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.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

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.

[9] 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.

[23] J. K. Rowling arranged with her publishers for a poster bearing the face of the missing child to be made available to booksellers when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was launched on 21 July.

[29] 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.

[34] 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.

[35] 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.

"[43] 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.

[51] 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.

[55] 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.

[57] 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.

[61] 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".

[63] 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.

[65] 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.

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.

[81][83] 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.

[95] On 21 May 2007, the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) reported that British police are calling on visitors to the Ocean Club Resort, Praia da Luz, or the surrounding areas in the two weeks leading up to Madeleine's disappearance on Thursday 3 May to provide copies of any relevant photographs taken during their stay, in an attempt to identify an abductor using a biometric facial recognition application, through which the features of bystanders in those photographs could be compared to those of international sex offenders and other criminals.

[104] Celtic footballer Neil Lennon made an appeal for Madeleine's safety, and yellow armbands were worn on 12 May 2007 against Aberdeen to mark her fourth birthday.

[105] A video appealing for help with the search for Madeleine was broadcast to Spanish football fans visiting the city of Glasgow for the 2007 UEFA Cup Final on 16 May.

[113] Writing in The Times on 16 September, India Knight criticised the on-line community for its censorious attitude and its willingness to rush to judgement whilst pointing out that the McCanns had contributed to the public's obsession with the case by their extensive and well-orchestrated media campaign.

[117] Also on 18 May, The Scotsman commented that "... there was evidence that public opinion, while strongly supportive of the child's distraught parents Kate and Gerry McCann, was growing alarmed at what it viewed as relentless, almost prurient coverage.

"[120] Gerry, who had encouraged media coverage, criticised De Telegraaf on 14 June for publishing a letter[121] claiming to know the location of Madeleine's body, calling it "an irresponsible piece of journalism" and "insensitive and cruel".

The Independent took the same line saying "Kate and Gerry McCann had a lot: they were a couple of nice middle-class doctors on holiday in an upmarket resort" "Karen Matthews is not as elegant, nor as eloquent".

[129] In an interview published on 1 July Martin Brunt, a Sky News journalist who had covered the case extensively, conceded that the media's handling of the Madeleine McCann disappearance had been flawed.

[133] Matthew Parris, writing for The Times in August, chastised the British and Portuguese media for what he described as "assassination-by-innuendo" of suspect Robert Murat, who those involved closely in the case believed was innocent.

"For the rest of the world, however, glancing in passing at headlines and skimming news reports over its coffee, the name Murat is now synonymous with 'creepy oddball and obvious suspect'," Parris wrote.

[142] Mark Lawson, writing in The Guardian on 26 October, criticised the McCanns for employing their own spin doctor, describing their use of what he termed "political methods" as a "terrible error".