GO TO PART ONE SUN 28 APRIL 2008

GO TO PART TWO SUN 29 APRIL 2008

GO TO PART THREE SUN 30 APRIL 2008

A TEARFUL Kate McCann talks tonight about how she is tormented by "if onlys" over the disappearance of Maddie.

An emotional Kate, 40, reveals for the first time how she and husband Gerry had planned to have a family dinner on the night their daughter vanished.

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But a last-minute change of plan led them to leave her and her twin sister and brother alone in their holiday apartment in Portugal.

In an extraordinary ITV1 documentary, made to mark the anniversary of Maddie's disappearance, Kate and husband Gerry, 39, speak as never before about that fateful night.

HER face crumpled in despair, tears streaming down, Kate McCann lays bare her utter grief at being separated from her daughter.

Speaking as never before, Kate says she cannot believe it has been a year since Maddie went missing.

And she tells how seeing the little girl's best friend in their home village makes her think about how much Maddie must have changed in those long 12 months.

Her voice close to breaking, she says: "I see Madeleine's best friend from time to time.

"I can't help but wonder what Madeleine would be like.

"Would she be that much taller? Is her hair as long as that? Would she be writing her name too?"

Always referring to Maddie, who is five in May, in the present tense, she describes her as "very loving. She's a very bright little girl.

"I had days when I'd go to a cafe with Madeleine and we'd go shopping together and she'd say, 'Oh mummy, I like that top,' or 'Oh, I love your earrings, mummy'.

"She's good company, she's like my - you know, she's like a little buddy to me."

In tonight's ITV1 documentary, Madeleine, One Year On: Campaign For Change, the McCanns are seen sitting down to a happy family meal while three-year-old twins Sean and Amelie chatter away excitedly.

Later, Kate tells how, when she first returned home from Portugal, she couldn't bear "everyday things".

She says: "I didn't cook a meal - just couldn't do it. I resented things like that because it was taking me away from Madeleine.

"How can I hang up washing when my daughter's not here?"

Poignantly, she adds: "With three kids, there's always lots of washing," and says that having to get up to deal with the twins helps her cope with Maddie being missing.

She points out: "They need a happy normal life."

Talking about life without Maddie, who he describes as "endless joy", dad Gerry says it is "a purgatory-type existence. We are kind of between something real and never finding out." He adds sadly: "Our little girl wasn't even four and is now nearly five. She's the victim and people should not forget that."

Much of tonight's documentary was filmed at the McCanns' home in Rothley, Leicestershire.

Poignantly, as the TV programme shows, there are reminders of Madeleine everywhere.

Photos of her are plastered on the fridge, drawings she did at nursery are stuck to kitchen units and her name is spelt out in wooden letters on a mantelpiece.

The twins are seen noisily playing in a playroom which is littered with Maddie's things, including a toy kitchen and pink pram.

Their gleeful laughter fills the house, and, watching them play, Kate smiles at the memory of Maddie joining in the fun.

Kate says: "She was great with Sean and Amelie.

"Even when they were born, you know she just stepped into the role really well, considering she was only 20 months when they were born, and she wanted to be involved and help. As they got a little bit older, because the age difference was so close, they just played so well together."

Her voice trailing away as she wipes away tears, Kate adds: "And it was lovely seeing them together and that's one thing that I struggle with - imagining how they would be now."

Talking about the night when Maddie went missing Kate tells for the first time how she and husband Gerry had planned to dine with the children.

She says: "We were all going to go up to the Millennium restaurant again. That was with the kids, which is what we did the first night.

"It didn't open till half past six in the evening and our kids usually go to bed around seven, so they were really tired."

Talking about why they had changed their minds, she says that, on the first visit, "we ended up trying to carry three of them between two and we decided we couldn't do that, really.

"It was just because the walk was so long and we didn't have a buggy and the kids were tired by that time."

So, instead, the McCanns decided to dine at a tapas bar just across from their holiday apartment. They left the kids alone, checking on them every 20 minutes.

Talking about the much-criticised decision to leave her children alone, Kate says: "I think if there'd even been one second when someone had said, 'Do you think it's going to be OK?', it wouldn't have happened.

"I mean, there's absolutely no way, if I'd have had the slightest inkling that there was risk involved there, that I'd have done it."

Gerry adds: "It was so close. It didn't feel that different to dining out in the back garden."

Kate now admits that she is tormented by the fact they left their children alone.

And she also feels guilty that they did not question Maddie further about a curious remark she made on the morning of the day she went missing.

She says the little girl had asked her, "Mummy, where were you last night when me and Sean were crying?"

The McCanns are convinced now that their daughter may have been woken up by an intruder for her to have said what she did the next morning.

Wringing her hands, Kate says: "You know, I've persecuted myself over and over again about that statement because you think, why didn't I kind of just hold her and say, 'What do you mean? What do you mean you woke up?'

"I do go back and it does upset you and you think, why didn't I say, 'Why did you cry?' - and why didn't we go back to the Millennium?"

Breaking down in tears, she adds: "Then, as Gerry said, there is the guilt you feel for not being there and giving someone that opportunity.

"But then I just have to kind of reel myself in and think, 'I know how much I love Madeleine and I have no doubt that Madeleine knows how much I love her'."

It was Kate's turn to check on the children - at around 10pm - when she discovered that Maddie had vanished.

She breaks down again as she recalls that moment, adding: "I just remember saying, 'Not Madeleine, not Madeleine, not Madeleine' - and I remember saying that over and over again."

Kate admits she "just feared the worst at the beginning".

She says: "It was really cold. I knew what pyjamas she had on and I just thought she's going to be freezing.

"And it was dark, and every minute seemed like an hour and, obviously, we were up all night and just waited for that first bit of light about six o'clock in the morning."

Gerry says: "Then we just went out searching, the two of us, at daylight. We were saying over and over again, 'Just let her be found, let her be found'.

"It felt like you're in the middle of a horror movie, really, a nightmare."

At times during the documentary the couple's tears turn to anger at the way the Portuguese police have handled their daughter's disappearance.

Talking about the moment she learnt she and Gerry had been made arguidos - official suspects - Kate says: "As soon as I realised the story, or theory, was that Madeleine was dead and that we'd been involved somehow, it just hit home.

"They haven't been looking for Madeleine. I was angry, you know. And I thought she deserves so much better than that, and I thought I'm not going to sit here and allow this.

"I felt almost invincible at that point. I just thought my children deserve that - Madeleine deserves that.

"Someone has to be fighting for Madeleine.

"When I was going in to become an arguido I felt angry. I wasn't scared. I felt like I was going to fight the world, to be honest.

"My daughter was worth more than all that and I would do whatever it took to fight for justice and truth."

For Kate and Gerry the picture of a happy three-year-old clutching a bundle of tennis balls evokes a carefree time before they became household names.

Speaking in the documentary about the now-famous photograph, Kate says: "Gerry loves that photo.

"As part of the kids' club, they did mini-tennis and she really enjoyed it."

Gerry smiles and adds: "One of the tasks was to gather all the balls up and she'd obviously managed to get three in and she turned round to Kate and she's like, 'Look, I've got them all'."

He also speaks about the moment the last known picture of Madeleine was taken.

It shows her sitting alongside her father and her younger brother Sean, dangling their feet in the swimming pool, just seven hours before her disappearance.

Gerry says: "She was a little person becoming independent and a piece of just endless joy."

Apart from the twins, the couple have been kept going in recent months by their involvement in the US-style Amber Alert system to keep children safe.

They have recently been to Brussels to ask the European Parliament to adopt a similar scheme across Europe.

At one stage in the documentary they are seen meeting Ed Smart in America.

His daughter Elizabeth was found alive eight months after she was abducted.

He tells the McCanns firmly: "Miracles do happen."

As the first anniversary of Maddie's disappearance dawns, Kate admits that she cannot imagine living with never knowing what happened to her daughter.

And she says firmly that she and Gerry will never give up searching for her.

At one stage she is seen reading a story in The Sun about a sighting of Maddie in France.

She says: "There's always that little bit of hope - thinking, 'Where is she?' and 'Is it ever going to be one of those sightings that's the real thing?' "

Her voice trembling, Kate says at the end of the documentary: "She's out there. We've just got to find her.

"It doesn't feel like a year since I saw Madeleine.

"She's just so much, very much still there and she doesn't seem so far away.

"It feels like she's still with me in some way and I've never felt like I won't see her again."

THE events of the night Maddie disappeared have divided the nation.

Many people feel enormous sympathy over the McCanns' loss, others feel anger that Gerry and Kate left their daughter and her siblings while they went out.

Here two very different voices of The Sun give their views.

'They deserve sympathy, not condemnation'

By LORRAINE KELLY

I BELIEVE Kate and Gerry McCann are guilty of just one thing and that's being stupid enough to leave their three little kids alone on the night Madeleine vanished.

The idea, however, that this devastated couple have anything to do with their daughter's disappearance is utterly absurd and has made their grief and sorrow even harder to bear.

The McCanns have moved heaven and earth trying to find Madeleine.

They have tried to remain dignified even when the Portuguese police and media spattered them with smears and false rumours, and when they have even been accused of murdering their own child.

They have been at the mercy of cranks and deluded "mystics" who claim to know where their daughter is and have had to follow up every lead even when they knew deep down it was hopeless.

It has been a year of sheer hell and utter despair for the McCanns. Anyone looking at bone-thin Kate, her face etched with sorrow, and Gerry trying to hold himself together but unable to talk about his daughter without his voice breaking, can surely see how much this couple are suffering.

They have to try to have some sort of normal life for their twins and there might even be some brief moments during the day when they forget what has happened to their little girl, but her disappearance will be the first thing they think about when they wake up in the morning and the last thing they think about when they try to get to sleep at night.

Like having good health, peace of mind is only really appreciated when you no longer have it, and the McCanns have had no peace of mind for almost an entire year and will have tortured themselves with guilt and "if onlys".

I was shocked to discover last month that Madeleine had asked her mum and dad why she had been left alone and crying the night before she vanished. I found that utterly chilling and it must haunt Kate and Gerry.

I simply can't for the life of me understand why they didn't take their three kids with them to that nearby tapas restaurant.

Hopeful

Since my daughter Rosie was a baby, she has always come everywhere with us when we go on holiday, especially to child-friendly countries such as Portugal, Spain and Greece.

We wouldn't have dreamed about leaving her behind to go for a meal because we go away to spend as much time as possible together as a family.

The posters at the airports and in bars and cafes in Spain and Portugal are looking tatty and many have been taken down.

It pains me to even think it, but realistically the chances of finding Madeleine alive after almost a year are non-existent and in recent months they have both admitted she might be dead, but they continue to remain hopeful.

This is despite all leads leading exactly nowhere.

No one knows if their little girl has been murdered, abducted to order or snatched by an opportunist with dark motives. I am sure the McCanns have tortured themselves with every possible gruesome and heartbreaking scenario.

The McCanns have been vilified for using the media to find Maddie and for hiring private detectives to search for her, but if your child was missing you would move heaven and earth to find them.

They are now trying to channel their energies into establishing a Europe-wide network to track down children who have been abducted, similar to the Amber Alert system in the United States. When a child goes missing there, messages are played on radio, TV and flashed on motorway signs, and it has helped to find hundreds of missing kids.

France and Belgium already have their own Amber Alerts, but Kate and Gerry want this to be the law throughout Europe.

They made an appalling and tragic error of judgment and no one knows that more than they do. They have been punished for their stupidity and thoughtlessness in the worst possible way. No one with any compassion could possibly want them to suffer more than they have done.

With their daughter missing for almost 12 long, weary months, they deserve our sympathy and not our condemnation.

'I have little support for them'

LAST week I said that I believe the McCanns are guilty. Guilty of child neglect and no amount of soft news articles or TV documentaries is going to convince me or, judging by my mailbag, the majority of Sun readers otherwise.

Obviously, I have enormous sympathy for their plight but I am afraid like the majority of parents in this country I have little support for them.

Of course, they didn't deserve to lose Madeleine and the real villain in this whole story is the person who abducted her but the fact is that if Gerry and Kate hadn't failed in the first basic responsibility of all parents, the protection of their off spring, than Maddie would still be here today.

I've found the McCanns' reluctance to admit their grave mistake both unsettling and weird and it has taken the best part of the last 12  months for Gerry to even concede they were in the wrong. But in the wrong they most certainly were.

I also believe if this had been a Sun reader on holiday in a caravan park who had been drinking in the camp bar when their child was abducted, the Press would have been less supportive and more aggressive in their coverage.

This thought has been echoed by lots of you including "Sxgirl" who posted the following on MySun after my article last week:

"I am a young single mum and if I had gone on holiday with a bunch of my friends and left my son (who is the same age as Maddie) alone so I could have dinner, no doubt I would have been had up for child abuse/neglect and the public would have been in uproar. I don't understand why these people have received so much public support.

"Yes, the heartache they're going through is unimaginable to me, but that is why I would never put my son at risk as they did. Checking on them every half hour is clearly not adequate! They should be held accountable for their actions and stop blaming everyone else for not protecting their children."

From the other end of the age spectrum, Sun reader and granny Marion Barret wrote to me and said: "Children put their unconditional love and trust in their parents to keep them safe, their safety is the most important thing. I feel so sorry for the twins without a sister, however, I struggle inside to feel anything but anger for the parents."

Failings

I agree with both these readers and thousands of others who have expressed similar views.

However, the mainstream media has treated these two doctors with kid gloves, even when it was clear the British public were not buying the story. Internet sites were full of criticism of the couple but the mainstream Press reported little of this, suppressing all criticism of the McCanns and their parental failings.

The British public sympathise with them but do not support them. If they did, the Find Madeleine fund would have raised millions more.

However, there are still massive unanswered questions, some of which are only just beginning to surface. Why did they not use the nanny service when they could afford it? How many times did they go back and what kind of responsible parents still go out on the drink when their three-year-old asks them why they didn't come in to the bedroom when they were crying the previous night?

Do you remember when you put your first baby to bed with a listening monitor and sat downstairs watching the box almost with subtitles on so you could hear every heartbeat?

If you heard an unexpected cough or belch you would sprint up the stairs faster than druggy Dwain Chambers on steroids to check on your little angel. That's called parenting, isn't it?

I wonder if the McCanns were as casual with their passports and valuables when they went out at night because as far as I am concerned there is nothing more precious than your child and they appear to have had scant regard for their safety.

That's why I called last week for the McCanns and the Tapas Seven to return to Portugal for the reconstruction and for the Portuguese plods to stop spinning and leaking and either charge the McCanns or clear them.

I've also found the globetrotting and the calls for an Amber Alert system slightly distasteful and I'm sure I'm not only one who thinks when I need tips on child protection from those two I'll ask.

By VERONICA LORRAINE

ON an ancient tree outside a whitewashed church in Praia da Luz, green and yellow ribbons still flutter forlornly in the breeze.

They are faded now and most of the remaining Maddie posters dotted around the coastal resort are brown with age and discoloured by the sun.

But for the residents of the picturesque Algarve village they are an unwelcome reminder that 12 months ago a little girl vanished from her bed during what was, until then, a perfect family holiday.

The impact on the village has been immense and even now they struggle to understand how something so terrible could happen in such a peaceful and idyllic spot.

Since Maddie went missing, most of the posters have been taken down - not out of disrespect but because the locals need to move on and concentrate on the new tourist season.

But there is an overwhelming quietness pervading the fishing village and many businesses fear the "Maddie effect" may well be a lot more damaging than they first thought.

Although it is not yet the start of the real holiday season, when thousands of tourists will flock to the region to enjoy the Portuguese beaches and fine weather, some locals are claiming there is a marked difference from last year.

The Mark Warner-owned Ocean Club resort - where Maddie vanished on May 3 - looked almost empty during the day, with rows of untouched sunloungers by the pool.

There are whispers around Praia da Luz that the company is suffering badly and bookings are down, although a spokesperson said they "had no reason to believe bookings were any different from previous years".

But most of the shutters on the numerous holiday apartments dotted around the village remain firmly closed.

Fear

A Praia da Luz car-hire firm operator, who did not want to be named, said yesterday: "It's not like it normally is. This time last year I had loads more clients.

"I've lost about 60,000 euros (£47,000) over this past year. The management companies are all deeply concerned about it, they normally have June, July and August fully booked by now and they're not even half-booked."

Most are reluctant to come forward and speak of the effect the missing four-year-old has had on the village for fear that even fewer people will come.

But as the months slip by with no sign of her, their thoughts are turning to the future.

Carlos Rodriguez, who runs the Fortaleza restaurant and a beachfront bar, said: "Business has been okay. It was affected at first but everything has evened out.

"The locals tend not to talk about it any more, although you do hear the odd English people commenting.

"But people who have businesses here really do want to forget about it. Every year there is something that people worry will affect their business, whether it is the World Cup, roadworks all over town, a missing girl or, this year, the terrible exchange rate.

"We are all bitterly disappointed and upset about what happened but everyone here wants to move on."

Beachfront souvenir shop worker Sandra Isabel, 29, said: "When Maddie vanished, it affected my business. But then a month or two later everything was back to normal.

"You could see that some people were a bit afraid about leaving their children but it seems to be getting back to the way it was before she disappeared. It may have affected me more than others, as I sell children's toys.

"But the season doesn't really start for another few weeks. It's all been more or less forgotten now. There are still those who talk about it, but only tourists." Cleaner Tania Marie, 43, who brought her four-year-old granddaughter Nicole Christine to play on the beach for the day, said: "I used to see Maddie about with her family and when I heard what had happened I was absolutely terrified.

"Since then, I have been so much more aware of where Nicole is at all times, it does worry me. Her mother rings me up to make sure I am watching Nicole - there was a real sense of panic after it happened and you could see that all the parents were being extra careful."

But there is hope for the resort. Tourists are slowly returning - and most admit it has just made them more careful.

According to Antonio Pino of the Algarve tourist board, after a few cancellations immediately after the abduction, tourism has risen in the region - home to 27,000 people.

Buses can be seen dropping off day-trippers for a quiet walk on the beach or lunch in the beachfront restaurants.

Brit Colin Milne, 29, was visiting Praia da Luz for the first time with his seven-month-old daughter Elly.

He said: "The fact that a little girl went missing from here would not put me off from staying here at all. It would probably just make me a bit more vigilant." But for some, Maddie is never far from their minds - between five and 15 locals and ex-pats in Praia da Luz have visited Our Lady Of Light church every Friday over the past year for a special "service for missing children".

Anglican parish priest Father Haynes Hubbard took up his post two days after Maddie went missing and met the McCanns while they were in Portugal. He said it was chaos in the weeks after Maddie vanished.

His wife would not let their three children out of her sight and often went to bed in tears, double-locking the doors and windows.

He said: "The locals here are no longer in that period of fear and apprehension that there was right away. It is possible to move on and yet remember it in our hearts.

"That Maddie disappeared is a fact, we are just waiting for her to come home. We remembered her on 100 days and six months after she went missing and will do so again on Saturday, when it has been a year.

"But we hope that it will not be necessary to have to do it again because everyone hopes that soon she will return to the heart of her loving family."

By MARTIN PHILLIPS

A SMALL shaft of light pierced the heavy grey clouds and danced on the ground below the single small poster urging remembrance of Madeleine McCann.

In the aftermath of her disappearance a year ago on Saturday, the war memorial in her home village of Rothley, Leicestershire, became a sea of yellow and green ribbons.

Toys and teddy bears sent by well-wishers piled up in the village centre and a single candle glowed in a glass lantern.

Now the ribbons are gone, the cuddly toys have long since been donated to children in Belarus, the "eternal flame" candle has gone out.

The war memorial is pretty much as undecorated as it was on this day exactly one year ago, when three-year-old Maddie was just a child playing happily beside the sea on holiday in Portugal.

Only the poster, attached to the fencing, today reminds the casual onlooker of the disaster which befell that holiday and plunged her family into the darkness of despair.

But the light of hope still flickers in the village. Kate and Gerry McCann will not let it die, and nor will the people of Rothley.

In Praia da Luz, the posters may have been removed in part as a backlash against the couple who are regarded there as suspects in their daughter's disappearance, in part because the resort does not want to be forever remembered as the place where children are snatched.

In Rothley, the ribbons have gone because life had to carry on. But Madeleine is far from forgotten.

Service

At the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, walking distance from the McCanns' home, there are no posters or ribbons adorning the building but priest Father Keith Tomlinson, preparing to mark the anniversary of Maddie's disappearance this weekend, said: "There will be a joint service for all the village in the parish church on Saturday, and on Sunday the parish Mass will be for Madeleine and her family.

"I would expect Kate and Gerry to be at both but it is not just this weekend we remember them. We have been praying all the time, for the past year, and we will continue to pray.

"Madeleine and her family are very dear to us and we worry about them. We want them to have a happy outcome."

Both services are expected to be understated - just like the ongoing remembrance of Maddie throughout Rothley.

Ministers from all the churches in the village will lead a joint service at the church of St Mary And St John for half an hour at lunchtime on Saturday but unobtrusive posters around the village invite people to drop in "for a few minutes" at any time from 9am to 5pm to say individual prayers "for all missing children, especially for Madeleine and her family".

In a year when Madeleine's face has become one of the most famous in the world, with posters of her around the globe, it is the absence of Maddie which is most striking to those closest to her.

Her bedroom in her family's £500,000 home in a private cul-de-sac remains exactly as it was when she, her parents and twin brother and sister first flew to Portugal.

Her bed and toys are still there, her wardrobe still contains her clothes, undisturbed.

At the Bishop Ellis Roman Catholic primary school in nearby Thurmaston, where Maddie had been due to start last September, a locker and coat peg remain reserved for her. The school's website carries an aerial photo of all her would-be schoolmates forming the words "Find Madeleine" as they stand hand-in-hand in the playground.

A message from head teacher Gail Neill says: "We are sorry that we are not yet able to welcome Madeleine to our Four Plus as we had hoped to.

"Our thoughts and prayers remain very much with the McCanns as we continue to pray with them for Madeleine."

Others are more forthright. In one of the handful of village shops, a woman who did not wish to be named said: "If people want to mark the anniversary they should use it to do something useful and make the Portuguese police pull their finger out.

"We see Kate and Gerry. They come into the village from time to time and you can see what they are going through. It is terrible.

"A lot of people feel helpless but we do not need a big public procession to show our support. We shall do it in our own way."

The sunlight flickering on the discreet poster at the war memorial highlighted a small photo of Madeleine in her replica Everton football shirt, and appealed for all to "Light The Way Home For Madeleine".

From 9.30pm to 10pm on Saturday, on the anniversary of her disappearance, people are invited to "shine a torch, turn on lanterns and light a candle" for the missing girl, now four years old.

Once more, this weekend, the spotlight will shine worldwide on the search for Madeleine. The glare of publicity will be welcome if it keeps her name in the public consciousness.

But in the streets and homes of Rothley, they'll keep their own lights shining more discreetly.

And in one particular home in the village the darkness will feel impenetrable.

By TIM SPANTON

THE disappearance of Madeleine McCann has sparked more debate than any other. Hundreds of thousands of Sun readers have given their views by letter, email, phone and at thesun.co.uk. Today we print a cross-section of those views. You won't agree with them all. Some may even make you angry. But they are what Britain has been thinking and saying over the past year - in the most controversial case ever to feature in The Sun.

BEING a parent, I know I have made mistakes with my children which could have had serious consequences. Luckily, like most parents, my mistakes were not punished as the McCanns' was.

ANGELA RUSH
Southampton

KATE and Gerry McCann plan to write a book about their "year of hell" since

Madeleine went missing. This is distasteful, sickening and outrageous. How can two suspects profit from the loss of their child? The sooner this couple are brought to book for child abandonment, the better.

PET HAIRS

WHAT about the year of hell that child has had if she was abducted and is still alive? It's always been about money with Kate and Gerry.

CHARLIE7

IT'S perfectly obvious to anyone with half a brain that Madeleine's parents are completely innocent. If the Portuguese police are so inefficient that they feel they have to blame someone, I wish they would not keep picking on Gerry and Kate.

JEENA SUMNER
North London

MADDIE'S parents got sympathy but they left three young children alone in an apartment in a foreign country.

LESLEY MACKENZIE
Rotherham, South Yorks

THE McCanns should have been charged with neglect. It makes me sick to see people profit from wrongdoing.

WILLIAM POWELL
Gainsborough, Lincs

I HOPE and pray that the McCanns will soon be reunited with a safe and well Maddie.

JOHN SUTTON
Manchester

KATE will never be all cried out. She will do her crying behind closed doors after her twins are in bed and will do so for many years to come. You don't remember a lost child just on birthdays or at Christmas - you think about them every day and it is hard to keep the tears at bay. God help them. I hate to think what they must imagine could have happened to their child.

SHAQUI

I AM appalled at news that the Portuguese police may now wind up their inquiry. I realise other countries work differently from ours but I think it is a very poor outcome.

DEBBIE MORRISON
Romford, Essex

JUSTICE for Madeleine. I hope one day very soon the truth will prevail. I truly hope for you being alive and safe wherever you are, Madeleine. God bless you.

ANAPT

IF there was just one genuine psychic medium on our planet, he or she would surely have stepped forward by now and solved the mystery of Maddie.

BARBARA HARDING
St Leonards-on-Sea, E Sussex

TO me it was a tragic act of neglect. That is why Madeleine is not here today.

XTINA

I FIND it incredible there has been so much condemnation of Kate and Gerry - rightly or wrongly - yet so little said of the acts which have been possibly carried out against Madeleine. Where is the perspective in all of this business?

LAURA84

IT amazes me how people are so quick to lay blame at the police and Robert Murat yet totally fail to lay any blame on Kate and Gerry. Considering their actions, I find that really odd.

EVIELEA77

THE police should stop wasting time accusing the parents and spend more time trying to find Maddie.

LISA FAGG
Dover, Kent

IT is tragic that the local police made such a lash-up of the investigation.

BEN ALTMAN
Carlisle, Cumbria

THE whole saga has become boring. The McCanns should accept their daughter is gone and should get on with their lives. If they had looked after her responsibly, this would not have happened.

GARY HOUNSOME
Amersham, Bucks

THE McCanns have had such a rough ride of justice. There's been a massacre of the case by the Portuguese police. The ego-boosting that goes on among the perfect-parent brigade is unbelievable. It's sickening that some would rather write Madeleine off as dead.

LITTLEROCK

PEOPLE say they have spotted Madeleine. I think they are lying. If I saw her I would grab her and not let go until police arrived.

REBEKKA SHEPPARD
Worcester

KATE and Gerry should be ashamed of themselves. It's their fault Maddie is missing. What kind of people go out for dinner and leave children alone in a hotel room in a foreign country? They wouldn't do it at home in the UK. Or maybe they would? Bad parenting, whichever way you look at it.

PROUD AETHEIST

WHAT is it about British parents abroad? They seem to think caring parenting is another job left back in Britain along with all their work and other commitments. Parenting is a 24-hour job with no pay and no decent sleep. It is emotionally draining, hard and demanding, but I have two healthy sons and the price is easily worth paying.

BILL JONES
Southend, Essex

THE only truth we have in this case is that we don't know what the truth is. If these two are innocent and Maddie was taken, then the search for her just has to go on. If the proceeds of a book will help to further that search, then it is to the good.

SHINGLE

LIKE everyone all I wish for is that Madeleine, God willing, will be found and justice will prevail, whatever the reason for her disappearance.

STORM123

HOW can anyone abandon their babies and still have supporters? I'm just glad I don't have to account for the lovely Madeleine going missing. May justice prevail.

SUUKI

IF she hadn't have been left alone, there would have been no chance for anyone to take her.

THETRUTH1234

THE McCanns are making a career out of the loss of their daughter. I cannot understand why people give them credence. They left their children in an apartment night after night, to go out for dinner.

DAVENPORT

I LIKE Gerry McCann and I like his wife Kate. Just my intuition. I haven't seen or heard anything to turn my view in a negative direction. They made a mistake which they deeply regret but all human-beings make mistakes.

ELINE

A MISTAKE is using salt instead of sugar.Leaving three babies alone night after night for the whole holiday, even after Madeleine told them she had cried, is wilful neglect and the sooner the McCanns admit their guilt the better for this world.

SAFFY MARIE

LEAVING the kids alone was not a mistake - they chose to leave them. There were other options like staying in, taking them with them - loads of things they could have done.

TRACEY84

GOD bless Madeleine. Justice for Madeleine.