Club in trouble for posting pics of Maddie McCann costume

A night at Hockley club Asylum is under fire for using a picture of a “bad taste” costume on it’s promo material


A night at Brum club Asylum has sparked outrage for promoting a Christmas party night with a picture of a reveller wearing a giant advent calendar – featuring a snap of missing Maddie McCann. 

The stunt was used to advertise a music event at Uprawr, in Birmingham, and the image was uploaded to the club’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

The snap shows an unnamed man wearing a giant novelty tinsel-covered advent calendar – revealing the missing youngster behind a giant door.

Promoters of the event uploaded the photo – which has since been removed – next to the caption: “We found Maddy #casesolved.”

Three-year-old Madeleine disappeared 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 picture was taken in the club by an official photographer on Saturdayat an Uprawr event held at Asylum in Hockley.

But yesterday the club moved to distance themselves from the image saying 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 stating: “Don’t judge us for what happened backstage.”

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.”

The night was at Hockley hotspot Asylum

Uprawr run club nights in London, Birmingham and Newcastle boasting that they put on the most “extreme party in the known universe”.

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 series of snaps with xohopeiero saying: “I’m still laughing, my photo with the box is also great!”

Maddie McCann disappeared in 2007

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.”

Yesterday (Wed) Birmingham’s Labour MP 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.”

The shocking picture comes just a month after two Chester University students caused international outrage by posing 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.