The parents of Madeleine McCann have told how they tried to 'gently'
explain their daughter's disappearance to their younger twins.
Gerry and Kate McCann said five-year-olds
Sean and Amelie
were old enough now to know something was wrong in the family, and Mrs
McCann said they were asking questions that needed to be answered.
She told GMTV's
Lorraine Kelly: 'I think it was last year Amelie asked me,
"Has Madeleine run away?"... and she said "because it's not nice to run
away".
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Disappointed: on the eve of the third anniversary of Madeleine's
disappearance, Gerry and Kate McCann say police should be doing
more to solve the case |
'That really upset me because I thought I don't want her to think that
Madeleine is at fault. So, probably about the third time she asked when
we were at home, we just explained that someone had taken Madeleine.
'But we tried to make them understand in as gentle a way as possible.
It's a bit like stealing, you know? That's how the understand it.
'So they know someone has taken her and they know it is wrong.'
Mrs McCann's heartbreaking comments come on the day the couple accused
British
police
of 'giving up' on their missing daughter.
The McCanns, both 41, spoke out just days before the
third anniversary
of Maddie's disappearance, urging investigators to go back to
the start and review the case.
They fear their own ?2million search - funded by public donations
received since Maddie vanished from their Algarve holiday apartment -
has stalled.
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Madeleince McCann: The couple spoke out just days before the
third anniversary of her disappearance |
They claim this is due to the failure of both Portuguese and UK police
to investigate leads unearthed by their
private
investigators.
In a pre-recorded GMTV interview due to be broadcast today, Mr McCann
said: 'It's not right that an innocent, vulnerable British citizen is
essentially given up on. And I don't think it's right that, as parents,
that we have to drive the search.'
He added: 'We need to have a proper review of all the information -
that's how we will move the investigation forward.'
Mrs McCann, a GP who gave up work to concentrate on the search for
Madeleine, said: 'We do this in medicine. You know, if there is a case
that you don't seem to be getting the diagnosis, somebody will come in
and review it. They'll go back to square one... and that's where you
find out what else needs to be done and it will help point you in the
right direction.'
Leicestershire Police have carried out their own inquiries, as has the
taxpayer-funded Child Exploitation and On-Line Protection Centre. But
neither is actively seeking the little girl.
The three-year saga has already cost UK taxpayers nearly ?500,000.
The couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, said it was 'incredibly
frustrating' that police in Portugal and the UK are not doing more to
find Maddie, who was three when she disappeared from the holiday complex
at
Praia da Luz
on the evening of May 3, 2007.
The McCanns were criticised for leaving the girl and their twins Sean
and Amelie, then two, alone in the apartment while they dined with
friends at a tapas restaurant 40 yards away.
In the latest interview, Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist, said that
if they could go back, they would not leave Maddie alone. |