KATIE HOPKINS: The McCanns hate Maddie being named in the same breath as Shannon Matthews.

KATIE HOPKINS: The McCanns hate Maddie being named in the same breath as Shannon Matthews. But were the two little girls really so very different?

By Katie Hopkins for MailOnline

Published: 15:40, 10 February 2017 | Updated: 18:08, 10 February 2017



It was only to be expected, I suppose.

Following the BBC dramatisation of the fake kidnap of Shannon Matthews, inevitably the first couple out of the gates for comment were the McCanns.

A source close to the family is said to have told the press the drama is appalling and insensitive.

Well here’s a new idea for the McCanns: this time it’s not all about you. This is not your story to tell.

This is about the tragic life of another little girl: Shannon.

A little girl born into nothing, treated as nothing and finally freed to be something after her own mother was arrested.

This is the sort of neglect we associate with mums who cash in kids for benefits, like coupons in a store.

And here’s another new idea for Gerry and Kate: this coverage does not smell slightly strangely of roses. This is unsanitised, and it pongs a bit.

And that seems to be at the heart of the issue: the McCanns resent them and their parenting being spoken about in the same conversation as Karen Matthews.

Detectives think Matthews settled on the idea of kidnap after seeing how much money poured into the McCann fund and the amount of press attention Kate and Gerry received.

She even used a random teddy taken from Shannon’s bed to mimic the Maddie Cuddle Cat that Kate used to carry around with her.

Is that teddy her favourite? Probably, Karen said. Not quite ringing true.

Kate’s Cuddle Cat never quite rang true for me either. If someone took my lovely baby away, I would put Cuddle Cat under my pillow every night to be close to the baby I lost. Not wash its memories away.

Kate put it in the washing machine just days after Maddie vanished into the night


Karen Matthews copied Kate McCann’s appeal almost word for word when she shed her crocodile tears for the press: 'I need her home. If anyone's got my beautiful princess, bring her home.’

Kate’s sentiments coming out of Karen’s mouth. Kate’s Cuddle Cat, Karen’s brown teddy. Kate and Karen. Matthews and McCann. Clear parallels being drawn.

It’s possible Karen was also influenced by an episode of Shameless, which featured a fake kidnap and aired a few weeks before Shannon was stuffed away, drugged, under a bed.

Karen Matthews had no shame. A complete absence of the stuff.

Her own sister says she taped plastic bags to her babies’ bottoms to save buying nappies.

Detectives say she had so many different relationships with so many different men that when the police built up a family tree it had more branches than Tescos, with 300 names on it.

This same absence of shame allowed her to sacrifice a daughter into the ‘keeping’ of a man whose own daughters had been taken into care after he allegedly made them watch him have sex with a prostitute.

However, I’m not sure the McCanns can so easily set themselves apart.

Would you choose to leave your children in the hands of the monster you know — or all alone and take your chance with the devil you don’t?

Which mother was more desperate: the one with nothing and no hope of ever having anything, or the one with friends waiting at the tapas bar by the pool?


What is clear is that in both cases the public has paid a price for these decisions. The search for Maddie cost around £12 million. The hunt for Matthews around £3.2 million.

Karen Matthews is clearly guilty of this huge waste. And has paid for it, to some extent, with four years in prison and a pretty uncertain future.

We are told she is now receiving death threats as a whole new generation has been appalled by this monster of a mother.

You might say, for Karen, justice has been served.But the matter of guilt or innocence is never far from the front door of the McCanns.

This week the Portuguese Supreme Court judges made clear that the archiving of the criminal case into Maddie’s disappearance did not mean Kate and Gerry were innocent. There is a significant and not merely a semantic difference, they said.

What does justice look like for the McCanns?

Perhaps we can agree Karen Matthews is a monster. But some kind of monsters came for Maddie at night. She was lost because she was left to be found. Shannon Matthews was born lost, and desperately needed to be found.

Shameless or desperate? The monster you know or the devil you don’t? Rich or poor? Better or worse? Justice or just deserts? These are hard calls to make.

Two very different families.

Two very different children yet, strangely, uncomfortably connected.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4212368/KATIE-HOPKINS-Madeleine-McCann-Shannon-Matthews-link.html#ixzz4YJy9XvPE
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As I mentioned in another thread, I see the two little girls as being similar because both cases involve a hoax. I think the writer has been restricted by lawyers as to how far they are allowing her to go. Her description of Madeleine as being abducted has been watered down, in my opinion. I seem to remember this writer was not favourable to the McCanns when she last wrote about the case.

Here is a link to the programme - unfortunately it's only available in the U K.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08dxvxb/the-moorside-series-1-episode-1

There was nothing derogatory about the McCanns, mainly comments about the difference in press coverage which was the truth.

The problem for the McCanns can only be the likelihood of more people realising that their case is as dodgy as the Matthews one.

The actress that portrayed Karen Matthews in this true drama did a magnificent job. Not so sure about the acting of the actual Mother in the other case

Not Born Yesterday wrote:Here is a link to the programme - unfortunately it's only available in the U K.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08dxvxb/the-moorside-series-1-episode-1

There was nothing derogatory about the McCanns, mainly comments about the difference in press coverage which was the truth.

The problem for the McCanns can only be the likelihood of more people realising that their case is as dodgy as the Matthews one.

Personally I still think the publicised outrage is more down to an easy opportunity of deflection from the appeal judgement. Unfortunately the timing was slightly off as it took the press a day or two to get hold of a translated version.

According to the Feb. 10 Mirror, TV Watchdog Ofcom only received one complaint that Madeleine McCann's name was mentioned in the program about Shannon Matthews.

Hmmm I wonder just who made that ONE complaint.

THE MIND BOGGLES ON THAT ONE, INTERESTED

interested wrote:

Hmmm I wonder just who made that ONE complaint.

I think it was Cuddle Cat, poor thing imagine being compared to that manky teddy bear!

I SAW HEADLINE YESTERDAY SAYING SHANNON MATHEWS HAD BEEN ATTACKING IN A CHIP SHOP.

A new article by Tracey Kandohla in the Sun reports that the McCanns are hurt and perplexed the way Madeleine has been "dragged into Sharon Matthews drama". It also says that the McCanns sent a message of solidarity to Karen Matthews at the time of the bogus kidnap. That's right, "solidarity" but of course that was in 2008.

interested wrote:A new article by Tracey Kandohla in the Sun reports that the McCanns are hurt and perplexed the way Madeleine has been "dragged into Sharon Matthews drama".  It also says that the McCanns sent a message of solidarity to Karen Matthews at the time of the bogus kidnap.  That's right, "solidarity" but of course that was in 2008.

I find it amusing the way the Sun's headline looks sympathetic towards the McCanns and then the article describes the similarities between the cases and how Karen Matthews was motivated by the attention the McCanns were getting.

2008

Members of Shannon's family applied for money from the Madeleine McCann Fund in the 24 days she was missing from home, it has been revealed.
As police searched for the missing nine-year-old, someone claiming to be her aunt asked for money from the fund, a newspaper reported.
The McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "She didn't seem to understand why we couldn't just send a large wad of cash. I must admit I found it a bit odd.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-557962/Members-Shannons-family-begged-money-Madeleine-McCann-fund.html#ixzz4YfbaoMFL
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Send a message of solidarity? Do we have any proof of that 'message of solidarity'?

No actual proof of the message only Tracey Kandohla's reporting in the Sun. Interesting that, according to the DM at the time, Clarence Mitchell "suggested we didn't get involved". Not sure if he meant "searching" but he certainly didn't want to see any money from the Fund go to the family. Clarence appears to have smelled a rat soon enough. But his job all along has been to protect the McCanns (and of course their cash).

From the front page of Thursday's Daily Star: "Maddie: Anger at TV leak" I don't know what this is about because I can't get the article.

Oh dear, the McCanns are angry again; but aren't they always angry according to the papers. Possibly their anger is caused by the knowledge that fewer and fewer people believe them......or maybe caused by their own guilt.

[quote="interested"]From the front page of Thursday's Daily Star:  "Maddie:  Anger at TV leak"  I don't know what this is about because I can't get the article.

Oh dear, the McCanns are angry again; but aren't they always angry according to the papers.  Possibly their anger is caused by the knowledge that fewer and fewer people believe them......or maybe caused by their own guilt

Is this it?
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/588652/madeleine-mcccann-parents-legal-action-television-show-missing-daughter