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Mr de Sousa said the forensic team's work had
been complicated |
Vital
forensic clues may have been destroyed in the hours after
Madeleine McCann's disappearance, a leading Portuguese
policeman has said.
Chief
Inspector Olegario de Sousa said so many people entered her
room looking for her after she disappeared that forensic
teams faced a difficult task.
Mr de
Sousa told a Portuguese paper 20 people entered the
three-year-old's room the night she disappeared.
Madeleine
was taken from the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on 3 May
Mr de Sousa said that among those who
entered the room on the night she disappeared were parents
Kate and Gerry
McCann, other holidaymakers and
friends and staff from the Ocean Club resort.
He told
the Diario de Noticias newspaper: "The presence of so many
people - especially in the room where the little girl slept
with her brother and sister - could have at least
complicated the work of the forensic team.
"At the
very worst they would have destroyed all the evidence. This
could prove to be fatal for the investigation."
It is
thought Madeleine was snatched from the family's apartment
at the Praia da Luz resort while her parents were at a
nearby restaurant.
'Very
unhelpful'
|
This could prove to be fatal for the
investigation
Chief Inspector Olegario de Sousa |
amples
from Madeleine's bedroom at the resort have been sent to
three Portuguese forensic labs in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra,
all part of the country's Instituto Nacional de Medicina
Legal (INML).
On 1
June the lab reported it
had found traces of a "stranger" amid the DNA material
gathered.
A source
close to the family told the Press Association: "It's
insensitive at the very least. Of course the family are
going to search the apartment
"If your
child goes missing, you search under the beds, in the
wardrobes, behind the doors, everywhere.
"It's
inevitable that there were people in the bedroom. Even if
what the police are saying is true, it's very unhelpful to
say it publicly."
On the
45th day since her disappearance, Madeleine's parents
attended a two-hour church ceremony in Praia da Luz.
"I can't think about last year and how
we spent it, I honestly can't," Mr
McCann, 39, said.
"I can't
really think about anything else, other than how we can help
try and get Madeleine back."
On
Friday, the McCanns are due to set aloft 50 balloons from 50
countries to highlight the fact Madeleine will have been
missing for 50 days. |
