Madeleine McCann: Mum Kate admits to persecuting herself

Apr 30 2008 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

Kate McCann, mother of missing Madeleine McCann

KATE McCANN last night admitted she had “persecuted” herself for a year for not paying more attention to her daughter on the morning before her disappearance.

The Liverpool-born mother of Madeleine McCann told how her daughter said she had been crying the previous night while her parents were away.

In an interview Gerry and Kate McCann said they might not have left their children behind while they went out with friends on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance if they had taken a buggy on holiday.

The couple revealed they almost decided against going to a tapas restaurant opposite their apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.

But they decided against a plan to take the children to another restaurant because of the distance, they explained. In a two-hour documentary for ITV1, to be aired tonight, the McCanns also spoke extensively of their emotions on the night of May 3/4 and their desperate dawn search through deserted streets for their daughter. Speaking on, Madeleine, One Year On: Campaign For Change, the couple also described their feelings on being made “arguidos” or official suspects in the case by Portuguese police as like being “in the middle of a horror movie”.

Mr McCann spoke of their current existence with no news of Madeleine’s whereabouts as like “purgatory”.

Breaking down in tears repeatedly, Mrs McCann spoke extensively about her experiences and hopes for the future.

Programme makers insisted the couple had no editorial control and had not been paid, although a £10,000 donation was made to the Find Madeleine Fund.

In the programme, Mrs McCann hinted openly for the first time at a deal reportedly offered to her by police if she admitted accidentally killing Madeleine and staging an abduction. She told the programme she was not going to be “railroaded”.

The couple admitted they were effectively forced to leave Portugal two days after being declared arguidos last September because they felt it was no longer “safe” for them there.

Mrs McCann also attacked Portuguese police and openly accused them for the first time of deliberately leaking details of the investigation to smear them.

Repeating her belief that Madeleine could still be alive, Mrs McCann also spoke movingly of seeing their daughter’s best friend and wondering whether she too would be taller now or writing her name.

But at one point she contemplated “the thought of living like this for another 40 years”.

The documentary, which is being shown at 8pm, also charts the McCanns’ campaign for an EU-wide missing child alert system.

alanweston