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Home / World

UK media raise doubts about McCann police

By Stacey Hunt
17 Sep, 2007 12:53 AM3 mins to read

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Kate and Gerry McCann walk to their local Catholic Church on Sunday. Photo / Reuters

Kate and Gerry McCann walk to their local Catholic Church on Sunday. Photo / Reuters

KEY POINTS:

The blanket media coverage of the Madeleine McCann case continues in the UK, with the public now taking some of the blame for the abuse laid on the couple.

The latest media reports also question the Portuguese police team investigating the case and suggest the four-year-old's body
may have been dumped at sea.

The Times: Guilhermino Encarnacao and his deputy Goncalo Amaral are the two Portuguese detectives heading the investigation. Amaral is facing criminal charges for an alleged cover-up in a previous case of a disappearance of a nine-year-old girl called Joana on the same stretch of coast three years ago.

No body was found and Joanas mother Leonor Cipriano was convicted of murder after what she claimed was a forced confession obtained by torture.

The public is to blame for the heartless abuse being heaped on Kate McCann. The internet has blurred the lines of news and hearsay and the result is trial by global gossip

Sunday Mirror: One friend said: "The police change their tune every day and feed information left, right and centre to try and smear Gerry and Kate. It is quite appalling and distracts attention from the search for Madeleine."

Lawyers and friends of the couple say the Portuguese police case against them is so full of holes they are unlikely to be charged with Madeleine's death.

The Sun: Since returning to the UK up to 1,000 items of mail have been sent to the McCanns every day. One or two are crank letters but the majority are letters of support

Madeleine McCann's body was dumped at sea and no trace will ever be found, Portuguese cops feared last night.

Daily Mail: The official police spokesman in the Madeleine case has quit over the way the McCanns were treated, it has emerged.

The Guardian: Portuguese police have admitted that confusion and disagreements in the early stages of the Madeleine McCann investigation mean that they could find it "very, very difficult" to prove their suspicion that her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were somehow involved in the girl's disappearance and death.

Sunday Express: The McCanns have launched a publicity fightback against the tide of public opinion moving against them following accusations by the Portuguese police.

The Independent on Sunday: A BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in on the McCanns on Monday was abandoned after a flood of critical calls. The Leicester Mercury had to withdraw a website opinion page "bombarded" with "nasty, spiteful and defamatory" comments.

More than 17,000 people signed an online petition calling for Leicestershire social services to investigate the McCanns for leaving their children sleeping alone in Praia da Luz that night.

Sky News: "It's a lot of stress but they are coping very well. They are not cracking up but they are under pressure," said a friend.

A close friend Linda McQueen categorically denied the pair could have harmed Madeleine in any way, describing them as "the most loving, caring, family-oriented couple that you could ever meet".

Asked if she had ever questioned her friend's innocence for a second, she said: "No, not at all, not a shadow of a doubt from anybody at all ever."

Reuters: "As far as Kate and I are concerned, there is no evidence to suggest that Madeleine is dead. We are 100 per cent together on this, not one grain of suspicion about each other," said Mr McCann.

Discover more

Opinion

Media coverage of the McCann case

13 Feb 10:07 PM
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