ANOTHER VERY SICK MADELEINE 'JOKE'

Outrage at ‘joke’ Madeleine McCann Christmas costume
18 Dec 2013 07:00
Fancy dress stunt saw an unidentified man use a picture of the missing youngster in a cardboard advent calender costume

Nightclub promoters sparked outrage by posting a photo of a clubber wearing a ‘joke’ Madeleine McCann Christmas costume online and stating: ‘We found Maddy’.

The sick fancy dress stunt saw an unidentified man use a picture of the missing youngster in a cardboard advent calender costume.

The clubber posed for pictures at the Birmingham indie-music event, Uprawr, held at the Asylum venue in Hockley, Birmingham, on Saturday.

The images were then uploaded by promoters onto their official Instagram and Facebook pages.

But they were removed last night after the Mail contacted Asylum.

A spokeswoman said: ‘‘The photographs are very distasteful and have been taken down. Whoever it was that was dressed up has nothing to do with the Asylum club or the Uprawr promoter.’’

Three-year-old Madeleine vanished in May 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia de Luz, Portugal, as parents Kate and Gerry, from Leicestershire, dined at a nearby tapas restaurant.

It is understood the fancy dress photos were taken by an official nightclub photographer in a backstage area during the Uprawr event held at the Asylum venue, based in Great Hampton Street.

One message posted by the official Uprawr Instagram social network account said: “So last night we found Maddy #casesolved.”

The images were also uploaded onto Uprawr’s Facebook pages.

But after being contacted by the Mail, the nightclub and promoters distanced themselves from the clubber and said the “distasteful” photographs had been posted online without proper checks.

A further three pictures with different clubbers posing alongside the man were posted on the official Facebook page from the club night, with a warning on the album of: “Don’t judge us for what happened backstage.”

Despite attracting nearly 100 ‘likes’ on the club’s official Instagram account, there was also a huge backlash to the images.

One message, from Jamesfellover, said: “I truly hope none of you experience the pain of losing a child. There’s black humour and then there’s this, which just turns an example of the worst humanity has to offer - abduction of a child - into a joke.

“As you are free to make such jokes, others are free to voice their disappointment in you. I thought Uprawr represented music, getting p***** and having a good time, not revelling in a family tragedy for cheap laughs.”

Another message from Scotographs added: “It’s just as embarrassing that people on here actually condone it. This kinda s*** is the reason I have no hope for society.”

Incredibly some Instagram users continued to defend the sick series of snaps with xohopeiero saying: “I’m still laughing, my photo with the box is also great!”

A spokeswoman for the Asylum nightclub said she would be speaking to the two promoters who run the Uprawr events. She added: “We will be speaking to the organisers of the event and also to the photographers and the people who upload the photographs to the websites.

“I have already asked them to go through each photograph in future. This is done and dusted and we will be having stern words with them all.”

Last night, Birmingham’s Labour MP for Selly Oak, Steve McCabe, also condemned the images.

He said: “Some people do this because they are courting the controversy and I am conscious that they are achieving that publicity. But my own view is that this is pretty sick.

“It is particularly distasteful and the only way to respond to this kind of behaviour is to boycott the events.”

Scotland Yard began a review of the Madeleine McCann case in May 2011 and opened a formal investigation in July. Portuguese police reopened their investigations in October and Scotland Yard also made a high profile Crimewatch appeal.

* Last month two female students outraged with the families of 9/11 victims by entering a nightclub fancy dress competition as the Twin Towers being hit by planes. Amber Langford and Annie Collinge, both 19, won the contest and a £150 prize at a Chester nightclub, despite lampooning the worst terrorist attack in modern history.

Mo N Hales I agree its distasteful and disgusting but as long as Madeleines parents continue to make a mockery over all of this by blatant lies and pathetic excuses, this sort of thing will continue to go on unfortunately, as the public can see right through it all, which leads to piss taking, and that's sad for Maddie. The Mcc's are the real jokers here, its unfortunate that poor maddie has to suffer the consequences following their actions.