Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Kate and Gerry McCann today face further agony after Portuguese police announced a new set of searches for their missing daughter.
The move comes after reports emerged that a full DNA match to little Madeleine had been found in the hire car used by the McCanns, in addition to the partial match in traces of blood found in the boot of the vehicle.
Portuguese police are understood to be preparing to hand their file on the case to the public prosecutor later today for him to consider whether to bring charges against her parents.
The prosecutor is expected to consider the 40 questions which the McCanns allegedly refused to answer, as well as emails and tapped phone calls made between them and their friends.
Reacting to the news, Gerry McCann described the past week as a " unending nightmare".
"Kate and I are totally 100% confident in each other's innocence, and our family and friends have rallied round unflinchingly to support us," he told his website.
"We have absolute confidence that, when all of the facts are presented together, we will be able to demonstrate that we played absolutely no part in Madeleine's abduction. Our primary concern has always been the search for Madeleine and this aspect, that our daughter is still missing, must remain a priority for the investigation."
In light of the claims, Kate and Gerry (both 39) are also to be questioned by social workers about the welfare of their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, at a meeting later this week.
Tests returned from the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham on a specimen taken from the McCanns' Renault Scenic showed it was a full match of Madeleine's DNA, sources told Sky News.
The results prove that the girl's body was in the boot of the car, which was not hired until 25 days after she went missing. But Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, spokesman for the police investigation, denied the report to Portuguese journalists last night.
Alipio Ribeiro, head of the investigative Policia Judiciaria (PJ), also suggested that the forensic tests had not been conclusive.
He told Portuguese state broadcaster RTP: "We can't say with certainty whether it was the blood of person 'A' or person 'B'.
"They help guide us in our investigation but not with the mathematical precision some people are saying," he said.
Police will submit their detailed file to Algarve-based public prosecutor Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses today.
He will carry out a review of the findings before deciding whether the police evidence is strong enough to warrant charges against the couple.
This could mean months of agonising waiting for Mr and Mrs McCann, who returned home to Rothley, Leicestershire, on Sunday having been named as suspects in their daughter's disappearance.
The prosecutor has three main options - he could bring charges, rule that no action should be taken, or send the papers back to police requesting more evidence.
Senior officers decided to submit the file despite not having all the FSS results. But a source close to the investigation said all results of substance had already been handed to Leicestershire Police and the Portuguese authorities.
Although the Policia Judiciara called off the search for the four-year-old months ago, it revealed fresh plans for another hunt in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing 131 days ago.
These will take place at "specific locations" to the south of the Ocean Club resort, from which Madeleine disappeared, according to the Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha. Mr Sousa refused to confirm or deny the report.
Source : www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
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