Madeleine McCann: 10 Years On Panorama

This programme contains scenes of repetitive flashing images.

She's the most famous missing person in the world.

Please continue to pray for Madeleine.

She's lovely.

Ten years ago tonight, Madeleine McCann disappeared.

Clap your hands together.

One, two, three.

But we're still finding out more about the case.

If you have Madeleine, let her come home to her Mummy,

Daddy, Brother and sister.

Two police forces in two countries came to different conclusions

about what happened to her.

Did two doctors cover up the death of their own

daughter whilst on holiday?

Of course not.

For the first time, Portuguese detectives tell us what they think.

In your heart, do you think it will be solved?

It doesn't depend on my heart - it depends very much on our minds.

And we find the men British police have questioned about that night.

What did they ask you about the burglary, Mr Ribiero?

No, no, no, no, no.

What do you remember about it?

I remember everything.

Ten years on ? what happened in this holiday village?

What happened to Madeleine McCann?

The search for Madeleine McCann has moved a long way

from where she disappeared.

It's now run from Lisbon by Portugal's most senior detectives.

The Policia Judiciaria - or PJ - are Portugal's national criminal

investigation force.

I've been asking for an interview for ten years.

Now they've finally said yes.

I've never been able to talk to somebody from the PJ.

Why did you think it was important to talk now?

Madeleine McCann is a very unique case in Portugal.

We've never had a case like Madeleine McCann

before and since then, never one after.

So we really want to know what happened.

First, because it's still a missing child case.

Second, because we want to know in case in the future we face

another case like this.

Across the city, Madeleine McCann's parents have been involved

in an important legal battle this spring.

They sued a Portuguese detective who accused them of involvement

in their daughter's disappearance.

They initially won, but there was an appeal.

And the Supreme Court ? citing freedom of speech -

found against them.

But it was worse for Madeleine's parents.

The judges pointed out that the McCanns hadn't

been found innocent.

Rather, the case had been shelved because the police hadn't been able

to gather sufficient evidence.

To the contrary.

A decade since we all first heard Madeleine McCann's name,

the case is still alive.

And attention is once again falling onto a holiday

resort on the Algarve - Praia da Luz.

It has always been popular with British families.

But Luz changed ten years ago tonight.

Anyone who may have any information related to Madeleine's

disappearance, no matter how trivial, contact

the Portuguese police.

Please, please do not hurt her.

Please don't scare her, please tell us where to find her.

I first came here ten years ago, and when I was sent here I had no

idea what Madeleine McCann as a story would become,

what this apartment ? 5A ? would come to mean.

Everybody would kind of know this place and everyone would get to know

this little girl's name.

It's nearly a week now, can you tell us whether you really

are any nearer to knowing what happened to Madeleine?

We are still looking for her and we are pursuing

lines of investigation.

I have a sort of weird relationship with this place because it's a long

time since I first came here, to this bland apartment,

and yet something happened in there, something extraordinary

happened in there.

A little girl went missing and she's never been found.

Luz has also lived with the story for all these years.

As we film, people are quick to let us know how they feel.

Sorry, are you starting the circus already?

Er, we are doing a documentary.

Er, what's wrong with that?

Because Luz should be left alone.

Not McCann again.

Why?

Because it's a waste of taxpayers' money.

No, go on home.

Why?

Because it's a waste of taxpayers' money and I'm fed up of it.

Give it to the bloody National Health.

You go away.

It could go on forever.

And for the people here, they don't want that.

It's just a big reminder of something really bad that

happened right on their doorstep.

So how close are we to really knowing what happened

to Madeleine McCann?

The fact is that two different police forces in two different

countries have come up with two different theories.

And both contradict each other.

Tonight, we will show you the two theories and why both have failed

to solve this mystery.

The basic facts are well known.

Nine friends went on holiday to the Ocean Club.

They went for meals at the tapas restaurant with the green roof.

Their eight children ? including three-year-old Madeleine ? had been

left sleeping in this apartment block 70 metres away.

The friends say they took it in turns to check on the children.

At 10 o'clock, it was Kate McCann's turn.

She left the restaurant area and went up this road

to her corner apartment - number 5A - where Madeleine

and younger twins, Sean and Amelie, were asleep.

She went in through the unlocked patio door and went

to the children's bedroom.

She then opened the door, looked in, and in the darkness didn't

immediately realise that Madeleine wasn't there.

She realised the curtains were flapping in the

window to the street.

And it was open, which was not how they left it.

They'd left the shutters down and the window closed.

So, it was just this sense of sheer panic and rising fear and terror.

She very, very quickly ran around the apartment,

checking the wardrobes and other rooms to just make doubly sure.

But it was obvious that Madeleine wasn't there.

And that's when she hurtled out through the patio door,

shouting that somebody's taken her.

Kate McCann told the police that when she came back to the apartment

and first realised her daughter had gone, this window at the back

of the flat was open.

There weren't bars here ten years ago.

The family thought she was taken through it.

Much of what we're about to tell you has never been broadcast before.

The Portuguese case against the McCanns started right here.

Detectives did not believe Madeleine had been abducted through a window.

They said these shutters could only be opened from the inside,

and there was no forensic evidence that anyone had climbed

through the window.

The fingerprint traces collected are identified as being the middle

-- The only fingerprint traces were Kate McCann's.

We couldn't show it at the time, but this is what Goncalo Amaral -

the original lead investigator - told me about the case.

Detectives also had doubts about the group's

account of the night.

The police didn't believe the McCanns' time line ?

there were inconsistencies, they say, in the way the group

at the restaurant described the events of that night.

Like the times they went up and down this street

to check on the children.

The police didn't pull their punches.

This is what the PJ's official report said.

Where are we going, please?

The Portuguese police were also suspicious of the way

the McCanns were behaving.

They clashed within hours because Madeleine's parents

contacted the media.

A three-year old British girl has gone missing in Portugal.

It's thought that she may have been abducted.

The shutters had been broken open and they've gone into the room

and taken Madeleine.

Madeleine McCann from Leicestershire was on holiday with her

family in the Algarve.

Well, the Portuguese police advice was, "no media, no media".

That might be the Portuguese way, but it ain't, certainly

isn't the British way or the Western European way.

Why would the McCanns feel that they know more

than a police force?

Richard, by midnight, 1am, the British media were being alerted

and the British media were beginning to make relevant enquiries.

Now, there's none, there's nothing.

I would do the same if I felt my child was missing and the police

officer in front of me was not really wanting to move heaven

and earth to get them back.

Do they regret it?

No, they don't regret doing anything that they felt increased the chances

of somebody seeing Madeleine, somebody spotting her,

that could give that lead.

We have got a short statement to make.

Words cannot describe the anguish and despair

that we are feeling as the parents of our beautiful

daughter, Madeleine.

Never forget, at the centre of this is a child who is missing

and they were trying to do all that was humanly

possible for their daughter.

A British investigator brought in to help the Portuguese says

he initially had concerns about Gerry McCann.

When I met Gerry I was struck by how cold and clinical he appeared to be.

So I did, you know...

I'm human as well as having been a police officer.

I did think "hmm" and reflect on that.

But I want to say very clearly that as time has gone on I became

absolutely convinced it wasn't the parents.

But Portuguese detectives were looking at Kate and Gerry McCann.

And central to their theory were two sniffer dogs from the UK.

They assist investigations because they can find minute traces

of blood or where bodies have been.

They were taken into apartment 5A ? three months after

Madeleine disappeared.

Both reacted.

The cadaver dog, which tracks the smell of a dead body,

also grabbed Madeleine's favourite toy - Cuddle Cat.

When the police found out the soft toy had been washed,

they became more suspicious.

Kate washed it because simply it had become dirty,

quite filthy and grubby.

She'd been holding onto it in front of the world's media

for something like 70 days.

If it was that important a piece of evidence,

why did the Portuguese police allow her to keep it for 70 days

before she washed it?

Can you see why the police might view it as suspicious, though?

Particularly given that the dogs reacted to it?

Yeah, if you see the video, Richard, the dog pulls it out at one point

and then walks past it twice, without even going back to it.

But Cuddle Cat remained part of the Portuguese theory.

The sniffer dogs were also taken to check ten vehicles.

They only barked when they came to the McCann's hire car.

The dogs jumped into the boot.

Their reaction was widely reported and was seen as damning

evidence in Portugal.

How can you explain the coincidence of the scent of cadaver found

by British and not Portuguese dogs?

Sandra, maybe you should be asking the judiciary,

because they've examined all this.

So you don't have any explanation for that?

Ask the dogs, Sandra.

Ask the dogs?

No, Gerry.

Now I feel free to ask you.

Do you remember talking

to Kate and Gerry McCann about the sniffer dogs?

Do you remember that exchange?

I remember as if it was today.

He answered me, ask the dogs.

And I...

But what did you think about them?

I replied, I'm asking you, Gerry.

I think it was something like that.

What did you make of Gerry McCann's reaction?

I thought he's being arrogant, he's not understanding my point.

I'm not offending him.

I just want him to give me his opinion.

Don't you feel free to answer me?

I can tell you that we've both looked at evidence about cadaver

dogs and they're incredibly unreliable.

Unreliable?

Cadaver dogs.

Yes.

That's what the evidence shows.

If they're tested scientifically.

He just tried to fight.

It was a kind of a fight, not a kind of an interview.

It got worse for the McCanns.

Traces of blood were discovered in the apartment.

The police found tiny samples of DNA in the car and in this apartment.

Early tests suggested that DNA could be Madeleine McCann's.

The Portuguese had settled on their theory even before

they knew the final DNA results.

Madeleine had died in apartment 5A and her parents had covered it up.

The official PJ report concluded...

After he left the police, lead investigator Goncalo Amaral

explained his theory in a controversial TV documentary.

It was this documentary - and a book - that led

the McCanns to sue Mr Amaral.

I think people in Portugal prefer to believe that a PJ,

or a former PJ, is saying the truth.

It's easier for the Portuguese to believe that the McCanns are lying.

Four months after she disappeared, Madeleine McCann's parents were made

official suspects, or arguidos.

Kate and Gerry McCann have both been today declared Arguido

with no bail conditions.

Kate McCann now declined to answer their questions.

The police offered her a deal.

If she confessed to Madeleine's death, which didn't happen,

in some sort of accident, which didn't happen, she would get

a lesser jail sentence.

And it wouldn't affect Gerry, he could come back to Britain

and keep earning the family's money.

It was outrageous, it was not true.

She had answered all of the PJ's questions in at least

four interviews, openly, completely collaboratively,

up to that point.

Two days later the McCanns left Portugal.

Gerry, Gerry ? why do you leave now?

I covered their departure for BBC News.

What I didn't know was my report would become part of the case.

The McCanns flew from the UK as a five, but came home as a four.

We have played no part in the disappearance

of our lovely daughter, Madeleine.

At the time of Madeleine's disappearance, an Irish family

called the Smiths had reported seeing a man carrying a child.

When he saw my TV piece, Martin Smith believed the man he had

seen was probably Gerry McCann.

It was the way Gerard McCann turned his head down which was similar

to what the individual did on May 3rd 2007 when we met him.

I would be 60 to 80% sure that it was Gerard McCann that I met

that night carrying a child.

The Portuguese had built their case about what happened in apartment 5A.

But it soon came tumbling down.

Take that sighting by the Smith family.

It couldn't have been Gerry McCann because so many witnesses place him

at the Ocean Club at the same time.

The Smiths themselves now believe they saw someone else.

Then there's the dogs.

The footage may have looked damning, but it didn't prove anything.

Well, sniffer dogs are only as reliable

as the evidence that's found to corroborate their indications.

So they'll provide an indication but a sniffer dog cannot talk.

It's not evidence, there needs to be corroboration.

And when they came back, the final forensic results didn't

back up the barking dogs.

"Weak and incomplete" was the conclusion repeated

by forensic scientists.

Of the 66 forensic samples from the car and apartment 5A,

none directly matched Madeleine.

The fact is, Madeleine's parents had that car.

Madeleine's parents were using that car.

50% of Madeleine's DNA would have come from each parent so to have

some crossover of DNA is not unusual.

And I question the professionalism of anyone who drew a substantive

position from that, that that gave them evidence that Madeleine had

been in the boot of the car.

This footage shows how DNA from Madeleine's parents probably

ended up in the boot.

And the car wasn't even hired until 25 days

after Madeleine disappeared.

So the PJ believed the parents had hidden their daughter's

body for almost a month.

Is it plausible that Kate and Gerry McCann ? in the full glare

of the world's media ? hid their daughter's body,

pretended to be looking for her and then, a month later,

moved the body?

There were cameras with the McCanns on the very day the police suspected

they moved their daughter's body.

As these personal pictures show, the McCanns went

to Spain to put posters up.

Would you put it in the window?

Si, si.

Would they really have agreed to be filmed if they were secretly trying

to dispose of their daughter's body?

How ridiculous does it sound?

It is categorically not true.

Something happened in that flat, yes, that removed Madeleine from it.

Did she die?

Did two doctors cover up the death of their own

daughter whilst on holiday?

Of course not.

And it's ridiculous to suggest it.

The evidence does not stack up.

The theory was falling apart.

Goncalo Amaral was removed from the case.

He blamed political interference from London.

Mr Amaral's supporters claim that he was taken off the case

after an ultimatum from Gordon Brown to the Portuguese PM

at a European summit.

Did Gordon Brown take time out of the negotiations

for the Lisbon Treaty to talk to you about Madeleine McCann?

No.

No, of course not.

That has been suggested.

But it's not true.

It's not true.

The lead investigator on the McCann case, Goncalo Amaral,

he has claimed ? he may have been joking - that his job

was the price of Britain signing the Lisbon Treaty.

What do you make of that?

Well, I think he considers himself in a high level.

But it's not true.

The Lisbon Treaty with Goncalo Amaral, the head of Goncalo, no, no.

Well, sometimes people like to make some characters of a drama

that they never lived.

In 2008, the Portuguese police shelved the case.

The McCanns were told they were no longer suspects.

It's hard to describe how utterly despairing it was to be named

arguido and subsequently portrayed in the media as suspects

in our own daughter's abduction.

For ten years the PJ never spoke publicly

about their handling of the case.

That's now changed.

Do you think it was right to make Kate and Gerry McCann

arguidos back then?

When we came up with a team to review the case was that,

at that point, um, the McCann were no suspects to us of any kind

of involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann,

so that's what I can tell you about it.

So was it a mistake in 2007?

I cannot give you an answer on that.

I repeat it and I'm saying again now, the McCann

were no suspects to us.

Do you rule them out of any part of Madeleine McCann's disappearance?

There is no fact at this point or evidence that suggests

that they were involved in Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

The McCanns had set up a charity ? the Find Madeleine Fund.

With the police no longer looking for her, the family now used

some of the money to pay for private detectives.

Even though it's illegal for private detectives to work on active

criminal cases in Portugal.

Well, by definition, private detectives detect privately,

and as a result, they would use whatever methods were legal

and at their disposal.

But you can't have a private investigator in Portugal, can you?

That's not legal from the off.

Technically it's not legal, yes, this is another problem.

Another problem that you couldn't do that there.

However...

They did.

However, they employed Spanish agencies, Spanish-based agencies

who had a cultural and language understanding and connection,

and whom the PJ were happy to not turn a blind eye,

but to work with, as long as they didn't step on their toes.

Private detectives were the only ones now looking for clues.

An agency put people undercover in the Ocean Club,

used covert surveillance and lie detectors.

One target was Robert Murat.

He lived close to apartment 5A and in the days after Madeleine

disappeared had helped the police with translation.

Like the McCanns, he was later made an official

suspect and then cleared.

What was it like to live through those times where people

are scratching around for information and casting

aspersions about you?

There's only one word ? devastating.

Absolutely devastating.

I was very lucky because I have a very, very, very strong family.

I have a very strong group of friends and they supported me

and helped me through it.

If it had been somebody else that didn't have the support I had,

I'm not sure that I'd be here right now.

He believes another team of private detectives followed his mother.

My mother felt like she was being followed by them and she'd seen,

felt that they were there and she'd seen people that she felt

were actually following her.

What did she see?

She saw people that she thought were following her,

that she kept on seeing.

Through their lawyers, the McCanns told us they were not party to any

form of intimidation or targeting.

They also say they didn't know anything about a deal that was put

to me by one of their supporters.

I was offered exclusive access to any new developments

in the case ? an inside track on any new breakthrough.

But there was a price.

I was expected to act as a spy within the press pack.

I said to you before the interview that the thing that

I was going to tell you that I hadn't told you before.

During that period, I was offered a deal by somebody inside the McCann

camp ? not the family.

They said they would give me access to lines from the enquiry,

new stories, if I reported back on what the press pack

were saying about you.

Right.

OK.

I mean, I turned them down, obviously.

But what do you think about that?

That would make me incredibly angry.

Again because, again they've taken the focus away from trying to get

to the bottom of this, to find out actually what happened.

Trying to put the full focus on somebody else.

And it just, it's incredulous, as I say, it stuns me.

# If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

The effort to find Madeleine McCann was about to shift to the UK.

# Clap your hands together ? one, two, three.

For the first time, we can show you how the second big

investigation into Madeleine's disappearance came about.

How a national newspaper forced the government

to fund an unprecedented Scotland Yard operation.

And these are my shoes!

Are they new?

Yes.

And what colour are they?

Pink!

Lovely.

In June 2010, an internal Home Office report had

recommended a UK police review of the Madeleine McCann case.

But it was ignored for months.

Jim Gamble wrote the report.

I met with the Home Secretary in the lead-up, the end

of the summer of 2010, with Theresa May, the

new Home Secretary.

It was made clear to me by her and her private secretary

at the time that she hadn't have time to review the McCann Report.

So at that stage I don't believe it had even been read.

Madeleine's family were told by a national newspaper

that it would put pressure on the government.

In May 2011, The Sun serialized a book written by Kate McCann.

The deal raised ?500,000 for the Find Madeleine Fund.

The Sun were able to offer a very wide package of how

they would handle it, and part of that was putting

an appeal on the front page for Mr Cameron,

as he was then Prime Minister, to do something about having

the Portuguese material properly reviewed and assessed

by Scotland Yard.

This would be a running request that would have continued

to appear in the paper, should a review not take place.

Three sources close to the government decision have told

us that this front page ? and the threat of more to follow -

changed everything.

The Sun got what the McCanns wanted.

The government changed its position.

A police review was started.

My opinion is that that report lay gathering dust up

to and until there was another letter published in a newspaper

on the front page and that resulted in the government responding

in public and instantly commissioning something that we'd

asked for much, much earlier.

That's not what Theresa May told the Leveson Inquiry into the press.

I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall

give shall be the truth, the whole truth and

nothing but the truth.

She said the government had been considering a review before

The Sun got involved.

Did you feel that any pressure was put on you behind the scenes

to order this review or not?

I felt that the work we were doing to look at this review had been

going on for some time, it was coming to fruition

around this time anyway, and obviously the issue was a matter

of public concern.

Theresa May told Leveson that the work had gone on for some time?

So it's just coincidence?

What do you think?

Well, I know that whenever I spoke to her in the late summer of 2010

that it wasn't on the agenda.

Because I had presented the report to them and I know that, you know,

she hadn't reflected, reviewed or read it at that time.

However it started, the government was now persuaded.

Madeleine McCann would be a special case.

And Scotland Yard was asked to help.

Clearly I was aware that within the media there was a lot

of media reports of connections or contacts between newspaper

proprietors and senior politicians.

Frankly, that was all irrelevant to me.

Why?

Why was it irrelevant?

Because you're getting the request, you're the end of it, if you like.

Because it wouldn't make the slightest bit

of difference to my decision.

I was always very clear of what my responsibilities were.

I was the operational lead and any decisions to get involved in this

would be an operational decision, not one for politicians.

Were you comfortable with that chain of events?

Could you have said, no, we're not getting involved?

Yes.

Would you have done that?

If my criteria hadn't been satisfied, yes.

Are there legitimate lines of enquiry that we, the Met,

can bring our expertise to?

Do we have the background of dealing internationally

that other people don't?

Yes.

Is there a precedent?

Yes.

And is there additional funding for these additional pieces of work?

Yes.

Based on all those four things, well, why would I not want to help?

The British investigation into the Madeleine McCann

case, Operation Grange, was started.

The first job for the man assembling the team was to assess the parents.

Even on the first glance of what we looked at and when we took

the information back and ran it through our own understanding

and verified sightings and accounts and statements and all the rest

of it, it was perfectly clear to us that the McCanns themselves had

nothing at all to do with the actual disappearance.

Why?

Because it just...

It was just...

It was just obvious from, you know, that everything

stacked up that they, you know they were,

they were where they were when the child went missing.

Commander Foy chose Andy Redwood to run the investigation.

He had a full murder squad.

35 officers and staff.

In 2012, he gave his first interview to Panorama.

We are here in terms of seeking to bring closure to this case.

That would be the ultimate objective for us and is our

ultimate objective.

What does that mean?

Well, closure means establishing what happened to Madeleine McCann.

Solving it?

Solving it, yes, of course.

We've told you the Portuguese theory, now here's the British.

They thought the answer was in the back streets of Praia da Luz.

Where the tourists seldom go.

Scotland Yard have focused on the idea that Madeleine McCann

disappeared as part of a burglary that went wrong.

It might have a safe, upmarket image, but Praia da Luz has

suffered from low-level crime.

There had been a spate of burglaries before the McCanns

arrived here in 2007, a mini crime-wave that, it is said,

tour operators and hoteliers tried to keep quiet because it would be

bad for business.

I was told that there was such concern and alarm amongst hoteliers,

villa owners and companies in the area that they had a meeting

with the relevant authorities to discuss what could be done,

obviously to try and stop it.

There was, I'm told, concern as well, that it was threatening

to damage the tourism industry, the image of the Algarve.

But, of course, Kate and Gerry weren't aware of any

of that when they arrived.

Criminologist Heriberto Janosch provided Scotland Yard

with key evidence to support the burglary theory.

Two months and a half before the abduction,

there were a burglary there.

At the end of this run.

In the next block.

Yeah.

60 metres from the McCann apartment.

And 17 days before the abduction, there was a burglary in the second

floor here in the same block that the McCanns.

And one week before the abduction there was another burglary right

above Madeleine's apartment.

Here?

There, yes.

And the real thing is that in the three cases, the modus

operandi of the burglary was the same.

Opening a window from the outside.

So, burglars were breaking in through windows in the block

where the McCanns were staying.

Remember, the Portuguese police said that couldn't have happened

to the McCanns because the shutters didn't open from the outside.

But they were wrong.

Mr Janosch has demonstrated that they do.

They lift the shutters, move the window pane,

the right hand inside, grab the cord, and lift

the shutter in a normal way, without noise and without damage

to the window.

Scotland Yard's burglary theory focused on individuals

who lived nearby.

This is what they thought.

Three local men were potentially involved in a burglary

here in Luz on the night that Madeleine McCann disappeared.

And we know their names.

They are Jose da Silva, Ricardo Rodrigues and Paulo Ribeiro.

Scotland Yard were particularly interested in their phone

records on the night Madeleine McCann disappeared.

They show a text and a phone call from Carlos da Silva

to Ricardo Rodrigues.

They were around the times parents left the tapas bar

to check on their children.

Then, at 21:51, a few minutes before Madeleine is reported missing,

there's a 58-second phone call between the two.

And in my opinion, it was the right time when Madeleine was abducted.

You think that's when she was abducted?

Yes, I think that Madeleine was abducted at 21:50, more or less.

British police thought that text and those calls were significant.

But many Portuguese detectives thought Scotland Yard

were clutching at straws.

TRANSLATION: Listen, they lived in the area.

If he and I, if we lived in the area and called each other that day,

that would not make us suspicious.

Those three individuals talked to each other

because they were friends,

they knew each other.

Remember that sighting by the Smith family, the one originally

mistaken for Gerry McCann?

The British police now believed that sighting supported their theory.

Mr Smith and his family were coming home from a night out in Luz

centre when at this point, this spot here, they saw a man

carrying a child on his shoulder.

Now this was just before 10 o'clock, about the same time that

Madeleine McCann was discovered missing at the Ocean Club

which is a few hundred metres in that direction.

The British police thought that could be a burglar carrying

away Madeleine McCann.

They issued these e-fits.

Sorry, no comment for you today,

thank you, good morning.

Sorry I'm not able to talk to you today.

DCI Andy Redwood brought his team to Portugal to investigate

the burglary theory.

They spent a week searching an area near where their suspects live.

They were not welcomed by all.

TRANSLATION: What they came to do in Portugal was

a show-off, a joke.

You can't look, seven years later, for the corpse of a little

girl in a sewage pipe through which all of Algarve's

rain water had flowed.

That's because either the sewage pipe would have blown or transported

everything to the sea.

You don't look for the corpse of a child, seven years later,

in a field full of herbs and vegetation as if she had

just entered that field.

But Scotland Yard pressed ahead and in 2014 issued a formal request

to question the three men.

They were brought in and made official suspects.

I want to hear their side.

First, Carlos da Silva.

He worked as a driver at the Ocean Club.

He was at the heart of this burglary theory.

And was questioned by the Portuguese police on behalf of the British.

And as I understand it, he's just in this supermarket here,

so I'm going to try and grab a word with him.

He doesn't want to talk.

So, Mr da Silva was in that supermarket.

And I approached him and asked for an interview, he said no,

he was quite keen not to talk.

Now he's a man who's not been charged with anything so I've got

no right to barrel up and demand an interview.

I asked him, he made it quite clear he didn't want to talk to me

so that's the end of that.

I can't get his side.

All three of the men questioned by Scotland Yard have continued

to live in Luz and under suspicion.

Ricardo Rodrigues is one of the guys we've been trying to track down.

And we've found out he lives here in this block.

So, I'm just going to knock on his door, see if he'll

have a word with us.

So, we found the address of Mr Rodrigues, it was quite

difficult to get that, lots of digging, but we got it,

knocked on his door, no response.

Probably out, could have been in there, chose not to talk to us,

doesn't have to talk to us, we just wanted to get

his side, but we can't find him, can't get him.

As we're filming, the third suspect turns up and agrees

to talk to our translator.

He doesn't have parents.

Paulo Ribeiro was asked 250 questions by the British police,

including, "Did you kill Madeleine McCann?"

What did you think when the police asked

you if you were involved in Madeleine McCann's disappearance?

He said they came there with an e-fit.

The police came with an e-fit and said that somebody had said

he looked very similar to the person that was seen walking with a child.

That was the occasion, but that he was amazed by that.

Paulo Ribeiro and the other two men told British Police

they had nothing to do with Madeleine McCann's

disappearance.

And the Portuguese police clearly believed them.

What do you think of that, having seen all of the evidence?

I cannot say what I think.

I can only say that we questioned those people

on request of the Metropolitan police and only based on the request

of the Metropolitan police.

As I understand it, the PJ didn't ever think that was a viable theory.

We never questioned those people, we never...

we never questioned those people, we never saw or look at those people

as suspects of the crime.

TRANSLATION: This burglary theory is absurd.

Not even a wallet disappeared, no television disappeared,

nothing else disappeared.

A child disappeared.

What did the British tax payer get for their money?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

But that is a problem of yours, the British taxpayer.

After six years and more than ?11 million, Scotland Yard made

an announcement last week.

They say there's no evidence to implicate the three men

who had been suspects for almost three years.

And the case against them is now closed.

But we've discovered something else.

Scotland Yard also interviewed the man who took the McCanns'

booking, the reception manager at the Ocean Club.

He was first interviewed by the Portuguese back in 2007.

So this is the witness statement of Vitor dos Santos,

he took the bookings, in fact he took the booking

for the McCann family.

And he says that he saw the scene of the flat, at 5A,

and to him it didn't look like there'd been a break in.

Now we've also got hold of this, which is, it's from the PJ files

so it's the investigative files and it's a list of the people

who worked at the Ocean Club at the time of Madeleine McCann's

disappearance and he's right down at the bottom here,

Vitor Manuel de Jesus Santos.

When you look at the list there's a cross by all of these names

as if they've been ruled out, and then you get down to the bottom

and by Vitor Santos there's a question mark.

That was ten years ago.

I want to know why he was questioned by the British Police.

The first piece of information we got was just a name,

nothing else, Vitor Santos.

Then we did some digging and we found out that Mr Santos now

makes a living by running tourists around the bays to the east of Luz.

He's moved five miles down the coast and he works

in the nearest town, which is Lagos.

The problem in terms of finding him is there are a lot

of boat operators in Lagos.

We've found him.

The man who took the booking for the McCann family holiday,

the man who had the keys to every room.

Is that Vitor?

Yes.

Can I have a word with him?

It's the first time he's spoken to the media.

Vito Santos.

Hello, yes.

Pleased to meet you.

Nice to meet you, no problem.

My name is Richard Bilton, I'm a BBC reporter.

Yes.

As you can see.

Can I ask you a couple of questions?

Yes.

OK, so did you work at the Ocean Club back in the day?

Yes.

What did you do there?

Why?

Well, I'll tell you why.

I mean, two reasons.

We're, we're doing a documentary so...

Yes.

We're looking at those periods and as I understand

it's from the PJ files.

Yes.

You took, you took the booking for the family.

Is that right?

That's right, yes.

Can you tell me about that?

What do you remember about it?

I remember everything, but now I am here because I lost my job.

Why did you lose your job?

Because the, the main reasons why, why I have the, the proper letter,

the McCann was the, I lost the job, that's it.

Wow.

And the people said it's because the Maddy McCann

reasons I lost the job.

And do you remember the McCanns, do you remember

the group that they were with?

What can you tell us?

Well I don't talk any more about that.

OK.

So, one other thing is, have you spoken to the British police?

Yes.

What did you tell them?

Well, I just make the quest.

I have.

I am here because another reason.

I don't want to speak with you.

I understand.

So have the British police said that they want to talk to you again?

No, never more.

The last time was 2014, 2015.

What did they say to you then?

Make the questions, as usual.

The same questions as uh when the, the girl went missing.

That's it.

Did they ask you whether you had anything to do

with Madeleine McCann's disappearance?

Well, the police asked just

the things about our job, because I was the head

of some departments and I, but now I lost the job.

I have to do this, unfortunately.

Did you have anything to do with Madeleine

McCann's disappearance?

Me?

Yes.

About what?

Did you do anyth-?

Were you there on the evening?

Did you, do, anything you can help us with?

Well I already speak with the police, that's it.

What did you tell them about that night?

Only questions about the timetables and things

like that and the staff because I was the head of the,

the reservation and the reception and I speak about, it's

normal questions.

Mr dos Santos says he had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance.

As for Operation Grange, it's been scaled back, but it isn't over.

It's got a new head, new money and a new lead.

Police investigating the disappearance of

Madeleine McCann in Portugal nearly 10 years ago have been granted more

money to extend their inquiry.

They are to get an extra ?85,000 to continue for another six months.

We've got some critical lines of inquiry.

They are of great interest to ourselves and our Portuguese

colleagues and there are some significant investigative avenues

we are pursuing.

It's been reported that the new lead is a woman seen

acting suspiciously outside apartment 5A.

But former Scotland Yard officers believe the investigation

is being wound down.

I remember as a detective superintendent, and also detective

chief superintendent on the murder command, stopping cases

and saying, "There is no more."

We cannot go on.

And I've done that, and that hurts, because as a murder investigator,

you want to bring people to justice, but if you don't have the evidence,

then you can't do that.

And it's maybe time that someone said to Kate and Gerry,

despite everything, we've done everything, but enough is enough,

and maybe, you know, in the passage of time,

in years to come, allegiances change, and then we might

find out what happened.

But at the moment, I think ten years on, it's time

to say enough is enough.

The British search for Madeleine McCann only has

funding until September, but the Portuguese say

they have no deadline.

As the years roll on, does it become harder to solve?

As in any other case, as the years roll on,

it is, it gets harder, that's true in this case.

You know more about this case than almost anyone else,

do you think in your heart it will be solved?

If it depended on my heart, the case would have already been

solved but it doesn't depend on my heart, it depends

very much on our minds.

There's never been a case like Madeleine McCann.

It was a huge amount of money, I just look at the human factor.

The human factor is there's still a little girl missing

and we don't know why.

We don't know what happened.

This week, Madeleine's parents said, even after ten years,

they haven't given up hope.

No parent is going to give up on their child unless they know

for certain their child is dead.

We just don't have any evidence, so we've got to...

My hope of Madeleine being out there is no less

than it was almost 10 years ago.

I mean, apart from those first 48 hours, nothing actually has changed.

I mean, the most difficult thing has been, how will we find her,

you know, because you are relying on the police doing

everything they can.

And you are relying on somebody with information coming forward.

Are we going to post it today?

No.

We are.

It isn't a letter.

Ten years, two theories, but so far no solution.

The truth about what happened here, what happened to Madeleine McCann,

seems as far away as ever.