James Dunn For Mailonline
Published: 23:45, 3 May 2017 | Updated: 11:31, 4 May 2017



A BBC reporter claims he was offered exclusive access to the McCanns' team if he agreed to spy on the press pack for their investigators.

Richard Bilton, who covered the disappearance in 2007, said investigators hired by the family offered him the deal because they wanted information on a suspect.

They asked him to find out what other journalists were saying about Robert Murat, who was later cleared by police but since said the accusation alone 'destroyed my life'.

Speaking on Madeleine McCann: 10 Years On, Mr Bilton asked Mr Murat how he felt about the offer for an 'exclusive inside track' he said was made to him.

'That would make me incredibly angry because again you have taken the focus away from trying to get to the bottom of this and what actually happened and trying to put the focus on someone else,' Mr Murat replied.

And 10 years ago, Mr Murat was the first person to be made an 'arguido' - a suspect - in the case after Madeleine disappeared from her parents' apartment in Praia da Luz.

He claims his mother felt she was being followed and put under surveillance as Mr Bilton talked about the private investigators the McCanns hired when the Portuguese police ceased their investigation.

Speaking of how his life had been affected, he told the BBC: 'The internet is full of theories – I want to know the truth, not theories.

'I just want to know why that was the case. It didn’t only lead to me being destroyed, it led to my whole family being destroyed, affected by those allegations. It was completely untrue.'

His mother has also spoken for the first time since the disappearance, today revealing that she saw a 'British looking' man in a car driving towards the apartment on that night.


The investigators asked him to find out what other journalists were saying about Robert Murat (pictured), who was cleared by police but since said the accusation alone 'destroyed my life'


Jenny Murat also claims there was a man waiting outside the apartment - which she lives 100 yards away from - and he tried to hide from her when she spotted him.
 
Also in the documentary, Portuguese police said Scotland Yard's £11million investigation into the disappearance has been a 'waste of money' in yet another rift.

Ten years to the day since Maddie vanished, Carlos Anjos, the former head of the country's Policia Judiciaria officers' union, said the Met's theory that Madeleine was taken in a botched burglary is 'absurd'.

And the detective leading the case, Pedro do Carma, says British police made four local men in Praia du Luz suspects for three years when they obviously had nothing to do with the abduction.

Scotland Yard is still chasing a critical lead it believes could crack the case and it is understood they have returned to a theory that burglars were involved.

But the Portuguese police, who have previously accused the British of acting like a 'colonial power' in their country, say there is no evidence to back this up.

Mr Anjos, who accused Gerry and Kate McCann of hampering the abduction investigation in 2007, said: 'This burglary theory is absurd. Not even a wallet disappeared, nothing else disappeared. A child disappeared.'

It came as the four men questioned over her disappearance in 2014 and still living in Praia Da Luz were told last week they have no case to answer.

One of them,  Paulo Ribeiro, told the BBC's Panorama: 'I thought it was incredible. I knew of nothing when the police arrived at my door with a piece of paper that had a drawing on it, saying it bore a likeness to me and that someone had said I was involved and that I looked like the person who had kidnapped Maddie. I don't know who that person was.'

There are not believed to be any others with 'arguido' status - the Portuguese term for a formal suspect in a crime.
 
Pedro do Carma, deputy director of the Policia Judiciaria, told Panorama these men should not have been made suspects.
But he also suggested that Kate and Gerry McCann should never have been suspects in 2007 either.

He said of the four men: 'I can only say that we questioned those people on request of the Metropolitan Police and only based on the request of the Metropolitan Police.

'We never questioned those people. We never saw or looked at those people as suspects of the crime.'

Today family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the McCanns still believe their daughter is out there.

He said: 'There are only two or three people on the planet who know what happened to Madeleine. There is no evidence to suggest that she came to physical harm so it is logical to believe she is still alive and still out there. Of course we remain hopeful'.

Madeleine McCann's parents claimed Portuguese police treated them inhumanely from the start of the investigation into their daughter's disappearance, according to a secret report leaked yesterday.

Pedro do Carma wrote:McCanns were not suspects ....

The Home Office document reveals they also later fell out with British officers and did not share 'a large amount of information' gathered by their own private investigators.

The 'turbulent relationship' between Madeleine's parents and detectives in both Portugal and the UK hampered the hunt for the three-year-old who vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007.

Passages from the secret report – ordered by then home secretary Alan Johnson in 2009 – emerged as Gerry and Kate McCann mark the tenth anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance today.

It says: 'It is clear that from the beginning the McCanns felt there was a lack of clarity and communication on the part of the Portuguese police.

Despite the involvement of British consular staff, they were, by their own accounts, left for long periods without any updates or communication with the investigators.

'They state they were taken to the police station on more than one occasion and then left for hours waiting to speak to someone who never materialised.

'They describe this situation as inhumane, with no real consideration for their emotional and physical wellbeing.'

It was written by the Child Exploitation And Online Protection Centre for the Home Office to establish if it was worth getting Scotland Yard to review the case.

 Report author Jim Gamble, former head of CEOP, said that 'frequent criticism of the Portuguese investigation led to accusations the UK was acting like 'a colonial power'.'

The intervention of British detectives also created a sense of 'frustration' and 'resentment' among Portuguese officers, he found, and the decision to put Leicestershire Police in charge of the operation was a mistake because the force was ill-equipped to deal with such a big investigation.

His report states: 'The McCanns have had a turbulent relationship with both Portuguese and UK law enforcement. They now openly acknowledge there is a distinct lack of trust between all parties.'

Madeleine, who would now be 13, vanished from the family's holiday apartment as her parents dined yards away with friends.

Even before the end of the original Portuguese investigation, Mr and Mrs McCann used money collected by fundraisers to hire private investigators, and continued to use them for the three years before Scotland Yard got involved in 2011.

The report, unearthed by Sky News, concluded: 'It is clear that the McCanns and the private investigators working on their behalf have gathered a large amount of information during the course of their inquiries.

'This information does not appear to have been shared fully with the Leicestershire constabulary or Portuguese authorities.'
Kate and Gerry McCann will tonight join villagers, family and friends to pray for their daughter on the 'unwanted' heart wrenching 10th anniversary of her disappearance.

Kate and Gerry will gather at their local Anglican parish church in Rothley, Leics, to mark the milestone occasion. They are relying on their faith, pals, relatives and well wishers to help them through the painful anniversary, which Kate describes as 'a horrible marker of stolen time.'

Maddie's great aunt and uncle Janet and Brian Kennedy will take part in the special service at St Mary and St John Church.
The McCann's close friends Fiona and David Payne, who joined them for the fateful holiday to Portugal's Praia da Luz in May 2007 from where Maddie was snatched, are expected to be among supporters.

As devout Catholics Kate and Gerry remember their daughter at the large imposing 14th century church, 1,617 miles away in the pretty seaside resort of Luz locals will be praying for Maddie too.

Villagers will gather at the tiny whitewashed Nossa Senhora da Luz – Our Lady of Light Church – which became the couple's 'sanctuary' in the three months after their daughter vanished.

Kate and Gerry prayed most days during their extended stay in the Algarve as they frantically searched for their daughter. They were even handed a set of keys by the priest so they could worship in the peace of the night whenever needed.

Cruelly, their tormentor ex Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral insisted in a TV interview on Monday that Maddie's body had been hidden in a dead woman's coffin and cremated – a claim their spokesman Clarence Mitchell dismisses as 'so insane it is almost laughable.'

In Liverpool, where Kate hails from and her parents Susan and Brian Healy live, prayers will also be said.

Three-year-old Maddie was discovered missing from her bed in the rented apartment by her horrified mum shortly after 10pm on May 03, 2007. She had been left alone with younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie while her parents were dining in the nearby Tapas restaurant with their seven pals.

Tonight former GP and now medical worker Kate, 49, and eminent heart doctor Gerry, 48, will pray for their eldest child they believe could still be alive.

They have not yet decided if the event will be too traumatic for their 12-year-old twins, who they try to keep out of the spotlight, to attend. Kate's uncle Brian said: 'There will be a little programme at the parish church. Kate and Gerry will be there, they're not sure of the twins are coming or not, and while they won't be taking part in the short service they will probably say a few words of thanks to their supporters.'

Retired head teacher Brian, told how past anniversaries, barring a couple, had been marked with an informal outdoor gathering beside the village war memorial at Cross Green where a candle burns around the clock in Maddie's memory.

Brian, who also lives in Rothley, explained: 'This year because of the significance of a 10th anniversary it was felt prayers in the church were more appropriate because of the amount of people wanting to show their support.'

Kate, in her own message on the Find Maddie website, told how 'stressful and painful' this week and next would be - the 'unwanted' landmark anniversary and her daughter's 14th birthday in just nine days time.

She wrote: 'We never thought we'd be in this situation so far along the line. Ten years- there's no easy way to say it, describe it, accept it.

'But the two themes that seem most appropriate to me as we reach this ten year mark are perseverance and gratitude: We will go on, try our hardest, never give up and make the best of the life we have.'

A packed 250-strong congregation is expected to attend the service, with prayers led by vicar the Rev. Rob Gladstone, who has become a family friend.

A collage of pictures of Maddie and other missing children are set to be placed at the altar.

It is the church were on the first year anniversary of Maddie's kidnap her sobbing mum gave an impromptu speech to the congregation begging everyone 'to pray like mad' for her lost daughter. Overcome by emotion she collapsed into her husband's arms.

Today a stronger Kate vows to do 'whatever it takes for as long as it takes' to find the teenager.

She said: 'My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than it was almost 10 years ago.' And she said across the world so many people are 'willing her home.'

In BBC Panorama interview to be screened tonight Kate describes the decade anniversary as 'a horrible marker of stolen time' telling Fiona Bruce 'because we should have been a family of five for all that time.'

Her husband adds: 'We're still looking forward, I think that's the most important thing, we still hope.'

UK detective refused to head up Madeleine McCann probe because 'Scotland Yard would order him to prove Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignore other leads'



A detective tipped to head up the Madeleine McCann probe was warned he would be ordered to prove she was abducted and ignore other leads.

Colin Sutton said a high-ranking friend in the Met called him and warned him not to lead the case when Scotland Yard announced it would get involved in 2010.

The source warned that he would be tasked with proving her parents Kate and Gerry were innocent and ignoring any alternatives to the abduction theory, he claims.


Colin Sutton said a high-ranking friend in the Met called him and warned him not to lead the case when Scotland Yard announced it would get involved in 2010



Speaking to Martin Brunt on Sky News, he said: 'I did receive a call from a very senior met police officer who knew me and said it wouldn't be a good idea for me to head investigation on the basis that I wouldn't be happy conducting an investigation being told where I could go and where I couldn't go, the things I could investigate and the things I couldn't.

Asked to clarify what he meant, he added: 'The Scotland Yard investigation was going to be very narrowly focused and that focus would be away from any suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of the McCanns or the tapas friends.'

The Tapas Nine refers to the McCann parents and the seven friends they were out to dinner with when Madeleine disappeared in 2007.

They were interviewed by Portuguese Police, who have always worked on the basis that Madeleine was abducted from her room, but Mr Sutton said other possibilities should be entertained.

Speaking on Searching for Maddie, which looks at the case ten years on from her disappearance, he criticises the narrow focus of both Portuguese and British police.

He added: 'If you are conducting a re-investigation you start at the very beginning. Look at all the accounts all the evidence all the initial statements and go through them and make sure they stack up and they compare.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4471474/BBC-reporter-claims-McCanns-team-offered-deal-spy.html

Madeleine: Police beg holidaymakers to send photos in

Last updated at 19:54 21 May 2007 [that date again]

British holidaymakers who stayed at the resort where Madeleine McCann went missing are being asked to hand their holiday snaps to police to help the hunt for her abductor.

The photographs will be scanned through a hi-tech computer database which can search for the faces of known paedophiles who may be lurking in the background of a shot.

The British man named as the only suspect in Madeleine's disappearance tonight welcomed new moves to trawl thousands of holiday snaps looking for known paedophiles.

British police launched the appeal today to people who stayed at the Ocean Club Resort in Praia da Luz in the two weeks before the four-year-old's disappearance on May 3.

• Upload your photographs here

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has designed a special software system in a bid to find Madeleine and whoever took her.

ChildBase, normally used to track down victims and offenders in internet child pornography images, has now been enhanced so that it can be used to search the holiday snaps.

Jim Gamble, chief executive of CEOP, asked holidaymakers only to send pictures that include strangers.

He said: "Many people both here and abroad have already helped in a number of ways in assisting the hunt for Madeleine. But now we need to go further and by asking for photographs taken in the area we can utilise the latest technology to build a larger intelligence picture.

"The CEOP centre has already applied facial recognition software in our wider work and now by taking pictures from the public we can move the investigation forward - looking for people who might seem out of place or behaving strangely.

"No matter how small or insignificant the information may seem to you, it could be the missing part of the jigsaw so let us decide if it is important.

"We are looking for anyone who was at the Ocean Club Resort or surrounding area in the two weeks leading up to Madeleine's disappearance on Thursday 3 May who have photographs that might help our work.

"We don't want scenery shots or pictures that just show your family but look at your prints and see if there are, for instance, people in the background of the picture that at first you may not have noticed."



Robert Murat, 33, who was last week named as the first "arguido" or suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, described the move as a "great idea", according to a family friend.

Tuck Price said the appeal for holiday photographs showed that Portuguese police knew they had the wrong suspect.

He added: "Why else would they be doing this? If they are so convinced about Robert, why would they still be looking?"

It is understood Portuguese police have already been going through all the photographs taken by the McCanns and their friends before Madeleine was kidnapped from her family's holiday apartment.

It also emerged today that Mr Murat, who strenuously denies any involvement in the four-year-old's disappearance, believes DNA tests could prove his innocence as early as this week.

But Portuguese police indicated today that their one suspect was still their strongest line of inquiry.

A senior source said: "All hypotheses are on the table, we are working on one stronger one."

Mr Murat has also asked British PR guru Max Clifford to represent him in his campaign to clear his name.

Portuguese police have refused to confirm reports in local newspapers that forensic tests on samples taken from Mr Murat's villa have so far all come back negative.

Mr Price said: "To completely clear him, the police have to send a letter to him saying that he has been cleared in the investigation.

"But in people's minds it (the forensic results) will definitely clear him."

He admitted he did not know when the tests will be returned but said he had heard it could be this week.

Any potential leads generated from the pictures will be passed onto the Portuguese authorities. Any images that Portuguese police have will also be scanned.

People can upload their images onto a website set up by CEOP - www.madeleine.ceopupload.com. Detectives are hoping that thousands of pictures will be emailed in.

If holidaymakers don't have a digital camera, then can take their film into a Jessops shop which will put the images on a disk so they can be sent via the web.

ChildBase is able to scan 1,000 pictures an hour. It works by comparing images of child sex offenders stored in its database with people in the photographs.

The technology scans over 600 points on the face.

It gives a percentage match to anyone stored on the database who looks similar. It can even trace similarities of facial features within families, even across different generations.

The Immigration Service believes that the system is more effective than fingerprint testing.

The appeal is a joint venture between Leicestershire police, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the National Police Improvement Agency and CEOP.

Mr Clifford said he spoke to Mr Murat and his mother Jenny, and offered them free advice about handling the media.

He said he had "a tremendous amount of sympathy" for Mr Murat but would not formally represent him until he is cleared by Portuguese police.

"When I spoke to Robert, he was in tears and very emotional about the fact that I took the call from his aunt and spoke to them," he added.

"He said 'I am innocent and I will prove I am innocent', and thanked me for listening to him.

"I told him that provided he is cleared, I will be happy to talk to him because everybody in the world will want to interview him."

The publicist, who represented American sportsman and actor OJ Simpson when he was accused - but later acquitted - of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman, said Mr Murat's treatment had been "disgusting".

Mr Clifford said: "What I do think is the bloke has been hung, drawn and quartered without any shred of evidence being revealed to anyone.

"I think it's totally wrong that a man is condemned as guilty when there's been no trial and nobody knows anything at all.

"I have natural sympathy for anybody that is accused and condemned without a shred of evidence being shown.

"If the police were convinced and had any evidence, they would obviously have arrested and charged him."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-456741/Madeleine-Police-beg-holidaymakers-send-photos-in.html

Parents release last known photo of Madeleine



By Richard Edwards and Fiona Govan in Praia da Luz

12:01AM BST 24 May 2007   [people who still believe The Telegraph reported Madeleine McCann's disappearance at 12:01am on Friday 4th May 2007 - please note]

The family of missing Madeleine McCann today released the last known photograph of their daughter before her abduction in the Algarve three weeks ago.

Smiling and dangling her feet into a swimming pool, Madeleine, four, is shown enjoying her holiday just hours before she was snatched from her bed.

The picture was taken by Madeleine's mother Kate, 38, on her own camera.

Madeleine is pictured wearing a pink smock top, white shorts and a sun hat as she cools her feet in the swimming pool. The picture was taken at 2.29pm on May 3.

Less than eight hours later, before 10pm that night, Madeleine disappeared. She had been sleeping in the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, next to the twins, when she was taken away.

Detectives investigating her disappearance yesterday re-interviewed two people as witnesses in the case.

The two were believed to be Michaela Walczuch, a German woman who is the lover of Robert Murat, and her estranged Portuguese husband Luis Antonio, who works as a pool cleaner.

Mr Murat is a British ex-pat who has been identified by police as a formal suspect in the case.A senior police source described yesterday's questioning, which lasted several hours, as "normal and routine". The pair were first questioned 10 days ago as a result of their connection to Mr Murat.

Mr Murat, who has not been charged or even formally arrested but remains the police's main line of inquiry, lives with his mother in a villa less than 100 yards from the Algarve holiday apartment where Madeleine was snatched three weeks ago.

He strenuously denies any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance and is said to be in a state of "near collapse" over the allegations. Police have said that they will continue to investigate those with links to Mr Murat.



They have already searched premises belonging to a Russian computer expert who reportedly had telephone conversations with Mr Murat in the hours immediately following Madeleine's disappearance.

The latest development came amid local media reports that forensic tests on evidence taken from the McCanns' apartment and Mr Murat's home had yielded no clues.

The head of the Forensic Medicine Institute of Portugal told the Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha that tests on the samples had so far proved inconclusive.

"It is not like on the television show CSI," said Duarte Nuno Vieira, who explained that the investigation would take time.

"The analyses are ongoing," he added. "They're far from over, and we'll only be able to draw conclusions once they're completed."

Detailed DNA analysis on hair, fibres and sweat samples are not expected until at least Saturday, it was reported, at which point police may be in a position to arrest Mr Murat or drop the case against him completely.

The police search for Madeleine was strongly criticised yesterday as a leading expert said the Portuguese investigation had been plagued with "serious errors".

Mark Williams-Thomas, a former officer with Surrey police who worked on the case of Sarah Payne, the seven-year-old murdered by paedophile Roy Whiting, said detectives had failed to seal off the apartment when the four-year-old vanished and had not carried out proper forensic searches.

He said the investigation had hit "a brick wall" as a result and called for British detectives to carry out a full review of the case to ensure that everything was being done to find Madeleine.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552519/Parents-release-last-known-photo-of-Madeleine.html

Inside The Website Engine Room

By Calum MacRae

www.findmadeleine.com
Updated:12:38, Wednesday May 23, 2007



Ullapool in northern Scotland may be a long way from the Algarve but in this village we feel very close to Madeleine McCann and the plight of her family.

Madeleine's Aunt, Phil McCann, is a teacher in Ullapool and she contacted us and asked if we could do a website for Madeleine.

We were more than happy to oblige. We had a basic site up and running on the internet within a day.

Half a dozen of us who know Phil have been running the website for the past two weeks, night & day.

It soon became obvious to us that we needed to upgrade the site and get some people in to help with the messages that were pouring in through it.

We have received a huge response from the public with over 150 million visitors on the site from all over the world. We have just added a new banner for readers to download, to maintain momentum in the Find Madeleine campaign.

We have also received over 70,000 messages of support for the family and to date we have passed on over 200 messages to the police and crimestoppers with the hope that one of these will lead the authorities to find Madeleine.

We have also added the online payment facility to the site to allow members of the public to make donations to 'Madeleine's Fund : Leaving No Stone Unturned' Fund.

This has been very popular and we have seen money come in from every corner of the world.

The site is also allowing Jerry and Kate keep the public up to date with what they are doing from day to day, as they feel it is important for them to keep in touch with the public and to thank them for all their support.

Sky News - 23rd May 2007

[Acknowledgement:  Nigel Moore of mccannfiles and pamalam of gerrymccannsblog]

Another Alice in Wonderland story,I wonder how much dosh was
involved.

Blackpied wrote:Another Alice in Wonderland story,I wonder how much dosh was
involved.

Over the years this little peccadillo has attracted considerable attention.  Not far short of £40k for a bog basic website?

The website is limited in content, it lacks lustre and it's hardly ever updated.  Indeed the biggest feature is ye olde good quality merchandise shoppe - where you can buy a range of novelty items, holiday packs and also you can donate considerable sums of your hard earned cash to support a worthless cause.



ETA:  I particularly like the £26k+ spent on media monitoring - I do it free gratis and for nothing !  Besides, I thought their support network was paying Clarence Mitchell a considerable annual sum to media monitor.

Madeleine McCann: Police search church


Private detectives hired by Kate and Gerry McCann are convinced Madeleine is still alive

By Fiona Govan in Praia da Luz

4:14PM GMT 19 Nov 2007

Portuguese detectives investigating Madeleine McCann’s disappearance are reported to have carried out fresh searches of the church where her parents prayed for the safe return of their daughter.

Officers carried out a detailed investigation of the church and an old cemetery nearby in a bid to discover whether the four-year-old’s body could have been hidden there in the days following her disappearance.

They have also re-interviewed the Catholic priest at Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz - Our Lady of the Light - in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

Father Jose Manuel Pacheco, 46, became a friend and confidant of Kate and Gerry McCann in the days and weeks following their daughter’s disappearance.

He gave the McCanns keys to the 16th century church overlooking the sea so they could use it as a sanctuary and pray privately whenever they wanted.

The couple, both 39, are devout Catholics and went to Mass at the church most Sundays during the 130 days they spent in the Algarve.

They also attended regular candle lit vigils organised by the local community to pray for Madeleine’s safe return.

Officers from the Policia Judiciaria searched the building a fortnight ago to explore whether the girl’s body could have been hidden there, it was claimed in a Portuguese newspaper.

The search was carried out "informally and with maximum discretion" as part of a review of the case by Paulo Rebelo, Portugal’s second most senior policeman who took over the investigation in early October.

It is understood that detectives want to establish how often and at what times the McCanns visited the church, which is a short walk from their holiday apartment.

"Police have spoken several times to the priest in Praia da Luz since Madeleine disappeared," a source told Dairio de Noticias. But it is not known whether he has ever made a formal witness statement to detectives.

The McCanns, both doctors from Rothley in Leicestershire, were made arguidos - or formal suspects - on September 7 but they have always vehemently denied any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance.

Kate McCann’s mother said that the idea that her daughter was in anyway responsible for harming Madeleine was "absolutely bizarre" concerns over the conduct of the investigation by the police.

"This is the daughter that Kate and Gerry waited years for, that Kate and Gerry idolised, that Kate and Gerry would have laid down their own lives for... it’s absolutely bizarre," Susan Healy said in an interview aired by the Portuguese broadcaster SIC on Sunday night.

Meanwhile Metodo 3, the Spanish detective agency hired by the McCanns in September, said they were treating the alleged sighting of a woman handing over a child wrapped in a blanket to a man on 5 May as a "significant" lead and had also passed the information on to Portuguese police.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1569840/Madeleine-McCann-Police-search-church.html

KATIE HOPKINS: The McCanns hate Maddie being named in the same breath as Shannon Matthews. But were the two little girls really so very different? 

By Katie Hopkins for MailOnline

PUBLISHED: 15:40 GMT, 10 February 2017 | UPDATED: 16:42 GMT, 10 February 2017

It was only to be expected, I suppose.

Following the BBC dramatisation of the fake kidnap of Shannon Matthews, inevitably the first couple out of the gates for comment were the McCanns.

A source close to the family is said to have told the press the drama is appalling and insensitive.
Well here’s a new idea for the McCanns: this time it’s not all about you. This is not your story to tell.
This is about the tragic life of another little girl: Shannon. 

A little girl born into nothing, treated as nothing and finally freed to be something after her own mother was arrested.
This is the sort of neglect we associate with mums who cash in kids for benefits, like coupons in a store.
And here’s another new idea for Gerry and Kate: this coverage does not smell slightly strangely of roses. This is unsanitised, and it pongs a bit.
And that seems to be at the heart of the issue: the McCanns resent them and their parenting being spoken about in the same conversation as Karen Matthews.
Detectives think Matthews settled on the idea of kidnap after seeing how much money poured into the McCann fund and the amount of press attention Kate and Gerry received.
While publisising her daughter's disapearrence Matthews (pictured) used a random teddy taken from Shannon’s bed
It mimiced the Maddie Cuddle Cat that Kate (pictured) used to carry around with her
While publisising her daughter's disapearrence Matthews (pictured left) used a random teddy taken from Shannon’s bed to mimic the Maddie Cuddle Cat that Kate (pictured right) used to carry around with her
She even used a random teddy taken from Shannon’s bed to mimic the Maddie Cuddle Cat that Kate used to carry around with her.
Is that teddy her favourite? Probably, Karen said. Not quite ringing true.
Kate’s Cuddle Cat never quite rang true for me either. If someone took my lovely baby away, I would put Cuddle Cat under my pillow every night to be close to the baby I lost. Not wash its memories away.

Kate put it in the washing machine just days after Maddie vanished into the night.
Karen Matthews copied Kate McCann’s appeal almost word for word when she shed her crocodile tears for the press: 'I need her home. If anyone's got my beautiful princess, bring her home.’
Kate’s sentiments coming out of Karen’s mouth. Kate’s Cuddle Cat, Karen’s brown teddy. Kate and Karen. Matthews and McCann. Clear parallels being drawn.
It’s possible Karen was also influenced by an episode of Shameless, which featured a fake kidnap and aired a few weeks before Shannon was stuffed away, drugged, under a bed.
Karen Matthews had no shame. A complete absence of the stuff.
Her own sister says she taped plastic bags to her babies’ bottoms to save buying nappies.

Detectives say she had so many different relationships with so many different men that when the police built up a family tree it had more branches than Tescos, with 300 names on it.

This same absence of shame allowed her to sacrifice a daughter into the ‘keeping’ of a man whose own daughters had been taken into care after he allegedly made them watch him have sex with a prostitute.

However, I’m not sure the McCanns can so easily set themselves apart.

Would you choose to leave your children in the hands of the monster you know — or all alone and take your chance with the devil you don’t?

Which mother was more desperate: the one with nothing and no hope of ever having anything, or the one with friends waiting at the tapas bar by the pool?

The search for Maddie cost around £12 million. The hunt for Matthews around £3.2 million

What is clear is that in both cases the public has paid a price for these decisions. The search for Maddie cost around £12 million. The hunt for Matthews around £3.2 million.

Karen Matthews is clearly guilty of this huge waste. And has paid for it, to some extent, with four years in prison and a pretty uncertain future.

We are told she is now receiving death threats as a whole new generation has been appalled by this monster of a mother.

You might say, for Karen, justice has been served.But the matter of guilt or innocence is never far from the front door of the McCanns.

This week the Portuguese Supreme Court judges made clear that the archiving of the criminal case into Maddie’s disappearance did not mean Kate and Gerry were innocent. There is a significant and not merely a semantic difference, they said.

What does justice look like for the McCanns?

Perhaps we can agree Karen Matthews is a monster. But some kind of monsters came for Maddie at night. She was lost because she was left to be found. Shannon Matthews was born lost, and desperately needed to be found.

Shameless or desperate? The monster you know or the devil you don’t? Rich or poor? Better or worse? Justice or just deserts? These are hard calls to make.

Two very different families.

Two very different children yet, strangely, uncomfortably connected.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4212368/KATIE-HOPKINS-Madeleine-McCann-Shannon-Matthews-link.html#ixzz4YIpflaZ2


Only one complaint made to Ofcom...and we can guess who that was, can't we Kate?

The couple are devout Catholics is totally erroneous I can assure you.They got married in a church in Liverpool and Kate went to Sunday
mass very rarely G never at all.That is the truth.

Blackpied wrote:The couple are devout Catholics is totally erroneous I can assure you.They got married in a church in Liverpool and Kate went to Sunday
mass very rarely G never at all.That is the truth.

Can't disagree with your comment about the McCanns being part-time Catholics - to suit the occasion so to speak but here on CMOMM we like commentary presented as fact/truth, to be backed by an evidenced source.

Without such it can only be considered hearsay .  I'm sure you understand.

Hear what you say Verdi but I can't put the name of the lady who knows them out on the forum,I will take on what you say and be 
careful in the future.

Blackpied wrote:Hear what you say Verdi but I can't put the name of the lady who knows them out on the forum,I will take on what you say and be 
careful in the future.

I suspected as much. 

Thank you for understanding - these hearsay tales have a nasty habit of growing legs and ending up propagated as confirmed fact .  Not that I'm doubting your word, it's quite believable, just amounts to little or nothing without some proof.

Police identify Madeleine suspect


Gerald and Kate McCann: desperation and despair

By Nick Britten



12:01AM BST 05 May 2007

Portuguese police have identified a suspect over the kidnapping of British toddler Madeleine McCann, who was snatched from a holiday appartment on Thursday night.

At a press conference today, Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the judicial police in the Faro region, said he has an artist's impression of the suspect and remains hopeful that the little girl is still alive.

However, he refused to disclose any more information for fear of endangering Madeleine's life.

Gerald and Kate McCann, who were dining just 200 yards away when the kidnapping occurred, yesterday appeared before the media to make a desperate appeal for their daughter's safe return.

Mr McCann’s voice cracked with emotion as he said: “Words cannot describe the desperation and despair we are feeling as parents of our beautiful daughter Madeleine.

“We request that anyone who has any information relating to her disappearance, however trivial, come forward and help us get her back safely.

“Please, if you are holding Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy and daddy, her brother and sister.”

Mr McCann and his wife, clutching a pink teddy bear, then asked for their privacy to be respected before returning inside.

On the night of Madeleine's disappearance Mrs McCann, 39, a GP, made regular half-hourly checks on her children in their room. But when she returned to the ground floor apartment at 10pm, the door was open, the window had been forced and Madeleine was gone.

The other children, two-year-old twins Amelie and Shaun, were still asleep in their cots. Mrs McCann broke down screaming. An immediate search was launched, but the abductor is believed to have escaped through the complex’s main entrance.

Last night the family were still hoping that Madeleine, who like her siblings was conceived through IVF, would be found safe and well. But they began to fear the worst.



Trish Cameron, Mr McCann’s sister, said she received a telephone call from her 39-year-old brother, a consultant cardiologist, who was "hysterical and crying his eyes out".

She said: "They had put the kids to bed at 7pm and checked on them every half an hour as they had dinner nearby with the rest of the party. Gerry said the window was open, the shutters broken and the door, which had been locked, hanging open.

"Kate came screaming back to the group crying, 'They've taken her, they've taken her'. Gerry was crying and roaring like a bull.

"Obviously someone has been watching them, watching the children, seeing where they stayed and seeing they were left alone. It just doesn't bear thinking about.

"They can't have children naturally so, being IVF babies, they were extra special."

She added: "Gerry and Kate are excellent parents and very protective of their children. In hindsight, yes, they wish they hadn't left them alone, but it's hard when you're on holiday.

"The complex was quite open and it looked like anyone could wander in or out."

She said Madeleine had blonde hair and blue eyes, with a distinguishing feature of her right pupil "running down into the iris of her eye". The toddler was wearing white pyjamas when she went missing.

Madeleine's great uncle today described how much the little girl, a keen fan of Dr Who, was looking forward to her holiday.

"Madeleine is a lovely little girl, an intelligent, bright child," he added

Jon Corner, a close friend of Mrs McCann and godparent of the twins, said she telephoned him in the middle of the night distraught.

He said: "She just blurted out that Madeleine had been abducted. She told me, 'They have broken the shutter on the window and taken my little girl.'

"They had left the apartment locked while they were having their meal, but when they went back the last time they saw the damage.

"First they saw one of the window shutters had been forced, and then they saw the door was open and the bed was empty - and Madeleine was gone.

"Obviously Kate was incredibly upset when she phoned. I have spoken to her since, and she is still completely devastated - as we all are for them.

The McCanns, from Rothley, Leics, travelled out last Saturday with a group of friends, all of whom have young children, for a week-long stay at the Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club in Praia da Luz, on the Algarve, renting a two-bedroom apartment with private patio.

The couple, who are Roman Catholics and regular churchgoers, were enjoying dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant with the four other couples. The adults regularly checked on the children.

Around 70 staff and holidaymakers joined the search around the complex and on the nearby beach.

John Hill, the complex manager, said: "It was a very emotional and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job of getting involved and trying to search the area.

"As you can imagine, Madeleine's parents are distraught and not doing very well at all." He said the company offered baby sitting services but "for whatever reason, they were not being used". He added the locks on the apartment doors were "quite sophisticated."

Members of the McCann family have flown out to Portugal to help with the search.

Mr and Mrs McCann met when they were medical students in Scotland and became close while travelling in New Zealand. They were married nine years ago in Mrs McCann's home town of Liverpool.

They returned to the Midlands in 2004 and moved into their current five-bedroom detached home last summer.

Mrs McCann works one and a half days a week at a surgery in Melton Mowbray, Leics, and spends the rest of the time looking after the children.

Tracey Horsfield, 32, a neighbour, said: "They are delightful people, a normal, very caring family. They are extremely protective of the children and would never let them be alone.

"They idolised them and this is the last thing you would have thought would have happened to them."

The couple would have paid around £1,500 for their week-long stay in an area popular with British holidaymakers.

Ocean Club, near Lagos, boasts that visitors will enjoy "privacy in numerous villa-style accommodations dotted throughout an independently-working village".

The company's brochures also claim the atmosphere is so relaxed and exclusive that "you're as likely to pass a local as another tourist".

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1550667/Police-identify-Madeleine-suspect.html

Someone here mentioned about using that photo with the eye instead of the latest one, this puzzles me, why didn't the parents release the latest photo of their missing daughter?