The purpose of
this site is for information and a record of Gerry McCann's Blog
Archives. As most people will appreciate GM deleted all past blogs
from the official website. Hopefully this Archive will be helpful to
anyone who is interested in Justice for Madeleine Beth McCann. Many
Thanks, Pamalam
Note: This site does not belong to the McCanns. It belongs to Pamalam. If
you wish to contact the McCanns directly, please use
the contact/email details
campaign@findmadeleine.com
Wulagi resident Amanda Oosterbaan, 14, is still
obsessed with the Madeleine McCann case, 1000 days
after the little British girl was reportedly
snatched from her holiday home in Portugal. Picture:
STUART WALMSLEY
Transcript
By
Nigel Moore
Jenna Wolfe: And joining us now is Clarence
Mitchell, spokesperson for Madeleine's parents, Kate
and Gerry McCann. Clarence, good morning, thanks for
being with us today.
Clarence Mitchell: Good morning, Jenna, good to be
with you.
JW: So, as we mentioned, this does mark... this
week will mark the 1,000 date anniversary of
Madeleine's disappearance. Can you tell us how her
parents are holding up?
CM: Kate and Gerry have good and bad days, as you
would well expect given that their daughter is still
not home, as you say, nearly a thousand days on.
They draw greatest strength from when they sense
there is momentum in the search, and in the wider
campaign to keep awareness of Madeleine high in the
public eye, and so, on Wednesday, to mark a thousand
days exactly they're going to be holding a fund
raising event in London and they'll be surrounded by
their long term friends and supporters, so they will
draw great strength from that. But it is very
difficult and they do find any, errr... anniversary
or occasion like this to be very difficult.
JW: We understand that Gerry and Kate have also
hired their own, errr... private investigator. Can
you tell us a little bit about how that
investigation is going? Has it led to any leads?
CM: There are lots of leads, whether they're the
significant one that will lead to Madeleine is the
question, and no... have we found her yet? No we
haven't. Errr... It's a very small team currently
looking into Madeleine's disappearance, led by some
former British detectives now acting as private
investigators. They're doing a very thorough job of
going back over all the evidence, all the Portuguese
police files that were finally released after a lot
of pressure from... from this end and, errr... they
feel that there is useful information still out
there to be had; we still need people to come
forward. If people go to the findmadeleine.com
website all of the contact emails and phone numbers
for anyone who thinks they may have seen her, or has
any information about her, should... should look at
that website. That information will go straight to
our investigators and they are following it up on a
daily basis. They go back to Portugal, from time to
time; they were back there recently. The work is
very much ongoing, although Madeleine isn't quite in
the headlines as much as she was, the search is very
much continuing and there are hundreds of calls that
are still being checked out.
JW: Well, I understand that Gerry and... and Kate
are attempting to block the sale... one of the new
pieces of information out... are intending to block
the sale of a book released by a Portuguese
policeman who says that Madeleine, errr... is dead
and that the parents, errr.... her parents are
suspects. Can you tell us where we are in that civil
case, right now? As if they need something else to
continue to worry about.
CM: Well, absolutely, that's the last thing they
need. This is a book written by a former police
officer who was removed from the case after he
criticised British police, errr... in the inquiry,
errr... some two years ago. Errr... He's written a
book in which he makes those allegations, as you
say, he claims that he believes Madeleine is dead
and that Kate and Gerry know what happened. It is
totally untrue. Nor has he any evidence to make
those wild, libellous allegations and that's why
Kate and Gerry have gained an injunction to stop his
book from being published anymore. He currently is
appealing against that and we're expecting a ruling
from a judge in February... mid February. Kate and
Gerry obviously remain very hopeful that the judge
will do the right thing and ban the book completely.
We don't like to take that sort of legal action but
the allegations this man is making will make people
believe that Madeleine is dead and therefore they
won't look for her and that will damage the
search.
JW: Alright, Clarence Mitchell, we thank you so
much for your time. Our thoughts continue to be with
the McCanns in their search. Thank you.
Tom Lowe (voice over):
The parents of Madeleine McCann say they're "trying
to move forward", as another milestone passes since
their daughter's disappearance.
It's now a thousand days since Madeleine vanished
from her family's holiday apartment in the
Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.
Kate and Gerry McCann were joined by celebrity
supporters including Gloria Hunniford and actor
Peter Bowles at a charity fundraising event to mark
the sad anniversary.
Kate McCann:
Well, it's obviously difficult but we're trying to
move forward and, you know, to help Madeleine and
help all missing children, so...
Martin Houghton-Brown
(Chief Executive, Missing People): It's
a thousand days since Maddie, errr... went missing
and it's a timely reminder of the thousands of
parents around Europe, errr... and in the UK, errr...
who tonight are alone and, errr... hoping for news
of their missing child and, errr... it's an
important night for all of us to remember those
families who are left behind when a child goes
missing.
Tom Lowe (voice over):
Comedian Jack Dee and television presenter Fiona
Phillips were also among the guests at the event in
West London.
Fundraiser: (l-r) Gerry McCann, Martin
Houghton-Brown, Chief Executive Missing People, Kate
McCann and Francis Herbert, Secretary General,
Missing Children Europe at a Madeleine McCann
fundraiser held at the Kensington Roof Gardens
Kate and Gerry McCann host star-studded fundraiser
to mark the 1,000th day since their daughter Maddie
went missing
MAIL-27-01-10
photo by daylife
photo by daylife
27-01-10
Charitable
celebrities: Gloria Hunniford and Fiona Phillips
were among the famous guests lending their support
to the McCann's fundraising event
MAIL-27-01-10
Support: Peter Bowls and Lord David Steele at the
Madeleine McCann fundraiser held exactly 1,000 days
after Maddie went missing
MAIL-27-01-10
Watch
footage from the search for Madeleine McCann
on the thousandth day after the little girl
went missing from Praia da Luz.
In a moving statement, Gerry and Kate McCann
said: ''Today marks 1,000 days since
Madeleine was taken from us. It's hard to
even say the number.
"We remember the first few days after
Madeleine was taken, watching the clock and
counting every hour. Now we've reached 1,000
days.
"It's difficult sometimes to understand how
we've been able to keep going and survive
without Madeleine, especially since nothing
has changed since that terrifying first
night.
''Madeleine is still missing. Sometimes it
even feels wrong to be coping.
''And yet if we weren't, there would be no
search and no campaign to find Madeleine and
that just doesn't bear thinking about.''