McCanns: Don't forget Madeleine
Kate and Gerry McCann were devastated when they were told posters featuring their daughter Madeleine were being taken down from shop windows in Praia da Luz.
The story has also dropped out of Portuguese newspapers and is rarely featured on television.
Now the couple say they are prepared to go back to the Algarve resort from where Madeleine vanished nearly eight months ago.
They are also ready for a new round of media interviews to get four-year-old Madeleine back in the public eye.
But first they hope they can soon persuade Portuguese police to remove their status as "arguidos" or suspects.
Kate and Gerry, both 39, expect to be interviewed by detectives next month. If police clear them they would be free to return to the Algarve for the first time since September 9, without having a cloud of suspicion hanging over them.
Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We've said from the outset that they would go back if it would help the investigation.
"At the moment we just want to concentrate on getting the arguido status lifted so that it's no longer a distraction to anyone in the search to find Madeleine.
"If their arguido status were lifted we would review everything and we've said all along that there are reasons why they might go back to Portugal. They have friends there, there are religious sites they would like to visit and of course there is the link with Madeleine and the need to keep her disappearance in people's minds."
A friend of the couple said they hoped to persuade the man in charge of the police investigation, Paulo Rebelo, to clear their names within weeks.
He added: "The most likely next step is that the police will come to Britain to speak to Kate and Gerry and their friends."
"If they did go back at any point they would make it clear they were going back of their own volition not because they were being summoned.
"But if they were cleared as arguidos then it would change everything.
"They would be cleared in the eyes of the judicial system and technically in the eyes of the world, although they realise that there will always be some people who view them with suspicion. They would be free to speak about the case and to carry out any publicity work to appeal for help to find Madeleine.
"Of course, they hope that the police interviews in Britain will help that process and that they will be eliminated from the investigation.
"They are ready and waiting and will welcome them. They just want to get on with it so they can convince Paulo Rebelo that he hasn't got a case against them."
The couple are desperate to keep publicising the plight of their daughter, who disappeared from their holiday apartment at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on May 3.
There was a huge response to Kate and Gerry's TV broadcast just before Christmas, when their private investigators took 347 calls with potential new leads.
There has also been a new publicity blitz in Morocco, where the Kate and Gerry's team believe Madeleine may have been taken.
More than 11,000 posters featuring Madeleine's photo and details are being sent to remote towns and villages in the north African country.
Schools, supermarkets and medical centres will also get the posters, which are printed in French and Arabic.
The McCanns, from Rothley, Leics, deny any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance and maintain that she was abducted.
Ex-pat Robert Murat, 34, the first person to be made an arguido in the case, hit back yesterday at new claims he was near the apartment the night Madeleine vanished.
He has always maintained he was at home with his mother Jenny, 71, that evening.
But sisters Annie Wiltshire, 58, and Jayne Jensen, 54, from Kent, claimed he was smoking outside the main reception of the resort 30 minutes after Madeleine was reported missing.
Murat's mother yesterday dismissed the new allegations.
She said: "People who say he was outside Madeleine's apartment that night are telling lies."
Mirror
