Callers give same name in fresh Maddie appeal

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have received nearly 1,000 calls and emails in response to a fresh appeal for information.

There have been over 730 calls and 212 emails as a result of “specific lines of inquiry” about the events leading up to and surrounding Madeleine’s abduction, Scotland Yard said, while some callers had given the same name for a man spotted carrying a child towards the beach in Praia da Luz.

Senior investigating officer Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood said detectives are working through the calls and material generated by Monday night’s BBC Crimewatch programme.

He said: “We have now had over 730 calls and 212 emails as a direct result of the specific lines of inquiry we issued yesterday concerning events in the lead- up to, and on the night of Thursday May 3, 2007 when Madeleine was abducted — 330 calls into the Operation Grange incident room, 400 to BBC1 Crimewatch.

“Detectives are now trawling through and prioritising that material. This will take time.”

Mr Redwood, who is travelling to Holland and Germany to continue the appeal, said: “I will be repeating similar appeals in Holland evening on a programme called Opsporing Verzocht, and in Germany.”

A reward of up to £20,000 (€23,680) is being offered for information leading to the identification, arrest, and prosecution of those responsible for Madeleine’s abduction, he said, adding that there are 40 people waiting to answer calls at any time, and officers waiting to “action the information”.

Crimewatch editor Joe Mather said the response was “truly unprecedented”.

He said there were lots of calls from British people in the town around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance who had never previously spoken to police, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today show: “They received several names for the key 10pm sighting, the sighting of a man carrying a child towards the beach.

“Several different names but also several callers mentioned the same name for that man.”

Mr Mather said there were “inevitably a fair few calls” which were not helpful but that there were “genuinely calls that were helpful” after the broadcast.

During the programme, Kate and Gerry McCann urged people to “rack their brains” and come forward with information.

Ms McCann said: “Please, please have the courage and confidence to come forward now, and share that information with us, and you could unlock this whole case, so please.”

Her husband, who in a live interview on the show said they were “hopeful and optimistic”, said people should find hope from recent cases in which abducted children had been found after long periods.

“These cases can get solved, and I think that’s what the public need to think about tonight, the new information, and really rack their brains and come forward, really.”

During the show, two new e-fits of a man were broadcast, while police said they had effectively ruled out a previous key sighting of a different man carrying a little girl — suggesting Madeleine may have been taken closer to 10pm that night.

Viewers were shown two images of a dark-haired man, based on descriptions from two witnesses who were staying in Praia da Luz when the three-year-old went missing.

Mr Redwood said during the show that two independent callers had put forward the same name for the man and another caller gave a name of a man who was known to be in Portugal at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Witnesses described the man in the new e-fits as white, aged between 20-40, with short brown hair, of medium build, medium height, and clean-shaven.

While police appealed for information on that suspect, officers now say that a man seen carrying a child by the McCanns’ friend Jane Tanner was an innocent British holidaymaker.