New leads on missing Madeleine
A cluster of new leads in Holland and Belgium are being examined by detectives leading the search for Madeleine McCann.
Belgian police said they had received more than 100 reports of possible sightings of the youngster, after it was revealed a Scotland Yard informant suggested Madeleine was stolen to order by a Belgian paedophile gang.
And artist sketches of a man and woman seen in an Amsterdam shop with a girl who identified herself as "Maddie" have been released.
The pictures were drawn by a police artist on the evidence of Anna Stam, the 41-year-old shopkeeper who saw the couple with a girl resembling Madeleine last year.
The girl entered Ms Stam's party shop with a man and a woman and two other children in early May. The man, aged between 35 and 40, spoke Portuguese while the woman, who was in her 40s, spoke English. She told Ms Stam they were from a French travelling circus.
Ms Stam said the little girl, who looked like Madeleine apart from the colour of her hair, asked her: "Do you know where my mummy is?"
On being told that her mother was a little further back in the store, the child replied, "She is not my mummy," and added: "She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy."
Alain Remue, who heads the Belgian police missing persons unit, said about a third of the possible sightings were from clairvoyants and another third lacked concrete information.
He said officers had examined "every possible link" between the disappearance and the information they had received.
Meanwhile, the case files also reveal that Portuguese police wanted to bug Madeleine McCann's parents but a judge refused to give permission.
Police wanted to eavesdrop on the conversations of Gerry and Kate McCann before making the couple "arguidos", or formal suspects, last summer.
The files reveal that on August 1 last year, detectives requested permission to place two bugs in the McCanns' apartment in Praia da Luz and one in their car.
But judge Pedro Frias refused to grant the order, saying the couple's witness statements would be enough.
The McCanns' arguido status was lifted on July 21, when prosecutors shelved the case.
News from Yahoo News
A cluster of new leads in Holland and Belgium are being examined by detectives leading the search for Madeleine McCann.
Belgian police said they had received more than 100 reports of possible sightings of the youngster, after it was revealed a Scotland Yard informant suggested Madeleine was stolen to order by a Belgian paedophile gang.
And artist sketches of a man and woman seen in an Amsterdam shop with a girl who identified herself as "Maddie" have been released.
The pictures were drawn by a police artist on the evidence of Anna Stam, the 41-year-old shopkeeper who saw the couple with a girl resembling Madeleine last year.
The girl entered Ms Stam's party shop with a man and a woman and two other children in early May. The man, aged between 35 and 40, spoke Portuguese while the woman, who was in her 40s, spoke English. She told Ms Stam they were from a French travelling circus.
Ms Stam said the little girl, who looked like Madeleine apart from the colour of her hair, asked her: "Do you know where my mummy is?"
On being told that her mother was a little further back in the store, the child replied, "She is not my mummy," and added: "She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy."
Alain Remue, who heads the Belgian police missing persons unit, said about a third of the possible sightings were from clairvoyants and another third lacked concrete information.
He said officers had examined "every possible link" between the disappearance and the information they had received.
Meanwhile, the case files also reveal that Portuguese police wanted to bug Madeleine McCann's parents but a judge refused to give permission.
Police wanted to eavesdrop on the conversations of Gerry and Kate McCann before making the couple "arguidos", or formal suspects, last summer.
The files reveal that on August 1 last year, detectives requested permission to place two bugs in the McCanns' apartment in Praia da Luz and one in their car.
But judge Pedro Frias refused to grant the order, saying the couple's witness statements would be enough.
The McCanns' arguido status was lifted on July 21, when prosecutors shelved the case.
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