Media Mayhem - MCCANN MEDIA NONSENSE OF THE DAY

Madeleine McCann: Crime Files

On 3 May 2007, three-year-old Madeleine went missing from her family's rented holiday apartment in the Algarve village of Praia da Luz, where she had been sleeping with her younger twin siblings. Her parents, Gerry and Kate, were eating their dinner less than a minute's walk away with seven friends.

They had been making regular trips back to the apartment from the tapas restaurant to check on their children. One of the friends with whom they were dining later said she had seen a man walking quickly across the road in front of her, going away from the apartment block and heading to the outer road of the resort complex.

She said he was carrying a sleeping girl in pink pyjamas, who was hanging in his arms.

Timeline

12th May 2003 - Madeleine McCann born

3rd May 2007 - Madeleine disappeared

15th May 2007 - British expatriate Robert Murat classed as suspect (not been arrested or charged but treated by police as more than a witness)

7th September 2007 - Kate McCann is formally declared an arguida

8th September 2007 - Gerry McCann is given arguido status after further police questioning

3rd February 2008 - The McCanns are no longer suspects

The Investigation

Initially the Portuguese police launched a missing person hunt but within days it became a kidnapping investigation. The police said they were pursuing two lines of investigation. The first possibility being abduction by an international paedophile network and the second being abduction by an adoption network.

When the search revealed no trace of Madeleine, police used information from 30 witnesses to put together a sketch of the person they believed had snatched her.The McCanns made appeals to the person they believed had taken Madeleine and asked for an end to the bitterness from families of other missing children, who claimed detectives were working harder to find Madeleine than their own loved ones.

About two weeks after the youngster went missing, police identified Robert Murat as an ‘arguido’, a suspect, who has thus far not been arrested or charged but is being treated by police as more than a witness. Murat, a 33-year-old estate agent, was described by friends as someone whose over-enthusiasm could lead to him being misunderstood. He was first reported to police by British journalists, who became suspicious of the way he was hanging around the investigation.

The following week a Russian man, Sergei Malinka, who was linked to Murat, was also helping police with enquires.By the end of May 2007, after she had been missing for about three weeks, the detective leading the investigation, Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, told journalists they had a suspect.

"He is a Caucasian man, 35 to 40 years old, medium build, 5ft 10in tall, hair mainly short, wearing a dark jacket, light or gold trousers and dark shoes."

The McCanns, both doctors from Leicestershire, originally steered clear of media. However, their tactic soon changed and they launched an incredibly high profile, worldwide campaign to find their daughter. A website set up specifically for the toddler received more than 50 million hits in just over 24 hours.

At the same time, the McCanns spoke of their guilt for leaving their children alone at the resort and said, at the very least, they hoped she had been taken by someone who desperately wanted a child of their own rather than an by an abuser.

By June they had an audience with the Pope, who prayed for their daughter and blessed a photograph of her. They also appeared on Spain’s version of ‘Crimewatch’ to make another emotional appeal.

Madeleine’s face was broadcast at the FA Cup Final, which was seen by an estimated 500 million people. Following on from this, a short video about the toddler was shown at the UEFA and Heineken cup finals, while Liverpool players posed with a banner that read, “Bring Maddie Home”.

All this media attention invited criticism of the couple, who were forced to compose themselves at a press conference and were grilled about whether they had anything to do with their daughter’s disappearance.

In the middle of June it looked like there had been a breakthrough in the case, when an anonymous letter was sent to a Dutch newspaper allegedly identifying where Madeleine’s body had been buried.

Dutch police said the letter was being taken seriously because it was similar to one sent to the same newspaper the previous year, which identified the hiding place of the bodies of two missing children. However, the letter turned out to be useless.

Similarly, sightings of blonde girls bearing a resemblance to Maddy McCann were reported, all of which came to nothing.

It was not long before the McCanns become suspects in the investigation. In August, blood samples from the Portuguese apartment where Madeleine had been sleeping were sent to a British laboratory for DNA testing. The blood did not match but did little to stop rumours that the McCanns had themselves been implicit in their daughter’s disappearance.

By September 2007, both parents had been declared formal suspects. Kate McCann was reportedly told she could make a deal with police if she admitted to accidentally killing her daughter, while husband Gerry faced similar interrogation.

The family's spokesman, Justine McGuinness, said Kate McCann was also asked about traces of blood found in a car, hired by the couple four weeks after Madeleine's disappearance, as well as about DNA evidence allegedly found on clothing.

Gerry McCann's sister, Philomena McCann, told reporters, "They are suggesting that Kate has in some way accidentally killed Madeleine, then kept her body, then got rid of it. I have never heard anything so utterly ludicrous in my entire life".

The McCanns flew back to England and Portuguese police admitted that confusion and disagreements in the early stages of the case meant that they found it extremely difficult to prove their suspicion that her parents were somehow involved in Madeleine's disappearance and presumed death. The McCanns strongly and repeatedly denied any involvement.

Meanwhile, sightings of blonde girls continued to flood in from various countries. Journalists flocked in late September 2007 to Morocco after a picture, showing a small blonde girl being carried, was passed to Interpol.

The investigation appeared to face further setbacks after two senior Portuguese police on the case were either removed or requested a leave of absence.

By this stage, both the media and the general public were hooked on the story and were reporting any new evidence that surfaced. One newspaper claimed that traces of Madeleine McCann's body were found on a Portuguese beach, a story later revealed to be untrue. Other front page headlines included, “We can prove parents did it - Portuguese police”; “Kate faces ten years in jail - now parents could be charged with abandoning their children”; “Syringe found in Madeleine's apartment”; “Madeline was 'killed by sleeping pills' - sensational new claim”; “McCanns or a friend must be to blame” and “Parents' car hid a corpse - Portuguese police”.

By November 2007, Gerry McCann had returned to work, although life was far from back to normal. Another newspaper report suggested that the couple had sold their daughter, while yet others said they had sold film rights to the story and that the couple had split up in the face of the enquiry.

Some relief came for the couple in February 2008 when Portugal's most senior police officer suggested that detectives may have been too hasty in making the McCanns official suspects in the investigation into the disappearance of their daughter.

Alípio Ribeiro, the national director of the Polícia Judiciária, conceded that police potentially acted too soon. He said the naming of the parents last September as official suspects might have dissuaded people from coming forward with information that could have helped. By now the case was eight months old and police were no closer to finding the missing girl. The case was beginning to wind down.Free from suspicion, the McCanns were able to take on the terrible reports and libel that had sprung from their plight. In March 2008, Madeleine's parents won a libel settlement and apology from Express Newspapers for suggesting they had been responsible. On that occasion the newspaper group paid £550,000 to the Find Madeleine campaign.The McCanns decided to hire a Spanish detective agency to run a 24-hour confidential telephone line in the hope that new information would be forthcoming, targeted at Spain, Portugal and Morocco, countries they believe may hold leads about Madeleine.

In July 2008, Robert Murat, the first official suspect in the case, accepted a £600,000 damages settlement over allegations in UK newspapers that he had been involved in Madeleine's disappearance. His suspect status was subsequently removed. Several months later, Sky News apologised to Murat and agreed to pay substantial damages over a libellous web story that likened him to a high profile child murderer.

In October 2008, it was ruled that Express Newspapers would pay £375,000 in libel damages to the friends of Kate and Gerry McCann, who were on holiday with them when Madeleine McCann vanished. The money will be donated by the group, known as the Tapas Seven, to the Find Madeleine Fund. Articles published in some of the British newspapers suggested that some of the seven had been identified as potential suspects by the Portuguese authorities.

Amidst the thousands of media reports and millions of pounds worth of publicity and campaigning, to this day Madeleine has still not been found.

The Trial

No trial has been held as no suspect has been arrested. However, other related trials have sprung up since Madeleine McCann’s disappearance due to incorrect media reports and libellous claims.

In July 2008, Robert Murat, the Briton made an official suspect by Portuguese police, accepted a £600,000 damages settlement over allegations in British newspapers that he had been involved in Madeleine's disappearance. His suspect status was subsequently removed.

In March 2007, Madeleine's parents also won a libel settlement and an apology from Express Newspapers for suggesting that they had been responsible. On that occasion, the newspaper group paid £550,000 to the Find Madeleine campaign.

In October 2008, it was ruled that Express Newspapers would pay £375,000 in libel damages to the friends of Kate and Gerry McCann, who were on holiday with them when Madeleine McCann vanished. The money will be donated by the group, known as ‘The Tapas Seven’, to the Find Madeleine Fund. Articles published in British newspapers suggested that some of ‘The Tapas Seven’ had been identified as potential suspects by the Portuguese authorities.

In November 2008, Sky News apologised and agreed to pay substantial damages to Robert Murat over a libellous web story that likened him to a high profile child murderer.

The Key Figures

The victim: Madeleine McCann

Parents of the victim: Kate and Gerry McCann

Official spokesman for the McCanns: Clarence Mitchell

Lawyers for the McCanns: Michael Caplan QC Angus McBride Carlos Pinto de Abreu - one of Portugal's best-known lawyers (He lodged the McCanns’ libel action against Portuguese newspaper Tal & Qual, which said they were police suspects after it was believed they administered their daughter a fatal drug overdose)

The 'Tapas Seven': Dr Matthew Oldfield Mrs Rachael Oldfield Dr Russell O'Brien Jane Tanner Dr David Payne Dr Fiona Payne Dianne Webster
The Arrest

To date, no arrest has been made and Madeleine McCann has not been found

https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/madeleine-mccann

Madeleine McCann: a reporter looks back on a 16-year mystery that never left the front pages

Guardian journalist who was in Praia da Luz at the time reflects on the immediate aftermath of the three-year-old’s disappearance

Daniel Boffey in Silves
Tue 23 May 2023 16.56 BST

On the May morning in 2007 that followed Madeleine McCann’s overnight disappearance from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, a smart resort in a superior part of Portugal’s Algarve, there remained a quiet confidence she would be found in short order.

The staff at the Mark Warner Ocean Club resort, where Gerry and Kate McCann, both doctors, had been enjoying the last couple of days of a week’s break, were scouring the beaches with the help of the locals, but everyone was reluctant to believe that a crime could have been committed here of all places.

The insouciance of the Portuguese police tasked with sealing off the apartment, from which she had gone missing, suggested they also believed this was a storm in a teacup.

The McCanns and their friends – dubbed “the Tapas Seven” after the meal they had been sharing when Madeleine, three, went missing – could be spotted wandering around the resort, lost in their thoughts and racked with anguish; Kate gripping her daughter’s favourite pink teddy, as she would for weeks to come.

But for the journalists in Praia da Luz, in the first hours there was certainly nothing to suggest that this was day one in a 16-year mystery that would dominate the news in Britain for weeks to come, and continue to make the front pages a decade and a half later.

The first public statement by the McCanns came late on Friday night when word went round for the media to gather outside the back of the Ocean Club resort.

With the light fading fast, the McCanns emerged from the apartments, lit up by the flash of camera bulbs. Gerry spoke briefly: “Please, if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister.”

That night, the press pack filled one of the local restaurants. A man from the British embassy came in and asked for quiet. His presence in itself a sign that something was building. He appealed for the photographers to keep their distance and was given short shrift for his efforts.

There was not a lack of empathy for the McCanns, but the appetite in London for this story was starting to make itself felt. Why was this child still missing?

The next day, it became clear that the Portuguese police were also picking up on the febrile atmosphere. Outside the police headquarters in the closest city, Portimão, the director of the Polícia Judiciária, Guilhermino Encarnação, addressed the mainly British reporters under the baking sun – in Portuguese. He claimed they had a suspect. There was a photofit but he couldn’t provide it as it would risk Madeleine’s life. He believed she was alive, he said, and would be found.

The appetite for Madeleine stories – she became the headline friendly “Maddy” – was insatiable. Reporters’ days were filled with chasing false tips of sightings.

There was crucial CCTV footage at a local petrol station to secure. Reports of abandoned clothing or sightings to confirm. One journalist from the News of the World was asked in all earnestness by his news editor to speak to Nasa “and get Maddy’s face beamed on to the moon”.

The public was asked to stare into posters of Madeleine’s eyes. She had a fleck of brown in her iris. Have you seen these eyes, they were asked.

With the Portuguese police offering scant official information, some reporters filled the gap with increasingly speculative copy, derived in large part from the local press, who were being briefed all manner of conspiracy theories by the local police.

Then the McCanns were named as formal suspects. An unforeseen twist in what was already the biggest story around. Gerry, Kate and their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, left the country on a 7am Sunday flight.

The family’s journey home via East Midlands airport, from where they had flown out a week earlier, was followed with almost obsessive interest. An interest that has hardly waned, and the heartbreaking case is making headlines again.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/23/madeleine-mccann-a-reporter-looks-back-on-a-16-year-mystery-that-never-left-the-front-pages

Police identify Madeleine suspect

By Nick Britten 05 May 2007 • 12:01am  [Note again time of publication]


Gerald and Kate McCann: desperation and despair

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They lived in Glasgow for a while and as Mr McCann's career took off they moved to Queniborough, Leics, in 2000, when he began working at the Glenfield hospital in Leicester, a leading heart specialist centre.

Mr McCann, one of five siblings, was placed on secondment to Holland for two years, where the twins were conceived.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A particular version of the truth is now traversing across the continent of Africa and has landed, for some inexplicable reason, in Kenya's equivalent to 'The News of the Screws' - Tuko who have happened across Madeleine McCann mystery this very week.

Make you own mind up..

Was Madeleine McCann found alive and well? Here's the truth

Tuesday, August 01, 2023 at 12:39 PM by Teresia Mwangi

In May 2007, Madeleine McCann made headlines when she disappeared from a holiday resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. She was three years old at the time. The girl's disappearance triggered an outpouring of public interest, and netizens are curious to know if the British girl has been found. So was Madeleine McCann found alive and well?

From Charley Ross's disappearances to Adam Walsh's abduction, there are several kidnapping cases that have made history. In some cases, the victims were recovered alive. However, some disappearances remain unresolved to this date. Madeleine McCann's disappearance is a case in point.

Who is Madeleine McCann?

Madeleine Beth McCann was born on May 12, 2003, in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. The names of her parents are Kate and Gerry McCann. Her parents are both physicians. Madeleine has twin siblings, Sean and Amelie. The twins were born in 2005.

What happened to the McCann family?

Madeleine McCann made headlines in May 2007 when she disappeared from a holiday apartment. Her parents had gone for a vacation in Praia da Luz, Portugal, with a group of friends. On the fateful night, Madeleine's parents joined their friends for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

They left Madeleine and her twin siblings sleeping in the apartment. But, they devised a plan to check on the kids every half an hour. Gerry came to check on the children at around 9 PM, and they were all sleeping on their beds.

When her mother returned to check on the children a few minutes later, she discovered Madeleine was missing from her bed. A search was conducted on the complex and its surroundings all night, but she was not found. Hundreds of people volunteered to search for the little girl, but the search yielded no results.



A few days after her disappearance, the police issued a statement claiming that the little girl had been abducted from the hotel room and launched an investigation into the case. Initially, her parents were named the main suspects but were later cleared.

Has Madeleine McCann been found yet?

Unfortunately, Madeleine has not yet been found. It is sixteen years since she disappeared, but there are no definitive answers from the investigation. Uncertainty still swirls around her disappearance.

The investigation has cost millions of pounds, but nothing conclusive has been found. Many years have passed by, and the hopes of finding Madeleine alive have dwindled. But, the search for Madeleine continues because her parents believe that she is still alive somewhere and they will be reunited with her in the foreseeable future.

Her parents have written and published a book about her disappearance to keep the search for their missing daughter alive. The book was released in May 2011 during her eighth birthday. In May 2023, the McCann family marked the 16th anniversary of her disappearance.



Madeleine Mccann's latest news

Recently, Madeleine McCann's disappearance case took a new twist when a Polish woman, Julia Faustyna, came out publicly and claimed she was the missing Madeleine. Julia pointed out similarities between herself and Madeleine.

She submitted samples of forensic examinations to prove that she was the missing girl. So what were the results of the Madeleine McCann test? The results showed that she had no ties to the McCann family.

Madeleine Mccann's update

In May 2023, the investigation team in Portugal conducted a new search around the Arade reservoir based on a new tip. Sniffer dogs were deployed to the area in an operation that lasted several days. The uncovered material was analyzed, but details of what was discovered from the analysis have not been made public.

Madeleine McCann's disappearance - Wrapping up  



So was Madeleine McCann found alive and well? It is unclear if Madeleine is still alive or not. Despite extensive investigations, very little information has been uncovered on the whereabouts of Madeleine since she was abducted in 2007. But, her parents are still hopeful that she is still alive and well somewhere.

https://www.tuko.co.ke/facts-lifehacks/celebrity-biographies/515760-was-madeleine-mccann-alive-s-truth/



The truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

A reminder of days gone by - for obvious reasons I think..

EXCLUSIVE



by Simon Wright 23rd May [that month again] 2009

Paedo Raymond Hewlett admits visiting Madeleine holiday flats

Paedo's shock confession to holiday couple: 'I know Madeleine resort very well..I’ve parked near flat several times.

The British paedophile linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has sensationally confessed to being outside her holiday apartment “many times”.

Convicted pervert Raymond Hewlett, 64, has admitted knowing the resort where the McCanns were holidaying “very well” and said he had parked a van close to their complex on several occasions.

And last night a man who shared a Morocco campsite with Hewlett and his family for three months described how the drifter was obsessed with the missing youngster.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror, former Scots Guard Peter Verran, 46, revealed how Hewlett, his German wife Mariana, 33, and their six children arrived at the campsite where he was holidaying in Chefchaaouen in a battered Dodge truck. It was May 2007 – shortly after Madeleine’s disappearance.

“He seemed like an old hippy traveller who had dropped out,” said Peter, who runs an internet business selling antiques and collectibles from his home in Fowey, Cornwall.

“We got talking at the toilet block. He brought Madeleine up straight away. He said his three-year-old daughter looked like her.

“He was worried that because there had been reports that Madeleine may have been spirited away to Morocco, people might think his child was her. Then he suddenly said, ‘Madeleine’s not in Morocco’.

“I asked him what he meant and he said he knew Praia Da Luz really well. He knew the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns had been staying. He said he’d been there many times and had often parked his van close to the apartment.



“He said he knew the layout of the place, the flat and the restaurant where the McCanns and their friends had been eating when Maddie disappeared. He had a lot of detail about the layout. He said there was no way that the child could be taken without the parents seeing. He said they were lying.”

Yesterday it emerged that Portuguese police did speak to Hewlett about Madeleine’s disappearance – but ruled him out as a suspect.

Peter also revealed that pothead Hewlett made wild and unfounded claims that the McCanns – both doctors, from Rothley, Leics – were involved in their daughter’s disappearance.

“One of Hewlett’s theories was that there had been an accident and Kate and Gerry had killed her and were trying to cover it up,” said Peter.

“He even made the crazy suggestion that her mum and dad had sold her to gipsies. He said it was common knowledge among locals that Praia Da Luz in general and the Ocean Club in particular was a magnet for Romanian gipsies who abduct and then traffic children.

"I asked him why he’d left and come to Morocco. He told me he’d had to leave Portugal in a hurry. He said he’d packed his family up in half an hour and just driven out of the area. That was just after Maddie was taken.”
Peter, who is partially disabled, met his Moroccan wife Nisrine, 25, when he was holidaying in Agadir.

They married in May 2007 and when they encountered Hewlett at the remote campsite, they were enjoying an extended honeymoon touring the country in a camper van.

“We’d been there a week or so when Hewlett and his family just rolled in in a big blue Dodge truck,” said Peter, who has two children from a previous marriage. “I didn’t see him for a few days. I just saw his wife and kids. She’d checked them in to the campsite and seemed to be handling all the paperwork. In Morocco, you have to have the right papers to stay anywhere. Looking back, it seems Hewlett was reluctant to be seen by anyone in authority.”

After a few days, Peter began bumping into Hewlett and they started to chat. “He told me he had been in Southern Ireland once but had to leave in a hurry,” said Peter. “He explained that he and his wife were travellers and they moved around a lot. He said he spent his days sitting around smoking dope while his six kids played.

“The kids were a bit weird. They were very withdrawn and couldn’t speak properly. They never went to school and spent all day playing in the mud.

“Hewlett told me he was ill and suffered with pains in his chest. One day he said, ‘I think I’ve got cancer’. I told him to go back to England to get checked out and to sort the kids out with a proper home. He said he didn’t want people poking their noses into his business.’’

Peter told how he and Nisrine would eat meals with Hewlett’s family – and Hewlett would often talk about Madeleine. “He went on and on about the McCanns and kept telling me all his theories about what he thought had happened,” said Peter. “Looking back, maybe it was a way of making sure we didn’t think he had anything to do with it.”

Peter, who spent six years in the Army before working with people with learning difficulties, recalled how in the three months they were all together he only saw Hewlett leave the camp once or twice. “Most of the time he stayed on the campsite,” he said. “He was never short of money though. He bought diesel, a motorbike and engine parts. I don’t know where he got his money from. He said he’d made cash from car boot sales.”

Then, one day in August 2007, Hewlett announced he and his family were leaving. “He said his wife’s visa had run out and his passport was out of date,” said Peter. “They packed up and left quickly.”

Peter and Nisrine returned to the UK in November 2007 and had occasional texts or phone calls from Hewlett. “He said he was back in Tavira, near Praia Da Luz, doing car boot sales,” Peter said.

“In June last year, he rang to say he had throat cancer. The next I heard they were in Spain. He called to ask for money and I sent him £50. I couldn’t bear the thought of his kids starving. I even offered to pay for him to come back to the UK. I didn’t get a reply and we lost touch.

“Then suddenly this week he was in the newspapers linked to Maddie’s disappearance. I could hardly believe my eyes. It was such a massive shock. It makes my blood run cold. We haven’t been able to sleep much since the news broke. I keep feeling guilty that I should have noticed something and gone to the police. But I just thought he was an odd drifter. I pray he hasn’t had anything to do with it, but now I just don’t know.”

Detectives working for the McCanns are now investigating former trawlerman Hewlett. And officers from Leicestershire Police – the McCanns home force and in charge of liaising with Portuguese authorities – have said they want to speak to two British holidaymakers who tracked down Hewlett.

Cindy and Alan Thompson raised the alarm after they realised he and his family had been staying at a camping site an hour from Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished. The couple helped to trace him to the hospital in Germany where he is being treated for throat cancer.

Last night Leicestershire Police were made aware of the Sunday Mirror’s new revelations. Hewlett is also wanted for questioning by West Yorkshire Police over a child sex attack in 1975 and by Greater Manchester Police investigating the 1975 abuse of an eight-year-old girl.

In 1972, he abducted and sexually assaulted a neighbour’s six-year-old daughter. He was sentenced to 18 months and released after a year. In 1978 he attempted to rape a nine-year-old girl and was jailed four years. In 1988 in Mold, Cheshire, he kidnapped and assaulted a 14-year-old girl and was jailed for six years.

He was described by one judge as “extremely dangerous” and once featured on a Crimestoppers list of Most Wanted Paedophiles.

[Acknowledgement: pamalam of gerrymccannsblog]
....................

The similarities between this and a certain other individual of German origin are uncanny - squint the eyes a bit a you might be inclined to think one is the alter-ego of the other.

It's curious, or perhaps obvious, to note the McCann's private detectives involvement in many of these witness stories - so many who say they reported something to the Portuguese police and/or the UK police but never heard back.  



This is nothing new, indeed it's listed on the forum's Bearing False Witness thread but my interest here is the involvement of Metodo3 - again!

Original Source:  THIS IS LONDON; MON 31 DEC 2007-MAIL LINK
By FIONA BARTON, DAN NEWLING and VANESSA ALLEN
Last updated at 15:55 31 December 2007

Two British sisters gave a dramatic account of a pair of strangers watching the Ocean Club pool and tapas bar hours before Madeleine McCann vanished.

In an exclusive interview, Jayne Jensen and Annie Wiltshire told how they saw two blond men in their 30s, standing on the balcony of an empty apartment only a couple of doors away from the McCanns' flat in Praia da Luz.

And they provided further evidence that Robert Murat, the first official suspect in the case, lied about his whereabouts on the night Madeleine disappeared.

Mrs Jensen, a 54-year-old businesswoman, says she saw Mr Murat outside the McCann apartment half an hour after the alarm was raised.

The expatriate estate agent claims he was at home with his elderly mother all night, but it has emerged that a British barrister on holiday with his wife and children has corroborated Mrs Jensen's account.

Although the two sisters contacted Portuguese police within hours of Madeleine's disappearance, their evidence was ignored for six months.

The women met police three times within 24 hours, tried to find out who the strangers were themselves and made several follow-up phone calls to the authorities.

But it was not until six weeks ago that a formal statement was finally taken.

The two women, both divorcees from Maidstone, Kent, spent 11 hours with British police officers providing details of their evidence and later met private detectives from Metodo 3, the agency employed by the McCanns to find their daughter.

They intended to remain anonymous but when their names were leaked to a Portuguese newspaper and they found themselves wrongly accused of waiting eight months before coming forward, they decided to reveal the truth.

The sisters said they were immediately struck by the behaviour of the two men on the balcony.

The pair, tanned and in Bermuda shorts, were standing outside the patio doors of a groundfloor apartment, which had been unoccupied all week, and were looking out over the resort's family swimming pool and restaurant area.

Mrs Wiltshire, 58, a mother of two, said: "It was odd because I hadn't seen them before. In May the resort wasn't busy.

There were only about 60 of us staying in the apartments and you got to recognise all the other people.

"One of the guys was walking down the steps and as I looked at him, he walked back up and started talking to the other one.

"They had a view of the whole Ocean Club and the McCanns' apartment. It just showed how easy it would be for anyone to use those balconies to watch the area. It has haunted me ever since."

That evening - May 3 - Madeleine disappeared from her bed as her parents, Gerry and Kate ate dinner with seven friends in the tapas bar.

The sisters, who helped search for the child that night, went to police the next day to report the sighting of the strangers and their concerns.



Mrs Wiltshire, who went on holiday with her sister to recover from a cancer operation, said: "The theory is that Madeleine could have been targeted. This story proves how easily it could have been done but the Portuguese police were not interested.

"It makes you wonder if there are more of us out there who have tried and not succeeded in reporting things they saw but have given up.

"They might not have been as persistent and tenacious as us but we were determined to get the information to the police somehow."



The two women had been in Praia da Luz for a week before the McCanns - Gerry, Kate, three-year-old Madeleine and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie - arrived with a party of doctors for a short break.

Mrs Jensen and her sister were in the same daily tennis coaching group as Mr McCann. It was organised by Mark Warner, the tour operator which manages the Ocean Club complex.

"We never met Kate," Mrs Jensen said. "And we never socialised with Gerry. We just played tennis."

On the evening of May 3, the sisters ate in the same tapas restaurant as the McCann party.

Neither of them remembers the doctors being rowdy or drinking heavily that night, as other witnesses have suggested.

Mrs Jensen, a bar manager, said: "They were not noisy or dominating the restaurant. They were just a party of friends enjoying a meal."

The sisters finished their dinner and left to walk down into the village for a nightcap.

"We were on the way to the bar when we heard the hue and cry about a missing child," added Mrs Jensen.

"The Mark Warner staff were being called on their phones and everyone thought it was a child who had wandered out of her room, looking for her parents.

"Apparently it had happened before and there was a drill they carried out. I left Annie in the bar and came back up to the apartments to see if I could help. It was only then I realised the scale of the search.

"I went straight into the creche area and checked the play area and Wendy House but found nothing."

It was then that Mrs Jensen saw 34-year-old Mr Murat for the first time. She saw a man light a cigarette as he stood on the street corner opposite the McCanns' ground-floor apartment.

She said: "I had semi-given up smoking and was thinking I could do with a cigarette when this bloke just along the pavement from me lit up. I noticed him but didn't think anything more of it."

A middle-aged barrister, a near neighbour of Mrs Jensen in the holiday complex, has told police that he spoke to her at the time and also saw Mr Murat.

The next day, said Mrs Jensen, Mr Murat introduced himself to her and her sister.

"It was hideous when we realised that the little girl had not been found. It really began to hit home that something horrible had happened.

"I thought maybe she had fallen down a manhole, or hit her head. I didn't think she had been taken at that point and we helped search bins and scrubland."

As they and the other holidaymakers combed the area, Mrs Jensen met another member of her tennis coaching group, TV producer Jez Wilkins.

"Jez told me it was Gerry's daughter we were looking for. I hadn't realised before that moment.

"Jez said that he knew Gerry had checked the children because he had met him coming back from the apartment."

As the hours passed without any sighting of Madeleine, Mrs Wiltshire became increasingly concerned about the strangers she had seen the day before.

She said: "I didn't know if it was significant or not but I needed to tell the police in case it helped.

"I got a member of Mark Warner's staff to get a policeman to come and see me and told two officers about the men I had seen.

"I told them they were blond and one had curly hair. One was stockier than the other and they had obviously just opened the gate and walked up to the balcony.

"I showed the policemen the balcony and as I was explaining the circumstances, Robert Murat appeared and started translating for me."

Mr Murat was acting as an unofficial interpreter for the police and Mrs Wiltshire assumed he was part of the police force.

Later that day, she and her sister bumped into him again and he asked them if they needed any more help with the police and whether they had remembered anything else.

Mrs Jensen said: "He said he was helping the police because he lived locally and he was very helpful."

That evening, the two sisters joined the barrister and his wife for a glass of wine on the balcony of their apartment.

They were discussing Madeleine's disappearance and the apparent failure of the police to set up a crime scene when Mr Murat walked past, saw them and joined them uninvited.

Mrs Jensen said: "He was wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans and he said he needed to go home and change because it had been a long day, which was odd, because he had already changed out of the clothes he had been wearing earlier."

After Mr Murat left, the barrister told the sisters he found him "odd".

His wife was distraught about Madeleine's disappearance and the couple were desperate to leave the resort. Their names have not been revealed.

Mrs Jensen insists she is not conducting "a witch hunt" against Mr Murat.

"It was only after he was made an arguido (official suspect) that I realised any of this information could be important."

Other witnesses who have placed Mr Murat near the McCann apartment that night include Mark Warner nanny Charlotte Pennington, two tourists who contacted Metodo 3 independently and three of the McCanns' friends, Fiona Payne, Rachael Oldfield and Russell O'Brien.

But friends and family of Mr Murat insisted he was not there. His mother Jennifer, 71, said: "People who say he was outside Madeleine's apartment that night are telling lies.

"I challenge them to tell Portuguese police what they're telling the McCanns' investigators."

When Mrs Jensen got home, she made a number of calls to police and Crimestoppers. She gave them an outline of the sightings and was told someone would call her back but nobody did.

In September, the two women went back to Praia da Luz to try to make direct contact with the McCanns but as they arrived, Kate and Gerry were made official suspects and left to return to Britain.

The sisters admit they might have let things go at that point but the constant mention of Madeleine in the press kept nagging at them.

In desperation they finally e-mailed the McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell and told him what they knew.

Within days, they were contacted by Leicestershire police who apologised for the delay and sent an officer round to interview them.

"They were there for 11 hours, finishing at midnight and we finally got to sign a statement," added Mrs Jensen.

"All we wanted was to get the information to the right people. It is just ridiculous that no one would help us."

A spokesman for the McCanns said: "We remain extremely grateful to Annie and Jayne for making the efforts they have to get their information to us.

"They have been trying since day one and have only wanted to help Kate and Gerry find Madeleine.

"They are utterly credible witnesses and we are very grateful to them."

? Kate McCann hopes to return to Portugal once she has been cleared as a suspect in her daughter's disappearance, friends said yesterday.

Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry expect to be re-interviewed by police early in the New Year, and hope it will bring them a step closer to being eliminated as arguidos - official suspects.

The couple, both 39, would then be free to continue their campaign work and believe Portugal could still hold the key to finding Madeleine.

Once the lead story on every Portuguese television bulletin and newspaper, the case is now attracting less attention and an appeal by the McCanns would give the coverage fresh impetus.

But the couple cannot speak freely about the case while they remain arguidos as they are bound by the country's strict secrecy laws, which ban witnesses or suspects from talking about the case.

A friend said: "If they were to go to Portugal now it would seem like they were trying to put pressure on the police, and they don't want that.

"But if they were cleared as arguidos then it would change everything.

"They would be cleared in the eyes of the judicial system and technically in the eyes of the world, although they realise that there will always be some people who view them with suspicion."

[Acknowledgement:  pamalam of gerrymccannsblog]

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t15551p25-bearing-false-witness#425328

Branson aid for McCanns

16th September 2007

Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson is backing the McCann family with a £100,000 to fight police suspicions over their daughter's disappearance.

Sir Richard - who originally put up £100,000 as part of £1.5m reward money to find four-year-old Madeleine when she disappeared - has been in touch with several wealthy figures to encourage them to now contribute to the McCanns' legal fund.

Sir Richard has also spoken directly to Gerry and Kate McCann to offer them his support.

He made his second donation because they are barred from using any money previously raised by donations to search for little Madeleine.



The couple have been named suspects in the inquiry into the disappearance of their daughter in Portugal on May 3. They deny the allegation.

The McCann camp has welcomed the donation.

A spokesman for the tycoon, whose family home is in Mill End, Kidlington, said: "This is a chance to give them a fair hearing.

"Over the last few weeks Richard has been watching events as they have unfolded.

"There is a whole family involved here.

"When the McCanns said under no circumstances would they touch the Find Madeleine Fund and mentioned they would sell their house, Richard just felt he had to do something. They just need their chance to have a fair hearing.

"He is a father and there is a missing child out there in all of this. At the end of the day, a little four-year-old is still missing.

"If Richard can help a little bit to take the burden off the family and extended family by helping in this small way then that is all to the good."

The McCanns had also said they did not want to use any of the £1m "Find Madeleine" fund to finance their legal costs.

At the same time, they have announced an £80,000 advertising campaign to help find Madeleine.

The couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, face further questioning by detectives investigating the case.

A spokesman for the McCanns told the Oxford Mail: "We don't comment on individual donations but I'm sure Kate and Gerry are happy to have this kind of support."

They returned to the UK last weekend, but the scrutiny surrounding them has continued.

Detectives in Portugal are said to be working on the theory that Mrs McCann may have accidentally killed her daughter and relied on her husband to cover it up, a claim they reject as "ludicrous".

Members of the public who wish to give money are being asked to carry on donating to the Find Madeleine fund.

The £80,000 from the Madeleine Fund, established to search for the four-year-old, will be spent on newspaper, television and billboard adverts.

Sir Richard has kept in touch with the couple since Madeleine disappeared from their holiday apartment.

Today the couple attended mass at their local church in Rothley for the first time since returning home.

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/1692056.branson-aid-mccanns/

Don't be filthy

Almost one year ago..

Gloating Portuguese cop says the McCanns 'are still suspects' in the disappearance of Madeleine hours after the family lose libel legal battle against his book

Kate and Gerry McCann lost latest round of legal battle with Goncalo Amaral
Ex-police chief said the couple 'remain suspects' over Maddie's disappearance
Pair had sued cop for libel after he published a book suggesting they were involved in the disappearance of daughter Madeleine in 2007
Parents won the initial case but ruling was overturned by Portuguese judges in 2017, prompting them to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights
European judges today ruled in Amaral's favour, opening door to another appeal

By Natalia Penza and Nick Pisa for MailOnline

Published: 16:47, 20 September 2022 | Updated: 17:11, 20 September 2022

The Portuguese ex-police chief who probed the disappearance of Madeleine McCann said her parents are 'still suspects' as he gloated over his court win today.

Goncalo Amaral laid into Gerry and Kate in a radio interview in his native country after learning they had lost the latest round of their libel battle against his 2008 book.

The couple had taken him to the European Court of Human Rights after years of litigation in his homeland over Truth of the Lie, which accused them of covering up Madeleine's 'accidental' death in their Praia da Luz holiday apartment in May 2007.

The McCanns reacted to their court defeat by admitting they were 'naturally disappointed' at the decision but insisting they had no regrets about pursuing their long and arduous legal battle.

They said it meant the focus was now 'rightly' on the search for Madeleine and her abductors.

Hours later, Amaral was on Portuguese radio, insisting: 'Today the court referred once again to an important question.

'The couple are suspects, were suspects and remain suspects. Nothing else happened to the contrary.'

Referring to prime suspect Christian Brueckner who Amaral has claimed in the past is a scapegoat, he added in an interview on Radio Renascenca: 'Thousands even millions of euros have been invested in recent years to create a false suspect.'

Amaral's comments came despite the McCanns having their 'arguido' status lifted by the Portuguese authorities in July 2008.

Portugal's Supreme Court said in 2017 in a previous ruling on the Amaral book that did not mean they had been cleared and did not equate to 'proof of innocence.'

But all new lines of inquiry in recent years, both in Portugal and the UK as well as in Germany where Brueckner is serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping an American pensioner, have excluded any responsibility of the parents.

The German was recently made an 'arguido' or suspect in Portugal.

Amaral, removed as head of the initial Policia Judiciaria inquiry which led to the finger being pointed at the McCanns, crowed after learning the latest court decision over his book had gone against the couple: 'This is a victory for Portuguese justice against those who do not want the discovery of the truth of the realisation of justice.

'So many times Portugal is defeated in the ECHR and today it emerged victorious.'

The McCanns won their initial libel case against Amaral but he appealed and Portuguese judges reversed the decision - prompting the McCanns to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

European judges delivered their verdict today and rejected the appeal, giving the McCanns three months to decide whether to appeal again. A source close to the pair told MailOnline they are 'disappointed' and are reviewing their legal options.

A statement posted on the official 'Find Madeleine McCann' Facebook page, the McCanns said: 'We are naturally disappointed with decision of the European Court of Humans Rights announced today.

'However, much has changed since we started legal proceedings 13 years ago against Mr Amaral, his publisher and broadcaster.

'We took action for one and only one reason: Mr Amaral's unfounded claims were having a detrimental impact on the search for Madeleine.

'If the public believed that we were involved in her disappearance, then people would not be alert for possible clues and may not report relevant information to the relevant law enforcement agencies.

'The focus is now rightly on the search for Madeleine and her abductor(s). We are grateful for the ongoing work by the British, German and Portuguese police.

'We hope that with, the help of the public, hard work and diligence we can eventually find those responsible for Madeleine's disappearance and bring them to justice.'

Lawyers for Kate and Gerry had been arguing that the Portuguese courts breached their right to respect for a private and family life in the way the case was handled.

They also argued their right to a fair hearing had been damaged by Amaral's statements alleging their involvement.

However, European judges rejected that claim - saying the McCanns' reputation had actually been damaged by Portuguese police naming them as suspects for a short time and not Amaral's comments.

They also dismissed claims that Portuguese authorities had breached their right to privacy, noting the parents had taken part in their own media interviews and participated in a documentary.

In a five page judgement issued today, the seven judges wrote: 'The Court considered that, even assuming that the applicants' reputation had been damaged, this was not an account of the argument put forward by the book's author.

'Rather [their reputation was damaged] as a result of the suspicions expressed against them, which had led to their being placed under investigation in the course of the criminal investigation.'

The judges added: 'The information had thus been brought to the public's attention in some detail even before the investigation file was made available to the media and the book in question published.

'It followed that the national authorities had not failed in their positive obligation to protect the applicants' right to respect for their private life.'

The Court in Strasbourg also highlighted how Portugal's Supreme Court in previous rulings had 'not implied any guilt on the applicants or even suggested suspicions against them' saying that as a result their 'complaint concerning their right to be presumed innocent was manifestly ill-founded.'

Rejecting the argument that the book had harmed their right to a private life, the judges noted that the McCann's themselves had undertaken a tour of media interviews following the book's publication.

'In particular they cooperated in a documentary programme about their daughter's disappearance and continued to give interviews to the media,' they said.

'While the Court understood that the book's publication had undeniably caused anger, anguish and distress to the applicants it did not appear that the book, or the broadcasting of the (Amaral) documentary, had a serious impact on the applicants social relations or on their legitimate and ongoing attempts to find their daughter.'

The panel was headed by president Gabriele Kucsko-Stadimayer from Austria, as well as British judge Tim Eicke and colleagues from Bulgaria, Armenia, Andorra, Netherlands and Portugal.

A source close to the family said: 'They felt very strongly about the case, otherwise they wouldn't have taken it to the European Court of Human Rights.

'Clearly in their eyes Goncalo Amaral's comments were completely unjustified and they felt compelled to take the case against the Portuguese Supreme Court ruling to Strasbourg. They will now examine the judgement and decide what to do.

'The most important thing for them is finding what happened to their daughter and that has always been uppermost for them.'

Madeleine was three years old when she vanished from a holiday apartment where she was staying with her parents, brother and sister in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

Kate and Gerry had been eating in a restaurant near the apartment with a group of friends who were going back periodically to check on the sleeping children.

But when Kate went back to the apartment around 10pm to check on the children, she found that Madeleine was missing.

Despite years of investigations - initially by Portuguese police led by Amaral, and later by British detectives - no trace of the schoolgirl has ever been found.

In 2020, investigators took the extraordinary step of naming the chief suspect as Christian Brueckner - a German man currently in jail in his home country for rape.

Brueckner has previous convictions for child sex offences and drug smuggling, and in 2007 was known to be living out of a camper van near Praia da Luz.

Police say they have phone records that place Brueckner in the vicinity of the apartment where Madeleine was sleeping on the night she vanished, but cannot currently prove he took the girl.

Cops revealed his identity in the hopes of convincing someone with information to come forward, and have said they hope to bring charges this year.

Brueckner's lawyers have stressed that he has not been formally charged and he has reportedly written a letter to German prosecutors from his jail cell telling them to 'put up or shut up'.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11231591/Gloating-Portuguese-cop-says-McCanns-suspects-disappearance-Madeleine.html

Messrs Penza and Pisa - taking the.

Why do you say gloating?  Did you say the same when a previous court decision ruled in favour of the McCanns - did they gloat?

Read and learn..

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/

Snr Amaral wrote: 'The couple are suspects, were suspects and remain suspects. Nothing else happened to the contrary.'

Correct!

Penza 'n Pisa wrote: Amaral's comments came despite the McCanns having their 'arguido' status lifted by the Portuguese authorities in July 2008.

Incorrect!

Not at all biased, are they? What scummy people. Snr. Amaral has never gloated. Neither has he lied.

PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN ALERT !!!

Portuguese Detective Ordered Off Madeleine Case

Goncalo Amaral, head of McCann investigation, sacked after barbs about parents.

ByFABIOLA ANTEZANA

LONDON, Oct. 2, 2007 — -- The Portuguese detective in charge of the Madeleine McCann investigation was removed from the case Tuesday after he gave a newspaper interview accusing the missing girl's parents of wrongly influencing U.K. police.

"Goncalo Amaral, head of the regional judicial police in Portimão, has been taken off the case Madeleine," a source at police headquarters in Portimão, who asked not to be identified, told ABC News. The source would not elaborate on the reason for the decision.

Amaral's dismissal follows a series of accusations he made in an interview with a local Portuguese newspaper in which he criticized Leicester police for chasing leads created and worked by the McCanns themselves.

"They [the U.K. police] have forgotten that the couple are still suspects in the death of their daughter Madeleine," Amaral told Diario de Noticias Tuesday.

Amaral told the Portuguese daily that the McCanns were doing their best to manipulate the investigation, saying, "they [British police] have only been working on what the McCanns want and what suits them."

Portuguese Justice Minister Alberto Costa declined to comment on the case. He said that police were focusing their attention on the investigation.

Although Amaral has lost his current position with the judicial police, he has not been dismissed from the force. A replacement for him hasn't yet been announced.

The McCann's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, also refused to comment on Amaral's dismissal. He did tell reporters that the 39-year-old doctors remain committed to helping local police find their daughter. The child vanished May 3 after the McCanns left her alone when they left their holiday flat to go to dinner.

"Gerry and Kate have consistently said that they are happy to cooperate fully with the Portuguese authorities and will continue to do so no matter who is in charge of the Madeleine investigation," Mitchell told reporters.

This is not the first time chief inspector Amaral has faced public criticism for his lead role in a murder investigation.

In 2004, Amaral and four other officers were accused of allegedly beating a Portuguese woman into confessing to the murder of her 8-year-old daughter.

Leonor Cipriano, 36, is currently serving a 16-year sentence for killing her daughter, Joana, who went missing in September 2004 in a town less than 15 miles from where Madeleine McCann disappeared. Joana's body has never been found.

Many were surprised that Amaral was allowed to spearhead the McCann investigation, particularly since the 3-year-old case against him and his officers has yet to be resolved. According to local reports, Amaral and four other officers will be in court this month to face charges surrounding the beating allegations, as well as charges that involve falsifying documents.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=3680323&page=1

Man v. Woman .... Woman v. Man
Court of Human Rights

How have Madeleine McCann's parents been treated?

Published

15 May 2011

This week was Madeleine McCann's eighth birthday and her mother, Kate McCann, released a book about the missing child. Commentators have reflected on how the McCanns have been treated by the press over the last four years.

In the Telegraph Allison Pearson recalls the "vitriolic" online comments about Kate McCann, which accused her of selfishness and said she "had it coming".

"Kate McCann's 'crime' - a lapse for which she would receive a life sentence - was to have left her children sleeping while having dinner 100 metres away, returning to their apartment every half-hour," Pearson says.

"It was a latter-day Grimm's fairy story", says Cassandra Jardine in the Telegraph referring to parents' fears about "tiny risks" taken by many people from "leaving children in the car while dashing to the cash point" to "nipping to the loo when they are playing in water".

Jardine goes on to say the seeming lack of sympathy has less to do with the circumstances and more to do with Kate McCann's identity. "Had Kate not been pretty, middle-class and educated, she might have received more sympathy - like, say, Karen Matthews, mother of Shannon, who wept fetchingly for the cameras the following year, although her daughter had not in fact been abducted, only hidden for mercenary reasons."

Jardin says Loaded magazine was one of Mrs McCann's few supporters when "crassly, it put the bereft mother on a most-fanciable list".

Ravening beast

The Independent's Christina Patterson has other reasons why the finger of blame pointed towards the parents. The columnist argues the treatment of Mrs McCann is indicative of an industry that demands new details, even when there aren't any.

She calls the press a ravening beast with a 24-hour appetite that can "chew you up, and spew you up".


The McCanns' sex life make the headlines this week

Various editions of the Sun from the week Kate McCann released her book including one with the headline 'I couldn't make love to Gerry'.

Patterson thinks the McCanns' willingness to cooperate is fuelled by their belief in the power of the media. But Patterson worries Mrs McCann "has come near to selling her soul".

But she goes on to defend Mrs McCann as "no-one who hasn't been through what she has been through can blame her for the choice she has made".

One choice was to engage with "Britain's sleaziest red-top, to get a missing child back".

Two days before the release of the book, The Sun's front page said "I couldn't make love to Gerry" - a detail pulled out of an extract of Mrs McCann's book.

Whatever it takes?

A different reaction to the private life revelations comes from Sandra Parsons at the Daily Mail. She is in awe of the McCanns. It's not their willingness to share their private life that impresses her, but that they haven't split up.

Mrs McCann recounts in the book that the night before Madeleine disappeared she slept in the children's room because she was hurt by her husband's "abrupt" manner. Parsons supposes that Gerry McCann's uncompromising attitude after Madeleine was abducted and his resolve may have not been matched by another man.

The writer defends what could be construed as cynical use of the media and an unemotional appearance. For Parsons, Mr McCann's "cool logic and ability to compartmentalise" allowed the couple to run their campaign to find Madeleine.

Similarly, Allison Pearson commends "ferocious" maternal love demonstrated in Mrs McCann's book.


The McCanns want to reopen the investigation which saw an international search for Madeleine

Away from the personal revelations, the book also calls for a comprehensive review of the case. The Sun backs the "moving" open letter delivered to the prime minister.

Sky news suggests some leads to the new investigation could follow. The first is a team of UK detectives to go to Portugal and "pore over" the police files. It suggests a "crucial exercise" would be to do the mobile phone cell-site analysis that wasn't done. It also suggests follow-up reports of previous intruders into the holiday homes of other Brits.

For those who argue Mrs McCann will do whatever it takes to find her daughter, the evidence seems clear: a few personal revelations later, the McCann family have got press support for the new investigations and David Cameron has promised that the home secretary will be in touch to set out the "new action" involving the Met Police. No mean feat considering it is four years after Madeleine went missing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13365848

Very topical under the present circumstances - good opportunity to repeat..

Panorama walk-out over McCann film

Why did TV journalist David Mills, the producer of a Panorama film on the McCann affair, quit the project before it was transmitted last week? The Observer's David Rose reveals the inside story of the latest row to hit the BBC's flagship show

David Rose
Sun 25 Nov 2007 10.25 GMT

In the credits at the end of last week's Panorama special on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, one name was conspicuous by its absence - that of David Mills, the programme's original producer. His name had disappeared from the end credits despite the fact that it was his company, Mills Productions, that had done all the research and was responsible for bringing the exclusive footage at the film's heart to the BBC.

Two weeks before transmission last Tuesday, Mills - one of Britain's most respected documentary-makers, who in his 40-year career has made 120 investigative films for broadcasters including the BBC, Granada, Thames and America's CBS - walked out of the programme after a furious row with Panorama's editor, Sandy Smith, over the programme's approach and argument.

He then wrote a stinging email to the BBC attacking Panorama for losing its journalistic passion. It has created a stir in the media world, mixing as it does the controversial issues of the McCanns and how their story is covered, journalistic balance and television current affairs.

'I had written a draft script and had already been told it was compelling,' Mills said. 'Sandy turned up with a completely different version and basically imposed it on me. I told him, "I cannot edit the film to this: it's a completely different show, and I'm not going to do it." To have this happening is very depressing.'

The incident - one of several controversies Panorama has faced this year - suggests, Mills said, that 'the BBC is no longer interested in serious current affairs'. BBC sources confirmed last night that the decisions about the programme's shape had been taken 'close to the top' of the BBC management hierarchy - which has already conducted a series of internal meetings over how the corporation should approach McCann case coverage in general.

As one of those interviewed by Mills and the programme's reporter, Richard Bilton, I can attest to how different the programme shown was to what they told me less than a month ago that they were envisaging. Along with The Observer's Ned Temko, who has covered the case for this newspaper, I ended up on the cutting-room floor. At that stage - as Mills's draft script makes plain - his intention was to make an analytical, investigative programme that would have been very critical of the Portuguese police, not only for the errors in their investigation, but for their apparent campaign of disinformation designed to put pressure on Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann. It would also have criticised both the local and British press over allegations that they recycled unfounded rumours with little sign of fact-checking or detachment.

It would, as Mills confirmed again yesterday, have scrutinised the various allegations that have been floated against the McCanns and concluded they are baseless: 'We had an investigative team looking into the story for weeks. Our assessment was that the purported DNA evidence was weak and inconclusive, while so far as we could tell the supposedly significant "discrepancies" between the stories told by the McCanns' friends about the night of Madeleine's disappearance amount to very little indeed.'

The original film would have compared Madeleine to the JonBenet Ramsey case in Colorado, about which Mills has made three previous documentaries. After the body of JonBenet, a child beauty pageant winner aged six, was found in her parents' Boulder home, they were vilified by the police and media, despite their continued insistence that they had nothing to do with her death. They claimed she had been killed by an intruder. Mills's version of the McCann Panorama featured an interview - eventually not used - with JonBenet's father, John, in which he said that the Colorado police 'did a great job of convincing the media and the world that we were guilty, but they couldn't charge us, because of course they had no case'. Years later DNA evidence proved beyond doubt that JonBenet had been killed by an intruder. John Ramsey told Panorama: 'It's a life-time damage. No question about it.'

The programme on the McCanns that was broadcast by Panorama was much less ambitious. It recited the case both for and against the McCanns, but had nothing harsh to say about either the police or the media. It did include new material, including a video diary shot of the McCanns in Portugal by their friend John Corner - footage that had been acquired by Mills and had led to his company getting the BBC commission.

It also cast doubt on some of the wilder claims published by the tabloids, and contained the first interview with Jane Tanner, one of the McCanns' companions on the holiday in Praia de Luz last May, who said that she was certain she had seen a girl who looked like Madeleine being carried in the street by a strange man around the time she is thought to have disappeared. But the programme avoided firm conclusions.

Having handed the film's editing over to a colleague, Mills emailed Smith on Monday, the day before transmission, saying he felt compelled to remove both his name and his company's from the credits. 'In part this is because its muddled structure and lack of narrative drive means it is far below the standard of any work that I or my company would wish to be associated with,' the email said. 'In part, too, my decision reflects the programme's intellectual impoverishment. The McCann case poses issues of real importance which Panorama should have examined. That it is instead running a laboured, pedestrian, extended news report is shameful.

'But the most important reason for my decision is that because the programme is insufficiently analytical it verges on the dishonest. Our lengthy investigation revealed that there is no meaningful evidence against the McCanns... The real question must be how, without any meaningful evidence, the Portuguese police and the media in Portugal and Britain have been able to convince most people that the couple were involved.'

Mills had been working closely with a CBS team, which also used the video diary footage. They, he told Smith, had concluded it was 'ludicrous' and 'crazy' to think the McCanns could have caused the death or disappearance.

Smith emailed Mills back, accusing him of wanting to broadcast 'advocate journalism', and pointing out that the broadcast version did describe some of the allegations against the McCanns as 'tenuous, to put it mildly'. Smith said that, while it was true that the programme 'changed substantively,' this was because 'it is a current affairs programme and it was overtaken by events'. He added: 'To get Jane Tanner and some of the McCann family meant that some of the other stuff moved to the edge, and the original version was just not journalistically as important.'

Mills disagrees. 'So far as I can see, investigative journalism at the BBC is over,' he said. 'The broadcast script contains nuances that suggest that the McCanns still have a case to answer. The BBC should have had the courage to state that this is simply not so.'

Clarence Mitchell, the former BBC reporter who is the McCanns' spokesman, said Kate and Gerry were 'content' with the broadcast version and accepted that events meant it had to change. He said they had spoken to Bilton and told him they considered the film to be 'fair'.

Other McCann family members were less happy. John, Gerry's brother, whose interview was broadcast, said: 'It wasn't the programme that I was told they were going to make. They've made something very different, and I am disappointed, because I'd hoped the full story was going to be told. Nevertheless I'm pleased they interviewed Jane Tanner. She said she saw Madeleine being abducted, and we want people to remember that.'

The row follows controversies over previous films this year, such as a report on Scientology by former Observer journalist John Sweeney, in which he lost his temper and turned - in his words - into an 'exploding tomato,' and a story claiming that wi-fi technology might be harmful, which was denounced by some scientists as 'irresponsible'.

As someone who once spent a year reporting for Panorama myself, I know that no BBC programme is more closely scrutinised and, sometimes, fought over. The fact remains some of its most distinguished contributors, including Tom Mangold and John Ware, have left in recent years, and that it has been repeatedly accused of punching below its weight. Mills is not a marginal figure, and the CBS film with which he was collaborating was much firmer in its conclusion that the McCanns had to be innocent.

Last night the BBC hierarchy was closing ranks to resist Mills's arguments. Outside the corporation, they may not be as easily dismissed.

'Your programme verges on the dishonest'

From: David

Sent: 19 November, 2007 12:12

To: 'Sandy Smith'

Subject: credit

Dear Sandy,

As you know, in the end I felt I could not leave either my name or my company credit on the programme.

In part this is because its muddled structure and lack of narrative drive means it is far below the standard of any work that I or my company would wish to be associated with.

In part, too, my decision reflects the programme's intellectual impoverishment. The McCann case poses issues of real importance which Panorama should have examined. That it is instead running a laboured, pedestrian extended news report is shameful.

But the most important reason for my decision is that because the programme is insufficiently analytical; it verges on the dishonest. Our lengthy investigation revealed that there is no meaningful evidence against the McCanns. Our CBS colleagues concluded that it was 'ludicrous' and 'crazy' to think them involved and that ... 'the child was abducted'.

The real question must be how, without any meaningful evidence, the Portuguese police and the media in Portugal and Britain have been able to convince most people that the couple were involved. Yet while the programme drips innuendos against the McCanns, it does not put a single challenging question to anyone in the Portuguese police or to anyone in the media. This is truly astonishing.

David Mills

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/nov/25/bbc

Madeleine McCann case: Latest update and complete timeline of 3-year old's disappearance

Delve into the heart-wrenching 16-year journey in the search for Madeleine McCann, a missing child. Explore the relentless efforts, hope, and recent developments in this compelling narrative.

Written by Sakina Kaukawala Published on Nov 06, 2023


Key Highlights

In 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann mysteriously vanishes from a Portuguese holiday apartment
McCanns released 'Madeleine' a book that shared their harrowing ordeal and garners global attention
In 2020, a 43-year-old German prisoner was identified as the suspect for this disappearing case

Trigger Warning: This article discusses the 16-year-long search for Madeleine McCann, a missing child, and touches on topics related to abduction and unresolved cases.

The world was introduced to a painful mystery in the spring of 2007 that would grip the collective imagination for years to come. Madeleine McCann, a bright-eyed three-year-old from Rothley, Leicestershire, vanished from a Portuguese vacation apartment, leaving a trail of questions, sadness, and unwavering efforts to unearth the truth. The hunt for Madeleine has turned into a complicated and emotional adventure filled with optimism, disappointments, and a never-ending drive to find a missing child over 16 years as per BBC.
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann

The start of this perilous voyage was on May 3, 2007. The McCanns were on holiday at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, Portugal, with Madeleine, her parents Kate and Gerry, and her younger twin brothers. Kate and Gerry McCann went out to supper with friends that evening, leaving their children asleep in the apartment. A rotational system was devised to check on the youngsters regularly to assure their safety. Kate McCann noticed an empty bed and a missing Madeleine when she went to check on her daughter.

As soon as the alarm was raised, local officials launched an exhaustive search. Following that, there was an outpouring of assistance from the general public, volunteers, and law enforcement organizations all around Europe. Madeleine was abducted, but she might still be in Portugal, according to Portuguese authorities. Clues, on the other hand, proved elusive, and the inquiry was criticized early on for mishandling potential forensic evidence at the crime site.

Kate McCann was interrogated as a witness in September, but her position swiftly shifted to "arguido," or official suspect. The McCanns returned to the United Kingdom under a cloud of suspicion. Despite the shadow of uncertainty, prosecutors later confessed they had no fresh evidence to re-arrest the McCanns.
Was Madeleine McCann found?

The McCanns' persistent search for Madeleine continued. According to BBC, they published drawings of a suspect based on a description provided by a British vacationer in January. The inquiry was joined by Portuguese police, who experienced difficulties in investigating the crime. The authorities had dropped the probe by July, and the McCanns' "arguido" status had been lifted.

New photos were provided in November 2009 to demonstrate how Madeleine may seem at the time. In March 2010, the McCanns denounced the leaking of Portuguese police data to British journalists outlining probable Madeleine sightings. Gerry McCann expressed disappointment that vigorous searches had not been performed in Portugal and the United Kingdom. In November, the pair agreed to write a book about Madeleine's disappearance.

"Madeleine," the McCanns' book, was published in May 2011, shedding light on their suffering and frantic quest for their daughter. Their story reached Prime Minister David Cameron, who requested the aid of the Metropolitan Police in the probe. A two-year evaluation has begun.

The UK review's chief, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, attempted to put the matter to a close. Although a photograph of Madeleine at the age of nine was revealed, Portuguese officials declared that their investigation would not be reopened.

In May, UK investigators uncovered additional individuals of interest, giving the case fresh life. Scotland Yard claimed "new evidence and new witnesses," and an official inquiry was launched. They had identified 41 prospective suspects by October. An e-fit photograph of a guy spotted with a blond-haired youngster around the time of Madeleine's abduction was given via a BBC Crimewatch appeal. Police in Portugal have also resumed their investigation to work with Scotland Yard.

British detectives traveled to Portugal in January amid rumors of planned arrests. In June, searches were conducted at Praia da Luz, including an area of scrubland near the Ocean Club. Unfortunately, this endeavor had no discernible effects. Police questioned four individuals in July, but no new information surfaced.

The financial cost of the probe became clear in September 2015 when the British government reported that it had topped £10 million. The four official suspects were ruled out in April 2017, but top officials insisted that a significant line of inquiry was being investigated. The UK government committed to finance the Met Police probe until March 2020 in June 2019.

Madeleine McCann news: What's the latest update

After 13 years of searching, a ray of hope came in June 2020. Christian B, a 43-year-old German prisoner, was later recognized as a suspect. German authorities characterized it as a murder investigation, assuming Madeleine was no longer alive. The McCanns expressed their appreciation for this possible breakthrough, emphasizing their steadfast commitment to truth and justice.

In April 2022, Portuguese authorities charged a German man, Christian Brueckner, of being an "arguido." This announcement was a crucial step forward in the continuing inquiry, underlining the case's lasting importance.

The McCann family will mark the 16th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance on May 3, 2023, reflecting on the ongoing agony and hoping for a breakthrough. According to recent reports, a police search had been conducted at a reservoir around 30 kilometers from Praia da Luz. The conclusion of this newest endeavor to solve the riddle of Madeleine McCann awaits the family, law enforcement, and the rest of the globe.

The hunt for Madeleine McCann has shown the unwavering dedication and love of a family reluctant to give up on their daughter over this 16-year journey. The public's unwavering support and investigators' relentless efforts remind us that, even in the face of overwhelming hurdles and insurmountable barriers, the pursuit of truth and justice never truly ends. Madeleine's narrative continues to fascinate our hearts and thoughts, and the desire for resolution is as strong as it has always been.

https://www.pinkvilla.com/trending/world/madeleine-mccann-case-latest-update-and-complete-timeline-of-3-year-olds-disappearance-1256627

Why Does Madeleine McCann Continue to Be a National Obsession?

Alice Standen
July 30, 2020



It’s been over a decade since Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal. However, the McCann case is still ongoing and continues to earn global media attention, in spite of the fact that someone is reported missing every 90 seconds in the UK. Disabled people, as well as people of color, are among those more likely to go missing than the average person but seem to be less likely to hold the attention of the public for a few months, let alone several years. So, why do missing posters seem to be plastered with white, middle-class, able girls?

Madeleine McCann is one of the most famous cases of missing children and shook the entire world at the time of her disappearance. Even thirteen years later, everybody recognizes the iconic photo of the blonde toddler staring directly into the camera. When it first happened, the McCann case was all over the news than in the way that coronavirus is now, (you couldn’t move for hearing about it), and every few years the story seems to rear its head again. If nothing else, the McCanns have been persistent in the search for their daughter.

People have been critical of the media attention garnered by Madeleine McCann, as she is one of the biggest examples of what is called “missing white woman syndrome”. This is a phenomenon in which white women and girls from middle-class backgrounds receive the most media attention. It’s nearly always a white face on the side of milk cartons.

Disabled people, as well as people of color, are among those more likely to go missing than the average person but seem to be less likely to hold the attention of the public for a few months, let alone several years. So, why do missing posters seem to be plastered with white, middle-class, able girls?

People of color are overrepresented in missing statistics and equally underrepresented in the media: sociologist Zach Sommers found black victims received disproportionately less news coverage than white ones. Cases often fly completely under the radar, such as the murder of Stephen and Stoni Blair, who were missing for three years before their bodies were uncovered in their very own homes. Such cases demonstrate the lack of urgency and attention when black kids go missing. Comparisons have been drawn between the abductions of Elizabeth Smart and Alexis Patterson, for example. The former (white) attracted national attention and ended up being found, while the latter (black) did not and is still missing to this day.

The shocking truth is that some children, especially those from marginal backgrounds, just slip through the cracks in the system. Activists have tried to bring attention to this issue, such as through the #MissingDCGirls in 2017. Even those who do get media attention are often portrayed differently, focusing on the victim’s problems, such as troubled pasts or abusive boyfriends, or are seen as hopeless cases. Relisha Rudd was eight years old when she went missing in 2014 and claims from authorities that nothing could be done to prevent her disappearance have been rebutted. She received little coverage because she was black and from an impoverished family but is believed to have been taken by an employee at DC General Shelter, where she lived.

It’s also interesting to note how rarely we see disabled people making the headlines. According to the Missing People Research Project, nearly one-third of missing people have some kind of intellectual disability. This would suggest that disabled people would be prominent among missing persons we hear about but that just isn’t the case- there are only two well-known instances.

Many factors can play into why disabled people are so likely to go missing: disabled people are more likely to struggle with a mental illness, have problems with the law, or be homeless. Disabled people of color are even more likely to go missing, as they are part of both risk groups.

Law enforcement is likely to see disabled adults as ‘dependable’ and therefore do not see it as ‘critical’ that they are found, unlike if a disabled child were missing. In the case of Zachary Briary, who went missing in 2016, police declared him “voluntarily missing” because he was living independently from his parents. State laws like this are intended to protect the rights of disabled adults, only allowing limited intervention by parents, which means that they are allowed to make their own decisions- even if they are “bad decisions”.

This is a double-edged sword: although it protects the rights of disabled adults and their control over their own lives, it also makes it difficult for them to be found. How can you tell the difference between a disabled adult who has chosen to quietly move away from their overbearing parents and one who has been abducted by a dangerous individual?

Police assumptions about disabilities can also affect cases. For example, Nora Anne Quoirin, who went missing in 2019, was classified as a missing person case rather than an abduction by the police. Similar to Briary’s case, it was suggested she had climbed out of her window herself. However, her parents argued this was impossible as Quoirin was disabled: she had limited mobility and was dependent on her family, meaning it would be very out-of-character. Her body was later found unclothed and the post-mortem found that she had died of starvation.

While these two cases made headlines, disabled people rarely do. As mentioned before, usually only white middle-class girls make the front page – unfortunately, “able” should also be added to that list. To bring it back to Madeleine McCann, one of the most famous examples of this phenomenon, it’s worth considering why certain missing people become a national obsession while others fade into obscurity.

The main reason the white middle class can make front pages is simply that they can afford to; Gerry McCann spoke about ‘marketing Madeleine’ to keep her in the public eye, which is part of the reason her face was absolutely everywhere after her disappearance. Her parents were also able to earn money from books published about the case. But families who don’t have the funds or capability to put in this amount of effort aren’t able to secure the same awareness. If Relisha Rudd’s mother couldn’t afford anywhere to live, how would she fund an international campaign?

But it isn’t just the McCanns who have invested a lot of money into their case. As of 2018, over £11 million had been spent looking for Madeleine. In contrast, it is estimated that £2,415.80 is spent on a medium-risk, medium-term case. So, when taking into account how much is usually spent by police on a missing person’s case, the amount spent on Maddie McCann certainly seems disproportionate and suggests that she is somehow ‘more important’ than other missing children.

This is likely due to a combination of institutional racism, classicism, and ableism. Like in most media, being white is portrayed as ‘relatable’ and ’universal’ so viewers are expected to sympathize more with ‘blameless white girls’. Whereas black children are more likely to be viewed as troublemakers or their families may be seen as playing a role in their disappearance – Sophia Juarez went missing around the same time as McCann but it was theorized that her own father had kidnapped her, playing into stereotypes people hold about Hispanic people.

Similarly, those from impoverished families are usually seen as being victims of their own backgrounds, (living in ‘more dangerous areas’), and parents are blamed for being ‘bad’ or ‘lazy’. Meanwhile, disabled people just seem to be invisible or expendable in the eyes of the media, and even being abducted isn’t enough to make the nation see us. While there’s no one reason why certain cases are headline news, general trends suggest it helps to fit the typical depiction of a ‘damsel in distress’ and for parents to be wealthy and well-respected by the community.

Obviously, it’s not fair to say that black or disabled children are never headline news. The case of Victoria Adjo Climbié, who was abused and murdered by her mother, received great attention in the UK and is still remembered two decades after it occurred. Similarly, Nora Anne Quoirin disappeared in similar circumstances to Madeleine McCann and received a lot of publicity- however, it’s unclear if this would’ve continued to dominate headlines in the same way as McCann, since Quoirin’s body was eventually uncovered. But these examples are outliers.

I do hope the McCanns ultimately get the closure they need regarding their daughter, especially since they’ve stopped at nothing to get it. However, one missing child shouldn’t be more important than millions of others.

https://cripplemedia.com/why-does-madeleine-mccann-continue-to-be-a-national-obsession/

Madeleine McCann's family now - marriage struggles, adult twins and heartbreaking grief

The desperate search for missing Madeleine McCann is brought back into the spotlight with tonight's BBC Panorama - Prime Suspect: Who Took Madeleine McCann? which investigates suspect Christian Brueckner

By Saffron Otter - Assistant Features Editor

19:15, 30 Oct 2023Updated10:06, 31 Oct 2023



It has been more than 16 years of agony for heartbroken parents Kate and Gerry McCann. Their beloved daughter Madeleine vanished from their holiday apartment in Pria Da Luz on May 3, 2007, and has been missing ever since.

The three-year-old's harrowing disappearance has haunted the world since, and while German authorities believe the young girl was murdered by a drifter with a history of sexual violence, without concrete answers, Kate and Gerry cling to a glimmer of hope she could still be alive.

In tonight's BBC Panorama, reporter Richard Bilton - who has followed the case since the first days of Madeleine's disappearance - takes a look at prime suspect Christian Brueckner, investigating how strong the evidence is against him. In a breakthrough earlier this year, police scoured a remote reservoir that was described as a "little paradise" by 45-year-old German paedophile Brueckner, who is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for the rape and murder of a 72-year-old woman.

Brueckner has maintained his innocence since he was first identified as a suspect in 2022 after it emerged he had allegedly been driving around the area at the time of Madeleine's disappearance and had written a number of letters condemning police and others involved in the investigation. Kate and Gerry, who have received an apology from Portuguese police for their handling of the case, had been out for dinner at a nearby restaurant with other couples when their firstborn seemingly went missing without a trace. They have been campaigning to find their little girl, who would now be 20, ever since.

The couple, who met in 1993 in Glasgow and married five years later, have had to find a way to put one foot in front of the other for the sake of their twins, Amelie and Sean, now 18. Kate and Gerry, who still live in Rothley, Leicestershire, are devout Catholics, however Kate admitted her faith has been put to the test amid the trauma their family has faced.

In an extract from her 2011 book, Madeleine, Kate said: "There have been many times when I've felt God has deserted me or that He has let Madeleine down. I've occasionally doubted His existence altogether. And yes, I've been angry with Him... For now, though, at least, my anger towards God seems to have subsided. I believe in Him and I still feel His presence."

The mum-of-three also stressed she believed "wherever Madeleine is, God is with her". The grief would also test most marriages, but Kate and Gerry have stayed together for 25 years. However, Kate admitted it wasn't easy, explaining that her desire for intimacy "plummeted to zero" after Maddie went missing.

In her memoir, she wrote: "The first was my inability to permit myself any pleasure, whether it be reading a book or making love to 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."

She went on to say that the thought of sex "repulsed" her after being "tortured" by such horrifying images. "I worried about Gerry and me. I worried that if I didn't get our sex life on track our whole relationship would break down," she added.

But she went on to credit her husband's understanding for the endurance of their long-term partnership. Not knowing what happened to her daughter placed a huge burden on her mental health, so Kate, who received her degree in medicine at the University of Dundee, quit her job as a GP.

However in 2021, it was reported that she had returned to the NHS frontline in a time of crisis against Covid. She reportedly worked as a doctor in hospitals in Leicester and was said to be pleased to be "doing her little bit to help" as the city battled with soaring hospital admissions.

A pal told the Sun: "Kate's back working as a doctor. She's helping out at her local hospitals now and not doing any surgery work. She has thrown herself back into a full time job to assist others in need. There's such a demand for qualified medics during these unprecedented times."

Gerry, a cardiologist who is also a research professor at the University of Leicester, was said to be working in the same hospital at times, although they were "hardly ever" expected to come across each other due to the busy nature of their prestigious jobs. Recently, Madeleine's sister Amelie joined her parents and well-wishes for an anniversary event 16 years on from the disappearance.

"It's nice that everyone is here together but it's a sad occasion," she said at the event. Student Amelie lit a candle for her big sister and other missing children at the memorial, where pictures of Maddie adorned the black railing.

She was then accompanied by her friend in repeating mantras read out by people in the 70-strong crowd, including "Never never give up", "leave no stone unturned", "don't forget about me" and "still missing, still missed". Amelie is said to have applied to university, but inevitably the absence of their sister has left a dark cloud over the lives of her and her brother.

In an interview with The Sun, Kate said Sean and Amelie have "grown up essentially without Madeleine but knowing their sister is missing and they want her back." Kate previously told the Mirror ahead of her book launch that her twins gave her the strength to fight on, with Sean promising: "When you're old, me and Amelie will look for Madeleine".

She then revealed: "I was chatting to Amelie and she said, 'Mummy's sad because Madeleine is not here. But Amelie is here, and Amelie and Sean will always be here.'" Keeping busy is the family's way of coping, though it will never fill the void left by Maddie's absence.

Speaking in her ambassador role for charity Missing People, Kate said about the twin teens: "They have their own friends and they keep busy and they're really sporty but their only wish is for their big sister to come home. We miss our complete family of five.

"As a family 98 per cent of the time we're busy. I don't know if that's a conscious thing but it helps. The urge to look for Madeleine absolutely hasn't changed at all."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccanns-family-now-marriage-31317919?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

But you had only the 'urge to look for Madeleine', didn't you? You didn't  actually  bother.

Garda who investigated unsolved disappearance of 'Ireland's Madeleine McCann' Mary Boyle, 6, believes she was snatched by a local man who escaped justice and tells documentary suspect 'might have cracked' if he'd questioned him for longer

Scannal: The Disappearance of Mary Boyle aired on RTÉ in Ireland on Tuesday
READ MORE: 'The truth has died with him': Uncle of 'Ireland's Madeleine McCann' Mary Boyle, 6, has died - and he was the last person to see her alive before she vanished in 1977

By Jessica Taylor For Mailonline

Published: 16:51, 6 December 2023 | Updated: 16:52, 6 December 2023

A detective who was assigned to the case of missing Donegal schoolgirl Mary Boyle has revealed he believes she was murdered by a local man called in as a suspect at the time of her disappearance.

Speaking in a documentary 46 years after the six-year-old vanished in 1977, an unnamed garda expressed their regret at the little time they'd had to question the suspect who had been brought in for questioning.

Scannal: The Disappearance of Mary Boyle aired on RTÉ in Ireland on Tuesday evening and featured interviews with officers on the case, as well as Mary's identical twin sister Ann Doherty.

As the mystery of 'Ireland's Madeleine McCann' remains unsolved nearly half a century after Mary was last seen, the documentary explores the theory that police may have been closing in on someone who could explain what happened to her - but interference from politicians halted their efforts.

'If I had another hour with him he may have broken,' one cop told the program, as reported by the Irish Times.

Elsewhere in the documentary, Mary's twin sister Ann Jr speaks about the toll her disappearance took on the family, which has been 'pulled apart' in the years that have followed.

Ann said she still speaks to her sister in times of strife, to find solace and guidance.

'In my head, I always talk to Mary, and if I'm in trouble, I'm kind of asking her for help,' she said. 'I always feel she's looking out for me.'

Ann has previously claimed she knows who killed her twin sister and that it was someone known to Mary.

Mary Boyle disappeared the day after St Patrick's Day, in 1977. The six-year-old was outside her home playing with Ann, her older brother Paddy, and two cousins.

Her uncle Gerry Gallagher, who was the brother of Mary's mother Ann Sr., had come to the house to carry out repairs. He was using a ladder he had borrowed from the Cawley family, who lived a five-minute walk away.

At around 3.45pm Gerry left the Boyle home to return the ladder to the Cawleys. According to his account, Mary, who was eating a packet of Tayto crisps, followed him until he asked her to turn back because they had come to a waterlogged patch of field. He then said he chatted to the Cawleys before returning to his sister's house at 4.30pm.

It was around this time that Ann Boyle realised her daughter was not outside playing with her siblings and cousins and she began to panic.

In 2011, Mrs Boyle told the Irish Independent: 'I looked out the front door. The rest of the children were playing in a thicket in the front garden, Mary was not there.

'My brother Gerry was fixing a stone wall in front of the house. I asked him did he see Mary, he didn't answer, he must not have heard me.

'Ten minutes later I asked did anyone see Mary and Gerry shot off in his car down the road.'

At the time of Mary's disappearance in 1977, Mrs Boyle is reported to have said: 'When I looked out and saw only the four children, Gerry was there at the wall.

'Gerry didn't mention to me at any time that Mary was missing and didn't tell me that she was with him until the first search was carried out.'

Nearly 46 years on, the case remains unsolved with no one ever charged over Mary's disappearance. She is presumed dead but her family, including her twin sister Ann Doherty, still have no answers.

Another theory that has circulated around Mary's disappearance is that she fell victim to child serial killer, Robert Black.

Gerry Gallagher, the last person to see Mary alive, died earlier this year, sparking an outpouring of anguish from amateur sleuths who have followed the case for years in a bid to find out what happened to Mary.

After the news broke, Facebook users who suspect Gerry killed the six-year-old have called for Gardaí to search his land in the hope of finding her body to solve the decades-long mystery.

One person on the Justice for Mary Boyle Facebook page wrote: 'I am fuming that he didn’t have to face justice on this earth or reveal where Mary is.'

Others commented that 'the truth goes with [Gallagher]', noting that the missing girl's family is still without answers.'

One person said: 'I'm so sorry that you didn’t get to see him face justice for Mary and you for your continued fight for her. He will face his retribution for not letting her rest peacefully.'

Another wrote: 'If he knew something I hope he left a note. If he was guilty, God will be the judge now!

'Let's hope Mary is found soon enough.'

In 2016, Ann Doherty spoke to investigative journalist Gemma O'Doherty as part of a documentary about her twin sister's disappearance.

Appearing in Mary Boyle: The Untold Story, Ann said: 'I believe that Mary had a secret. And, because Mary was fiesty, Mary would have told.

'So I believe Mary had to be killed, to stop her from telling.'

When asked by the journalist what she thought the secret was, Ann replied: 'Mary was sexually assaulted.'

Mary's sister has previously shared her suspicions with the gardaí. No details about the suspect were aired on the podcast at the time for legal reasons, but it was understood at the time that she was referring to Gerry.

Ann called for an inquest into her twin's death but Mrs Boyle disagreed, arguing she did not want to admit Mary was dead.

At the time Mrs Boyle said: 'I don’t want an inquest that Mary is dead. I want to believe that Mary is still alive somewhere. I have to live that way.'

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McCanns appeal to Dutch in search

The McCanns appealed for help in the search for Madeleine

The parents of Madeleine McCann have appealed to the Dutch people to help in the search for their daughter.

Gerry and Kate McCann held a press conference in Amsterdam on the final leg of a two-day trip in Europe raising awareness of Madeleine's disappearance.

"We have to do absolutely everything we can to find Madeleine and she deserves that," Mrs McCann, 38, told reporters.

The McCanns spent a year living in the city in 2004 with Madeleine, who was abducted in the Algarve 35 days ago.

This latest tour has been a difficult one, the couple has said.

Plane diverted

On the findmadeleine.com website, Mr McCann, 39, said Wednesday had left them "very tired and emotionally drained".

Before flying out of Germany, police investigating Madeleine's disappearance said they had received information.

Hastily, the McCanns onward flight to Amsterdam was diverted to the Berlin embassy where they were consulted.

It turned out to be "nothing of interest", wrote Mr McCann.

"We unfortunately had to miss two TV programmes as we arrived in Amsterdam three hours late, very tired and emotionally drained."

Friends in the Netherlands have been working behind the scenes since Madeleine was taken.

Jazz concert

Earlier that same day, the couple were asked in a press conference in Germany whether they had something to do with the four-year-old's abduction.

Mr McCann wrote on the website he was surprised by the question but hoped his answers had removed any doubt.

He told the reporter for German radio: "Without going into too much detail, we were with a large group of people, and you know there is absolutely no way Kate and I are involved in this abduction."

The McCanns are expected to fly back to the Algarve in time for a jazz concert in their daughter's name in Lagos.

While away, their young twins, Sean and Amelie, have been looked after by relatives at the Praia da Luz resort.

It is thought Madeleine was snatched from the family's apartment at the resort on 3 May while her parents were at a nearby restaurant.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6730987.stm

McCanns defend tour around Europe

Madeleine McCann has now been missing for more than a month

The parents of Madeleine McCann have said their trip around Europe to raise awareness of their missing daughter is their way of taking positive action.

Gerry McCann said that if the couple had simply "stayed indoors" then they would "be shells of the people we are".

Mr McCann was speaking in Berlin, where he and his wife Kate are seeking information about the four-year-old abducted in the Algarve 34 days ago.

Earlier Mr McCann said Madeleine is "more likely" to be alive than dead.

The couple have already been to Rome to speak with the Pope about their daughter.

"If we had, for example, stayed indoors, locked ourselves away and waited, and waited, and waited, for a month, we would be shells of the people we are," said Mr McCann.

We have got to feel happy that we have done absolutely everything we can to get our daughter back
Kate McCann

"I can understand why people are amazed at what Kate and I are doing. Before this happened to us, we would have been amazed.

"I am sure everyone in this room has asked themselves how, when our daughter whom we love so much is missing, can we continue to function?

"In the first two or three days we were almost non-functional and one of the worst feelings of all - along with the terror, the anguish and the despair - was helplessness."

Intense days

Earlier Mr McCann said that the couple were sure Madeleine is still alive.

"There is an absence of evidence to the contrary," he said.

During one of Wednesday's press conferences, Sabina Mueller from German Radio asked how the couple felt about the fact that "more and more people seem to be pointing the finger at you, saying the way you behave is not the way people would normally behave when their child is abducted and they seem to imply that you might have something to do with it".

Mrs McCann replied: "To be honest, I don't actually think that is the case. I think that is a very small minority of people that are criticising us.

"I have never heard before that anyone considers us suspects in this and the Portuguese police certainly don't.

Mr McCann said: "Without going into too much detail, we were with a large group of people, and you know there is absolutely no way Kate and I are involved in this abduction."

During the conference Mrs McCann also said that the trips around Europe were "not easy".

She said: "A day like today is very intense but it is actually just one day. We do have a lot of time back with the children, Sean and Amelie.

"We are doing this for a purpose, to try and find our daughter and to try and get Madeleine back - that is very important to us and Madeleine."

'Positive thinking'

The couple are spending less than 24 hours in Germany before flying to the Netherlands, where they lived in 2004. They flew to the German capital on a private jet on Tuesday night.

The couple were also featured in an appeal for information on BBC One's Crimewatch.

It is thought Madeleine was snatched from the family's apartment in Praia da Luz on 3 May while her parents were at a nearby restaurant.

Portugal is a popular destination for German tourists, and the couple hope someone may have some useful information which could help the police investigation.

Without going into too much detail, we were with a large group of people, and you know there is absolutely no way Kate and I are involved in this abduction
Gerry McCann

Mrs McCann, wearing green and yellow ribbons tied to her waist, said: "There has been a lot of speculation and it is hard not to think the worst.

"But as time goes on and there still isn't any news, we have to think positively."

Mrs McCann dismissed criticism the couple were courting too much publicity in the search for their daughter.

"We have got to feel happy that we have done absolutely everything we can to get our daughter back - I don't think any parent would be critical of that."

During their visit to Berlin, Mr and Mrs McCann will meet British ambassador Sir Peter Torry, Germany's Deputy Justice Minister Lutz Diwell and the colourful Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.

They then go straight on to Amsterdam where the couple lived in 2004, leaving when Madeleine was just a year old and Mrs McCann was pregnant with twins Sean and Amelie, who are now two.

This will be the first time they have gone back and they expect it to be a highly emotional visit.

Friends in the Netherlands have been working behind the scenes since Madeleine was taken and 500 billboards bearing her face are being put together ahead of the trip.

After further interviews on Wednesday, they will fly back to the Algarve in time for a jazz concert in their daughter's name in Lagos.

The couple left Sean and Amelie at the family's holiday apartment in Portugal with Mr McCann's sister Trish Cameron and her husband Sandy.

Gerry and Kate McCann
The McCanns hold up a set of pink pyjamas in the broadcast

In the Crimewatch appeal, Mrs McCann, 38, held up a light-pink pyjama top with capped sleeves and a picture on it of the cartoon character Eeyore, who is curled up with the words "Sleepy Eeyore" written underneath.

She also produced white cotton pyjama bottoms, covered with small flowers and carrying another Eeyore motif on the right leg.

The pyjamas are identical to those Madeleine was wearing when she disappeared and belong to Amelie.

Suspicious timing

Mr McCann, who turned 39 on Tuesday, gave a detailed description of a suspect seen carrying what was thought to be a child on the night Madeleine disappeared.

He said the man was approximately 35 years old, about 5ft 8in or 5ft 9in tall and had dark hair, which was parted at the side and slightly longer at the back.

He said the man was wearing a dark jacket slightly longer than a suit, beige trousers and dark shoes.

Asked if he thought the man had taken Madeleine, he said they were: "suspicious of the timing and that person needs to be eliminated from the investigation".

He also urged people to hand in any pictures taken around the time Madeleine vanished at Praia da Luz with strangers in the background.

The McCanns are also expected to make a trip to Morocco, a country which has been linked to the case because of a reported sighting of Madeleine there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6730987.stm