McCanns vow to never give up

2008-07-01 20:39

London - The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann will "never give up searching" for her despite reports that Portuguese police are ending their investigation, the family's spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Kate and Gerry McCann, who are "arguido" or official suspects in the case, are awaiting official confirmation of reports in the Portuguese media that detectives are to close the case due to lack of evidence.

The McCanns' spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, called for their suspect status to be lifted and that if the investigation was ended the files should be handed to the McCanns to allow an ongoing private investigation to continue.

He said: "I still haven't got this officially yet. We are aware of reports in the Portuguese press this morning suggesting that the case is to be dropped or archived without charges to Kate and Gerry.

"The information in their files surely cannot sit on the shelf gathering dust. Kate and Gerry will never give up searching for their daughter.

"I'm not going to criticise the Portuguese police at this stage. We still have to work with them."

He said that if the reports were true, the McCanns would welcome them because their status as suspects would be removed and they would then be seen as "the wronged couple that they are".

"Clearly, if they are effectively cleared by the shelving of this case in one sense it has to be welcomed because it means they will not be charged with any criminal offence and that's quite right. They should not be.

"They should not have been in this position. They have suffered for long enough."

Mitchell went on: "They are entirely innocent of any involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine."

Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007, days before her fourth birthday, after her parents left her sleeping in a holiday flat as they dined with friends in a nearby tapas restaurant in the southern Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha reported on Tuesday that police "do not have sufficient evidence to allow formal charges to be brought against the McCanns in the disappearance of their daughter".

"The police have not found the guilty," reported another newspaper, Jornal de Noticias.

Gerry and Kate McCann, who are both medical doctors, were made formal suspects in September last year in one of the many dramatic twists in the case.

They have insisted throughout that their daughter was abducted.

A British man who lives in Praia da Luz, Robert Murat, was also a suspect in the case.

The reports said the official closure of the investigation would be announced in the next few days.

- AFP