I WILL CRACK MADDIE CASE
PORTUGAL’S top policeman vowed last night: “We WILL solve the Madeleine McCann case.”
And Alipio Ribeiro said his force still believed the youngster died in her family's
Ribeiro, head of Portugal's CID, also revealed he is set to re-interview the seven pals who were on holiday with the McCanns when their daughter vanished just days before her fourth birthday.
Letters requesting the interviews will be sent in a few days. Ribeiro said he has an idea of what happened and is confident he will be able to name the killer.
Their strongest theory is that Madeleine died in the apartment at Praia da Luz on May 3.
The police chief stressed that the case did not hinge solely on forensic tests.
But he said he had every faith in the British lab where the tests are being carried out, describing it as one of the best in the world.
And he praised British police as magnificent collaborators.
But yesterday former Metropolitan police chief Lord Stevens, 64, accused Portuguese detectives of conducting a witch hunt against parents Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39, who have been named as formal suspects.
He also accused officers of being too soft on the couple, who should have been relentlessly grilled again and again.
If this had been done, he says the couple may have been cleared by now. Instead, he fears the case may never be solved. But Ribeiro thinks otherwise.
He insisted: "Sooner or later, we are going to have a result.
"In every investigation there is a key moment, a click that clarifies everything and helps you to reach the end. We just haven't reached that key moment yet."
Dailystar