Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

Happy in a nanny state

Melinda Libby and her children throw themselves into the activities offered by a Mark Warner holiday in a real village in the Western Algarve.

12:01AM BST 21 Apr 2007

Many years ago when I was a twenty-something, I set off from Britain in a fast car driven by a boyfriend. We were heading for a villa in Portugal owned by the parents of a friend and we left Tooting without tickets, itinerary or the address of the villa; we knew what town it was in but nothing more.

These days, as a forty-something single parent of an 11-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy, I like to be a bit more organised. But not too organised.

We had tried the everything-on-tap style holiday at Mark Warner's San Agostino resort in Greece, where we were hermetically sealed into an all-inclusive resort in a beautiful coastal location. It offered us comfortable accommodation, agreeable food, a choice of swimming pools, a wide range of activities (particularly tennis and watersports) and excellent childcare.

But, like Mark Warner's other resorts, it was remote and there was little opportunity to get out and explore the surrounding area. One day at San Agostino, I found myself getting exceptionally excited by the tiny chapel on the perimeter of the village and realised that I hankered after a bit of real life, and - more to the point - Greek real life.

So when we heard that Mark Warner, in a departure from its usual format, had taken over some apartments within the Ocean Club in Praia de Luz, a real Portuguese village in the Western Algarve, we were one of the first families to sign up.

The Ocean Club has groups of villas and apartments integrated within the village. This would give us more freedom than in a traditional club-style resort and more chance to absorb the local culture - but there would still be the children's groups and activities that make these holidays so popular with families.

In traditional Mark Warner style, we were helped at Gatwick and greeted by cheerful staff when we reached Faro.

But when, on a dark night, the bus dropped us with our luggage at the door of our beachside apartment, we felt very alone without the usual support structure.

We had a map to show us where to go for breakfast and the location of the welcome meeting - yes, they still offered that - but I had a restless night worrying whether we would find all the facilities that the Ocean Club had to offer.

And with good reason. Map-reading has never been my strong point, but I became anxious when, the following morning, we asked various people the way to the Millennium Restaurant, where breakfast and dinner is served for Mark Warner guests - and no one seemed to know.

We eventually found our way thanks to a chance encounter with a couple from London. Thanks to their sense of direction, we managed to get some breakfast and formed a rewarding friendship for the duration of the holiday. While the trip was mostly agreeable from our point of view, many other Mark Warner regulars begged to differ.

The distances between accommodation, watering holes and activities became a real bugbear for some, particularly those with small children.

Some guests resorted, in desperation, to hiring a car before their holiday was over. For us, the 12-minute uphill walk to dinner each evening was irksome, but the walk back down to the beach after the meal and entertainment was extremely pleasant. It was on one of these walks that Bertie, my nine-year-old, confided that he much preferred being in a real village to a club-style resort.

The other constant moan was the food: old Mark Warner hands became wistful as they talked about chefs at the other resorts who would boil an egg to their specification in front of their eyes. Quite a contrast to the unappetising fried eggs with hard yolks - not to mention dry croissants and tinned fruit - which were provided for breakfast at the Millennium Restaurant.

At other meals, people missed the wide range of fresh salads that they had enjoyed on previous Mark Warner holidays. And although there were some themed nights, and the Portuguese evening included some excellent squid and a cuttlefish stew, International Night was cruelly renamed "leftovers night".

Guests were, though, generally happy with their accommodation - because, although the holidays are sold on a half-board basis, the apartments had facilities for self-catering and were larger than a traditional Mark Warner hotel room.

And the children's activities really made the holiday come into its own. Before we arrived in Portugal, I had laid down the rules with the offspring. "Each day you'll be off to the children's clubs for all the activities," I told them. "Oh no we won't," they trilled.

I was willing to negotiate: as long as they attended for a morning or afternoon session each day, I would be content. As it turned out, they barely missed a session and sometimes they were so exhausted that I had to persuade them not to go.

Bertie was particularly delighted that he had no time at all to read any of the books that I had carefully selected for the holiday. They both enjoyed the watersports and were soon educating me in the names of the different sorts of boats or telling me they had seen dolphins or caught a fish. They swam, played games on the beach and, at the end of each week, performed a show which they had written themselves.

But what really made the clubs such a success for them, and what must be the secret of Mark Warner's popularity, was the dedication of the indefatigable nannies and the sunkissed young men (with names such as Will and Olly) who run the waterfront and tennis activities.

In a world of depressingly bad service, their energy, enthusiasm and cheerfulness made everything seem possible. The set-up in Praia de Luz was particularly appealing to teenage guests, who could spread their wings and dip in and out of the various activities and hostelries in the village.

While the children were at their clubs, I spent time on the beach or exploring the village: I found the butcher, the baker and a few clothes and gift shops. Later, with a group of Mark Warner guests, I went on a coastal walk to the pretty fishing village of Burgau, with cliff-top views of the craggy Western Algarve coastline and the wide expanse of yellow, sandy beaches.

Some Mark Warner regulars will never be happy in a situation where the environment isn't controlled, even if all the usual facilities - three swimming pools, tennis courts, two restaurants and four bars - are available. They don't want to share a pool with non-Mark Warner guests, nor do they want someone in a green, furry alien costume to appear at dinner, allegedly to entertain children (an experience described as "shocking" by a seasoned traveller with Mark Warner).

But, as far as we were concerned, the venture was a success. After two weeks, I was thoroughly rested and fit. And the children were distraught at leaving Praia de Luz and the nannies they had grown so fond of. Several weeks later, their conversations were still peppered with happy reminiscences of their days spent in the care of Natalie, Becky, Lucy, Chloe and Laura.
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Praia basics

A week with Mark Warner (0870 898 8942, www.markwarner.co.uk ) at the Ocean Club, Praia de Luz costs from £545 per adult, two weeks from £699; child prices vary according to age, but start at £273/£350 for children aged two to 12; those under two are charged £100 a week. This includes flights, transfers, accommodation with breakfast and dinner, childcare for children aged two and over and use of tennis courts and activities such as sailing and windsurfing tuition, canoeing, aerobics and fitness classes
. Diving courses, tennis coaching and tuition for RYA sailing qualifications cost extra, as does the crèche for children under two (from £230 a week).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/portugal/740884/Happy-in-a-nanny-state.html

The Algarve: a year after Madeleine McCann

For the moment southern Portugal is synonymous with Madeleine McCann, and fewer people are visiting. Cassandra Jardine reports.
Cassandra Jardine

12:10PM BST 25 Apr 2008

Earlier this April the village of Praia da Luz was almost deserted. The sky was blue, the orange blossom smelt wonderful and the sea was just warm enough for swimming, but once the sun had set and the pavement stallholders had packed up their wares, the silence was eerie. I felt I was alone in the resort, apart from the ghost of one little girl.

Madeleine McCann’s presence was particularly strong on the day I visited. Her poignant little face was all over the newspapers because the Portuguese police had leaked an old interview with her parents, Kate and Gerry. “Mummy, why didn’t you come when I was crying?” screamed the headlines on newspapers, which no one in Luz (pronounced Luge) was buying. Around here, they want to move on but, with the anniversary of her disappearance on May 3 approaching, they can’t.

One of many bizarre aspects of Maddy’s disappearance is that, last year, it appeared to do little harm to tourism in the Algarve. Nights spent by visitors from Britain actually rose by 9 per cent to 1.6 million, for which Ricardo Afonso of the Algarve Promotion Bureau credits an advertising campaign that alerted potential customers to the range of entertainments - cookery and tennis courses, conferencing, spas, as well as golf, sun and sand - available in Portugal’s most southerly region.

“The McCann case didn’t make any difference,” agreed Mary Anne Popoff, president of the Association of Travel Organisers to Portugal. “Most people saw what happened as nothing to do with the Algarve.”

I’m not sure if that picture of touristic unconcern is entirely accurate. For one thing, the vast influx of foreign journalists, who filled hotels for months on end, contributed to visitor numbers.

For another, the abduction of a small girl is not a valid reason for cancelling your holiday, so, for those who had already booked - as, by May, most had - there was no way out.

This year looks rather different. The Algarve should be booming because, compared to other euro-zone countries, Portugal is relatively cheap.

Neverthless, even outside the charming, blighted village of Luz, the place felt empty - and for the brave, of course, that makes for a bargain holiday.

Count me in, I thought, when I was offered the chance to stay in a luxurious villa 20 minutes from Faro airport.

Normally, we could never have afforded the £1,690 price for an Easter week at Quinta Padeiro, a lovingly converted farmhouse with its own pool, large garden and accommodation for 12 people, but I was in luck.

Set in relative rural isolation outside Almancil, only 10 minutes from the seaside, the villa is equipped with every possible safety and amusement feature for children - from badminton court and sandpit to Sky TV - but the owner, Derek Banks, had the misfortune to launch it on the rental market at the beginning of May last year. What should have been a packed booking schedule sprang some leaks and Banks offered to lend it to me.

My children betrayed no anxiety about going to the Algarve; the older girls only thought about a tan, and the nine-year-old knew nothing of the story that has dominated the news for a year.

Other passengers with children on our outward flight were, however, painfully well aware of the connection. As we circled into Faro, in the middle of a 100-mile-long strip of perfect beaches, those in front of and beside me were discussing the case.

“I’d never leave my children unattended,” they said.

Second-home owners were more blasé. Since the 1960s, property prices in the area have boomed on the strength of the British desire for a home in the sun.

Villa complexes such as Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago, whose manicured perfection brings to mind Desperate Housewives, have popped up everywhere. In summer they offer one long beach party for teenagers; in spring and autumn, the mild temperatures are ideal for small children.

“It could happen anywhere,” one regular reassured another as we waited at the car hire desk.

Perfect weather soon worked its relaxing magic. When we could be bothered to leave our mini-paradise, we explored the family-oriented attractions of the Algarve and revelled in finding them largely empty.

We had the beaches almost to ourselves. Nor was there a queue for a boat tour of the Ria Formosa Natural Park, where flocks of flamingoes lazily shift as you putter up to them, revealing their pink and black underwings.

Zoomarine, outside Albufeira, attracts up to 6,000 visitors a day in August to watch dolphins and seals cavort, but the head-count was less than a tenth of that on the day we went, so we were able to bag some of the sought-after places for swimming with, and even kissing, dolphins.

“There’s probably nowhere safer on earth now for small children,” said Diogo Rojao, Zoomarine’s marketing manager, who spoke sorrowfully about the McCann case. “The British are our oldest allies; we don’t want them to stay away.”

I bet they don’t. We make up by far the largest component of foreign visitors to the region, way ahead of the Germans and the Spanish. All along the coast, pubs provide English beer and supermarkets sell frozen bacon to make us feel at home.

Everyone speaks English and the Portuguese even seem to like our rowdy children. I soon ceased to be baffled by Richard Gaisford, a GMTV reporter who spent most of last year in the Algarve covering the McCann story.

“I liked it so much I wanted to take my family there,” he had said, listing its beauty spots.

For a week we enjoyed the extra warmth of the welcome we received for being relative rarities. But the one visit my children refused to make with me was to Praia da Luz.

Their nerves were more jangled than they let on, I realised, on the day we visited the old port of Lagos and my 14-year-old insisted on staying behind. After an hour’s argument, I let her stay, but although I locked the front door and the gates, I returned to find that she had spent the entire time cowering in a converted bread oven, petrified by every chance noise.

Not wanting to stir up nightmares, I went to Luz on my own. Like everyone else, I had a furtive look at the crime scene, noting how close the McCanns’ apartment is to the tapas bar where Kate and Gerry ate on the night Maddy vanished. From its stools you can look straight into the windows of the now shuttered and padlocked apartment. Would I have left my children there, everyone who passes must wonder. I would have done, I concluded, but I might have locked the door.

John Hill, the resort manager for Mark Warner, under whose aegis the McCanns stayed at the Ocean Club, would prefer not to dwell on such matters.

Despite deep discounting and the British Easter holidays, only 20 of Mark Warner’s allocation of 50 apartments were occupied, but Hill claimed it was too soon to predict how full they would be this summer.

“It’s a late-buying market,” he said, showing me the childcare and entertainment facilities for children from four months upwards. Are they installing further security?

“No, we are providing the same facilities as Mark Warner has done for 25 years.” As the father of young children himself he said he feels “terribly sad” for the McCanns. But does he feel nervous? “Never.”

The British families on the almost empty beach agree. “In England everyone is obsessed by the story,” said Catherine Bishard from south London, “but once you are here you just get on with your holiday.”

Nevertheless, neither she nor the Whites, a family from Surrey playing a few yards away, were contemplating leaving their children, even with a babysitter. A year ago they might have done so.

Over time, such fears will recede, as memories of Maddy fade for all except her family, and the Algarve will regain its place in British hearts. On the plane back from Faro, none of the edginess of the journey out was apparent. My children’s only concern was whether we could go back, soon.
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On holiday in the Algarve

Catherine and Tom Bishard, from London, with Henry, five and George, three:

“We got a cheap deal on a house here, not realising that it was right next to the resort where the McCanns stayed,” says Catherine, a lawyer, who is sunbathing on the beach at Luz while her architect husband buries their two boys up to their necks in sand. “At the time I thought, 'Oh, thanks,’ – but by now I’ve forgotten about it.

“I’m not one for wrapping children in cotton wool, because children feed on their parents’ fear. But we have taken them with us to restaurants in the evening.”

Amanda and Alex White from Surrey; children James, seven, Michael, five, Thomas, four, and Anna, one:

“We’ve been to the Algarve several times and always loved it,” says Amanda, while her husband, a sales director, holds the sleeping baby and the older children play in the waves.

They are staying on a hilltop resort overlooking Praia da Luz. Is she nervous? “No, you are probably safer here than in London, but I always watch my children wherever I am - especially Thomas, who wanders off. In our resort we are required to pay for two babysitters with four children, so we’ve taken them everywhere with us.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/1903494/The-Algarve-a-year-after-Madeleine-McCann.html

Clifford 'not happy' with Robert Murat, no longer advising 'arguido' suspect

July 18, 2008 by David Quainton

Max Clifford has written a letter to PRWeek expressing his disappointment in the actions of Robert Murat, the man implicated in the Madeleine McCann disappearance.




Clifford said he was disappointed in Murat using his lawyers' PR agency (The PR Office), when he had previously advised the Briton for free. The PR Office said Murat had 'changed strategy'.

Murat yesterday received a substantial payout, of around £600,000, from the British press which had made various unfounded accusations towards him. As yet, Murat has not been found guilty of any charges related to Madeleine's disappearance.

The PR Office was brought in to handle the Murat case against various British newspapers.

Here Clifford's statement follows in full:

'Last summer, when his arguido status was put in place by the Portuguese authorities, it signalled the start of a character assassination of Robert Murat by sections of the Portuguese and British media. I was approached by Robert's family who claimed that Robert and they were having their lives destroyed by this coverage and desperately sought my help.

I totally sympathised with them and agreed to help them just as I have helped many others when facing the worst excesses of the British media. They made it clear that neither Robert nor themselves could afford to pay me and that it was impossible for Robert to work. Nevertheless, I agreed to do whatever I could to help their plight whilst explaining that because of Robert's arguido status I was unable to officially represent him.

Together with Nicola Phillips from my office, I spent a huge amount of time and effort over many months talking to Robert and his Aunt Sally, often late at night and doing everything possible to help them and stop the unjustifiable media onslaught.

So you can imagine this week how I felt when Robert admitted to me he was paying a PR firm that he had been introduced to by his legal team. Having worked free of charge and in the words of Robert and his Aunt Sally, "been both wonderfully supportive and successful", I was not happy.

In spite of this I am very pleased with what we at MCA did for Robert and his family, as many of the things written about him without so much as a shred of evidence were totally disgusting.

Robert continues to have a huge battle on his hands to clear his name and to get his life back on track and I wish him and his family every success in achieving this.

For now, I'll concentrate my time on my many appreciative paying clients and my continued battle with prostate cancer.'

In response PR Office founder Shimon Cohen said his agency was 'engaged by [Murat's legal team] Simons Muirhead & Burton to provide litigation PR support for yesterday's hearing'.

'The change of circumstances in this case brought about a change of strategy,' he continued. 'Max Clifford Associates was advised by Simons Muirhead & Burton in a timely and appropriate manner that their services were not required this week, during the days leading up to the Statement in Open Court or in the immediate aftermath.'

https://www.prweek.com/article/832833/clifford-not-happy-robert-murat-no-longer-advising-arguido-suspect
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This was of course before Max Clifford was convicted of indecent assault and sentenced to eight years behind bars.

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13428p325-quote-of-the-day#408716

Robert Murat libel payout hits £600,000

By PAMediapoint - 17th July 2008



Madeleine McCann suspect Robert Murat today accepted £600,000 in libel damages over claims that he was involved in her abduction.

Murat, 34, an Algarve-based property consultant, was at London’s High Court to hear his solicitor, Louis Charalambous, tell Mr Justice Eady that it was now acknowledged that the allegations were entirely untrue.

Outside court Murat said: “The newspapers in this case brought about the total and utter destruction of mine and my family’s life and caused immense distress.”

“I am pleased that the publications concerned have today admitted the falsity of all their allegations and I can now start to rebuild my life.

“Today’s statement of full apology in open court means I can emerge from this action vindicated and with the recognition and acknowledgement that what was said against me was wholly untrue.

“I also wish to pay tribute to my legal team at Simons Muirhead & Burton, led by Louis Charalambous.

“It is due to their professionalism, dedication and assistance that I am able to be here today.

“I would also like to thank all those who have personally contacted me to offer their support throughout the last year.”

His law firm described the settlement as a record.

Murat, his friend Michaela Walczuch and IT consultant Sergey Malinka, had all brought proceedings against Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers, MGN Limited and News Group Newspapers over nearly 100 “seriously defamatory” articles.

Charalambous said: “In particular, the defendants accept that none of the claimants had any involvement whatever in the abduction of Madeleine McCann.

“They accept that none of the claimants has any paedophile tendencies or connection with paedophiles or paedophile websites and that none of them lied to the police or obstructed the investigations.

“They accept that Mr Murat’s actions after the abduction were entirely proper and were motivated by a desire to help find Madeleine McCann.

“He became a volunteer translator for the Portuguese police and did everything he could to assist the investigation.

“Ms Walczuch was never suspected or accused of any involvement in the abduction of Madeleine McCann. Mr Malinka was not guilty of any sexual misconduct and has no criminal convictions.”

All three had their their legal costs paid for.

https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/robert-murat-libel-payout-hits-600000/

Sky News pays damages to Robert Murat over video

By PAMediapoint - 14th November 2008

Robert Murat today accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages over an allegation that there were strong grounds for believing that he was guilty of abducting Madeleine McCann.

Murat was not at London’s High Court for the settlement of his action against British Sky Broadcasting.

His solicitor Louis Charalambous told Mr Justice Eady that an article and video on the Sky News website claimed that in the early days after Madeleine’s disappearance from Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007, Murat’s behaviour was reminiscent of child murderer Ian Huntley.

The article, which was published until April this year, and the video, which was accessible until this September, also suggested that Murat had deliberately tried to mislead journalists by pretending to be acting in an official capacity for the police.

Victoria Shore, counsel for BSkyB, which is also paying Murat’s costs, made an unreserved apology for publishing the false allegations, and the distress caused.

Charalambous told the judge that the allegations were entirely untrue and it was accepted that Mr Murat had no involvement whatever in the abduction of Madeleine.

“The defendant accepts that Mr Murat did not act like a child murderer nor did he try to mislead or lie to any journalists.

“It acknowledges that Mr Murat’s actions after the abduction were entirely proper and were motivated by a desire to help find Madeleine McCann.”

He said that Sky’s apology would appear on its website for 12 months.

Shore said that it very much regretted the distress caused by the publications.

Outside court, Charalambous said that the settlement represented the final stage of Murat’s claims against those sections of the British media “which defamed him so terribly”.

“He has been entirely successful and vindicated. He could never have brought any of these claims without the use of conditional fee agreements which gave him access to justice.

“It was particularly important to him to nail this particular lie – that he acted in some way reminiscent to the Soham murderer Ian Huntley when, in fact, he was working flat out to help try to find Madeleine.”

In July, Murat received a record settlement of £600,000 over “seriously defamatory” allegations in nearly 100 articles connecting him with the abduction.

https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sky-news-pays-damages-to-robert-murat-over-video/
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So a pattern emerges.

Clarence Mitchell is seconded to Portugal, arriving with Gerry McCann three weeks after Madeleine's reported disappearance, to control the media mayhem.  Although returning to the UK to resume his position as the government's director of the Media Monitoring Unit, there is strong evidence he continued to support the McCanns and control media coverage of the case, between his return to the UK and resigning from the position with the government, to take up full-time employment for the McCanns. As their personal friend and advisor and PR/media consultant.

Following a string of negative reports about the McCanns, the Express Group and the Rupert Murdoch Group, agree to substantial out of court settlements for publishing defamatory reports.

Robert Murat is made arguido.  Much like the McCanns, negative reports about him are published by the UK press resulting in substantial out of court settlements.

Coincidence or design?  Personally, I believe the media was manipulated, sorry monitored by ....    you know who .... to purposely mislead and to financially benefit the defendants.  I use the word with reservations.

The threesome were certainly very active during the years 2007 and 2008 - and handsomely rewarded for their efforts.

Madeleine: Tapas Two 'want to change story'


The McCanns deny involvement in their daughter's diappearance

By Fiona Govan in Praia da Luz

6:12PM GMT 07 Nov 2007

Two of the friends that dined with Kate and Gerry McCann on the night Madeleine disappeared have told Portuguese police that they want to change their stories, it has been claimed.

Lawyers acting for the pair are said to have contacted Portuguese detectives leading the enquiry to say their clients are willing to be re-interviewed so they can "correct" their original statements.

The Spanish daily El Mundo reported that the two members of the so-called Tapas Nine - the name given to the McCanns and the seven friends who dined with them on May 3 at their Algarve holiday complex - have asked for their identities to be kept secret.

"Lawyers of two of the friends of the McCanns that dined with them on the night of May 3 in the tapas restaurant have contacted police recently and said their clients are willing to be requestioned so they can 'correct' details of their original statements," said the El Mundo report.

"These two members of the group have asked for their identities to be kept secret."

The seven holidaying with the McCanns at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz are Jane Tanner, 37, her partner Dr Russell O'Brien, 36, Dr Matthew Oldfield, 37, his wife Rachael, 36, David Payne, 41, his wife Fiona, 34, and her mother Dianne Webster, 61.

This weekend it was reported that four of them fear they are about to be named formal suspects by Portuguese police.

Mr O'Brien and Ms Tanner, Mr Oldfield and Dr Payne are all said to have consulted their own lawyers in anticipation of being made official arguidos because of apparent inconsistencies in key statements made immediately after Madeleine vanished.

Strict Portuguese secrecy laws have prevented the McCanns and the friends they were holidaying with from speaking publicly about the series of events the night Madeleine disappeared.

But several apparent contradictions have emerged in the six months since the four-year-old went missing, including the timings of events and how much alcohol was consumed on the night.

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, denied that any of the friends had officially approached the Portuguese police through their lawyers but said that they were happy to be reinterviewed by police if it resolved any apparent inconsistencies and hastened the McCanns being cleared.

"Contrary to a report in the Spanish press, and after consultation amongst Gerry and Kate McCann's friends, I can deny that any approach has been made by their lawyers asking to amend or change the witness statement of any of them," he said.

"Kate and Gerry's friends, who were with them on May 3, have consistently told the truth and remain happy, indeed they are keen, to be reinterviewed by the police if necessary to clarify any inconsistencies in the statements that the police may think they have identified.

"The friends believe that if such interviews or reinterviews take place it can only lead to Gerry and Kate being eliminated from the inquiry swiftly."

The McCanns were declared arguidos by Portuguese detectives in September the day before they finally flew back to the UK after four months in Portugal.

They deny any involvement in their daughter's disappearance and insist she may still be alive.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1568706/Madeleine-Tapas-Two-want-to-change-story.html

Are all three couples (apart from the McCanns) still together (i.e. married /partnered)?

I couldn’t make love to Gerry

By ANTONELLA LAZZERI and OLIVER HARVEY
9th May 2011, 11:00 pm
Updated: 5th April 2016, 12:05 am

YESTERDAY, in the latest extract from Kate McCann’s book, she told how she was
horrified when Portuguese police offered her a ‘deal’ if she confessed to
hiding daughter Madeleine’s body.
It followed the abduction of the three-year-old from an apartment complex in
Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007. Kate, 43, and husband Gerry, 42, both
doctors from Rothley, Leics, had been holidaying there with friends and
their twins Sean and Amelie.
In this extract, edited and abridged by ANTONELLA LAZZERI and OLIVER HARVEY,
Kate tells of her struggle to even try to enjoy life again in the following
months, and her fears about her relationship with Gerry:

Madeleine was taken from us, my sexual desire plummeted to zero.

Our sex life is not something I would normally be inclined to share and yet it
is such an integral part of most marriages that it doesn’t feel right not to
acknowledge this.

I’m sure other couples who have been through traumatic experiences will have
suffered similarly and perhaps it will reassure them to know that they are
not alone.

To those fortunate enough not to have encountered such heartache, I hope it
gives an insight into just how deep the wounds go.

Apart from our general state of shock and distress, and the fact that I
couldn’t concentrate on anything but Madeleine, there were two continuing
reasons for this, I believe.

The first was my inability to permit myself any pleasure, whether it was
reading a book or making love with my husband.

The second stemmed from the revulsion stirred up by my fear that Madeleine had
suffered the worst fate we could imagine: falling into the hands of a
paedophile.



Tortured as I was by these nauseating images, it’s probably not surprising
that even the thought of sex repulsed me.

I worried about Gerry and me. I worried that if I couldn’t get our sex life
back on track our whole relationship would break down.

I know there is more to a relationship than sex, but it is still an important
element.

It was vital that we stayed together and stayed strong for our family. Gerry
was incredibly understanding and supportive.

He never made me feel guilty, he never pushed me and he never got sulky. In
fact, sometimes he would apologise to me. Invariably, he would put a big,
reassuring arm around me and tell me that he loved me and not to worry.

I was determined not to be beaten by this, not simply to capitulate and accept
it as just one of the unfortunate side-effects of this tragedy.

Gerry and I talked about it a little, but mostly I analysed the problem
privately in my head.

I also discussed it with psychologist Alan Pike who assured me that, like my
ability to relax or enjoy a meal, it would gradually return.

Deep down, though, I knew there were only two solutions: bringing Madeleine
back or conquering my mental block.

Since the first was not within my control, it was up to me to try to train my
mind and my thought processes.

I look back now and wonder how on earth Gerry and I have made it this far.

If it weren’t for the solid relationship between us, I’m not sure we would
have done.

The statistics show that most marriages subjected to such traumatic
experiences break down. It would be a lie to claim that everything has been
plain sailing.

No relationship, however strong, can emerge unscathed from what is probably
the most painful and terrifying ordeal any parent could suffer.

Inevitably, we sometimes reach certain stages, or go through phases, at
different times and find different ways of coping with our anguish. Gerry
was functioning much sooner than I was.

I felt a tinge of resentment that he was managing to operate and I wasn’t;
sometimes I found it almost offensive, as if somehow he wasn’t grieving
enough.

On other days I would feel I was a failure for not being capable of doing as
much for Madeleine as he was. It was equally difficult for Gerry. He needed
my help and support and I was so consumed by my own grief that I simply
couldn’t give anything.

When I finally reached the next rung of the ‘coping ladder’, I could see that
my husband’s ability to drag himself up from the hell into which we’d been
catapulted was a godsend.

Without it, the campaign to find Madeleine would never have got going in the
way it did. Gerry has tried, quite successfully, to compartmentalize his
life, his thoughts and his focus. I have no doubt this ensures a more
efficient and less stressful existence, but I can’t do it. Madeleine is
there in my head all the time.

This doesn’t make me a more loving or caring parent. I think it’s just that
fathers and mothers are different; that carrying and bringing a child into
the world possibly creates a uniquely visceral connection.

The awful sense of Madeleine’s fear I once experienced every waking hour has,
however, eased a little. What remains is a lasting awareness of the terror
she would’ve felt in the disorientating moment she first opened her eyes to
find herself with a stranger. I cannot imagine this will ever fade
completely.

It was a long time before I was able to allow myself to take any real pleasure
in anything.

I couldn’t watch television, read a book, listen to music or follow the
football, as I might have done to relax in my old life. I couldn’t go to the
cinema or out for a meal. I couldn’t browse in shops.

Madeleine was in my thoughts when I woke up in the morning and as I battled to
fall asleep at night.

I couldn’t even sit down unless it was for a purpose, to eat or to work at the
computer. How could I possibly take pleasure in anything without my
daughter?

It was partly the feeling that I had to be doing something to help Madeleine
every moment of every day, partly that so much of what I used to love
reminded me of the life we should still have been leading and now made me
sad.

Sometimes the most innocuous and unexpected triggers can set me off: the smell
of newly mown grass, or a song I associate with happier days. The hymn On
Eagle’s Wings, which Gerry and I chose for our wedding, gets me every time.

It was over two years before I could bring myself to play music again. In the
end it was the thought of how unfair it would be to deny Sean and Amelie,
who loved singing, that got me over that hurdle.

Gerry, meanwhile, was able to switch off from time to time and I’m sure that
was a great help to him. I felt guilty for his sake that I couldn’t do the
same.

He was desperate to share his moments of relaxation with me, to have his old
Kate back, even if only briefly. He would suggest doing something nice — and
I would cry.

Despite his inner strength, determination and capability, Gerry has his own
down days, of course.

He’s been such a rock through so many long and testing times that when he
crumbles, it is all the more concerning.

There’s something particularly distressing about seeing a strong man reduced
to a heap, crying like a baby.

At times it has taken Gerry everything he’s got to fight for his own survival
and there’s just been nothing left to give me.

Occasionally, when I’ve been as low as it’s possible to be, or afraid I was
losing control completely, I’ve longed for a chance to talk it through, or
even just to feel Gerry’s arm around my shoulder, but he simply hasn’t had
the strength.

He knows or fears that if he allows himself to be sucked into my despair, he
might be brought crashing down, too.

It sounds selfish and it feels selfish, too. But our lives remain precarious
and sometimes it is all you can do to keep your own head above water, let
alone anyone else’s.

We also know it is essential that we somehow make time for each other if we
are to keep communicating, avoid growing apart and escape becoming another
marital breakdown statistic.

I took a cognitive approach to getting our sexual relationship back on track,
concentrating hard on what Gerry means to me, as a husband and as a friend;
on the love we have for each other and the three beautiful children we
created together. It seems to have worked.

If my mind ever starts to wander down dark alleys, I fight against that,
focusing on what I have that is good and important.

And I tell myself that I cannot, and will not, allow this evil person to
destroy anything else in our life.

Kate McCann 2011. Extracted from MADELEINE by Kate McCann, to be
published by Bantam Press on 12 May priced at £20. Edited and abridged by
ANTONELLA LAZZERI and OLIVER HARVEY.

Readers can buy the book for the special price of £18.00 including free UK
and Ireland p&p. To order call 01206 255 800 and quote the reference
MMC.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/534451/i-couldnt-make-love-to-gerry/

Olive Oyl - The Daily Tablet [circa. May 2007-October 2019]

They must be so sick of each other by now but the lie keeps them together.

With prejudice

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

Giles Tremlett

Mon 17 Sep 2007 08.02 BST
First published on Mon 17 Sep 2007 08.02 BST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muck-raking stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Desperate Days: The Madeleine McCann Mystery

Bill Hewitt October 15, 2007 12:00 PM



Taking your kids to nursery school isn’t supposed to be a heartbreaking experience. But heartbreak is exactly what Kate and Gerry McCann found on Sept. 19, when they enrolled twins Sean and Amelie, 2, in their local day care facility, the same one daughter Madeleine attended before she disappeared in Portugal in May. “It was very emotional and distressing for them,” says Gerry’s sister Philomena McCann.

At home, they find a bit of respite, surrounded by the happy chaos of the children playing and the constant stream of friends who have pitched in to run errands and help with chores. The McCanns talk to their kids about their big sister often, in an effort to keep her alive at least in their minds. Madeleine’s photos are everywhere in the house, as are her toys. “Kate and I have told them we don’t know where she is,” wrote Gerry on his blog, “but lots of people are looking for her and we hope they will find her.”

Meanwhile, the agonizing journey of Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39, from the largely anonymous life of respected doctors to international symbols of the perils of parenthood, is entering a critical phase of its own. Still suspects in their 3-year-old daughter’s disappearance, with photographers camped out nearby, the couple continue to deny any crime—and they are fighting to keep the focus on what they insist is the most important thing: finding their little girl. They are prepared to take lie detector tests, but polygraphs are not used in Portuguese courts. They will not comment on reports that they have hired their own investigators, but with the help of donations of more than $2 million, they will be launching a massive advertising campaign in Portugal and southern Spain, including remote areas, featuring billboards and newspaper ads with Madeleine’s picture. As supporters of the McCanns tell it, the initiative offers the couple some badly needed reason for optimism. But there is no denying the toll already taken on their spirits by the seeming lack of progress in the case. “Some days are better than others,” says the family’s public relations representative Clarence Mitchell. “It is exceedingly hard and getting harder.”

Certainly the crises and false leads of the past five months have worn them down. Despite numerous sightings around the world of children resembling Madeleine, including one in Morocco where a tourist’s snapshot of a blonde-haired youngster triggered a media frenzy on Sept. 26, none have panned out. Though Portuguese authorities named the McCanns as official suspects on Sept. 7, a judge recently ruled there was no evidence that warranted further questioning of them. But that has not stopped the Portuguese press from continuing to flay the couple, with each day seeming to bring some new allegation or innuendo (see box, right). One recent unsubstantiated scenario: that Madeleine was killed as the result of an accidental fall down a flight of stairs at the resort in Praia da Luz where the family was staying and that Kate and Gerry then hid the body. As one source confidently told the paper 24 Horas, “The only thing to investigate is how the body disappeared.”

Perhaps Kate McCann makes an easy target. Whether the McCanns are ever charged with a crime remains to be seen, but to observers, the couple are at the very least guilty of questionable judgment for leaving three small children on more than one occasion unattended while they went out for dinner with a gang of friends now referred to in the press as the “Tapas 9.” Nor has it helped that in her public appearances Kate has at times appeared chilly or emotionless. “Kate comes across as being cold,” acknowledges one acquaintance in Portugal.

But there is more to her steely demeanor than meets the eye. For one thing, in the early days of the investigation British profilers told the couple to remain calm when discussing the case in front of the television cameras. The reason: Madeleine’s abductor might become excited by seeing them suffer—which could conceivably put the child in greater danger. “They were advised very early on that pedophiles get a kick out of seeing completely distressed parents,” says family friend Jon Corner.

The other fact, say friends, is that she is not someone who feels comfortable in the limelight. Kate Healy, the only child in a Catholic working-class family in Liverpool, grew up somewhat shy and studious. She excelled at school and entered the medical program at the University of Dundee in Scotland. And yet for all her accomplishments she harbored self-doubts. “Kate has always been a quiet, sensitive person,” says Linda McQueen, a longtime family friend from Liverpool. “She’s not overly confident, despite her intelligence and good looks.”

During medical school she did come out of her shell a bit. According to her yearbook, she was known as “Hot Lips Healy” and had a reputation for enthusiastic partying on Friday nights. She met her future husband while both were doctors in training at an infirmary in Glasgow. A year later she left to do a stint at a hospital in Wellington, New Zealand. Gerry had already been scheduled to continue his training in Canada, but at the last minute he got himself switched to New Zealand as well. As he quickly made clear, while his duties were medical, his intentions were romantic. “He told us he’d come for her, to woo her, really,” Ian Gearey, a friend there, told a local New Zealand paper. “He won her heart.” They returned home and in December 1998 were married in Liverpool. In 2000 they moved to the Leicestershire area, where Gerry had landed a job as a cardiologist. Though Kate was qualified as an anesthesiologist, she chose instead to work as a general practitioner, believing it would give her more flexibility when she had children.

But fertility problems put a crimp in that plan. “Being an only child, she always wanted a big family, lots of children,” says McQueen. “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.” The couple had to fall back on fertility treatments that entailed, says McQueen, “all the traumas you go through, all the ups and downs.” With the help of in vitro fertilization, Madeleine was born on May 12, 2003. “If you look at what it takes to be a doctor and go through IVF, she must have some steel inside her,” says Corner.

If so, say those who have met her, it does not appear to be the cold or inflexible variety. One British expatriate living in Praia da Luz who got to know the McCanns well says the image of Kate as an ice queen is all wrong. “She’s a very warm, very kind person,” says the source. “When local people would speak with her she’d always hug them.” As for her handling of Sean and Amelie, the source found Kate to be a doting mother. “They would sit on her knee and she would read them stories,” she says. “They were always huggy and she always put the kids first.”

The same pattern seems to have continued back in Britain, where she and Gerry have endured much unwelcome attention just so Sean and Amelie can enjoy some of the simple pleasures of childhood. “They took the children to buy shoes a week ago and they were followed and people were staring at them,” says Philomena McCann. “It’s very difficult.” McQueen says that during her recent visit to the McCann home she saw how the couple try to balance the needs of Sean and Amelie with their own emotional state. “If the twins showed an interest in going into Madeleine’s room, then Kate or Gerry would take them in for a couple of minutes,” she says, though the door is normally kept closed. “They want to keep things in place for Madeleine when she comes home.”

At the same time, the McCanns have been deeply touched by the gestures of support they have received from around the world. For instance, many of the teams in Britain’s Premier soccer league have showed up for games wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Madeleine’s image; jockeys at Ascot racetrack did the same. As Gerry wrote on his blog, “The fact that so many people are prepared to show solidarity with us in our search for our daughter does help restore our faith in humanity.”

As for the reports that the McCanns have hired private investigators to carry out their own search, much of the talk has focused on Morocco. “We feel it is as valid a place for looking for Madeleine as anywhere else,” says Mitchell, without confirming anything. “Suffice to say, Kate and Gerry will leave no stone unturned in their search for Madeleine.” Mitchell adds that one thing the family has not done is hire any investigators in Portugal, which would be illegal in that country because there is an ongoing official investigation.

Ironically, the couple have seized upon the dearth of clues as grounds for encouragement, however faint. “As the massive investigation and extensive search did not find any evidence of serious harm to Madeleine,” Gerry wrote on his blog, “we started to hope she would be found alive.” Those in their camp say they still cling tenaciously to that hope. Walking home from church this past Sunday, Sean and Amelie scooting on ahead of them playfully, the McCanns put their arms around each other’s waist. Then Kate could be seen rubbing Gerry’s back, as if consoling him. How much it helped in these darkest hours, perhaps even they could not say.

https://people.com/archive/cover-story-desperate-days-the-madeleine-mccann-mystery-vol-68-no-16/
....................

What a load of old flannel.

Then Kate could be seen rubbing Gerry’s back, as if consoling him. How much it helped in these darkest hours, perhaps even they could not say.

Or maybe he had wind.

This doesn't merit a thread of it's own so I'm sticking it with the rest of the tabloid trash..

Cambridge student seen with offensive Madeleine McCann message on T-shirt

There were also messages about Greta Thunberg and Tommy Robinson
ByNeil Shaw

   12:41, 29 OCT 2019


A University of Cambridge student has been spotted at a pub in the city with Maddy is in my freezer written on his t-shirt on a student night out

A Cambridge University student was pictured with “Maddy is in my freezer” scrawled on his t-shirt during a night out.

The student, who has not been identified, was taking part in a “white t-shirt social” organised by Queen’s College Boat Club, in which revellers are encouraged scribble messages on one other’s shirts.

However at least student appeared to have had several controversial and offensive messages written on his back, including “Maddy is in my freezer”, “Tommy Robinson - what a babe” and “F*ck Greta #drownthepolarbears”.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/cambridge-student-seen-offensive-madeleine-3479072
....................

It's sick, it's childish and above all else it's not funny!  So why, hulldailymail are you publishing non-news singling out a specific name above all others?

Answers in a plain brown envelope marked ....  you know who

Verdi wrote:Desperate Days: The Madeleine McCann Mystery

Bill Hewitt October 15, 2007 12:00 PM



Taking your kids to nursery school isn’t supposed to be a heartbreaking experience. But heartbreak is exactly what Kate and Gerry McCann found on Sept. 19, when they enrolled twins Sean and Amelie, 2, in their local day care facility, the same one daughter Madeleine attended before she disappeared in Portugal in May. “It was very emotional and distressing for them,” says Gerry’s sister Philomena McCann.

At home, they find a bit of respite, surrounded by the happy chaos of the children playing and the constant stream of friends who have pitched in to run errands and help with chores. The McCanns talk to their kids about their big sister often, in an effort to keep her alive at least in their minds. Madeleine’s photos are everywhere in the house, as are her toys. “Kate and I have told them we don’t know where she is,” wrote Gerry on his blog, “but lots of people are looking for her and we hope they will find her.”

Meanwhile, the agonizing journey of Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39, from the largely anonymous life of respected doctors to international symbols of the perils of parenthood, is entering a critical phase of its own. Still suspects in their 3-year-old daughter’s disappearance, with photographers camped out nearby, the couple continue to deny any crime—and they are fighting to keep the focus on what they insist is the most important thing: finding their little girl. They are prepared to take lie detector tests, but polygraphs are not used in Portuguese courts. They will not comment on reports that they have hired their own investigators, but with the help of donations of more than $2 million, they will be launching a massive advertising campaign in Portugal and southern Spain, including remote areas, featuring billboards and newspaper ads with Madeleine’s picture. As supporters of the McCanns tell it, the initiative offers the couple some badly needed reason for optimism. But there is no denying the toll already taken on their spirits by the seeming lack of progress in the case. “Some days are better than others,” says the family’s public relations representative Clarence Mitchell. “It is exceedingly hard and getting harder.”

Certainly the crises and false leads of the past five months have worn them down. Despite numerous sightings around the world of children resembling Madeleine, including one in Morocco where a tourist’s snapshot of a blonde-haired youngster triggered a media frenzy on Sept. 26, none have panned out. Though Portuguese authorities named the McCanns as official suspects on Sept. 7, a judge recently ruled there was no evidence that warranted further questioning of them. But that has not stopped the Portuguese press from continuing to flay the couple, with each day seeming to bring some new allegation or innuendo (see box, right). One recent unsubstantiated scenario: that Madeleine was killed as the result of an accidental fall down a flight of stairs at the resort in Praia da Luz where the family was staying and that Kate and Gerry then hid the body. As one source confidently told the paper 24 Horas, “The only thing to investigate is how the body disappeared.”

Perhaps Kate McCann makes an easy target. Whether the McCanns are ever charged with a crime remains to be seen, but to observers, the couple are at the very least guilty of questionable judgment for leaving three small children on more than one occasion unattended while they went out for dinner with a gang of friends now referred to in the press as the “Tapas 9.” Nor has it helped that in her public appearances Kate has at times appeared chilly or emotionless. “Kate comes across as being cold,” acknowledges one acquaintance in Portugal.

But there is more to her steely demeanor than meets the eye. For one thing, in the early days of the investigation British profilers told the couple to remain calm when discussing the case in front of the television cameras. The reason: Madeleine’s abductor might become excited by seeing them suffer—which could conceivably put the child in greater danger. “They were advised very early on that pedophiles get a kick out of seeing completely distressed parents,” says family friend Jon Corner.

The other fact, say friends, is that she is not someone who feels comfortable in the limelight. Kate Healy, the only child in a Catholic working-class family in Liverpool, grew up somewhat shy and studious. She excelled at school and entered the medical program at the University of Dundee in Scotland. And yet for all her accomplishments she harbored self-doubts. “Kate has always been a quiet, sensitive person,” says Linda McQueen, a longtime family friend from Liverpool. “She’s not overly confident, despite her intelligence and good looks.”

During medical school she did come out of her shell a bit. According to her yearbook, she was known as “Hot Lips Healy” and had a reputation for enthusiastic partying on Friday nights. She met her future husband while both were doctors in training at an infirmary in Glasgow. A year later she left to do a stint at a hospital in Wellington, New Zealand. Gerry had already been scheduled to continue his training in Canada, but at the last minute he got himself switched to New Zealand as well. As he quickly made clear, while his duties were medical, his intentions were romantic. “He told us he’d come for her, to woo her, really,” Ian Gearey, a friend there, told a local New Zealand paper. “He won her heart.” They returned home and in December 1998 were married in Liverpool. In 2000 they moved to the Leicestershire area, where Gerry had landed a job as a cardiologist. Though Kate was qualified as an anesthesiologist, she chose instead to work as a general practitioner, believing it would give her more flexibility when she had children.

But fertility problems put a crimp in that plan. “Being an only child, she always wanted a big family, lots of children,” says McQueen. “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.” The couple had to fall back on fertility treatments that entailed, says McQueen, “all the traumas you go through, all the ups and downs.” With the help of in vitro fertilization, Madeleine was born on May 12, 2003. “If you look at what it takes to be a doctor and go through IVF, she must have some steel inside her,” says Corner.

If so, say those who have met her, it does not appear to be the cold or inflexible variety. One British expatriate living in Praia da Luz who got to know the McCanns well says the image of Kate as an ice queen is all wrong. “She’s a very warm, very kind person,” says the source. “When local people would speak with her she’d always hug them.” As for her handling of Sean and Amelie, the source found Kate to be a doting mother. “They would sit on her knee and she would read them stories,” she says. “They were always huggy and she always put the kids first.”

The same pattern seems to have continued back in Britain, where she and Gerry have endured much unwelcome attention just so Sean and Amelie can enjoy some of the simple pleasures of childhood. “They took the children to buy shoes a week ago and they were followed and people were staring at them,” says Philomena McCann. “It’s very difficult.” McQueen says that during her recent visit to the McCann home she saw how the couple try to balance the needs of Sean and Amelie with their own emotional state. “If the twins showed an interest in going into Madeleine’s room, then Kate or Gerry would take them in for a couple of minutes,” she says, though the door is normally kept closed. “They want to keep things in place for Madeleine when she comes home.”

At the same time, the McCanns have been deeply touched by the gestures of support they have received from around the world. For instance, many of the teams in Britain’s Premier soccer league have showed up for games wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Madeleine’s image; jockeys at Ascot racetrack did the same. As Gerry wrote on his blog, “The fact that so many people are prepared to show solidarity with us in our search for our daughter does help restore our faith in humanity.”

As for the reports that the McCanns have hired private investigators to carry out their own search, much of the talk has focused on Morocco. “We feel it is as valid a place for looking for Madeleine as anywhere else,” says Mitchell, without confirming anything. “Suffice to say, Kate and Gerry will leave no stone unturned in their search for Madeleine.” Mitchell adds that one thing the family has not done is hire any investigators in Portugal, which would be illegal in that country because there is an ongoing official investigation.

Ironically, the couple have seized upon the dearth of clues as grounds for encouragement, however faint. “As the massive investigation and extensive search did not find any evidence of serious harm to Madeleine,” Gerry wrote on his blog, “we started to hope she would be found alive.” Those in their camp say they still cling tenaciously to that hope. Walking home from church this past Sunday, Sean and Amelie scooting on ahead of them playfully, the McCanns put their arms around each other’s waist. Then Kate could be seen rubbing Gerry’s back, as if consoling him. How much it helped in these darkest hours, perhaps even they could not say.

https://people.com/archive/cover-story-desperate-days-the-madeleine-mccann-mystery-vol-68-no-16/
....................

What a load of old flannel.

Then Kate could be seen rubbing Gerry’s back, as if consoling him. How much it helped in these darkest hours, perhaps even they could not say.

Or maybe he had wind.

...for a moment I though that said "A Monster Fights Back" found my glasses now...

Robert Murat's lawyer criticises the McCanns



The McCanns are sticking by their detectives

By Fiona Govan in Praia da Luz

3:31PM GMT 27 Nov 2007

The lawyer of Robert Murat, the first suspect in the case of missing Madeleine McCann, has launched an astonishing personal attack on her parents and the detective agency they have hired to find their daughter.

Francisco Pagarete, who has acted for Mr Murat since he was made an arguido on May 14, gave an interview to a Portuguese newspaper in which he branded Kate and Gerry McCann “hypocrites” and said they should be “cursed” for leaving their children alone.

"The McCanns deserve to be cursed...for leaving their children unprotected,” he told Portuguese daily 24 Horas commenting on the fact that the McCanns had left Madeleine and her siblings, twins Sean and Amelie, 2, alone in the apartment while they dined with friends in a nearby Tapas restaurant on the night of May 3.

"I'm just sorry that there are people out there ready to support a couple who abandoned their three children."

"Meanwhile my client, his mother and his girlfriend, who have done nothing wrong, are seeing their name dragged through the mud on a daily basis."

His remarks follow a series of claims that detectives at Metodo 3, the Spanish agency brought in by the McCanns in September, have new information allegedly linking both Mr Murat and his German girlfriend Michaela Walczuch, both 34, to the abduction of Madeleine McCann.

They are said to be following up two alleged sightings of a woman identified by witnesses as Ms Walczuch with a child matching Madeleine's description.

And it has also been reported that they had spoken to a nanny at the resort who in December had allegedly seen a man “identical” to Mr Murat attempting to break into apartment 5A - the apartment later rented by the McCanns at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz.

But Mr Murat, who shares a villa with his 71-year-old mother less than 100 yards from the McCanns apartment, denies any wrongdoing and has called for an end to the “smear campaign” he believes has been launched against him from the McCann camp.

Mr Murat's lawyer went on to label the Barcelona based detective agency “mercenaries” and said that his client was considering suing the company for making a series of “unsubstantiated slurs”.

"Metodo 3 are mercenaries" he said.

"The detectives are persecuting my client and his girlfriend who as a result no longer have a private life,” said Mr Pagarete.

"This is simply unacceptable in a democratic state,” he said and issued the warning: “Leave my client alone.”

The Portuguese authorities have said they are aware of the investigations being carried out by Metodo 3 and have warned them that they could breach Portuguese law if they “interfere” in the case.

Clarence Mitchell, the official spokesman for the McCanns has said the couple continue to put their faith in Metodo 3.

"We have every confidence in M3's abilities to investigate Madeleine's disappearance and at whatever stage, where it is relevant, they are happy to share information with the Portuguese Police,” he said.

"Everything M3 does on this case is within the law.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1570686/Robert-Murats-lawyer-criticises-the-McCanns.html

Madeleine McCann: Police 'closing in on new suspect'

MADELEINE McCann's parents were given new hope of finding their daughter after police in Portugal were said to be closing in on a suspect.

John Twomey
PUBLISHED: 22:27, Tue, Jun 25, 2019 | UPDATED: 08:53, Wed, Jun 26, 2019

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1145318/madeleine-mccann-new-suspect-portugal-police
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La Espresso .... Twomey or not Twomey, that is the question!

New hope, not buoyed-up -  is this a gender issue?  Must it now be girled-up or thingy'dup?

Man - woman - beast'iality whatever became of this new suspect the police were closing in on all those months ago? Did they go the way of all flesh just like the e-fits published by Crimewatch 2013 Madeleine McCann Special?

Lest they forget..

Questions have been asked in the past, whether or not it was the Smith family who were involved with drawing-up the e-fits (plural), shown during the 2013 Crimewatch Madeleine McCann Special.

Although I'm very cynical about press reports, this was published in October 2013, just days after the Crimewatch programme was televised..


Is this the moment of Madeleine McCann's kidnapping?

THE man who has emerged as key to the Madeleine McCann inquiry assumed a man he saw carrying a blonde girl the night she disappeared was a father with his child.

By [url=https://www.express.co.uk/search?s=James murray&b=1]James Murray[/url]
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, Oct 20, 2013

Today, for the first time, the Sunday Express publishes extracts from the witness statement retired Irish businessman Martin Smith gave to detectives in Portugal.

As the hunt for the kidnappers moves shortly to Ireland for a new Scotland Yard appeal, we reveal how this crucial piece of the jigsaw was nearly lost because Mr Smith thought it was not important.

He owns an apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve coast, and was staying there with a large family group on May 3, 2007, when Madeleine was taken from an apartment at the Ocean Club.

First they went to the Dolphin restaurant and then to Kelly’s bar, near the beach.

Mr Smith’s statement, written out by a Portuguese detective, says: “After leaving the bar he (Mr Smith) travelled in the opposite direction and reached a set of stairs which gave access to Rua 25 de Abril (25th of April Street), parallel to Rua 1 de Maio (1st of May street).

“As he reached this artery, he crossed an individual holding a child. He is not aware where this person was headed. He assumed it was a father and daughter and thought nothing more of it.

“When he passed this individual, it must have been around 22.00. He did not know at the time that a child had disappeared. He only became aware of the disappearance...the next morning.

“Regarding the individual, he states that he was Caucasian, 175-180cm in height. He appeared to be 35/40 years old. He had a normal complexion, a bit on the thin side.

“His hair was short, brown in colour. He states that the child was female, about four years of age. The child has blonde...without being very light. Her skin was very white, typical of a Brit. She was asleep.

“She was wearing light-coloured pyjamas. The individual did not appear to be a tourist. He cannot explain this further. It was simply his perception.

“He states that the individual carried the child in his arms. Having already seen various photographs of Madeleine...he states that she may have been the child he saw. He cannot state this as fact but is convinced that it could have been Madeleine.”

Mr Smith’s wife Mary said: “We saw a man carrying a blonde child. It was just such a normal thing to see in a holiday resort – we didn’t think anything of it at the time.”

In 2008 Mr Smith worked on e-fit images, which were released on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme last week. Detectives from Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange have had over 2,400 calls and emails since the programme last Monday.

Last week German television station ZDF staged a reconstruction of the events of the night of May 3, 2007, when Maddie disappeared from her room.

A special edition of the crime programme Aktenzeichen XY - Ungeloest which is translated as "File XY - Unsolved", aired on Wednesday.

The footage - shown above - received hundreds of phone calls from members of the public.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/437948/Is-this-the-moment-of-Madeleine-McCann-s-kidnapping
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The German crime programme reconstruction footage can be seen if you open the Express link ^^^.  Curious!

The footage is bullshit because the McLiars only ever did their own reconstruction so they could tell us their bullshit version of events. Maybe she died earlier in the week or maybe the timeline shambles was just that the alarm was raised earlier at 9.30. Some bar staff have stated people were calling Madeleine at 9.40 which would give GM aka Smithman time to dispose of sorry hide the body whilst being spotted by the Smiths at the time they were proved to have left the bar. There are many things that can be explained away in this case and some that can't so why doesn't somebody cut the bullshit out and concentrate on whats clearly true, or false and take it from there.It's about time the McCanns and their dodgy mates gave us some answers, after all tax payers are paying to keep this lot out of jail.

Never mind the facts, this is showbusiness

"Big Brother and the McCann case are treated by the media in roughly the same fashion"

Peter Wilby

Mon 17 Sep 2007 07.44 BST   First published on Mon 17 Sep 2007 07.44 BST  

In the Guardian last week, Jonathan Freedland observed that to conceive of Kate and Gerry McCann as killers of their missing daughter, Madeleine, was "to experience cognitive dissonance". Which was not a bad description of the condition of the British press after the McCanns were questioned again by the Portuguese police.

"God knows where it is all going to end," declared Jan Moir in the Daily Telegraph. "I frankly haven't got a clue what to think," confessed Boris Johnson in the same paper. "Dear God, who knows what we can believe?" wailed the Daily Mail's Amanda Platell. Even the belief that the Daily Express is a hopeless newspaper that couldn't tell you the time of day - one of the few certainties in a turbulent world - took a knock. Just when everyone else was getting bored of the McCann case, the Express started splashing stories across its front page every day, usually topped with the single word "Madeleine" in caps. When the latest news broke last week, it looked, for once, ahead of the game.

You wouldn't know it, but almost nothing new has been said officially about the case, either by the Portuguese police or by the forensic science service in Britain. The facts are: the McCanns were questioned last week, a file has gone to the prosecutor, the British have analysed evidence from the site of the disappearance and sent some results to Portugal. Nearly everything else - the hair in the car, the investigations in the local church, the demands for Cuddle Cat, the diary contents and so on - is speculation, based on unnamed sources. Even the precise meaning of "arguido/a" is unclear. Most of the speculation comes from the Portuguese press and British journalists are in the happy position of being able to repeat such reports while denouncing them as wicked Latin inventions. "Gerry may not be the father," was one Express headline.

Beneath, the story began: "The smear campaign in Portugal against the McCanns continued yesterday . . ."

The reporters who have followed the case - mostly without giving any hint that we should doubt Madeleine was abducted by a passing stranger - now fear they will look fools. All their carefully crafted pieces about the parents' anguish, stoicism and dedication to finding their daughter will seem pretty silly if the McCanns prove responsible. "The consequences would be harmful almost beyond measure," warned the Mail's David Jones. "Such an incredible outcome would forever destroy the inherent faith we place in outwardly decent, caring parents ... and with it our very trust in the goodness of human nature.

It would make cynics of us all." Cynics? Even in Fleet Street? Heaven forfend. They certainly don't include Jones's colleague, Allison Pearson. Closely scrutinising Kate McCann from her sofa in front of the telly, Pearson remained confident of the woman's innocence. "Notice the checked trousers that fitted her four months ago flapping on her emaciated frame. Watch her head lean with infinite tenderness into her baby daughter's face."

Nevertheless, some reporters discovered that they had "niggling suspicions" all along. If you wondered why they hadn't mentioned them before, it was because, as Jones put it, "such a terrible notion" was "almost unspeakable, even within . . . my own four walls". He had found Gerry McCann's weblog "strangely breezy and matter-of-fact". The Sunday Telegraph's Olga Craig, who had interviewed the McCanns earlier in the summer, now reported that Kate had become "very edgy" and "stood up and walked off" when questioned about their failure to use a baby-sitter or lock the apartment. She came across as "detached, a little cold". Only after "lengthy gentle coaxing" would she talk of her emotions.

The Mail on Sunday's Chris Leake had found something fishy in the behaviour of friends who were dining with the McCanns on the night Madeleine disappeared. One informed the police she saw someone carrying a child near the McCanns' apartment, but she "refused to talk publicly". Another agreed to a press interview but "changed her mind". Back in England, a colleague of Kate McCann's became "hostile towards approaches from this newspaper".

Refusing to talk about your emotions - or talk at all - to a journalist would strike many people as normal behaviour. In any case, Portuguese law takes very seriously the dangers of prejudicial reporting. The McCanns and their friends were warned from the start that, beyond the bare, factual details, they should not disclose publicly information that might be relevant in court, and, officially at least, the police are under the same inhibitions. All this is airily dismissed in the British press as "secrecy".

But a child's disappearance, like politics, royalty, marriage and death, is now part of the showbusiness industry. The boundaries between real life and fictional drama are increasingly blurred.

Coronation Street, the Blair-Brown struggle (now sadly closed after a long run), Big Brother and the McCann case are treated by the media in roughly the same fashion. Emotions become public property. Grief must be expressed according to agreed conventions.

As Dominic Lawson pointed out in an excellent column in the Independent, Kate McCann is expected to cry (but not, he might have added, to wail or beat her chest as Middle Eastern mothers do) and, if she fails to do so publicly, the newspapers will say she cried in private even if they couldn't possibly know.

Unless, of course, she's found guilty. In which case, the lack of tears will be evidence of a cold-hearted monster.

Red-top reticence


When I read last week that the Press Complaints Commission had censured FHM magazine for printing a photograph of a topless 14-year-old girl, I looked to the press for coverage and comment. Surely, I thought, newspapers that are so determined to root out "evil" paedophiles and to denounce "pervs" who view child pornography would have something to say.

True, the magazine insisted she looked older than 14 and it has promised not to do it again - but I've a feeling I've heard those excuses somewhere before.

Yet only the Guardian carried more than a paragraph and several papers ignored the story. There was not a word, for example, in the Sun, whose editor, Rebekah Wade, has always been such a sturdy opponent of paedophilia.

That wouldn't be - would it? - because the red-tops fear they might themselves be caught out one day.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/sep/17/mondaymediasection
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I left the last bit in 'Red Top Reticence' for good measure.

This is a very strange report by the Telegraph..

'We want Maddy to be found... yesterday'

By Richard Edwards in Rome

12:45PM BST 30 May 2007

It is four weeks since Kate and Gerry McCann last saw their daughter Madeleine. Twenty-eight days of moving between despair and hope - and they still do not know whether they are at the end of their ordeal or still just at the beginning.

The couple’s physical journey took them yesterday to Rome to meet the Pope, and they will move onwards to Madrid, Berlin and Amsterdam. But it is scars from their emotional journey that are ever-present.

Mrs McCann summed it up in six devastatingly simple words: “I miss life as it was.”

“We’re still in the middle of a race but we do not know how long it is going to be,” Mr McCann added: “I do not know how we will have changed. But it is fair to say we will never be the same again.”

The hardest part, they admit, is the unknown. “Every day is one day too long without Madeleine,” said Mr McCann.

"We have got to get a resolution.

“It is hugely difficult. The first 48 hours was akin to having a bereavement. It was as though Madeleine had died. It was anguish, despair, guilt, helplessness all falling into one.

“But it is different to a death, where you grieve and try to move on. Madeleine is not dead. We have been thrown into an ongoing trauma, an ongoing crisis of the unknown.

“There are different emotions at different times and we are helping each other through this. We complement each other well, we remain strong.”

He added: "We have focused into how we can do positive things, to campaign. We are totally preoccupied as how to get Madeleine back.”

With the visit to see the Pope, the global campaign has reached, in Mr McCann’s terms, stratospheric levels.

They flew to Rome in the private jet of Sir Philip Green, one of Britain’s richest men, who had offered it for free to help their cause. Prime Minister in waiting Gordon Brown is in mobile phone contact. They are lining up Government ministers to visit across Europe. David Beckham and world footballers have appealed for help in finding their daughter and they have received chat shows requests from Oprah Winfrey an Larry King in the US.

Wherever they go they are treated like royalty, followed by pilgrims, well-wishers and TV cameras. But the attention does not sit easily with them, especially Mrs McCann. The couple are desperate for Madeleine’s plight to be known worldwide but they are wary of going too far, of being seen as a celebrity couple courting the publicity.

“It is all about Madeleine,” said Mr McCann. Mrs McCann, in particular, struggles to hold in her emotions in front of TV cameras. She wants to remain private, but she also wants to do the best for Madeleine by appearing in public.

“I do not like talking about this publicly but you’ve got to put your own feelings aside,” she said.

“If we can be strong, strong for Madeleine, that will help get her back.”

On Tuesday morning Mr and Mrs McCann had to go shopping for a suit. They had to look smart for the Pope. He and his wife spent hours trying to find something appropriate in Algarve resorts dominated by T-shirts and shorts.

When they did, the hems on the trousers were too long and a tailor had to make adjustments. Ordinarily it could have been a welcome distraction, but they found it strange to be fussing over such minor details.

“It was the last thing we needed really,” said Mrs McCann.

It re-emphasised the truth: they are a very normal couple thrown into something extraordinary.

Mr McCann admitted that Saturday was his lowest day since the early days - the first time that both he and his wife have had a “bad one” together.

He said: “You have lows. It’s one of the things people do not realize. When negatives come in and affect you, you lose some control, you’ve not got that outlet of emotion. But you know that it’s detrimental to what you’re trying to do today. So you try to lock out the negative.”

Mrs McCann admits she is more fragile. She said: “It’s fair to say I find it harder to lock away the emotions.

They continue to plan, throwing themselves into it; but every moment they hope their plans are scrapped because they receive some genuine news … the news they are waiting for, that Madeleine has been found.

Mr McCann said: “We want Madeleine to be found … yesterday.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1553068/We-want-Maddy-to-be-found...-yesterday.html

On Tuesday morning Mr and Mrs McCann had to go shopping for a suit. They had to look smart for the Pope. He and his wife spent hours trying to find something appropriate in Algarve resorts dominated by T-shirts and shorts.

When they did, the hems on the trousers were too long and a tailor had to make adjustments. Ordinarily it could have been a welcome distraction, but they found it strange to be fussing over such minor details.

The Telegraph

The rest of the Pope's audience didn't see the need for special dress - why the McCanns? A good marketing ploy by any chance?

" Wherever they go they are treated like royalty , followed by pilgrims , well wishers and tv cameras . But the attention does not sit easily with them , especially Mrs McCann . The couple are desperate for Madeleines plight to be known worldwide , but they are wary of going too far , of being seen as a celebrity couple courting the publicity " 

Royalty , celebrity couple , pilgrims (?) Says it all doesn't it ! 

New suits , wonder if the Fund paid for them ? At least she left the checked pants in Portugal !

I think she had the checked pants on when she stepped off the plane in the U.K sandancer,could be wrong but I thought,has she still got them.

She was hardly going to leave one of the main items of evidence behind

Although I think sandancer meant she didn't wear them to Rome.

Blackpied wrote:I think she had the checked pants on when she stepped off the plane in the U.K sandancer,could be wrong but I thought,has she still got them.

Sorry Blackpied , I meant at least she didn't wear them in Rome ! Yes I believe she wore them on their " escape " back to Rothley in September .

No apology needed my friend.

The McCanns' Trial by Media

By Thomas K. Grose/London Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007

There's been no shortage of surprises in the ongoing saga of Madeleine McCann, the 4-year-old British girl who disappeared from her family's vacation apartment in Portugal more than four months ago — the biggest shock occurring earlier this month when Portuguese police officially named her parents as suspects. Still, it was somewhat stunning when a YouGov poll published in the Sunday Times of London this week found that only 20% of Britons think Gerry and Kate McCann are completely innocent.


London papers, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007

That indicates a huge disconnect between the public and Britain's many and multifaceted newspapers, which are usually adept at playing to their readers' biases. The press here — from populist tabloids to serious-minded dailies — has largely been unswerving in its support of the McCanns. "Madeleine: Her Mother is Innocent," shouted Wednesday's Daily Express. "Torture," declared Sunday's The People over a picture of Kate McCann, Madeleine's mother. And Chris Roycroft-Davis, a media consultant and Express commentator, thinks that's how it should be. "The media have been very, very sympathetic toward the McCanns, quite rightly so," he said on a Sunday morning BBC Radio 2 program.

Other analysts think the pro-McCann tilt is a mistake. "The press have treated the parents almost too nicely," says Adrian Monck, head of London's City University's Department of Journalism, and that could backfire if any portion of the Portuguese police's suspicions that the McCanns might know more than they are saying proves correct. Adds Charlie Beckett, a media and communications expert at the London School of Economics: "The media have almost been campaigning on behalf of the McCanns instead of adopting a more balanced position. Now they're finding it much harder to change tack."

In the wake of the police actions, however, some are trying. The Daily Mail's David Jones wrote that while he hopes the police are wrong, "a terrible nagging doubt has refused to leave me." It may be "unpalatable," he adds, but "we can no longer take their innocence as an absolute, cast-iron certainty." Olga Craig in the Sunday Telegraph recently described Kate McCann, pointedly, as cold and distant. Some publications are hedging their bets with a two-track approach: supporting the McCanns, but also printing stories that tend to bolster the police line of inquiry. London's Evening Standard recently quoted sources as saying critics of the DNA evidence — which early reports said implicated the McCanns — didn't know what they were talking about, that investigators had "full confidence" in test results. Yet, on the next page, the paper ran a two-page spread headlined, "Despite the accusations, facts are on their side."

Most commentators, however, remain resolutely supportive of the couple, including Jones's Daily Mail colleague, Allison Pearson. "I refuse to believe they are guilty unless overwhelming evidence is uncovered," she wrote. Of course, she's basically saying they're innocent until proven guilty — hardly a radical thought, since it's the bedrock of Western jurisprudence. Roycroft-Davis, however, has apparently solved the case. He said on Radio 2: "These people are completely innocent. There's no evidence that I've read that shows that they've got any part whatsoever in Madeleine's disappearance."

Ah yes, evidence. How much is there and how strong is it? That remains known only to Portuguese legal officials, suppressed for now by Portuguese law. When a Portuguese prosecutor declared Wednesday that there is currently no plan to interrogate the McCanns again, British papers claimed the police probe of the couple was "crumbling" or in "meltdown." But by saying more evidence was needed, he was mainly reiterating what police plainly said last week: They don't have enough evidence yet to charge the McCanns.

So most of the debate over evidence is based largely on leaks of varying degrees of reliability. Says Beckett: "In a vacuum of facts, it's usually best to hold back." But given the fierce rivalry that defines the British media, holding back isn't an option. So they've been awash with leaks, rumors and anonymous quotes. Much of the info actually originates with the Portuguese press. Able to cite Portuguese news outlets as their sources, U.K. papers have repeated even the most outlandish of claims. One report, since debunked, said police thought Madeleine had been weighted down and dropped at sea from a British-registered yacht.

Some critics think the story has been overplayed from the start. "It's not intrinsically important," says Peter Kellner, journalist and YouGov president. "It's a horrible thing for the family, for a small group of people. But everyday, thousands of people around the world have to cope with horrible events." Still, Monck believes that British editors have seized upon the story because they identify with the McCanns: They, too, are middle-class professionals, many of whom have children and have taken similar vacations.

The McCanns, of course, initially helped whip up public interest in the disappearance. After Madeleine first went missing, they launched a massive media campaign that was endorsed by celebrities — billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson this week started a McCann defense fund with around $200,000 of seed money — and they even got a meeting with the Pope. The YouGov poll indicated that some of the anti-McCann sentiment in the U.K. is a negative response to their self-generated publicity.

The poll's overwhelming results did, however, surprise Kellner, given the press's ongoing support for the McCanns. Nevertheless, he notes, "Even if you are reporting it in a sympathetic way, you are still saying they are suspects, and news of them being suspects swamps the sympathetic coverage." British readers may disagree with the tone of the coverage, or they may think the story is overplayed, but until the case is resolved in some fashion, the McCann media circus is here to stay.

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1663733,00.html
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How delightful to know someone else is in-tune with the way the UK media operate. Anything they write, that's anything, should be taken with a Siberian salt mine.

Meanwhile, from a vantage view point..

The media resented the McCanns muscling in on their private terrain

Matthew Parris - 12 September 2007





My former sketchwriting colleague, Simon Hoggart, has a maxim he would cite when any of us parliamentary sketchwriters were tempted to showcase a genuinely and intentionally funny MP. Humorous journalists, Simon would warn, had no business giving a platform to would-be jokers in the world of politics. Humour was our trade not theirs. We should never laugh with them: only at them. In our sketchwriters’ guild it should be a union rule not to encourage competition from unpaid amateurs. ‘We make the jokes around here.’

In an altogether darker and sadder way, I wonder whether, in their relationship with the news media, this is the mistake Kate and Gerry McCann have made. As with humour, so perhaps with pathos. The couple have seemed (though for the most understandable of motives) to be trying to orchestrate the pathos. But we do the pathos around here.

For I have sensed almost from the start of this whole, sick business an undercurrent of resentment towards these parents on the part of a British media which has not quite warmed to the thing we feed on. It is our job to exploit, to use, victims among the general public. We do not, however, quite like to be used by them. This could explain a certain relish (laced of course with generous protestations of sympathy) in the press and broadcasters’ treatment of the woes that now beset the couple as they face accusations from the Portuguese police.

Without believing in any of the latest accusations, there will still be some among whom there persists a curious feeling that the couple had it coming. The truth is that for some time the world of professional journalism has found the couple just a little bit irritating. The reason is that they have appeared to have been marketing their own tragedy. And it is we who market tragedy around here.

The irritation is well-hidden, of course, and would be universally and emphatically denied. But behind the pictures of Mrs McCann holding that almost inevitable pink cuddle-cat — pictures the press corps have actively encouraged and been happy enough to frame and project on to front pages everywhere — I have often enough heard from colleagues a sotto-voce cluck of disapproval: how come that cat’s always in shot?

Journalists who well know how to insinuate a soft toy into a story about a tragic couple get unnerved when the tragic couple steal a march on them and do so themselves — or seem to. Journalists and camera people delighted to catch an impromptu and tender moment as a grieving mother carries and cuddles her sleeping toddler feel almost cheated when these pictures are handed to them on a plate. When the McCanns publish their own blog on the web, a print media with appetite enough for the leaked email or private letter is unsure whether or how to republish.

Journalists well-versed in the techniques of creating ‘news pegs’ to give a flagging story ‘new legs’ become faintly disapproving when the individuals they are covering appear to have taken that process into their own hands and to be news-pegging and new-legging with some aplomb. Journalists skilled in ferreting out relatives, friends, friends of relatives and relatives of friends in order to introduce new voices into a narrative are somewhat taken aback when the victims at the centre of their story give the impression of doing the job for them — and all but handing out contact details for ‘today’s family friend’. When what might have been a private visit to the Pope was made very public (to the satisfaction, no doubt, of a media-savvy Vatican too) there were plenty to wonder, in private, who was using whom.

Thus (I believe) Kate and Gerry McCann have proved too helpful for their own good; too knowingly aware of where the media are coming from and what they want; and too artful and resourceful in providing it. The McCanns have proved unwisely media-wise.

It is easy to see why they did it. First, because they could: their careers and education equipped them to handle the news media on their own terms, and told them (as all media courses for non-journalist professionals now teach) how to keep ‘control’ of the story, and ‘manage’ its ‘development’. It seems, too, that at the outset they were offered advice by one or more friends in the media, and took it.

Second, they did it because they were persuaded, or persuaded themselves, that their overriding concern must be to place and keep the story of their daughter’s disappearance at the centre of world attention, putting as wide a public as possible on the alert for any trace of her, making her face recognisable worldwide, and — in short — enlisting half of humanity in her search. It’s a perfectly defensible strategy, though an alternative approach (to cool rather than inflame a story) can be defended too, and the media’s unquestioning assumption that all publicity was self-evidently to the good could be seen as self-serving.

Self-serving or not, it chimed with the strategy Madeleine’s parents had chosen; not much else was happening in the world; and the whole thing went stratospheric. The faint sense of disgust that many in the media (and perhaps among the public too) now feel is not unmixed with self-loathing. And the fact that Mr and Mrs McCann have almost seemed to be egging us on gives us someone else to blame.

We should not blame them. But we should see in their latest and perhaps last miseries a lesson. So slick has the modern media become at manufacturing and nurturing a story, so wise has so much of the public become in the media’s ways, and so uncomfortable are we all beginning to feel about the process, that any sensible individual caught up in sensational news of any sort would be ill advised to be too smart about it. The world knows how to recognise news management, and it leaves a nasty taste. What fragile self-esteem we journalists have as journalists is best flattered by leaving us to pull the strings on the puppets in our play. We don’t like it when the puppets pull back, and I don’t think our readers do either.

So if the media spotlight should fall upon you, innocent bystander, and you should wish to manage the news to your best advantage, here’s a tip. Don’t try to manage it at all. Or if you must, don’t let it show.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2007/09/the-media-resented-the-mccanns-muscling-in-on-their-private-terrain/

What a clever article. The grieving parents didn't see it, or are too narcissistic to take note of it.

Well, you know how they turn a blind eye to all the nasties said of them .... they like to keep their noses clean