Ten years on, police still have ‘critical lines of inquiry’ in Madeleine McCann disappearance

POLICE have revealed they are still pursuing “critical lines of inquiry” 10 years after Madeleine McCann vanished.

ALMOST a decade after three-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished, London police are still following critical lines of inquiry as the missing girl’s parents call the 10-year anniversary “a horrible marker of time, stolen time”.

McCann disappeared from her bedroom on May 3, 2007 during a family holiday in Portugal, while her parents were dining with friends at a nearby restaurant in the resort town of Praia da Luz.

Despite a massive international search and media coverage, her fate remains a mystery.

“Sadly investigations can never be 100 per cent successful,” said London Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley. He said police had no definitive evidence as to whether Madeleine was alive or dead.

“Where we are today is with a much smaller team focused on a small number of remaining critical lines of inquiry that we think are significant.

“If we didn’t think they were significant, we wouldn’t be carrying on.”

Madeleine McCann would be 14 next month.

In the 10 years since McCann vanished, the media has suggested a host of explanations for her disappearance, ranging from a burglary gone wrong to abduction by slave traders.

Madeleine’s parents were named as official suspects by Portuguese police four months after the disappearance but in 2008 were cleared.

The McCanns and friends who were with them on the night Madeleine went missing later won large payouts from newspapers over stories that they were involved. Another Briton was awarded 600,000 pounds ($A1 million) in damages over false allegations he had abducted the girl.

“We are bracing ourselves for the next couple of weeks,” Kate McCann wrote in a Facebook post overnight. “It’s likely to be stressful and painful and more so given the rehashing of old ‘stories’, misinformation, half-truths and downright lies which will be doing the rounds in the newspapers, social media and ‘special edition’ TV programs.”

Gerry and Kate McCann say they are bracing for the painful rehashing of their ordeal.

The Portuguese closed their inquiry in 2008. London police launched a review of the case in 2011 after the McCanns wrote to then British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Assistance Commissioner Rowley said there was no “definitive evidence” about what had happened to Madeleine, but he insisted police do believe she was abducted and that her parents were not responsible.

“I so wish we could solve this ... It always hurts that you can’t guarantee success as a professional police officer.

“We’re happy that’s completely dealt with and there is no reason whatsoever to reopen that or start rumours.

“The McCanns are the parents of a missing girl and we’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened.”

“We’ve got no definitive evidence about whether Madeleine is alive or dead.”

The McCanns have been told by police that they may never have an answer.