Daily MirrorNew aide is BBC veteranBy Martin Fricker 19/09/2007
The McCanns' new spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, first made his name as a reporter with the BBC.
During a 20-year career he covered a number of major stories including the Kosovo conflict and the Soham murders.
He eventually quit the Beeb and moved on to become the head of the Media Monitoring Unit at the Cabinet Office.
But when Madeleine vanished in May and the story exploded his bosses sent him on secondment to Portugal to look after the family.
Gerry McCann was impressed with the way he handled scores of reporters from across the globe who clamoured to cover the sensational story in the Algarve.
Mr Mitchell, 46, from Bath, also organised trips to Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam and Morocco which highlighted Madeleine's disappearance.
He returned to his job at the Cabinet Office when a longterm replacement was found by the Find Madeleine campaign in early June.
But friends said Gerry missed Mr Mitchell's powerful presence and was yesterday delighted to welcome him back as their official spokesman.
