The Madeleine McCann case

Back in 2005 a young girl on holiday with her parents and two other children went missing in Praia de Luz on the Algarve in Portugal named Madeleine McCann. Ever since there has been search's for her and appeals made by her parents. In new revelations a day before Madeline’s parents Kate and Gerry are due to go live on TV to make an appeal; the Metropolitan Police said it has identified 41 persons of interest including 15 Britons. British police have taken over from the Portuguese investigation, and are combing an extensive backlog of phone records and interviewing people who were present in the town at the time of the three-year-old’s disappearance in Praia de Luz in 2007. The police will outline the progress of their case during an hour-long programme on BBC’s Crimewatch, in which there will be a 25-minute reconstruction of the fateful night Madeleine went missing. Detective chief inspector Andy Redwood said: ‘The timeline we have now established has given new significance to sightings and movements of people in and around Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance. ‘Our work to date has significantly changed the timeline and the accepted version of events that has been in the public domain to date. ‘It has allowed us to work with Crimewatch to build the most detailed reconstruction as yet, and highlight very specific appeal points.’ Detectives say they have now interviewed 442 people as part of their new research and have issued 31 international letters of request (ILOR) to largely European countries in order to obtain more information on a particular person of interest. Pictures of men seen in and around the area are also expected to be released by police during the programme, while Kate and Gerry will speak to presenter Kirsty Young live in the studio. The show will air on Monday night at 9pm. This will be very interesting to see how it is put across. I have thought there are so many things that don’t sit right with me with this case for a long while now. Clearly the girl’s life has been sidetracked with funds appeals and libel cases and all sorts by the parents. Why has this case gained far more media coverage than others for example About 700,000 British children have been reported missing since Madeleine McCann disappeared. Why is her coverage so disproportionate? A team of British crime specialists who have scrutinised the Madeleine McCann case claim there are inconsistencies in her parents' version of events. The retired experts believe there is a question mark over Kate's response when she discovered the four-year-old was missing. Forensic scientist Professor David Barclay, part of the four-man team who reviewed the case for Channel Four's Dispatches show, said: "We examined all of the available evidence and the conclusion we came to was that there appeared to be some significant inconsistencies. "One thing we looked for was any sign of 'staging', the term we use for the actions of someone who has committed a crime and wants to 'stage it' to appear someone else has done it. "The first words apparently spoken by Kate McCann when she discovered Madeleine had vanished were significant. She is supposed to have said 'They've taken her, they've taken her' - which seems a strange choice of phrase. "I don't think that would have been my first reaction if my child had gone missing." Prof Barclay also questioned the McCanns' claims that an abductor got into their Praia da Luz holiday flat through the back shutters. He said: "We checked the scene of the crime and it struck us immediately how unlikely it would be for anyone to try and access the apartment through the back windows. The shutters there were firmly shut and couldn't be opened and the car park behind the flat was overlooked. "We're not saying it was impossible to have gained entry that way, but with all of our collected years of experience to us it seemed highly unlikely and a very implausible scenario. "It could be that claim is consistent with staging, but without full knowledge of all of the facts in the case it would be impossible to say for sure." Prof Barclay visited the crime scene along with ex-Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, the man who caught Soham killer Ian Huntley and psychological profiler David Canter. Prof Barclay, 62, added: "There has been a tendency to criticise the Portuguese police but on the whole they did a pretty good job. "However, they made two big mistakes. Firstly, they did not seal of the crime scene anywhere nearly quick enough. Secondly, in my opinion they were not aggressive enough with the McCanns in the first stage of the investigation. "It is actually for the parents' benefit in cases like this that the police tackle them robustly and demand a comprehensive account of their movements during the relevant In my opinion there is far more to this than we have been told why the parents haven’t been done for neglect at the very least. A lot of people on twitter this morning are questioning why they are so blameless despite the fact they left their young children alone for a number of hours. Isn’t this irresponsible for any parent to do let alone two highly qualified doctors? Tonight’s crime watch should be interesting to see what angle it comes at it from. One of the longest unsolved missing person hunts needs answers will we ever get any about this poor young girl who has so tragically been forgotten in all this.