Madeleine McCann - No charge — no reason to give up hope

SINCE Madeleine McCann went missing from the Ocean Club resort in the Algarve village of Praia da Luz in the earliest days of May, the story has hardly left the front pages of Europe’s newspapers.

It represented every family’s worst nightmare. A child disappearing without a trace while in the care of its loving parents on a family holiday.

The McCanns’ plight led to an outpouring of huge public sympathy and support, the subtext being that it could have been any one of us. “There but for the grace of God go I,” was the prayer whispered by every parent who had enjoyed a similar holiday.