What should the mother of a missing child look like? rages Kate McCann
22 May 2011
The Express on Sunday
James Murray Investigations Editor
A defiant Kate McCann yesterday confronted critics who branded her cold and emotionless when she returned to the country where her daughter Madeleine vanished.
As she arrived in the Portuguese capital Lisbon to make her latest appeal for information, an angry Kate, 43, asked:
"Who can say what the mum of a missing child should look like? "People can judge however they want but unless you've been in the situation we've been in, it's impossible to know what someone feels. Why do people feel they have the right to judge when this is based on ignorance?"
Kate and her husband Gerry chose not to give a formal press conference to launch her book, Madeleine, in Portugal, preferring to give television interviews.
Their daughter disappeared a few days before her fourth birthday from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz as they dined with friends in May 2007.
In an interview with the Portuguese magazine Sabado, Kate said she still feels guilty when she laughs about something. She said:
"I still feel a little guilt when I laugh but not as much as I did. I have learned to accept it's not bad to be happy."
Kate, whose twins Sean and Amelie are now six, added:
"They need a happy mummy and Madeleine needs to return to a mummy who's happy as well."
Scotland Yard announced a review of the investigation following the intervention of Prime Minister David Cameron. The Sunday Express can reveal that a royal aide produced a photofit of a suspect in the case but it was not sent to Portuguese detectives, according to former police chief Goncalo Amaral.
The photofit was only made public by Kate McCann in her book, which tells of her frustration at police blunders.
We can disclose worrying details of the flow of information between police in Britain and Portugal and how Amaral has offered to fly to London to speak to officers reviewing the case. The photofit was provided by Mrs Carole Tranmer, who worked as a personal assistant at Windsor Castle in the Royal Collection.
On the afternoon Madeleine disappeared, Mrs Tranmer visited her aunt Pamela Fenn and was standing on the balcony above the McCanns' apartment. As she glanced downwards, she saw a man acting strangely. He was opening and closing a gate of a neighbouring flat as if to determine how much noise the lock made, while looking around in both directions. Days after returning to England she learned of the kidnapping and went to police to give a statement. A photofit was created from her description, but Mr Amaral said the first time he set eyes on it was in the Sunday Express on May 8 this year.
We published it to show how it resembled a 40-year-old German man, being held over allegations that he was a serial child killer targeting families at European holiday resorts.
Mrs Tranmer was also asked by Leicestershire Police to do an interview on video . In addition, a British man at the Tapas Bar near the McCanns's apartment said he spoke to an English woman who told him she had heard a "breaking noise" at around the time that Madeleine was taken.
Mr Amaral said the statement was not passed on to Portuguese detectives.
He said:
"I knew about the statement from the British woman but the photofit was not sent through, and I was responsible for collating all the information supplied by the British officers.
"I believe the photofit is important and this is a line of inquiry that should now be investigated."
Mrs Tranmer's evidence is contained in Kate's book under a section called Key Sightings.
Listing her as Witness Six, she writes:
"Sometime between 4pm and 5pm, she noticed a man coming out through one of the little gates leading from the terraces of the ground floor apartments to the access path. His behaviour struck the witness as suspicious: he appeared to be trying to close the gate quietly and very slowly and deliberately checking in both directions."
Mr Amaral said:
"I would be willing to fly to London to speak with officers doing the review to assist them.
"I don't think it would be useful to criticise the British detectives, however I would be interested to hear the explanation for why certain material they had was not sent over to Portugal.
"I am aware of some statements taken in the days following the incident which were not sent over. Obviously this is one area the Scotland Yard officers will be looking at."
British resident Ian Robertson, who has a flat in the same block as Kate and Gerry McCann, has urged Scotland Yard to look into a spate of break-ins in the block before Madeleine was taken.
Mr Robertson, from Pembrookshire, said:
"I believe that all the ground floor apartments in that block had been broken into.
"There seemed to be a group of local thieves targeting them. I have a theory that these thieves had criminal contacts with others and that Madeline may have been stolen to order."
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