Gerry McCann "100% confident" wife Kate did not kill Madeleine

Sep 11 2007

The father of missing Madeleine McCann said today he was “100% confident” his wife, Liverpool-born Kate, had nothing to do with her disappearance.

Gerry McCann used his blog on the official Find Madeleine website to speak of the “unending nightmare” of the past week.

He and his wife Kate were declared official suspects by detectives in the case before making the agonising journey back to Britain with their two-year-old twins - but without Madeleine.

Family friends have said the couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, fear they could be charged over their daughter’s death.

The pressure on them intensified today following an unconfirmed report that a sample taken from the boot of the McCanns’ hire car is a “99% match” for the missing girl’s DNA.

Portuguese police say they will hand their file on the case to the public prosecutor later today for him to consider whether to bring charges against the couple.

Mr McCann wrote in an emotionally-charged blog entry: “We always hoped that we would not have to return without Madeleine and could never have imagined the possibility that we would do so as suspects in our own daughter’s disappearance.

“The pain and turmoil we have experienced in this last week is totally beyond description.

“Kate and I are totally 100% confident in each other’s innocence, and our family and friends have rallied round unflinchingly to support us.”

Since setting up the findmadeleine.com website, Mr McCann has regularly used his blog to hit back at criticism of the couple.

He wrote that he could not comment on any details of the investigation, police interviews or the evidence that detectives put to them.

“Despite the anguish and extreme distress this has caused all of our family, long term no-one will be able to doubt how intensely Kate and I have been scrutinised,” he wrote.

“We have absolute confidence that, when all of the facts are presented together, we will be able to demonstrate that we played absolutely no part in Madeleine’s abduction.

“Our primary concern has always been the search for Madeleine and this aspect, that our daughter is still missing, must remain a priority for the investigation.”

On a positive note, the couple’s twins Sean and Amelie have “settled straight back in” to life in Britain, he said.

Mr McCann continued: “We have had numerous visitors with friends and those in official capacities.

“We have appointed solicitors to advise us and assist our Portuguese lawyer in preparing our defence against any possible charges.

“The sooner this is done, the sooner we can concentrate fully on trying to find Madeleine, which is the most important thing through this unending nightmare.”

Mr and Mrs McCann faced fresh distress yesterday after social services held talks with police about Sean and Amelie.

Tests returned from the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham on a specimen taken from the McCanns’ Renault Scenic showed it was a full match of Madeleine’s DNA, unnamed sources told Sky News yesterday.

The results prove that the girl’s body was in the boot of the car, which was not hired until 25 days after she went missing, the sources said.

But Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, spokesman for the police investigation, denied the report to Portuguese journalists last night.

Alipio Ribeiro, national director of the investigative Policia Judiciaria (PJ), also suggested that the forensic tests had not been conclusive.

He told Portuguese state broadcaster RTP: “We can’t say with certainty whether it was the blood of person ’A’ or person ’B’.

“They help guide us in our investigation but not with the mathematical precision some people are saying.”

Police had planned to submit their file to Algarve-based public prosecutor Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses yesterday, but it will now be delivered this morning, Mr Sousa said.

The prosecutor will decide whether the police evidence is strong enough to bring charges against the couple.

He has three main options - he could bring charges, rule that no action should be taken, or send the papers back to police requesting more evidence.

Senior officers decided to submit the file despite not having all the FSS results.

But a source close to the investigation said all results of substance had already been handed to Leicestershire Police and the Portuguese authorities.

In the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing 131 days ago, police were said to be preparing fresh searches.

These will take place to the south of the Ocean Club resort, where the McCanns were staying, according to the Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha.

Mr Sousa refused to confirm or deny the report.

Portuguese detectives appear to be working on a theory that Mrs McCann killed her daughter by accident and covered up the death by claiming she was abducted.

FSS test results received in recent weeks have reportedly boosted this hypothesis.

Portuguese newspapers have suggested she could face charges of homicide by negligence and concealing Madeleine’s corpse.

Mr McCann’s alleged role is not clear, but sources said police believe he might have been an accessory to the killing.

Mr and Mrs McCann are receiving legal advice from two lawyers in the UK.

The couple are being advised by Michael Caplan QC and Angus McBride, from London firm Kingsley Napley.

Mr Caplan acted for former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet when Spain tried to extradite him from the UK in 1999.

A family friend said the McCanns were “glad” to hear Portuguese police’s denial of the reports that a full match of Madeleine’s DNA had been found in their hire car.

“That’s about the most encouraging thing we’ve heard from the Portuguese police for some time,” the friend said.

The moves to deliver the file to the prosecutor came as “no surprise”, the friend said, adding: “We knew they would go to the prosecutor at some point.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown does not regret contacts - including a phone conversation - he has had with the McCanns, his spokesman said today.

“He doesn’t regret that he has had contacts with them but this is an ongoing police investigation and it would be unwise for me to say anything more,” said the spokesman.