'Offensive' McCann posters put up (Leicester Mercury)

Saturday, August 15, 2009, 09:30



Offensive leaflets about Kate and Gerry McCann posted in their home village have been taken down by neighbours.
The leaflets had been put on trees and noticeboards, and posted through villagers' letterboxes, over the past few days by the Madeleine Foundation.
The pressure group has repeatedly claimed Madeleine was not abducted.
The leaflets list 10 reasons why the organisation thinks Kate and Gerry McCann should be prosecuted.
Kate and Gerry McCann issued a statement yesterday through their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, in which they said: "We do not wish to dignify the actions of the Madeleine Foundation with any response at all.

"We do feel it's important, however, that the general public are made fully aware that the Madeleine Foundation has no connection whatsoever with our family or those helping us to find Madeleine, or any law enforcement agencies, or any child welfare non-governmental organisations.
"We also strongly believe that the actions of this organisation do not have Madeleine's best interests at heart.
"If anything, this organisation has hindered all our efforts to find Madeleine."
A source close to the family called the posters "grossly offensive" and "entirely wrong".
Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.
Rothley Parish Council chairman Percy Hartshorn said: "The posters have gone up on noticeboards and on trees on the green.
"We have been taking them down because they are really quite offensive. They seem to have gone up over the last few days.
"I think some have been put through people's letterboxes, so we hope people will just throw them straight in the bin.
"We had enough of this sort of thing at the time."
Debbie Butler, chairman of the Madeleine Foundation, said the leaflets were part of an international campaign.
She said the Madeleine Foundation was printing 10,000 of them a day, with hundreds distributed in Leicestershire.
She said: "These leaflets are not a new thing, they are part of nationwide and international campaign.
"They have been delivered in Leicestershire this week, and next week will be delivered in Nottinghamshire and the South West. They will also be mailed to France, Belgium and Australia.
"They coincide with the release of the book What Really Happened to Madeleine McCann? Sixty reasons which suggest she was not abducted."

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Offensive-Madeleine-posters-village/article-1255944-detail/article.html