Portuguese
police have launched a review of the case of missing girl Madeleine
McCann, it has been reported.
A team of detectives
based in Oporto in northern Portugal has been appointed to re-examine
the original investigation into her disappearance from the Algarve in
2007, the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias reported.
Scotland Yard
officers have been carrying out their own review since last May.
It is understood that
the team from Portugal's investigative Policia Judiciaria (PJ), headed
by senior officer Helena Monteiro, has been looking at the Madeleine
case for some weeks now.
Madeleine was nearly
four when she went missing from her family's holiday flat in Praia da
Luz in the Algarve on May 3 2007 as her parents Kate and Gerry dined
with friends nearby.
Portuguese
detectives, helped by officers from Leicestershire Police, carried out a
massive investigation into her disappearance. The official inquiry was
formally shelved in July 2008.
Scotland Yard's
review of the case, called Operation Grange, was launched after a
request from British Home Secretary Theresa May, supported by UK Prime
Minister David Cameron.
Portugal's Correio da
Manha newspaper reported that the PJ officers have not found any new
leads that point to Madeleine's whereabouts and so will not formally
reopen their investigation.
McCann family
spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry obviously welcome the
work being done by the PJ in Oporto alongside that of the Met
investigative team.
"They clearly hope
that it will lead to the case being reopened in due course." "They
clearly hope that it will lead to the case being reopened in due
course." |