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Portuguese police have launched a review of the Madeleine McCann case
four years after the investigation was formally shelved.
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Detectives in Portugal are re-examining
evidence from the investigation into Madeleine McCann's
disappearance Photo: PAUL GROVER |
A team of detectives based in Oporto in northern Portugal has been
appointed to re-examine the original investigation into the little
girl's 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 Home Secretary Theresa May supported by
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.
''There is good co-operation between the Met and the PJ, and Kate and
Gerry remain grateful for the time and resources that have been put into
the search for Madeleine.
''They will not be discussing any details whilst both the Met
investigative review and the PJ work is continuing, but clearly it is a
positive development.''
The McCann's Portuguese lawyer Rogerio Alves said he believes the review
of the case was sparked by a fresh information.
He told the Daily Mirror: "It's not certain, but what's happening at the
moment is that some of the information passed to the authorities could
lead to a reopening of the case.
"There is something that aroused enough interest from the Portuguese and
British police to warrant this review in search of new clues.
"The most plausible explanation is that information passed to or
acquired by the Judicial Police has put them on the trail of something
specific." |
