Madeleine McCann hunt: Eight suspects to be quizzed over her disappearance
POLICE have been given the go-ahead to quiz their prime suspects in the hunt for Madeleine McCann.
Madeleine’s disappearance has the hallmarks of a pre-planned abduction that would have involved reconnaissance
Earlier this year Scotland Yard detectives identified eight men they wanted to question over the three-year-old’s disappearance from Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.
Local legal chiefs have now given officers the go-ahead to speak to the suspects, according to the country’s respected state broadcaster RTP.
The British team is preparing to haul in the unnamed men as part of work on a fresh investigation.
It is believed three are suspected burglars who live close to wasteland now being searched.
Another three are thought to be workers from the Ocean Club holiday complex where Madeleine and her parents, Kate, 46, and Gerry, 45, were staying when she was snatched.
Scotland Yard identified the suspects after trawling through thousands of phone records.
Detectives believe that Madeleine was taken by the gang of burglars – all convicted drug dealers – who panicked after accidentally waking her inside the holiday apartment.
Analysis of phone company data revealed the trio made an unusually high number of calls to each other in the hours after she disappeared.
Portuguese judicial authorities in Lisbon had to look at the evidence British officers had against all the suspects before allowing the Yard to question them on foreign soil.
Detectives think the burglars carried out a previous break-in at the resort, disturbing another child, days before Madeleine vanished.
The first youngster’s parents rushed in after hearing a disturbance to find the intruders had fled.
Local police did not link the two incidents during their fruitless first inquiry.
The Met has since carried out full background checks into all the men and their friends.
Last October the hunt’s leader Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood appeared on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme to issue e-fits and outline some of his team’s theories.
He said: “Madeleine’s disappearance has the hallmarks of a pre-planned abduction that would have involved reconnaissance.”