MADELEINE'S PARENTS BACK IN BRITAIN

The parents of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann arrived back in Britain on Sunday after being named by Portuguese police as formal suspects in her disappearance. It is now over 100 days since little Madeleine was abducted and the Portuguese police are still no nearer in finding Madeleine or establishing exactly what happened on the night she disappeared. Like a lot of other people in Britain, I personally don’t believe Maddy's parents were responsible for her disappearance. The McCanns and the press have made much of the fact that the Portuguese police have dragged their heels on this case and shown up a lot of flaws in the ongoing investigation. The police didn’t raise the alarm and alert border guards to the fact that the little girl was missing until several hours after she was reported missing, giving any child abductor plenty of time to get across the border and out of the country. This was just one of many flaws in the investigation. The McCanns themselves, frustrated at the lack of progress, launched a high profile publicity campaign across Europe,in a bid to find their missing daughter.

Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann have been through so much since their daughter disappeared. They have suffered enough without the harassment from the Portuguese police and untruths being written in the press about them as well. The couple’s guilt at leaving their children alone in their holiday apartment, whilst they went for a meal on that fateful night will remain with them forever. Now it seems the Portuguese police have had enough of the case and just want to wash their hands of the whole matter. The McCanns have been pushing them to work harder on the investigation and both they and the press have highlighted just how little the Portuguese police have done to find their missing daughter. The Portuguese police have no suspects so the only way they can bring the case to a close is by using Kate and Gerry McCann as scapegoats and blaming them for Maddy's disappearance. The danger is that whilst all this is going on precious time is being wasted, time that could be used to find the real abductor of Madeleine. It would be so sad if the public forgot about this little girl. It's all very sad and the saddest thing is that if the parents weren't involved and Maddy is still alive, the danger is that some people will be writing off the case and not continuing to keep the little girl in the public eye. Meanwhile Madeleine's parents now have the added worry and expense of hiring lawyers to clear their name, so that they can then get back to the most important task of finding their missing daughter. Mr McCann wrote in an emotionally-charged blog entry: "We always hoped that we would not have to return without Madeleine and could never have imagined the possibility that we would do so as suspects in our own daughter's disappearance". Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this difficult time.