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The parents of Madeleine McCann today called on Spanish authorities to
investigate the possibility that her abduction could be linked to other cases
of child disappearances in their country.
Speaking in Madrid, where they spent the day trying to raise awareness of
Madeleine’s case, Gerry McCann said he hoped Spanish police would become
intimately involved the search for their daughter. He also pointed to the
recent disappearance of a 7-year-old boy, Yeremi
Vargas, the second child to have gone missing from Spain’s
Canary Islands in less than a year.
“It is at least worth exploring the possibility that Madeleine’s disappearance
should not be considered in isolation,” he said, “but rather putting it into
the context of any other disappearances or abductions through the Iberian peninsula
-- and possibly the Canary Islands as well.”
Before meeting with Spain’s
Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba,
Mr McCann added: “I would like some reassurance in Spain that there has been some
proactive investigation regarding Madeleine’s disappearance.”
Kate and Gerry McCann also met with Spanish child welfare groups including the
Spanish Association Against Child Pornography, which
has distributed Madeleine’s image through its channels. They also appeared on a
Spanish television show for missing persons in a bid to raise the profile of
Madeleine’s case in Spain,
where it has received far less coverage than in neighbouring Portugal.
The parents later called on the Spanish public to contact police with anything
suspicious they might have seen, and showed photos highlighting a distinctive
retinal defect they hope could identify Madeleine.
“We are here to ask the Spanish public for help and we are calling for that
help because we feel it is possible that Madeleine was moved from Portugal, possibly into Spain, though
we are not certain of that.”
The parents also highlighted the case of Yeremi
Vargas, who vanished from the Canary Islands
on March 10 while playing in the street outside his home. Yeremi’s
family sent the McCann’s a letter of support, which was handed to them while
they were on air today.
"We do realise there are other families in Spain who have had similar
experiences, particularly the young boy Yeremi from
Gran Canaria,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers go
out to his family, and any other family who are in a similar position to us.”
The case of Yeremi Vargas came just months after
14-year-old Sara Morales vanished from Gran Canaria
while at a shopping centre. The two cases shook the normally-placid island and
sparked fears that a paedophile could be at large.
The Spanish magazine Interviú has reported that
Spanish police are investigating the alibis of 100 sex offenders they say live
on the islands. The magazine said that 28 of those are British residents listed
on the UK’s
sex offenders register.
Kate and Gerry McCann feel that such incidents could be linked to the
disappearance of their daughter, and want the searches to be able to cross
national borders.
“We do feel that perhaps these kinds of disappearances should be considered in
a pan-European fashion, the same way that other EU movement of people is
considered,” he said.
The parents are due to travel to Germany,
the Netherlands and Morocco to continue their campaign to recover
their daughter, and have vowed not to return to Britain without her.
Morocco is close to Praia da Luz, the Portuguese beach resort where she went missing
on May 3, and the south of Spain.
Germany and the Netherlands both have populations that visit the
Algarve
regularly.
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