McCanns reveal pain of family trip

THE father of Madeleine McCann has spoken about the pain of going on a recent family holiday without her.

In a heartfelt entry on the Find Madeleine website, Gerry McCann wrote that despite enjoying spending time with his two other children, the fact that his eldest daughter was not with them was “all too apparent”.

Madeleine McCann went missing from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 last year.

Writing on his blog, Mr McCann said: “We have recently managed to have a break visiting family.

“Sean and Amelie have had a brilliant time and it has been great for me to spend so much time with them.

“Although this has been a relaxing break, it has been incredibly difficult for Kate and me to have been on holiday without Madeleine — it is all too apparent what is missing.”

Yesterday, the McCanns welcomed European Parliament backing for an EU-wide missing children alert system to help prevent child abductions across borders.

They described as “wonderful news” the fact that a declaration supporting the couple’s plea for action had attracted sufficient MEPs’ signatures to become a formal resolution.

Although the resolution has no legal force it puts serious political and moral pressure on the European Commission and EU governments to adopt legally-binding measures to increase the chances of finding missing children.

The McCanns visited MEPs in Brussels in April as part of their campaign to mobilise action following the disappearance of Madeleine.

By then they had already visited Washington to see how a US “Amber Alert” early warning raised the alarm across states and led to the safe return of hundreds of children.

They asked for a similar network to be extended across the 27 EU countries.

Writing on his blog, Mr McCann added: “This is a small step in the right direction and a lot of work will be needed to get national Amber Alert systems implemented.”

Addressing speculation that the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance had closed, he wrote: “We have not heard anything officially other than we know the files are with the prosecutor and the period of secrecy has been extended to August 14.

“Our independent investigation continues,” Mr McCann added.