Madeleine's mother 'feels persecuted'

Kate McCann fears she is being “persecuted” by people who believe she is involved in her daughter Madeleine’s disappearance because she does not look maternal enough, her mother said today.

Susan Healy, the missing girl’s grandmother, acknowledged that Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry made a “terrible mistake” in leaving their three children alone in the family’s Portuguese holiday apartment.

But she strongly defended her daughter, who along with Mr McCann has been named a formal suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance on May 3.

Mrs Healy told the Liverpool Echo: “She said last night, ’If I weighed another two stone, had a bigger bosom and looked more maternal, people would be more sympathetic’.

“I think it’s terrible that she’s having to think like that.

“She does feel persecuted – not by the general public, who have been extremely supportive, but by some sections of the media, and I just feel it’s important I let people know she is not this person who is in control all the time.”

Insisting her daughter had done nothing wrong, Mrs Healy described her as “one of the most maternal people I know” and said her life revolved around her children.

Mrs Healy and her husband Brian, from Allerton, Merseyside, told the paper they were clinging to the hope that Madeleine will be found alive.

But they admitted reports that Portuguese police are planning to search a large lake about 15 miles from where the young girl vanished 166 days ago were “scary”.

Mr and Mrs Healy also revealed that family and friends of the McCanns were meeting in Formby, Merseyside, today to discuss the next stage of the campaign to find Madeleine.

Meanwhile, a friend of the missing girl’s parents hit out today at a leak suggesting new forensic tests prove a corpse was transported in their hire car.

Sources claim bodily fluids from a corpse was found in the boot of the Renault Scenic rented by the McCanns 25 days after Madeleine disappeared, London’s Evening Standard reported.

Portuguese detectives are now waiting for the results of further analysis to prove whether or not the body allegedly stored in the car was that of the missing girl, the paper said.

An unnamed source close to Portuguese police told the paper: “Police are waiting for the results to confirm the identity of the DNA.

“That is what these DNA tests may show, and police are waiting for that.

“They are being told the fluids come from a dead body. These are bodily fluids that could only come from a corpse.”

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, said: “I cannot comment on any further unsubstantiated reports out of Portugal, or on any matter that potentially goes to the heart of the inquiry.

“I would urge you to look at the source and view all claims without substantiation with scepticism.”

But a family friend suggested that Portuguese detectives were leaking information to journalists to give the impression their inquiries are on track.

The friend said: “Gerry and Kate have got nothing to hide. They did not harm their daughter and it is arrant nonsense to suggest otherwise.

“It is not true – there was no corpse in the boot of that vehicle.

“Let’s face it, if it was definitive proof that a body was in there, would they still be sitting at home in Leicestershire? They would be under arrest.”

A spokesman for the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service, which is carrying out analysis for Portuguese police, said: “As far as I am aware our work is still ongoing.

“It is a live, ongoing investigation so we cannot comment on anything relating to it.”

The Find Madeleine campaign today released new appeal posters, which will be published in local newspapers in Spain and Portugal in the coming weeks.

The Portuguese poster, which can be downloaded from the official findmadeleine.com website, has a picture of Madeleine and the caption: “Don’t forget me – help us to find Madeleine!

“Please be alert. If you see me contact the local police now.”

Meanwhile, Channel 4’s Bremner, Bird and Fortune show has sparked outrage among viewers for broadcasting a sketch which joked that Prime Minister Gordon Brown would find Madeleine on the eve of an election.

Media watchdog Ofcom received 32 complaints about Sunday night’s programme.

Channel 4 also received complaints from viewers who said the joke was in poor taste.

The sketch suggested that Mr Brown would go to any lengths to achieve election victory – even producing Madeleine as a vote-winner.

Channel 4 defended the programme, saying the sketch was not aimed at the McCanns.

“The sketch satirised the lengths to which politicians would go to win public support, following press criticism of the timing of Gordon Brown’s visit to Iraq in the run up to a snap general election,” the spokesman added.

“We can assure you the sketch was not aimed at the McCann family, but was clearly directed at politicians and their opportunistic publicity stunts.

“It was certainly never Channel 4’s intention to offend or cause distress to the family or to our viewers,” a spokesman said.