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Kate McCann begged for news of hunt but Portugal police ignored her
Jack Lefley in Portimao6 Aug 2008
Kate McCann wrote a desperate letter about the search for her daughter to the head of the Portuguese police investigation, the Standard can reveal.
She wrote to Paulo Rebelo after he replaced disgraced Goncalo Amaral as chief investigator to beg him to give her and Gerry news about the hunt for Madeleine.
The letter was buried in the 20,000 pages of evidence made public this week. It was written "to the heart" of Mr Rebelo and appealed to him as a father - but he never replied.
Mrs McCann wrote: "Madeleine is the most beautiful thing in the our lives." She spoke of the " difficult, sad and unbearable times" she and her husband were going through and said she was suffering a pain "impossible to describe".
She also said she felt "impotent" in the face of the accusations and "libels" in the press and pleaded to be kept informed of the investigation's progress.
Mrs McCann described her plea as "rational and humane" and said the lack of information the PJ - Portugal's CID - was giving was "torture" for any parent whose child had disappeared.
She also referred to a climate of "war" between the police and the family and between the PJ and the British police.
It is thought that the McCanns repeatedly attempted to contact Mr Rebelo and even asked for faceto-face meetings but he never responded. The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate only ever received a formal response saying it would be passed on to the relevant person."
Mr Rebelo took over as chief investigator last October when Mr Amaral was thrown off the case after criticising British police, claiming they were working too closely with the McCanns.
The evidence emerging since the official secrecy was lifted also shows Portuguese police withheld potentially crucial information after Madeleine's disappearance in May last year, including sightings and e-fits of possible suspects.
The files included a report that a little girl calling herself "Maddy" and claiming to have been taken from her mother was seen in Amsterdam days after Madeleine vanished. Party shop assistant Anna Stam, 41, said she spoke to a girl aged three or four who said her name was "Maddy".
The girl was with a man, a woman and two other children, according to Ms Stam.
She approached the assistant and asked in English without an accent: "Do you know where my mummy is?" Told that her mother was at the back of the store, the child replied, "She is not my mummy," and added: "She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy."
The Dutchwoman said the girl looked " very much like " Madeleine.
The report was sent to the Portuguese authorities on 18 June last year but it is not clear what action was taken.
Lawyers for the McCanns, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were given access to the police files last week. They are studying them for fresh leads that their private detectives can follow up in their own search.
Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.
Representatives of the McCanns were today in talks with the BBC's Crimewatch programme in a bid to reinvigorate the search by filming a definitive reconstruction of events. It would see BBC film crews travel to the Algarve to put together an international appeal drawing upon all the new details. A family friend said: "The call will be made today to see if we can make it happen."
Other revelations from the previously secret files include a map sketched by Jane Tanner, one of the friends on holiday with the McCanns, showing the route taken by a man she believes was abducting Madeleine and e-fits of "suspicious" men seen around Praia da Luz.
Reader views (6)
were very sad
- Lauren&&Jess, engy, 17/09/2008 10:46
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Kate's letter sounds very touching, but in this what counts is facts. She hasn't answered the Police questions, the Tapas nine did not return to Portugal for the Police requested reconstruction. Then there are things like the sniffer dogs who have never made a mistake before.
- Ana, England, 17/09/2008 09:46
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Joyce, she's a parent who was being hounded by police, the press and people like you after having just lost her daughter. I wouldn't answer questions in that situation in case answers were taken out of context and used against me or 'leaked' to the press.
God help anyone who finds themselves in this situation.
- Rc, London, 17/09/2008 09:46
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What a cheek from Kate McCann in writing this letter to the head of the Portuguese Police investigation when she refused to answer the Portuguese Police questions, 48 of them, isn't it?
- Joyce, England, 17/09/2008 09:46
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Joyce, I entirely agree with you. No need for emotional letters, hard facts is what we need - answers to the Police questions, the reconstruction, the sniffer dogs findings, the DNA indicators.
- Ann Clarke, England, 17/09/2008 09:46
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Appalling treatment from a third-world police force.
The lack of humanity of some in these pages beggers belief.
- Simon Hughes, London, UK, 17/09/2008 09:46
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