Articles | Renewed hope for McCanns

Renewed hope for McCanns

Published: Monday, 28 April 2008, 2:28PM

The parents of four-year-old Madeleine McCann have been filled with renewed confidence their daughter could be found alive.

Kate, 40, and Gerry McCann who is 39, have returned from America, where they went to the headquarters of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

There they met Ed Smart, whose daughter Elizabeth was missing for nine months before being found alive and well.

Mr Smart campaigned to keep his daughter in the press until she was recognised by a passer-by with her abductor in the street. He has remained in contact with the McCanns for more than ten months but they only met for the first time during the couple's trip to America.

Mr McCann said: "We've spoken to a lot of people who said America has more than two stereotypical kidnappings per week and of those only 40 per cent to 50 per cent end up being found dead and, most importantly of all, the younger the child, the less likely(hood) of serious harm.

"And these are people experienced in investigations saying: "I really believe she's out there", and I think, yes, there was a first time where I've thought, I really believe it."

The centre says that 80 per cent of children who were rescued were found within 72 hours of the country's Amber Alert system being activated, while 68 children were rescued as a result of the system being used last year alone.

Mr and Mrs McCann are still searching for their daughter Madeleine, who disappeared from their holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.

After their visit to the States, the McCanns travelled to the European Parliament in Brussels where they met MEPs and called for a similar system to the American Amber Alert system to be introduced in Europe.