Madeleine files reveal unseen e-fits

Portuguese police chose not to publish e-fits of suspicious men seen in Praia da Luz before Madeleine McCann went missing – despite voracious media interest in the case meaning the images would have been propelled into households worldwide.

With virtually no leads or forensic evidence, detectives were desperate for clues as to the identity of her abductor and the decision not to publish the e-fits will strike many as bizarre.

Three days after the little girl vanished, one British tourist came forward to tell them about a man he saw gazing towards the Ocean Club complex.

But the resulting professional police e-fit was only revealed today, more than 14 months later, as the police opened their books on the notorious unsolved case.

The actions of Portuguese police came in marked contrast to those of their colleagues in Britain and the United States.

Photofits, now superseded by e-fits, are considered in almost every major inquiry where there are witnesses but the suspect has not been identified.

Officers appealing for help will sometimes refer to “PC Public” as being one of the most powerful weapons in their armoury.

Although in some sensitive cases e-fit images may only be revealed to other police forces, the most serious cases will be published as widely as possible.

They have featured in some of the most high-profile inquiries of recent years, including the £50 million Securitas robbery and the murder of Sally Anne Bowman.

When the McCann family released sketches of a man they believe may have abducted four-year-old Madeleine in January, it was front-page news.

An earlier picture, drawn by an FBI-trained artist, of a faceless man who may have been carrying a sleeping Madeleine in his arms aroused similar attention.

One of the first uses of a photofit-style picture in Britain, then known as “identikit”, involved a murder at a central London antique shop in 1961.

A detective, who copied the idea from the United States, compiled a picture of a suspicious youth from witness accounts and released it to the press.

Within days, a patrol officer, who had been carrying the cutting in his pocket, spotted the man in Soho.

Edwin Bush, 21, was arrested and after further corroborating evidence was found he was convicted and eventually executed.

The system of compiling images was gradually updated from using sets of facial features sketched onto transparencies.

At first they were substituted with files full of photographs that could be reordered as instructed by a witness.

Today, police forces use computer technology to not only select suitable facial features, but to minutely adapt them.

Forces across England and Wales have officers specially-trained in getting the best out of eyewitnesses and generating the best possible likeness.

Images can be recreated in full colour, complete with clothing, jewellery and even tattoos.

E-fits have become such a feature of modern policing that some more extreme examples have provoked widespread ridicule.

In June, police in south Wales published an image of a man whose face was almost entirely covered with a baseball cap.

Thai police once issued a black-and-white image of a bank robbery suspect wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet.