Now Maddie police will probe leads from psychics: A £2million police review will examine previously ignored calls
- It is five years since Madeleine went missing in Portugal at the age of three
- Kate McCann said the family were 'probably as positive' as they had been in a long time about finding their daughter
- Met Police released a new age-progression picture of Madeleine last week
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The £2million police review of the Madeleine McCann case will examine calls from psychics which were previously ignored.
Detectives are studying around 100 logs of calls that were discounted because the callers said they were psychics or had dreamt about the high-profile investigation.
Critics said the decision to include information from ‘supernatural’ sources was a waste of resources.
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Mystery: The evidence has emerged as Gerry and Kate McCann prepare to mark the fifth anniversary of their daughter's disappearance tomorrow
Crimestoppers set up an international number and sent the information they received to Leicestershire Police, the McCann family’s home force, and to Portuguese police.
But Leicestershire Police reportedly asked Crimestoppers not to forward information from psychics, or calls based on dreams about the case.
Missing: Madeleine aged three, left, and in Scotland Yard's computer-generated age-progression picture of how she might look now, at the age of nine
TALE THAT CAPTURED OUR HEARTS
Kate McCann's book about Madeleine's disappearance has sold nearly 400,000 copies and raised up to £1million for the fund to find the missing child.
Mrs McCann thanked supporters for buying her account of how her daughter went missing on holiday in Portugal, which was published in hardback a year ago.
She said: 'The book has done amazingly well. That's thanks to the general public, and I'm really really grateful.
'Not only obviously has it helped Madeleine's Fund, more importantly it's got people engaged again.
'There's more awareness now, there's more information still coming in now.
'For a long time we had wanted to correct things that were incorrect, just so people could be better informed, and therefore the search enhanced.'
Her husband Gerry added: 'It's put everything in the right context. So much in this case has just been taken as snippets and taken out of context.
'It's a properly considered record of what we've gone through, and Kate's done a brilliant job.'
Mr McCann said sales of the book, simply entitled Madeleine, are 'close to 400,000' and it may have generated as much as £1 million for the couple's fund.
A paperback edition with a new epilogue will be published on May 10.
Mrs McCann thanked supporters for buying her account of how her daughter went missing on holiday in Portugal, which was published in hardback a year ago.
She said: 'The book has done amazingly well. That's thanks to the general public, and I'm really really grateful.
'Not only obviously has it helped Madeleine's Fund, more importantly it's got people engaged again.
'There's more awareness now, there's more information still coming in now.
'For a long time we had wanted to correct things that were incorrect, just so people could be better informed, and therefore the search enhanced.'
Her husband Gerry added: 'It's put everything in the right context. So much in this case has just been taken as snippets and taken out of context.
'It's a properly considered record of what we've gone through, and Kate's done a brilliant job.'
Mr McCann said sales of the book, simply entitled Madeleine, are 'close to 400,000' and it may have generated as much as £1 million for the couple's fund.
A paperback edition with a new epilogue will be published on May 10.
But it is considered unlikely that any serious investigation will result unless the leads are corroborated by other evidence.
Peter Kirkham, a former detective chief inspector with the Metropolitan Police, said he was sceptical about the ability of psychics to help police investigations.
‘As soon as you have a high-profile case you get a range of people coming forward,’ he said. ‘I’m certainly not aware of any case that’s been solved by psychics.
‘You can’t waste resources no matter how emotive a case may be.’ US crime author Pat Brown said in a Twitter message: ‘This “review” just gets stupider and stupider.’
Madeleine vanished days before her fourth birthday from an apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz while her parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends in a nearby tapas restaurant.
The review team has sifted through more than 40,000 pieces of information, including files from the Portuguese police investigation and from the private detectives used by Madeleine’s parents.
It has identified 195 potential new leads, but Portuguese police have refused to reopen the case because they say there is no new evidence.
Mr and Mrs McCann said the fact the Metropolitan Police were reviewing the case had made their lives ‘much more bearable’.
In a statement to mark yesterday’s five-year anniversary of her disappearance, the couple said: ‘It’s hard to define succinctly how it feels to have reached five years without Madeleine – impossible, heart-breaking, frightening, exasperating, incomprehensible.
Scotland Yard said: ‘We can confirm we are in close dialogue with Crimestoppers to ensure that all material in their possession – from any source – is shared with us.’
TIMELINE OF THE INVESTIGATION
May 3, 2007
Kate and Gerry McCann leave their daughter Madeleine and her two-year-old twin brother and sister Sean and Amelie in bed in their apartment and head for dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant.
9pm
The couple check on them regularly and at around 9pm, Mr McCann finds nothing amiss when he returns to their room in the seaside resort at the Ocean Club in Praia Da Luz.
10pm
Mrs McCann goes to check on them again and finds the shutter slid up, the bedroom window open and Madeleine gone.
May 4
The police begin hunting for Maddie.
May 15
Robert Murat is officially named a suspect by police in Portugal.
June 17
Portuguese police say Madeleine's friends and family may have destroyed vital evidence in the first few hours after her abduction.
September 7
Detectives make Mr and Mrs McCann 'arguidos' in their daughter's disappearance.
April 7, 2008
Three Portuguese detectives fly to Britain to re-interview the seven friends on holiday with the McCanns when Madeleine vanished.
July 17
Mr Murat receives £600,000 in libel damages from four newspaper groups over 'seriously defamatory' articles connecting him with the child's disappearance.
July 21
The Portuguese authorities shelve their investigation and lift the 'arguido' status of the McCanns and Mr Murat.
Kate and Gerry McCann leave their daughter Madeleine and her two-year-old twin brother and sister Sean and Amelie in bed in their apartment and head for dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant.
9pm
The couple check on them regularly and at around 9pm, Mr McCann finds nothing amiss when he returns to their room in the seaside resort at the Ocean Club in Praia Da Luz.
10pm
Mrs McCann goes to check on them again and finds the shutter slid up, the bedroom window open and Madeleine gone.
May 4
The police begin hunting for Maddie.
May 15
Robert Murat is officially named a suspect by police in Portugal.
June 17
Portuguese police say Madeleine's friends and family may have destroyed vital evidence in the first few hours after her abduction.
September 7
Detectives make Mr and Mrs McCann 'arguidos' in their daughter's disappearance.
April 7, 2008
Three Portuguese detectives fly to Britain to re-interview the seven friends on holiday with the McCanns when Madeleine vanished.
July 17
Mr Murat receives £600,000 in libel damages from four newspaper groups over 'seriously defamatory' articles connecting him with the child's disappearance.
July 21
The Portuguese authorities shelve their investigation and lift the 'arguido' status of the McCanns and Mr Murat.
Five years on, the pivotal questions
Is she alive?
There have been no confirmed sightings of Madeleine McCann since she disappeared on May 3, 2007.The original Portuguese police team believed she died in a ‘tragic accident’.
Kate and Gerry McCann have always insisted there is no evidence to suggest she is dead, and British police now believe ‘there is a possibility she is alive’.
Where is she?
There have been reported sightings all round the world, ranging from the credible to bizarre psychic visions.
Of those investigated, none have been confirmed as Madeleine.
Who is responsible?
Three people were officially named as arguidos, or suspects, in the investigation - Kate and Gerry McCann and British expat Robert Murat.
All three were formally cleared when the investigation was shelved and have won libel cases against newspapers and broadcasters which falsely claimed they were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.
The McCanns believe Madeleine was taken by an abductor.
Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett allegedly said he saw the girl twice before she vanished and claimed she was stolen to order by a gypsy gang, but denied he was involved.
He died in 2010.
Are there new leads?
British police have identified almost 200 new lines of investigation from the Portuguese case files and the McCanns’ own private detectives.
They have refused to reveal details.
Why was this not done before?
Portuguese officers were convinced Madeleine was dead and have admitted publicly that they did not fully investigate other theories, including many of the sightings.
What else was missed?
Police did not set up effective searches and did not alert the Spanish border for 12 hours, allowing a potential abductor to escape with Madeleine undetected.
Even a basic check of the other guests at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz was not completed for 48 hours, by which time many potential witnesses had left.
Gratitude: The McCanns thanked Scotland Yard for their review and the public for the support they had received for their campaign
Police did not seal off the McCanns’ apartment until 10am the next day, by which time the McCanns, their friends, resort staff, concerned helpers and police officers had all potentially contaminated forensic evidence.
Samples were taken and tested for blood and DNA but were found to be so degraded and contaminated that the results were inconclusive.
British police want the case reopened but public opinion in Portugal has not been supportive of the McCanns and there may be little interest in raking over a five-year mystery which has already damaged the country’s tourist industry.
Even if the case is reopened, the reality remains that blunders in the first few days after Madeleine’s disappearance may mean the McCanns will never know what happened to their daughter.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138286/Now-Maddie-police-probe-leads-psychics-A-2million-police-review-examine-previously-ignored-calls.html#ixzz1ttnkCHBb
