The theory Madeleine McCann was kidnapped to order by a paedophile ring is the only police line of enquiry, according to the Portuguese press this morning.
Quoting a police source, the daily Correio de Manha said "everything points to kidnap". Because Madeleine was approaching her fourth birthday she would have been too old to be sold for adoption. Also, there had been no ransom demand to suggest another motive. The paedophile network was "probably of British origin" and the kidnappers from the UK. That case was strengthened yesterday by the director of a children's charity, Luís Villas-Boas, who stated "in 22 years I don't know of a single kidnappping in Portugal by Portuguese."
The detective who led the enquiry into the 1993 murder of two-year-old Jamie Bulger was in the Algarve yesterday. According to the Correio |
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gibby zobel looks
at the Portuguese coverage of an English girl’s disappearance |
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de Manha, Albert Kirby was convinced Madeleine's kidnap over 100 hours ago was 'premeditated'.
Portuguese police have seven other unsolved cases of disappeared children. The most well-known is that of Rui Pedro, 11, who went missing in 1998. His mother has since seen images of him on paedophile sites. Yesterday she criticised the lack of effort made by police when Rui disappeared, and said Madeleine's case made her "imagine the anguish of her parents".
Portuguese journalists are recalling the case of an eight-year-old, Joana, who disappeared in 2004. It was treated as a kidnap and her mother pleaded on TV for her release.
But the similarities apparently end there. Though police never found Joana's body, her mother was convicted of murder. Her lawyer insists she was innocent and that Joana could still be alive. 
FIRST POSTED MAY 9, 2007
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