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Kate and Gerry McCann set to be cleared
Robert Mendick1 Jul 2008
Kate and Gerry McCann are to be cleared of involvement in Madeleine's disappearance, the Evening Standard can reveal today.
A police investigation is expected to conclude that Portuguese detectives have found no evidence to implicate the couple.
Their daughter was six days short of her fourth birthday when she vanished from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on 3 May last year.
According to sources, the McCanns are now hoping their status as suspects - or arguidos - will be lifted by next month at the latest and possibly within a fortnight. A third person named as a suspect, British-born Robert Murat, is also expected to be cleared.
The police case is now likely to be shelved after a 14-month inquiry which is said to have been "inconclusive". A source close to the family told the Standard today: "We are assuming arguido status will be lifted when the case is shelved. Kate and Gerry's lawyers are making inquiries all the time.
"If the case is shut without charges being brought, they cannot be arguidos any more. The mood music we are getting from Portuguese authorities is the arguido status will be lifted and they will effectively be cleared."
The couple's official spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry's lawyers have not had any of this information confirmed so we cannot comment in any great detail. However if this report is true, it is not before time.
"Kate and Gerry have suffered enough in this process. They are clearly innocent of any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance whatsoever and it is right that the police recognise this."
The Journal de Noticias, a respected Portuguese-newspaper, reports today that the police inquiry has failed to reach any conclusion over what happened to Madeleine. The newspaper says a judge overseeing the case is now expected to archive the investigation without ruling on Madeleine's fate.
According to Journal de Noticias, detectives are still unable to determine whether Madeleine was kidnapped or murdered on the night she disappeared from the bedroom of her parents' apartment as they ate at a nearby tapas restaurant with friends.
A source close to the case told the newspaper: "The police report... is not conclusive nor does it point in any particular direction - kidnap, murder or the concealment of Madeleine's body."
The police file on the case - likely to stretch to several boxes - will be made available to the suspects' legal teams if the investigation is shelved.
The McCanns, who are understood to be currently enjoying their first holiday since Madeleine vanished, will want to turn that information over to their own team of private investigators
The McCanns, both doctors, from Rothley in Leicestershire, still remain hopeful that Madeleine could still be alive.
Their Portuguese lawyer Carlos Pinto de Abreu told Journal de Noticias he would study the case files "from the first to the last page" if the case was archived "to be in a position to do what the McCanns always wanted, which is to assure themselves the investigation was properly conducted and continue to look for their daughter".
There remain concerns in the McCann camp that the couple could still be charged with abandonment of the child. Although the couple's lawyers are privately being reassured that will not happen, the McCanns fear Portuguese authorities could bring such an action as a "face-saving exercise".
