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Three year old British girl Missing In Portugal http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=30226	Page 1 of 93

Author:	Madeline [ 04 May 07, 20:51 ]
Post subject:	Three year old British girl Missing In Portugal
British Girl Missing In Portugal Skynews

Author:	Madeline [ 05 May 07, 14:34 ]
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'We Have A Suspect In Mind' Police searching for Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old British girl missing in Portugal, say they believe she has been abducted and are hopeful she is still alive. Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the judicial police in the Faro region, said detectives have a suspect in mind and have put together a sketch, but refused to reveal any more details for fear of endangering Madeleine's life. He added that yesterday the police had received more than 30 calls with possible new lines of inquiry, all of which were being followed up. And he said that today calls have flooded in from all over Portugal from members of the public reporting possible sightings of a girl matching Madeleine's description. In a televised statement, the father od the missing girl, Gerry McCann said: "Words cannot describe the anguish and despair we are feeling." "Please, if you have our Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister." The girl went missing from her bedroom in a holiday apartment in the town of Praia da Luz while her parents were eating in the hotel dining room 40 yards away. Madeleine was last seen by her father sleeping soundly at around 9pm on Thursday at the resort in the south-western Algarve. But at 10pm, when her mother went to check on her, she found the shutter slid up, the bedroom window open and her daughter gone. A spokeswoman for Leicestershire Police said the force had sent three family liaison officers to Portugal to support Madeleine's family as the frantic search continues. Sky's Ian Woods, who is at the destination, said: "With every passing hour, one must fear the worst." "That Madeleine simply walked out the apartment on her own seems the least likely scenario." Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann, described the immense pressure her brother and his wife Kate were under. "He is at his wits' end," she told Sky News. "I mean... you can hear his voice breaking. His wife is just... she can barely stand up. She can't sleep, she can't eat." Madeleine's father is a cardiologist at Glenfield hospital in Leicester. Doug Skehan, consultant cardiologist and work colleague of Mr McCann, said: "Gerry McCann is a popular hard working colleague, for whom we have great affection," he said. "The mood in the hospital is one of great concern and we hope that Kate and Gerry will have their daughter back very soon." A neighbour of the McCann family, Penny Noble, said: "We are absolutely devastated. They are a really nice family and good neighbours. "They are delightful. We see them take their bikes up and down and going for walks. "Madeleine is a very happy-go-lucky little girl". Skynews

Author:	Madeline [ 05 May 07, 14:48 ]
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MADDY, 3 GOES MISSING Agony as 3-yr-old vanishes from holiday flat A HUGE hunt was going on last night for three-year-old Maddy McCann, feared snatched from her holiday flat. Maddy is believed to have been taken as she slept in the complex on Portugal's Algarve as her doctor parents ate at a bar 120ft away. Her scent was picked up by a police sniffer dog. But it petered out after 400 yards. Yesterday, 24 hours after the young child vanished in quiet Praia da Luz, anguished parents Gerry and Kate, both 38, of Rothley, Leics, begged for her return. A friend said: "Kate rang us totally hysterical, saying Maddy was abducted. They're devastated." The appalling news that three-year-old Maddy McCann was feared kidnapped from her holiday flat came in a distraught phone call early yesterday from her dad. Heart specialist Gerry McCann rang his sister Trish in Scotland after Maddy vanished from her cot placed between two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie. Trish revealed yesterday: "He was breaking his heart, saying 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted'." Gerry and wife Kate, both 38, had been checking their three children in the family's ground-floor flat every 30 minutes as they dined with friends 120ft away. Trish said: "When Kate checked, she came out screaming. Maddy had gone. The door was open and the window in the bedroom and shutters were jemmied open. Nothing had been touched and no valuables taken. "They think someone must have come in the window and gone out the door with her." Close family friend Gill Renwick, of Liverpool, who also spoke to GP Kate yesterday, said: "Poor Kate and Gerry don't know where to turn. "Madeleine has obviously been taken. She couldn't have gone out on her own and the shutters were forced." Maddy went missing at the Mark Warner Ocean club resort in the coastal village of Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve. A trail of her scent picked up by police dogs at the flat was followed to a supermarket just 400 yards away where it disappeared. A 24-hour search by police, hundreds of villagers and British holidaymakers failed to find any trace of the child. Last night Gerry and Kate, of Rothley, Leics, issued a statement saying they were hopeful Maddy would be found safe and well. It read: "This is a particularly difficult time for the family and we are all comforting each other. We have received lots of support from friends, family and the public and are very grateful. "All the family's focus is in assisting the authorities in securing Madeleine's return." A woman friend of the McCanns - one of their holiday party of nine adults and eight children - said: "We went for dinner at 8.45pm in a restaurant near the apartments as we've done every night. "A parent from each family went back to check on the children every half hour. "Someone checked at 9.15. But when Kate went later Madeleine had gone. "The window shutters, which had been closed since we arrived on Saturday, were open along with the window. They can be opened from the outside. "The window opens on to a car park. The door to the room was shut. It looks as if someone has come through the window and possibly left through the door." Close family friend Jon Corner, of Liverpool, told how tearful Kate sobbed down the phone early yesterday: "Someone has taken my little girl." Jon, godparent to the McCanns' twins, said: "She was in an absolutely hysterical state - very, very distressed. She blurted out Madeleine had been abducted. "Kate said the shutters of the room were smashed. Madeleine was missing It looks as though someone had gone straight past the twins to get to her. Kate was incredibly upset. I've spoken to her since, and she's still completely devastated. "She's also very upset that the police don't seem to be doing more to find Madeleine. She thinks there's too little happening." Mr Corner described the McCanns as a "superb mother and father". He said: "They are a very loving family." The McCanns' apartment is set in a self-contained complex which boasts villas and apartments together with supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, boutiques and bars. Mark Warner management denied there were signs of forced entry at the flat claiming instead that roller shutters had been slid up and the bedroom window opened. The firm added that police were keeping an open mind over whether Maddy had managed to leave the apartment on her own. The McCanns were said to have chosen the complex as a "family-friendly resort." But they declined to take advantage of a baby-sitting service which would have left their children supervised while they dined. Resort manager John Hill said around 60 staff and guests had searched until 4.30am yesterday as police contacted border authorities, neighbouring Spanish officers and airports. Mr Hill said: "It was a very emotional and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job of getting involved and trying to search the area. "There are a criminal investigator and around 20 officers here but unfortunately there's still no information. If I was in the McCanns' situation, I'd be frustrated as hell. If there were 100 police here I'd want more." The British Embassy said it had been informed about Maddy's disappearance. Portuguese police said: "It's a sensitive case. It involves a child and we cannot give more information for now." Officers sealed off the five-storey holiday block with crime scene tape and fingerprinted the shutters and window sill outside Maddy's room. A patio to the rear of the block, believed to be attached to the family's two-bedroom apartment, was also sealed off. By late afternoon the hunt for Maddy had intensified with helicopter crews, firemen and maritime search teams involved. A special criminal investigation team from the Policia Judiciria was travelling down from Lisbon. Sky News weather presenter Jo Wheeler said local police had been giving out maps and telling people where to look. She said: "It's very well organised." Wheeler said Maddy could not have wandered on her own back to the beach. She said: "She'd have to have taken a long and tortuous journey, crossed several roads and walked three quarters of a mile." Back in the UK police stood guard outside the McCanns' five-bedroom home in a quiet cul-de-sac. Neighbour Tracey Horsfield, 32, a nurse, said: "They're delightful people - a normal, caring family. They idolise their children. They'd never let them out of their sight." Another neighbour Penny Noble said: "We're absolutely devastated. They're a really nice family. We see them going for walks. Madeleine is a happy-go-lucky little girl." Last night Kate's father, Brian Healy, of Mossley Hill, Liverpool, was preparing to fly out to Portugal. He said: "We're worried sick. It's a very distressing time." Gerry McCann is said to be one of Europe's top heart specialists and a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester. The hospital is a centre of excellence for heart surgery in the UK. Doug Skehan, also a consultant cardiologist at the hospital, said: "He is a popular, hard-working colleague for whom we have great affection. "The mood here is one of great concern and we hope that Kate and Gerry will have their daughter back very soon." Mirror

Author:	Madeline [ 06 May 07, 20:40 ]
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POLICE hunting for missing Maddie McCann have dramatically widened their search to an extinct VOLCANO, the News of the World can exclusively reveal. NOTW

Author:	Madeline [ 06 May 07, 20:45 ]
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'Continue To Pray For Madeleine' Skynews

Author:	Madeline [ 07 May 07, 12:50 ]
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Missing girl: mother asks for prayers · Sketch of suspect held back in case he panics · Three British officers fly to Portugal to help inquiry Steven Morris and Dale Fuchs in Praia da Luz, Portugal The mother of three-year-old Madeleine McCann yesterday begged people to pray for her daughter as the police effort to find the missing girl appeared to be floundering. Speaking in the upmarket Algarve resort from where Madeleine vanished last Thursday night, presumed abducted, Kate McCann said: "Please continue to pray for Madeleine." Her voice cracked as she added: "She's lovely." Her husband, Gerry, said the family continued to "hope for the best possible outcome from this for us and Madeleine". But the police hunt for the missing girl seemed to have hit a brick wall. About 150 police have been involved but the only lead appeared to be a fleeting glimpse of a man seen from behind with a blond girl not far from the apartment where the McCanns were staying. Portuguese detectives have refused to release a sketch that has been prepared of the suspect for fear it might panic him if he is holding Madeleine alive. The picture is understood to feature a man with dark, parted hair and bushy sideburns. Two other witnesses came forward yesterday. One was an English man who has told police he saw a couple behaving suspiciously at the side of a main road near the resort shortly after Madeleine disappeared. He had an impression they were carrying a child, but they turned away from him as his headlights caught them. A second was a foreign woman who may have seen someone acting suspiciously near the apartment on Thursday night. She only realised the girl was missing when she returned to the resort yesterday. The police have been criticised for not reacting more quickly when Madeleine went missing. They did not inform border police until the following day, a delay that could have given a kidnapper time to cross into Spain. Three British police officers arrived in the Algarve at the weekend and will liaise with the family and the Portuguese police. Madeleine vanished from an apartment inside a complex run by the holiday company Mark Warner as her parents dined at a tapas bar about 100 metres away within the same centre. Mr and Mrs McCann, a cardiac surgeon and GP, were checking the girl, who was sleeping next to her two-year-old brother and his twin sister, every few minutes. But when they returned at the end of their meal, Madeleine's bed was empty. Police have taken fingerprints from a metal shutter on a window that looks on to a narrow car park and street. One theory is that an abductor forced the shutters. Mr and Mrs McCann, and members of their extended family who have flown to Portugal to offer their support, yesterday attended mass at the village's Catholic church. At the start of the service Mrs McCann knelt, clutching Madeleine's favourite cuddly toy kitten. The priest, Jose Manuel Pacheco, told the family: "We are with you, the parish is with you." Later he said to the couple, who are Catholics: "Our hearts are full of compassion, like God's." After the service, Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were enveloped by parishioners, first elderly women, then mothers with their children. Mrs McCann, 39, said: "I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to everybody, particularly the local community here who have offered so much support. I couldn't have asked for more. I just want to say thank you. Please continue to pray for Madeleine. She's lovely." Mr McCann, 38, added: "From today's service, the thing we're going to take from this is strength and courage and hope. We continue to hope for the best possible outcome from this for us and Madeleine." The international child protection group Innocence in Danger claimed that corruption and indifference among the Portuguese authorities hampers the country's investigation of paedophiles and child traffickers. Homayra Sellier, founder of the group, said she had tried to set up an office in Portugal but gave up because of pressure from the authorities. "I stopped it because I thought I couldn't fight against a country where the people do not want to know the truth," she said. guardian

Author:	Madeline [ 08 May 07, 14:00 ]
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DO NOT HARM HER Maddy mum's plea as police fear the worst Vanessa Allen and Martin Fricker In Praia Da Luz 08/05/2007 THE distraught mum of kidnapped Maddy McCann yesterday begged her captor to let her come home - as the detective leading the hunt said he feared she was already dead. Chief inspector Olegario Sousa told a press conference he was no longer confident that the three-year-old was still alive. Asked if he thought Maddy would be found safe and well, he replied: "I don't know." The senior cop, drafted in from Lisbon to head the case, added: "I haven't enough evidence to say. It is very difficult because I have no facts to say if the child is alive or not. "We are searching for the child and until the moment she appears we do not know. "We are not magicians but we are making our best efforts to locate the child." It will be a crushing blow to Maddy's distraught parents, doctors Kate and Gerry, both 38. Just hours earlier, Kate had read out a statement begging her daughter's captor: "Please, please don't hurt her. Please don't scare her." Clutching the pink toy cat she has kept by her side ever since Maddy vanished, she choked back tears and added: "We beg you to let Madeleine come home. We need our Madeleine. Sean and Amelie need Madeleine and Madeleine needs us." "Please give our little girl back." She then repeated the final sentence in Portuguese, saying: "Por favor, devolva a nossa menina." Sean and Amelie are the couple's two-year-old twins who were sleeping next to Maddy when she was taken from the family's apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on Thursday night. The couple, from Rothley, Leics, had been dining with pals at a bar just 40yds away and making regular checks when she was snatched. As hundreds of expats, frustrated over the police investigation, continued to search the area surrounding the resort yesterday, it emerged that detectives have an ever-growing list of suspects - possibly including two Brits - but have not officially issued details. They also failed to release details of what Maddy was wearing - leaving it to her mum to describe her Eeyore pyjamas. Detectives, who are still treating the case only as a missing persons inquiry, say Interpol and Europol are working with them. Yet they insist they are banned by law from passing any information to Maddy's family. A search of coastal caves had to be carried out with help from local canoeists because the police did not have enough boats. Detectives have at least seven possible suspects, and have searched a marina in Lagos after reports a balding man was spotted dragging a young girl along a nearby street. Another witness said he saw a "suspicious" couple with a blonde girl close to the same marina a few hours after Maddy was taken. Police are also interested in a man who was spotted handing out sweets to young children. Other suspects include a man in dark clothing, a person shouting in English at a girl in a car and a British man "with a strong body". However, police sources fear Maddy's kidnapper could have taken her from the area by boat as officials failed to alert the Maritime Police of her abduction until 14 hours later. Police have checked details of boats that left the town on Friday morning, among them were two yachts registered in Denmark and Holland. Another fear is that the kidnapper could have fled by early morning train. Expat Dave Felton, who joined the search yesterday, said: "I think people are still hoping that we don't actually find her and that she is safe and sound somewhere. If we find her then maybe it is not the best thing." Mirror

Author:	Madeline [ 08 May 07, 19:09 ]
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Ronaldo Makes Appeal To Help Find Maddie Skynews

Author:	Madeline [ 10 May 07, 10:20 ]
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FAMILY RALLY ROUND MADDY'S MUM ANGRY relatives yesterday defended distraught mum Kate McCann against growing criticism over the kidnapping of her three-year-old daughter Madeleine. They are horrified by suggestions that the GP and her heart consultant husband Gerry were to blame for leaving the youngster and their two-year-old twins alone while they went out for dinner during their holiday in Portugal. People are asking why they didn't make use of the creche at the Mark Warner resort in Praia da Luz - or take the kids with them. There have even been claims that the professional couple, both 38, should face prosecution for neglect. But Kate's 61-year-old mother Susan Healy said last night: "They know this was a mistake. But it wasn't child neglect, it wasn't not caring for your children. Their children are the most importing things in their lives." She spoke as Portuguese police revealed they are anxious to trace four men seen acting suspiciously near the complex where Madeleine was snatched from her bed a week ago. A local shopgirl saw them in a car driving around the area a few days before the abduction - and on the night Madeleine went missing. She says she tried to report it straight away but detectives told her they were too busy to speak to her. Meanwhile grandma Susan revealed that Madeleine and her twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie, were all test tube babies. She said her daughter had IVF treatment after she and Gerry were unable to conceive normally. Speaking from her home in Woolton, Liverpool, she said: "Kate and Gerry waited a long time for those children - that's why they are so precious to them." She says she is still struggling to come to terms with what has happened - and the increasing torrent of criticism that is being levelled at her daughter and her husband. She asked: "Why would you think something like this would happen? You make a decision and think it's OK. "This time it wasn't and Kate and Gerry have to live with that. That's dreadful and they don't need pressure from other people. "Kate and Gerry went to a family-friendly resort where there has never been any crime or any trouble. "They felt their children were safe, with the shutters down. They were also maybe lulled into a false sense of security by the fact they went on holiday with three other couples. "They were quite happy about the checks they were doing on the children. You couldn't have more caring parents. "Kate and Gerry are absolutely devastated. I have heard my daughter wailing like a wild animal." Madeleine will be four on Saturday but Susan says: "I haven't thought about her birthday. I'm just hoping and praying we'll have her back before then." Kate's dad Brian, 67, said the couple were trying to put on a brave face and "remain positive". He added: "They go to Mass, they comfort each other. They have to go to the police station quite often - to be honest it is a bloody nightmare. "They couldn't have done more and any one who says they haven't done enough is not being fair to them." Madeleine's uncle, John McCann, last night issued a public appeal to the kidnapper to release the youngster unharmed. In an emotional statement on Sky News he said: "Give her back - please. Madeleine loves us, we love her. It's time for her to come home." He said the twins were already missing their big sister and kept asking: "Where's Madeleine?" He added that Kate and Gerry had been "through the mangle" and their emotions were "ripped" but they were staying focused on the relentless task of finding their daughter. The couple issued a statement yesterday, saying: "We are grateful to all of those currently taking part in the search for our daughter. "At present we are channelling all of our emotions and all of our efforts into the steps that are being taken to secure Madeleine's safe return. We continue to remain positive and we thank the media for their ongoing support." Fears were growing last night that the youngster could have been smuggled across the border into Spain. Spanish police have been stopping all cars coming into the country from Portugal but border police were not alerted for 12 hours after the snatch and no pictures of Madeleine were given to Spanish police until Tuesday. Detectives are also examining CCTV tape of a woman with a girl fitting Madeleine's description at a petrol station two miles from Luz on the N22 motorway from Portugal to Spain. The woman was said to be urging her to say "thank you" to staff but the girl was reluctant, apparently wanting to say something. Portuguese police have now accepted British offers of help. An officer from the Serious Organised Crime Agency and two officials from the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre have flown out. One is understood to be Det Supt Graham Hill, who led the investigation into the unsolved disappearance of Surrey teenager Milly Dowler. Senior officers in the UK have privately expressed astonishment at the "hopeless" Portuguese handling of the case. Three liaison officers sent to help the McCanns are also understood to have been "banging their heads against a brick wall". An insider said: "They have been putting questions on behalf of the family but getting zero response." Detectives in Britain have drawn up a list of known sex-offenders who travelled to Portugual from the UK in recent weeks. They will now check on each of them amid claims that Madeleine could have been stolen to order by a British paedophile network. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has also put an appeal on its website, which is viewed in 130 countries. Mirror

Author:	Madeline [ 10 May 07, 10:22 ]
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OPTIMISM AMID THE TORMENT OF 'IF ONLYS' FOR the past six days, time has stood still for Kate McCann. Since discovering her daughter Madeleine missing at 10pm last Thursday we have seen her face frozen with grief and fear. She clutches and smells her three-year-old daughter's favourite cuddly toy desperately searching for that familiar scent. And never out of her grasp is a mobile phone which she wills to ring. We've seen this misery before. In the long, cruel days as they waited for news of their daughter Sarah, her parents Sara and Michael Payne presented the same weary faces that told of sleepless nights, terror and sheer desperation. And like Sara, Kate was the distraught mother who took the lead at a press conference, pleading and cajoling with whoever had taken her child to simply bring her back safely. "Please, please do not hurt her. Please do not scare her," Kate begged those responsible for snatching Madeleine from a bedroom at the Portuguese holiday resort six days ago. My deepest fear is that she is appealing to a humanity that simply does not exist. We now know Madeleine to be a bright-eyed, adorable, pretty little girl and Kate and Gerry McCann's much wanted first child - another miracle of IVF and all the more precious because of that. For her abductor, fuelled by the urge to possess her at any cost, this little girl is mere prey, the embodiment of some wicked fantasy. What makes Madeleine's disappearance truly terrifying is that her parents - responsible, caring doctors - chose to stay in one of those smart holiday resorts where it's assumed nothing untoward can ever happen. To make absolutely sure, an army of nannies patrol Mark Warner complexes offering babysitting services. And yet the McCanns took what to many of us seems an extraordinary decision and one which, I suspect, will torment them in years to come. They chose not to use a childminder as they enjoyed a dinner in a nearby restaurant. It was, they must have reasoned, just a hop and a skip away from the ground floor room where Madeleine slept with her twin brother and sister and close enough to monitor. Surely, no family will take that risk ever again. As the mother of Ben Needham, snatched 16 years ago in Greece, reminded us this week, it takes just a nano-second for a child to disappear. Predators are watchful, cunning and prepared to play long waiting games to identify and target a victim. Ben, playing under the watchful eye of his grandmother, was in her sight one minute and gone the next. Even now, the family believe he's alive somewhere, perhaps being raised by a childless couple who paid for him to be stolen to order. Such an outcome seems far-fetched, but without hope there would be only desolation. At this time hope is all the McCanns have got - it's something Sara Payne advises they cling to. "Above all," she says, "stay positive." It's a tall order given the incompetence of the Portuguese police who manage to make Inspector Clouseau look like The Sweeney. Nor can it be of much comfort to the McCanns to learn that in Portugal there is no sex-offender register. Or, more worryingly, that just weeks ago staff at the resort were warned of a "weird" man bothering children. Would they have left their own three unattended had they been aware of these suspicions? This is not the time for "what ifs". For now, staying strong, praying and accepting support is all Kate and Gerry can do. It's why their family back home in Rothley, Leicestershire, are continuing with plans for Madeleine's fourth birthday this Saturday. The Doctor Who cake she asked for has been baked and the family continue to put out positive messages. "We fear the worst, but we are hoping for the best," says relative Brian Kennedy. His words echo the sentiments of us all. Mirror

Author:	Madeline [ 10 May 07, 11:03 ]
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Madeleine's parents didn't want to leave her with a stranger dailymail

Author:	Madeline [ 10 May 07, 23:19 ]
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Maddie parents staying positive Sun

Author:	Madeline [ 10 May 07, 23:21 ]
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Algarve 'haven' for paedophiles Sun

Author:	Madeline [ 11 May 07, 15:44 ]
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Mum Kate holds candle vigil Sun

Author:	Madeline [ 11 May 07, 15:58 ]
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David Beckham Makes Madeleine Plea Sky

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