We believe Madeleine is still alive, insist parents

Aug 8 2007 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

Toddler Madeleine McCann, who was abducted in Portugal _158

MADELEINE McCANN'S parents faced the cameras again yesterday to affirm their belief that their daughter is still alive amid new speculation she was killed on the night she vanished.

Portuguese newspapers reported that detectives now suspect the young girl was not abducted at all, but died in her family's holiday flat in the Algarve village of Praia da Luz on May 3.

Blood specks found in the apartment are now being tested to see if they came from the missing fouryear- old, reports claimed.

Sitting side by side, Kate and Gerry McCann spoke in subdued tones as they gave an interview to rebut suggestions that police now think Madeleine is dead. The couple said they continued to "hope and pray" every day for the key breakthrough in the police investigation that would bring their daughter back to them.

Liverpool-born Mrs McCann said: "Even last week when we met with the police they said, 'we are looking for a living child'. And they've said that a lot." British sniffer dogs trained to find human remains discovered traces of blood, believed to be Madeleine's, on a wall in the McCann apartment, a Portuguese newspaper reported.

Detectives now believe it is most likely the young girl was accidentally killed inside the flat, the newspaper claimed. Another Portuguese paper reported: "The Policia Judiciara has known for a month that Madeleine McCann was killed on the night of May 3, in the apartment in the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, having definitely abandoned the theory she was abducted."

The McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have found recent press reports like this "very hurtful", a family spokeswoman said yesterday. Asked about the reports that blood was found in the flat, Mr McCann said he could not comment on specific details of the police inquiry.

He said: "We would never, ever jeopardise the investigation, and I think it's critical for people to realise that. "We do know some information that, one, we're not allowed to tell, and, two, we would never ever put anything into the public domain that might put the investigation of Madeleine at risk."

Mr McCann, a cardiologist, said he and his wife "strongly believed" Madeleine was alive when she was taken from the apartment.

"We're not naive, but on numerous occasions the Portuguese police have assured us that they were looking for Madeleine alive and not Madeleine having been murdered," he added.

"And I don't know of any information that's changed that." Portuguese newspapers have suggested the police investigation is moving away from Robert Murat, at present the only official suspect or "arguido" in the case.

Mr McCann said he and his wife had found being under the scrutiny of detectives difficult but insisted they were "more than happy" to cooperate.

He said: "We expect the same thoroughness and to be treated the same way as anyone else who has been in and around this.

"And we wouldn't expect it any other way. The same high levels will be applied to us as would be applied to anybody else, and that's only right and proper."

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, of the investigative Policia Judiciara (PJ), said it was the "official position" that the McCann family were not suspects.

But he would not confirm whether blood had been found in the apartment, citing Portugal's strict secrecy of justice laws. He said: "I don't have information if anything has been collected in the apartment or in any other place. "If the notice is true, naturally any evidence in a criminal investigation that has been collected goes to the laboratories to be analysed to check what it is."

Portuguese papers said the McCanns would be re-interviewed by police shortly, but a family source said the couple had not been told about this. The McCanns, who have remained in Portugal with their two-year-old twins, are gearing up for a bleak landmark this weekend.

On Saturday it will be 100 days since Madeleine went missing on May 3. So far, there has been no major breakthrough in the case, and a second search of Mr Murat's home at the weekend apparently uncovered no new evidence.

alanweston@dailypost.co.uk