No Solid Evidence Linking Gery & Kate

Daily Express; says: 'The parents of Madeleine McCann were given fresh hope last night after crucial DNA tests concluded there was no evidence to prove their daughter was dead. Scientists at Portugal’s top forensic laboratory have spent months analysing DNA evidence collected from the scene of the child’s disappearance.

But they have been unable to identify anything that indicates the three-year-old died on the night she went missing in May. Tests have also failed to produce any solid evidence linking Kate and Gerry to her disappearance.

It will be a huge boost to the couple and again spotlights the theory that Madeleine could have been abducted and may still be found alive and well.

But at the same time Portuguese police last night launched an extraordinary attack on the McCanns, blaming them for the public’s lack of help in finding Madeleine. A senior police source said people were no longer willing to cooperate because they were tired of having the issue “rammed down their throats”.

He said the Find Madeleine campaign had actually hampered the police investigation.

He added: “They’ve overdone it. People used to look at her picture and well up with tears and spent days walking around the countryside, hot, tired, aching but it didn’t matter because there was that tiny hope they’d find her and it’d have a happy ending. Now they see her picture and it gets no reaction. It’s time to stop. People are turning the other way.”

A senior Portuguese detective even suggested the publicity could have placed the child’s life in danger. Carlos Anjos, chairman of the Portuguese Union of Police Detectives, said: “We were against the release of Madeleine McCann’s photograph all over the world. We thought that the photos should not show the distinct mark in her right eye. If this was a kidnap, which is what we believed from the start, revealing such a distinct feature would put that person’s life in danger.”

Yesterday’s news about the DNA tests came from a source at the country’s main pathology laboratory in Lisbon. He told the Portuguese daily newspaper 24 Hours: “Nothing allows us to say the little girl died in that apartment as no sample was gathered which can point in that direction.” The tests will increase pressure on Paulo Rebelo, head of the investigation, to remove Kate and Gerry’s suspect status imposed on September 7 – four months after Madeleine went missing.

But it is unlikely any decision will be made before more detailed forensic tests at a laboratory in Birmingham are completed. A vast amount of potential evidence was sent to the city’s Forensic Science Service laboratory following a second round of searches of sites in and around Praia da Luz at the beginning of August.