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MADELEINE EXCLUSIVE

ALL THREE CHILDREN DRUGGED McCanns’ detectives believe kidnapper may have had key

By James Murray

THE kidnapper of Madeleine McCann drugged her and her twin brother and sister so they would all be quiet while she was snatched. A duplicate key may also have been

used to gain entrance to the holiday apartment where the children were sleeping, say investigators. It means the monster is still a threat

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SUNDAY EXPRESS October 11, 2009

Soldier died after lung transplant gave him cancer A SOLDIER who served in Iraq died after being given a pair of cancerous lungs in a transplant. Corporal Matthew Millington received the organs from a donor understood to have smoked between 30 and 50 roll-up cigarettes a day. The 31-year-old trooper was serving with the Queen’s Royal Lancers in VICTIM: Cpl Millington 2005 when he was diagnosed with a lung illness and given two years to live unless he took immediate action. Cpl Millington, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, underwent a double lung transplant in April 2007 at the Papworth Hospital in Cambridge but radiographers and consultants failed to spot a tumour until six months after the operation. He died in 2008 leaving behind his wife, Siobhan. On Friday Coroner Ian Smith attributed his death to surgery “complications” and discounted a verdict of misadventure or neglect.

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Praia kidnapper ‘staged dry run’ FROM PAGE ONE to children living or holidaying on Portugal’s Algarve and must be caught urgently as he is highly likely to reoffend. Former police detectives David Edgar and Arthur Cowley have spent months re-analysing every shred of evidence. They are convinced the abductor went to the family’s apartment on May 3 2007 fully prepared with sufficient drugs, probably chloroform, to knock out all three children. The fact that Sean and Amelie, then just 18 months old, failed to wake when the alarm was raised, nor even as they were taken to another apartment in the cold night air, has persuaded the detectives that they, too, must have been drugged. Had the twins been tested for drugs immediately, any medication used could have been established, making it easier to identify the kidnapper, but vital time was lost. Chloroform can be made easily and other sedatives, such as the horse tranquilliser ketamine, are commonly in circulation in the criminal underworld. Even now, however, experts say there may be forensic clues on clothing or bedding which could yield a breakthrough. The Sunday Express can further reveal that the McCanns’ private detectives are working on a solid theory about exactly how Madeleine was abducted. Just as television investigator Donal MacIntyre suggested in this paper three weeks ago, they believe there was a dry run prior to the kidnap that fateful night at apartment 5a of the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz. While checking the layout of the apartment the night before, the kidnapper probably woke Sean, who in turn woke Madeleine. In the morning she had told Kate and Gerry she was frightened. The fact that the children woke up is thought to have persuaded

If the lock on the door of apartment 5a had been double locked using the key, it would have been impossible to open it from the inside.

If this was not the case however, the bolt latch could be slid open for an easy exit.

the kidnapper to use knock-out drugs when he returned the next night to take Madeleine, three. On the question of the duplicate key, holidaymakers often left front door keys under the doormats during the day. A theory emerging is that the kidnapper had a duplicate key to apartment 5a, which could have

been used on the night to enter by the front door. Mr Edgar and Mr Cowley do not believe Madeleine was taken through an open window as it would have been awkward, time consuming and there were no forensic clues left behind. It is far more likely, they say, that he simply walked out of the

front door with her in his arms. It had been thought that the front door was double locked, making it impossible to open from the inside, but this doubt falls away if there was a duplicate key. The theory suggests the kidnapper had been targeting the apartment for a long time and had a detailed knowledge of the lock system. With the front door unlocked, it is easy to simply pull a latch across to open it from the inside. Another possibility is that the front door was not double-locked when Kate and Gerry left through the unlocked patio doors to join their seven friends at the resort’s tapas bar some 30 yards from their apartment. Meanwhile it emerged yesterday that the parents of a twoyear-old girl who has gone missing in New Zealand are being supported by the McCanns. Aisling Symes vanished from a relative’s house in an Auckland suburb on Monday. Her mother Angela had been close by, standing beside a washing machine. There have been reports that the girl was later seen with a woman of Asian appearance. Detectives believe she was abducted. Despite repeated appeals for help their searches have so far drawn a blank. Kate and Gerry McCann said their “thoughts and prayers” were with the family. The little girl’s father, Allan Symes, who is originally from County Waterford in Ireland, made an emotional plea for her return, saying: “These recent days have proven to be the most harrowing of our lives; no sleep and we feel like we’re barely existing, just surviving every moment, not knowing where Aisling is.” It has also emerged that police in Sweden are trying to find a girl said to bear a resemblance to Madeleine after a photograph was posted on a website. However, she does not appear to have the distinctive mark Madeleine has in her right eye.

Now Scotland Yard must step in IT IS both a scandal and a crying shame that almost two and a half years after Madeleine McCann went missing the forces of law and order have failed to solve the mystery, bring her kidnapper to justice and find her. Portuguese detectives working closely with Leicestershire Police and with limited support from Scotland Yard have amassed bulging case files but precious little hard evidence or, more importantly, any suspects. The Portuguese investigation has effectively been shelved, with senior

COMMENTARY officers saying it will only be reopened if they receive credible new information. So now finding Madeleine has become the responsibility of two retired middle-ranking police detectives working as private investigators for Kate and Gerry McCann. While David Edgar and Arthur Cowley have done a solid, creditable job so far, Home Secretary Alan Johnson should now ask Scotland Yard to set up a cold case review team to follow through on the pair’s fresh leads and work

closely with their Portuguese counterparts. For there is still so much work to be done. As a matter of urgency all forensic material, including Madeleine’s blanket and bedding, must be re-examined as the culprit must have left a trace of a knock-out drug. Scotland Yard must demand spy satellite images of the resort as the kidnapper is probably on film casing the apartment in the days, weeks and months before the kidnap. There must also be a proper,

systematic search of all the scrubland in and around Praia da Luz as it is likely the kidnapper hid in the undergrowth for several hours after the kidnap and almost certainly left clues behind. Mr Edgar is believed to be looking at five or so “persons of interest” but he has limited resources. That is why Scotland Yard must restore public confidence by taking over the investigation. The public has a right to expect its government will spend whatever it takes to capture the most heinous of criminals, child abductors. slip