Internet appeal launched asking for help

May 10 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

AN INTERNET appeal asking for help in tracing Madeleine McCann in English, Portuguese and Spanish has been launched.

Crimestoppers also created an international number for people with information to call.

This information will then be passed to Leicestershire Police, who are liaising with the Portuguese investigators.

The web appeal was issued by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) Centre – which yesterday sent two British criminal behavioural experts to help Portuguese detectives – and the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) at the request of the Portuguese authorities.

The Ceop website, www.ceop.gov.uk, has a good clean-up rate for tracking wanted offenders within the UK and www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com, receives extensive daily hits from browsers in more than 130 different countries.

It is hoped the move will help extend the reach of the appeal to as many people as possible, including holidaymakers who may have recently returned from Portugal, or be intending to visit.

The appeal came as two British “Cracker-style” criminal behaviour experts from the UK flew into the region to join investigators working on the case.