After 445 days of missing Maddie, cloud of suspicion over parents lifts

Published on Saturday 19 July 2008 19:36

IT IS now 445 agonising days since their three-year-old daughter Madeleine became the world's most famous missing child.

Tomorrow Kate and Gerry McCann hope the suspicion that they played a role in her disappearance from a Portuguese beach resort will finally – and officially – be lifted.

The Portuguese authorities are believed to be ready to remove the official arguido – suspect – status from the couple and clear them of any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance from Praia de Luz in May last year.

Portuguese detectives handed over their lengthy final report at the start of this month for prosecutors to consider whether to bring charges, request further inquiries or close the case.

And in recent days, claims have appeared in the Portuguese press, attributed to anonymous sources, that the investigations are to be closed.

Last week, the Portuguese attorney-general, Fernando Jos Pinto Monteiro, appeared to add weight to these claims when he told reporters: "The Maddie case will have a solution on Monday and you will hear of it."

If the case is indeed closed, it will mark the end of an arduous rollercoaster of raised hopes, false sightings and dead-ends for the McCanns, and a sustained marathon of frenetic media coverage, which has seen the public image of the couple swing from one extreme to the other.

Yet although the formal enquiries of the Portuguese police seem likely to be wound down, the couple's ordeal – and, with it, public speculation about what exactly happened that May evening – seems certain to continue.

The McCanns, who live in Leicestershire, have declared they have no intention of giving up the search for Madeleine.

Instead, they have defiantly insisted they will use the removal of their arguido status to access evidence collected by police investigators which has so far been withheld from them.

Their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said yesterday: "Kate and Gerry are waiting to hear what the attorney-general has to say on Monday, like everyone else, and they will not be commenting in advance in any shape or form.

"Obviously they are aware of numerous reports suggesting the case is about to be shelved. If that is the case they hope that it is made very clear that their arguido status is revoked and they hope to gain access to the police files so that their private investigators can continue the search for Madeleine."

The case has intrigued the public, both at home and abroad, not least because of the extensive and elaborate media campaign the McCanns launched to find their daughter.

Yet if the McCanns have been squeezed through the mangle of public opinion, the image of the Portuguese authorities has taken a similar battering.

The two parties have had a strained relationship, with suggestions of mutual mistrust on both sides, and while the Home Office has publicly voiced confidence in the efforts and methods of the Portuguese investigators, there has been criticism from some quarters over their attitude and methods.

The tensions have not diminished despite the passage of time. Yesterday, a Portuguese newspaper alleged that British officers had attempted to stop some of the collected evidence – including the infamous results of a DNA test on a sample from a hire car used by the McCanns – from being released to the public.

According to the reports, the Portuguese public prosecutor refused the request.

Leicestershire Police confirmed that a delegation of officers had been sent "on a number of trips" to the area to discuss with the Portuguese authorities how evidence would be released once the investigation is brought to a close.

The events since Madeleine's disappearance from her bedroom, where she was sleeping alongside her younger brother and sister while her parents dined with friends at a nearby restaurant, have also proved costly for the media.

Earlier this year, the McCanns were awarded 550,000 in libel damages from a number of newspapers, after a series of articles which had alleged the couple were responsible for Madeleine's death.

Last week, the third suspect in the case, Algarve property consultant Robert Murat, 34, received a total of 600,000 in damages from four newspaper groups over "seriously defamatory" articles.