- .Met police have named 'a good number' of potential suspects to speak to
- .DCS Hamish Campbell says his officers have done 'fantastic' case review
- .He urged his Portuguese counterparts to investigate their fresh leads
- .Kate and Gerry McCann are 'very, very pleased' about the new list of names
- .Madeleine went missing in May 2007 during a family holiday in Praia da Luz
Detectives working to find missing Madeleine McCann have given their counterparts in Portugal a new list of potential suspects and have urged them to investigate them
Detectives working to trace missing Madeleine McCann have given a list of names of potential suspects to Portuguese police, it emerged today.
Scotland Yard has drawn up the list of people 'of interest' who may have abducted the little girl from Leicestershire from the holiday resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007.
Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, head of the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said his detectives had drawn up a 'good number' of individuals who needed to be spoken to over the abduction.
This afternoon he said his Portuguese counterparts needed to work on the new leads the British police had given them.
As Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCAnn said they were 'very, very pleased' with the review of their daughter's case, the detective said that the recent case in Cleveland, Ohio, in which women were found alive years after they were abducted, should give new impetus and hope to those working on the case.
Speaking of the new list of names that officers working on the Operation Grange review had drawn up, Mr Campbell said: 'There is more than a handful of people of interest which could be properly explored further, if only to be eliminated.
'The key things are to investigate the case and our work is happening to support the Portuguese.'
'The purpose of the review was to look at the case with fresh eyes and there is always real benefit in doing so. The review has further identified both investigative and forensic opportunities to support the Portuguese.'
The official inquiry by Portuguese police was shelved in 2008 but after David Cameron responded to a plea from Madeleine’s parents, police in London launched a review of the case in 2011.
DCS Campbell said the 30 officers working on the review under Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood had done a 'fantastic' job in working to bring up 'further investigative and forensic opportunities.'
Last week Kate and Gerry McCann marked the sixth anniversary of their daughter's disappearance with prayers
He said it was 'perfectly probable' that information which could identify the suspect responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance was already within the Portuguese files.
'We have to ask ourselves why are cases unsolved and, on many occasions, we find we passed the suspects by already and the suspect sits within our system,' he told the Evening Standard.
The detective said there were a 'good number' of people who could be interviewed and eliminated to narrow the number of suspects down.
The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today: 'Kate and Gerry remain very, very pleased with the work that Scotland Yard are doing and have been encouraged by Operation Grange from the day it began.
The Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz in the Algarve from where Madeleine McCann was abducted in May 2007
'Beyond that, they simply will not comment on what are police operational matters.'
Last year Portuguese police refused to reopen the investigation into the Madeleine case and said there was no new evidence. But Scotland Yard said their own review, led by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, had thrown up 195 potential leads after studying vast amounts of material and evidence.
So far the inquiry into the little girl's disappearance days before her fourth birthday has cost more than £2m, and British detectives have travelled to Portugal 10 times to work with officials there and amass evidence.
British and Portuguese police have not always seen eye to eye on the case.
Madeleine McCann as she looked when she went missing, left, and how she would look now, right
It is now hoped that the new leads, plus pressure from top Met detectives, will encourage police in Portugal to look again at the case.
DCS Campbell said: 'The Portuguese hopefully will pursue some of these investigative opportunities with our assistance. There is room for further work and collaboration to resolve the case.'
He cited recent missing persons cases in Cleveland, Ohio, and in Europe as proof that long-standing open cases can and should be solved.
DCS Campbell, who retired today as head of the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, urged Portuguese police to act on the new list of potential suspects in the Madeleine McCann case
Mr McCann said: 'In many ways things haven't changed and you could argue that, with the Met review two years in, we are actually in a better place because so much more information has been collated and lots of pieces of the jigsaw have been filled.'
Mrs McCann, who recently returned to Portugal, said their family, including twins Sean and Amelie, now eight, had found a 'new normality' since Madeleine's disappearance.
She encouraged anybody with any information to contact police, added: 'I think to encourage everybody, it's six years on, but the way the Met review is going is really positive and with that, new hope.
'The search goes on, in a major way.'
Madeleine, from Leicestershire, was nearly four when she disappeared while her parents Kate and Gerry were enjoying dinner with friends at the holiday resort in Portugal.
Last week, soon after the sixth anniversary of their daughter's disappearance, the McCanns said their daughter's bedroom in their home in Rothley was still as she had left it to go on holiday in 2007.
No comments:
Post a Comment