We’ve never had a case like Maddie & may never solve it

Portuguese officer’s fear as probe struggles for answers

We know as time goes on, it will become more difficult to obtain answers and results PEDRO DO CARMO PORTUGUESE POLICE OFFICER

PORTUGUESE police have admitted the longer their Madeleine Mccann investigation goes on, the less chance they have of solving it.

Officers based in the northern Portuguese city of Porto are conducting a parallel probe to the one led by Scotland Yard. Pedro do Carmo, national assistant director of the Policia Judiciaria, admitted yesterday the case around Madeleine’ disappearance 10 years ago was unique. In an interview in which he described it as a “thorn in the side”, Mr do Carmo said: “We’d never had a case like it and we’ve never had one since.” Stressing Portuguese police wanted to solve the mystery so they “could learn lessons for future situations”, he added: “The PJ knows that as time goes on, it will become more difficult to obtain answers and results. “In any case, we have hope and we have reasons for that hope.” Saying the work would be finished when they reached a stage where “there was no more to be done”, he added: “We still don’t know what happened and why Madeleine disappeared.

VANISHED

“That means that we’re still not in a position to say what was done wrong, what was done right and what should have been done.” The Portuguese probe was archived in July 2008, before being reopened in May 2014, after convicted burglar Euclides Monteiro, a former employee at the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, from where the youngster vanished, was identified as a suspect. The Cape Verdean immigrant, who died in a tractor accident in 2009, has never been officially ruled out of the inquiry. Mr Carmo said: “The British authorities have set up a team to review the investigation. They have been to Portugal and agreed to collaborate with the PJ. We are doing the same. The Porto team is experienced in these cases.” Mr do Carmo is understood to have met several times with DCI Nicola Wall, who is in charge of Scotland Yard’s probe into Madeleine’s disappearance, as well as her predecessor Andy Redwood. At the weekend ex-pj officer Paulo Cristovao, who became boss of Portugal’s missing children agency, said he thought she had been snatched and taken to nearby caves.

STILL MISSING Madeleine Mccann when she was three PORTO COP WORRIES investigator Pedro do Carmo BRIT COP SEARCH DCI Nicola Wall of Scotland yard

SUSPECT Euclides Monteiro