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Madeleine McCann: where the family are now, from Kate's moving memoir to the brother tipped for the Olympics
Memoirs and Olympic swimming: where Maddie McCann's family are now
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The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Every parent's nightmare': after 18 years, was this the final search for Madeleine McCann?
The police have packed up, the diggers and radar scanners gone from the Algarve scrubland. The latest search for Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who vanished from a Portuguese holiday apartment 2007, has ended quietly without any apparent breakthrough. After 18 years of intermittent searches, this one, led by German police, may well be the last. In Praia da Luz, a seaside town etched into the world's memory by the tragedy, that realisation lands with a mix of relief and weariness. Locals barely speak about the case now, if at all. The McCann investigation brought an unrelenting glare of media attention that many here would prefer to forget. But even as the formal search ends, the town's association with the disappearance of Madeleine remains stubbornly intact, kept alive not just by police work but also the trickle of true crime tourists retracing a story they know from Netflix specials and acres of news coverage over the last two decades. Some pose for selfies outside the Ocean Club holiday apartment where Madeleine was last seen, dine in the complex's tapas restaurant where her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were eating when she vanished. Some play amateur sleuth in the town's cobbled alleyways as though they were the famous sets of a long-running drama. When British friends Joanne Sheppard, 60, and Jane Thorp, 61, began planning a trip together, they settled on Praia da Luz partly for that reason. 'When we decided to go on holiday, I said I would like to see the place where [Madeleine] went missing and I'd like to sit and see the scope of the area so we could get a feel of various routes where maybe Gerry McCann and Kate walked,' Sheppard said. The pair were outside the Ocean Club on Thursday morning to check if 'anyone was milling around' the McCann apartment while German and Portuguese police were scouring scrubland and abandoned buildings a mile away in Atalaia, near Lagos, which was once home to a farming community. They had already spent hours at the tapas restaurant on Tuesday and had made plans to return. 'No one was speaking about Madeleine,' Thorp said of their first visit. As they entered the resort, reception staff asked the women not to take photos but that did not stop Thorp, who said she was not as interested in the case as Sheppard. 'Someone is in that apartment at the moment, we saw them the other night,' the carer from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire added. Sheppard's interest in Madeleine's disappearance was piqued when she watched an eight-part Netflix documentary series in 2019. 'I watched the Netflix series and then I started delving a bit deeper because something was amiss. And if you actually delve deeper … and start with the PJ [Portuguese Polícia Judiciária] files, you'll see a whole new truth emerge,' the decorator from Nottingham said. She had been gripped by what she said were the 'numerous holes' and 'contradictions' in the case. She dismissed the latest searches as 'a whole waste of time', proffered theories and spoke of 'hard evidence' and media 'manipulation' before heading to the nearby beach for the day. Town residents feel uneasy about the ghoulish obsession with Madeleine's disappearance. Metres away from the Ocean Club, at the Baptista supermarket's cafe, a British businessman, Tahir, who splits his time between London and the Algarve said he came across some tourists outside the McCann apartment just last week. 'They'd obviously spotted it or they'd known where it was, and they were taking pictures of the apartment. I felt like going up to them and saying, 'That's so morbid. What's the matter with you people?'' the 45-year-old said. 'They've been doing that for years,' replied David, 80, a British expat sitting at a nearby table. 'A lot of people come down here and they want to drive past that [building], just to say this is where it was.' Simon Foy, the former head of the Metropolitan police's homicide and serious crime command, who led Operation Grange to find Madeleine in 2011 before retiring in 2012, said the case had captured the public's imagination because it embodied 'every parent's nightmare'. 'When I was working in homicide investigations in the Met, occasionally these cases would come along which for some reason just connected around the public consciousness,' he said. 'It's a whole load of things: it's a young blonde girl, it's a middle-class family, it's a holiday, it's every parent's nightmare. All that sort of stuff very unpredictably would combine together and you would go from virtually minimal media interest and coverage to significant and substantial media coverage, and that was all before the days of social media.' Foy, who has not been involved in the investigation since retiring, said the popularity of true crime documentaries and dramas in which complex cases are neatly wrapped up in one-hour episodes had also contributed to the public's enduring fascination with the case. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'What then happens is that you get people's avid fascination and expectation that it's all going to get solved really quickly, and it's all nice and neat, and follows nice dramatic lines, and in reality it never does,' he said. 'In real life, it's messy, and you can't get anything more messy than the whole Madeleine McCann investigation, the whole saga. There are human beings, there's pressure and people make mistakes. It's different. It's never as perfect as it's portrayed in the media world. But people are absolutely fascinated by a story like that, it just happens that this one is a real-life tragedy.' It is this fascination with the case, and in turn Praia da Luz, that has led some residents to blame the McCanns for damaging the town's reputation. Road signs in the town were once defaced with graffiti reading 'McCann circus'. The signs have now been cleaned up but still bear traces of the town's unease. Hundreds of journalists descended on the town to report on the mystery of the three-year-old girl, but tourism dropped and businesses suffered. 'This place was like a ghost town at one point,' said Tahir, who did not want to give his surname. It is why he and many others hope the case can be solved. 'Everyone has got an interest in what happens to Madeleine. For locals, it's still closure that they're looking for. It's not just the family, everyone wants to know. It's gone on so long. There was a point where locals wanted to bury the story because it was affecting businesses and all the rentals went down, but I think it's got over that point,' Tahir said. A retired Portuguese businessman in his 60s, who did not want to give his name, said: '[It has been] 18 years and we've had enough. For the family it's a pity, but it's enough. This area was full of people, it was a joy, a happy family place that was completely transformed and completely dead after [Madeleine disappeared]. Now it's OK but it took 10 years.' The search, the latest in a series of renewed efforts by German prosecutors, was said to have been the last chance to build a case against the prime suspect, Christian Brückner. He denies any involvement. The countdown is now on to the 48-year-old's imminent release from a German prison, where he is currently being held for the rape of an American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. After 18 years, hundreds of leads and still no trace of the missing girl, the emotional toll must weigh heavily on Madeleine's family, who have not commented on this week's search. And for a place that once hoped its name would be reclaimed by the sun, the sea and the quiet rhythm of local life, the McCann case still casts a long shadow, one that no end-of-search announcement can fully erase.
The Courier
12 hours ago
- The Courier
Behind the scenes as Robson Green and Carol Smillie trial ancient paddle boats on Loch Earn for BBC series
Actor Robson Green and presenter Carol Smillie trialled ancient paddle boards on Loch Earn in Perthshire for Robson Green's Weekend Escapes. Piotr Gudan, who runs Blairgowrie-based Outdoor Explore, introduced the pair to coracles for the third season of the BBC Two show. The unusual round-shaped boats were historically used for fishing and ferrying people and goods in Speyside. Robson Green's Weekend Escapes sees the English actor, 60, 'find wellbeing and adventure in wonderful places' with 'famous friends'. Previous episodes have seen Robson take on an assault course in North Yorkshire with Olympic champion boxer Nicola Adams, explore the Lake District with TV presenter Helen Skelton and go kayaking with former Strictly Come Dancing star Janette Manrara. Last month, Green was joined by presenter and Invictus Games medallist JJ Chalmers at Perth restaurant Brown & Blacks. The Soldier Soldier actor also visited Broughty Ferry for the show alongside Dundee-based Gladiators star Sheli McCoy. Piotr said he was approached by the production company looking for something 'rare and exciting' to do in rural Perthshire. He told The Courier: 'My favourite part was being able to take two lovely people out on the water, in crafts they would normally not come across. 'Passing on my love of the great outdoors, Scottish heritage, and the Perthshire countryside. 'He (Robson Green) is such a lovely person. 'It was a very relaxed atmosphere created by the whole amazing crew. 'It was fantastic to hear that Robson was already quite well familiar with Perthshire from his previous projects and visits. 'This place is amazing.' The TV stars explored Loch Earn and St Fillans with Piotr, who says he hopes to have passed on some of his knowledge of the area and ancient coracles. The boats he uses are built in Perthshire using willow framework in a round or pear shape. He said: 'Heritage crafts have always been something I have had a passion for. 'My storage is packed with some amazing gems. 'Coracles, however, have taken a special place amongst all those. 'I am sure the first one I sat on brought a huge smile to my face, testing my balancing and canoe paddling techniques. 'Now, introducing these crafts to many more folk over the years, I am pretty sure the coracles brought smiles to all faces of those who tried them.' Piotr added: 'Over the years, Outdoor Explore has had the pleasure of working with various production companies, for daytime TV shows, regional and national promotional filming and documentaries. 'All were always focused on the amazing countryside of Perthshire, Tayside and the east of Scotland. 'It's a privilege to become an ambassador for this lovely part of the world, which we help to look after and inspire others to explore with us.' The Courier has rounded up TV shows recently shot in Tayside, Fife and Stirling set to be broadcast in the near future.
Daily Record
17 hours ago
- Daily Record
Holidaymakers branded 'mad' as they race to secure sunbed at Spanish hotel
The hilarious scenes, captured by one tourist, shows Brits queueing and sprinting to get their towel on a lounger after queuing for an hour Holidays are supposed to be relaxing - but there's one thing that's sure to stress you out on your well-earned break. Sunbed wars are a very real part of the holiday experience for thousands of tourists as the battle for a lounger begins very early in the morning in some resorts. And British holidaymakers have been dubbed 'towel warriors' after a comical video was posted showing the race for a prime spot around the pool at one Mallorca hotel. The footage was captured by Aaron Turner, 34 while he was on holiday with his fiancée Shauna Wall, 32, and their four-year-old daughter Halle. Aaron filmed the scenes at the Hotel Sol Barbados, Magaluf which saw holidaymakers queueing up, poised to be ready to sprint to the sunbeds as soon as the pool areas was opened, reports the Mirror. And Aaron, a full time content creator from Country Meath, Ireland said, every morning, they were waiting for a full hour before the opening time in anticipation of securing the best spot for the day. The video, posted to Instagram, shows sun-seekers ready and waiting at three entrances to the hotel's pool, despite their appearing to be plenty of loungers laid out. He said: "The queues would get pretty long. Once the barriers opened, all the rules went - people were jumping the queue, and some were properly running," he said. And he also highlighted the surplus of sunbeds yet pointed out that everyone was after the most coveted spots. Finding amusement in the situation, Aaron added: "I thought it was hilarious, I've seen videos of it online before but it was the first time I experienced it myself. We got a good laugh out of it." Captioning his funny video 'Sunbed races should be an Olympic sport', it shows him pretending to stretch his legs as a warm up before getting ready to join the race. Aaron's followers were quick to comment on the ludicrousness of the situation. One said: "Or you can do what I do go have breakfast and nice relaxing morning then just walk in and throw the towels off the beds I want because you can't save sun loungers." Another laughed: 'Man, this is madness'. Sunbed wars are a long-standing, long-drawn-out battle that typically marks the start of the summer. Earlier this week, the Mirror reported how a group of irate holidaymakers thwarted a cunning plan by fellow Brits to bag sun beds seven hours before their hotel pool opened on a recent Spain holiday. While having a late-night chinwag on their balcony, Mandy Boyd spotted some lads she thought were having a cheeky swim in the pool. But upon closer inspection, the 34-year-old realised the young men were trying to nab the best beds at 2am, despite the fact that the pool wasn't due to open until 9am the next day. The quartet of girls watched as the lads dragged out their sun loungers to try and secure prime spots. Mandy and her mates patiently waited on the balcony for the perfect moment to dash down and swipe the towels. The comical sun bed wars sabotage took place around 2am at the Aquasol Aparthotel, Palmanova, near Magaluf, Spain. Joined by her mate, Sally Willows, the pair dashed down to the pool and swiftly grabbed the towels. "We're just doing the Lord's work," Mandy from Bridgend, South Wales, said. "I can't stand it when people reserve sunbeds and don't use them all day. "I find it really inconsiderate. It was shocking to see them reserving beds at 2am, especially when there was no chance of those lads being up to enjoy them. We kept the towels, but made sure we left them where they would find them."
