Officers from a 30-strong squad specially set up to revive the search for Madeleine McCann, who vanished four years ago, met Portuguese authorities for the first time.
The top secret talks took place last month but details emerged for the first time yesterday.
Last night Madeleine’s devoted parents Kate and Gerry told how the development gave them fresh hope of a breakthrough in the hunt for their daughter. Heart specialist Gerry, 42, and former GP Kate, 43, were said to be “extremely pleased” the meeting had taken place.
It is the first time any international police force has been searching for Madeleine since the official Portuguese inquiry was shelved in July 2008. The couple’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell said Kate and Gerry believed it was “a positive step in the right direction”.
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Kate and Gerry believe potentially vital clues were missed in the botched Portuguese investigation
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Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.
Scotland Yard confirmed its officers conducted their first face-to-face “formal meeting” with Portuguese police who led the hunt for her.
The McCanns, of Rothley, Leicestershire, believe vital clues were missed and leads never followed up during the shambolic investigation.
The despairing couple were left to search for Madeleine by themselves and hired a team of private eyes.
They insisted they would never stop looking for Madeleine, who vanished days before her fourth birthday, and were given a huge boost when David Cameron stepped in to help following a personal appeal in May.
Mr Cameron told the couple Home Secretary Theresa May had ordered Scotland Yard to launch a new operation funded by the Government. They were tasked to carry out a review of the investigation from start to finish and bring a new perspective to the case.
Yesterday it was revealed the Yard team carrying out the new inquiry consists of 30 officers, the same size as a murder squad.
It is being led by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, of the Met’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command, who has been dubbed Britain’s top cold case detective. The McCanns hope the renewed efforts could unearth a vital new clue in the four-year mystery.
Mr Mitchell said: “Kate and Gerry are extremely pleased that the review is progressing. It is a positive step in the right direction.”
The Portuguese detectives’ investigation, helped by officers from Leicestershire Police, led to hundreds of possible sightings of Madeleine across the world but so far all have come to nothing. A Scotland Yard spokesman said last night: “Officers from the Metropolitan Police travelled to Portugal at the beginning of August and had their first formal meeting with Portuguese authorities to discuss ways to progress the investigative review.”
The McCanns met members of the London-based squad several times before the Portuguese meeting. A source close to the couple said: “They are relieved. Things are finally being done and Kate and Gerry are being kept informed of every move.” The couple, who have six-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, are convinced it is only a matter of time before they get a significant breakthrough.
Their private investigators, headed by former Detective Inspector David Edgar, have also met the new team.
The family source said: “Kate and Gerry have had several meetings with police reviewing their daughter’s case. They know the officers have a difficult task ahead but they feel positive. They have been told that if something has been missed they will find it. They are relieved that something is finally happening.
“Kate and Gerry believe potentially vital clues were missed in the botched Portuguese investigation and their private eyes are hoping the Met will bring a new perspective to the case, which is being conducted in tandem with Portuguese police. The review is still in its very early stages. Officers are busy going through everything from scratch and analysing it.”
When the review was announced, Sir Paul Stephenson, the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, insisted there was “always a chance” it could lead to Madeleine being safely reunited with her parents.
The review team has drawn expertise from Scotland Yard’s specialist crime directorate.
More officers will be drafted in if new evidence is found, including scenes-of-crime experts and forensic scientists.
The team is currently sifting through 20,000 pages of evidence assembled by Portuguese detectives. They will review witness statements, make a fresh appeal for information and carefully re-check alibis.
A police source said: “They will be looking for something that has been overlooked or not developed which could lead to a fresh line of inquiry – a sighting, a tip-off, something that didn’t ring bells at the time but could be vital.”
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Martin Brunt
They may not have welcomed the order from Downing Street to launch an investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance, but at least Scotland Yard detectives have made a first visit to Portugual.
I can't imagine they were given a warm welcome by their Portuguese colleagues whose work (failure to solve the mystery) the Met team is reviewing.
Still, it's a step in the right direction and officially the two groups met "with very good co-operation and liaison will continue."
There are 30 Met officers - the equivalent of a murder squad - working on the review and I'm told that a senior officer is having to give regular spending updates to the Home Office which is funding an operation that will cost several millions and last many months.
It's four months since the review was launched with great fanfare by the Prime Minister after a plea from Kate and Gerry McCann.
The couple had long felt abandoned by the British and Portuguese authorities to hunt alone for their missing daughter.
But it's difficult to get much information about the operation from the cops, No 10 or the Home Office.
A recent Freedom of Information request for answers to a dozen of so questions has been held up by the Yard's FOI man while he considers if the info sought is in the public interest.
Process: English Prime-Minister forces the review of all informationby Henrique Machado
Three elite officers from the British investigative police, Scotland Yard, arrived discreetly in Lisbon earlier last month. And they followed immediately to a meeting that was scheduled at the Judiciary Police [PJ] headquarters - in order to "tune up the cooperation mechanisms" in the analyses of new leads in the Maddie case, this was confirmed to Correio da Manhã by Pedro do Carmo [pictured above], the National joint director of the PJ.
The news was advanced yesterday by
SkyNews after this team, from the Scotland Yard, was created in May by the direct order of Prime Minister David Cameron; following an
appeal made to him by Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of the young girl who disappeared in Praia da Luz, Lagos, on the night of May 3, 2007. The aim of the English investigators, who returned to London the following day is to comb thoroughly all the information and leads that were followed in the process - so they can suggest new steps to be taken to the PJ if appropriate.
The
process is formally archived, "but it is the interest of PJ and of the Scotland Yard that we can, one day, get to the truth of the facts" of what happened in Praia da Luz, Pedro do Carmo adds. The head of the PJ, who chaired the meeting, advanced that it was a "constructive" meeting - that united the British and elements of the PJ from Portimão, where the investigation unfolded.
It continues to arrive to the Portuguese and British police dozens of information, anonymous or not, about what could have happened to the English girl, with four years of age then, inside the apartment 5A of the Ocean Club. The majority concern the sightings in various places around the world, which have
revealed themselves to be unfounded; others are more credible and have to be checked. Some point to kidnapping; others to the involvement of adults close to the child.
David Cameron gave in to the coupleThe imposition of the British Prime-Minister to the Scotland Yard, in May, at the time of the book launch, ‘Madeleine’, in the United Kingdom, which coincided with the eight birthday of the missing child's disappearance, caused controversy in England. It was seen by some as a
populist measure, of a politician that gave a differential treatment to the McCann couple - who had characterized Cameron as a "devout father and family man", asking him for a "independent review and transparent of the process". The Prime-Minister replied assuring them that he would commit the Scotland Yard to the case.
"The English have evidence": Gonçalo Amaral, former investigator of the processCorreio da Manhã – What can the English police add to the investigation?
Gonçalo Amaral – The English can always present the conclusions to which they themselves arrived in 2007. Because they know, they have the evidence of what happened - they don't need to investigate anything. All this is now a mere ‘show off’.
– How can these meetings be justified now?
– Only in terms of the political image of the English Prime-Minister. They are not coming here certainly to ask to consult a process, that they, from the first hour, have in England and fully translated in English...
– Is this another media maneuver from the McCanns?
– I don't know, however, if the Scotland Yard is investigating and if they no longer pay their detectives, they can return the money from the book.
in Correio da Manhã, September 9, 2011 
