McCanns: We had no ‘proof of death’ letter
‘Unnecessary anxiety’
GERMAN police in charge of the Madeleine McCann investigation were last night accused of ‘playing games’ with her parents.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has sparked outrage after claiming his office had written to the couple to tell them they had evidence their daughter is dead.
But in a statement yesterday, Kate and Gerry McCann said they had not received a letter from the German authorities ‘ that states there is evidence that Madeleine is dead’.
The couple said the claim has ‘caused unnecessary anxiety to friends and family and once again disrupted our lives’. A friend of the McCanns told the Mail they had recently received a letter from German investigators expressing sympathy for their plight and apologising for being unable to share all the evidence.
But the friend insisted that it did not make any mention of Madeleine being dead.
‘It’s as if Hans Wolters is playing funny games with Kate and Gerry, without being funny,’ the friend said.
‘Everyone close to them are getting really mad and upset with the German approach.
‘If this German prosecutor is insistent in his belief that Madeleine is dead, it’s time her parents were told what the evidence is.’
The row over the letter is threatening to overshadow the appeal for witnesses.
It is now exactly two weeks since Scotland Yard and German police revealed they had a new suspect in Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance.
The announcement was hailed as the biggest breakthrough since the threeyearold, from Rothley, Leicestershire, vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
German police and prosecutors described it as a murder investigation while Scotland Yard is continuing to treat the probe as a missing persons inquiry.
have 1,000 the Since public calls received then and about the emails more two the forces than from new suspect, German sex offender Christian Brueckner. Last weekend, Mr Wolters, a prosecutor in the German city of Braunschweig [Brunswick], said he was ‘100 per cent’ certain that Madeleine is dead. And on Monday he told journalists that her parents had been sent a letter by German prosecutors saying that they have ‘ concrete evidence’ that Brueckner killed Madeleine.
He refused to disclose how they knew, insisting that any further information could jeopardise the inquiry into the suspect.
Mr Wolters said on Monday: ‘We have written to the McCanns to tell them Madeleine is dead and explaining we just cannot say what the evidence is.’ Yesterday, he confirmed that his office had written to the couple but this time he refused to discuss the content of the letter. But on the official Find Madeleine website, Kate and Gerry wrote: ‘The widely reported news that we have received a letter from the German authorities that states there is evidence or proof that Madeleine is dead is FALSE.’
The prosecutor also faced criticism from Dr Alexander Stevens, a prominent sex abuse lawyer in Germany, who said the McCanns have been treated ‘carelessly’ during the investigation.
He said: ‘I am honestly shocked how insensitively the the McCann prosecutor family. is treating First he says Madeleine is dead.
‘Then the public prosecutor announces that it is common to assume death in such a missing persons case, only to announce now that his office has proof that Madeleine is dead.’