Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann disappeared on the evening of Thursday, 3 May 2007 in the resort of Praia da Luz in the Algarve, Portugal, just days short of her fourth birthday. The British girl was on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and siblings when she disappeared from an apartment in the central area of the resort. Madeleine's parents have said that they left her unsupervised in a ground floor bedroom with her two-year-old twin siblings while they ate at a restaurant about 120 metres away.

The initial investigation by the Polícia Judiciária (Portuguese criminal investigation police) concluded that she had been abducted. After further investigation, they subsequently stated that there was a strong hypothesis that she might have died in her room. During the investigation there were a number of unconfirmed claimed sightings of Madeleine in Portugal and elsewhere and additional scientific evidence was obtained.

Robert Murat, a local resident, was given arguido (suspect) status on 15 May. Nonetheless, police investigating the disappearance admitted on 17 August that the investigation was nowhere near a breakthrough. Kate and Gerry McCann were also named as arguidos on 7 September, but were allowed to fly back to the United Kingdom on 9 September. The investigation involved the cooperation of the British and Portuguese police and demonstrated the differing methodologies employed by each, with regard to such aspects as the amount of information released to the public and the legal status of those involved in the case.

The disappearance and its aftermath are notable for the breadth and longevity of the media coverage. This was initially due to the active involvement of the parents in publicising the case and to several awareness-raising campaigns by international celebrities and, latterly, to the interest that arose from the parents being named as suspects. The event generated international media attention with controversy surrounding the Portuguese-led police investigation and the actions of Madeleine's parents. There has also been criticism of the extent and nature of the publicity and of the reporting of the disappearance in both the Portuguese and British media.

Disappearance

Madeleine disappeared from a ground floor apartment where the family was staying on the evening of 3 May 2007. The apartment had been rented by the holiday company Mark Warner for the summer season as part of its Ocean Club. The nature of the Ocean Club may have contributed to the disappearance of Madeleine since, because its buildings are spread out across the village, anyone can wander in and out of the holiday areas.

Her parents reported to the police that they had taken Madeleine to their holiday apartment at 18:00, to prepare Madeleine and her two-year-old twin siblings for bed. Then, leaving the apartment unlocked, they had dined with friends approximately 120 metres away at a tapas bar within the Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club. The McCanns said that they were taking turns checking on their children and that at approximately 21:05 Western European Summer Time (WEST) Gerry checked on the children followed by Dr Matthew Oldfield at 21:30. At around 22:00, Kate returned to check on the children and found Madeleine's bed empty and the bedroom window open. An Ocean Club nanny, Charlotte Pennington, who was one of the first people to arrive at the apartment, said that Kate screamed both "They've taken her, they've taken her!" and "Madeleine's gone!". Kate said that the police were called within 10 minutes of finding her daughter gone. Gerry said it was one of their friends who alerted the resort manager and the police.

The GNR’s spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Costa Cabral, said that the first call to the police was at 23:50. According to the Portuguese police's missing person notice, the disappearance had occurred "by 22:40". The police stated that officers arrived within 10 minutes of being alerted, and an investigation unit began work within 30 minutes. Staff and guests at the complex searched until 04:30 while police on the Spanish border and all airports in Portugal and Spain were notified. The Portuguese police have yet to supply a definitive timeline for the evening of Madeleine's disappearance.

Confirmed sightings on 3 May

The last picture of the child, as supplied by the family, was apparently taken at 14:29, and showed her sitting by the side of the pool with Gerry and Amelie. Although the McCanns insisted that Gerry was playing tennis as Kate gave the children supper at the Ocean Club resort at 17:00, Miguel Matias, who runs the beach-side Paraíso restaurant, said that the family were at the beach. In the early evening Matias saw Gerry dancing with his daughter while the family ate a meal on the terrace. Portuguese police confirmed that they had received relevant CCTV footage from Matias.

Official investigation

Early stages

Following the disappearance, police carried out a search of the surrounding area with sniffer dogs, but it was called off on 11 May having produced no results. The Portuguese police Polícia Judiciária (PJ) said they were unsure whether Madeleine was still alive. They also examined photographs taken by holidaymakers to see if any suspects could be identified. The Maritime Police searched the coast including the caves. In the countryside, possible places of concealment were explored. The City Council helped the investigation by searching sewers and waterways. On 6 May it was revealed that the PJ had asked for the help of the SIS, the Portuguese secret service. On 7 May, it was reported that the PJ was looking for a 1.7-metre tall man with short brown hair and wearing a blue coat with a whitish collar.

The Portuguese media reported that the PJ were pursuing two lines of investigation: an abduction by an international paedophile network or an abduction by an adoption network.

Controversy ensued on 17 June, when Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa said that the presence of so many people in the apartment from which Madeleine disappeared, after she was found to be missing, complicated the work of the scientific team. He added that this could have destroyed all the evidence and could prove to be fatal for the investigation.

Murat and Malinka

At 07:00 WEST on the morning of 14 May 2007, searches began at Casa Liliana, a villa owned by Jennifer Murat, a British citizen, near the apartment where Madeleine went missing. Police and scientific teams sealed off the house, and at 16:00 the swimming pool was drained.

Three people, including Jennifer Murat's son Robert Murat, were questioned at the main police station in nearby Portimão. Robert Murat, a frequent visitor to the villa who has dual British-Portuguese nationality, had drawn the suspicion of Lori Campbell, a Sunday Mirror journalist, who informed the police.

Former Murat classmate Gaynor de Jesus said: "I do know that he has been the official translator for the police." Murat had said he was deeply concerned about Madeleine’s case because he had recently lost custody of his own three-and-a-half year old daughter who looked like the missing girl.

Robert Murat was given arguido (suspect) status on 15 May; before being given this status persons are treated as witnesses. It is not clear if Murat or the police asked for the arguido status which gives extra rights such as the right to remain silent. Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa told a news conference that an un-named 33-year-old (believed to be Murat) had been interrogated, but not enough evidence was found to justify arresting him. Sousa said police had searched five houses on Monday and seized "various materials" from the properties which were being subjected to scientific tests and had questioned two other un-named people as witnesses. Murat stated that he was being made a scapegoat so that the police could be seen to have found a suspect.

It was reported on 16 May that two cars used by the Murats had been examined, and computers, mobile phones and several video tapes were taken from their villa. It also emerged that a British architect who built the villa was ignored when he called police about a hidden basement within the property.

The police were understood to have taken in for questioning Sergey Malinka, 22, a man of Russian origin, from whose property officers also took away a laptop computer and two hard drives. Malinka had set up a website for Murat and the two exchanged frequent phone calls since Madeleine's disappearance—the reason the authorities started suspecting him. Chief Police Inspector Olegário de Sousa reiterated there was insufficient evidence to make any arrests. Police said that Malinka had been questioned as a witness for approximately five hours, which did not, having regard to the "dynamic" nature of the investigation, mean that he could not become a suspect.

Malinka spoke negatively of the coverage of the case in the Portuguese media, which had alleged that he was a convicted sexual offender. Malinka denied he had contacted Murat, and said he was "completely innocent". Inconsistencies in his account of his relationship with Robert Murat emerged: he had said he had not contacted Murat in a year but Murat’s mobile phone records allegedly show he called Mr Malinka at 23:40 on the night Madeleine went missing. On 19 May, Portuguese detectives flew to England to interview Dawn Murat, the estranged wife of Robert Murat, and detectives re-interviewed other witnesses connected with Murat.

Murat was interviewed for a second and third time on 10 July and 11 July to clarify what detectives described as details and possible contradictions from his previous statement in the light of new information. On the second day detectives from the Polícia Judiciária questioned three friends of the McCanns who were dining with them at the time of the disappearance, Rachael Oldfield, Russell O'Brien and Fiona Payne, "to go over their accounts of events on May 3". The three were also brought face to face with Murat. As a result of the interviews, police examined discrepancies between statements from the three friends and that from Murat, in particular claims from the friends that they saw Murat outside the holiday complex on the night of the disappearance when he had stated that he was at home with his mother. Murat's mother, Jenny, subsequently corroborated his alibi.

Police, including British detectives, resumed searching Casa Liliana on 4 August. Vegetation was cleared and the grounds were searched but despite the use of hi-tech scanning equipment and a British sniffer dog no new evidence was found.

Reports in the Portuguese press suggested that Murat met Gerry while the latter was campaigning for the Labour Party. Murat denied this on 13 September describing the reports as "absolutely ridiculous" saying "I’ve never met the man before". Murat had his computers and other possessions returned to him, by the police, in late March 2008.

McCanns as suspects

The Polícia Judiciária (PJ), on 6 September, officially interviewed Kate for a second time, at the police station in Portimão with the McCanns' Portuguese lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, present. The family’s spokeswoman Justine McGuinness said, "Kate will answer every question put to her – she has nothing to hide." Pinto de Abreu made a formal application for the couple’s status to be changed from 'witness' to 'assistant' in the investigation. This is a technical move which would allow the McCanns to have more information about the progress of the investigation. When Pinto de Abreu emerged with Kate from the police station in the early hours of 7 September, after more than 10 hours of questioning, he said Kate "was interviewed as a witness and she still remains a witness. The investigation is ongoing and we cannot say any more."

Kate returned for further interview later on 7 September and was formally declared a suspect by the Portuguese police. After questioning, Kate was released from the police station just before 16:00 without being charged. Gerry was interviewed at the same police station during the afternoon and evening of 7 September and afterwards Pinto de Abreu announced that Gerry had also been named as a formal suspect. Before she became a suspect Kate said "The police don't want a murder in Portugal and all the publicity about them not having paedophile laws here, so they're blaming us," and Gerry said "We are being absolutely stitched up." Pinto de Abreu said that claims by relatives that police had offered Kate a plea bargain if she admitted to accidentally killing her child were wrong and the result of "a misunderstanding".

The UK Foreign Office is providing the McCanns with assistance. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said on 9 September "I am clear that the Portuguese police have the objective of solving this crime, and most importantly finding Madeleine, and that is what we in our support of the McCanns have tried to do as well." Despite the ongoing investigation, the McCanns flew home on 9 September via Faro and East Midlands airports.

During the evening of 10 September, Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt, commenting on the analysis of samples returned from the Forensic Science Service, said that "According to police, it shows the presence of Madeleine's body in the boot of the family's hire car five weeks after she disappeared.". Shortly afterwards, however, the national director of the Policia Judiciaria, Alípio Ribeiro, cautioned that the tests had not been conclusive and forensic science experts pointed to the dangers of contamination. Earlier, McGuinness had said that Kate told detectives there was "no way" Madeleine's blood could have been found inside the car, which they had hired some 25 days after the disappearance, and continued to protest her innocence. To enable the McCanns to carry out independent forensic tests, the car is being kept in the garage of tycoon John Geraghty at his villa near Praia da Luz.

Sousa stated that at the end of the investigation the case file would be handed to the public prosecutor. The papers were given to the local prosecutor, José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses, on 11 September. Meneses decided that there was sufficient evidence to pass the case to a judge, who had the power to approve any charges and also decide, within 10 days, on other actions that could have included placing the McCanns under house arrest in the Algarve, ordering further interrogations and authorising further searches. The judge appointed was Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, Portimão's 'juiz de instrução criminal'.

A district prosecutor, Luis Bilro Verão, has now been appointed in addition to Meneses, 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.

Anjos Frias authorised, on 12 September, the seizure of Kate's diary, and Gerry's laptop, thought to be at the McCanns' Rothley home, and other items. Leicestershire Police are expected to visit the McCanns, to attempt to implement this warrant. Social workers visited the McCanns on 13 September, at their request. Anjos Frias ruled on 19 September that the McCanns would not be reinterviewed for the time being.

The McCanns have been quoted as believing that their phones have been tapped from fairly early in the investigation. The McCanns challenged the police, on 13 September, saying in a statement "Find the body and prove we killed her". Clarence Mitchell, on 17 September, resigned as director of the Central Office of Information's media monitoring unit to become the McCanns' media spokesman. In his first media appearance, the following day, he said that there was an innocent explanation for any potentially incriminating evidence the police may have found. Then Gerry said that he believed his daughter's kidnapper had been hiding behind a door in their holiday apartment as he checked on his children.

In an effort to rebut accusations that she was on medication at the time of the disappearance, hair from Kate was tested in November. Toxicology tests showed no evidence that she had taken drugs in the past eight months. The twins were also tested to show that they were never given sedatives. A team of four Portuguese detectives and scientists were briefed by the Forensic Science Service, at Leicestershire Police headquarters in Enderby on 29 November, about the forensic tests that the Birmingham laboratory had carried out. The results were understood to be inconclusive. In early February 2008, Alípio Ribeiro, the national director of the PJ, said that there "perhaps should have been another assessment" before the McCanns were declared arguidos.

Parts of the interviews of the McCanns, by the Portuguese police, were leaked on 10 April. These included reports that Madeleine had remonstrated with her mother for leaving the children unattended when they had been crying the previous night. Clarence Mitchell said that the leak was a "deliberate smear" and commented that it was curious that this should emerge on the day that the McCanns were in Brussels promoting a child welfare initiative.

Other suspects

The Portuguese police disclosed information, on 25 May 2007, about a possible suspect in addition to Mr Murat: this was a reference to a middle-build Caucasian, approximately 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) tall. However, the height of the man was subsequently corrected to that given on the Portuguese press release as 170 cm (5 ft 7 in). The man, aged between 35 and 40, was seen at 21:30 on 3 May, by a close friend of the McCanns, but this information was only made public two and half weeks later. According to Chief Police Officer Olegário de Sousa, the man, was carrying a child, or something which might have resembled a child. He fitted the description of a suspect being hunted by Spanish police for the kidnappings of Sara Morales, 14, and 7-year-old Yeremi Vargas, in the Canary Islands.

Detectives tried to trace a British man who left the harbour in his yacht shortly after the disappearance, after having moored there for two years. A witness reported seeing a man carrying a child in his arms down to the marina, hours after Madeleine disappeared. On 29 May, detectives questioned four boat owners, three of them English, whose vessels were moored at the marina in Lagos, a town about five miles (8 km) from Praia da Luz.

A mystery sample of DNA was found, on 1 June, in the bedroom from where Madeleine disappeared. The DNA did not match that of the McCanns, their three children nor that of Murat. The PJ handed the sample over to the national forensic science laboratories, the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal, and stated that there is a new suspect. In early August there was a suggested link with Urs Hans Von Aesch who had been on holiday in the area around the time that Madeleine went missing. Von Aesch, a resident of Benimantell, Spain, who was implicated by Swiss police with the disappearance of five-year-old Ylenia Lenhard from Appenzell, Switzerland, had recently committed suicide.

The occupants of the flat above that from which Madeleine disappeared reported an intruder who apparently had entered with a key. There had been a similar burglary in the complex some weeks earlier. On 17 August, search warrants were signed for the home of a new suspect.

Other aspects of the investigation

On 7 June, Spanish police received a phone call from a man claiming to know the whereabouts of Madeleine, using a mobile phone registered in Argentina. The call was described as "credible".

In June, Spanish investigative journalist Antonio Toscano claimed that the four-year-old was abducted by a French sex offender, as part of a Europe-wide paedophile network. Then, on 28 June, Toscano claimed that Madeleine was alive and well in Europe but Madeleine's parents refused to meet with him. Determined to leave no stone unturned, police also examined hundreds of reports from psychics and clairvoyants claiming to know the location of Madeleine.

The investigation was thrown into confusion on 10 June when the detective coordinating the hunt, Gonçalo Amaral, head of the regional Polícia Judiciária, and four other Portuguese police officers, were charged with alleged offences relating to the inquiry into the disappearance of Joana Cipriano, from a village seven miles (11 km) from where Madeleine disappeared.

The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, on 13 June, received a letter that suggested that Madeleine was buried on a hillside, near Arão, nine miles (14 km) north-east from Praia da Luz. After a search of the area, however, the Portuguese police abandoned this lead on 15 June.

In early August, the British police team brought in to assist found microscopic traces of blood on the wall of the apartment from which Madeleine disappeared and that had not been detected by the Portuguese police. Using specially trained sniffer dogs and ultraviolet technology they discovered the blood despite the apartment having being cleaned and reoccupied. Samples of blood, hair, and fibres were sent to the UK Forensic Science Service in Birmingham for DNA analysis. Examination of the scientific evidential material is continuing and initial findings, described as "significant", were sent to Portugal around 4 September.

Following the publicising of the discovery of the blood spots, Sousa stated "The family are not suspects. This is the official position." Then on 11 August, Sousa added that new evidence had given "intensity" to the possibility Madeleine had been killed. Sousa confirmed on 15 August that the sniffer dogs, which could only pick up the scent of a body which had been in situ for more than two hours, had detected the scent of a dead body. John Barrett, a former Scotland Yard dog handler, said that the dogs used to detect a 'death smell' on Kate's Bible and clothes were brought in too long after Madeleine vanished since the crucial scent lasts for no longer than a month.

The position of the police was clarified on 16 August by Alípio Ribeiro, national director of the Polícia Judiciária, who said that although there was a strong hypothesis that Madeleine was dead, it could not be confirmed and the investigation was nowhere near a breakthrough. António Cluny, president of Portugal's public prosecutor's service, said on 24 September that "Without the little girl's body everything is extremely complicated". He went on to stress that all options from abduction to Madeleine's death were still open.

The Portuguese police investigation team was run down in October 2007. Following the removal of Gonçalo Amaral as investigation coordinator, other departures reduced the number of people working on the case 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. Paulo Rebelo, an assistant national director of the Polícia Judiciária, took over responsibility for the case on 8 October.

Ribeiro confirmed, during October, that Portuguese police officers were planning to fly to the UK to assist in the re-interviewing of the friends who dined with the McCanns at the time of the disappearance. To prepare for the re-interviewing, Joannes Thuy, a spokesman for the Portuguese public prosecutor, said on 15 January 2008 that Eurojust had been asked to be the go-between for the Portuguese and the UK authorities. As part of the preparations, Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, of Leicestershire Police, flew to Portugal for discussions with his counterparts, in early March. The interviews, carried out by Leicestershire Police and attended by the Portuguese Police, began on 8 April 2008.

Alberto Costa, Portugal's Minister of Justice, told a parliamentary committee hearing in Lisbon, on 13 February, that Portuguese police were "at a stage now where we are approaching the conclusion of the process." Luis Antonio, the estranged husband of Murat’s girlfriend Michaela Walczuch, was questioned by police for a second time in early February.

The Portuguese police have planned to hold a reconstruction, of the events of the night of Madeleine's disappearance, in May 2008. They have asked the McCanns, their friends, and holidaymakers to attend.

External assistance

Throughout the investigation support has been provided by the British authorities for the Portuguese police. Immediately after the disappearance experts from Britain were flown out to assist the Portuguese police experts and Leicestershire Police sent family liaison officers to help the McCann family. On 9 May, Interpol released a yellow notice, issued to help locate missing persons who are not able to identify themselves, to all member police forces. A team of mobile phone experts flew to Portugal on 29 May 2007 to analyse mobile phone data from the area at the time of the abduction. They used triangulation techniques to track mobile phone movements down to a couple of yards. More experts, this time from the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, flew into Portugal on July 31 to assist the local detectives, for whom all leave had been cancelled, by developing a psychological profile of a possible abductor.

In early August, British detectives again flew in to assist. They were accompanied by specially trained sniffer dogs and equipment for underground detection and ultraviolet instruments for identifying blood.

Unofficial investigations

At least three firms of private investigators have been engaged to make enquiries. At the end of May 2007 the McCanns hired Control Risks Group. It was announced on 29 September that tycoon Brian Kennedy was paying for private investigators to search in Morocco. Spanish agency Método 3 were engaged with the enquiries lead by Francisco Marco. It was disclosed in January 2008 that Hogan International, headed by Noel Hogan, former Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent, was carrying out a cold case review, in conjunction with Método 3.

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 claimed to have received intelligence from underworld sources that Madeleine had been killed and dumped in a lake. The initial search was unsuccessful but it resumed in the middle of March, funded by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Engenharia e Construção.

Several items had been found in the reservoir. Initially discovered were several lengths of cord, some plastic tape and a single white, cotton sock. Then two plastic bags, one containing small bones, were found on 14 March. The bones were being examined by the police.

Reported sightings

Many sightings were reported both in Portugal and elsewhere in the world, but none produced any firm leads. On 9 July 2007, the Portuguese police said that they believed that it was likely that the missing girl was still being held in Portugal.

In Portugal

Police in the mountainous town of Nelas, northern central Portugal, had received information of a girl matching Madeleine's description who was seen with a man in a supermarket on 8 May 2007. The man, a Belgian citizen, stopped at the supermarket with his daughter and left the place in a car before police were contacted, but police later confirmed that the sighting had been a false alarm. People in the resort came forward to report unusual incidents including a woman who noticed a man trying to take away a pram and a man who caught a stranger taking photographs of young blonde girls on a beach. Portuguese police also investigated a report by holidaymaker Andre van Wyk. Van Wyk claimed that, shortly after the disappearance, he had seen a girl resembling Madeleine being taken in a cart to a gypsy camp near Portimão, about ten miles (16 km) from where Madeleine disappeared.

On 9 May, the 24 Horas newspaper reported that police had found a vehicle near Praia da Luz that may have been used by the kidnapper. Further, CCTV video from a petrol station near Lagos showed a child matching Madeleine's description with a woman and two men. The child was having an altercation with the woman. The following day it was reported that the car from the petrol station had British number plates and it was claimed that the person caught taking photographs was one of the men on the CCTV footage.

An anonymous witness contacted police claiming to have spotted a Fiat Marea with a forged license plate in Pinhal Novo, Palmela, Setúbal on May 17, which allegedly transported the missing child. In the middle of November, a Portuguese trucker telephoned the Método 3 helpline reporting to have seen in the Algarve town of Silves, two days after the disappearance, a blonde woman pass a child wrapped in a blanket to a man, who then 'bundled' her into a car.

Jane Tanner claimed to have seen a man walking away from the apartment, with a sleeping child, at 21:15 on the evening of the disappearance. She added that the child was wearing similar pyjamas to those worn by Madeleine. The McCanns released, on 25 October, an artist's impression of the person. The drawing showed details of the man's hair and clothing but none of his features. On 20 January 2008 the McCanns released a new image of a long-haired man claimed by tourist Gail Cooper to be acting suspiciously, in April, at her apartment 600 yards (550 m) from that of the McCanns. He was said by Tanner to have a "strong resemblance" to the man she had seen.

In Morocco

Marie Olli, a Norwegian woman living in the Spanish town of Fuengirola, contacted the police on 10 May 2007, claiming she had seen a girl matching Madeleine's description in a petrol station in Marrakech, Morocco. The girl, who was said to have appeared sad, was allegedly accompanied by a man in his late 30s. At about the same time, a British tourist reported seeing Madeleine near the Marrakech Ibis hotel. Though Interpol subsequently discounted these sightings, officers from Leicestershire police remained in Morocco for some days afterwards. A Spanish tourist saw a girl resembling Madeleine as she drove through the town of Zaio in northern Morocco at the end of May. Attention switched back to Morocco on 4 June, after GCHQ in Cheltenham picked up phone intercept messages in Arabic referring to "the little blonde girl", a German man, and a ferry from Tarifa in Spain.

Another Spanish tourist, Isabel Gonzalez, has said that she saw a girl fitting Madeleine’s description being dragged across a street, also in Zaio, by a North African woman on 15 June. Naoual Malhi, a Spanish woman of Moroccan origin, claimed to have spotted the girl with a woman in the village of Fnideq, on 21 August, but private investigators were unable to substantiate the lead. A photograph of a blonde girl being carried on the back of a North African woman was taken on 31 August by Clara Torres, another Spanish tourist, in Zinat in northern Morocco, but it turned out to be a Moroccan girl. A school inspector claimed to have seen the child in Karia Ba Mohamed around the start of October, but after enquiries the local police were adamant that she was not there. Also, the Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said, on 4 November, that there was no evidence to suggest that Madeleine was in Morocco.

Elsewhere

There were two reported sightings in Belgium. The first was during May 2007 in Liège and the second occurred on 28 July on a café terrace in Tongeren. In the latter case, children’s therapist Katleen Sampermans said that Madeleine was in the company of a Dutch man and an English woman. However, the girl turned out to be the 4-year-old daughter of a Belgian man.

Security was tightened in Valletta, Malta on 21 June following five reported sightings on the island. The total sightings had risen to 29 by 27 June.

Two women reported seeing a child who looked like Madeleine with a man at a petrol station near Cartagena, Spain, on 21 August. This was discounted after a thorough investigation by the Spanish National Police and Civil Guard.

An Irish tourist reported a sighting in Međugorje, Bosnia at the beginning of November. The child was later revealed to be the 3-year-old daughter of Slavko Dedić, a dentist from the nearby town of Ljubuški.

Dutch student Melissa Fiering claimed that she saw Madeleine with a 'tall, swarthy man', at the L'Arche motorway service station restaurant in the south of France, on 15 February 2008. However the French police, after examining CCTV evidence, determined that the sighting was not of the missing child.

The first reported sighting in Britain occurred in Dorset in February 2008. Retired civil servant Alan Cameron said that she was with a Portuguese couple who came to the door.

Another sighting of Madeline McCann was reported on March 17 2008. Madeline was reportedly sighted in the Sydney CBD. The reported sighting was a "false alarm."

Response to the disappearance

Main article: Response to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Tributes in Rothley on 17 May 2007

Over the subsequent months Madeleine's parents implemented a publicity campaign that kept the disappearance in the public eye in many countries though there was criticism that the media attention was excessive and lacked objectivity. The disappearance led the news in the UK for over a week with subsequent daily coverage of events. There was regular coverage in Portugal and periodic coverage in other countries.

An official site for the search was set up and a fund-raising company, known as Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, was launched. The directors of the company subsequently decided that no money from the Fund would be used to pay the McCanns' legal costs.

The parents had an audience with the Pope and embarked on a tour of key European and North African countries, together with a visit to the United States, to raise and maintain awareness. There were appeals from many political leaders and sporting personalities and over £2.6 million of rewards were offered.

The publicity spawned attempted scams with fake websites set up, people collecting money on false pretences and others falsely claiming to have information on Madeleine's whereabouts. Following accusations in the media against the McCanns, they instigated libel actions against the Portuguese magazine Tal & Qual and the British Express Newspapers. The Daily Express and The Daily Star published rare front-page apologies, on March 19 2008, for suggesting that the McCanns had caused Madeleine's death. The tabloid newspapers agreed to pay the McCanns £550,000 in libel damages.

Criticism of the parents

The parents have been criticised for leaving their children alone while they ate at a nearby restaurant despite the availability of a babysitting service and a creche. There has also been criticism of the parents in the Portuguese media. Diário de Notícias insisted that the McCanns were suspects and claimed that on the night Madeleine disappeared they had not checked on the children, contrary to what they told police. The Daily Telegraph has reported "Portugal has been stung by suggestions that the investigation has been handled ineptly, and while there is much sympathy locally for the McCanns they have also been criticised for leaving their children alone."

Police questioned the couple on 10 May 2007 about why the three children were left alone in an apartment, with the patio doors unlocked, while they dined at the restaurant. Pamela Fenn, who lives in the flat above, had told police that on the Tuesday night before the disappearance that she had heard Madeleine crying for about 75 minutes before her parents returned from dinner. In an interview with the BBC on 25 May, the McCanns acknowledged the criticism, and spoke of the guilt they felt. In reply to questions posed to them on 6 June at a press conference in Germany, when radio reporter Sabina Müller suggested that their behaviour was not normal for people whose child had been abducted, they denied involvement in any abduction of their daughter.

On the 10 Downing Street website a petition to the Prime Minister was started on 12 June requesting that Leicestershire Social Services fulfil their statutory obligation to investigate the circumstances which led to Madeleine and her siblings being left unattended in an unlocked, ground floor hotel room. In response, Leicestershire County Council said it was "discharging [its] duties in... a full and professional manner" but the family has declined to comment on the petition. The petition was rapidly rejected, with the reason given being the language it contained.

Following criticism in the Portuguese media of the behaviour of the McCanns, on 21 July, the Crown Prosecution Service lawyers held "informal discussions" to consider whether any offence may have been committed under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which deals with ill-treatment, cruelty, neglect and abandonment of children under 16. The family said the calls to prosecute the McCanns were hurtful and unhelpful.

The lawyer of Robert Murat, Francisco Pagarete, criticised the McCanns in late November. He said that they "deserve to be cursed" for leaving their children alone.

Criticism of the police

There has been extensive criticism of the Portuguese police in the British media. It was reported that there were delays in obtaining and analysing forensic evidence, neither border nor marine police were given descriptions of Madeleine for many hours after she vanished, and officers had not been seen making extensive door-to-door inquiries. Critics allege that the scene had not been secured as tightly as it would have been in the UK and the lack of appeals for help and information has surprised British police experts.

It has emerged that the police failed to ask for surveillance pictures of vehicles leaving Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine's disappearance nor of the road between Lagos and Vila Real de Santo António, on the Spanish border. Mark Williams-Thomas, a former Surrey detective and now a child protection expert, on 6 August 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 that the police should have sealed the apartment immediately, on day one, and then conducted a thorough forensic examination.

The Portuguese police have, however, been working under legal restrictions. For instance, they cannot release information because they are constrained by Article 86 of the Portuguese penal code that says information must not be released, apart from in exceptional circumstances, while the criminal investigation is still taking place.

Several Portuguese news media and opinion makers have criticised the massive police and law enforcement efforts, comparing it with the efforts used to help national victims in past similar affairs. Taking part were up to 180 Portuguese police officials and civil protection helicopters together with hundreds of villagers and holidaymakers, an effort never seen in the search for other child disappearances in the country.

Parallels have been drawn with the case of disappearance of another child, Joana Cipriano, who disappeared on 12 September 2004 from her home in the village of Figueira, seven miles (11 km) from where Madeleine went missing. Chief investigating officer Guilhermino da Encarnação was also involved in that investigation, in which no body was found, but which ended with the conviction of Leonor and João Cipriano, Joana's mother and uncle. Since then Gonçalo Amaral and four other Portuguese police officers have been charged with offences. A judge decided, in February 2008, that Amaral will stand trial accused of falsifying evidence and covering up for the other four who are accused of torture.

The height of the man being sought by the police was given on the Portuguese press release as 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) but it mistakenly appeared as 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) the English version. Madeleine took a favourite toy to bed with her on the night she disappeared, on which an abductor could have left some trace of DNA evidence, but police did not check it. Then on 1 June 2007, June Hughes, from Glasgow, who had stayed in the apartment the previous week with her husband, expressed surprise that the police had not made any contact with them. Family members, on 9 June, complained of harassment by the police when they tried to put up 'missing' posters at Lisbon Airport. There were suggestions that the Portuguese authorities wanted to prevent these posters being displayed over concerns about damage to their tourist industry.

There was criticism that, on 6 June, two of the senior police officers involved in the case, Olegário de Sousa and Gonçalo Amaral, the head of the regional Polícia Judiciária, took a leisurely lunch and an observer commented that they laughed at what seemed to be an in-joke as the McCanns appeared on a television news broadcast. Olegário de Sousa defended their actions: "It is very, very sad but a person’s free time is for lunch," he said. "The persons are in charge in the day, they are working in the day but they must eat and drink, it is normal. I drink what I want to drink when I can drink." Gonçalo Amaral, in an interview given to the Diário de Notícias in October, said "The British police have only been working on that which the McCann couple want them to and which is most convenient for them." Subsequently the PJ's national director, Alípio Ribeiro, told journalists at a conference in Lisbon on 2 October, that Amaral's "commission of service has ceased". Amaral returned to his post in the PJ branch of Faro, the seat of the district. Tavares de Almeida, the deputy head of the inquiry, asked to be put on unpaid leave shortly before it was announced that he had been indicted over the alleged torture of a suspect in an unrelated investigation.

Richard Branson stepped into the debate on 15 October 2007. Branson, who has contributed £100,000 to the McCanns' defence fund, criticised the Portuguese police and press for 'overstepping their mark' by accusing the McCanns of involvement in the disappearance. This was rebutted by the notable forensic investigator Professor David Barclay of Robert Gordon University. His view was that the police were right to consider the McCanns as suspects and that the child is probably dead.

Family

Madeleine McCann

File:McCann right eye.jpg

Madeleine McCann's right eye

Madeleine Beth McCann, daughter of Kate and Gerry McCann, born 12 May 2003 in Leicester, was living with her parents and twin siblings, brother Sean and sister Amelie, now aged three, in Rothley, Leicestershire.

A notable identification feature is her right eye where 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. This has been utilised in publicity incorporating the word 'LOOK' with the black radial line in the first 'O'.

Kate McCann

Kate Marie McCann (née Healy; born 1967), Madeleine's mother, is a medical general practitioner. Before the disappearance she worked as a part-time GP in Melton. However, she has said that she will not return to work as a GP.

Born in Allerton, Liverpool, Healy studied medicine at the University of Dundee. Initially she specialised to become a gynaecologist, but later became an anaesthetist. She first met her husband Gerry McCann while employed at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. They were married in 1998. Like her husband, she is a practising Roman Catholic.

Gerry McCann

Gerald Patrick McCann, Madeleine's father, is a cardiologist. He currently works at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester though he was on unpaid special leave following the disappearance. On 1 November 2007 he returned to work on a three half-days per week basis, initially with no patient contact. Born in Glasgow, he attended Holyrood Secondary School and studied medicine at Glasgow University.

Friends

The McCanns together with their seven friends, with whom they were dining on the evening of the disappearance, have been collectively referred to in the media as the Tapas Nine. The group of friends, alone, have sometimes been called the Tapas Seven. The friends are Dr Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, Dr Matthew Oldfield and his wife Rachael Oldfield, David Payne with his wife Dr Fiona Payne and his mother-in-law Dianne Webster. All nine attended a private meeting, at a Rothley hotel, in late November.

See also

• Child abduction alert system

External links

• Official site for finding Madeleine McCann