McCanns outraged as Portuguese police files reveal crucial information

Aug 6 2008 by Sam Marsden, Daily Post Correspondent

MADELEINE McCANN’S parents accused Portuguese detectives of withholding potentially crucial evidence from them yesterday after police files revealed a series of previously secret leads.

Newly-released official documents showed officers put together e-fits of possible suspects, collected CCTV images and recorded sight- ings never made public or passed to Liverpool-born Kate and Gerry McCann.

The dossier of evidence included a report that a little girl calling herself "Maddy" and claiming to have been taken from her mother – was seen in Amsterdam just after Madeleine vanished.

The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said it was "tragic" information should only be released now. "It is harrowing to hear a child saying that. If it was Made- leine, it was a disgrace it was not passed on," he said.

"We need to know what happened with this. This is exactly the sort of primary information that we need to know if it was followed up properly by the police. If that hasn’t been done, it is exactly the kind of information pri- vate investigators are going to follow up."

Other revelations from the previously secret now open files include:

* a map sketched by Jane Tanner, one of the friends on holiday with the McCanns, showing the route taken by a man whom she believes was abducting Madeleine;

* E-fits of ‘suspicious’ men seen hanging around the Al- garve village of Praia da Luz before she went missing;

* never-before published CCTV images showing small children resembling Made- leine at two Algarve petrol stations on May 4, the day after she disappeared.

The dossier also contains the final report compiled by Portuguese prosecutors last month, who note the police investigation uncovered "very little" conclusive evi- dence about Madeleine’s fate.

In the 58-page document – dated July 21, the day the inquiry was officially shelved – prose- cutors noted detectives had failed even to prove whether she was dead or alive.

But the Amsterdam sighting is perhaps the most promising lead to emerge.

Dutch shop assistant Anna Stam, 41, said she spoke to a little girl aged three or four who said her name was ‘Maddy’ and replied to a question about her mother: "They took me from my holiday." The girl entered her party shop early May last year with a man and a woman and two children, according to Ms Stam’s witness statement to police.

The man, who "did not look like a nice person", appeared to be speaking Portuguese but the woman spoke in English and told Ms Stam they had a circus in France.

Ms Stam was at the back of the shop when the young girl approached her and asked in English without an accent: "Do you know where my mummy is?" The Dutch woman said she thought the girl looked "very much like" Madeleine apart from the colour of her hair.

The report was sent toPortuguese auhorities on June 18 last year but it is not clear what action was taken.

The police files were released yesterday after the lifting of the period of judicial secrecy in the case.

Lawyers for the McCanns, both 40, of Rothley, Leicestershire, were formally given access to the police files last week.

They are studying them for fresh leads that the couple’s private detectives can follow up in their own search for their daughter.

Responding to yesterday’s revelations, McCanns spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said: "Kate was not aware of these e-fits, nor is she aware of what happened to the Dutch sighting – they were never told anything about it or whether any of these sightings were followed up properly.

"That is the most frustrating thing."

Mr and Mrs McCann were shown one of the petrol station photographs – and ruled it out – but have never been shown any other CCTV images in the case.

Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.

Despite a huge police investigation and massive coverage in the Portuguese and British media, she has not been found.

On July 21 Portuguese prosecutors announced they were shelving the case, although it can be reopened if credible new evidence comes to light.

At the same time the McCanns and Algarve resident Robert Murat were told they were no longer "arguidos", or formal suspects, in the investigation.