DETECTIVE’S SHOCK CLAIM
lead he would be allowed to follow involved the theory the child, then aged three, was snatched from her parents’ Portuguese holiday apartment in 2007.
The detective said he was told his task would be to prove Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry and their friends were innocent of any involvement.
He feared the interference from above could distract his search for Madeleine.
Mr Sutton told Sky News: “I did receive a call from a very senior Met police officer who knew me and said it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to head investigation on the basis that I wouldn’t be happy conducting an investigation being told where I could go and where I couldn’t go, the things I could investigate and the things I couldn’t.”
Asked to clarify what he meant he added: “The Scotland Yard investigation was going to be very narrowly focused.’’
He said the focus was solely on the abduction theory and “away from any suspicion of wrong-doing on the part of the McCanns or their tapas friends”.
The so-called “Tapas Seven” were pals on holiday with the McCanns.
They were all dining together in a nearby tapas bar when Madeleine vanished from her parents’ apartment in Praia da Luz, 10 years ago yesterday.
Mr Sutton said officers should have been free to entertain all possible theories about what happened to the child.
He said: “If you are conducting a re-investigation you start at the very beginning. Look at all the accounts all the evidence all the initial statements and go through them and make sure they stack up and they compare.’’
The Met Police inquiry – which has so far cost taxpayers £12 million – has not solved the case though the McCanns and their friends have been cleared of any involvement. Officers are are currently hunting a “woman in purple’ seen loitering outside the apartment shortly before Madeleine disappeared.
The Met has declined to comment on the details of its investigation.
There is no suggestion the McCanns had anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance or are guilty of any wrong-doing.