McCanns fell out with Portuguese and UK police
MAdELEINE McCann’s parents claimed Portuguese police treated them inhumanely from the start of the investigation into their daughter’s disappearance, according to a secret report.
The Home Office document reveals they also later fell out with British officers and did not share ‘a large amount of information’ gathered by their own private investigators.
The ‘ turbulent relationship’ between Madeleine’s parents and detectives in both Portugal and the UK hampered the hunt for the three-year-old who vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
Passages from the secret report – ordered by then home secretary Alan Johnson in 2009 – emerged as Gerry and Kate McCann mark the tenth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance today.
It says: ‘It is clear that from the beginning the McCanns felt there was a lack of clarity and communication on the part of the Portuguese police.
despite the involvement of British consular staff, they were, by their own accounts, left for long periods without any updates or communication with the investigators.
‘They state they were taken to the police station on more than one occasion and then left for hours waiting to speak to someone who never materialised.
‘They describe this situation as inhumane, with no real considera- tion for their emotional and physical wellbeing.’
It was written by the Child Exploitation And Online Protection Centre for the Home Office to establish if it was worth getting Scotland Yard to review the case. Report author Jim Gamble, former head of CEOP, said that ‘frequent criticism of the Portuguese investigation led to accusations the UK was acting like “a colonial power”.’
The intervention of British detectives also created a sense of ‘frustration’ and ‘resentment’ among Portuguese officers, he found, and the decision to put Leicestershire Police in charge of the operation was a mistake because the force was ill-equipped to deal with such a big investigation.
His report states: ‘The McCanns have had a turbulent relationship with both Portuguese and UK law enforcement. They now openly acknowledge there is a distinct lack of trust between all parties.’
Madeleine, who would now be 13, vanished from the family’s holiday apartment as her parents dined yards away with friends.
Even before the end of the original Portuguese investigation, Mr and Mrs McCann used money collected by fundraisers to hire private investigators, and continued to use them for the three years before Scotland Yard got involved in 2011.
The report, unearthed by Sky News, concluded: ‘It is clear that the McCanns and the private investigators working on their behalf have gathered a large amount of information during the course of their inquiries.
‘ This information does not appear to have been shared fully with the Leicestershire constabulary or Portuguese authorities.’
Scotland Yard is still chasing a critical lead it believes could crack the case. Officers have refused to discuss details but it is understood they have returned to a theory that burglars were involved.
However, the Portuguese police last night once again threatened to create a rift with the Met. Carlos Anjos, a former head of the Policia Judiciaria officers’ union, told the BBC’s Panorama programme: ‘This burglary theory is absurd. Not even a wallet disappeared, nothing else disappeared. A child disappeared.’