Madeleine McCann: Parents' message to Rhys's family

Aug 25 2007

The father of Madeleine McCann has sent a message of support to the parents of murdered 11-year-old Rhys Jones.

Football-loving Rhys died on Wednesday night after being shot in the neck in the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool.

He was making his way home, dressed in an Everton shirt, when a teenage gunman on a BMX bike opened fire.

Mr McCann, who wife Kate grew up in Liverpool, told the Edinburgh International Television Festival that he and wife Kate were “incredibly shocked” to hear of the shooting.

He said: “It is a tragic waste of a young life and his parents have our sympathy.

“I hope they have time to grieve. It will take them a long time to come to terms with what has happened, and I hope the perpetrator is found.

“But I think the difference between them and us though is that we are still in the middle of this trauma whereas they will have some closure.”

Mr McCann was at the festival to speak about the media coverage of the disappearance of four-year-old Madeleine, who vanished from her bed in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal while her parents ate with friends in a nearby Tapas restaurant.