Nearly ten years after Madeleine GHOULS’ Fury at sick tours of Maddieville’
This tour is in appalling taste and is totally uncalled for
TOURISTS are being offered a ghoulish sightseeing tour of the town where Madeleine McCann was kidnapped.
The sick trips take visitors to the apartment where the missing threeyear-old was last seen alive and the tapas restaurant where her parents were dining when she vanished.
The twisted organiser also takes his clients to nearby wasteland which police dug up in searches in Praia da Luz in Portugal’s Algarve.
The ghouls are then invited to s peculate on t he involvement of Madeleine’s doctor parents Kate and Gerry.
Last night the couple were said to be distressed by the latest outrageous twist in the story.
And the tours, dubbed the “Luz Challenge”, have triggered disgust among other Brits in Praia.
Yesterday one astonished expat who lives in the area said: “This is in appalling taste. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.
“This is totally uncalled for. A little girl going missing should not be made into a game or a challenge.”
Madeleine, of Rothley, Leics, was almost four when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment on May 12 nine years ago.
The gruesome tours are being offered on the internet by a British grandfather in his 60s who has become obsessed with the case since emigrating to Praia da Luz.
Pored
He s ays he l i ves in “Maddieville” and is offering his version of “Mission Impossible” to work out what happened to Madeleine.
He aims the tours at Brits looking for a day trip but insists he does not want payments.
Our source said: “The guide is obsessed with Maddie. He’s written thousands of words about the case and pored over maps, photographs and police transcripts.
“We don’t know why he is so hung up on it.”
The weirdo started offering the tours in January and had the first visitor on March 8.
According to the blog used to advertise the tours, trips took place throughout the summer, and he is currently planning the fourth one for later this year.
In the first blog about the tour, the so-called host said: “If you can visit Luz, please get in touch with me, because I would like you to show you the reality.
“I think of this as the Luz Challenge. Our version of Mission Impossible.”
Then, in an offensive comment, the sicko says: “You have to come up with a way in which the McCanns, f or whatever reason, disposed of Madeleine’s body, and the body was not found in searches.” In a reference to the officer in charge of the original search, the tour guide says: “Gonçalo Amaral struggled, and in my opinion failed, to come up with an explanation. “He had something like 25 years of experience policing Portugal and the Algarve, and he failed to come up with a solution to a one-word question. How?
“How do you dispose of a child’s body when all you have is foot power and no experience of Luz.
“Would you like to see if you can overcome the Luz Challenge?”
The guide lists several places that his clients will be taken to.
They start at APARTMENT 5A at the Ocean Club Hotel where the tot vanished.
From there they go a few hundred yards to the TAPAS RESTAURANT where her parents were eating with friends – although the guide says a meal will not be possible as the place has closed. Then they visit the spot near the apartment where the McCanns’ friend Jane Tanner saw A MYSTERY MAN carrying a childthough police later ruled out the sighting.
They will also take in the scene of THE SIGHTING by Martin Smith, a retired businessman, who said he saw a man carrying a child in the direction of the beach.
Searches
Other places in the tour are the areas where police carried out searches two years ago.
The first is SCRUBLAND to the south-west of the McCann apartment, around the size of three football pitches and surrounded by villas and apartments. The two OTHER SITES are on the other side of Praia da Luz on either side of the road out of town.
Another ghoulish spot on the tour is the OUR LADY OF THE LIGHT CHURCH in the centre of Luz.
Police searched there and a nearby CEMETERY with rumours circulating that Madeleine was put into someone else’s coffin to be cremated.
From there the guide said he would start looking at all the red herrings and conspiracy theories which had sprung up around the case.
These include the rumour Madeleine could have been been hidden on the nearby beach or under rocks.
Responding to requests on his blog, the guide said he does not charge for