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| Kate and Gerry McCann
have welcomed the offer of a new search for Madeleine |
DETECTIVES working on the
Madeleine McCann case say they are
ready to reopen the
investigation into her disappearance.
Portuguese police have indicated they would be happy to work with the
missing girl’s parents and their friends.
The gesture will come as a huge boost to
Kate and Gerry McCann, who last week
launched a petition and urged Home Secretary
Theresa May to request a review of the case.
A senior police source in Portugal said: “Detectives are committed to
resolving this case and would work on any review and pursue any line of
inquiry suggested.”
As the McCanns launched a petition last week, a frustrated Gerry said:
“For the past three and a half years, the authorities have not being
doing anything proactive to help Madeleine. I don’t think it’s right
that the onus should fall on us. The authorities really should be doing
more.”
‘We don’t know how long this will go on, but it’s our life. The pain
just makes us stronger’
Kate added: “We need action. I don’t need fluffy, worthless words. We
need somebody to do something.”
Almost 26,000 people had yesterday signed the online appeal for the
Government to do more to find Madeleine.
Family spokesman
Clarence Mitchell said: “Kate and Gerry are thrilled with the number of people who
have supported them. It shows them there is still a huge amount of
public opinion behind them.”
The couple, doctors from Rothley, Leicestershire, are due to fly to
Lisbon on Tuesday to consult
their lawyers.
Legal sources in Portugal say they should use their visit to ask their
lawyer to formally write a letter to the Policia Judiciaria and to the
Portuguese attorney-general’s office. |
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If a review was ordered, the Policia Judiciaria would suggest that there
should be reconstructions of two key incidents on the evening of May 3,
2007, in
Praia da Luz on the Algarve.
The McCanns’ friend
Jane Tanner said she saw a man holding a child she
believed to be Madeleine. Irishman
Martin Smith said that the same
evening he saw a man with a child in his arms walking to the beach.
Last year, a documentary prepared with the McCanns’ investigator, former
British police officer Dave Edgar, highlighted those sightings.
A well-placed source in Portugal said: “Mr Edgar clearly recognises the
importance of these two incidents. We had hoped to do full filmed
reconstructions but that did not take place but we would be happy to try
again to get that vital work done.”
He said that both Kate and Gerry McCann and their
holiday friends, David
and Fiona Payne, Diana Webster, Rachel and Matthew Oldfield, Jane Tanner
and her partner Russell O’Brien, would be treated with great sensitivity
in any reconstruction.
Last week Kate, 42, said she was “disappointed” over the Home
Secretary’s failure to help find her daughter, saying: “There is an
abductor out there who is free to take another child. Other children are
at risk and nothing is being done.”
She added: “We don’t know how long this will go on for but it is our
life. You get stronger handling the pain.”
The Portuguese police source said: “Every time we get information sent
to us we look into it. Nothing is ignored.
“The frustration is that there has not been a strong lead for a long
time.”
A McCanns’ spokesman said: “We would welcome any indication of support
from the PJ. However, we would be hoping to have an official response to
our call for a review of evidence.”
Sunday Express readers can sign the McCanns’ petition at ipetitions.com/petition/madeleinemccann_case_review/. |
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