Madeleine McCann and the white van man

almostgothic wrote:Curiouser and curiouser ...

So if I'm understanding this correctly, instead of just quietly dropping the story (which they could have easily done, citing change of news priorities if queried about it), they wanted their audience to know why it had been dropped?

Seems so. I wonder if the tweeter was trying to watch it again on +1 but a notice came up on the screen during the part where the McCann story should have been?

more about the holiday cleaners:

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id333.html

chrissie wrote:AG

Just saw this on twitter:

mrs green ‏@mrsgreen99

#mccann very weird..why are @ITV1 not repeating the piece from earlier show about the6 cleaners? the screen says its for legal reasons..hm


Does this mean it was on ITV but then pulled??

Because those British cleaners got a lawyer to call them and say: we will sue you. ??

http://www.anorak.co.uk/351119/madeleine-mccann/madeleine-mccann-six-or-eight-british-cleaners-in-a-mysterious-white-van.html/

Madeleine McCann: six or eight British cleaners in a ‘mysterious’ white van


Madeleine McCann: six or eight British cleaners in a ‘mysterious’ white van



mccann van Madeleine McCann: six or eight British cleaners in a mysterious white van

MADELEINE McCCAN: Police are ‘hunting’ for 6 British cleaners. The Sun leads with :

“Maddie: hunt for 6 Brit cleaners”

These cleaners were working in Portugal around the time the child vanished. And, erm, that’s pretty much it.

Although, these six cleaners could be as many as eight.

The Met’s Operation Grange is investigating the child’s vanishing. They sent one resident in Praia da Liz a letter. He tells the paper:

“The officer said it had been drawn to their attention there were British people that cleaned the apartments who they needed to speak to. They said, ‘Who are the British cleaners that are cleaning the apartments in a white van’? They wanted to know if I knew anybody that does cleaning out there. They asked about it four times. Mostly the cleaners that do the Ocean Club apartments where the McCanns were staying are Portuguese. But they were keen to know if I knew anybody that worked for a cleaning firm out there. They were very interested in who’d have access to those apartments.”

Adding:

“The apartments where the McCanns were staying have their own cleaners provided by the Ocean Club. But some don’t want to pay their prices and get others to come in.”

The Sun then headlines a section “Mystery vehicle” and recalls the words of Carlos Moreira:

Carlos Moreira, 65, said he saw her lying in the back of a van near the spot where she vanished. He told investigators he had seen a couple who looked like gypsies near the vehicle.

HUNt maddie Madeleine McCann: six or eight British cleaners in a mysterious white vanThat was back in May 2010, around the time of the anniversary of the child’s vanishing. The Sun told us about Mr Moreira, who had been driving. He was 160 miles from Praia da Luz when he spotted the child in the pyjamas:

A man has reported seeing a girl he is now sure was Maddie lying in the back of a van. She was wearing pyjamas identical to the pair Maddie had on when she was abducted.

Identical?

I saw a white van with the back door open. I saw a girl, lying on a pile of clothes in the back. She was wearing a two-piece pyjama set, pink and white, or yellow. I saw her back, I could see her hands and feet.

So. We are not sure the pyjamas were identical to the ones the Madeleine had been wearing to bed the night she vanished. The Sun added that for dramatic effect.

The witness must have been pretty close to see her lying in the back of a white van – close enough to see the pattern on her pyjamas. New witness Carlos Moreira, 65, has told investigators the little girl he saw was with a man and woman who looked like gipsies.

A source close to Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry said last night the sighting was “highly significant” and added: “It could be a key breakthrough.”

In May 2012 – around the time of an anniversary marking the child’s vanishing – we met Antonio Castela. He told us:

“Only when I heard about Madeleine going missing and seeing her picture on the TV did I contact the police as the little girl in the back of my taxi had that same distinct mark in her eye as Madeleine does.”

The Evening Standard added:

Mr Castela, who has been a taxi driver for 23 years, said the girl, who was dressed in pink pyjamas, was awake, but did not speak and was just “staring ahead” as though she had been doped.

Now, about those cleaners in the white van – the cleaners we’ve never heard of before now. In 2008, Portuguese newspaper Sol reported, according to this site:

“Everything is the same, there is no difference in the number of tourists at the moment, when compared with last year”, we are told, in an almost hushed voice, by a cleaning employee at the Ocean Club, the tourist resort where the McCann family was staying on the 3rd of May, the day that their daughter Madeleine disappeared.

Soon driving away in a white van with half a dozen colleagues that go to deliver clean towels and sheets in the Ocean Club’s rented apartments, the cleaning employee only had time to add “I’m sorry, but I have to go to work”.

The Sun then adds:

Earlier there were reports to the original Portuguese police probe of a young dark-haired man acting suspiciously beside a white van just before Madeleine disappeared. The man, with deep-set eyes, was reportedly seen staring intently at the apartment where the McCann family were staying.

Jon Clements had thoughts about that in his Daily Mirror blog:

We were told that several “new” eye witnesses saw a man staring at the McCann’s apartment in Praia da Luz from the street in the days before Madeleine vanished, sometimes with a white van parked nearby.

Then we were told that an Irish family saw a man carrying a child through the streets 40 minutes after Jane Tanner, the McCanns friend, saw a man carrying a child in the street outside the apartment…
Is anybody seriously suggesting that a child snatcher would wander the streets with their victim for 40 minutes risking discovery at any second?…
If the man spotted outside the apartment with the van was involved in the kidnapping why would be be carrying the child half a mile away 40 minutes later in the street when he could be 30 miles away speeding down the road?

Both accounts could be correct but it is hard to see how both could be relevant to what happened to Madeleine.

Such are the facts.

English cleaners in a white van? For God's sake, this is the Algarve. There are a lot of cleaners who are English , and amazingly enough, a lot of them drive white vans!!!!!!! Why has this reared its ugly head now. Someone defo needs to get a grip here. If these cleaners haven't been mentioned before or even tracked down ( if they do actually exist) before now why has this "home-owner" suddenly been made aware of them and asked about them?

Keela wrote:English cleaners in a white van? For God's sake, this is the Algarve. There are a lot of cleaners who are English , and amazingly enough, a lot of them drive white vans!!!!!!! Why has this reared its ugly head now. Someone defo needs to get a grip here. If these cleaners haven't been mentioned before or even tracked down ( if they do actually exist) before now why has this "home-owner" suddenly been made aware of them and asked about them?

Because Andy and his merry men want a nice LONG holiday in Portugal, cold in UK at the moment, and to ask the man if he wants his apartment whitewashed, as his 30 strong 'team' of SY detectives are experts at doing THAT?
They will be arriving in four white vans, so don't call the police!
At least the Ocean Club Tapas bar will be busy for the next few MONTHS!
Might even be able to re-employ some workers they sacked due to the McCanns bullshit!

SAW THE HEADLINE IN NEWSAGENTS

matthew wrote:6-8 male & female cleaners eh?where was Dianne Webster then

5A was cleaned very well...not one of Maddie McCanns hairs were found in the apartment..unbelievably

Perhaps they were all so hard up that they wanted to hide the fact they'd taken holiday jobs as cleaners in OC..... That's the big secret they'r hiding!
Or maybe the women dressed up as French chambermaids ( my goodness what have I said?) and the men as dirty gipsies -

well it makes a change from a young blonde girl with a swarthy man, or parents who dont look like her, weve now got how many cleaners, all British, in a white van. should be easy to find! not shown for legal reasons, im not in the least surprise, the implication is that they were involved in Madeleine's disappearance (get the dogs in again please). I for one if i was one of those cleaners would be on the phone to a solicitor hot foot, or if i was in Portugal id ask for assistance from the PM and the Ambassador to help sort it. jimo9

tanszi wrote:didnt someone say on a thread that it was strange there were no sightings in Britain. Well, seems there were British sightings, and now sightings of British. odder and odder. jimo.

There was a very positive sighting in Dorset. The McCanns travel down to Dorset? nah... February 08, they were in the UK. Day's round trip.

I've Seen Maddy In Britain - Sunday Express (No online link)
Couple brought her to my house, says councillor

The hunt for Madeleine McCann switched to Britain last night after a man claimed he saw her with a Portuguese couple in Dorset.
The alarm was raised after the pair turned up at the home of a parish councillor in the village of Stratton.
Retired civil servant Alan Cameron said “They knocked on my door and said they had come to buy the garden furniture I’d put on sale in a local ad”.
unquote


Is Madeleine in Britain? Dorset councillor claims: 'She came to my house with a Portuguese couple'
Daily Mail Last Updated at 10:27am on 24 February 2008
A spokesman for Dorset police confirmed that inquiries into the sighting were ongoing. The McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said last night that the private detectives in charge of the investigation had been informed. He said: "There's a lot about this sighting which suggests at the very least that we are talking about an abducted young girl. We are eagerly awaiting any outcome."

The Mail's version of the hilarious British sighting; as far as I recall, this is the only one here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-517895/Is-Madeleine-Britain-Dorset-councillor-claims-She-came-house-Portuguese-couple.html

Not Born Yesterday wrote:The Mail's version of the hilarious British sighting; as far as I recall, this is the only one here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-517895/Is-Madeleine-Britain-Dorset-councillor-claims-She-came-house-Portuguese-couple.html

It's always a perfect English speaking child. Which isn't likely seeing the trouble her parents have with the language.

I love the last line in the DM article:

Meanwhile detectives from the McCann's private investigators Metado 3 were back in Praia da Luz last night. They were seen studying aerial photos of the area.
unquote.

They were probably lost?

It's very helpful of the Daily Mail to print a stock photo of a white van. There might be some readers who wouldn't know what one looks like, otherwise.

God... Just how low can this pair stoop?

Iris wrote:It's very helpful of the Daily Mail to print a stock photo of a white van. There might be some readers who wouldn't know what one looks like, otherwise.

I THOUGHT THAT ONCE YOU HAVE SEEN ONE WHITE VAN,YOU HAVE SEEN THEM ALL

Iris wrote:It's very helpful of the Daily Mail to print a stock photo of a white van. There might be some readers who wouldn't know what one looks like, otherwise.

In The Sun the van is a Ford Transit - in the Daily Mail it's morphed into a Renault Trafic.

T4two wrote:

Iris wrote:It's very helpful of the Daily Mail to print a stock photo of a white van. There might be some readers who wouldn't know what one looks like, otherwise.

In The Sun the van is a Ford Transit - in the Daily Mail it's morphed into a Renault Trafic.

Confusion is good don't forget!!

Anorak has it's take on the "storey". "...these six cleaners could be as many as eight...". Complete with "...a couple who looked like gypsies near the vehicle".

I don't have professional "cleaners" myself, but I always thought that if I did they would provide housecleaning materials. Did these "cleaners" use the McCann children's tooth brushes?

FGS - haven`t SY yet managed to suss that there was no abduction whether by cleaners or gypsies or anyone else? Or is this just them desperately looking for any clue that doesn`t involve the McCanns to the satisfaction of their paymasters.

As we were driving down some country lanes in Portugal today a white van was behind us all the way. I said to my husband that it looked exactly like the one in the Sun or was it the one the Daily Mail ? It was quite sinister looking and seemed to be buzzing us!

I did wonder if it was possibly the one involved in the case. I was a little unsure about whether to go straight into Tavira (our local town and only one hour and a quarter along the motorway from PDL at absolute full throttle) and report it to the police. My husband who is very observant said that as it passed us he saw no buckets and mops hanging around it. So we decided against it. I hope we made the right decision. It is worrying me now

Well done this Tweeter!

Syn0nymph ‏@Syn0nymph
@5haronl Spoke to DI at Homicide Command today who confirmed there is no appeal by them to find 6/8 cleaners with a white van. He said...

Syn0nymph ‏@Syn0nymph
@5haronl .... & I quote 'it's just MSM doing what they do with information that is already out in the public domain'

almostgothic wrote:Well done this Tweeter!

Syn0nymph ‏@Syn0nymph
@5haronl Spoke to DI at Homicide Command today who confirmed there is no appeal by them to find 6/8 cleaners with a white van. He said...

Syn0nymph ‏@Syn0nymph
@5haronl .... & I quote 'it's just MSM doing what they do with information that is already out in the public domain'

What does MSM stand for? Is it 'main-stream-media' or is it an acronym for the Mccanns?

As for this story to be run by multiple news companies it must have a source external to the news companies.
(we know this is Clarence et al. however I was just curious!)

What is significant about today? Are the MCcann's jealous that public money is going to red nose day as opposed to their fund?
So hope that whilst people are being generous they also donate to their fund LTD.

It is main stream media.
It started off as a Scum Exclusive, but yes, there will have been a 'source' who will have decided to give this fairytale to this particular rag on this particular day.

What's really interesting is WHY Mr Source took this course of action on this date.
And what is it that Mr Source is trying to divert our attention away from (and I don't think it's Red Nose-related ...)

almostgothic wrote:It is main stream media.
It started off as a Scum Exclusive, but yes, there will have been a 'source' who will have decided to give this fairytale to this particular rag on this particular day.

What's really interesting is WHY Mr Source took this course of action on this date.
And what is it that Mr Source is trying to divert our attention away from (and I don't think it's Red Nose-related ...)

I wonder whether the police have a wider perspective on the work of these sources. The quote

'it's just MSM doing what they do with information that is already out in the public domain'

implies that the policeman feels that it is the media doing what they do, as opposed to anything wider. However, we know that is not the case as it would be a mightly coincidence for each media source to pick the same story on their own.

Blacksmith gave a brief insight into how the media worked from when he was briefing them for Amaral, however if he ever reads this I would be really interested in reading how the process worked behind the scenes in more detail. If we know the process of how Clarence or whomever else make contact and get these articles published... it would add to our understanding as to the function of these releases.

Is there any speculation I've missed as to why today? that isn't red-nose related? as to get Maddie on the front page of papers on a day which is about 'charity', is suspect for me!!

Loopdaloop wrote:

almostgothic wrote:It is main stream media.
It started off as a Scum Exclusive, but yes, there will have been a 'source' who will have decided to give this fairytale to this particular rag on this particular day.

What's really interesting is WHY Mr Source took this course of action on this date.
And what is it that Mr Source is trying to divert our attention away from (and I don't think it's Red Nose-related ...)

I wonder whether the police have a wider perspective on the work of these sources. The quote

'it's just MSM doing what they do with information that is already out in the public domain'

implies that the policeman feels that it is the media doing what they do, as opposed to anything wider. However, we know that is not the case as it would be a mightly coincidence for each media source to pick the same story on their own.

Blacksmith gave a brief insight into how the media worked from when he was briefing them for Amaral, however if he ever reads this I would be really interested in reading how the process worked behind the scenes in more detail. If we know the process of how Clarence or whomever else make contact and get these articles published... it would add to our understanding as to the function of these releases.

Is there any speculation I've missed as to why today? that isn't red-nose related? as to get Maddie on the front page of papers on a day which is about 'charity', is suspect for me!!

I don't think the media are picking the same story independently. The Mail for example is simply quoting the Sun story and quoting the "source" credited in the Sun..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293759/Madeleine-McCann-hunt-Operation-Grange-officers-look-cleaners-white-van.html

More like hopping on the same bandwagon.