Madeleine McCann Source: wikipedia

Madeleine McCann's parents, Kate and Gerry, have issued a Christmas message to their daughter's kidnapper.

In it, they beg their daughter be treated with "love and respect" and say "we hope with all our hearts that wherever she is, she is safe and well."

This will be their fourth Christmas without Madeleine.

Their daughter was three when she went missing from a holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007.

A leaked cable by whistleblower WikiLeaks, last week, suggests British police were actively involved in helping to build a case against the McCanns.

Mr and Mrs McCann, both 42, have won a series of libel payouts from newspapers over suggestions they were involved in their daughter’s disappearance.

British police have always insisted they were responsible only for co-ordinating inquiries in Britain at the request of the Portuguese authorities.