YARD ASKED TO REOPEN MADDIE CASE
MISSING: Madeleine McCann
Sunday November 8,2009
By James Murray, Investigations Editor SCOTLAND YARD should be brought in to take control of the investigation to discover what happened to Madeleine McCann.
Kate and Gerry McCann want the Yard’s renowned kidnap team to assess an avalanche of new information after last week’s emotional internet appeal, which generated five million hits from around the world.
Portuguese police, the Sunday Express can reveal, have failed to set up a new phone line for callers to ring with information.
Last night there was fury over thedismissive response. Interpol and Europol are among 163 forces worldwide that have committed to help with the appeal.
Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria is still in charge of the Madeleine case because that is where she disappeared over two years ago.
It would say only that if credible information comes in by fax, letter or email, it would be passed to senior officers if it was deemed “significant”.
There were also reservations last night about Leicestershire Police, who are aiding the investigation from this country because the McCanns live in their catchment area, at Rothley.
Last night former Scotland Yard chief Dai Davies said it was time to let the Yard take over.
The former royal protection head said: “Madeleine is a British subject and she deserves the best, which the Yard can provide. It is time to put any daft police protocols to one side and get on with the job of finding her. It is a solvable case.
“It is astonishing and disgraceful that the Portuguese have not assigned a specific team to scrutinise leads which could provide a breakthrough in the world’s biggest child abduction case.
“It is frankly outrageous that the parents of this poor child should be hiring private detectives to conduct an investigation which should have been taken on by the Yard in the first place.
“The Yard has a kidnap squad with a brilliant success record, and access to the best Holmes computer technology, forensics and investigative techniques in the world.”
Holmes, which stands for Home Office Large Major Enquiry System, is a state-of-the-art data system designed to deal with the huge volume of information major crimes generate.
Sources claimed last night that Leicestershire detectives have not been inputting all their information on Holmes.
Police forces across Britain have cracked scores of tough cases using the system because it can be programmed to highlight suspects and analyse the value of myriad leads.
No one was available at Leicestershire Police yesterday to confirm or deny the claims.
On Tuesday, Kate and Gerry, both doctors aged 41, made new television appeals via the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
They urged: “Please take a minute and help us bring Madeleine home. Let’s hope and pray this message reaches those who know who took Madeleine and they find the strength to do the right thing.”
On Friday, a Leicestershire Police spokesman said any new information from the CEOPC initiative would be passed on to the Portuguese who would consider credible lines of inquiry.
Requests from the Portuguese to carry out new inquiries in the UK would be co-ordinated by Leicestershire Police.
New images of Madeleine, who would now be six, were shown in a video in English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German and Italian.
One showed how she might appear if her skin had darkened and her hair had been dyed brown to make her look like other children if she is being held in Morocco or Tunisia.
Another time-generated image showed how she might look now with her natural blonde colouring if she is being kept in Northern Europe.
While Kate and Gerry McCann believe Leicestershire detectives have worked hard, they feel Scotland Yard’s experts on kidnap, forensics and offender profiling could bring much needed impetus to the inquiry.
Madeleine vanished, aged three, from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3 2007.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/138901/Yard-asked-to-reopen-Maddie-case
