Madeleine search police 'untrained'

Up to 100 personnel spent a week scouring an area up to 15km (9.3 miles) around the Algarve resort where the little girl vanished on May 3 last year. But they failed to find any clues to Madeleine's fate, and in July Portuguese detectives called in leading British expert Mark Harrison.

Mr Harrison, national search adviser for all UK police agencies in cases of missing people, homicides and abductions, reviewed the initial operations and advised on the inquiry's future strategy.

He noted that neither search co-ordinator Major Luis Sequeira nor most of his teams had received any training for the task of looking for the missing girl.

Between 80 and 100 people drawn from the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) local police, civil protection, fire brigade, Red Cross and urban police were involved in the searches.

In his report, dated July 23 last year, Mr Harrison wrote: "Major Sequeira has not benefited from any formal training or accreditation in the management of searching for missing persons.

"The search officers - with the exception of the search and rescue team dispatched from Lisbon - had not benefited from any formal training in search procedures."

The report, contained in police files made public last week, focuses on the possibility that Madeleine was murdered and her body hidden in areas previously scrutinised by police.

Mr Harrison highlighted an open area to the east of Praia da Luz, the village where the little girl disappeared, that afforded "many opportunities to dispose of a body" and recommended fresh searches there.

Most significantly, he advised that specialist sniffer dogs should be used to examine key sites such as the McCanns' holiday apartment and the home of official suspect Robert Murat.