Bring Maddy Home

News Updates

12th August 2008
Police studying the images of a girl resembling Madeleine McCann walking with a dark-haired woman wearing a hijab in Brussels have ruled that it is not the missing British girl.Belgian authorities say they have ruled out the possible sighting because the father of the girl in the video identified her."He saw this picture and obviously for him it was very easy [to] recognize the girl accompanied by a woman in a veil," said Lieve Pellens, spokeswoman for the Belgian federal prosecutor's office."It's her nanny — she is a young Moroccan woman who is qualified to look after children and works in a care center."The images, revealed by The Sun newspaper, had been handed over to police and Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann.The McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "I am very pleased that this little girl has been identified and that she can be ruled out, from her family's perspective. Clearly for Kate and Gerry it is a disappointment. But we have had many of these before and the search for Madeleine will continue."
8th August 2008
A bank security guard in Brussels said she saw a blonde, blue eyed girl who bore a striking resemblance to the missing girl in a KBC branch in the west of the city on Monday morning.She was brought into the bank by a woman of North African origin, according to the security guard.The sighting follows more than 100 of Madeleine in Belgium over the last 15 months.Johan Berckmans, a spokesman for the West Brussels police department, said: "We are taking it seriously and we are investigating. A person working in the bank reported it."We have several teams looking for her. We have to be certain. "Belgian police are scouring CCTV images from the bank to see if the girl was captured on camera.The security guard reported it on Thursday after it had emerged publicly that Scotland Yard received intelligence suggesting Madeleine was snatched to order by a Belgian paedophile ring.
7th August 2008
Portuguese police have been accused of a catalogue of failings in their search for Madeleine McCann as it emerged they had not told her parents of the sighting of a little girl who called herself “Maddy” and asked where her mother was.Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry, spoke of their frustration over the police’s refusal to disclose potential crucial information that they say could have helped in the search for their daughter.In one instance, the police did not disclose that a woman in Amsterdam had seen a girl with a Portuguese looking man and woman with a French accent.She said: “The little girl stood before me and asked me in English: ‘Do you know where my Mummy is?’
4th August 2008
Portuguese detectives knew there was no conclusive evidence against Kate and Gerry McCann three days before they interviewed them and made them suspects, official files have disclosed.Officers had been told in an email from the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham that no conclusive traces of Madeleine's DNA had been found in the family's hire car.But detectives went on to tell Mr McCann, during an eight hour interrogation, that his daughter's DNA had been found in the boot of the vehicle, which was rented more than three weeks after she vanished
22th july 2008
The parents of Madeleine McCann have won access to previously secret police files on the disappearance of their daughter.Kate and Gerry McCann have welcomed court dealTheir private investigators will now work with 81 files gathered by Leicestershire Police in the days immediately after the toddler vanished.Today at the High Court, the McCann's lawyers withdrew a bid to force the disclosure of all the information held by the police force.Kate and Gerry McCann, both 40, did not attend the High Court hearing.
21th july 2008
The investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance is being shelved, the Portuguese Attorney General has announced
20th july 2008
McCanns Fury over devoted club trying to prosecute themGerry and Kate McCann have expressed their anger at the establishment of a fee-paying "club" dedicated to seeing them prosecuted over the disappearance of their daughter MadeleineA retired British solicitor, Tony Bennett, has set up a fund called The Madeleine Foundation, which aims to bring a private prosecution against the McCanns for alleged child neglect.But Madeleine's parents fear members of the public will inadvertently donate money to it because they may mistake it for the McCanns' own Madeleine Fund, which pays for private investigations into her whereabouts.Mr Bennett, 60, who has in the past worked with the family of Stuart Lubbock, the man found dead in Michael Barrymore's swimming pool in 2001, described his fund as a subscription-only members' club, charging a £10 annual fee.Last year he tried unsuccessfully to launch a private prosecution against the McCanns, only to be told by magistrates in Leicester that they had no jurisdiction over the case, because Madeleine disappeared in Portugal.
18th july 2008
KATE and Gerry McCann’s torment as suspects in their daughter’s disappearance will end on Monday – but with the fresh hell of Portuguese cops scrapping the search for little Madeleine. The couple will be officially told there is NOTHING to implicate them, The Sun can reveal.Their status as “arguidos” – or suspects – will formally be lifted. But 14 months after Maddie vanished on holiday their greater nightmare will go on.Blundering cops will reveal they have NO clue whatsoever to what happened to the youngster. And after a fruitless probe costing millions the case will effectively be CLOSED.
20th june
More MEPs have signed up to a campaign by the parents of Madeleine McCann for a Europe-wide child abduction alert scheme.Gerry and Kate McCann visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday needing another 182 signatures for their proposal to be considered by commissioners.They are now just 85 short of the number needed following a day-long visit that included a series of meetings with leading MEPs.And the extra names collected in the past 24 hours, giving them 308 in total, are set to buy them more time.The McCanns, from Rothley in Leicestershire, travelled to Strasbourg needing a total of 393 signatures by July 24 - the end of the current plenary session - for their written declaration to be published and sent to the European Commission president.But the couple have since been told that if they pass the 300 mark they will be given until the end of the September plenary to get the support they need.
17th june
Kate and Gerry McCann are travelling to Strasbourg to try and boost their attempts to establish a European wide missing child alert system. The couple visited Brussels in April to ask MEPs to back a written resolution calling for the initiative, but their trip was overshadowed by the apparent leaking of their police statements made shortly after Madeleine disappeared.Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley in Leicestershire, have one month left to get the majority of MEPs to give their support.They have 211 signatures already and need another 182 names to ensure that their written declaration is sent to the EU President and published.
26th May
The parents of Madeleine McCann have backed a scheme to use social networking websites Facebook and Bebo to help trace missing children.The charity Missing People has launched the initiative to coincide with International Missing Children's Day.
15th May
An Interpol investigation is under way after a witness claimed to have seen missing Madeleine McCann on a plane to Sao Paulo in Brazil. The sighting was reported to a foreign embassy in the capital a month and a half ago, and from there referred to Interpol, the world's international police agency.It is not the first time there have been sightings of Madeleine in Brazil, where Sao Paolo's 10 million inhabitants speak Portuguese
4th May
KATE and Gerry McCann today attended a church service to mark the one year anniversary of their daughter Madeleine's disappearance.The couple held hands as they walked alongside members of their community to the Anglican Parish Church of St Mary and St John, near their home in Rothley, Leicestershire.Led by the Reverend Rob Gladstone, prayers were said for the four-year-old and other missing children.During the 30 minute service a tearful Kate stood up, thanked the community for their support and told the congregation to "keep praying, pray like mad" for Maddie.The couple left the church holding hands and carrying bunches of flowers.
16th April
Portuguese police have insisted they will solve the mystery of Madeleine McCann's disappearance. Faro police chief Guilhermino Encarnacao, who is in charge of coordinating the investigation into the missing girl, has brushed off criticism of his force.He insisted the to insist the case was moving forward.Madeleine McCann investigators have been locked in a war of words with the four-year-old's parents and their press spokesman Clarence Mitchell following the leaking of the couple's police statements.Last week Mr Mitchell demanded an inquiry into how the McCanns' witness statements - given shortly after their daughter vanished - had been leaked and claimed it was another attempt to smear the couple.
11th April
Kate and Gerry McCann have hit back after the leak of a police interview revealed that their daughter Madeleine had asked why she had been left to cry in the night.Madeleine's question puzzled coupleThe interview transcript was obtained by Spanish television journalist Nacho Abad, who claimed he could not reveal his source.But Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, said the statement would have come from within the Portuguese police and launched a blistering attack on their attempts to "smear" the McCanns."It is a shameless, brazen and very cack-handed," he told Sky News."The Portuguese government must now get a grip on whatever element it is within the Portuguese police that is responsible for these leaks and smears. ""They have continued since last summer and when the officer in charge of the inquiry, the man brought in to sort it out, is visiting here, off they go again.Mr Mitchell added that the release of the confidential police documents was a "blatant and timed smear campaign", designed to coincide with the McCanns' efforts to promote a child alert system in Brussels.But journalist Nacho Abad denied that he had been party to any deliberate timing over the release of the statements, telling Sky News: "I made them public when I got them. "The transcripts show Mrs McCann told police about a conversation she had with Madeleine on the morning she vanished."While we were having breakfast, Madeleine said: 'Mum, why didn't you come when we were crying last night?'," she said.
9th April
The parents of missing Madeleine McCann are in the process of setting up a child abduction information hotline that will be available across Europe.Kate and Gerry McCann and their team are believed to have already reserved the hotline number - 116 000.It has yet to go live. The couple are in Brussels to make a presentation to MEPs and provide them with details about how their system will work.