Where Is Madeline McCann ?

**donsaeid** · 05-10-2007, 12:46 PM

that is really sad what happend to her

hope they find her safe and if anybody did anything to that cute little child they hang that person from a special place

hope they find that girl fast not like that girl in austria after 12 or ?? years

**Rasputin** · 05-11-2007, 01:06 AM

Portuguese police looking for a British toddler kidnapped in a resort area were tracking new leads as her family questioned whether mistakes had been made.

Madeline McCann, 3, was kidnapped from a rented holiday apartment as her parents dined in a nearby restaurant. The Telegraph reported Thursday police were tracking four new "very useful" leads phoned into a line set up by the British Crimestoppers charity.

Meanwhile, the girl's grandmother feared police in Portugal had mishandled the investigation.

"It was difficult for them (Madeleine's parents) to get across to the Portuguese police what they thought had happened," Susan Healy told the Telegraph. "Mistakes were made initially, possibly due to inexperience. There's not much crime in that part of Portugal."

British police sources criticized the fact the child's picture wasn't posted across Portugal right after her disappearance, the newspaper reported.

**Rasputin** · 05-11-2007, 06:09 AM

Kidnapped girl's dad says no "stone unturned" in hunt

PRAIA DA LUZ (Reuters) - The parents of a kidnapped British girl will leave no "stone unturned" in the search for their young daughter, who was snatched from her bed in the Algarve eight days ago, her father said on Friday.

Portuguese police said on Thursday they would wind down their search in the area immediately around the Praia da Luz resort where Madeleine McCann, who will be four on Saturday, disappeared.

Officers said they were still following up hundreds of leads in their investigation.

"We are doing absolutely everything to assist the police with their investigation and we will leave no stone unturned in the search for our daughter, Madeleine," father Gerry McCann told journalists in a televised statement.

"We have now seen how the police are working in the search for Madeleine and their strong desire to find her," he said.

Gerry and his wife Kate were brought to the Portimao police station on Thursday to be interviewed and the Daily Correio de Manha newspaper reported on Friday they were asked to try to identify two suspects that had been questioned by police. Police would not comment on the report.

Local media has also reported that police were looking for two men and a woman, who were caught on CCTV with a young girl at a petrol station not far from the resort where Madeleine disappeared.

The McCanns' daughter went missing from a hotel room last week while they were dining in another part of the resort.

"We have been moved by the enormous willingness of people to do all they can to help find Madeleine," said Gerry McCann.

A British businessman has reportedly offered a reward of one million pounds to find the girl.

**Rasputin** · 05-12-2007, 12:38 AM

The search for Madeleine: a week of hope and heartbreak

Within hours of Madeleine McCann going missing, her grinning face was peering out from television broadcasts across the country.

Her family and friends quickly knocked down suggestions by resort staff that the little girl could have wandered off, saying from the outset that she was snatched from her bed during an idyllic holiday in the Algarve village of Praia Da Luz.

Known by friends to be protective parents who idolised their children, 38-year-old doctors Gerry and Kate McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, had been eating at the Ocean Club's tapas restaurant on Thursday night just yards away.

They were checking on Madeleine and their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, every half hour.

At around 10pm, Kate McCann emerged screaming from the room having found the shutters pulled up and the window and door open, beginning what would be every parent's nightmare.

Staff and guests joined in the search, and the local police - the National Republican Guard - arrived within 10 minutes, launching a sniffer dog search and notifying border police, Spanish police and airports.

The Judicial Police - the Portuguese CID equivalent - arrived in force the next morning, sparking criticism from British talking heads in interviews that the "golden hour" opportunity to find Madeleine had been missed.

As the media descended on the seaside resort, questions about their handling of the case grew as it became apparent that they would not divulge any details about possible suspects or lines of inquiry.

In the UK, police would use the child rescue alert, established after the murder of Sarah Payne, asking television and radio to broadcast a description of the child, what they were last wearing and any details of a suspect or their vehicle.

In Portugal, the integrity of the investigation is tantamount and public appeals are considered to give criminals clues as to the direction police are taking.

As a result, it was Madeleine's parents who issued the first photographs and footage of their daughter, and they who made the first public appeal for information.

Later, they would be the ones to detail the clothes their daughter was wearing when she vanished: white pyjama bottoms with a small floral design and a short-sleeved pink top with a picture of Eeyore on it.

In one photograph released, taken while on holiday, Madeline wears a pink hat and grins up at the camera, clutching tennis balls to her chest. In another, she is cradled by her mother as she blows out birthday candles on a homemade cake. In another black and white shot, she sits surrounded by her mother, father, brother and sister: the picture of a perfect happy family.

Facing the cameras on Friday night, Madeleine's father and consultant cardiologist Gerry McCann, his voice cracking with emotion, issued a personal appeal to anyone holding his daughter captive to release her.

He said: "We can't describe the anguish and despair we are feeling as parents of our beautiful daughter Madeleine.

"Please, if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister."

By this time police had begun dusting window shutters for finger prints and had sealed off the apartment, but again their methods drew criticism from British experts.

Sniffer dogs are thought to have followed Madeleine's scent to a supermarket 50 yards away but the trail went cold and the store's CCTV cameras showed no sign of the girl.

Using a map provided by the local mayor and aided by extra maps downloaded from the internet, around 800 people took part searching an area from the resort to the next village of Quatro Estradas around three miles away.

The search was extended to six miles, and television footage showed groups scouring the beach and the hillsides and derelict buildings around the village.

One of the search coordinators, local resident Dave Shelton, defended the police, saying: "The police were great. You have to remember that the population of Portugal is about the same as London. They have shipped them down from Lisbon, from everywhere."

The next morning, detectives broke their silence to confirm what everyone had dreaded but come to expect: that Madeleine had been abducted.

They also brought some hope however, saying they believed she was still alive and not far from Praia Da Luz.

Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the Judicial Police in the Faro region, said calls had flooded in from all over Portugal with possible sightings, and made clear police were considering the possibility that she was abducted for sexual abuse.

The e-fit of a suspect in the abduction - as drawn from memory by a British witness who had been shown the original
Again, there was frustration that no details of a rumoured suspect were released, nor was a sketch of a suspect put together by experts - later said by people shown it to be featureless and look "like an egg with hair".
Speaking this morning on BBC Breakfast, Portuguese Ambassador to Britain Anton Santana Carlos acknowledged the release of e-fits could help trap a suspect, but added of the Portuguese police laws: "It's not a mirror wall that can be changed from one day to the other, this principle is enshrined in our constitution so we cannot change it easily."

As the search continued, tormenting reports of sightings filtered out.

Local expatriates spotted a young girl was spotted walking along a road in the nearby town with two people; a balding man was seen dragging a girl towards a marina in the nearby town of Lagos; another man was seen driving away from a central Portuguese village at speed; a tourist reported how, two weeks earlier, she saw a man trying to steal a pushchair at the resort itself.

With each, the watching world held its breath, only for another red herring to be confirmed.

Gerry McCann and his wife Kate, clutching Madeleine's pink cuddly toy kitten, emerged to make another statement. While careful to thank police for their efforts, they said they were glad to have Leicester Police family liaison officers helping them find out more, even though there was little more to know.

Mrs McCann made her first direct appeal to her daughter's captor, standing on the steps of a local church where she attended a Portuguese Mother's Day ceremony.

"Please continue to pray for Madeleine," she said, whispering afterwards: "She's lovely."

Later she appealed directly to whoever is holding her daughter. "Please, please, do not hurt her. Please do not scare her, please let us know where to find Madeleine or put her in place of safety and tell somebody where. We beg you to let Madeleine come home."

She added in Portuguese: "Por favor, devolva a nossa menina."

Police sources claimed detectives were now looking for a British, rather than Portuguese abductor, pointing to a working description detectives are using suggested someone of English appearance.

Local media suggested British authorities had provided details of British paedophiles with links to the Algarve.

Meanwhile police showed their frustration with the constant questions in another press conference in which they admitted they no longer knew if the Madeleine was alive or not.

Responding to another question, Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa said: "We are searching for the child until the moment she appears. We can say nothing more because we are not magicians."

By the end of the weekend, Interpol and Europol were involved and British offers of help were accepted. Two Cracker-style British criminal behavioural experts from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) - which tackles international child sex abuse - began work today.

**Rasputin** · 05-12-2007, 06:11 AM

جايزه 1/5 ميليون پوندي براي يافتن دختر بچه انگليسي ربوده شده

شبكه تلويزيوني اسكاي نيوز از تعيين جايزه اي به ارزش يك و نيم ميليون پوند در خصوص بازگرداندن دختر بچه انگليسي كه در پرتغال ربوده شده است ، خبر داد.

اين شبكه افزود جايزه فوق براي مادلين مك كين كه امروز چهار ساله مي شود از سوي شماري از رهبران تجاري و برخي اشخاص برجسته و معروف در سطح جهان تامين شده است .

گفته مي شود پليس بدنبال راننده يك وانت سفيد در خصوص اين پرونده كودك ربايي است .

**Rasputin** · 05-12-2007, 09:33 AM

Beckham joins appeals for missing UK girl

Former England football captain David Beckham has appealed for help in finding Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old British girl kidnapped from a holiday resort in Portugal more than a week ago.

The Real Madrid player asked people to "please, please help" find the child, who turns four on Saturday.

Manchester United's Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, Chelsea's John Terry and Everton's Phil Neville have made similar pleas and a businessman has offered a million pound reward.

"We need to do everything possible to help the police," Beckham said. "If you have seen this little girl, please could you go to your local authorities or police."

Pictures of the smiling blonde-haired girl wearing a blue Everton top have been released to try to help the inquiry. She disappeared from her bedroom in the Algarve last Thursday.

On Saturday, Celtic and Aberdeen footballers will wear yellow ribbons on their wrists during their game in Glasgow to keep the missing girl in people's thoughts.

Her father Gerry McCann used to work as a cardiologist in the Scottish city. Family members have contacted the club to highlight their plight.

"We cannot imagine the horror they are going through," Celtic captain Neil Lennon said in a televised message. "They are in our thoughts and prayers."

Health spa owner Stephen Winyard offered the million pound reward after seeing pictures of the missing girl's distraught parents, who have stayed in Portugal during the search.

There but for the grace of God go all of us," Winyard told the Times.

Gerry and Kate McCann said on Friday they would "leave no stone unturned" in the search for their daughter.

"We have been moved by the enormous willingness of people to do all they can to help find Madeleine," Gerry McCann said.

**Rasputin** · 05-13-2007, 12:34 AM

MUM'S BIRTHDAY PLEA FOR MADELINE

IT was the cruellest day any mother could face. She should have been celebrating her little girl's fourth birthday at a party packed with friends, family and laughter.

Instead Kate McCann, sleepless with anxiety, greeted dawn with a growing despair as the hunt for missing Madeleine today enters another unbearable week.

In a statement read on her behalf she pleaded" "On Madeleine's birthday, please keep looking, please keep praying, please help bring Madeleine home."

For the first time Kate has begun to fear that Portuguese police could wind up their search with her daughter still not returned to her and no clear leads.

It has now been 11 days since Madeleine was snatched from her hotel bed during a family holiday and Kate's worried family fear that the stricken mum, a 38-year-old GP, is near collapse.

Her uncle Brian Kennedy said that she was becoming dangerously frail, trapped in a living nightmare. He said: "We don't know how long she can go on like this. She's going through unimaginable misery. Madeleine is the centre of her world and she feels an unbearable void to be without her on her birthday. We're all deeply worried about Kate. She's lost a lot of weight and looks so weak.

"She is normally a very fit, sporty and healthy woman. She has always been very lean and slim, but now she looks gaunt, almost skeletal."

Kate has been urged by her family to rest and stop forcing herself through the ordeal of appearing in front of the cameras which are broadcasting round-the-clock appeals for her daughter's return. Yesterday Kate and her husband Gerry arrived at the tiny 16th Century Our Lady Luz church for evening mass. Green and yellow ribbons were tied to the door - green as a symbol of hope for their daughter's safe return, yellow in remembrance of missing Madeleine.

The McCanns walked silently side-by-side into church, Kate clutching the Cuddle Cat toy that has not left her side since Madeleine's disappearance.

She had earlier carefully prepared a statement, well aware that a mother's words can sometimes reach deeper than a father's.

But as the sun rose after another sleepless night, she was simply too broken to face the TV crews.

It was the first time Kate's astonishing strength, which had held up through countless public appeals in which the pain was clearly written on her face, had deserted her. Her Uncle Brian, 68, a retired headteacher said: "She just couldn't put herself through it. We have all urged her to stay inside, to regain her strength."

Instead Alex Woolfall, a spokesman for holiday firm Mark Warner, made the statement on the McCanns' behalf for people to keep searching for their little girl.

The rest of statement read: "Today is our daughter Madeleine's fourth birthday. We would like to mark today by asking people to redouble their efforts to help find Madeleine. We know that there is already a huge amount of effort and resource being put into the search for our daughter.

"We also know that offers of support are being made daily. It is this that keeps us strong and gives us hope."

Kate spent most of yesterday privately in the villa she and Gerry and their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie have now moved to.

They appeared briefly when they went to the Mark Warner complex where they stayed when Madeleine was abducted. The twins each clutched balloons, signs the family had held their own subdued birthday celebration.

Portuguese detectives now believe nine British holidaymakers hold the key to finding her kidnapper. Police sniffer dogs have tracked Madeleine's scent to a local supermarket and two apartments where the group were staying, only yards from where she was snatched.

The nine Brits have been helping police with their inquiries over the last three days.

Police believe they may have unwittingly come into contact with a "middle man" of Madeleine's abductor or abductors at the Ocean Club in Prai da Luz, Portugal.

Although there is no suggestion the nine are being treated as suspects, they are seen as important witnesses.

And the news fuelled speculation that a fellow holidaymaker who the McCanns may have met during their break was involve in the abduction.

A police source said: "We are hoping we can reach the kidnapper or kidnappers' middle man through these nine.

"They have all been questioned as potential witnesses. They were staying at two apartments that the sniffer dogs have tracked Madeleine's scent to."

Madeleine was snatched from the family's apartment at 10pm on May 3 while her parents were having a meal with other guests just 50 yards away.

Two men and a blonde woman seen at a petrol station driving a car with UK registration plates last week have emerged as prime suspects.

WITNESSES say all three seemed to be English and were driving a car with yellow and black registration plates like UK cars.

Local shopkeepers have also been shown CCTV printouts of three people, including a man aged about 40 with dark hair down to his shoulders, a blonde woman of about 40 with her hair in a ponytail and an older woman with collar-length hair.

The three were clearly not Portuguese and "looked English".

There was also a flurry of unconfirmed reports yesterday, including the hunt for a man in a white van who matched the description of a man in a police e-fit. Locals had reported seeing the van parked opposite the family's apartment a week before Madeleine went missing.

There are now just 30 police officers assigned to the investigation, scaled down from the original 150 that scoured the surrounding area for clues.

Senior detectives - who have come under attack for a series of blunders during the probe - are working late into the night at the area's police headquarters in the town of Portimao.

Some have even been sleeping at the office.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Mirror can reveal that Madeleine was snatched through patio doors which had been left unlocked by the family.

It was originally thought shutters at the front of the villa had been broken and jammed open by the kidnappers. But Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa confided in former British Chief Inspector Albert ***by that neither the windows or their metal shutters had been tampered with. Mr ***by, who led the Jamie Bulger inquiry and is currently in Portugal, revealed it was the sliding patio doors of the ground floor apartment that allowed Madeleine to be quietly and quickly kidnapped.

The McCanns would have used the patio doors as they checked on their daughter and her siblings during their meal. They had a direct line of sight to the apartment from their table at the tapas restaurant opposite, but their view of the doors was obscured by a hedge.

Mr ***by told the Sunday Mirror: "I had a very interesting chat with the officer in charge. The window shutters are not at all involved. The door was left unlocked.

"The window's shutters are almost impossible to open from the outside."

The McCanns have vowed to remain in Portugal until their daughter can come home with them.

Madeleine's grandparents Susan and Brian Healey last night described the little girl as "a special gift from God".

Susan said: "It would take a lifetime for us to thank all the people who have offered support. Now we just want our Madeleine brought home.

"We don't know how long Kate and Gerry are going to stay out there for.

"At the moment it is just a frightening thought that life could ever go on again without Madeleine."

**Rasputin** · 05-14-2007, 12:31 AM

TOP STORY: Kidnap stuns mates

A decade ago Scotsman Gerry McCann, whose four-year-old daughter was abducted in Portugal nine days ago during a family holiday, was living in Napier and playing football. His former clubmates have been left stunned by what has happened to the McCann family.

Hopes and prayers for the return of kidnapped British four-year-old Madeleine McCann are coming from half a world away, as local friends of her father, Gerry, anxiously wait for news of her fate.

The little girl was snatched from her bed in a Portuguese beach resort on May 3, while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant.

The story has dominated news coverage in Europe as famous footballers and her distressed parents plead for whoever took Madeleine to return her unharmed.
Mr McCann lived in Napier for about a year in 1996, turning out for Napier City Rovers.

The "down-to-earth, natural, great guy" made several close friends, including Rovers stalwarts Ian Gearey and Jim Scott, who both attended his wedding to Kate McCann eight years ago.

Mr Gearey said he was shocked to learn Gerry's girl had been taken.

"I am absolutely gobsmacked. I was just stunned. I heard it from Jim, who had picked up a Sunday paper and it was there."

The pair's romance had flourished after Mr McCann followed his future wife to New Zealand, Mr Gearey said. "Kate was working as a doctor in Wellington. He told us he'd come for her, he came to woo her, really. He won her heart and, of course they got together here, and not that terribly long after they got married in the UK."

The wedding in Liverpool was lovely and big, said Mr Gearey. They hadn't spoken for some time but the McCanns kept in contact with their Hawke's Bay buddies, most recently sending a family Christmas card wishing them well.

Mr Gearey had tried to contact them since Madeleine's disappearance, to let the frantic family know their Kiwi mates were there for support. Mr McCann was a "very, very" talented surgeon who was very well regarded and worked in Hawke's Bay while he was here, Mr Gearey said.

Mrs McCann is a GP while her husband is a heart specialist. "He is just a very nice guy. Both of them are lovely people."

Now Mr Gearey is wishing for a happy ending for his former clubmate.

"We are no different than everybody. We just wait and hope that they are going to find her and they will get a lead.' He hadn't met Madeleine but now has seen her face plastered across TV screens and newspapers. Mr Gearey said they continued to pray for her.

"They will find her. That's what we are praying for and holding on to."

At a church service in Portugal on Saturday, Gerry McCann said the disappearance of Madeleine, who turned four on Saturday, had unleashed a "tidal wave" of devastation on the family.

"Today we should be celebrating the fourth birthday of our daughter Madeleine," he said. "Instead, we have had to remember what a normal, beautiful, vivacious, funny, and loving little girl that we are missing today."

**Rasputin** · 05-15-2007, 12:29 AM

Family 'convinced Madeline is safe and well'

The parents of missing Madeleine McCann today reaffirmed their belief that their daughter is safe and well as they stepped up international efforts to find her.

Gerry McCann said that until the family saw “concrete evidence to the contrary”, they continued to be convinced that the four-year-old is “safe and being looked after”.

His wife, Kate, also emphasised that the couple had no intention of returning to Britain from Portugal in the immediate future.

Madeleine was snatched from her bed in a holiday apartment in the Portuguese village of Praia da Luz 11 days ago.

Despite their ordeal, the McCanns said today that they had drawn strength from the “spiritual outpouring” that they had received both in Portugal and around the world.

**Rasputin** · 05-15-2007, 11:32 AM

British man 'a suspect in Madeleine case'

A British man questioned by police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was officially classed as a 'suspect' today.

Robert Murat was questioned late last night while forensic experts searched his house just yards from where the four-year-old was snatched 12 days ago.

He was one of three people questioned by detectives in the town of Portimao. All three were released overnight.

Although he has not been charged and is not believed to be in custody, it is thought he is the first person to be formally classed as a suspect.

Among items taken from the house which was searched last night were videotapes and a computer, witnesses said.Under Portuguese law, people who are questioned are not under arrest but simply treated as witnesses.

Arrests can only be made when police consider someone a suspect or possible suspect and then they require a court order before they can be cast as such.

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, spokesman for the Madeleine McCann investigation, said today that a British man in his thirties taken from the house which was searched has now been classed as an “arguido”.

Madeleine was snatched from her bed in the resort town of Praia da Luz on May 3 while her parents were dining nearby. There has been no news of her whereabouts since.

Today her parents Gerry and Kate emerged from the apartment where they are staying with their twin children Sean and Amelie and walked the short distance to a nearby creche to drop them off.

**Rasputin** · 05-16-2007, 01:29 AM

Madeleine 'suspect' denies involvement

A British man questioned over missing Madeleine McCann insists he has nothing to do with her disappearance in Portugal.

Police on the Algarve say there is not enough evidence to arrest Robert Murat who says he has been made a "scapegoat".

Mr Murat said he would only survive the ordeal if Madeleine's abductor was caught to clear his name.

The former property developer was questioned late on Monday night while his house, just yards from where the four-year-old was snatched from her bed, was searched by forensic experts.

He said: "This has ruined my life and has made things very difficult for my family here and in Britain.

"The only way I will survive this is if they catch Madeleine's abductor. I have been made a scapegoat for something I did not do."

Mr Murat's mother's villa, at the end of the road which leads to the flat where the McCanns were staying when the youngster was snatched, was one of five properties in the area of Praia Da Luz which was searched on Monday.

Two others people, a German woman named in reports as Michaela Walczuch and her Portuguese husband, named as Luis Antonio, were interviewed as witnesses and released.

Mr Murat was also released, but police revealed that they were treating one of the three as an "arguido", a suspect.

Portugal's investigative Policia Judiciaria (PJ) have interviewed around 100 people but treated all of them as witnesses rather than suspects until now.

The PJ have not formally named Mr Murat as the one they were treating as a suspect but sources said he was the arguido.

His questioning came after police narrowed down lines of inquiry to those which appeared stronger and more consistent.

Monday's searches were launched after police became convinced that one particular line of inquiry appeared particularly strong.

Members of his family have insisted that he has nothing to do with Madeleine's abduction and say he was having dinner with his mother Jenny on the night she was abducted.

Mr Murat told Sky last night that he had returned home at around 7pm while his mother arrived an hour later.

After they had dinner they went to bed.

Madeleine went missing 13 days ago. Her parents Gerry and Kate say there are convinced she is alive and is being looked after.

**Rasputin** · 05-17-2007, 12:20 AM

Madeleine police examine computers linked to suspect

Police in Portugal are probing computer links to the key suspect in the Madeleine McCann abduction case today.

Last night they swooped on the home of IT expert Sergey Malinka, who designed a website for Anglo-Portuguese man Robert Murat in the village of Praia Da Luz.

Mr Murat, whose home just yards from the spot where Madeline was abducted two weeks ago has been the centre of intense police activity, was named this week as the first “arguido”, or suspect, in the case.

Last night, after spending two hours inside Mr Malinka’s home, the plain clothes officers emerged carrying two hard drives, a laptop and a black bin bag full of items.

Mr Malinka, a Russian who lived in the town for around seven years, was brought out by the detectives and driven off.

He was driven to the headquarters of Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria (PJ) for questioning as a witness.

The search followed the announcement on Tuesday by the PJ that they now had a suspect.

They indicated then that they would continue to probe links to their suspect.

Mr Murat, who strenuously denies any involvement in Madeleine’s abduction, was taken in for questioning by the PJ two nights ago before being released.

While he was being questioned, police were searching his mother’s house just a short distance from where Madeleine was snatched.

Among items said to have been removed was a computer and other communications equipment.

Although police say they do not have enough evidence to charge or even formally arrest Mr Murat, he is the first person they have formally classed as a suspect.

Last night’s search happened just yards from the village church in Praia da Luz where the McCann family was holding a private prayer service.

The family is said to be concentrating on driving forward the campaign to find Madeleine and continuing with everyday life despite the recent police activity in the village and developments in the case.

Tonight it will be two weeks since Madeleine, four, was snatched from her bed in her parents’ holiday apartment.

Despite a series of developments in the investigation, there is still no news of her whereabouts although her parents remain convinced she is still alive and are set to remain in Portugal for the foreseeable future.

The latest twist in the case came on the day that relatives of the McCanns launched a fighting fund to pay for international efforts aimed at bringing Madeleine home safely.

Neighbours said that Mr Malinka worked from home where he lived with his parents.

His questioning follows reports in Portuguese media that police were interested in a Russian man.

Mr Malinka denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

One neighbour confirmed that she understood he had done some work for Mr Murat.

“I just know Sergey set up his computer because he does it for a lot of people,” she said.

“He’s a nice guy as far as I know.”

Raymond ***by, barman of The Cave pub, which is below the flat, said: “I always found him to be a nice man, Sergey has always been a good customer, he has never done anything wrong.”

Last night Mr Murat told the BBC: “I am totally, totally innocent.”

The corporation interviewed his cousin Sally Eveleigh on his behalf, saying that Mr Murat was unable to give direct quotes due to legal restrictions.

She said he felt “awful” and his whole life had been overturned.

She said he was trying to help people “as he always does” and “vehemently” protested his innocence.

Giving his message, she said: “What he would love is for all this attention to be taken away from him and refocus on Madeleine, which is what he was trying to do at the time.”

His friend Tuck Price added: “Under Portuguese law he’s not allowed to say anything. He wants to get his story out.

“He wants to get the focus back on to Madeleine and away from him.

“His daughter is now in hiding in the UK. The one thing, the compassionate thing, that made him get involved in the case, has put his daughter in this very horrible position.”

Meanwhile Madeleine’s family received the backing of the British Government in their desperate search to find her.

As they launched a fund and website to help step up the search, the family received pledges of help from across the political spectrum.

Relatives travelled from Glasgow to London to meet Chancellor Gordon Brown and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

In Leicester, former England rugby captain Martin Johnston helped launch a fund to help find Madeleine.

Madeleine’s aunt Philomena McCann said the family was so buoyed by all the support that despair had turned to “a tidal wave of hope”.

Ms McCann said she spoke to her brother Gerry for 45 minutes last night and he was overwhelmed by the support.

In a reference to a powerful personal address at the church in Praia Da Luz on Madeleine’s birthday in which Gerry McCann told of the “tidal wave” of devastation wrought by the disappearance, the aunt said: “Instead of a tidal wave of despair, he is facing a tidal wave of hope.”

**Rasputin** · 05-17-2007, 04:10 AM

Madeleine: Russian suspect cries foul

Praia Da Luz - A Russian man who was interviewed overnight by Portuguese police looking into the disappearance of a four-year-old British girl two weeks ago said on Thursday that he had nothing to do with the case.

Police removed computer equipment from Sergei Malinka's apartment in Praia da Luz on Wednesday night and then took him in for several hours of questioning in the nearby city of Portimao, in Portugal's southernmost province of Algarve.

Malinka, a computer expert from Moscow, reportedly designed a website for Robert Murat, a 33-year-old British man who was identified by police earlier this week as the first and so far only formal suspect in the case.

Speaking to reporters gathered outside the building where he lives, he said he was "completely" innocent.

"I've invested seven years of my life in this country trying to succeed, and suddenly in one hour it's all fallen apart," he said.

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa told Portugal's Lusa news agency that Malinka was interviewed as a witness and not as a suspect. The investigation was "dynamic" and could undergo changes at any moment, he added.

Murat told a British television station earlier this week that he was innocent and he felt he was being made a scapegoat by police.

Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3 from the family holiday apartment where her parents had left her, and her younger brother and sister, while they went to a nearby restaurant at Praia da Luz.

The search for Madeleine has led newscasts and dominated headlines in Britain and Portugal. She was aged three when she disappeared but turned four on May 12.

**Rasputin** · 05-18-2007, 12:32 AM

Madeleine website gets 25 million hits in a day

THE website set up in the campaign to find missing British four-year-old Madeleine McCann in Portugal recorded 25 million hits yesterday as concerned users checked out the latest on the search.
One part of the site - the “messages of support” section - had to be closed down during the afternoon as its IT technicians struggled to cope with the level of interest.

The site has had more than 40 million hits since it went live on May 9.

Calum Macrae, Director of Infohost, said: “In all my years in this business, I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s unbelievable. As the media hype spreads further and further across the globe, more and more people are visiting and posting messages.

“To have 25 million hits in just one day is extraordinary.”

In Praia da Luz, Portugal, it emerged today that Robert Murat, the official suspect in the abduction of Madeleine, hired a Hyundai Getz car despite owning his own vehicle. He was taken in for questioning on Monday after using the car for two days.

Detectives are awaiting the results of tests for DNA and fibres found at the villa that Mr Murat shares with his mother, 100m from the Algarve holiday apartment where Madeleine went missing 15 days ago.

Search teams returned to Mr Murat’s villa today to seize more belongings as they considered arresting him for abduction.

The timings of telephone calls allegedly made between Mr Murat, 33, and a Russian computer expert on the night that Madeline was abducted from her family's holiday apartment are being studied by detectives.

Officers yesterday started to reinterview many of those who joined the search for Madeleine on the night she went missing, for evidence that Mr Murat was present. His mother, Jennifer, 71, was asked to confirm his alibi that she was having dinner with her son that night.

Mr Murat became a leading member of the search and acted as a police translator for witnesses, including her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann.

It has emerged that Mr Murat was reported to police after he became “impatient” as he insisted that he needed to hire a vehicle on Saturday.

Maria Rocio, an agent at Auto Rent III Car Hire, said that Mr Murat was in a hurry when he visited the shop. “There was something about his voice,” she said. “He was saying, ‘I need to have it quickly’. His voice was impatient.”

She said that Mr Murat telephoned her shortly after midday on Saturday, saying that he needed a car because his was being used to promote posters asking for help in finding Madeleine.

On the lease agreements, Mr Murat gave his wife’s address in Norfolk, England, his date of birth, and his British driving licence details.

When Ms Rocio realised that Mr Murat had been interviewed by police, she contacted them with her concerns.

Police were today still examining property taken from the home of Serguei Malinka, 22, a website designer who worked for Mr Murat. Officers removed two desktop computers and a laptop from the home that Mr Malinka shares with his parents.

Mr Malinka, who lives 500m from the McCanns’ holiday apartment, insisted that he was “completely” innocent. He said: “I’ve invested seven years of my life in this country trying to succeed, and suddenly in one hour it’s all fallen apart.”

It is believed that detectives asked Mr Malinka about a tour company he was involved with at Lagos Marina, 8km from Praia da Luz, which organised boat trips to the Mediterranean and North Africa. Detectives have searched the records of yachts that visited Lagos after receiving reports of a girl resembling Madeleine being dragged to the marina.

Madeleine's parents have been co-ordinating the Find Madeleine campaign to organise an international hunt.

Its website received five million hits in the first 24 hours after its launch last Wednesday.

Michael Wright, a relative of the McCanns, who have remained in Portugal since their little girl's disappearance, said: “Their ability to remain positive and focus on what we can do rather than go to the dark places - that they have perhaps visited in the early days - is where our focus is and it drives us all on.”

Where Is Madeline McCann ?

Where Is Madeline McCann ?

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