The McCanns: 10 Years Without Madeleine

This is a very difficult time of year and it is the 10-year

anniversary. Obviously an anniversary you hoped he would never

see. Yes. I mean, I never thought we would still be in this situation, so

far along the line. It is a huge amount of time. In some ways it

feels like it was only a few weeks ago and in other ways it has felt

really long. But it is a hard marker of time. You refer to it on your

website as stolen time. Yes, it is time we should have had with

Madeleine. We should have been a family of five all that time. Yes,

it does feel stolen. And you could never have imagined ten years ago

that you would still be in this situation. I think the situation is

that we tried everything in our power to not have a long, protracted

missing persons case like this. It is devastating. Early on I threw

myself into trying to do everything we could to help find her. Obviously

that hasn't worked yet but we are still looking for her. That is the

most important thing. There is still hope. And how are you doing as a

family? The pair of you? I think we have a new normality really,

particularly probably over the last five years, since the Metropolitan

Police actually started the investigation. It has taken huge

pressure off us individually and as a family. Because before that you

are trying to fight the case yourselves, trying to encourage the

police to look for Madeleine and get the Portuguese police involved. Yes.

I think the key thing was the injustice of it and after the

initial Portuguese investigation closed, essentially nobody other

than us was actually doing anything proactively to try and find

Madeleine, and I think every parent can understand that what you want

and what we have aspired to is to have all the reasonable lines of

inquiry followed to their logical conclusion as far as you can do

that. And that is incredibly frustrating. You talked at the time

about what a blow that was. It was terrible, it was horrible, and as

much as we tried and we were fortunate to have so much donations

into Madeleine's Fund and to use that to try and investigate, your

hands are tied. You don't have the powers that law enforcement have

got. How much of a difference has it made? For the last five years the

police have been actively investigating. Absolutely huge and I

can't emphasise enough just what a massive burden that has lifted from

us and those around us and also knowing that the lines of

investigation are being pursued. The inspector commissioner spoke during

the week, I know. A lot of those lines have been taken to a

conclusion. That is almost as important as finding who is actually

responsible. But knowing those lines have been shut down. The police have

talked about one significantly that they are still pursuing. Can you

tell me anything about that? The investigation is very much in the

hands of the Metropolitan Police. There are clearly ongoing inquiries

and from our perspective that is the important thing. They have managed

to pull so much together and sift through so much information. Now we

seem to be on several lines of inquiry rather than tens or

hundreds. There four police working on it full-time. You know there have

been criticisms that the police should not be spending so much money

still so many years on this case. I think that criticism is quite unfair

actually. I know it is one single missing child, but there are

millions of British tourists that go to the Algarve year-on-year and

essentially you have got the British subject, the subject of a crime, and

other crimes came to light following Madeleine's abduction that involved

British tourists, so I think prosecuting to a reasonable end is

what you would expect. But of course it doesn't happen. Sadly there are

many children that go missing and the resources are not deployed. I

think others within law enforcement have made it very clear that this

type of strange abduction is exceptionally rare actually and we

need to put it into perspective. It is partly why Madeleine's case has

attracted so much attention, thrown in with many other ingredients. This

type of abduction is exceptionally rare. One of the police officers in

Portugal has been a thorn in your side for many years. He was thrown

off investigation but then he wrote the book and he presented a

documentary presenting a view of what happened to Madeleine which

implicate you and you thought it through the courts. At the moment,

you have lost and he has won. Is this the end for you now? Are you

going to continue to fight him? I think the short answer is we have

got to because the last judgment I think is terrible. So we will be

appealing. We haven't launched that yet but it will be going to the

European courts. I think it is important to say that when we

launched the action it was eight years ago and the circumstances were

very different. We felt there was real damage being done to the search

for Madeleine at that time, particularly in Portugal. He was

effectively suggesting that you had disposed of Madeleine. People need

to realise this, and the Assistant Commissioner has said it again this

week at the Portuguese have said it and the final report has said it,

there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead. And the prosecutor said

there is no evidence that we were involved in any crime. And really

saying anything opposite is not justice. It is not justice for

Madeleine. I have found it tall incomprehensible, to be honest. It

has been very upsetting and it has caused a lot of frustration and

anger, which is a really negative emotion. I think we just need to

channel that. I just have to hope that in the long run justice will

prevail and all will be well. I think for us personally but for the

rest of the family as well. The children? Yes, and our wider family,

our own parents, brothers and sisters etc. We have got to

challenge it and we will do. The other thing that struck me when I

was looking through various internet search engines before I did this

interview was quite how much cruel, distressing, horribly tasteless

commentary there is out there about you, about Madeleine, people giving

their opinions about what they think happened, even though they don't

know you and they were nowhere near and they can't possibly know. How do

you deal with that? I think social media has huge pros and huge ponds.

On the downside, with all that has been written, I guess we protect

ourselves really. We don't go there, to be honest. We are aware of things

that get said, because people alert us to it. I guess our worry is for

our children. Of course. Because they are now 12. They are at an age

where social media becomes increasingly important. We don't

want to dwell on the negative aspects too long but I think in this

era of fake news, it is extremely topical, and I think people need to

think twice before they write, and effects it has on it. Certainly I

know ourselves with our own experience both in the mainstream

media and also on the internet, we are just not going to believe that

until I see evidence of it, convincing. I am sure there is a

very small minority of people who spend their time doing it but it has

totally inhibited what we do. Personally we don't use social media

although we have used it in Madeleine's campaign. But for our

twins who are growing up in an era when mobile technology is used all

the time, we don't want them not to be able to use it, the same way that

their peers do. How do you protect them? The most important thing, and

we had some excellent advice earlier on, is that we have been as open

with them as we can. We have told them about things and also that

people are writing things that are simply not true. They need to be

aware of that. They are not really at the age where they are, you know,

on the internet and other websites. But they soon will be. They are

coming to that stage and they are with their friends etc. We have

tried to educate them as well because it is not just ask that have

fallen victim to the downside of social media. Does that shock you?

It shocked me a little things that people say. I think it has been

shocking, that aspect of human nature that I hadn't really

encountered before. I think it is so far from how you would behave or

people that you know would behave. It is striking. And quite hard

really to get your head round. Why would somebody write that? Why would

somebody add to somebody's upset? Why would somebody in a position of

ignorance to something like that? We have seen the worst and the best of

human nature. It has been a personal experience, rather than on the

internet, and that has been overwhelmingly to see the positive

side of human nature and we need to remember that. We have had excellent

support over the last ten years and now we are getting media attention

on the tenth anniversary, we are starting to see that again. I think

it is true. Social media, whatever, because it is so awful and

upsetting, it does kind of stand out and become more of a talking point

really. Actually the main thing that we have experienced is the goodness

of people and the support that we have had over ten years which has

not wavered over all that time. How different is your life now to the

life that when you have a child you consciously or subconsciously

imagine? How different is your life now to what you must have imagined

all those years ago? That is a hard one because it is such a long time.

Before Madeleine was taken we felt we had achieved the perfect nuclear

family of five. We had that for a short period. I suppose it is almost

the same way as if your child becomes ill or dies, like many other

families have suffered, then your world vision is altered and you have

got to adapt. I think that is a theme that speaking to other people

who have gone through terribly traumatic processors with children

and other loved ones, that is something that gradually happens,

and you adapt, and you have a new normality. Unfortunately for us, the

new normality at the minute is a family of four. But we have adapted

and that is important. As we have said about the investigation, the

last five years in particular have allowed us to really properly devote

time to looking after the twins and ourselves and of course carry on

with our work. At some point you have got to realise that time is not

frozen. I think both of us realised that we have owed it to the twins to

make sure that their life is as fulfilling as they deserve. We have

certainly tried our best to achieve that. Certainly on the face of it

you appear to have stayed so strong as a family unit. I wonder how you

have managed to do that. It is so easy to blame each other when a

cataclysm befalls a family. That is such an easy trap to fall into. I

don't think there has ever been any blame, fortunately. I think what

people do say is you don't realise how strong you are until you have no

option and I think that is very true. Obviously massive events like

this cause a lot of reaction, a lot of trauma and upset, but ultimately,

you have got to keep going, especially when you have got other

children involved. Some of that is subconscious. I think your mind and

your body take over to a certain extent. But if you can't change

something immediately, you have got to go with it and do the best that

you can, and that is all we have tried to do. As Gerry said, one of

our goals, ultimately finding Madeleine, but to ensure that Sean

and Amelie have a happy and fulfilling life and we will do

everything we can to ensure that. Life for you has changed in

different ways, Kate. You were a GP and he stopped working and you

haven't gone back to full-time work. I assume the idea of someone else

looking after your children seemed unthinkable after what happened. You

just needed to be with the children and just be there. Certainly

initially, absolutely. The kids weren't even in school. I wanted to

be there. I didn't want to let them out of my sight. There was obviously

a lot going on, a lot of campaign work, a lot of emotion. I am

actually back at work now. I am doing something different to what I

was doing. What are you doing now? I have back into medicine but a

different area, not general practice. That obviously takes up

some time. That was a big step as well, to re-establishing as normal a

life as possible. Life is busy. I think in some ways... I don't know

if this is personality or coping strategy, but sometimes it is a

us going. We don't dwell too much on us going. We don't dwell too much on

things unnecessarily. I think there is a self protection thing there as

well. We do have a very full life and as normal as we can make it. How

much do you make Madeleine are part of that? Do you talk about

Madeleine? Is she a name that crops up every day? Yes. She is always

part of our life. There are photographs around the house.

Obviously at this time of year, then we can't even have conversations

that don't involve her. The kids know we are doing an interview today

and the anniversary is coming up. She is still part of it, but

obviously... I think every kind of event that we do, whether it be a

birthday or family occasion or even an achievement or something, that is

kind of when you really feel her absence. It is slightly different to

how it was in the early days when everything we were doing was to find

Madeleine. Now we are having to get on and live our lives as well. It is

not that any date she is not there, if you know what I mean. Last time

we talk, you are still buying birthday and Christmas presents for

Madeleine. Are you still doing that? We still do that. I couldn't not.

You go to the shops and you think Madeleine would be this age now and

you think what would she want? I do. I have got to think about what age

she is and something that whenever we find her will still be

appropriate. A lot of thought goes into it. I couldn't not. She is

still our daughter and she will always be our daughter. Kate always

does the present buying. I always do the present buying and there will be

another one coming up in the next few weeks. Madeleine would be how

old? 14. And this anniversary, how will you get through that day? Like

I put in my message on a website, every day is another day without

Madeleine. It is just that number, that 10-year mark, that makes it

more significant, I think, because it is a reminder of how much time

has gone by and obviously ten is a big number. I think we will get by

as we have any other year, really, surrounded by family and friends.

Obviously we will be there remembering Madeleine as we always

have. I think the day and the poignancy of it, we don't tend to go

back because it is so draining. But inevitably on anniversaries and on

her birthday, they are by far the hardest days, by far. I think it is

important though, because despite how difficult these days are, just

keeping in mind actually how much progress we have made. Nothing is

ever going to be quick enough from our point of view. But the last five

years, we have come a long way. And there is progress. There are some

very credible lines of inquiry that the police are working on. And while

there is no evidence to give us any negative news, that hope is still

there. It really is there in your hearts? The hope that one day you

will be reunited with your daughter. No parent is going to give up on

their child unless they know for certain the child is dead. We just

don't have any evidence. My hope of Madeleine being out there is no less

than it was almost ten years ago. Apart from those first 48 hours,

nothing actually has changed since then. The difficult thing has always

been how would we find her? You are relying on the police doing

everything they can and you are relying on somebody with information

coming forward. I think that is so important. Everyone thinks what

could have happened but some of the scenarios with other people who have

been abducted and kept, they are just so unbelievable that you think

how could that have happened? That is probably what is going to happen

with Madeleine's case as well. People will say it is incredible. We

just know. The Metropolitan Police underlined that last week. You can't

apply normal logic to someone who commits a crime like this. You try

and think surely if they have done that, they would have done that, but

you can't. But you must also look at cases like the case of Ben Needham

who went missing in recent decades past. It is interesting that the

people who have got the most experience, the national centre for

exploited children, in the US, one of the earlier things that stuck

with me ever since, the younger at the time a child is taken, the more

likely they have been taken to be kept, and that could equally apply

to Ben Needham, who was younger than Madeleine, and that is something

that we have got to factor in actually. It could be a relief but

in another way it is an unconscionable thought for you. Of

course. It is ten years. How much she has changed, what age she would

be now. I think the key thing is to find Madeleine. If she is still

alive, recognise who she is or we need to find the person or people

responsible for taking her. You must have imagined over the years if you

saw her what he would say to her. Yes, I think I try not to go there

too often, to be honest. It is one of those real bittersweet kind of

thoughts. Ten years is a long time. But ultimately we are her mum and

dad and she is our daughter and he has got a brother and sister,

grandparents, lots of family and friends, so it would be absolutely

fine. It would be... It is beyond words, really. We will cope with

anything. I know that doing this interview was something you thought

long and hard about. It is not something you particularly want to

do and certainly not something you were looking forward to. What do you

hope by doing an interview like this? What do you hope that people

will hear? What is the message you want to get out? That there is still

hope, really. There isn't any appeal. Most of the media we have

done in recent years has been around that and this is unusual. We are

marking the anniversary. I think it has been good for the general public

to hear the police say there is no evidence that she is dead and that

there is an active investigation and there is still hope. Certainly from

my point of view, somebody knows what has happened. And we have had

so many supporters who are still with us, people that we don't know

are still there, and I guess I just want them to be reassured that there

is progress being made. You know, it is progress being made. You know, it

might not be as quick as we want, but there is real progress being

made. We need to take heart from that and we have just got to go with

the process and follow it through, the process and follow it through,

whatever it takes, as long as it takes. There is still hope that we

can find Madeleine. If you do find Madeleine you will be able to show

her everything you did to try and find her and you never gave up.

Absolutely. I guess for her just knowing there have been so many

people willing her home. It is so important.