Nobody loves to torture a 'bad mother' like the British

14 April 2008
The Times
Melanie Reid

* The persecution of Kate McCann is the cruellest thing I have seen

How many centuries of accumulated spite and misogyny, I wonder, went into the latest twist in the Madeleine McCann saga. Did the British television presenters feel the remotest twinge of conscience as they sensationally reported - second-hand via a Spanish television station - the leaks from the Portuguese police portraying Kate McCann in the worst possible light, as a mother who had left her children to cry?

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Madeleine McCann

Maddie cops not got clue

Maddie cops not got clue
The Sunday Mirror
13 April 2008
Lori Campbell

Police in Portugal will tell prosecutors tomorrow they have come up with nothing new after a trip to the UK in a last-gasp bid to crack the Madeleine McCann case.

They will admit that fresh interviews with the "Tapas Seven" - parents Kate and Gerry McCanns' friends - have yielded no new clues.

An insider said: "They maintained what they said in their original statements. There are discrepancies - but no gaping contradictions."

The three-man police team had hoped to expose inconsistencies in the McCanns' and the Tapas Sevens' stories.

They have been asked to return to Portugal next month to take part in a reconstruction of the night Madeleine vanished from her hotel in Praia da Luz last May.

Police insiders there have said the friends have demanded a private jet and five-star hotels on their return.

But the McCanns' spokesman dismissed the claims as "utter rubbish."

And last night one of the friends urged the Portuguese police to concentrate on the hunt for four-year-old Madeleine.

Jane Tanner said: "If it wasn't such a serious matter some of the things that are being said about us would be laughable."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Lori Campbell, Madeleine McCann, News of the World, Ross Hall

We agreed to keep a closer eye on the kids..hours later Maddie had disappeared

11 April 2008
The Sun
Antonella Lazzeri
McCanns' fury at police leak

What mum Kate told cops

KATE McCann told cops she and husband Gerry agreed to watch their kids more closely after daughter Madeleine said she'd been crying on her own, it was revealed yesterday.

But within hours of the conversation, the innocent youngster had vanished from their Portugal holiday apartment.

A Spanish TV station yesterday told viewers it had obtained the full statements Kate and Gerry gave to Portuguese police after Maddie disappeared on May 3 last year.

In them, said Telecinco TV, Kate re- called how the tot asked why she had not come to her room when she and her brother and sister were sobbing the night before she went missing.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Antonella Lazzeri, Madeleine McCann

'Mummy, why didn't you come when we were crying last night'; McCanns' police statement

11 April 2008
The Sun
Antonella Lazzeri
What Maddie asked parents hours before she vanished

BEWILDERED Madeleine McCann asked mum Kate why she had not come to her room to stop her crying just hours before she vanished, it was revealed yesterday.

The detail emerged after a Spanish TV station obtained the FULL police statements made by parents Kate and Gerry. In them Kate admits that over breakfast on the day Maddie, three, vanished she asked why her mum did not comfort her and twins Sean and Amelie.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Antonella Lazzeri, Madeleine McCann

Driven to succeed

April 01, 2008
Manchester Evening News

ON the eve of his 13th birthday tragedy struck Edward Smethurst. While the young boy was spending the night at his grandparents' house, fire swept through the home he shared with his father who died in the blaze.

His parents had divorced when Edward was six and, after the death of his father, he then went to live with his grandparents. However, his grandmother died a couple of years later and his grandfather had a stroke, leaving Edward to fend for himself. By the age of 16, he was living alone in bed and breakfast accommodation.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Brian Kennedy, Edward Smethurst, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann

Maddie cops fly to Britain

Maddie cops fly to Britain
The Sunday Mirror
23 March 2008
Lori Campbell

Portuguese police are set to fly to the UK on April 7 in a bid to solve the Madeleine McCann mystery.

Detectives have agreed the date with British police and are prepared to spend up to two months in Britain.

But Portuguese public prosecutors have rejected police requests to quiz Kate and Gerry McCann again.

The seven members of the "Tapas Nine", who were dining with the McCanns when Madeleine disappeared last May, will be re-interviewed.

Detectives are thought to be particularly keen to question David Payne, who was the last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine, Jane Tanner and her partner Russell O'Brien.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the friends are keen to help police understand their original statements as soon as possible.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Clarence Mitchell, Lori Campbell, Madeleine McCann, News of the World, Ross Hall

Fury mounts over slurs on Maddie's mum & dad

21 March 2008
Liverpool Echo
Luke Traynor

Blast from media guru

CALLS were made today to boycott two national newspapers in the wake of their apologies to the parents of Madeleine McCann.

The Daily Express and Daily Star used their front pages earlier this week to say sorry to Kate and Gerry McCann for suggesting they caused their daughter's death.

Both papers also agreed to pay a substantial sum to the family's Find Madeleine's fund as part of the compensation.

But one respected national media columnist said the people of Liverpool should make their feelings known by no longer buying those newspapers.

Guardian journalist Roy Greenslade, former editor of The Mirror, suggested the idea on his blog.

Speaking to the ECHO, he said: "These papers carried out a lengthy campaign and treated the McCanns very shabbily. For a multi-millionaire to be told to pay £550,000 is not a great deal of money.

"There should be a boycott."

Madeleine, four, disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while her parents Kate and Gerry ate with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant on May 3.

The parents were regularly tarnished by inaccurate media reports which claimed they were involved in a plot to kidnap her.

Today, Susan Healy, Liverpool-born Kate's mother, said that the untrue stories had caused great hurt to the family and friends.

She added: "Kate is quite bitter about it as you'd expect. To see all those headlines again this week shocked me.

"It was a diabolical time." Nicky Gill, Kate's friend, said: "It's good that they've apologised, but so what? Madeleine is still missing.

"They money they've promised is totally irrelevant.

"There will be some people who will boycott it, but it's difficult to say what kind of impact this will have."

A spokesman for the Daily Express and Star said: "We have nothing to add to what has been said in court and in our titles."

Clarence Mitchell, the McCann's spokesman, said: "Kate and Gerry are pleased that the Express Newspapers apologised as fulsomely as they did.

"Immense distress was caused to the couple."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Clarence Mitchell, Find Madeleine Fund, Madeleine McCann

McCanns told to forget Portugal

21 March 2008 
Mirror
Rod Chaytor and Victoria Ward


KATE and Gerry McCann have been warned not to go back to Portugal for the anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.  Lawyers have told them that to return on May 3 may be risky as they remain official suspects over the four-year-old's disappearance. There are fears it might provoke demands for them to be quizzed by police again. A friend of the couple admitted last night that their continuing "arguido" status had taken away the parents' "freedom of choice".

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Madeleine McCann, Robert Murat

Maddie suspect pal's car torched

21 March 2008
The Sun 
Nick Parker
A close pal of Maddie suspect Robert Murat has been targeted by an arsonist - apparently attempting to make him reveal details of the case. A car belonging to Russian IT consultant Sergei Malinka was found torched early yesterday outside his home in Praia da Luz, Portugal.  A single word in red paint sprayed on the pavement beside the blazing Audi A4 read "Fala" - Portuguese for "Talk".  Malinka, 22, was questioned by cops early in the hunt for four-year-old Madeleine McCann.  But he has never been declared an arguido like his friend Murat, 33.  There was a similar arson incident last year when Malinka's van was blown up at night.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Madeleine McCann, Robert Murat

Maddy relative's pub ransacked

19 March 2008
Irish Independent

The pub owned by the grandmother of Madeleine McCann was broken into and ransacked just after she visited the area at the weekend.

In the early hours of St Patrick's Day morning, thieves rammed the back door of the McCann pub in the village of St Johnston, Co Donegal, with a car before tearing it apart inside and making away with almost its entire stock of alcohol.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2008, Donegal, Joe Peoples, Madeleine McCann, McCann pub, St Johnston