Reactions to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

On the evening of Thursday, 3 May 2007, shortly before her fourth birthday, a British child, Madeleine McCann, went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in Portugal, in which she was staying with her parents. The Portuguese police investigation into her disappearance closed in July 2008. Scotland Yard in May 2011 began a review of the case , Operation Grange, and in April 2012 announced their belief that Madeleine might still be alive. In the weeks following her disappearance, Madeleine's parents implemented a successful publicity campaign that kept her in the public eye. This resulted in a wide-reaching international response, both in the media and by the public, which led to some criticism that the media attention was excessive. There was also comment that the UK media had unfairly criticised the Portuguese police. Publicity- By the family: An official website for the search was set up, and the McCann family broadcast two early video appeals. The first was a photograph and video montage set to Simple Minds' song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" and included an animation of the word LOOK in uppercase with a reproduction of her coloboma as a radial line inside the first letter O, which blinks. The second featured a montage of images with a voice-over by actress Zoë Wanamaker mentioning her coloboma, seeking information about her whereabouts, and asking people to download and display a poster of her from the official site. The family said that part of the money raised from Madeleine's Fund would go towards hiring professional campaigners, with a view to achieving the same saturation level of publicity across Europe as had been attained in the UK and the Algarve. The family based themselves in the same holiday resort from the time of the disappearance and stated then that they would not leave until Madeleine was located. Though as the campaign progressed, they ended up visiting the Vatican City, Spain, Germany, and Morocco for it, and on 5 June, they made an appeal on the British TV programme Crimewatch. However, shortly after being named as arguidos, the McCanns returned to the UK on 9 September. Madeleine's father had already made a brief trip to the UK, on 20 May 2007, to help finalise the campaign for the search for his daughter. Gerry McCann visited the United States between 22 and 25 July when he met US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and experts from the National and International Centres for Missing and Exploited Children. During interviews on network television programmes Gerry was forced to defend leaving the children alone. The family announced on 15 September 2007 that, beginning in a fortnight, they would be spending up to £80,000, from Madeleine's Fund, on a new publicity drive, involving newspaper, television, and poster advertising to further publicise Madeleine's disappearance. This will include posters in rural parts of Portugal and Spain and television advertisements, in Arabic, in Morocco. In late October the McCanns set up a hotline + 34 902 300213, operated by private detectives, for people in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to phone with information. Over Christmas 2007 the family made a television appeal. This had produced, by 27 December 347 phone calls with information with more subsequently. A further video appeal was made, by the parents, at Christmas 2008. This included footage of Madeleine taken in December 2006. The parents launched a fresh appeal for information, in March 2009, tightly focused on the area where Madeleine went missing. 10,000 leaflets in Portuguese were distributed in Praia da Luz, Lagos, and Burgau together with billboard advertising. However, many posters were promptly torn down with Correio da Manhã reporting that the local people wanted closure. The McCanns released an image, on 1 May 2009, of the projected appearance of a 6-year-old Madeleine. Political reaction: The Portuguese Ambassador in London, António Santana Carlos said on 8 May 2007 that the case was of "great concern" to Portugal and asked people to trust the police, amidst growing criticism of their handling of the case. President Aníbal Cavaco Silva announced on 9 May that he was following the case "with great concern", adding that the police were "doing everything to find the child alive." On 9 May, Tony Blair's spokesperson said that the then Prime Minister was following the case closely and that "we are helping in whatever way we can". On 16 May, coinciding with the launch of the fighting fund, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown delivered a similar message to relatives of Madeleine. Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott also commented on the case, saying at Prime Minister's Question Time "I'm sure that the thoughts of the whole House will be with them at this terrible time." On 26 May, a spokesman for the McCann family confirmed that Gordon Brown had telephoned the McCanns. Although the spokesman stated that the details of the conversations would remain private, he did confirm that "During them, Mr Brown offered both Gerry and Kate his full support in their efforts to find Madeleine." In late September Foreign Secretary David Miliband telephoned Gerry. The German Justice Minister, Brigitte Zypries, said at a meeting of G8 justice ministers in Munich on 3 June, that it should be assumed that Madeleine had been abducted by a gang that passes on children to be abused. But the Portuguese prime minister, José Sócrates, praised investigators in September 2007, following criticism in the British media of the police handling of the case. Sócrates said that he had total confidence in the work carried out by the Portuguese police. Theories by experts: The disappearance provoked differing analyses by experts. Shortly after Madeleine went missing two former Scotland Yard commanders expressed the view that she had been abducted. Roy Ramm considered that it was a carefully planned kidnapping by someone who had been watching the child. John O'Connor was of the view that Madeleine had wandered out of the apartment on her own and was subsequently abducted. O'Connor opined that she was likely to be nearby and recommended a thorough search of surrounding occupied premises. This hypothesis was also supported by criminologist Mark Williams-Thomas who said, in May 2008, that he believed what happened was that Madeleine woke up, walked around the apartment, found the back patio door was insecure and wandered out. It was at this point that she was most likely abducted by an opportunistic predatory paedophile. However Paulo Sargento, a criminal psychologist at Lusófona University in Lisbon, had produced in October 2007 a 3D reconstruction of events at the Ocean Club on the evening Madeleine disappeared, and his view was that kidnapping would be inconsistent with the evidence. The case was also reviewed by the notable forensic investigator Professor David Barclay of Robert Gordon University. His opinion was that the police were right to consider the McCanns as suspects and that the child is probably dead. Comparison and possible relations with the murder of Joana Cipriano: Joana Cipriano, a then 8-year-old girl, disappeared on 12 September 2004 from the village of Figueira, only seven miles from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine McCann disappeared on 3 May 2007. In both cases, the mothers launched campaigns to find their daughters and, in both cases, the local Polícia Judiciária investigated the possibility that the mothers had killed their daughters. A child protection specialist, Mark Williams-Thomas, who believes that Joana's and Madeleine's disappearances are related, said that the disappearance of two children unknown to each other, within a period of four years in a seven-mile radius, would be a huge coincidence, especially considering that Portugal is a small country with few abductions. Before Joana's disappearance, the previous first-degree murder of a child in the Algarve region was in November 1990 and involved a British girl, nine-year-old Rachel Charles, who was abducted and murdered in Albufeira. Her body was found three days later; a British mechanic, Michael Cook, a friend of the family, was arrested and convicted. Leandro Silva, the common-law husband of Leonor Cipriano, said in 2007 that "the only difference between the McCanns and us is that we don't have money." Several similarities between the cases—both girls vanished without trace within 7 miles (11 km) and less than three years of each other, in both cases officers failed to secure the crime scene, both mothers mounted campaigns to find their daughters and both women were accused of involvement—prompted Joana's family to appeal in 2008 for police to investigate whether there was a link between the disappearances. Fundraising- Madeleine's Fund: A fundraising company, known as Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, was launched in Leicester on 16 May 2007. The Fund is a limited company, not a registered charity, because its objectives are not wide enough to satisfy Charity Commission criteria for UK charities. The objectives include helping the extended family with their expenses (to prevent abuse, payments can only be authorised by the independent members of the board who are not family members) and continuing the investigation independently should that prove necessary. Any excess funds would be used to help search for other abducted children. The Fund's website reportedly received 58 million hits and 16,000 messages of support by 18 May, only two days after its launch. Over £1,095,000 had been raised by 30 October 2007. Two £2,000 monthly re-payments on the McCanns' mortgage were made from the Fund in July and August. Legal costs funding: The trustees of Madeleine's Fund announced in September that the fund would not be used to pay the McCanns' legal costs. Initially, the McCanns considered setting up a separate appeal fund for legal expenses. However, Richard Branson created a fund for the McCann's legal expenses, including those of their current advisor, Michael Caplan QC, a solicitor and partner in the London firm of Kingsley Napley. Stephen Winyard came out in December as having contributed £100,000 to the McCanns' defence fund, which paid for DNA tests carried out on the Renault Scénic hire car used by the McCanns. He also revealed Brian Kennedy as another donor. Potential frauds: Many unofficial websites were registered which had domain names that contained slight misspellings of Madeleine's name (a practice known as typosquatting), plus keywords likely to be used in searches. These websites contained material unrelated to Madeleine. There have also been people collecting money on the false premise that they were representing Madeleine's Fund, one of whom, Debbie Clifton, was jailed for 90 days. On 28 June 2007 police arrested an Italian man and a Portuguese woman at a villa in Sotogrande, Cádiz over allegations that they had tried to defraud the McCanns by claiming a reward for information about their daughter. However, police said that there was no direct link with Madeleine's kidnap. Then on 6 July police in the Netherlands arrested a man who allegedly demanded two million euros from the McCanns for information about their missing daughter. British barrister Michael Shrimpton presented himself as the "unofficial representative" for parents Kate and Gerry McCann, and claimed responsibility for setting up a meeting between them and Pope Benedict XVI. According to Shrimpton, Madeleine was being held in or near Morocco after being smuggled there on a drug-running vessel. Authorities rejected these claims as false and issued a strict warning to Shrimpton not to interfere with the case. Shrimpton was later charged, convicted, and imprisoned for an unrelated hoax. Libel actions: The McCanns announced on 31 August that they were suing the Portuguese tabloid Tal & Qual for libel. The newspaper reported that the "police believe" that the McCanns killed Madeleine, suggesting she may have died in an accident or from a drugs overdose. The McCanns' lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, said the couple's image had been "dragged through the dirt" by "character-assassinating, tabloid-style" news reports, adding that the press "has engaged in a horrific exercise in scandal-mongering, replete with rumours and lurid commentaries...to sell more TV time and newspaper space to advertisers". The police stressed that the McCanns were not suspects. Tal & Qual stood by the story. The journalist who wrote the article, Catarina Vaz Guerreiro, said "I can't reveal my source, but I have complete trust in them. I strongly believe that the person that gave us this information is telling the truth." The paper ceased publication after 28 September 2007, because of a drop in circulation. The ASFIC's (Associação Sindical dos Funcionários de Investigação Criminal da Polícia Judiciária) General Secretary, Carlos Garcia, declared on 10 August 2007 that the union representing the PJ intended to take legal action against those British journalists who had accused Portuguese police officers of forging evidence. He stated that, at the beginning of the investigation, a joint working group had been created with the British police, and that they had been working in close cooperation. Thus when the Portuguese police is criticised, so too is the British police. He claimed that the number of abductions resulting in murder was a decisive factor that determined the different methods of investigation adopted by the two forces. In March 2008, the McCanns launched a libel suit against the Daily Express and its sister newspaper, the Daily Star, as well as their Sunday equivalents, following the newspapers' coverage of the case. The action concerned more than 100 stories across the four newspapers, which accused the McCanns of causing Madeleine's death and then covering it up. One immediate consequence of the action was that Express Newspapers pulled all references to Madeleine from its websites. In a settlement reached at the High Court of Justice, the newspapers agreed to run a front-page apology to the McCanns on 19 March 2008, publish another apology on the front pages of the Sunday editions of 23 March and make a statement of apology at the High Court. Guardian media commentator Roy Greenslade said it was "unprecedented" for four major newspapers to offer front-page apologies, but also said that it was more than warranted given that the papers had committed "a substantial libel" that shamed the entire British press. In its apology, the Express stated that "a number of articles in the newspaper have suggested that the couple caused the death of their missing daughter Madeleine and then covered it up. We acknowledge that there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter's disappearance." The McCanns also accepted £550,000 ($1.1 million) damages and costs. They promised to pay the damages into Madeleine's Fund. Robert Murat instigated defamation proceedings against Sky News and 11 British newspapers, in April 2008. He used London solicitors Simons Muirhead & Burton on a conditional fee agreement. The first paper to settle was The Scotsman who published an apology on 15 May but paid no damages. The newspaper groups Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers, MGN Limited and News Group Newspapers settled with Murat, on 17 July, for a £600,000 payout. They also issued a public apology in the High Court. BSkyB also paid him damages in a separate libel case. Sergey Malinka, and Murat's girlfriend, Michaela Walczuch, accepted more than £100,000 each. The friends of the McCanns, known as the Tapas Seven, were awarded around £375,000 in damages and secured printed apologies from Express Newspapers. The friends have donated the settlement monies to the Fund. The apologies, printed in both the Daily Express and Daily Star, said "In articles ... we suggested that the holiday companions of Kate and Gerry McCann might have covered up the true facts concerning Madeleine McCann's disappearance and/or misled the authorities investigating her disappearance. We also reported speculation that ... Dr Russell O'Brien, was suspected of involvement with Madeleine's abduction. We now accept that these suggestions should never have been made and were completely untrue. ..." The McCanns applied for an injunction, on 8 December 2009, prohibiting the sale of the book, written by Gonçalo Amaral, Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira (Maddie, the Truth of the Lie), and launched a libel suit against Amaral. Books: -Maddie 129, ISBN 978-989-8028-61-7, that covers the 129 days between Madeleine's disappearance and the McCanns' return to Rothley. The book claims to identify contradictions and unanswered questions in the accounts of the McCanns and their friends. It was published in early November 2007, in English by Prime Books, and written by two Portuguese journalists Hernâni Carvalho and Luís Maia. -A Culpa dos McCann (The Guilt of the McCanns), ISBN 989-8014-81-4, was published in Portugal in December 2007. Written by Portuguese daily newspaper Correio da Manhã editor-in-chief Manuel Catarino, it was published by Guerra & Paz. -Madeleine: A Heartbreaking and Extraordinary Disappearance, ISBN 978-0-85079-348-2, was published in December 2007 by Express Newspapers and written by Robert Downing. -A Estrela de Madeleine (The Star of Madeleine), ISBN 978-972-23-3890-5, written by Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, was published by Editorial Presença. -O Enigma da Praia da Luz (The Enigma of Praia da Luz), ISBN 978-989-8014-91-7, was written by Francisco Duarte de Carvalho and was published by Editora Guerra & Paz. -Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira (Maddie, the Truth of the Lie), ISBN 978-989-8174-12-3, written by Gonçalo Amaral, who had originally headed the police investigation, was published by Guerra & Paz on 24 July 2008. In the book, Amaral detailed his belief that Madeleine died in the family's holiday apartment. -What really happened to Madeleine McCann? subtitled '60 reasons which suggest that she was not abducted', ISBN 978-0-9507954-7-8, was written by Tony Bennett and was published on 31 October 2008 by The Madeleine Foundation. -Madeleine, ISBN 978-0-593-06791-8, was written by Kate McCann and was published by Bantam Press on 12 May 2011. Film and television- BBC Panorama: The BBC Panorama current affairs programme screened an edition called 'The Mystery of Madeleine McCann' on 19 November 2007. It attracted 5.3 million viewers. The programme reviewed the evidence that was currently publicly available but did not come to a conclusion on what happened to Madeleine. The original producer of the programme walked out, claiming that criticism of the media and the Portuguese police had been toned down for the broadcast version. Proposed documentaries: The McCanns have given permission for talks to open about the possibility of the disappearance being made into a documentary film. Spokesman Clarence Mitchell confirmed that a meeting, with talent agency and production company IMG to discuss a possible film, was held in December 2007, but the proposal was abandoned. Mitchell also confirmed, in March 2008, that discussions were taking place with ITV and other companies over the possibility of the McCanns appearing in a documentary, which would focus on missing children in general and the different initiatives used to help look for them. The programme, Madeleine, One Year On: Campaign For Change, was broadcast on ITV1 on 30 April 2008. The programme's producers said the McCanns had no editorial control and were not paid, although £10,000 was donated to the Find Madeleine Fund. TVI documentary: A television documentary, Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira (Maddie, the Truth of the Lie), based on the book, by Gonçalo Amaral, of the same name, was produced by TVI. It was broadcast on 13 April 2009. The documentary pulled in an audience of over 2 million. Implications for television programmes and films: On 9 May 2007, ITV announced it would be rewriting a planned child kidnap plot, despite having already filmed some scenes, from their popular soap Coronation Street. Similarly, on 23 May, the BBC also announced that it was scrapping a storyline from rival soap EastEnders, that had already been filmed, which also was to feature the kidnapping of a child. In both cases these plot lines were removed or altered due to the parallel with the Madeleine case, and because the channels did not want to cause further distress to the McCann family. ITV was criticised, in September 2007, over the showing of Torn, a three-part original drama series. The plot involved the disappearance of a four-year-old girl and the family's search for her. ITV responded to the criticism by stating that Torn had been written two years earlier and filmed two months before Madeleine disappeared. Also in September 2007, actor and director Ben Affleck postponed the UK release of his film Gone Baby Gone, which had been scheduled for release on 28 December, to 18 April 2008. Its plot centres on the abduction of a four-year-old girl who is left at home alone by her mother. The actress who plays the girl, Madeline O'Brien, reportedly resembles Madeleine. According to Affleck, the release of the film in Britain was delayed because those involved with the film didn't want to "touch a nerve or inflame anybody's sensitivities." Tributes: