Right from the first day after Madeleine disappeared, he and Kate had been sought after by the media. They had even eclipsed most other ‘Class A’ celebrities, like Posh and Becks, Any Winehouse and Pete Doherty. There were the carefully staged photo-shoots in the early days, of them jogging, holding hands plaintively on a lonely beach, gazing dolefully into the sand, or surrounded by worshippers at the Catholic church in Praia da Luz.

Then there had been the world’s media hanging on his every word as he issued a description of the abductor that Jane Tanner had seen. People just had no conception of how much hard work and effort it took to get the pictures just right, and the words just right.

People had not realised, Gerry reflected, just how hard he and Kate had worked during those early weeks. They simply did not realise that to get a good photo shoot of themselves, looking suitably agonised and tear-stained for the camera – but not too much – took a heck of a lot of preparation. Especially as the Portuguese police and their growing team of media advisers had strongly advised them not to look too agonised and tear-stained in case the abductor took vicarious satisfaction by watching them looking distressed on TV.

No-one could know just how finely balanced an exercise it was to combine the message that they really were very upset and distraught with the advice they had received from the Portuguese police and their media advisers not to show much emotion, in case it would gratify the wicked abductors who had seized Madeleine. ‘You need to show just the right amount of emotion’, a Portuguese police officer had barked rather brusquely. ‘Too much, and you place Madeleine’s life at risk’, he had advised. Gerry pondered. Yes, he reflected, he and Kate had got it just about right. They had looked quite agonised – but had been careful not to reveal just how agonised they were. They had refused to break down on camera despite both of them being utterly distraught.

A more senior officer had also counselled him and Kate not to use Madeleine’s eye defect, the coloboma, in any publicity, begging the McCanns to realise that if that were publicly disclosed, an abductor might realise that Madeleine was much too easily recognisable, and then decide to kill her. Gerry McCann recalled how he had contemptuously dismissed that advice when he spoke to his public relations advisers, who had fully agreed with him. They all had realised that the Portuguese police simply had no understanding whatsoever of how important it was to publicise a unique logo and brand image.

Besides that, Madeleine’s coloboma was almost miraculously aligned with the logo of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which had greatly boosted the marketing value of their ‘LOOK’ logo. It had been yet another example of Portuguese police incompetence. They had no idea what a successful ‘marketing ploy’ – to use Gerry’s own words – that the coloboma eye defect had been.

Then there had been the endless discussions with news teams, journalists and camera crews. The incessant ’phone calls and requests for interviews. The interminable discussions about where the cameramen should be situated and exactly where and how he and Kate should ‘come on stage’ as it were, to capture the best shot. It all took so much time that they scarcely had even a moment to look for Madeleine, though Gerry did recall that Kate had posed for the camera for a couple of moments while handing out some posters of Madeleine near the beach at Praia da Luz.

Fortunately, Alex Woolfall, the experienced media troubleshooter and Director of Public Relations for the Mark Warners empire, had been despatched to Praia da Luz in great haste, reaching them only the day after Madeleine had disappeared.

The British Embassy had swiftly backed up Alex Woolfasll’s involvement by putting up British Embassy Senior Adviser Sheree Dodd to perform a similar role. The two of them had been constantly at their side during the early days.

It had seemed a shame at the time that, after only a few days, Sheree Dodd had been suddenly withdrawn for no apparent reason, as Gerry had got on with her very well. At the time, she had been described as ‘one of the Foreign Office communications experts who was sent to Portugal to help the McCann couple with the media campaign following the disappearance of their daughter’. Now, he had read in the papers, she had been appointed by the House of Commons Speaker, Mr Michael Martin, to ‘improve his reputation and relations with the media’.

Well, that was true, Mr Martin certaintly did need someone to improve his reputation. But he wondered what it meant, when a report had said: “After nine days in Praia da Luz working alongside the McCanns following Madeleine’s disappearance, Sheree Dodd had raised several questions that the Foreign Office considered to be delicate, and was immediately replaced by Clarence Mitchell”?. Very strange.

He picked up the bottle of Nuits St Georges and refilled his glass as he recalled that however good Sheree Dodd had been, his successor, Clarence Mitchell, had proved such a deft, supportive and effective replacement that it was obvious that the Foreign Office had made the right decision in deciding to replace her. A light wind brushed his face, taking the edge off the Mediterranean heat, as he gratefully recalled the impact the masterful Clarence Mitchell had made as soon as he had swept into Praia da Luz.

by ‘Montmorillonite’ – COPYRIGHT