Articles | McCanns push for child alert system

McCanns push for child alert system

Published: Thursday, 10 April 2008, 2:56PM

The parents of Madeleine McCann have pleaded for Europe-wide backing for a cross-border missing child alert system.

Addressing a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels, Kate and Gerry McCann urged Euro-MPs to put their names to a declaration demanding swift agreement on a US-style "amber alert" system.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Madeleine asked her mother just hours before her disappearance: "Why didn't you come when we were crying last night?".

The three-year-old's stark question emerged amid leaked passages from police interviews given by the McCanns directly after their daughter went missing in Praia da Luz, Portugal on May 3, 2007.

The couple are said to be angered by the timing of the leak and convinced it was a "blatant" attempt to smear them.

In an address to Euro-MPs on the missing child alert system, Mrs McCann said: "We implore you to support our declaration. Please do not wait for another child and family to suffer as we have.

"I cannot explain just how totally devastating this was. If anyone was wanting to inflict the greatest amount of pain on us then they have done that."

Mrs McCann also spoke about the fear and pain that her daughter must have been through, adding: "She is four years old."

Mr McCann added: "This is a very simple child alert system with almost no cost implications - who would not support such a system?"

During a visit to Washington in March, the couple discussed the American system and are convinced EU countries can co-operate in setting up a similar rapid response network.

Efforts two years ago to introduce the same system failed to get sufficient support to succeed. But hopes are high that losing Madeleine will help galvanise full backing in the European Parliament and from EU governments.

Mr McCann told MEPs that the "Amber Alert" system has had a high rate of success with almost 400 abducted children successfully recovered in the US since 2003. In the crucial first 72 hours of being snatched, 80 per cent were rescued.

By contrast Europe can only claim limited success in cross-border co-operation, with only a patchwork of partial national monitoring systems.

European data-sharing on child abduction cases is limited and only Belgium and France have introduced national child alert systems by flashing up electronic missing child information on motorway signboards within 30 minutes of a confirmed abduction.

Additionally, bulletins are triggered and radio and TV stations interrupt existing programming in the first hours after a case is notified.

The McCann's declaration for having such a system introduced has been drafted by a group of Euro MPs including European Parliament Vice President Edward McMillan-Scott.

Mr McMillan-Scott said: "This is not about legislation but about political will. Some 130,000 children go missing in Europe every year and the police have to sit through the reports and sort out which are the abduction cases. They need as much cooperation as possible."