Madeleine McCann: Grandparents want search to continue

Sep 10 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Merseyside grandparents of Madeleine McCann last night said the search for the missing four-year-old must go on.

Susan and Brian Healy were speaking as Liverpool-born Kate McCann and husband Gerry returned to the UK after being named as formal suspects in the investigation into their daughter’s disappearance.

At East Midlands Airport, an emotional Gerry McCann stood by his wife’s side as he explained they had returned to the UK for the sake of their twins and had not given up on their search for Madeleine.

He said they were “heart-broken” to have left Portugal without Madeleine, but reiterated that he and his wife had played no part in the disappearance of their “lovely daughter” on May 3.

Speaking at her Mossley Hill home, Mrs Healy, the mother of Kate McCann, said: “It’s nice to have her home – I just want to hug her and I will over the next couple of days.

“I think the time had come for them to come back home.

“We want Madeleine back – it’s the only important issue and we certainly won’t give up.”

Mrs Healy yesterday met members of the local campaign group set up to try to help highlight Madeleine’s plight. Along with husband Brian, she is to travel down to Rothley, in Leicestershire, to be with their daughter later this week.

Yesterday, they spoke to their daughter on the phone briefly after she returned to the family home she left more than four months ago.

The couple say they are angry and horrified at the dramatic turn of events in Portugal.

Mr Healy said: “We are going to wait until things settle down before going to see them in a few days’ time.

“I am relieved that Kate, Gerry and the twins are back in the UK. The last few days have just been horrendous and we’ve been very angry at the ways things have gone.”

A large crowd of people gathered at East Midlands Airport yesterday in the hope of catching a glimpse of the McCanns. Each cradling one of their twins in their arms, the exhausted couple addressed waiting media.

With emotion breaking his voice, Mr McCann said: “We want the twins, as much as is reasonably possible, to live an ordinary life in their home country, and want to consider the events of the last few days, which have been so deeply disturbing.

“Despite there being so much we wish to say we are unable to do so, except to say this: we played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter, Madeleine.”

He also said they had left Portugal with the full consent of the Portuguese police.

Detectives suggested to Mrs McCann that traces of Madeleine’s blood were found in the family’s hire car.

The family say this is impossible as they did not rent the vehicle until 25 days after Madeleine disappeared. Mrs McCann has said that Portuguese police put her under pressure to confess that she killed her daughter by accident.

She said that police “want me to lie – I’m being framed”.

However, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said she is satisfied with the way Portuguese police have conducted the investigation.

The head of the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, said the police investigation “is not over by any means”. “The investigation will only end when we think the case file is complete and we hand our findings to the public prosecutor, who then decides whether to drop the case or bring charges,” he said.

Mrs McCann’s uncle, Brian Kennedy, who had been waiting for the family to arrive, said the former Notre Dame High School pupil had a “mixture of feelings” about being back home.

The McCanns could be asked to return to Portugal at a later date for further questioning.

Police in Portugal are now awaiting the results of tests being carried out by the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham.