11/04/2008

Madeleine Transcripts Leaked

Transcripts of interviews with the parents of missing youngster Madeleine McCann have been leaked as they launch a bid for an EU-wide missing child alert system in Brussels.

Kate and Gerry McCann believe the leakage is a "deliberate smear" and have asked the Portuguese Justice Ministry to launch an internal investigation into why the papers were released – which could be a severe breach of the country's judicial secrecy laws.

It is alleged that in the transcripts three-year-old Madeleine asked her parents why they did not come when she and her younger brother Sean were crying the night before she disappeared.

The McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said that Madeleine's comment had been in the police file for almost 11 months and that it was "taken in isolation and out of context" on a day when they were in Brussels, "trying to improve children's welfare and child safety".

He added that it was a "blatant attempt" to "undermine" their work in Europe.

The revelation has caused some confusion in the McCann's camp with the couple unaware that the children had been crying on the night in question as they had been carrying out regular checks.

Madeleine went missing in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, on 3 May last year just nine days before her fourth birthday.

The case of the missing child has attracted high profile celebrities such as David Beckham and Portuguese players Jose Goncalves and Bruno Aguiar appealing for information.

Sir Richard Branson, Top Shop’s Philip Green donated £250,000 as reward money for finding the child.

(DS/JM)

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