 |
|
Madeleine McCann vanished
from her apartment in Portugal five years
ago |
A KEY witness with potentially vital evidence about the
disappearance of Madeleine McCann has just been
interviewed by a Scotland Yard detective on the cold
case review team.
Recruitment company boss Graham MacKenzie thinks he knows the spot
from which the McCanns’ holiday apartment could have
been kept under surveillance.
He identified a first-floor stairway balcony opposite the apartment
to Portuguese police hours after Madeleine disappeared
and even asked officers to pick up four cigarette butts
that could have been left by someone watching the
apartment.
However, the officers let cleaners sweep away the butts, which
could have held crucial samples of DNA from saliva.
Scotland Yard has scrutinised Mr MacKenzie’s original police
statement and has just interviewed him again.
Father of two Mr MacKenzie, 40, said last night: “I worry that the
trail has gone cold after all this time. The stairwell
was the perfect vantage point as it was opposite the
McCanns’ apartment and, I believe, there was a clear
view of the tapas bar where the group was eating, and
the side entrance to the apartment.
“When I noticed the butts on the floor of the little balcony I
became suspicious. Clearly someone had been there for
some time smoking. I didn’t touch them but I spoke to
Portuguese officers and asked them to take them for
forensic analysis.
“No attempt was made to seal off the area and then I couldn’t
believe it when the police let cleaners sweep them up. I
was so angry at the time and I am still angry about it
now. It was sheer police incompetence.
“Those butts could have provided the breakthrough in the case but I
couldn’t get the police to listen to me. If the same
situation happened abroad again I would sweep the butts
up into a bag myself and insist they are kept for
analysis.”
Mr MacKenzie was staying at the Ocean Club resort at Praia da Luz
on the Algarve in May 2007 with his then pregnant wife
Corinne and their young son and had seen the McCann
family, who were at the same resort, in passing.
On the night of May 3, 2007, when Madeleine disappeared from
apartment 5A, Mr MacKenzie heard shouting and went out
to help look for the three year old, who was thought to
have wandered off.
Back in the UK, he contacted Crimestoppers after reading a story in
the Sunday Express and gave a statement to
Leicestershire Police in December 2007.
In it, he said that he noticed the balcony the day after Madeleine
disappeared when he and his family were moved to an
apartment opposite 5A for a few hours to wait for their
flight home to East Sussex.
“I don’t think anybody had thought to look in that stairway and
balcony,” he said.
“Anyone walking past could have access to the stairwell. The
apartments there had lovely bay balconies at the front,
so if you wanted to smoke that is where you go, not in
the stairwell.
“I would urge anyone who may have seen someone acting suspiciously
to contact the police, especially if they saw someone in
a stairway balcony.” The Home Office is spending several
million pounds on the Operation Grange review.
On their findmadeleine website last week Kate and Gerry McCann said
they were still hoping for a vital breakthrough in
finding their daughter and were “really encouraged” by
the Met review. |
