Madeleine McCann News

Our investigative review is ongoing and we are encouraged by the progress we are making. We are reviewing a significant number of documents and continue to identify potential lines of inquiry.

We can confirm that as part of this process we have identified a number of persons of interest, but any suggestion that the MPS is asking the Portuguese Police to make arrests in connection with this inquiry is entirely inaccurate.

We are in regular contact with Kate and Gerry McCann and they are kept fully updated on the progress of our work.

We also continue to work closely with the Portuguese Police and are actively considering our next steps.

• World
• Portugal
• Madeleine McCann

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the Kate and Gerry McCann, said: "Kate and Gerry remain very, very pleased with the work that Scotland Yard are doing and have been encouraged by Operation Grange from the day it began.

"Beyond that, they simply will not comment on what are police operational matters."

Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who led a Metropolitan Police review of the six-year-old case, retired today as head of Scotland Yard’s homicide and serious crime command.

• World
• Portugal
• Madeleine McCann

Speaking earlier this month, on the sixth anniversary of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, her parents Kate and Gerry, said they had not given up hope of finding their daughter.

Speaking on Daybreak, the couple said they have not lost hope that their daughter would be found and continue to campaign tirelessly for information on her whereabouts.

They believe the involvement of the Metropolitan Police now meant the hunt for their daughter was escalating, rather than grinding to a halt.

Mrs McCann said: "The search is very much ongoing. Nothing is slowing down, if anything I feel it's escalating with the work of the Met.

"And again it's just be vigilant, please still take your posters on holiday and don't forget about her, she's still missing.

"We haven't lost hope, our hope isn't any less than it was after the first 24, 48 hours."

Watch the Gerry and Kate McCann interview on Daybreak here

• World
• Portugal
• Madeleine McCann

Detectives reviewing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have identified at least "a handful of people of interest" in connection with the case, Scotland Yard has confirmed.

The purpose of the review was to look at the case with fresh eyes and there is always real benefit in doing so. The review has further identified both investigative and forensic opportunities to support the Portuguese.

There is more than a handful of people of interest which could be explored further if only to be eliminated.

The key things are to investigate the case and our work is happening to support the Portuguese.

• World
• Portugal
• Madeleine McCann

A number of new potential suspects in the Madeleine McCann disappearance case have been identified, the London Evening Standard reports.

Scotland Yard investigators told the newspaper there are people "of interest" to the inquiry, after they carried out a review of the case.

Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who heads Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said a "good number" of individuals should be questioned and urged Portuguese police to investigate the new leads.

Madeleine went missing from an apartment in Praia de Luz, Portugal, in 2007 while her parents Kate and Gerry McCann were in a restaurant nearby.

• UK
• Madeleine McCann
• Portugal

The father of missing Madeleine McCann said legal backing for any new system was the "minimum acceptable compromise for me and for many other victims" and urged the Prime Minister to "do the right thing".

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I would have liked to have seen a properly independent regulation of the press, whereas I think he has given the press another opportunity of self-regulation."

It should be made compulsory and measures put in place make journalists more accountable, he said.

He added: "But I do accept that full implementation of Lord (Justice) Leveson's report is the minimum acceptable compromise for me and I think for many other victims who have suffered at the hands of the press.

"The Prime Minister and our other elected politicians have an opportunity now to do the right thing. And if they do the right thing, for the public, then it will help restore a little confidence.

"I clearly respect his opinion but I personally disagree with the viewpoint and Lord (Justice) Leveson, as a senior law judge of our country, has made clear that what he is proposing is not a state-run press.

"It is a fine distinction but without the statutory underpinning this system will not work."

• UK
• Madeleine McCann
• Leveson Inquiry

Dominic Crossley, who represented the families of Milly Dowler and Madeleine McCann during the inquiry, spoke of the victims and said:

They want a better and more responsible press because they recognise its value.

They are just a small selection of the hundreds of other people who have been the victims of spears, bullies and attention.

• UK
• Milly Dowler
• Madeleine McCann