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Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) disappeared on the evening of 3 May 2007 from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, a resort in the Algarve region of Portugal, sparking what one newspaper called "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history". Her whereabouts remain unknown.

Madeleine was on holiday from the UK with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, her two-year-old twin siblings, and a group of family friends and their children. She and the twins had been left asleep at 20:30 in the ground-floor apartment, while the McCanns and friends dined in a restaurant 55 metres (180 ft) away. The parents checked on the children throughout the evening, until Madeleine's mother discovered she was missing at 22:00. Over the following weeks, particularly after misinterpreting a British DNA analysis, the Portuguese police came to believe that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment, and that her parents had covered it up. The McCanns were given arguido (suspect) status in September 2007, which was lifted when Portugal's attorney general archived the case in July 2008 because of a lack of evidence.

The parents continued the investigation using private detectives until Scotland Yard opened its own inquiry, Operation Grange, in 2011. The senior investigating officer announced that he was treating the disappearance as "a criminal act by a stranger", most likely a planned abduction or burglary gone wrong. In 2013 Scotland Yard released e-fit images of men they wanted to trace, including one of a man seen carrying a child toward the beach that night. Shortly after this the Portuguese police reopened their inquiry. Operation Grange was scaled back in 2015.

The disappearance attracted sustained international interest and saturation coverage in the UK reminiscent of the death of Diana in 1997. The McCanns were subjected to intense scrutiny and false allegations of involvement in their daughter's death, particularly in the tabloid press and on Twitter. In 2008 they received damages and front-page apologies from Express Newspapers, and in 2011 they testified before the Leveson Inquiry into British press misconduct, lending support to those arguing for tighter press regulation.

People

Madeleine McCann

Portugal in red, the North Atlantic to the west, Spain to the east and north, Morocco to the south

Madeleine was born in Leicester and lived with her family in Rothley, also in Leicestershire. At the request of her parents, she was made a ward of court in England shortly after the disappearance, which gave the court statutory powers to act on her behalf. Police described Madeleine as blonde haired, with blue and green eyes, a small brown spot on her left calf, and a distinctive dark strip on the iris of her right eye. In 2009 the McCanns released age-progressed images of how she may have looked at age six, and in 2012 Scotland Yard commissioned one of her at age nine.

Kate and Gerry McCann

Madeleine's parents are both physicians and practising Roman Catholics. Kate Marie McCann, née Healy (born 1968, Huyton, near Liverpool) attended All Saints School in Anfield, then Notre Dame High School in Everton Valley, graduating in 1992 with a degree in medicine from the University of Dundee. She moved briefly into obstetrics and gynaecology, then anaesthesiology, and finally general practice.

Gerald Patrick McCann (born 1968 in Glasgow) attended Holyrood R.C. Secondary School before graduating from the University of Glasgow with a BSc in physiology/sports science in 1989. In 1992 he qualified in medicine and in 2002 obtained his MD, a research degree, also from Glasgow. Since 2005 he has been a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. The McCanns met in 1993 in Glasgow and were married in 1998. Madeleine was born in 2003 and the twins, a boy and girl, in February 2005.

Tapas Seven

The McCanns were on holiday with seven friends and eight children in all, including the McCanns' three. The nine adults dined together most evenings at 20:30 in the resort's tapas restaurant, as a result of which the media dubbed the friends the Tapas Seven.

The group included Fiona and David Payne, both physicians, their two children, and Fiona's mother, Dianne Webster. The McCanns had known the Paynes for years; Kate had met Fiona in 2000 when they both worked in Leicester General Hospital's intensive care unit. Accompanying them were two couples the Paynes had originally introduced to the McCanns: Jane Tanner, a marketing manager, and her partner, Russell O'Brien, a physician, who were on holiday with their two children; and Matthew Oldfield, another physician, who was with his wife, Rachael Oldfield, a lawyer and recruitment consultant, and their daughter. Gerry, Russell and Matthew had worked together over the years.

The "Tanner sighting"—Jane Tanner's report that she saw a man carry a child away from the resort 45 minutes before Madeleine was reported missing—became one of the most-discussed aspects of the case.

5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, Praia da Luz

Waterside Village

Ocean Club resort
1: Tapas restaurant;
2: 5A's front door;
3: Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins leading from 5A to Ocean Club door;
4: Stairs leading to 5A's patio doors.

Apartment 5A

Side of 5A
showing steps from Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins to 5A's patio doors
Front (non-resort) side
on Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva Madeleine's bed (left);
window faces Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva

The McCanns arrived on Saturday, 28 April 2007, for their seven-night spring break in Praia da Luz, a village with a population of 1,000, known as "little Britain" because of the concentration of British homeowners and holidaymakers. They had booked through the British holiday company Mark Warner Ltd, and were placed in 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, an apartment owned by a retired teacher from Liverpool, one of several privately owned properties rented by the company.

5A was a two-bedroom, ground-floor apartment in the fifth block of a group of apartments known as Waterside Village, which lay on the perimeter of part of Mark Warner's Ocean Club resort. (The resort's facilities were scattered throughout the town.) Matthew and Rachel Oldfield were next door in 5B, Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien in 5D, and the Paynes and Dianne Webster on the first floor.

The apartment block was not a gated complex. Located on the corner of Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva and Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins, 5A was accessible to the public from two sides. Sliding glass patio doors in the living room at the back overlooked the Ocean Club's pool, tennis courts, tapas restaurant and bar. The patio doors could be accessed via a public street, Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins, where a small gate and set of steps led to 5A's balcony and living room. 5A's front door was on the opposite side of the block from the Ocean Club, on Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva.

The McCanns' children slept in a bedroom next to the front door, which the McCanns kept locked. The bedroom had one waist-high window with curtains and a metal exterior shutter, the latter controlled by a cord inside the window; the McCanns kept the curtains and shutter closed throughout the holiday. The window overlooked a narrow walkway and residents' car park, which was separated by a low wall from the street. Madeleine slept in a single bed next to the bedroom door, on the opposite side of the room from the window, while the twins were in travel cots in the middle of the room. There was another, empty, single bed underneath the window.

Thursday, 3 May 2007

20:30: Tapas restaurant

Praia da Luz, Algarve

Pyjamas

Pink-and-white Eeyore pyjamas
similar to those Madeleine was wearing

Thursday, 3 May, was the penultimate day of the family's holiday. Over breakfast Madeleine asked: "Why didn't you come when [her brother] and I cried last night?" After the disappearance, her parents wondered whether this meant someone had entered the children's bedroom. Her mother also noticed a large brown stain on Madeleine's pyjama top.

The children spent the morning in the resort's Kids' Club, then the family lunched at their apartment before heading to the pool. Kate took the last known photograph of Madeleine that afternoon, sitting by the pool next to her father and two-year-old sister. The children returned to Kids' Club, and at 18:00 their mother took them back to 5A, while their father went for a tennis lesson. The McCanns put the children to bed around 19:00. Madeleine was left asleep in short-sleeved, pink-and-white Marks and Spencer's Eeyore pyjamas, next to her comfort blanket and a soft toy, Cuddle Cat.

At 20:30 the parents left 5A to dine with their friends in the Ocean Club's open-air tapas restaurant, located on the other side of the pool. 5A lay about 55 metres (160 ft) from the restaurant as the crow flies, but getting to the restaurant involved a walk along a public street to reach the doors of the Ocean Club resort, then a walk to the other side of the pool, a distance of about 82 metres (295 ft). 5A's patio doors could only be locked from the inside, so to allow them to enter that way, the McCanns had left the patio curtains drawn and the doors closed but unlocked. They had also closed the child-safety gate at the top of the patio stairs and the gate at the bottom leading to the street.

The resort's staff had left a note in a message book at the swimming-pool reception area, asking that the same table, which overlooked the apartments, be block-booked for 20:30 for the McCanns and friends every evening for the last four evenings of the holiday. The message said the group's children were asleep in the apartments. Madeleine's mother believes the abductor may have seen the note.

The McCanns and their friends left the restaurant roughly every half-hour to check on their children. Madeleine's father carried out the first check on 5A at around 21:05. The children were asleep and all was well, except that he recalled having left the children's bedroom door slightly ajar, and now it stood almost wide open. He pulled it nearly closed again before returning to the restaurant.

21:15: Tanner sighting

The sighting by Jane Tanner, one of the Tapas Seven, of a man carrying a child that night became an important part of the early investigation. She had left the restaurant just after 21:00 to check on her own daughter, passing Madeleine's father on Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins on his way back to the restaurant from his 21:05 check. He had stopped to chat to a British holidaymaker, but neither man recalled having seen Tanner. This puzzled the Portuguese police, given how narrow the street was, and led them to accuse Tanner of having invented the sighting.

At c. 21:15 Tanner noticed a man carrying a young child walk across the junction of Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins and Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva just ahead of her, heading east, away from the front of apartment 5A, very close to Madeleine's bedroom. In the early days of the investigation, the direction in which he was walking was thought to be important, because he was moving toward Robert Murat's house, the 33-year-old British-Portuguese man who lived near apartment 5A, and who became the case's first arguido.

The child in the man's arms was wearing light-coloured pink pyjamas with a floral pattern and cuffs on the legs, similar to Madeleine's. Tanner described the man as white, dark-haired, 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) tall, of southern European or Mediterranean appearance, 35–40 years old, wearing gold or beige trousers and a dark jacket, and said he did not look like a tourist. Tanner told the Portuguese police, but they did not pass the description to the media until 25 May. Madeleine's Fund hired a forensic artist to create an image of the man (left), which was released in October 2007.

The sighting became important because it offered investigators a time frame for the abduction, but Scotland Yard came to view it as a red herring. In October 2013 they said that a British holidaymaker had been identified as the man Tanner had seen; he had been returning to his apartment after collecting his daughter from the Ocean Club night creche. Scotland Yard took photographs of the man wearing the same or similar clothes to the ones he was wearing on the night, and standing in a pose similar to the one Tanner reported. The pyjamas his daughter had been wearing also matched Tanner's report. Operation Grange's lead detective, DCI Andy Redwood, said they were "almost certain" the Tanner sighting was not related to the abduction.

22:00: Smith sighting

Further information: § Oakley International

The rejection of the Tanner sighting as crucial to the timeline allowed investigators to focus on another sighting of a man carrying a child that night, this one reported by Martin and Mary Smith, on holiday from Ireland. Scotland Yard concluded in 2013 that the Smith sighting offered the approximate time of Madeleine's kidnap.

The Smiths saw the man at around 22:00 on Rua da Escola Primária, 500 yards (457 m) from the McCanns' apartment, walking away from the Ocean Club and toward Rua 25 de Abril and the beach. He was carrying a girl aged 3–4 years. She had blonde hair and pale skin, was wearing light-coloured pyjamas, and had bare feet. The man was mid-30s, 5 ft 7 in–5 ft 9 in (1.75–1.80 m), slim-to-normal build, with short brown hair, wearing cream or beige trousers. He did not look like a tourist, according to the Smiths, and had seemed uncomfortable carrying the child. E-fits based on the Smiths testimony were first created in 2008 by Oakley International, private investigators hired by the McCanns, and were publicized in 2013 by Scotland Yard on Crimewatch.

22:00: Reported missing

Madeleine's mother had intended to check on the children at 21:30, but Matthew Oldfield, one of the Tapas Seven, offered to do it when he checked on his own children in the apartment next door to 5A. He noticed that the McCanns' children's bedroom door was wide open, but after hearing no noise he left 5A without looking far enough into the bedroom to see whether Madeleine was there. He could not recall whether the bedroom window and its exterior shutter were open at this point. Early on in the investigation the Polícia Judiciária accused Oldfield of involvement because he had volunteered to do the check, suggesting to him that he had handed Madeleine to someone through the bedroom window.

Kate made her own check of 5A at around 22:00. Scotland Yard said in 2013 that Madeleine was probably taken moments before this. Kate recalled entering the apartment through the unlocked patio doors at the back, and noticing that the children's bedroom door was wide open. When she tried to close the door, it slammed shut as though there was a draught, which is when she saw that the bedroom window and its shutter were open. Madeleine's Cuddle Cat and pink blanket were still on the bed, but Madeleine was gone. After briefly searching the apartment Kate ran back towards the restaurant, screaming "Madeleine's gone! Someone's taken her!"

At around 22:10 Madeleine's father sent Matthew Oldfield to ask the resort's reception desk to call the police, and at 22:30 the resort activated its missing-child search protocol. Sixty staff and guests searched until 04:30, at first assuming that Madeleine had wandered off. One of them told Channel 4's Dispatches that, from one end of Luz to the other, you could hear people calling her name.

Early response

Portuguese police

Two officers from the gendarmerie, the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR), arrived at the resort at 23:10 from Lagos, five miles (8 km) away. At midnight, after briefly searching, they alerted the criminal police, the Polícia Judiciária, in nearby Portimão. Kate McCann said they arrived just after 1 am. According to the Polícia Judiciária, they arrived within 10 minutes of being alerted. Two patrol dogs were brought to the resort at 2 am and four search-and-rescue dogs at 8 am. Police officers had their leave cancelled and started searching waterways, wells, caves, sewers and ruins. Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, head of the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão, became the inquiry's coordinator.

It was widely acknowledged that mistakes were made, perhaps the most serious of which was that the crime scene was not secured. Police took samples from Madeleine's bedroom, which were sent to three forensic labs in Portugal. It was reported on 1 June 2007 that DNA from one "stranger" had been found. But around 20 people had entered apartment 5A before it was closed off, according to Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa of the Polícia Judiciária, the official inquiry spokesperson. According to Madeleine's mother, an officer placed tape across the doorway of the children's bedroom, but left at 3 am without securing the apartment. The Polícia Judiciária case file, released in 2008, showed that 5A lay empty for a month after the disappearance, then was let out to tourists before being sealed off in August 2007 for more forensic tests.

A similar situation arose outside the apartment. A crowd gathered by the front door of 5A, including next to the children's bedroom window—through which an abductor may have entered or left—trampling on evidence. An officer dusted the bedroom window's exterior shutter for fingerprints without wearing gloves or other protective clothing.

Neither border nor marine police were given descriptions of Madeleine for many hours, and officers did not appear to make extensive door-to-door inquiries. According to Kate, roadblocks were first put in place at 10 am the next morning. Police did not request motorway surveillance pictures of vehicles leaving Praia da Luz that night, or of the road between Lagos and Vila Real de Santo António on the Spanish border. Euroscut, the company that monitors the road, said they were not approached for information. It took Interpol five days to issue a global missing-person alert.

British police

In the UK it was agreed that Leicestershire police, Madeleine's home force, would coordinate the British response, although it remained a Portuguese inquiry. A strategic coordinating group, or "gold" group, was put together, representing Leicestershire police, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), and the National Police Improvement Agency. The Polícia Judiciária gave a team from the UK a room in which to work, but apparently resented their presence and felt that the British were acting as a "colonial power", according to Jim Gamble, head of CEOP at the time, in an interview for Anthony Summers' and Robbyn Swan's book Looking for Madeleine (2014). The British police were used to feeding their data into HOLMES 2 (the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System). In Portugal, information was collected in boxes. In addition the Polícia Judiciária had less autonomy than police in the UK, often having to wait for magistrates' decisions, which slowed things down.

Media and PR

Further information: § Media coverage

Tribute in Madeleine's home town of Rothley, 17 May 2007

A Polícia Judiciária officer acknowledged in 2010 that they had been suspicious of the McCanns from the start, blaming them for what the officer called a "media circus". Criminal investigations in Portugal are governed by a secrecy clause in its penal code, which means there are no official press briefings. In his book about the disappearance, Vanished (2008), journalist Danny Collins wrote that this leads to a culture of "leak, not speak", and a proliferation of gossip that is hard to counter without breaking the law.

The British PR firm Bell Pottinger, representing Mark Warner Ltd, dealt with the media for the first ten days, then the British government sent in press officers. The first was Sheree Dodd, a former Daily Mirror journalist, then Clarence Mitchell, director of media monitoring for the Central Office of Information. When the government withdrew Mitchell, Justine McGuinness, a non-government PR representative, took over until September 2007, then another PR company, Hanover, was briefly involved. In September 2007 Brian Kennedy of Everest Windows stepped forward as a benefactor and offered to cover Clarence Mitchell's salary. Mitchell resigned from his position and started working for the McCanns; he was later paid by Madeleine's Fund, the limited company the McCanns set up two weeks after the disappearance.

Madeleine appeared on the cover of People magazine on 28 May 2007, and on 30 May the McCanns and a group of journalists flew to Rome, in a Learjet belonging to British businessman Sir Philip Green, to meet Pope Benedict XVI. Placing Madeleine on the front page of a British newspaper would sell up to 30,000 extra copies. She was on the front page of several British tabloids every day for almost six months, and became one of Sky News's menu options. Between May 2007 and July 2008, the Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã published 384 articles about her. By June 2008 over seven million posts and 3,700 videos were returned in a search for her name on YouTube.

First Portuguese inquiry (2007–2008)

First arguido

Further information: § Libel actions

Robert Murat, a 34-year-old British-Portuguese property consultant, became the first to be given arguido status, 12 days after the disappearance. Born in Hammersmith, west London, Murat lived in his mother's house, Casa Liliana, 150 yards (137 m) from apartment 5A in the direction in which the man in the Tanner sighting had walked. He was made an arguido after a Sunday Mirror journalist told police he had been asking a lot of questions about the case. The Polícia Judiciária had briefly signed him up as an official interpreter; he said he had wanted to help because he had a daughter in England who was around Madeleine's age.

Three members of the Tapas Seven said they had seen Murat near the resort on the evening Madeleine disappeared, although he and his mother said he had been at home all evening. Beginning on May 15, Murat's home was searched, the pool drained, his cars, computers, phones and video tapes examined, his garden searched using ground radar and sniffer dogs, and two of his associates questioned. In March 2008, one of those associates had his car torched, with the word fala ("speak") sprayed in red on the pavement.

There was nothing to link Murat or his friends to the disappearance, and Murat's arguido status was lifted on 21 July 2008 when the case was archived. In April 2008 he received £600,000 in out-of-court settlements for libel in what The Observer said was the largest number of separate libel actions brought in the UK by the same person in relation to one issue; his friends received £100,000 each. In July 2014, during Operation Grange, one of those friends was questioned again as a witness, this time by the Polícia Judiciária on behalf of Scotland Yard. In December that year Murat and his wife were questioned, also on behalf of Scotland Yard, along with eight others.

Witness statements

In statements given to the Polícia Judiciária early on in the inquiry, several witnesses described men behaving oddly near apartment 5A on the day of the disappearance, Thursday, 3 May 2007, and in the days leading up to it. Scotland Yard came to believe that the men were engaged in reconnaissance for an abduction or burglary.

On 20 April a bedraggled-looking man rang on a tourist's doorbell to say in broken English that he was collecting money for an orphanage. She described him as 38–45 years old, with a sallow complexion, lank dark hair, moustache and large teeth. A blonde-haired man described as "ugly" was seen on 29 April on Rua do Ramelhete, and again on 2 May across the road from 5A, as though he was watching it. On the day of the disappearance or the day before, a man was seen staring at the McCanns' apartment block, where a white van was parked. On 30 April a girl whose grandparents used to own 5A saw a blonde-haired man leaning against a wall behind the apartments, and saw him again on 2 May near the Tapas restaurant, looking at 5A. She described him as Caucasian, mid-30s, short cropped hair, "ugly" with spots.

On the day of the disappearance, between 15:30 and 17:30, two black-haired men visited apartments close to 5A, ostensibly collecting for orphanages. One was in the McCanns' block at 16:00. Also in the late afternoon, the niece of the woman who lived directly above the McCanns was sitting on her aunt's balcony, when she saw a man leave through the gate below, as though he had come out of a ground-floor apartment. What caught her attention was that he looked around him before shutting the gate quietly, with both hands. At 14:30 two blonde-haired men were seen on the balcony of 5C, an empty apartment two doors from 5A. At 16:00–17:00 a blonde-haired man was seen near 5A. At 18:00 the same or another blonde-haired man was seen in the stairwell of the McCanns' block. At 23:00, after the disappearance, two blonde-haired men were seen in a nearby street speaking in raised voices. When they realized they had been noticed, they reportedly lowered their voices and walked away.

McCanns as arguidos

Early suspicion

Further information: § Media coverage

Praia da Luz, July 2009

The first indication that the media was turning against the McCanns was on 6 June 2007, when a German journalist asked them during a Berlin press conference whether they were involved in the disappearance. On 30 June a 3,000-word article entitled "The Madeleine Case: A Pact of Silence" appeared in Sol, a Portuguese weekly, stating that the McCanns were suspects, highlighting alleged inconsistencies between their statements, and implying that the Tanner sighting had been invented. The reporters had obtained the Tapas Sevens' mobile numbers and that of another witness, so it was apparent that the inquiry had a leak.

This and later articles in the Portuguese press, invariably followed up in the UK, made several allegations, based on no evidence, that would engulf the McCanns for years on social media. They included that the McCanns and Tapas Seven were "swingers", that the McCanns had been sedating their children, and that the group had formed a "pact of silence" regarding what had happened the night of the disappearance. Much was made of apparent inconsistencies within and between the McCanns' and Tapas Seven's statements. The police had asked the group questions in Portuguese, and an interpreter had translated the replies. The statements were then typed up in Portuguese, and verbally translated back into English for the interviewees to sign. Misunderstandings were inevitable.

Among the inconsistencies was whether the McCanns had entered the apartment by the front or back door when checking on the children. According to the Polícia Judiciária case file, Gerry stated during his first interview, on 4 May 2007, that the couple had entered 5A through the locked front door for his 21:05 and her 22:00 checks, and in a second interview, on 10 May, that he had entered through the unlocked patio doors at the back. (The patio doors could only be unlocked from inside, so the parents had left them unlocked to let themselves in.) There was also an inconsistency about whether the front door had been locked. Gerry told the Sunday Times in December 2007 that they had used the front door earlier in the week, but it was next to the children's bedroom, so they had started using the patio doors instead.

The Polícia Judiciária questioned why, when Kate discovered Madeleine was missing, she had run to the tapas restaurant leaving the twins alone in 5A, when she could have used her cell phone or shouted to the group from 5A's rear balcony.

Bedroom shutter

Officer dusts children's bedroom shutter
without protective clothing.

—The Daily Telegraph

Another issue was whether the exterior shutter over Madeleine's bedroom window could be opened from outside. According to journalist Danny Collins, the shutter was made of non-ferrous metal slats on a roller blind that was housed in a box at the top of the inside window, controlled by pulling on a strap. Once rolled down, the slats locked in place outside the window and could only be raised using the strap on the inside. Kate said the shutter and window were closed when Madeleine was put to bed, but open when she discovered Madeleine was missing. Gerry told the Polícia Judiciária that, when he was first alerted to the disappearance, he had lowered the shutter, then had gone outside and discovered that it could be raised from the outside. Against this, the police said the shutter could not be raised from the outside without being forced, but there was no sign of forced entry; they also said forcing the shutter open would have caused a lot of noise.

The apparent discrepancies contributed to the view of the Polícia Judiciária that there had been no abduction. Even Kate's shout of "they've taken her" was viewed with suspicion, as though she had been paving the way for an abduction story. Particularly from August onwards, these suspicions developed into the theory that Madeleine had died in apartment 5A as a result of an accident—perhaps after being sedated to help her stay asleep—and that her parents had hidden her body for a month, before retrieving her and driving her to an unknown place in a car they had hired over three weeks after the disappearance. In 2010 Carlos Anjos, former head of the Police Detectives Union in Portugal, told BBC Panorama that most Portuguese investigators still believed Madeleine died as a result of an accident in the apartment.

Portugal sends a letter rogatory

Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz, where the McCanns attended Mass

On 28 June 2007 the McCanns suggested to the Polícia Judiciária that the police request help from Danie Krugel, a South African former police officer who had developed a "matter orientation system", a handheld device that he claimed could locate missing people using DNA and satellites. On hearing about this years later, one scientist said it had caused his "BS detector to go off the scale". Kate McCann wrote in 2011 that Krugel's claims made no sense, but the couple were desperate. In the second week of June they sent him hair and eyelashes from Madeleine collected from the family home by relatives in the UK. Krugel arrived in Praia da Luz on 15 July, and told the McCanns his equipment had picked up a "static signal" in an area of the beach near the Rocha Negra cliff.

The officer in charge of the Polícia Judiciária inquiry, Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, interpreted Kate's support of Krugel as a ploy. By this point he believed the McCanns were involved in the disappearance, and that Kate was using Krugel—she had also considered using psychics—to "disclose the location of her daughter's body" without compromising herself.

With this in mind, the Polícia Judiciária sent a letter rogatory to the British police to ask for assistance in their search for Madeleine's body. In response Mark Harrison, the national search adviser for the British National Policing Improvement Agency, arrived in Praia da Luz in July. He walked around the search areas, and flew over them by helicopter. His report, dated 23 July 2007, described Kruger's ideas as "highly unlikely". It said that 100 officers had searched up to 9.3 miles around Praia da Luz, but that the officer in charge and most of the team had no training in search procedures, with the exception of a search-and-rescue team from Lisbon. Search dogs had been used, but after five days instead of within two days as the handlers recommend. Harrison suggested searching the beach and shoreline, an open area near the village, Robert Murat's property, apartment 5A, the Tapas Seven's apartments, and any hired vehicles. He recommended using ground-penetrating radar and bringing in Keela and Eddie, two Springer spaniel sniffer dogs from South Yorkshire.

British sniffer dogs arrive

External image

Eddie with Martin Grime

— Ross Parry Agency

Keela was a crime-scene-investigation (CSI) dog trained to give her handler, Martin Grime, a "passive alert" to the scent of human blood by placing her nose close to the spot, then freezing in that position. Eddie was an enhanced-victim-recovery dog (EVRD) who gave a "bark alert" to the scent of human cadavers, including shortly after the death of the subject, even if the remains were buried, incinerated or in water. He was trained to bark only in response to that scent and not for any other reason. The dogs arrived in Praia da Luz on 31 July, and were taken to two beaches, Robert Murat's house, and the Ocean Club apartments.

The only area in which Keela and Eddie gave alerts was apartment 5A. Both dogs alerted behind the sofa in the living room, and on and under the veranda in the bedroom Madeleine's parents had used. The Polícia Judiciária obtained search warrants to search the house the McCanns had rented on Rua das Flores, and the silver Renault Scénic the couple had hired 24 days after Madeleine went missing. The house and grounds were searched on 2 August. The only alert was from Eddie when he encountered Cuddle Cat, which was lying in the living room; Keela did not give an alert. The police left with boxes of the McCanns' clothes, Cuddle Cat, a pair of latex gloves, suitcases, a notepad, two diaries, including one that Kate had started after the disappearance, and a friend's Bible she had borrowed. A passage the Bible's owner had marked from 2 Samuel, about the death of a child, was copied into the police case file along with a Portuguese translation. The items were taken to another location, where Eddie alerted to one of the boxes of clothes.

On 6 August the police removed the McCanns' hired car. Keela and Eddie were taken to an underground car park opposite the Polícia Judiciária headquarters in Portimao, where 11 cars were parked, 20–30 feet apart, including the McCanns' and Robert Murat's. Eddie, the cadaver dog, gave an alert outside the McCanns' car and inside the boot (trunk). Keela alerted to the map compartment in the driver's door, which contained the ignition key and key ring. When the key ring was hidden underneath sand in a fire bucket, she alerted again, as she did when the bucket was moved to a different floor of the car park. One or both dogs gave alerts at Cuddle Cat, Kate's clothes and the Bible. In August 2008 the Polícia Judiciária released videotape of the searches.

The McCanns' lawyer said that, if there was indeed a smell of corpses on Kate's clothes, it might have been caused by her contact with the deceased as a family doctor. Almost immediately the Portuguese press began running stories that Madeleine had died inside apartment 5A.

British DNA analysis

Hair and other fibres were collected from areas in the car and apartment 5A where Keela and Eddie had given alerts, and were sent to the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham for DNA profiling, arriving around 8 August 2007.

At this point, according to the Sunday Times, the Polícia Judiciária "abandoned the abduction theory". On 8 August the McCanns were called to a meeting in Portimão, where they were informed by Guilhermino Encarnação, Polícia Judiciária regional director, and Luis Neves, coordinator of the Direcção Central de Combate ao Banditismo in Lisbon, that the case was now a murder inquiry. Encarnação died of stomach cancer in 2010, and was identified by the Daily Telegraph as a major source of the leaks against the McCanns. Both the McCanns were interrogated that day; the officers suggested that Kate's memory was faulty.

The FSS used a technique known as low copy number (LCN) testing. Used when only a few cells are available, the test is controversial because vulnerable to contamination and misinterpretation. On 3 September John Lowe of the FSS emailed Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior of the Leicestershire police, the liaison officer between the British and Portuguese police. Lowe told Prior that a sample from the car boot contained 15 out of 19 of Madeleine's DNA components, and that the result was "too complex for meaningful interpretation":

A complex LCN [low copy number] DNA result which appeared to have originated from at least three people was obtained from cellular material recovered from the luggage compartment section ... Within the DNA profile of Madeleine McCann there are 20 DNA components represented by 19 peaks on a chart. ... Of these 19 components 15 are present within the result from this item; there are 37 components in total. There are 37 components because there are at least 3 contributors; but there could be up to five contributors. In my opinion therefore this result is too complex for meaningful interpretation/inclusion. ... [W]e cannot answer the question: Is the match genuine, or is it a chance match.

McCanns made arguidos

The Forensic Science Service email was translated into Portuguese on 4 September. The next day, according to Kate, the Polícia Judiciária proposed that, if she were to admit that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment, and that she had hidden the body, she might only serve a two-year sentence. Her husband would not be charged and would be free to leave. Both parents were given arguido status on 7 September, and were advised by their lawyer not to answer questions. The Polícia Judiciária told Gerry that Madeleine's DNA had been found in the car boot and behind the sofa in 5A. Gerry did respond to questions, but Kate declined to reply to 48 questions she was asked during an 11-hour interview.

The DNA evidence was a "100 percent match", journalists in Portugal were told. British tabloid headlines included "Brit Lab Bombshell: Car DNA is 100% Maddie's" (The Sun, 11 September 2007) and "Corpse in McCann Car" (London Evening Standard, 16 October 2007), while the Daily Star reported that a "clump of Maddie's hair" had been found in the car. Jerry Lawton, a Daily Star reporter, told the Leveson Inquiry in March 2012 that the leaks had come directly from the Portuguese police.

Matt Baggott—who when Madeleine disappeared was chief constable of Leicestershire Police, the force that coordinated the British side of the case—told the inquiry that, because the Portuguese were in charge of the case, he had made a decision not to correct reporters. His force's priority, he said, was to maintain a good relationship with the Polícia Judiciária with a view to finding Madeleine.

McCanns return to the UK, Almeida report

Despite their arguido status, the McCanns were allowed to leave Portugal, and on legal advice did so immediately, arriving back in England on 9 September 2007.

The following day Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida of the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão signed a nine-page report concluding that Madeleine had died in apartment 5A as a result of an accident, that the meal in the tapas restaurant and apparent regular checks on the McCann children had been part of the cover-up, that the Tapas Seven had helped to mislead the police, and that the McCanns had concealed the body, then faked an abduction. An 11-page document from the Information Analysis Brigade in Lisbon analysed alleged discrepancies in the McCanns' statements. On 11 September the public prosecutor, Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses, handed the 10-volume case file to a judge, Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias. Meneses applied for the seizure of Kate's diary and Gerry's laptop. The police also wanted to trace telephone calls the McCanns and Tapas Seven had made, and there were details in the report about the number of suitcases the McCanns and their friends had taken back to England.

In the UK Control Risks, a British security company—paid by an anonymous donor to assist the McCanns since 7 May—took hair samples from the McCann twins on 24 September, at their parents' request. The twins had slept through the commotion in apartment 5A after Madeleine was reported missing; Kate wrote that she was concerned the abductor might have given the children sedatives. According to the Polícia Judiciária files, Kate had asked them to take samples, three months after the disappearance, but they had not done so. Control Risks took a sample from Kate too, to rebut allegations that she was on medication. No trace of drugs was found.

On 28 September, according to a diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks in 2010, the American ambassador to Portugal, Al Hoffman, wrote of his British counterpart, Alexander Ellis: "Without delving into the details of the case, Ellis admitted [during a meeting on 21 September] that the British police had developed the current evidence against the McCann parents, and he stressed that authorities from both countries were working co-operatively."

Gonçalo Amaral's removal, later developments

On 2 October 2007 Chief Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, the inquiry's coordinator, was removed from his post and transferred from Portimão to Faro after telling the newspaper Diário de Notícias that the British police had only pursued leads helpful to the McCanns, ignoring that the couple were suspects. As an example, he criticized their decision to follow up an anonymous email to Prince Charles that claimed a former Ocean Club employee had taken Madeleine.

Amaral was himself an arguido in relation to his investigation of another case, the disappearance of Joana Cipriano. One day after Madeleine's disappearance, Amaral was made arguido, and a month later he was charged with making a false statement. Four other officers were charged with assault. Eight-year-old Joana vanished in 2004 from Figueira, seven miles (11 km) from Praia da Luz. Her body was never found, and no murder weapon was identified. Her mother and the mother's brother were convicted of her murder after confessing, but the mother retracted her confession, saying she had been beaten by police. Amaral was not present when the beating is alleged to have taken place, but he was accused of having covered up for others. The other detectives were acquitted. Amaral was convicted of perjury in May 2009 and received an 18-month suspended sentence.

Amaral was replaced by Paulo Rebelo, deputy national director of the Polícia Judiciária. The team of detectives was expanded and a case review began. On 29 November 2007 four members of the inquiry, including Francisco Corte-Real, vice-president of Portugal's forensic crime service, were briefed at Leicestershire police headquarters by the Forensic Science Service.

The Tapas Seven were interviewed by Leicestershire police in England in April 2008, with the Polícia Judiciária in attendance. The Polícia Judiciária planned the following month to hold a reconstruction in Praia da Luz, using the McCanns and Tapas Seven rather than actors, but the Tapas Seven declined to participate. The poor relationship between the McCanns and Portuguese police was evident again that month when, on the day the couple were at the European Parliament to promote a monitoring system for missing children, transcripts of their interviews with the Polícia Judiciária were leaked to Spanish television. The national director of the Polícia Judiciária, Alípio Ribeiro, resigned not long after this, citing media pressure from the investigation; he had publicly said the police had been hasty in naming the McCanns as suspects. As of May 2008 Portuguese prosecutors were examining several charges against the McCanns, including child abandonment, abduction, homicide and concealment of a corpse.

Inquiry closed (21 July 2008)

On 21 July 2008 the Portuguese Attorney General, Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro, announced that there was no evidence to link the McCanns or Robert Murat to the disappearance. Their arguido status was lifted and the case was closed:

The case involving Madeleine McCann will be shelved following the decision by the two magistrates in charge that no evidence was found to implicate the arguidos. Hereby the condition of all three arguidos ceases ... and the bail measures imposed upon the same have expired. If they appeal against the decision it can be reopened. ... The inquiry may be reopened by decision of prosecuting council or by request of any of those involved if new, serious and relevant evidence emerges.

On 4 August Portugal's Ministério Público released 17 case files containing 11,233 pages on CD-ROM to the media, including 2,550 pages of sightings. The files included a 58-page prosecutors' report, which concluded: "No element of proof whatsoever was found which allows us to form any lucid, sensible, serious and honest conclusion about the circumstances." In 2009 Portugal released a further 2,000 pages.

Days after the case closed, excerpts from Kate McCann's diary, which had been taken by the Polícia Judiciária in August 2007, were published by a Portuguese tabloid, Correio da Manhã, translated into Portuguese, despite a Portuguese judge's ruling in June 2008 that the seizure had been a privacy violation and that any copies must be destroyed. On 14 September 2008 a News International tabloid, News of the World, published the extracts, again without permission and now translated poorly back into English.

Amaral's book (24 July 2008)

Portugal's Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (Supreme Court of Justice) at Praça do Comércio, Lisbon

The bad feeling between the McCanns and Polícia Judiciária reached such a height that Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, the officer who coordinated the investigation from May to October 2007, resigned in June 2008 to write a book alleging that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment, and that the McCanns had faked an abduction. Amaral had been removed from the case in October 2007 after telling a Portuguese newspaper that the British police only pursued leads helpful to the McCanns. Three days after the case closed in July 2008, his book, Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira ("Maddie: The Truth of the Lie"), was published in Portugal by Guerra & Paz. By November 2008 it had sold 180,000 copies, and was later translated into six languages and used as the basis of a documentary.

Represented by Isabel Duarte, the McCanns began a libel action against Amaral and his publisher in 2009, and in 2015 were awarded over €600,000 by a court in Lisbon. Amaral's appeal against that decision succeeded in 2016; the McCanns' appeal to Portugal's Supreme Court failed in February 2017. The McCanns' lawyer planned to challenge the Supreme Court's decision, in particular because the 76-page ruling included a statement that the couple had not, in fact, been cleared by the archiving of the criminal case in 2008. The lawyer said that Madeleine's Fund would cover the McCanns' legal costs.

A judge issued an injunction against further publication or sales of the book in 2009, but the Lisbon Court of Appeal overturned the ban in 2010, stating that it violated Amaral's freedom of expression. The ban was reinstated in 2015 as part of the libel ruling, and was lifted when Amaral's appeal succeeded in 2016.

Madeleine's Fund

Raising money

J. K. Rowling and other public figures made large donations to Madeleine's Fund.

On 15 May 2007, to finance the search, the family set up Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd. Over 80 million people visited the fund's Find Madeleine website in the three months after the disappearance. From September 2007, Brian Kennedy of Everest Windows supported the McCanns financially, and Kennedy's lawyer joined the fund's board of directors.

Appeals were made by public figures and screened at football matches across Britain. J. K. Rowling and Richard Branson made large donations; Branson donated £100,000 to a legal fund for the McCanns. Over £2.6 million was raised, including £250,000 from the News of the World. A reward of £2.5 million was also offered, including from Branson, the News of the World, a Scottish businessman, Stephen Winyard, and Philip Green.

In March 2008 the Express Group paid the fund £550,000 and £375,000 in the form of libel damages arising out of articles about the McCanns and Tapas Seven respectively. In 2011 Kate McCann's book, Madeleine, was serialized by The Sun and The Sunday Times, both owned by News International, for a payment to the fund of ₤500,000 to ₤1 million. In December 2015 the fund stood at around ₤750,000. As of February 2017 it had seven directors, including the McCanns.

The fund did not cover the couple's legal costs arising from their status as arguidos, but it was criticized in October 2007 for having made two of the McCanns' mortgage payments, before they were made arguidos.

Private investigators

Madeleine's Fund hired several firms of private investigators, causing friction with the Portuguese police. Shortly after the disappearance, an anonymous benefactor paid for the services of a British security company, Control Risks. Brian Kennedy hired a Spanish agency, Método 3, for six months at £50,000 a month, which put 35 investigators on the case in Europe and Morocco. Kennedy went to Morocco himself in 2007 to look into one sighting.

One of the private investigators was David Edgar, a retired detective inspector, hired on the recommendation of the head of Manchester's Serious Crime Squad. Edgar released an e-fit in August 2009 of a woman said to have asked two British men in Barcelona, Spain, shortly after the disappearance, whether they were there to deliver her new daughter. Other private initiatives included a Portuguese lawyer financing the search of a reservoir near Praia da Luz in February 2008, and the use of ground radar by a South African property developer, Stephen Birch, who said in 2012 that scans showed there were bones beneath the driveway of a house in Praia da Luz.

Oakley International

Further information: § Smith sighting

In 2008 Madeleine's Fund hired Oakley International, a Washington, D.C.-registered detective agency, for over £500,000 for six months. The company owner, Kevin Halligen, was arrested in 2009 in connection with an unrelated fraud allegation. Oakley sent a five-man team to Portugal. Led by Henri Exton, a former British police officer who had worked for MI5, the team engaged in undercover operations within the Ocean Club and among paedophile rings and the Roma community.

Exton questioned the significance of the Tanner sighting of a man carrying a child at 21:15 near apartment 5A, and focused instead on the Smith sighting at 22:00—the sighting by Martin and Mary Smith of a man carrying a child near the McCanns' apartment that night. The Oakley team produced e-fits based on the Smiths' description. This was a sensitive issue, because in September 2007 Martin Smith had watched footage of the McCanns arriving in the UK from Portugal, and believed he recognized Gerry McCann as the man he had seen with the child in Praia da Luz. Smith came to accept that he was mistaken: at 22:00 witnesses placed Gerry McCann in the tapas restaurant. Nevertheless, publication of the Smith e-fits, which bore some resemblance to Gerry, would have fed the conspiracy theories about the McCanns.

Exton submitted his report to Madeleine's Fund in November 2008, but the fund told Exton that the report and its e-fits had to remain confidential. The relationship between the company and the fund had soured, in part because of a dispute over fees, and in part because the report was critical of the McCanns and their friends; it suggested that Madeleine may have died in an accident after leaving the apartment herself through its unlocked patio doors. The fund passed the e-fits to the police—the Polícia Judiciária and Leicestershire police had them by October 2009, and Scotland Yard received them when they became involved in August 2011—but did not otherwise release them. Kate McCann did not include them with the other images of suspects in her book, Madeleine (2011), although she suggested that both the Tanner and Smith sightings were crucial.

Scotland Yard released the e-fits in 2013 for a BBC Crimewatch reconstruction. After it had aired, The Sunday Times published that the McCanns had had the e-fits since 2008. In response the couple sued the newspaper for having implied (wrongly) that they had not only failed to publish them but had withheld them from the police. The newspaper apologized and paid £55,000 in damages.

Further police inquiries (2011–present)

Gamble scoping report

Alan Johnson, Labour Home Secretary, June 2009 – May 2010

At the request of the British Home Secretary Alan Johnson in 2009, Jim Gamble, then head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), wrote a scoping report about the British response to the disappearance, with recommendations for how to handle similar cases in future. The report examined how several British agencies had become involved, including CEOP itself, Leicestershire police, the Metropolitan Police Service, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the National Police Improvement Agency, Crimestoppers, the Home Office, Foreign Office and 10 Downing Street.

The report was critical of the lack of coordination. Everyone had wanted to help, and some had wanted to be seen to help. This had "created a sense of chaos and a sense of competition", the report said, and had hampered the inquiry by causing resentment among the Portuguese police.

Operation Grange

British Home Secretary Theresa May in 2010, with Prime Minister David Cameron

Delivered in 2010, Gamble's report prompted the Home Office to begin discussions early that year with the Association of Chief Police Officers about setting up a new inquiry into the disappearance. In May 2011, under Home Secretary Theresa May, Scotland Yard launched an investigative review, Operation Grange, with a team of 29 detectives and eight civilians.

The announcement of the review appeared to have been triggered by a News International campaign, by way of one of its British tabloids, The Sun, to persuade the government to involve the British police in the case. On 11 May 2011, as part of its serialization of Kate McCann's book, Madeleine (2011), The Sun published an open letter on its front page from the McCanns to Prime Minister David Cameron, headlined "Open up the Maddie files". On the same day, according to Theresa May's testimony to the Leveson Inquiry, May spoke by telephone, at her instigation, to Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, and Dominic Mohan, editor of The Sun. Within 24 hours, Cameron made the announcement about Operation Grange, to be financed by a government contingency fund.

Operation Grange was led by Commander Simon Foy. Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Andy Redwood of Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command was the first senior investigating officer, reporting to Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell. In July 2013 Redwood announced that the review had become an investigation. DCI Redwood retired in December 2014 and was replaced by DCI Nicola Wall. The team had tens of thousands of documents translated, released an updated age-progressed image of Madeleine in 2012, and investigated 560 lines in inquiry and 8,685 potential sightings. By 2015 they had taken 1,338 statements, collected 1,027 exhibits, and investigated 650 sex offenders and 60 persons of interest. By June that year the inquiry had cost £10.1 million. It was scaled back in October 2015 and the number of officers reduced to four.

Theories: Abduction, burglary, wandered off

Further information: § Witness statements

DCI Redwood made clear that Operation Grange was looking at a "criminal act by a stranger", most likely a planned abduction, or possibly a burglary during which Madeleine disturbed whoever had broken in. There had been a fourfold increase in burglaries in the area between January and May 2007. These included two in the McCanns' block, in the three weeks before the disappearance, during which intruders had entered through apartment windows. Redwood said in 2013 that the disappearance "does, on one reading of the evidence, have the hallmarks of a pre-planned abduction. That undoubtedly would have involved reconnaissance."

Several witnesses had described men hanging around near apartment 5A in the days leading up to the disappearance and on the day itself. In May 2013 Scotland Yard asked for help to trace 12 manual workers who were at the Ocean Club when Madeleine disappeared, including six British cleaners who were offering their services in a white van to British expats. In October that year Scotland Yard and the BBC's Crimewatch staged a reconstruction—broadcast in the UK, Netherlands and Germany—during which they released e-fits of the men seen near the McCanns' apartment and of the Smith sighting. Days after Crimewatch aired, Portugal's attorney general reopened the Portuguese inquiry, citing new evidence.

Another theory is that Madeleine, nearly four at the time, left the apartment by herself, perhaps to look for her parents, and was abducted by a passer-by or fell into one of the open construction sites nearby. This is widely regarded as unlikely. According to her mother, Madeleine would have had to open the unlocked patio doors, close the curtains behind her, close the door again, open and close the child gate at the top of the stairs, then open and close the gate leading to the street.

Tracking mobile phone calls

Using mobile-phone tracking techniques, police were able to trace who had used cell phones near the scene of the disappearance within the important time frame. Tracking the calls apparently required the cooperation of over 30 countries. The analysis turned up a lot of telephone calls and texts between three men near the Ocean Club around the time of the disappearance: a 30-year-old former Ocean Club bus driver, and his 24-year-old and 53-year-old associates. Detectives interviewed them in June 2014; they denied any connection to the disappearance.

Police also found that the cell phone of a former Ocean Club restaurant worker had been used near the resort that night. Originally from Cape Verde, West Africa, Euclides Monteiro died in 2009 in a tractor accident after being fired from the Ocean Club in 2006 for theft. The suspicion was that he had been breaking into apartments to finance a drug habit. His widow said he had been questioned previously about break-ins involving the sexual assault of children, but had been cleared by DNA evidence.

Digging in Praia da Luz, and interviews (2014)

In June 2014 Scotland Yard and the Polícia Judiciária, accompanied by archaeologists and sniffer dogs, searched drains and dug in 60,000 sq metres of wasteland in Praia da Luz. Nothing was found. At Scotland Yard's request, the Polícia Judiciária interviewed several witnesses in Praia da Luz in July and December that year, with Scotland Yard in attendance. In July four Portuguese citizens were interviewed. One, an associate of Robert Murat, was first questioned shortly after the disappearance; he was made arguido from June 2007 until July 2008.

Eleven people were interviewed in December. They included Robert Murat, his wife and her ex-husband; a 30-year-old former tourist-bus driver for the Ocean Club; and the driver's 24-year-old and 53-year-old associates. The latter three men had telephoned or texted each other near the Ocean Club around the time of the disappearance. They admitted having broken into Ocean Club apartments but denied having taken Madeleine.

Other inquiries

In the early days of the inquiry, the Portuguese police searched through images seized from paedophile investigations, and Madeleine's parents were shown photographs of sex offenders in case they recognized them from Praia de Luz. Several British paedophiles were of interest. In May 2009 investigators working for the McCanns tried to question one, Raymond Hewlett; he had allegedly told someone he knew what happened to Madeleine, but he retracted and died of cancer in Germany in December that year. Scotland Yard made inquiries about two convicted paedophiles who have been in jail in Scotland since 2010 for murder. The men were running a window-cleaning service in the Canary Islands when Madeleine went missing.

A man from Northern Ireland was discussed in the media in connection with the disappearance. After being released from prison for the sexual assault of his four daughters, he had moved to Carvoeiro, Portugal, not far from Praia da Luz, and was there when Madeleine went missing. He died in 2013. Another focus of Operation Grange was Urs Hans von Aesch, a deceased Swiss man implicated in the 2007 murder, in Switzerland, of five-year-old Ylenia Lenhard. Ylenia disappeared on 31 July 2007, nearly three months after Madeleine, and was found dead in September as a result of toluene poisoning. Von Aesch was living in Spain when Madeleine disappeared.

Scotland Yard issued another appeal in March 2014 about a man who had entered holiday homes occupied by British families in 12 incidents in the western Algarve between 2004 and 2010, two of them in Praia da Luz. On four occasions he sexually assaulted five white girls, aged 7–10, in their beds. The man spoke English with a foreign accent and his speech was slow and perhaps slurred. He had short, dark, unkempt hair, tanned skin, and in the view of three victims a distinctive smell; he may have worn a long-sleeved burgundy top, perhaps with a white circle on the back. The Polícia Judiciária believed the intruder was the former Ocean Club employee from Cape Verde who died in the 2009 tractor accident.

In June 2016 Operation Grange officers interviewed a victim of the late Clement Freud, who was accused that year of having a history of child sexual abuse. Freud had a home in Praia da Luz, and he befriended the McCanns weeks after the disappearance. His family said he was in the UK when Madeleine disappeared.

Media coverage

Tabloids

See also: Leveson Inquiry

Roy Greenslade called the Daily Express coverage a "sustained campaign of vitriol".

The disappearance turned a harsh spotlight on the McCanns. The case had everything the media could latch onto, according to feminist scholar Nicola Rehling: a white, middle-class family caught up in a nightmare of evil abroad. While one News International tabloid, News of the World, offered a £1.5 million reward for Madeleine, another, The Sun, offered £20,000 for information about Shannon Matthews, who disappeared from an English council estate in 2008 and whose mother had seven children by five men.

The McCanns' middle-class status, at first protective, turned into a weapon against them. They were harshly criticized for having left their children alone, despite the availability of Ocean Club babysitters. The argument ran that working-class couples would have faced child-abandonment charges. Seventeen thousand people signed an online petition in June 2007 asking Leicestershire Social Services to investigate how the children came to be left unattended.

Kate McCann's appearance and demeanor were widely discussed, and much of the commentary came from female journalists. She was deemed too attractive, too thin, too well-dressed, too intense, too controlled and not mumsy enough, according to media analyst Caroline Bainbridge. Despite her obvious distress, several tabloids criticized her for not crying in public. The Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã complained that she had not "shed a single tear", while relying on police sources to portray her as hysterical. Journalism professor Nicola Goc argued that Kate had joined a list of mothers deemed killers because of "unacceptable maternal behaviour". Several commentators compared Kate's experience with that of Lindy Chamberlain, who spent four years in jail for murder after her baby was killed by a dingo. There was even a similar (false) story about supposedly relevant Bible passages Lindy Chamberlin and Kate McCann were said to have highlighted.

In November 2011 the McCanns testified before the Leveson Inquiry into British press standards. The inquiry heard that the editor of the Daily Express, in particular, had become "obsessed" with the couple. Express headlines included that Madeleine had been "killed by sleeping pills", "Find body or McCanns will escape", and "'McCanns or a friend must be to blame'", the latter based on an interview with a waiter. Lord Justice Leveson called the articles "complete piffle". Roy Greenslade described them as "no journalistic accident, but a sustained campaign of vitriol against a grief-stricken family". "Maddie 'Sold' By Hard-Up McCanns" ran a headline in the Daily Star, part of the Express group.

Libel actions

The McCanns and Tapas Seven brought libel actions against several newspapers. The Daily Express, Daily Star and their sister Sunday papers, owned by Northern & Shell, published front-page apologies in 2008 and donated £550,000 to Madeleine's Fund. The Tapas Seven were awarded £375,000 against the Express group, also donated to Madeleine's Fund, along with an apology in the Daily Express. The McCanns received £55,000 from The Sunday Times in 2013 when the newspaper implied that they had withheld efits from the police.

Robert Murat received £600,000 in out-of-court settlements for libel in relation to 100 articles published by 11 newspapers—The Sun and News of the World (News International), Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star (Northern & Shell), Daily Mail, London Evening Standard and Metro (Associated Newspapers), Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Daily Record (Mirror Group Newspapers). According to The Observer, it was the largest number of separate libel actions brought in the UK by the same person in relation to one issue. His two associates were each awarded $100,000, and all three received public apologies. The British Sky Broadcasting Group, which owns Sky News, paid Murat undisclosed damages in 2008 and agreed that Sky News would host an apology on its website for 12 months.

Social media

Twitter was a key source of attacks on the McCanns.

Rehling writes that the narrative around the disappearance was shaped by social media. Twitter, one year old when Madeleine went missing, was the source of much of the vitriol. Social media's attacks on the McCanns reportedly included threats to kidnap one of their twins, and when Scotland Yard and Crimewatch staged their reconstruction in 2013, there was talk of phoning in with false information to sabotage the appeal.

One man who ran a website devoted to criticizing the couple received a three-month suspended sentence in 2013 after leafleting their village with his allegations, and the following year a Twitter user was found dead from a helium asphyxiation after Sky News confronted her about her McCann tweets. Eilis O'Hanlon wrote that the disappearance "could almost stand as a metaphor for the rise of social media as the predominant mode of public discourse".

Bibliography

News sources are listed in the Notes section only.

Books

• Collins, Danny. Vanished: The Truth about the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, London: John Blake, 2008.
• McCann, Kate. Madeleine: Our Daughter's Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, London: Bantam Press, 2011.
• Summers, Anthony; Swan, Robbyn. Looking For Madeleine, London: Headline Publishing Group, 2014.

Articles

• Bainbridge, Caroline. "'They've taken her!' Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Mediating Maternity, Feeling and Loss", Studies in the Maternal, 2(1), 2012, 1–18). doi:10.16995/sim.85
• Goc, Nicola. "Framing the news: 'bad' mothers and the 'Medea' news frame", Australian Journalism Review, 31(1), 2009, 33–47.
• Greer, Chris; McLaughlin, Eugene. "Media justice: Madeleine McCann, intermediatization and 'trial by media' in the British press", Theoretical Criminology, November 2012, 16(4), 395–416. doi:10.1177/1362480612454559
• Kennedy, Julia. "Don't you forget about me: An exploration of the "Maddie Phenomenon" on YouTube", Journalism Studies, 11(2), 2010, 225–242. doi:10.1080/14616700903290635
• Machado, Helena and Santos, Filipe. "The disappearance of Madeleine McCann: Public drama and trial by media in the Portuguese press", Crime Media Culture, 5(2), August 2009, 146–167. doi:10.1177/1741659009335691
• Machado, Helena; Santos, Filipe. "Popular press and forensic genetics in Portugal: Expectations and disappointments regarding two cases of missing children", Public Understanding of Science, 20(3), May 2011, 303–318. doi:10.1177/0963662509336710 PMID 21796881
• Machado, Helena; Prainsack, Barbara. "Setting the Scene: Portugal", Tracing Technologies: Prisoners' Views in the Era of Csi, New York and Abingdon: Routledge 2016 [Ashgate Publishing, 2012].
• Rehling, Nicola. "'Touching Everyone': Media Identifications, Imagined Communities and New Media Technologies in the Case of Madeleine McCann", in Ruth Parkin-Gounelas (ed.), The Psychology and Politics of the Collective, New York and Abingdon: Routledge 2012, 152–167.
• Spence, Des. "Madeleine McCann", BMJ, 334(7604), 2 June 2007, 1168. doi:10.1136/bmj.39231.432211.59 JSTOR 0507311