THE family of Madeleine McCann are to launch a charitable fighting fund to
help promote an international appeal to track her down.
They are consulting lawyers about a charitable foundation that would continue
to fund the hunt and pay for private investigators if required. John McCann,
Madeleine’s uncle, said this weekend that the family were overwhelmed with
offers of financial support and help.
Gerry and Kate McCann, Madeleine’s parents, are determined the hunt for her
should not fade from international attention and with their family are
planning a worldwide campaign.
An appeal for sightings of Madeleine will be made at the Spanish Grand Prix
this weekend. The family hope that a similar appeal will be made at Hampden
Park, Scotland’s national stadium, when it hosts the Uefa Cup final on
Wednesday between two Spanish teams, Espanyol and Sevilla.
Detectives in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared 10 days ago, are
trying to track down a number of possible suspects. The Sunday Times has
established that Portuguese police have a detailed photofit of a suspect who
was spotted loitering outside the McCann apartment and was later thought to
have been seen in a white van.
“We have a good network of people in Glasgow and beyond who are coming forward
to help and it reflects how popular both Gerry and Kate are,” said John
McCann. “Tears are fine, but tears are only good for release. After that,
what next?
“We’ve been inundated with financial offers. It’s been amazing. Friends have
said, ‘How much do you need? We’ll get it to you within two days’. I got a
phone call from a guy I play rugby with who knows Kate and he offered
£50,000.”
McCann said a poster campaign was being launched showing Madeleine’s
distinctive right eye, where the pupil runs into the blue-green iris. “We
want to make the most of it, because we know her hair potentially could be
cut or dyed,” he said.
Gerry and Kate spent their daughter’s fourth birthday yesterday in quiet
reflection in a private villa before attending mass in the evening. Their
momentary relaxation as they were greeted by crowds of wellwishers was in
sharp contrast to the last days, when Kate has looked broken and haunted by
the unknown fate of her daughter.
One of Kate’s closest friends, Jill Renwick, who alerted British media to
Madeleine’s disappearance, said: “There’s nothing anyone can say or do to
make her eat. Day to day she’s looking more and more stressed.”
People who have been with the couple say Gerry is “focused” and always asking:
“What can we do next?” They are trying to keep to their usual routine,
spending time alone in the evenings with their two-year-old twins Amelie and
Sean.
Gerry revealed the couple’s attitude remains positive, telling the
congregation at yesterday evening’s mass: “We are looking forward to the day
when Madeleine returns to us as a joyous one. We walk out of this church
believing that we will see Madeleine soon and she will be safe and well and
we will continue to hope.”
The McCanns have pledged to leave “no stone unturned”, but they know the
prospects of Madeleine being found alive are increasingly remote. According
to investigators, most “stranger abductions” end within 24 hours.
After that, the chances of finding a child alive “drop like a stone”.
If Madeleine is not found soon, looming before them is the terrible decision
about when to gather up their belongings, leave the supportive embrace of
Praia da Luz and return home to Rothley, Leicestershire.
Hamish Brown, a former detective with Scotland Yard’s specialist crime
directorate, said: “They’ve been so dignified in their response, but you
can’t begin to imagine what this is like.
“You would hope to have a development in the first few days, but it hasn’t
happened. It is what detectives in this country call a ‘sticker’, which
means you’re in for the duration.”
Compounding the McCanns’ anguish has been the knowledge that they gave
opportunity to whoever took Madeleine by leaving the three children in the
apartment while they dined nearby. Counselling has helped, but any parent
would find it impossible not to replay endlessly the events of the night she
disappeared, with one refrain — “if only”.
Alan Pike, from the Centre for Crisis Psychology, has been counselling the
couple. “My work with the McCanns began on Saturday. We are reviewing what
they went through on the night Madeleine disappeared, what happened and how
they discovered she had gone,” he said.
“The aim is to help them to understand what was happening to them physically
and emotionally because it can be debilitating. That allows them to focus on
what needs to be done.”
There was initially criticism of the McCanns by Portuguese residents, but this
has faded with the huge swell of sympathy for their plight. One resident in
the Mark Warner Ocean Club complex where the McCanns were holidaying is said
to have heard Kate berating herself after the disappearance. “We’ve let her
down,” she is said to have cried.
The same resident said she heard Madeleine crying for her father on Tuesday
evening, but this has not been confirmed by police.
Last week was a frustrating one for the McCanns, with a series of possible
leads but no breakthrough. The police, stung by claims that they were slow
to react to the abduction, are now involved in one of best-resourced and
high-profile investigations the country has ever seen.
Among the initial criticisms were that police failed to preserve the crime
scene, with one former British detective describing it as as the worst he
had ever encountered. Most embarrassing was an initial photofit said to be
so vague it resembled an “egg with hair”. There was also incredulity among
some British investigators that details of Madeleine’s pink and white
speckled pyjamas were not publicised until Thursday.
Olegario Sousa, a chief inspector of the Policia Judiciaria, said the
investigation had to comply with Portuguese law, which allows few details to
be divulged. The inquiry now has considerable resources, including the help
of British psychological profilers.
Police have identified one possible suspect after a British woman is
understood to have drawn up a photofit of a man seen acting suspiciously
outside the McCanns’ apartment on the afternoon Madeleine vanished.
A source also confirmed this weekend that sniffer dogs tracked Madeleine’s
scent to two apartments in the resort, where two women and a man were
staying. Their nationality has not been confirmed, but they have been
interviewed by police.
Detectives are also investigating reports from a witness in Sagres, 16 miles
from Praia da Luz, that a man was photographing children without permission.
After he was challenged he left with a woman in a Renault Clio.
Police are said to have shown the Sagres witness CCTV footage of a woman and
two men at a service station on the motorway between Praia da Luz and Faro
soon after Madeleine’s disappearance. The woman is said to have been with a
toddler with blonde hair.
According to reports, the witness said she had “no doubts” that one of the men
and the woman at the service station were the couple who had been in Sagres.
Portuguese investigators have refused to comment.
Villagers in Burgau, near Praia da Luz, have also been questioned by police.
They say they have been shown pictures of two separate groups of adults.
The McCanns are believed to have stayed once before in Praia da Luz and had
returned because they considered it a safe resort. According to a member of
staff, the McCanns were so confident of safety they left the french windows
to their apartment unlocked when their children were alone last Thursday
week.
Inquiries by The Sunday Times have found that the Ocean Club complex was
recently targeted by criminals, despite the confidence of holidaymakers in
its security. One resident, in an apartment a short distance from where the
McCanns were staying, said an intruder had entered about three weeks before
Madeleine’s disappearance.
“I was sitting watching TV when I saw an arm coming out of my bedroom and
reaching for the light,” the woman resident said. “I screamed, ‘What are you
doing?’ at the top of my voice. He [the intruder] jumped out of the window
onto the roof, then he must have climbed down the tree.”
Despite the risk of break-ins, there was no extra advice for holidaymakers to
be on their guard. Mark Warner sends customers security advice with their
travel brochure, but the only recommendation is that valuables are left at
reception.
The appeal for Madeleine’s safe return is likely to remain in the public eye
for a considerable time. Up to 600 Portuguese motorcyclists plan to travel
the country, distributing appeals for information.
Crime experts said last week that it should not be assumed that Madeleine had
been taken by a child abuser. Ray Wyre, a consultant on sexual crime and
abuse, said: “You need the message to go out to potential witnesses that no
one should be discounted.”
