The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Madeleine police fly to Portugal
BRITISH DETECTIVES investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have flown to Portugal, reportedly to discuss possible arrests in connection with the inquiry.
A team from Scotland Yard has travelled to the Algarve after a letter was sent to Portuguese police asking for help to trace three suspected burglars spotted in the area where Madeleine vanished almost seven years ago, the Daily Mirror reported.
The team, headed by Detective Chief Inspector A ndy Redwood, who is leading the Metropolitan Police investigation, are said to have met members of Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria and prosecutors on Tuesday.
The discussions are believed to have centred on getting local officials to sanction the arrests and questioning of the suspects, believed to be a burglary gang.
Mobile phone records reportedly revealed that the gang repeatedly called each other in the hours after three-yearold Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.
A source speaking to the Daily Mirror said Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann would be on “tenterhooks” as they wait for potential developments.
“The Met are being very pro-active and this is good news in the search for Madeleine and her abductor,” the source said.
Madeleine, who was then nearly four, disappeared from the holiday apartment on May 3 2007 as her parents dined at a nearby restaurant with friends.
British detectives launched a fresh investigation into her disappearance last July, two years into a review of the case, and made renewed appeals on television in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.
A fter shelving their own inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance in 2008, Portuguese authorities said last October that a review had uncovered enough new information to justify reopening it.