MADDIE MCCANN UPDATE POLICE FINALLY APOLOGISE

Sixteen years after her disappearance, investigators make a damning admission

- Sumaiya Chowdhure

Since May 2007, when three-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing, the world has been watching and hoping for an explanation and resolution to the tragedy. Now it has transpired that Portuguese police officers have given a formal apology to the missing girl’s family for the way they were treated during the years-long investigation into Maddie’s disappearance.

CONTINUED SUSPICION 

A delegation travelled from Lisbon to London earlier this year to express regret for the past handling of the investigation and their treatment of the McCanns.

Kate and Gerry McCann, both 55, were the subject of continued suspicion after their daughter disappeared on a family holiday in Portugal’s Praia da Luz. Police and the public questioned how the couple could have left their children alone and unsupervised in their holiday apartment, where Maddie was last seen, while dining at a nearby restaurant.

Kate and Gerry’s apparently calm demeanour during public appearances was also held up as evidence of their possible guilt.

But it was later revealed the McCanns were advised not to show emotion in public as experts believed it could play into the hands of their daughter’s abductor and possible killer.

In 2008, Kate expressed her and Gerry’s distress at being considered “arguidos”, meaning someone who is treated as more than a witness but hasn’t been arrested or charged.