Madeleine McCann ‘left apartment and went looking for her parents in tapas bar’ on night she went missing claims TV detective
MADELEINE McCann "left her holiday apartment and went searching for her parents at a nearby tapas bar" on the night she went missing, a former detective has claimed.
Mark Williams-Thomas, an investigative journalist and ex-cop, revealed his theory about what happened the night Maddie went missing when he appeared on ITV's This Morning programme today.
The TV detective said he believes Maddie went looking for her mum and dad, knowing they were in the resort's tapas bar that night.
Speaking to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on the show he said: "What we do know is on that morning she went to Kate and Gerry McCann and said ‘where were you last night?’
"And we know the twins did wake up on nights prior to her disappearance.
"I think Maddie was aware they were in the tapas bar in the resort. In order to get to the bar you have to come out of the premises, walk on a public road and go back in again.
"The concern I have, I believe she woke up and went looking for them, she left the apartment and came out, we already know the patio door was insecure."
The investigative reporter added that in recent years the focus of the case has been increasingly moving away from Maddie and shifted to the on-going legal battle between her parents Kate and Gerry and ex-Portugese police chief Goncalo Amaral.
He added: "The sadness of all of this is that the real focus is Maddie and should always be Maddie but the legal process between Goncalo and the McCanns detracts from what is going on which is the on-going police investigation by the Met Police, which is being reviewed in April, and the Portugese police review."
Mr Williams-Thomas said he had received a statement from the McCanns saying they were "pleased there is an on-going investigation and are hoping that will bring up some news". He said Maddie's parents maintain the view that she is alive and "no physical harm has come to her".
Today her parents accused the Supreme Court judges who ruled against them in their court fight with Amaral of "contradictions".
The couple have said they strongly disagree with the judges' ruling that the lifting of their status as formal suspects does not mean they are innocent of any involvement.
Their daughter disappeared in Portugal on May 3, 2007, while staying in a holiday villa with her family.
The Supreme Court issued the premise earlier this month after backing Amaral over his book The Truth of the Life - in which he claims the McCann's faked their daughter's abduction to cover up her death.
The couple’s fight back was laid out in a nine-page complaint revealed today and lodged with the Supreme Court last Friday in a bid to invalidate its ruling rejecting the McCanns’ libel appeal against Amaral and the makers of a TV documentary based on his book.
Amaral was previously ordered to pay the McCann's €500,000 in a Lisbon court in April 2015. He successfully overturned this payment and a ban on selling his book in April last year.
Kate and Gerry, both 48, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have said they will sue if The Truth of the Lie is sold in Britain.
They said in a statement after learning of the Supreme Court ruling against them: “What we have been told by our lawyers is obviously extremely disappointing.
“It is eight years since we brought the action, and in that time the landscape has changed dramatically, namely there is now a joint Metropolitan Police and Policia Judiciaria investigation which is what we have always wanted.
“The police in both countries continue to work on the basis that there is no evidence Madeleine has come to physical harm.
“We will of course be discussing the implications of the Supreme Court ruling with our lawyers in due course.”
Portuguese police chiefs said late last year they were “completely in tune” with British detectives still investigating Madeleine’s disappearance, appearing to end years of tension between the two forces whose theories on the youngster’s fate have differed wildly.
Portuguese prosecutors reopened their probe into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in May 2014, and are now working in close coordination with Scotland Yard’s scaled-down Operation Grange probe into Madeleine’s fate.
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