Mixed reactions to accusations against McCanns

THE McCanns arrived as a family of five in the Algarve, but yesterday almost four months to the day, they left as a family of just four.

They left without their eldest daughter Madeleine, who turned four just days after she mysteriously disappeared from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz while her parents had dinner 90 metres away.

They also left behind the search for the child they still believe is alive as their status changed from victims to suspects in the Portuguese police investigations.

Now cardiologist Gerry McCann and his wife, GP Kate, both aged 39, will have to use all the dogged determination they showed in their worldwide search for Madeleine to clear their names.

As their plane lifted off from Faro Airport yesterday morning their spokesperson, Justine McGuinness, read a statement to the waiting media on the need to continue the search for Madeleine and stressed they had nothing to do with her disappearance.

According to friends, the McCanns feel they have been stitched up by the police and Gerry McCann, who set up one of the world’s most high-profile child-search campaigns ever, believes he should have seen it coming.

Over the past few weeks there has been a steady build-up of leaks from police, both in Portugal and Britain. For at least the past two weeks, some journalists were predicting a big development in the case that would completely change its direction. This appears to have been based on what the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham was finding in its DNA tests of blood, fibres and other samples taken from the apartment the family shared and a car they rented almost four weeks after Madeleine disappeared.

A degraded blood sample was found in the grouting between floor tiles after the McCanns and subsequent tenants left the holiday apartment, which, according to sources in the British police, were a perfect but far from complete match for Madeleine’s.

Traces of her DNA were also found in the rented car, but these could have come from a flake of the child’s skin from one of her toys, such as her pink and white “cuddle cat” Kate carries with her all the time.

Sniffer dogs trained to react to traces of a dead body reacted when they were given some of Kate’s clothing, reports said.

Those who support the McCanns and refuse to believe they were in any way responsible for their daughter’s disappearance on May 3, are uneasy about the police behaviour. A waiter in a fish restaurant in Portimao talked of a near identical case in the area a few years ago when an eight-year-old girl disappeared and the same police had her mother and uncle convicted for her murder without a body being found.

There are murmurings that the police became fed up of the constant criticism of both their methods and Portuguese law and, with the new forensic evidence from Britain, they pointed the finger of suspicion at the parents.

The McCanns did nothing to improve their relationship with the police following their long hours of questioning last Friday and Saturday, which lasted a total of 24 hours and where relatives said Kate had been offered a deal of a suspended sentence if she admitted accidently killing her daughter. Later, their Portuguese lawyer described it as a “misunderstanding”.

But one of the country’s most respected daily papers, Publico, said at the weekend that the credibility of the Portuguese police is at risk.

“Either they have some trump cards up their sleeve to make us understand and justify the hypotheses that everyone hopes is not true, or they are shooting in the dark and ruining their image.”

Others are more ready to read the worst into the recasting of the McCanns as suspects. One journalist covering the story for some time said he disliked the “jutting Glasgow chin” of Gerry McCann. Others think Kate is too cold and dislike her trance-like expression whenever she appears in public.

Maria Correia, a local mother of two children is hesitant about commenting, but eventually shakes her head and says, “It’s strange that she never cries”.

Irish holidaymaker Hilary Marsh from Ballina says Kate’s reported response — to shout “They have snatched her” when she discovered Madeleine was missing – was strange.

“You would normally say ‘my baby is gone’. That makes me wonder.”

Another holidaymaker, Michael Murphy from Princes Street, Cork, believes we might never know the truth. “The police made a bags of it”, he said.

In the Algarve yesterday with a cool breeze blowing along the seafront and the shutters coming down on holiday homes there was a sense the summer season had ended.

As the satellite vans pulled away from the McCann’s rented villa and the media dispersed after chasing them to the airport under a grey sky, it felt as though winter had closed in.

Hoteliers, restaurateurs and shopowners hope the place will return to being just another fun, family-friendly holiday destination before next year’s influx of tourists. But there was no getting away from the uneasy feeling that something terribly wrong has happened in this place, underlined by the now ragged state of the few posters of Madeleine with her memorable eyes still hanging in some shops, a cafe and a launderette near where she disappeared 130 days ago.

Gerry McCann statement

This is the full text of a statement read by Gerry McCann on arriving at East Midlands Airport yesterday.

“Today Kate, Sean, Amelie and I have returned home, as we planned a while ago.

“We are returning to Britain after careful thought.

“We want the twins, as much as is reasonably possible, to live an ordinary life in their home country, and want to consider the events of the last few days, which have been so deeply disturbing.

“While we are returning to the UK, it does not mean we are giving up our search for Madeleine.

“As parents, we cannot give up on our daughter until we know what has happened. We have to keep doing everything we can to find her.

“Kate and I wish to thank once again all those who have supported us over the past days, weeks and months.

“But we would like to ask for our privacy to be respected now that we have returned home.

“Our return is with the full agreement of the Portuguese authorities and police.

“Portuguese law prohibits us from commenting further on the police investigation.

“Despite there being so much we wish to say, we are unable to do so, except to say this: We played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter, Madeleine.”