The parents of Madeleine McCann are due to join friends and well-wishers tonight to remember their daughter on the poignant 17th anniversary of her disappearance - and with her abductor still evading justice.
Kate and Gerry are expected to be welcomed by their community during an informal prayer gathering in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire, where a candle at the war memorial still burns around the clock for missing Madeleine. The couple are clinging onto a glimmer of hope that their daughter, who would now be aged 20, nearly 21, could still be alive.
Madeleine's great uncle, retired head teacher Brian Kennedy, said ahead of the event: “Kate and Gerry always feel heartened by the attendance of our well-wishers for our now customary gathering for Madeleine at Cross Green. We hope to see a good number of people but obviously would not expect a huge crowd. We have been very touched to see how many have still attended after all these years.".
Madeleine's parents still have a glimmer of hope (PA)
Kate McCann pictured at last year's vigil for Madeleine (Terry-Harris.com / SplashNews.com)Christian Brueckner was dramatically named by prosecutors as the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2020. Brueckner’s former friend Helge Busching, who knew him in the Algarve in the mid-2000s, tipped off Scotland Yard in 2017.
Brueckner, 48, is on trial accused of carrying out a string of sex attacks in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. He is charged with raping an Irish tour rep, a teenage girl and an elderly woman in her holiday apartment. The German also allegedly exposed himself to a German girl on a beach and a group of children in a playground.
Gangsters ‘call for ceasefire’ after deadly Christmas Eve pub shooting
Madeleine was on a family holiday in Praia da Luz where she vanished in May 2007. Brueckner denies any involvement in her disappearance. He was jailed for the rape of a pensioner in 2019 and is serving a seven-year prison term.
British Police have just been granted new funding of nearly £200,000 by the Home Office to keep their investigation, codenamed Operation Grange, going. So far Scotland Yard’s 13-year inquiry, which officers are still treating as a missing person case, has cost the taxpayer a staggering £13.2 million.
Kate and Gerry McCann are set to mark their daughter's memory alongside their community in Rothley (PA)A Home Office spokesperson has confirmed: “Ministers have approved a request to provide up to £192,000 for Operation Grange in 2024-25 in line with our Special Grant processes. The total figure is just under £13.2 million since 2011." Three-year-old Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in the popular Algarve resort of Luz while she was left sleeping alone with her toddler twin siblings, Sean and Amelie.
At the time her parents were dining with pals in a nearby tapas restaurant whilst carrying out regular half-hour checks on the children. Renowned heart doctor Gerry, 55, and Kate, 56, a former GP turned medical worker, have previously said: "We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace.”
They are hoping the painstaking search for their daughter will “eventually yield results.” In a New Year message they said that whilst there is "no new significant news to share” efforts to find out Madeleine’s fate would continue with “the same determination, commitment and vigour.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
