Madeleine McCann parents say some don't want their daughter found, 30 April 2010

Madeleine McCann parents say some don't want their daughter found BBC World Service Last Updated: 30 April, 2010 - 11:53 GMT Madeleine McCann went missing from her family's holiday apartment in the town of Praia de Luz in Portugal nearly 3 years ago. She was days away from her fourth birthday. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, tell the BBC's Mike Williams why they still believe their daughter is alive. Transcript 1 By Nigel Moore Kate McCann: If this was a... a murder inquiry there'd be an active investigation but, as it stands, we have a perpetrator who's still at large and therefore puts other... potentially other children at risk and we have a missing child. So why is there no active investigation? Gerry McCann: Officially, for 18 months, law enforcement are not pro-actively doing anything to find Madeleine and who took her. And I just think that is fundamentally unacceptable. Now, we've been assured that if new information comes in, it will be followed up. In fact, the information that's come to light, during the recent court case, has shown that almost every single piece of information that's gone to Portimao - the police station in the Algarve, where the investigation is based - has been treated in exactly the same manner; which is being declared as 'not relevant'. KM: I mean, I think it is a farce. GM: There have been, errr... very poor elements of the Portuguese investigation and at the same time it's probably been one of the biggest investigations ever in Portugal. So we aren't, errr... tarring everyone. There have been individuals, who, for whatever reason, have not, errm... seemingly wanted to find Madeleine; that's what it appears to us. So there are people who are clearly making it more difficult and there are others within this country, errm... for whatever motives, want to make it more difficult and, you know, there are many people trying to derail what we are doing along the way. KM: I also think there'll be some people that'll be greatly embarrassed if Madeleine was found and that... that scares me... that scares me that that might affect their want, or not, for Madeleine to be found. Mike Williams: You've got two other children to raise. What do the twins, errr... know of what happened to their sister? GM: Their recognition that what's happened is morally very, very wrong and that their sister should be at home with them and needless to say Sean, in particular, talks about having an aeroplane and flying all over the world and looking for that man that's taken Madeleine and when he gets him he's going to rescue her and put... take his sword out. MW: Kate, you devote your time to the campaign to find your daughter? KM: My day is very much, kind of, partly investigation; largely campaign now. We've started this holiday pack - which is posters and car stickers. MW: So you're hoping that people will take these overseas with them when they travel; put their stickers up and... KM: So it just means the image is out there constantly as a reminder to people that she's still missing. MW: What do you hope happened? What's the best scenario that you can find comfort in?  KM: You just hope that it's somebody who is looking after Madeleine; that she is now... that she's not at harm and that she's getting love and happiness. You know, that's all I can hope for. GM: And that isn't some sort of dream. At the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in the United States - with the most experience in child abduction - is that the younger the child, the more likely that they have been taken to be kept. MW: What's the worst case? GM: I mean, early on we couldn't think of anything else but the worst case; that she'd been taken, abused and killed and dumped - or maybe left seriously injured and dumped out in the freezing cold. MW: You believe that she's alive? Not hope for it, do you believe it? KM: You know, in my heart I feel she's out there; I mean, I really do. And that together with the feeling I have of this not being over, you know, that her still being there. The hardest thing, obviously, is how do we find her?

Kate: I used to wish I was dead, 30 April 2010

Kate: I used to wish I was dead The Sun By ANTONELLA LAZZERI Published: Today (30 April 2010) KATE McCann has admitted that after daughter Maddie disappeared there were times she wished she and her family were dead. Speaking just two days before the third anniversary of Maddie's abduction on May 3 2007 Kate revealed her agony was so great that she used to hope that her, husband Gerry and their twins Sean and Amelie would die in an accident. She said: "I used to have thoughts like we'll get wiped out in the car on the motorway. So it would just happen, we'd all be gone, and the pain would be away." She says those thoughts eventually went away saying: "What I do know now for sure is that I don't want that. Things have changed. I am desperate to be here with Sean and Amelie and to help find Madeleine." Maddie was snatched from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Today an angry Kate, 41, branded the Portuguese investigation into her daughter's disappearance a "farce". She hit out at the fact that Portuguese cops are no longer looking for Maddie and that any new leads are ignored by them. Kate said: "If this was a murder inquiry there'd be an active investigation because they'd want to find the perpetrator, but as it stands we have a perpetrator who's still at large and therefore puts, potentially puts, other children at risk, and we have a missing child. So why is there no active investigation? "I think it's a farce." Husband Gerry is equally as angry that the search for Maddie has ended, saying: "Officially for eighteen months and longer, law enforcement are not pro-actively doing anything to find Madeleine, and who took her, and I just think that is fundamentally unacceptable. "Now we've been assured that if new information comes in it will be followed up. "In fact the information that's come to light during the recent court cases have shown that almost every single piece of information that's gone to Portimao, the police station in the Algarve where the investigation is based, has been treated in exactly the same manner, which is being declared as not relevant." In the past Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have avoided criticising the Portuguese police investigation into Maddie's disappearance. But as the agonising third anniversary of her abduction looms the McCanns have made it clear how hopeless they think the efforts of some of the Portuguese cops have been. Heart specialist Gerry, 41, said: "There have been very poor elements of the Portuguese investigation, and at the same time it's probably been one of the biggest investigations ever in Portugal. "So we aren't tarring everyone, there have been individuals who, for whatever reason, have seemingly not wanted to find Madeleine. That's how it appears to us. "So there are people who are clearly making it more difficult and there are others that in this country, for whatever motives, want to make it more difficult. There are many people who've tried to derail what we're doing along the way." Kate says she fears that there may be other motives which have hindered the search for her daughter. She admitted: "I also think there'll be some people who would be greatly embarrassed if Madeleine was found and that scares me. That scares me. That might affect their want, or not, for Madeleine to be found." The McCanns are planning to spend this weekend quietly at home with Maddie's twin brother and sister Sean and Amelie who are now five. The family will attend their local catholic church on Sunday, the day before the anniversary, to say prayers for Maddie. Talking about the twins Gerry said: "Their recognition that what's happened is morally very very wrong and that their sister should be at home with them. "Needless to say Sean in particular talks about having an aeroplane and flying all over the world looking for 'that man who's taken Madeleine', and when he gets him he's going to rescue her and take his sword out." Kate says she prays that whoever has her daughter is taking care of her saying: "You just hope that somebody who is looking after Madeleine, that she is now not at harm and she's getting love and happiness. That's all I can hope for." She says she will never give up searching for Maddie saying: "You know in my heart I feel she's out there. I really do. "And that, together with the feeling that I have of this not being over, of her still being there. The hardest thing obviously is how do we find her?" Gerry admits that in the days after Maddie disappeared he thought the worse saying: "Early on we couldn't think of anything else but the worst case, that she's been taken, abused and killed and dumped, or maybe left seriously injured and dumped out in the freezing cold." Despite the fact that they regularly attend the Catholic church near their home Gerry admitted that Maddie's abduction has made him question his faith. He said: "If anything when this first happened it strengthened my faith. I felt that there was such support and I really felt that may have been God's work, that something good was going to come out of this. I had a lot more hope that this would lead to a relatively quick outcome." But he admitted that as time has gone on his belief in God has faltered saying: "I'm struggling much more now, without a doubt, I think that for one child to have been the recipient of so many millions of prayers, you think well I do have my doubt. "You think, well if those prayers were going to work, they should have worked a long time ago."

Kate and Gerry McCann promise they'll never give up searching for Madeleine, 30 April 2010

Kate and Gerry McCann promise they'll never give up searching for Madeleine Daily Mirror By Rod Chaytor 30/04/2010 Kate and Gerry McCann last night made an emotional appeal to their daughter Madeleine to mark the third anniversary of her ­disappearance. Her father, now 41, reassured the little girl: "Madeleine, we're still looking for you. Tell someone who your mummy and daddy are, who you are." His wife said they would not stop searching for their child, who was nearly four when she went missing from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 while her parents dined with friends nearby. Kate, 42, said: "We love you very much, Madeleine, and we're not going to stop what we're doing." The couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, will mark Monday's anniversary in private but revealed they now feel less guilty about enjoying themselves in her absence. Kate said: "I'm able to look at it now and think it's positive we're functioning. It's positive for Madeleine and for Sean and Amelie (her five-year-old twin siblings) and unless you're in this situation you have no idea how you cope." Gerry said that laughter and happiness were essential for living a normal life. "The guilt, where you feel 'Madeleine is missing so how can you enjoy yourself?' is much, much, much less than it was," he revealed. "If you're going to have some sort of normality, you've got to have some laughter and some joy." He also said that there were new leads to follow. He added: "Our private investigators have identified new information that needs investigating and other areas where we think there could be further meaningful information. "But we have to be realistic. We do not have the same ability to follow up lines of inquiry that the police do." However, the authorities, he complained, had hardly been providing a "Rolls-Royce service". He said: "The key test is, 'Has everything that could reasonably have been done, been done?' And the answer to that is no. There's no law enforcement that's been pro-actively doing anything for 18 months."

McCanns talk about their daughter's disappearance on RTP, 30 April 2010

McCanns talk about their daughter's disappearance on RTP RTP 30/04/2010 22:27:56 The McCanns spoke for the first time about their version of what happened the night their daughter disappeared. Kate explained to RTP what she saw when she reached Madeleine's bedroom and then left the twins as she ran back to the Tapas Bar to call for help. Transcript By Nigel Moore Kate McCann: Well, I remember that night very well.   TV reconstruction of Kate running KM: Well, I ran. I said: "Madeleine's gone. Someone's taken her." Sandra Felgueiras (voice over): Three years later Kate McCann still refuses to go back to Praia da Luz to reconstruct the night when Madeleine disappeared. Lisbon was, therefore, the stage chosen to listen, for the first time in the first person, to the version of the story which intrigued the PJ. SF: When you got into the apartment at 10pm and you didn't see Madeleine, errr... you just ran to... to shout... shouting that she was missing. Weren't you afraid to leave Sean and Amelie behind? What crossed your mind? KM: Well first of all, I didn't just walk in and notice she'd gone. Errm... It was the fact that the door was open to the bedroom quite wide. When I went to close the door, it slammed and that's when I noticed that Madeleine was there. And then I thought, had she wandered through to our bed? So I went through to our room and she wasn't there and then I went back in again. And errm... TV reconstruction of Kate in apartment KM: And then I just literally flew round the apartment, once I realised that the... the window was open and the shutter was up. I flew round the apar... and I just flew. I don't know, I don't... You know, I just ran out. I mean, I knew I could be there in seconds and I just screamed as soon as I saw the table. I screamed. SF: But now when you look back, you realise it could be... could have been dangerous, for Sean and Amelie, to let them behind? No? No? Gerry McCann: I don't think that... I don't think that's right and certainly in medical training, the first thing you get taught, in an emergency situation, is to call for help. That's part of... that gets drummed into you. SF: So it was a natural reaction? GM: No, errr... errr... Its one of the things that should be considered for us but I think most people would react like that. SF: It never crossed your mind, Madeleine wouldn't be able to close the door just looking after you, alone? KM: If I can just explain what I found. The shutters which had been down all week and when I went in and there was a gust that blew the curtains open, that's when I noticed that the shutter had been pulled up. SF: So you have no doubts, she was taken from the bed? KM: No doubts. A three-year old would not be able to do that. GM: If you... if you are saying, "Is it theoretically possible Madeleine left the apartment?", then yes. Do we believe it, and do we think she was capable of leaving the apartment the way it was found, errr... and by which exit did she leave, then I would say, absolutely not.

Sandra Felgueiras interviews the McCanns in Lisbon, 30 April 2010

Sandra Felgueiras interviews the McCanns in Lisbon RTP: 30 Minutes 30/04/2010 The McCann interview starts at the 18:00 minute mark. Note: If you receive sound but no picture from the video, click the full-screen icon in the bottom right hand corner and the image should appear. You can then return to the smaller size, if preferred. Transcript By Nigel Moore Kate McCann: I love water. I love to be by water. Sandra Felgueiras: But you're still not prepared to face a beach holiday still? KM: It's very different. I... I just think that would be quite difficult, you know, just to have that time of almost not thinking for a week. You know, it's kind of impossible. Archive footage with Sandra Felgueiras voice over, in Portuguese KM: I often consider the time before Madeleine was taken as my old life; my previous life. Gerry McCann: We lived in Amsterdam for a year. SF: She was born there, wasn't she? GM: No, errr... she was about, errm... KM: Seven months. GM: Seven months, when we... and we lived there for a year and Kate got pregnant with the twins and there were lots of traumatic things in our life happening. KM: Your dad was ill. GM: And my dad was really ill, your mum had had problems, my mum... so there was lots of trips back and forward to the UK. Kate wasn't working that year either, so there was a really, really strong bond with her. Archive footage with Sandra Felgueiras voice over, in Portuguese KM: I miss my old life. I miss the life that we had but now, as I say, my focus really is trying to find Madeleine. Errm... And working as a doctor seems quite... quite distant. SF: What do exactly do you do during your day concerning the search for Madeleine? KM: I mean there's a lot going on; I think that's quite important to say. I think when things don't appear in the media people worry that everything's gone quiet and assume well maybe, things have stopped and that... that's not the case at all. And obviously the investigation goes on day in, day out. Myself, I can be working on the website; on updating the website. Errr... SF: You are the one that writes on the website?  KM: I do the writing on the website, yeah.   SF: Everything? KM: Yeah... yeah. Errm... GM: Much more than me now. My blog's gone. SF: Did you feel any difference back in your work? GM: Going back to work helped and it's interesting because about three or four months ago, when I left to come on holiday, I think I had four or five in-patients and I've seen three of them recently and that was... that was odd because they were in hospital very ill and I'd been looking after them and then I've subsequently seen them back and it's those patients who knew me, like our old life and your new life. It was... I found that quite emotional actually because it kind of takes you back. Archive footage with Sandra Felgueiras voice over, in Portuguese GM: You know, immediately before she was taken, and it's terrible because... well, it's not terrible but I feel terrible guilt about it now, that I stood there and I had... I paused a bit longer than what I needed to. Archive footage with Sandra Felgueiras voice over, in Portuguese SF: Why do you think that Goncalo Amaral told everyone that when they arrived to your apartment the... the sheets were, errr... as normal as nobody was there lieing down. GM: It's a pity that Mr Amaral didn't come and inspect the site himself. KM: Only time I saw him was in court in January; that was the first time I'd ever met Mr Amaral. Archive footage SF: If you could go back would you do exactly the same? KM: It's difficult now because we obviously know a lot more now than we did then. GM: I think I would change very, very, very little. I don't think I'd change any... any of the major decisions that we made. With hindsight, I said this to Kate, and, you know, at the time I wanted to leave Portugal earlier but Kate wasn't ready to leave. Archive footage with Sandra Felgueiras voice over, in Portuguese GM: When we moved into... we went up to Dave and Fiona's apartment that night, later on; we moved them. You know, they... they hadn't woken up and we were obviously concerned whether some sort of sedative drugs or something had been used. KM: At the time, because the lights were on and obviously there was noise... SF: So for you it was strange that they didn't wake up?  GM: I mean, we were... it was concenring but at the same... KM: I suppose you're not normally in that circumstance. There's not normally a lot of noise. SF: I presume that you were shouting, there was a lot of noise inside the apartment. GM: There was a lot of noise but, you know, subsequently... and you look at other times; how does someone not wake up during that? In fact, recently we set off a smoke alarm and they... the kids didn't wake up. Archive footage with Sandra Felgueiras voice over, in Portuguese GM: Just got to get on with your life. I think where it's... where it's different and as time passes the emotion isn't as raw, so if you go back to May and June, errm... you know, the grief was very obvious... KM: Trauma. GM: ...very palpable, errm... you know, Kate was inconsolable for long periods most evenings, you know, particularly at night time and that... you know, the gaps between those periods, we still have them but they get... they tend to get further away. SF: You are getting used to it? GM: Yeah, errr... KM: I think you adapt. Days like today, you know, when the sun's shining and it's bright and it's warm and it's... you know, it makes you feel nice but then you have that kind of... SF: Emptiness? KM: ...heavy... yeah, an emptiness. A heavy reminder really, of 'this is very nice but Madeleine's still missing'.

Gerry McCann breaks down as he tells how hunt for Madeleine 'is shaking his Catholic faith', 01 May 2010

Gerry McCann breaks down as he tells how hunt for Madeleine 'is shaking his Catholic faith' Daily Mail By VANESSA ALLEN Last updated at 12:24 AM on 1st May 2010 Kate McCann longed for death after her daughter Madeleine's disappeared, she admitted yesterday. Choking back tears, she told for the first time how she had wanted her life to end but insisted she had never contemplated suicide. Mrs McCann, 42, faced criticism because she appeared cold and did not break down. But she revealed how in her bleakest hours, she wanted to die to stop the pain. Suffering together: Kate and Gerry McCann during their interview yesterday The former GP and her husband Gerry, 41, gave their most honest and moving interview to the BBC World Service to mark the third anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance on Monday. Madeleine was three when she vanished from her parents’ rented apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz as they ate at a nearby restaurant with friends. There have been no confirmed sightings since. But the couple, who also have twins Sean and Amelie, five, have not given up. The McCanns, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have launched a ‘holiday pack’ of stickers and posters showing Madeleine’s face. They hope holiday-makers will distribute them around the world to try to find Madeleine. Longing for death: GERRY: Really early on, there was a time when I was worried because Kate said she wanted to go into the ocean and keep swimming and swimming and swimming. That obviously caused great distress. The emotions are so raw early on. KATE: I used to have thoughts like maybe we’ll get wiped out in the car on the motorway. So it would just happen, we’d all be gone and the pain would be away. But there’s always somebody left behind with that pain. We have got family who have been fantastic, friends who have been fantastic. It was just so painful and it’s just so hard to describe, that heavy, suffocating feeling day in day out, that pain of missing Madeleine and anxiety for her. There were times when I did want it to end. I wouldn’t have done anything, I have never thought of doing anything, but what I do know now for sure is that I don’t want that. Things have changed. I am desperate to be here with Sean and Amelie and to help find Madeleine. What they believe has happened to Madeleine: KATE: You just hope that it’s somebody who is looking after Madeleine. Who knows why they’ve taken her but I hope they’re looking after her and that she’s comfortable in the situation she’s in, that she is not at harm and that she’s getting love and happiness. That’s all I can hope for. GERRY: Early on we couldn’t think of anything else but the worst case, where everything was negative, that she’d been taken, abused and killed and dumped, or maybe left seriously injured and dumped out in the freezing cold. I can promise you we could think of almost no other scenario. Of course, that scenario is still possible… but there is no evidence of physical harm to Madeleine. As parents, we can’t accept she’s dead without absolute evidence of that. KATE: In my heart, I feel she’s out there. I really do. And that, together with the feeling that I have of this not being over, of her still being there. The hardest thing, obviously, is how do we find her? Sean and Amelie: GERRY: Sean, in particular, talks about having an aeroplane and flying all over the world looking for ‘that man who’s taken Madeleine’ and when he gets him he’s going to rescue her and take his sword out. KATE: At the moment they don’t show any signs of anger. A month or so ago, I went for a run and I suddenly started thinking about Sean and Amelie getting much older, they will understand more. They’re going to feel the same kind of pain and loss and anger that we’ve felt over the last couple of years. I suddenly thought, ‘I don’t want them to feel that’. I know how hard it has been for us, I don’t want them to have to go through that in addition to not having their sister with them. Kate’s dreams: I HAVE only had three dreams, all the same, they’re when I find her. It’s actually when I see her. They are actually incredibly painful. The first one I was in Portugal and it was very tangible… I think I got rung by the nursery where she went to and they said ‘Madeleine’s here’. I went but then I was holding her and it felt like I was holding her and then I woke up and I was hysterical, actually, it was horrible. Why they left children: KATE: It just felt so safe, subconsciously, that was the restaurant for the apartments where we were staying. I think it took me 37 seconds to go back to the apartment. The fact that I didn’t have to consciously think, ‘Is this right or is this wrong, is this safe or is it not?’, implies that I thought it was totally safe. I had a flashback recently of that, of me and Gerry just holding each other and saying ‘We’ve let her down, we’ve let her down’, just because we weren’t there. I would never in a million years have anticipated something like that. GERRY: If anything, prior to this, I would have said Kate was overprotective. The fact that she was so comfortable, we were all comfortable… It wasn’t a debate, we just didn’t perceive risk at all. Police investigation: KATE: If this was a murder inquiry there’d be an active investigation because they’d want to find the perpetrator. But as it stands we have a perpetrator who’s still at large and therefore puts – potentially puts – other children at risk, and we still have a missing child. So why is there no active investigation? I’m angry and frustrated really, this is our daughter, she’s still missing and there’s no investigation to find her. It’s a farce. GERRY: Officially for 18 months and longer, law enforcement are not proactively doing anything to find Madeleine, and who took her, and I just think that is fundamentally unacceptable… There have been individuals who, for whatever reason, have seemingly not wanted to find Madeleine. That’s how it appears to us… There are many people who’ve tried to derail what we’re doing along the way. KATE: I also think there’ll be some people who would be greatly embarrassed if Madeleine was found and that scares me. That might affect their want, or not, for Madeleine to be found. Belief in God: GERRY: If anything, when this first happened it strengthened my faith. I felt that there was such support and I really felt that may have been God’s work, that something good was going to come out of this. I’m struggling much more now, without a doubt. I think that for one child to have been the recipient of so many millions of prayers, you think, ‘Well I do have my doubt’. If those prayers were going to work, they should have worked a long time ago. KATE: I don’t hate God… I just can’t understand why so much could be allowed to land on one family and go seemingly unchallenged. So I would be angry with God but then I would voice that, I would let it out. Prayers for abductor: KATE: I usually pray for them to see the error of their ways, to have compassion and courage to come forward… The pain and the fear that it’s caused Madeleine and the pain it’s caused to our family makes it incredibly difficult to sit here and say ‘Yes, I forgive him’. It would be important to know who’s taken Madeleine and why. GERRY: Until we find Madeleine and who took her we don’t know what we will be asked to forgive.

McCanns tell of new anguish as Facebook sickos target Maddie, 01 May 2010

McCanns tell of new anguish as Facebook sickos target Maddie Daily Star By Jerry Lawton 1st May 2010 FURY erupted last night after Facebook refused to close a group poking fun at missing Madeleine McCann. The page on the social networking website has 6,500 "fans" and features scores of obscene jokes about the girl. Users have also directed abuse at her parents Gerry, 41, and Kate, 42, who will mark the third anniversary of her disappearance on Monday. The revelation came after heart specialist Gerry revealed for the first time his fear that Madeleine might have been "taken, abused and killed and dumped, or maybe left seriously injured and dumped out in the freezing cold". The couple looked tormented as they braved the cameras in Leicester, near their home of Rothley. Their anguish has been deepened by the  decision to allow the webpage to stay on Facebook. The founder has bragged it is "the place people have chosen for disrespectful Maddie jokes". The McCanns hoped Facebook would remove any "libellous or deeply offensive" comments about Madeleine, who vanished from Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, days before her fourth birthday. But a Facebook spokesman said: "While we sometimes find people discussing and posting about topics that others may find controversial, insensitive or offensive, it is not alone a reason to remove the discussion."

Childwall Mass to be said for Madeleine McCann, 01 May 2010

Childwall Mass to be said for Madeleine McCann Liverpool Echo May 1 2010 A SPECIAL Mass will be said for missing Madeleine McCann and her family to mark the third anniversary of her disappearance. It will take place on the anniversary, itself – at 7.30pm on Monday – at Our Lady of the Annunciation, Bishop Eton, in Woolton Road, Childwall, which is the parish church of Madeleine’s grandparents, Susan and Brian Healy.

Missing Madeleine parents want to reopen inquiry, 01 May 2010

Missing Madeleine parents want to reopen inquiry AFP 01 May 2010 LISBON — The parents of British girl Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in Portugal almost three years ago, will ask police to reopen the case to follow new leads, they said in an interview published on Saturday. "We are going to ask for the reopening of the case. This is what we have come to do in Portugal," the father Gerry McCann told the weekly Expresso. Private detectives working for the McCanns have "identified a new line of investigation", Gerry McCann said, "the trails leads to other trails and we have to convince the police to follow them". Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family's apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday. After a 14-month investigation, Portuguese police decided to shelve the inquiry.

McCann couple want to reopen the 'Maddie case', 01 May 2010

McCann couple want to reopen the 'Maddie case' Expresso (appears in paper edition) Text: Rui Gustavo, Photos: Tiago Miranda 1st May 2010 Thanks to Joana Morais for translation Cover text: McCann couple want to reopen the 'Maddie case' Gerry and Kate McCann guarantee that they have new clues about their daughter's disappearence and that they are going to formally request the reopening of the process. The couple admits that they do not have any concrete evidence that Madeleine McCann, who would have today been seven-years-old, is alive or if she has been kidnapped and they only know that it will be very difficult to get the agreement of the Public Ministry. In an interview with Expresso, given this week at a Lisbon hotel, the parents of the English child who disappeared three years ago in the Algarve, reveal that they still have half a million pounds in the fund and a 3 person team working daily on a search that has proved fruitless. Page 23 text: Kate and Gerry McCann: In Lisbon, three years after the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine McCann disappeared three years ago and her parents have returned to Portugal to try to reopen the process. They admit that they do not have any evidence that their daughter is alive, but guarantee that they have clues which should be investigated. Is your life back to normal? Kate McCann - It will never be the same, but we live with a certain normality. Gerry works at the hospital, and I work full time on the campaign to find Madeleine and the twins go to school and swimming. We have children, we owe them a normal life. Have you told them what happened? KM - We told them immediately, but as they grow up - they are 5 now - they make other questions. Amelie asked me if Maddie had run away and I had to explain to her that she was stolen. Gerry McCann - Sean speaks all the time about finding Maddie and what he will do to the person who has stolen her. They know they went to sleep and when they woke up their sister was gone. But they still don't understand that someone has taken her. When they gain that conscience, I believe they will want to know where we were. And we will have to explain that we were having dinner at a nearby restaurant. What are you doing at this moment to find your daughter? GM - We have an investigative team working for us full time. They've analysed all the information in the process, spoke with people who have entered in contact with us and identified a new line of investigation. It's a small team, of three people, based in England. Have you found anything in concrete? GM - There are lines, leads which weren't investigated thoroughly and information has been released to the authorities. To the Judiciary Police? GM - Yes and to the English authorities. We know that one of the leads was followed and eliminated and another was considered irrelevant. We don't agree. Which leads are those ones? GM - I can't speak about them. Eye witnesses? KM - We will not enter in any details so we don't place in danger our findings. GM - I am not saying that we have someone who saw Madeleine. But leads take to other leads and we have to convince the police to investigate them. Have you made a formal request to reopen the process? GM - Not yet. But we will ask for the reopening of the process. Surely. That was what we came to Portugal to do. But with which fundamentation? Do you believe that any prosecutor will agree with your request? GM - Can it be done? It can. Will it be done? I don't know. We will never obtain evidence that Madeleine is here or there. At most we might get leads that will have to be investigated. But everything that you've got till now was inconsistent... KM - But if someone says that they have seen her in a blue car somewhere, shouldn't that be investigated? Are we going to dismiss leads without even verifying them? GM - We will ask the police to gather all the case information, we will place it on the same system and analyse each point. The PJ has statements which are not in the process. It is an enormous work that we cannot do, but someone has to do it. Why is it so important to prevent the sales of Gonçalo Amaral's book? GM - The book was prejudicing the search for Madeleine. Why? GM - Because if people believe that Madeleine is dead and that we have covered up the crime, they will give up on the search. The book is full of omissions and lacks circumstantial evidence. It is the conclusion arrived at by the police who investigated the case. Does he not have the right to his opinion and to publish it? GM - When we have a disagreement we turn to the courts. And the law said we were right. Freedom of expression in not more important than our right of being falsely accused. Gonçalo Amaral is not to blame for the dogs who detected cadaver odour in the house. GM - We were disturbed with the dogs story but the truth is that they are not 100% reliable, they have to be corroborated with forensic evidence, which didn't happen. There wasn't Madeleine's DNA. Even the PJ director admitted that it was hasty to constitute us as arguidos. Is there any money left in the fund? KM - Yes. Contributions haven't stopped and we have 500 thousand pounds. Do you believe that Maddie is dead? KM - At the beginning yes, I didn't think about anything else. But no one has found any evidence that she was dead and the truth is she might be held by someone. It happened in Austria and in the US. GM - We are not naive and there is a probability that she is dead. However she is a small child and in abduction cases, the younger you are, greater is the possibility of adapting and surviving. KM - It happens. It has already happened. Is she still present in your house? KM - Yes. We still keep her room as it was, there are pictures of her all around the house. And we speak about her everyday. GM - And we have to find out what happened in order to move forward. Do you dream about her? KM - I've only dreamt about her three times. Very real dreams, where I was holding her in my arms. Strange, isn't it?

Additional photographs from Expresso interview, 01 May 2010