Kate McCann: Madeleine is a beautiful, bright, funny and caring little girl. She is so special. Please, please do not hurt her. Please don't scare her. Please tell us where to find her.

Voice off: Police are investigating the disappearance of a three year old Leicestershire girl in Portugal amid fears she has been abducted. Madeleine Mccann went missing....

(Radio transmission)

Yvonne Radley (News Editor): The story broke May 3rd 7.30 in the morning, we heard on the radio that a British girl had gone missing about 8 o'clock that morning; we knew it was a Leicestershire girl.

For the last six months now we've covered the story every single day, and it got to the point after four or five months, pretty soon after Kate and Gerry became arguidos, there was a lot of rumor, a lot of speculation and the fact was getting separated from the fiction, so we thought it was important to come and see it to Praia da Luz.

Male voice off: This is where the story started and this is where probably the story will finish.

Male voice off, Portuguese accent: In every movie you need a bad guy and the bad guy here was the Portuguese police.

Male voice off, Portuguese accent: Portuguese land and Portuguese system is different from other countries.

Cathy Landau (Reporter): She was crying. She was distraught.

Klara Lethbridge (Journalist): You speak to people out here and you start to see that there is another side.

Owen Gee (Retired Detective): Whatever, whatever the outcome they have got to live with this for the rest of their lives.

Reporter asks Klara Lethbridge: Do you think while you have been here, your views have changed?

Klara Lethbridge: Yes.

Reporter: In what way?

Klara Lethbridge: Again, I feel I have to be careful now...

Owen Gee: The laws here are pretty damn tough.

Klara Lethbridge: Oh God, I have to be so careful about what I am saying... It’s not as straightforward as it seems.

Yvonne Radley: It's almost like people are trying to forget.

Reporter, voice off: Madeleine McCann went missing last night while her parents were having a meal while on holiday in a resort in the Algarve. This family friend speaking on GMTV earlier says the family is frantic: “They've been looking themselves, they've been on hedgerows and they've been out shouting but there's nothing else they can do unless they get support from the police over there, or the police here”.

Reporter: That’s Jill Renwick she told GMTV the SHUTTERS on the Hotel room had been BROKEN and the family believe their daughters been taken.

Jill Renwick, voice off: Well as you can imagine, as a mother, its the worse thing for anything to happen. She's been taken, I mean, she's been taken , that’s all they know.

Cathy Landau: Nobody knew six months ago exactly what kind of Global impact this was going to have, and it was a scary place to be because we were all aware that morning of the distress these two parents were under...and on arriving on the scene there were a lot of bleary eyed residents still walking around, they hadn’t even been to bed. They'd been involved in this fingertip search on the beach the night before.

The Hotel manager, was just exhausted, shattered, he was beside himself giving a few interviews early that morning. The Police were just sealing off the area, starting to dust for fingerprints.

The family were still there when I arrived, and Mrs.Mccann was being led out of the apartment flanked by two females. I can't say if they were family members or if they were friends but if they weren’t family members, they were obviously very, very good friends.

She was crying, she was distraught, just distraught, and as you can only imagine she didn’t know where to start to put her faith or her trust...errm...because when you're removed from your familiar surroundings and from a Police force that you know and trust and from a Judicial and legal system that you know and trust...and even from things like Child Protection Services that you know and trust...you don't know where to begin and that is exactly the shape of what I saw that morning. I just caught a shadow of a woman who didn’t know where to begin.

Klara Lethbridge asking Owen Gee: Over in the U.K. there has been a lot more, lately, over the last few months, there’s been a lot more focus on the investigation; it seems to be moving away from actually worrying about Madeleine ...how she is… what’s happened to her...what’s going on. Over here, what would you say, do you think that people in the forefront of their minds are still thinking of Madeleine or... ?

Owen Gee: Oh, I think they are.

Klara Lethbridge: Has the investigation eclipsed that?

Owen Gee: I don't know if it's only by virtue of what I do for a living but people are always approaching the subject and frankly, I'm talking to you now, but now after six to 3rd of May I'm getting a little bit tired of people asking the same questions, because the truth remains, have to say that, we don't know, and If you ask the Chief of Police they don’t really know, and if they do, by the secrecy laws here, they are not allowed to tell you anyway.

I think what you've got to accept is, we are here in Portugal, they chose to come here, it’s a very safe place, and it’s a great place to be. Look around, the climate is fantastic, the people are very honest, respectful, polite and we're not used to this sort of thing and we need an answer.... we need an answer ...and I repeat from that someone, who knows… and the sooner the better, lets all get back on with our lives.

Rothley can return to being from what we've seen, and I've not been there, a really nice Leicestershire village ...we think we're the same.

Reporter: BREAKING NEWS this hour.... Kate Mccann the mother of missing Leicestershire girl Madeleine Mccann expects to be made a formal suspect today.

Justine..PR for McCanns: Kate and Gerry are happy to help the Police in their investigation to help find their daughter Madeleine, as they have been since she was taken.

Kate McCann: Please, please do not hurt her. Please don't scare her. Please tell us where to find her