Madeleine McCann's parents vow to continue their search

Jul 22 2008 By Sam Marsden and Tim Walsh, Daily Post correspondents

KATE and Gerry McCann vowed to continue the search for their daughter Madeleine last night, after the Portuguese authorities shelved their investigation into the child’s disappearance.

The couple welcomed prosecutors’ decision to lift their status as "arguidos", or formal suspects, but said they had no cause for celebration.

Her voice breaking with emotion, Liverpool-born Mrs McCann said: "It is hard to describe how utterly despairing it was to be named arguidos and subsequently portrayed in the media as suspects in our own daughter’s abduction.

"It has been equally devastating to witness the detrimental effect this status has had on the search for Madeleine."

After an exhaustive investigation lasting more than 14 months, Portuguese prosecutors announced yesterday they had no evidence that the three suspects in the case committed any crimes.

As a result, they shelved the case and lifted the "arguido" status of the McCanns and Algarve resident Robert Murat.

The inquiry can be reopened if credible new evidence comes to light, Portuguese attorney-general Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro’s office said.

The McCanns’ lawyers are to be given access to the police files by the end of the week, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.

This will help their private investigators continue the search for Madeleine now the Portuguese authorities are shutting down their inquiry.

The McCanns, both 40, looked drawn and tired as they addressed a press conference in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire, last night.

Mrs McCann read a brief statement in which she made a fresh appeal for information about Madeleine’s whereabouts and thanked their supporters.

She said the couple were looking forward to "scrutinising" the police files to see what could still be done to look for their eldest daughter.

Answering questions from journalists, her husband refused to rule out either going back to Portugal or taking legal action against the Portuguese authorities.

Mr McCann said: "We don’t have any immediate plans to return to Portugal at the moment.

"Obviously we want to digest the statement and also to get access to the files to see what can still be done."

He said any legal action would be "secondary" to finding their daughter.

"Our priority has always been the search for Madeleine and that will be what will be very much prioritised in the coming weeks," he said.

Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year as her parents dined in a tapas restaurant with friends nearby.

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

Mr Murat, 34, an Anglo- Portuguese property consultant, spoke of his huge relief at finally having his name cleared.

He said he feared a small number of people would continue to doubt his innocence and urged police to continue looking for the little girl.

"It’s a good feeling but it doesn’t take away from the fact that there is still a child missing, which is very sad," he said.

"It would be better to be cleared and know exactly what happened, and have a feeling of finality, but that hasn’t happened.

"I was dragged into this because of Madeleine’s disappearance, so I would like to know what happened - I would like to know where she is and what happened to her."

Hours before the prosecutors’ announcement, the former head of the Portuguese police investigation reaffirmed his belief that the young girl died inside her parents’ holiday flat.

The McCanns have always strenuously denied any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance and say they will believe she is alive until given firm evidence to the contrary.

Ex-detective Goncalo Amaral, who was removed from the inquiry last October after criticising British police, will publish a book containing allegations against the couple on Thursday.

He said: "The evidence that we had gathered by the time that I left the case, pointed to the girl being dead – and having died inside the apartment.

"I don’t know what happened next. I can’t say. We’ll have to wait for the case files to be made public."

Mr Amaral said the decision to make the McCanns arguidos was taken by a number of officials and did not amount to a "persecution".

"In this case, it wasn’t purely and simply a decision taken by police officers – Portuguese and British police," he said.

"There were others involved - public prosecutors and the national directorate of the Portuguese police.

"They all knew there was a necessity to put everything on the table, in light of the advances we had made ... the combination of leads we had."

The former detective, who retired recently, also denied seeking to profit from Madeleine’s disappearance with his book.

He said: "People can say what they like. All I would say is that I’m trying to contribute to the discovery of the truth.

"I worked 27 years as a police officer – and my conscience can’t accept that this is the first case that slipped through my fingers."

Mr Mitchell said: "It’s a great shame that Mr Amaral apparently feels the need to make money out of Madeleine’s disappearance.

"We hope that any profits he makes from this book will go to the fund to find their daughter but we are not optimistic.

"Until the judicial secrecy is lifted, he is covered by those laws in the same way as everybody else is, and as a result Kate and Gerry’s libel lawyers will read that book with great interest."