The end of Kate and Gerry McCann’s six-year ordeal? Sadly not. Maria, the girl found in last Wednesday’s raid at a gipsy site in Greece (above), turned out to be just four, while Madeleine — if she is still alive — will be 10 by now. None the less, for her parents, the mere possibility that another couple’s child could disappear and be found again was a source of inspiration. Whenever a child is recovered in this kind of situation it gives them a sense of hope, their spokesman told The Sunday Telegraph last night. Abduction by gipsies is just one of the many theories that have been aired about Madeleine’s disappearance since she vanished from a holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz one May evening in 2007. Others are that she was stolen to order by a paedophile gang, or that she was sold into child slavery. The fact is that nobody knows. Yet as Greek police were trying to trace Maria’s parents last week, their counterparts at Scotland Yard were announcing what could prove to be a significant breakthrough in Madeleine’s case. On Monday night, during a fresh appeal on Crimewatch watched by seven million people, they issued new e-fits of a man seen carrying a child from the resort the night that Madeleine disappeared. At first glance, the e-fit looks like a like a wanted poster for Mr Ordinary: the suspect is described as being white, clean shaven, of medium height and medium build, aged between 20 and 40 and with short brown hair. Such a description could arguably apply to a large section of the male population in Praia da Luz that night, and indeed much of the rest of Europe.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 11:40:21 +0000