Madeleine McCann's family says police lead on new suspect is 'very significant'

 

FILE PHOTO: Kate McCann, whose daughter Madeleine went missing during a family holiday to Portugal in 2007, attends a news conference at the launch of her book in London May 12, 2011. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The parents of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 aged just three, said on Thursday that the announcement of a new suspect was a potentially very significant development in the 13-year worldwide hunt for their daughter.

 

McCann disappeared from her bedroom on May 3 during a family holiday in the Algarve while her parents were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz.

 

British and German police appealed on Wednesday for information about a German child sex offender currently imprisoned in Germany. He was 30 at the time of McCann's disappearance.

 

"Kate and Gerry do feel it's potentially very significant," said Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for the family, told BBC radio. "They've never given up hope that she may still be found alive but they are realistic."

 

"Whatever the outcome of this particular line of investigation maybe, they do need to know what happened to their daughter to find peace and to bring whoever is responsible to justice," Mitchell said.

 

Police want to speak to anyone who has relevant information on a 43-year old man, whom they did not name, or the movements of two vehicles linked to him during the period around the girl's disappearance. Both cars, a Volkswagen camper van and a Jaguar, are now in the possession of German police.

 

The suspect, German police said, lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007 - and for several years in a house near Praia da Luz - and burgled hotels and holiday flats as well as trading drugs.

 

German police said the man has been "sentenced on numerous occasions to prison terms for sexual abuse of children in the past."

 

They said they were treating the case as a suspected murder and had determined the method used to kill McCann. They did not believe the murder was pre-meditated and said the man was involved in crimes like break-ins and burglary.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-06-04

 

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Moral, don't leave your young kids alone. Maybe some DNA can be found in the camper. Otherwise I don't see this guy confessing. 

A parents worst nightmare.

One time I was shopping  in a supermarket with my then six year old daughter , I was looking at something and when I turned around my daughter was nowhere to be seen. It must had been only a couple of minutes, but  by the time I found her I was hyperventilating. I can still remember the feeling.

I can only imagine what these parents must have gone through. 

  And the poor little girl....  So sad.

There is no hell hot enough for whoever did this. 

The worst part of the article:  German police said the man has been "sentenced on numerous occasions to prison terms for sexual abuse of children in the past."

 

Conspiracy troll post and reply removed

If they cant get good news then I hope the McCanns can at least get closure. 

Must have been a terrible burden upon them and their other children all these years.

9 hours ago, sirineou said:

A parents worst nightmare.

One time I was shopping  in a supermarket with my then six year old daughter , I was looking at something and when I turned around my daughter was nowhere to be seen. It must had been only a couple of minutes, but  by the time I found her I was hyperventilating. I can still remember the feeling.

I can only imagine what these parents must have gone through. 

  And the poor little girl....  So sad.

There is no hell hot enough for whoever did this. 

Indeed. But they should not have left a 3 year old alone, in an hotel room, in a foreign Country. They have a big responsibility on their shoulders too!!????????????????????????????????

Excellent.

 

Well done to the German police. They are professional, highly competent and will be thorough.

 

There comments are encouraging but confirm the worst which the family must have been prepared for for sometime.

 

 

So sad and tragic. Poor, sweet innocent child, and her mum n dad OMG how terrible.

As a very small child (I don't remember any of this event) a friend of our family had their child taken from her bedroom at night in Melbourne through the wire screen on her window. The poor innocent child was found after a thorough police investigation dead. I hope this little girl somehow wasn't killed and she is alive somewhere. 

Hope the Deutsche Polizei can find DNA evidence, if any Police force on earth is capable of excellent forensic work I'd say they are.

If this guy took her and did kill her I hope they find him quick. 

Days of fear. I remember these days, I was on vacation in FARO with wife and daughter ... news, radio and television Talking about the tragedy all day, all mothers and friends in paranoia.  I hope they find the culprit ... it hurts that Portugal does not have the death penalty because surely sadly, the girl has been murdered.

Some offensive posts and replies have been removed. 

 

A post using a video from an unapproved YouTube source has been removed. 

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

Excellent.

 

Well done to the German police. They are professional, highly competent and will be thorough.

 

There comments are encouraging but confirm the worst which the family must have been prepared for for sometime.

Portugese plod will have some explaining to do if this latest development secures a conviction.

5 hours ago, DPKANKAN said:

Indeed. But they should not have left a 3 year old alone, in an hotel room, in a foreign Country. They have a big responsibility on their shoulders too!!????????????????????????????????

Totally  agree, unless they are sociopaths  their guilt in this  part must make this doubly hurtful. I am not sure I would be able to live with myself. 

So 13 years and 12 million quid later the UK police could not come up with a convicted pedophile living 2 miles away, absolutle incompetence.

5 hours ago, evadgib said:

Portugese plod will have some explaining to do if this latest development secures a conviction.

So will the UK Met.  As I tend to think; intelligent, talented people do not join the Police Service, in any country. Recent events all over the World seem to back up that assertion. 

Edited June 5, 20206 yr by Pilotman

24 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

So 13 years and 12 million quid later the UK police could not come up with a convicted pedophile living 2 miles away, absolutle incompetence.

They should have hired you, or any other TVF armchair investigator

9 minutes ago, Susco said:

They should have hired you, or any other TVF armchair investigator

Obviously paying the Germans would have been quicker, and cheaper

1 hour ago, Pilotman said:

So will the UK Met.  As I tend to think; intelligent, talented people do not join the Police Service, in any country. Recent events all over the World seem to back up that assertion. 

This offered a little more perspective when I saw it earlier; particularly the contribution from their ex plod pundit:

 

10 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

If they cant get good news then I hope the McCanns can at least get closure. 

Must have been a terrible burden upon them and their other children all these years.

I never understood the level of hatred and abuse the parents have received continuously for years - so many lies, distortions, accusations and just downright nastiness. To have to live with the horror of such an error of judgement must be crushing for anyone, but to have years and years of constant vitriol piled on top of that must genuinely damage you. I hope that justice will prevail and that the family can get even just a little closure. 

As a father my sympathies have always gone out to the McCanns and I hope that this lead proves conclusive and they can finally find some form of closure. To lose a child must be worse than anyone who has not been there can imagine.

 

But in the UK alone thousands of children go missing every year, many, like Madeleine, never to be heard of again.

 

I have to wonder how the parents of those children feel when they see the amount of publicity the McCanns have received over the last 13 years, when their missing child has received none.

It’s difficult to know if they will ever get any closure to now find out that their daughter, if taken by this monster, would of possible been tortured and killed by him. Sadly the initial reports suggest he is not co operating. 
 

I guess at least it will stop the search for her. 

51 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

I guess at least it will stop the search for her.

I'm really not so sure that it would without a conviction.  

 

Seems to me that the Old Bill have been on one long jolly in the Algarve at the UK taxpayers expense.  Still the Portugeezers gave up years ago.  

 

Madeleine would almost certainly have been murdered within hours of her abduction and there's going to be little evidence to go on after thirteen years.  

20 minutes ago, torturedsole said:

I'm really not so sure that it would without a conviction.  

 

Seems to me that the Old Bill have been on one long jolly in the Algarve at the UK taxpayers expense.  Still the Portugeezers gave up years ago.  

 

Madeleine would almost certainly have been murdered within hours of her abduction and there's going to be little evidence to go on after thirteen years.  

Sadly you may well be right 

Edited June 5, 20206 yr by Kadilo

I sincerely hope that the parents can finally learn exactly what happened to their daughter. And the conspiracy theorists and poison pen activists can be shown up ... but I won’t hold my breath waiting for an apology from those pond life.

On 6/5/2020 at 3:02 PM, DPKANKAN said:

Indeed. But they should not have left a 3 year old alone, in an hotel room, in a foreign Country. They have a big responsibility on their shoulders too!!????????????????????????????????

Having said that, do you now feel much better .

This caught my eye a few mins ago and is, or should be, of interest to the board:

 

(No flames please, I don't know what to make of it either!)

13 minutes ago, evadgib said:

This caught my eye a few mins ago and is, or should be, of interest to the board:

 

(No flames please, I don't know what to make of it either!)

Had a quick glimpse of her pussy at the end , I wasnt expecting that 

She talks a lot without saying anything.

12 hours ago, Huckenfell said:

Having said that, do you now feel much better .

What a crass comment!!! Do you have children? Do you leave them alone, in a foreign hotel room??? Perhaps you do!! The majority of us would never contemplate that!!

????????????????????????????????