Madeleine McCann: Kate and Gerry take child alert fight to Europe

Apr 10 2008

Kate and Gerry McCann today pleaded for Europe-wide backing for a cross-border missing child alert system.

The parents of Madeleine, missing for nearly a year after disappearing from a holiday resort in Portugal, urged Euro-MPs to put their names to a declaration demanding swift agreement on a US-style “amber alert” system to track abducted youngsters across the continent if necessary.

Mrs McCann told a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels: “We employ you to support our declaration. Please do not wait for another child and family to suffer as we have”.

Mr McCann said: “This is a very simple child alert system with almost no cost implications - who would not support such a system?”

But the couple heard from MEPs today that efforts two years ago to introduce the same missing child plan failed to get sufficient support to succeed.

Today hopes were high that their high-profile loss of Madeleine will help galvanise full backing in the European Parliament and from EU governments.

The McCann's discussed the American system during a visit to Washington last month and are convinced EU countries can cooperate in setting up a similar rapid response network.

Mr McCann told MEPs about the high success rate of “Amber Alert”, under which nearly 400 abducted children have been successfully recovered in America since 2003 - 80% of them rescued in the crucial first 72 hours after being snatched.

By contrast Europe can only claim limited success in cross-border cooperation, with only a patchwork of partial national monitoring systems. European data-sharing on child abduction cases is limited, and so far only France and Belgium have introduced comprehensive national child alert systems.

They enable national authorities to flash up electronic missing child information on motorway signboards within 30 minutes of a confirmed case of abduction, as well as triggering bulletins and radio and television stations, interrupting existing programming in the first hours after a case is notified.

Mr McCann said it was now up to European authorities to cooperate in spreading the same system across all EU countries. He said statistics from America showed that a speedy response was critical in such cases and the system should only be reserved for the most serious abductions, where the authorities believe a child’s life is at risk and where detailed information on the child and, hopefully, the abductor can be spread as swiftly as possible.

Then he read out the declaration that the McCann’s hope European Parliament will approve.

It calls on all EU governments to introduce a missing child alert system, “the activation of which shall require the immediate supply to relevant news media, order authorities, customs and law enforcement agencies of details of the missing child and the suspected abductors”.

Mr McCann said child abduction is one of the most inhumane of crimes. It was on the increase in Europe, often involving taking victims across national borders.

Today’s declaration has been drafted by a group of Euro-MPs including European Parliament Vice President Edward McMillan-Scott, who said: “This is not about legislation but about political will. Some 130,000 children go missing in Europe every year and the police have to sit through the reports and sort out which are the abduction cases. They need as much cooperation as possible”.

The McCann’s were composed today as they explained their continuing pain at Madeleine’s disappearance last year. Mrs McCann told MEPs: “I cannot explain just how totally devastating this was. If anyone was wanting to inflict the greatest amount of pain on us then they have done that”.

She also spoke about the fear and pain that her daughter must have been through, adding: “She is four years old”.

Kate McCann told a press conference after the meeting that she still had hopes that her daughter was alive - particularly after optimistic assurances from staff at Washington's National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

“We certainly still have hope. The staff in Washington said there was a very good chance that Madeleine is still out there. There are many cases of children being recovered after a long period of time.”

Mrs McCann went on: “The fact is none of us know what has happened to Madeleine and we have absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Madeleine has come to harm.”

Asked if she believed that the chances of finding Madeleine would have been improved if a pan-European missing child alert system had been in operation at the time of her disappearance, Mrs McCann commented: “The fact is we don’t know. But I believe the chances of recovery would have been greater.”

Gerry McCann said the system was only intended for use in the most dangerous cases, where the authorities believed there was evidence of an abduction and where there was some description available of the child and the abductor to put up on the alert system.

He went on: “There is no doubt that a very young child missing late at night from an apartment, particularly in a foreign country would meet the criteria. There was a description available of a suspect on the night and a description of the clothing Madeleine was wearing - and in the United States children have been recovered on as little information as that.”

Mr McCann said he was “exasperated” by the lack of progress getting a Europe-wide alert system in place when discussions have been going on for several years.

“We have no doubt it saves lives,” he insisted.

Asked about the value of the couple’s high-profile since the disappearance, Mr McCann insisted: “The onus should not be on the parents as it was in our case. Not everyone will be able to use the opportunities that were presented to us. We were incredibly well supported, particularly in the early stages.

“This child alert system takes the parents out of the loop in many ways, and that is important.”

Asked if the couple were prepared to return to Portugal as requested to take part in a re-enactment of the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, Mr McCann said the issue was still under discussion but he said they would certainly not be going back on May 3 - the first anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Mrs McCann said the way the grim anniversary would be marked by the family was “a private matter”.

Today’s declaration calling for a child alert system will now be presented to the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg later this month when the document will be open for signatures from MEPs.

If it achieves support from at least 50% of MEPs, it is likely to be put to EU Governments for approval and introduction across the EU.