Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Left: Madeleine McCann, aged three; right: how she might have looked in 2009, aged six
(see FindMadeleine.com)

Madeleine McCann, a British girl, disappeared on the evening of Thursday, 3 May 2007, from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, a resort in the Algarve region of Portugal. She was on holiday there with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, her twin siblings, and seven friends of the McCanns, when she went missing days before her fourth birthday.

The children had been left at around 20:30 in a bedroom in the ground-floor apartment, while her parents ate with their travelling companions in the resort's tapas restaurant 50 metres (54 yards) away. The parents or friends checked on the children throughout the evening; Madeleine's mother discovered she was missing during a check at 22:00. The Polícia Judiciária, Portugal's criminal investigation police, at first assumed she had wandered off, then that she had been abducted, but later came to believe she had died in the apartment, apparently because they misinterpreted DNA evidence found and analysed by British police and forensic scientists.

Robert Murat, a local resident, was given arguido (suspect) status in May 2007, and the McCanns were named as arguidos in September that year. All three were cleared in July 2008 when Portugal's attorney-general closed the case. Over the years unconfirmed sightings of Madeleine were reported in Portugal and elsewhere. The McCanns continued the investigation using private detectives and in May 2011, at the request of the British Home Secretary, Scotland Yard launched a case review called Operation Grange. The officer in charge said in April 2012 that the team had identified new leads, believed Madeleine may still be alive, and was collaborating with a team of Portuguese police in Porto. In May 2013 Scotland Yard announced that they had drawn up a list of persons of interest.

The disappearance generated international media attention, with controversy surrounding the police investigation, the actions of Madeleine's parents, and the media coverage. Because they had been named as suspects, the McCanns found themselves at the centre of intense scrutiny from the British tabloids and false allegations of involvement in their daughter's death. They and their seven friends were awarded substantial damages against the Express Group in 2008, which they donated to the Find Madeleine Fund, and the Daily Express, Daily Star and their Sunday sister papers published front-page apologies. Robert Murat and two others were awarded substantial damages against the Express Group, News International, Mirror Group Newspapers, and Associated Newspapers. The McCanns testified in November 2011 before the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in the UK.

Family and friends

Madeleine McCann

How Madeleine may have looked in 2012, aged nine

Madeleine's right eye

Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003, in Leicester, England) lived with her parents and younger twin siblings, brother Sean and sister Amelie, in Rothley, Leicestershire. She has straight blonde hair, blue-green eyes, and a small brown mark on the calf of her left leg. Her right eye has a distinctive spot, known as a coloboma, on the iris; the pupil runs into the iris in the form of a black radial strip reaching from the pupil out to the edge of the white at the '7 o'clock' position, about 30° clockwise from the bottom.

The McCanns applied to have Madeleine made a ward of court in 2007 so that the court's statutory powers can be used on her behalf. Several age-progression images were released in 2009 of how she might have looked at age six, and Scotland Yard released another in 2012 at age nine (see right).

Kate and Gerry McCann

Kate Marie McCann (née Healy; born 1968 in Allerton, Liverpool) is a general practitioner (GP). Before the disappearance she worked as a part-time GP in Melton Mowbray. Kate studied medicine at the University of Dundee, qualifying in 1992, and specialised in gynaecology before moving into general practice. Gerald Patrick McCann (born 1968 in Glasgow) is a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. He attended Holyrood Secondary School and studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, qualifying in 1992 and obtaining his MD in 2002. The couple met in 1993 when Gerry was working at Glasgow's Western Infirmary, and were married in 1998. Both are practising Roman Catholics.

Tapas Seven

The McCanns were on holiday with a group of friends from the UK and eight children in all, including the McCanns' three. The group consisted of Dr Russell O'Brien, a physician, and his partner Jane Tanner, a marketing manager; spouses Rachael Oldfield, a lawyer, and Dr Matthew Oldfield, a physician; and spouses Drs David and Fiona Payne, both physicians, as well as the latter's mother Dianne Webster. O'Brien, Matthew Oldfield and the Paynes had studied medicine together at the University of Leicester. The nine adults met up at 20:30 every evening during the holiday in the resort's tapas restaurant, including on the evening of the disappearance, as a result of which the friends came to be known in the press as the Tapas Seven.

Disappearance

Evening of 3 May 2007

Ocean Club resort, Praia da Luz 37.0886565°N 8.7308398°W / 37.0886565; -8.7308398

The apartment the McCanns were staying in, 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, was on the ground floor of the fifth block of Waterside Village Gardens, part of the Ocean Club resort run by the holiday company Mark Warner Ltd. It was the sixth day of their week-long holiday. The McCanns took Madeleine back to the apartment just before 18:00, after a day out, to prepare her and her two-year-old siblings for bed. The parents left the apartment at 20:30, leaving the patio doors unlocked, to dine with their friends at the resort's open-air tapas restaurant, which lay on the other side of the swimming pool from their apartment. The restaurant was 50 metres (54 yards) from the apartment as the crow flies, a 30–45 seconds' walk according to Kate. They left Madeleine in bed wearing a pair of short-sleeved, pink-and-white Marks and Spencer's Eeyore pyjamas.

The staff at the tapas restaurant had left a note in a staff book asking that the same table – which overlooked the apartments – be block-booked for 20:30 every evening for the group the McCanns were travelling with. The message said the children were asleep in the apartments; Kate McCann has wondered whether the abductor saw this note in the staff book, which was left at the swimming-pool reception area. The McCanns and their friends left the table throughout the evening to check on their children. At around 21:05 Gerry entered 5A to carry out the first check. All was well, except that he recalled having left the bedroom door only slightly ajar and now it stood almost wide open; he said he pulled it back to a five-degree position before returning to the restaurant. The McCanns believe the movement of the door may indicate that the abductor had been in the apartment.

Possible sighting of the abductor

Artist's impression of the man seen by Jane Tanner, commissioned and released by the Find Madeleine Fund in October 2007

Another member of the group, Jane Tanner, left the restaurant to check on her own daughter. She passed Gerry on Rua Dr Gentil Martins – on his way back to the tapas restaurant from his 21:05 check – who stood chatting to Jeremy Wilkins, a television producer he had met at the resort. Neither man noticed Tanner as she walked past them.

At around 21:15 she noticed a man cross the road in front of her, walking quickly along Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, the road the McCanns' apartment was on, heading out of the resort. She said he was carrying a child who was wearing white or light-coloured pink pyjamas with a floral pattern, and cuffs or turn-ups on the pyjama bottoms. The child, whose feet were bare, was lying horizontally and limply in the man's arms. Tanner assumed the child was a girl because of the style of the pyjamas.

She described the man as white, dark-haired, of southern European or Mediterranean appearance, 35–40 years old, wearing gold or beige trousers and a dark jacket, and said he did not look like a tourist. His height was given as 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in). Kate McCann believes this was the abductor carrying Madeleine. According to Kate, Tanner passed the information to the police as soon as Madeleine was reported missing, but the description was not given to the media until 25 May.

Fifty minutes later, at around 22:00, an Irish family saw a man on Rua da Escola Primária carrying a young girl and walking in the direction of Rua 25 de Abril. They described the girl as four years old, wearing light-coloured pyjamas, with blonde hair and pale skin. They said the man was mid-30s, 1.75–1.8 m in height, with a slim-to-normal build, short brown hair, wearing cream or beige trousers. They said the man did not look like a tourist – a point Jane Tanner had made – and that he had not looked comfortable carrying the child.

Madeleine reported missing

At 21:30 Matthew Oldfield checked on the McCann's children, but after hearing no noise from their bedroom he left without seeing Madeleine.

When Kate went to check at around 22:00, she found the children's bedroom door wide open and Madeleine missing. Her Cuddle Cat and blanket were still on the bed, but the bed was empty and the bedroom window and its outside shutters were open. The McCanns discovered later that the window could be opened from the outside. After searching the apartment Kate ran back toward the restaurant, screaming "Madeleine's gone! Someone's taken her!" At around 22:10 Gerry sent Matthew Oldfield to ask the resort's 24-hour reception desk to call the police, and at 22:30 the resort activated its "missing child search protocol."

The police stated that officers arrived within 10 minutes of being alerted, and an investigation unit began work within 30 minutes. Kate wrote in 2011 that two officers from the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) first arrived at 23:10 from Lagos, a town five miles away. Gerry telephoned his sister in Scotland, who alerted the British Consulate in the Algave, the British Embassy in Lisbon and the Foreign Office in London. By midnight, according to Kate, the GNR had contacted the Polícia Judiciária, the criminal police, who she said arrived at around 1 am from Portimão, 20 miles away.

Several of the McCanns' friends contacted the media in the UK, hoping to enlist their help. According to Kate, a police officer placed tape across the doorway of the children's bedroom, but she said the police left for the night at around 3 am without securing the rest of the apartment. Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa of the Polícia Judiciária, who worked on the case, said that around 20 people had entered the apartment before it was secured, which may have destroyed forensic evidence. Police dogs were apparently allowed in before the forensic team.

The resort's manager said that 60 staff and guests continued searching until 04:30, and that border police, the Spanish police and airports were alerted. According to the Portuguese police, two patrol dogs were brought to the resort at 2 am and four search-and-rescue dogs at 8 am. Kate wrote in 2011 that the British police told her roadblocks were first put in place at 10 am the morning after the abduction. Interpol issued a global alert known as a yellow notice five days later.

Portuguese investigation (2007–2008)

Gonçalo Amaral

Praia da Luz in the Algarve

The officer in charge of the case from May until October 2007 was Gonçalo Amaral, head of the regional Polícia Judiciária. On 10 June 2007 Amaral was charged along with four other officers with offences related to the 2004 disappearance of Joana Cipriano, an eight-year-old Portuguese girl who went missing from Figueira, a village seven miles (11 km) from Praia da Luz. The police assumed she had been murdered, although her body was never found. The girl's mother and the mother's brother were convicted of murder after confessing during a police interview, although the mother retracted her confession two days later, saying she had been beaten by police. Amaral was not present when she was allegedly beaten, but was accused of having covered up for others.

In October 2007 Amaral was removed from Madeleine's case and from his post by Alipio Ribeiro, Portugal's national police director, after the former criticized British police in an interview. Amaral told a Portuguese newspaper that the British police were only following leads helpful to the McCanns. He went on to publish a book about the case in July 2008 (see below). Amaral was found guilty of perjury in May 2009 for having falsified documents in the Joana Cipriano case, and received an 18-month suspended sentence.

Robert Murat as arguido

The Polícia Judiciária requested help from the SIS, the Portuguese secret service, and at the same time organized local searches of sewers, waterways, and caves. They also examined reports from psychics who claimed to know where she was; the police said they checked them all in case there was a message from the kidnapper.

Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz, Praia da Luz, where the McCanns attended services after Madeleine went missing

On 14 May they began to search a nearby villa, Casa Liliana, belonging to the mother of Robert Murat, a British-Portuguese property consultant. The villa stands 150 yards from where Madeleine vanished. Murat had apparently come to the attention of Lori Campbell, a Sunday Mirror journalist, who told police he had been expressing interest in the investigation. Murat had offered to translate witness statements for the police, and said his interest in the case stemmed from his loss of custody of his own three-year-old daughter. In addition, Rachael Oldfield, Russell O'Brien and Fiona Payne – members of the Tapas Seven – said they had seen Murat in the resort on the evening Madeleine disappeared. He said he had been at home, and his mother corroborated his statement.

Murat was given arguido (suspect) status on 15 May; arguido status gives people additional rights, such as the right to remain silent. His cars, computers, mobile phones and video tapes were taken and examined. Murat said he was being made a scapegoat so that the police could be seen to have found a suspect. Police also questioned Sergey Malinka, a 22-year-old man of Russian origin, who had set up a website for Murat.

Police searched Casa Liliana again on 4 August 2007. No evidence was found that linked Murat with Madeleine. His computers and other possessions were returned to him in March 2008, and he was cleared of any involvement and had his arguido status lifted on 21 July when the case closed.

McCanns as arguidos

British DNA analysis

Further information: Low copy number

Several British police departments acted in a supportive role from early on. Experts from the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre arrived in Portugal on 9 May 2007 to help develop a psychological profile of a possible abductor. In July the British National Policing Improvements Agency helped the Portuguese police conduct a new ground search. Police from Leicestershire arrived with equipment for underground detection, ultraviolet instruments used to identify blood splatter, and two Springer spaniel sniffer dogs, Keela and Eddie. Keela was able to alert her handler to traces of blood, and Eddie to the scent of human cadavers.

Kate McCann first noticed the Portuguese police turn their attention in the McCanns' direction toward the end of July, and on 2 August police arrived at the villa the couple had rented and removed Madeleine's Cuddle Cat, the couple's clothes, Kate's diaries and a Bible she had borrowed from a friend. The abductor could not have come into contact with the latter two: the diaries had been started and the Bible borrowed after the abduction. The police would only say that an "anomaly" had arisen in the investigation. On August 6 the police impounded the couple's hired car, a Renault Scenic they had hired on 27 May. The McCanns learned in September that the dogs had given alerts at several spots in the apartment, and when directed to the car. John Barrett, a retired Scotland Yard dog handler dismissed the claim, telling journalists the dogs could only detect such a scent up to 28 days after a death.

Traces of blood, hair and fibres arrived on or around 7 August at the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham for DNA analysis, including material from the car. On 3 September John Lowe of the FSS emailed Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior of the Leicestershire police, with a copy to the Portuguese police, to say that a sample from the boot of the car contained 15 out of 19 of Madeleine's DNA components. He wrote that the components of the DNA profile were not unique to Madeleine, and that some components were present, for example, in himself:

In my opinion ... this result is too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion. ... Let's look at the question that is being asked: 'Is there DNA from Madeleine on the swab?' It would be very simple to say 'yes' simply because of the number of components within the result that are also in her reference sample. What we need to consider, as scientists, is whether the match is genuine – because Madeleine has deposited DNA as a result of being in the car or whether Madeleine merely appears to match the result by chance. ... We cannot answer the question: is the match genuine, or is it a chance match.

The email was translated into Portuguese on 4 September. Portuguese police nevertheless told Gerry McCann on 7 September that Madeleine's DNA had been found in the boot of the car and behind the sofa in the apartment. Newspapers were told that the DNA evidence was a "100 percent match." Matt Baggott, chief constable of Leicestershire at the time, told the Leveson Inquiry in 2011 that it was this misinterpretation of the DNA evidence by the Portuguese police that led them to conclude that Madeleine had died in the apartment, and that the McCanns had faked an abduction to cover up the death. Baggott was aware at the time that the DNA evidence was being wrongly interpreted, but because the Portuguese were in charge of the inquiry, he decided not to correct reporters who were being briefed by Portuguese police that the McCanns had been implicated.

On 5 September the police proposed that, if Kate were to admit that Madeline had died in an accident in the apartment and that she had hidden the body, she might serve just a two-year sentence. Gerry would not be charged and would be free to leave. Both Kate and Gerry were named as suspects on 7 September. They were allowed to return to England, despite their suspect status, and arrived there on 9 September.

Legal process

On September 11 the case file was handed to the local prosecutor, José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses. He decided there was sufficient evidence to pass the case to the appointed judge, Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, Portimão's juiz de instrução criminal, who had the power to approve any charges. In addition to Meneses, a district prosecutor, Luis Bilro Verão, was appointed to oversee the investigation. On 12 September Attorney General Fernando José Pinto Monteiro said that further police action was necessary, after which there could be a reassessment of possible bail conditions for the suspects.

Also on 12 September, Anjos Frias authorised the seizure of Kate's diary and Gerry's laptop, thought to be at the McCanns' home in England. Social workers visited the McCanns on 13 September at their request. The McCanns said they believed that their phones in the UK were being tapped.

In an effort to rebut accusations that Kate had been on medication at the time of the disappearance, her hair was tested in November 2007. Toxicology tests showed no evidence that she had taken drugs in the past eight months. The twins were also tested for sedatives; no traces were found. A team of four Portuguese detectives and scientists were briefed in person by the Forensic Science Service at Leicestershire police headquarters on 29 November about the forensic tests that the Birmingham laboratory had carried out. It was reiterated that the results had been inconclusive. In early February 2008, Alípio Ribeiro, the national director of the Polícia Judiciária, said that there "perhaps should have been another assessment" before the McCanns were declared arguidos.

It was reported on Spanish television in April 2008 that parts of the McCanns' interviews with the Portuguese police had been leaked. These were reported to include a statement that Madeleine had remonstrated with her mother for not responding when they had been crying the previous night. Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesperson, said that the leak was a "deliberate smear," that emerged on the day the McCanns were in Brussels promoting a child-welfare initiative. The Polícia Judiciária denied that material had been leaked. A published judgement on 29 April 2008 from the Tribunal da Relação de Évora by Judge Fernando Ribeiro Cardoso revealed that investigators were examining abduction, homicide, abandonment of a child, and concealment of a corpse.

Investigation closed

The Portuguese police investigation team began to wind down in October 2007. Several departures decreased the number of officers from a peak of 200 to just six detectives which, with holidays, could mean as few as three working on the case at any one time. The Tapas Seven were interviewed by Leicestershire police in England in April 2008, with the Policia Judiciária in attendance. The Portuguese police planned the next month to hold a reconstruction of the night of Madeleine's disappearance, and asked the McCanns and their friends to attend, but it was cancelled when the friends declined to participate; they were reported to have concerns that it was not going to be televised, which they said rendered it of questionable value.

Alípio Ribeiro resigned as the national director of the Policia Judiciária in May 2008, citing media pressure from the investigation. He had publicly said the police had been hasty in naming the McCanns as suspects. Ribeiro's replacement was named as José Maria Almeida Rodrigues, a senior detective based in Coimbra.

Fernando José Pinto Monteiro, the Portuguese Attorney General, announced on 21 July 2008 that the McCanns' and Robert Murat's arguido status was lifted and the case was closed. The police released the files, running to 17 volumes comprising over 11,000 pages, on 4 August 2008.

Unofficial investigations (2007–2012)

Madeleine's Fund

Madeleine's Fund poster

The McCanns set up a campaign, Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd, to raise awareness and funds for their investigation. The directors as of May 2013 were Brian Kennedy, a retired head teacher; Edward Smethurst, a commercial lawyer; Jon Corner, director of a media company; Michael Linett, retired accountant; and Kate and Gerry McCann. The directors decided in September 2007, when the McCanns were made arguidos, that no money from the Fund would be used to pay the couple's own legal costs.

The campaign organized appeals from political leaders and sporting personalities, and over £2.6 million was raised. The parents had an audience with Pope Benedict XVI in May 2007, and embarked on a tour of key European and North African countries, together with a visit to the United States. The owner of Everest Windows, Brian Kennedy (not the Brian Kennedy who is a director of Madeleine's Fund), stepped forward to fund the salary of Clarence Mitchell, director of the Central Office of Information's media monitoring unit until September 2007, who became a spokesperson for the McCanns.

Reported sightings of Madeleine

Main article: Sightings of Madeleine McCann

There were several reported sightings in Portugal and elsewhere. The McCanns gained limited access to police files concerning possible sightings in July 2008.

Private investigators

At least five firms of private investigators were engaged. At the end of May 2007 the McCanns hired a British firm, Control Risks. Brian Kennedy paid for private investigators to search in Morocco. Spanish agency Método 3 were also engaged.

US-based Oakley International was hired for six months in 2008; the owner, Kevin Halligen, was arrested in November 2009 in connection with an unrelated fraud allegation. Another, unnamed, US organisation was engaged in August 2008, also on a £500,000 six-month contract. Método 3 continued to follow up information from Spain and Portugal.

Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia paid for the Barragem do Arade reservoir, 35 miles (56 km) east of Praia da Luz, to be searched by divers in early February 2008. He said he had received intelligence from underworld sources that Madeleine had been killed and dumped in a lake. The search resumed in the middle of March, funded by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Engenharia e Construção. Nothing of significance was found. Stephen Birch, a South African property developer, said in July 2012 that ground radar scans he had made showed digging and what could be human bones below a gravel driveway in Praia da Luz. The Polícia Judiciária declined to excavate the driveway, a decision supported by the McCanns.

There were suggestions of links to two known paedophiles. Urs Hans Von Aesch had been on holiday in the area at the time of the disappearance. A Swiss citizen and resident of Benimantell, Spain, Von Aesch was implicated by Swiss police in the abduction and murder of five-year-old Ylenia Lenhard in July 2007; he committed suicide shortly after she was taken. In May 2009 Briton Raymond Hewlett, who had been jailed for sexual offences against young girls, became a person of interest. Hewlett denied any involvement. He agreed to meet investigators working for the McCanns if they paid him; the investigators declined. He also gave police in Germany a DNA sample. He died of cancer in December 2009.

In August 2009 it emerged that, 72 hours after Madeleine disappeared, two British men were approached in Barcelona by a woman who reportedly asked, "Are you here to deliver my new daughter?" The woman, described as a "Victoria Beckham lookalike," had an Australian accent and spoke fluent Spanish or Catalan. An E-fit picture was released showing a woman with short, spiky hair.

Response to the disappearance

Main article: Response to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Criticism of the parents

Tributes in Rothley, Madeleine's home town, 17 May 2007

The parents were criticised for having left their children alone, despite the availability of a babysitting service and a creche. In an interview with the BBC in May 2007, the McCanns acknowledged the criticism and spoke of the guilt they felt. An online petition was started in June 2007 asking that Leicestershire Social Services "fulfil their statutory obligation to investigate the circumstances which led to three-year-old Madeleine McCann and her younger siblings being left unattended in an unlocked, ground floor hotel room." Leicestershire County Council said in response that it was "discharging [its] duties in ... a full and professional manner," and that "[a]ll agencies are acutely aware of the traumatic ordeal that the McCanns are experiencing." The family declined to comment.

Criticism of the police

The Portuguese police were unable to release information because they were constrained by Article 86 of the Portuguese penal code. This says information must not be released during a criminal investigation, unless the circumstances are exceptional.

Yellow ribbons in Rothley

There was extensive criticism of the Portuguese police in the British media. They apparently at first believed she had wandered off, which resulted in a failure to secure the crime scene. In August 2007 Mark Williams-Thomas, a child-protection expert and former detective with the Surrey Police, described the initial forensic tests as "inept" and criticised the three-month delay in the Portuguese acceptance of the British offer of expert help. He said the police should have sealed the apartment immediately, then conducted a thorough forensic examination. Madeleine's favourite toy, Cuddle Cat, was with her in bed on the night she disappeared, and was found still on the bed after she disappeared, but police failed to check it for DNA the abductor might have left on it.

Neither border nor marine police were given descriptions of Madeleine for many hours after she vanished, and officers did not appear to have made extensive door-to-door inquiries. Critics alleged that the lack of appeals for help and information had surprised British police experts. The police failed to ask for surveillance pictures of vehicles leaving Praia da Luz at the time of the disappearance, or of the road between Lagos and Vila Real de Santo António on the Spanish border. June Hughes from Glasgow, who had stayed in the apartment the previous week with her husband, expressed surprise on 1 June that the police had not made contact with them. Another mistake was misreporting the height of the man Jane Tanner and the Irish family saw carrying a child on the night of the disappearance. This was given in a Portuguese press release as 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), but mistakenly appeared in the English version as 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m).

Gonçalo Amaral book

In July 2008 Gonçalo Amaral, the officer in charge of the Portuguese police investigation from June until October 2007, published a book, Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira (Maddie, the Truth of the Lie). The book alleged that Madeleine had died in the holiday apartment and that the McCanns had invented the abduction. A Portuguese judge issued an injunction in September 2009 that stopped further publication or sales, and banned Amaral from repeating his claims. The McCanns also sought 1.2 million euros ($1.7 million) in damages for defamation. In December 2009 Amaral responded to the publication ban by publishing a second book, A Mordaça Inglesa (The English Gag). Amaral lost an appeal against the injunction in February 2010, but in October 2010 the Court of Appeal in Lisbon overturned the ban, stating that it violated Amaral's freedom of expression. Amaral and the McCanns failed to reach an out-of-court settlement in the defamation suit, and the proceedings were continuing as of February 2013.

Libel cases, Leveson Inquiry

Further information: Leveson Inquiry#Witnesses

The McCanns, the Tapas Seven, Robert Murat and two others brought libel actions against several news organizations. The Daily Express, Daily Star and its sister Sunday papers published front-page apologies to the McCanns in March 2008, and agreed to pay £550,000 in libel damages, money that was donated to the Find Madeleine Fund. The newspapers had published over 100 stories that became the subject of the libel action. The Tapas Seven were awarded £375,000 in damages in October that year against the Express Group, along with a published apology in the Daily Express, after the newspaper suggested they had misled detectives to cover up for the McCanns. That award was also donated to the Find Madeleine Fund.

Robert Murat, Michaela Walczuch, a friend of his, and Sergey Malinka, who had designed a website for Murat, sued Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers, MGN Limited and News Group Newspapers for 100 articles described as "seriously defamatory." Murat was awarded £600,000 in July 2008 and the others $100,000; all three received public apologies. The British Sky Broadcasting Group, which owns Sky News, paid Murat undisclosed damages in a separate libel action in November 2008, and agreed that Sky News should post an apology to him on its website for 12 months.

The McCanns testified for two hours in November 2011 before the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in the UK. They told the inquiry that the British tabloids had declared "open season" on them. Kate described how the News of the World, which was later closed by Rupert Murdoch, had published her personal diaries in September 2008. Her husband said a former editor of the News of the World had "berated" the couple for having given an unpaid interview to Hello! magazine on the first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance, rather than to that newspaper; Gerry said he felt "beaten into submission" and agreed to give the newspaper an interview the next day. The Daily Mirror ran a front-page story about Madeleine with the headline "She's dead," while one of the Express Group newspapers published a headline that the McCanns had sold her. Lord Justice Leveson told the inquiry that the Express had published "complete piffle" about Madeleine's disappearance.

Operation Grange (launched 2011)

Further information: Operation Grange

Scotland Yard's case review, Operation Grange, began in May 2011.

In March 2010 the British Home Office began a review to decide whether a new investigation was necessary. In connection with this, the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre sought help with the case from West Yorkshire Police's major inquiry team, who had found nine-year-old Shannon Matthews in March 2008.

In May 2011, at the request of Home Secretary Theresa May, Scotland Yard launched a review of the case, called Operation Grange, at a cost of £2 million. According to BBC Panorama in 2012, the review was financed by a government contingency fund at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron, reportedly after News International persuaded the government to have the British police look into Madeleine's disappearance. In or around April 2011, Portuguese police in Porto also began a review of the case. The officer in charge of Operation Grange, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood from Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said that the British and Portuguese teams were working collaboratively.

In April 2012 Redwood said he believed there was a possibility that Madeleine was alive. His team of 28 detectives and seven civilians reviewed 40,000 pieces of evidence – the equivalent of 100,000 pages – and identified 195 items for investigation within the files, as well as several new leads. The British police have no jurisdiction in Portugal and have to rely on the Portuguese police to reopen the case. Redwood urged the Portuguese to do this, and released an updated age progression image of Madeleine. In May 2013 Scotland Yard said it had drawn up a list of persons of interest that detectives say could be investigated if the case were to be reopened. In particular they said they wanted to trace 12 British and Portuguese casual manual workers who were at the Ocean Club resort when Madeleine disappeared; the list includes six British cleaners in a white van who were offering their services at the resort to other British expats.

External links

• FindMadeleine.com