Girl spotted in New Zealand is not Madeleine McCann, police claimA young girl resembling Madeleine McCann captured on CCTV film in a New Zealand shop is not the missing girl, police have said.
05 Mar 2010
Officers in the country said they had identified the girl in the image, which was published in a series of British newspapers as a potential sighting of Madeleine.
A statement from New Zealand's National Police headquarters said: ''Police have identified the child and family thought by a retail assistant to be missing British girl Madeleine McCann. She is not the missing British girl.''
The CCTV footage was taken in a Dunedin shop in December 2007, and showed a child hand-in-hand with a stout man wearing a white T-shirt and black shorts.
Details of the incident were included among 2,000 pages of previously secret case documents held by Portuguese police which were released to British newspapers this week.
They contain dozens of possible sightings of Madeleine after she disappeared from her family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz, southern Portugal, in May 2007, just before her fourth birthday.
New Zealand police said previously they had investigated the Dunedin image, but were unable to get any further information.
Acting Southern Police District Commander Inspector Dave Campbell said he was not going to identify the girl in the picture.
He added: ''New Zealand Police are mindful of the stress on the McCann family from possible sightings of their daughter worldwide.''
Other leads in the newly-released Portuguese police dossier include a report of a small blonde girl being dragged along the road to Faro airport in the Algarve - an hour's drive from Praia da Luz - on the night Madeleine vanished.
Another details how a young girl who looked like the missing child was seen being held at gunpoint on a French motorway by a half-naked man in August 2008.
Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said all the information should be released to the private detectives hired by the family.
He said: ''Kate and Gerry have made it clear that they were shocked to see the lack of follow-up work done by the Portuguese police since the investigation was shelved.
''All the information in these files must go to the private investigators as they are the only people still looking for Madeleine.''
The McCanns, both 41 and from Rothley, Leicestershire, spoke last month of their frustration that police had failed to investigate new leads in their daughter's disappearance.
Mrs McCann said: ''It's heartbreaking, to be honest.''
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/7365443/Girl-spotted-in-New-Zealand-is-not-Madeleine-McCann-police-claim.html___________________________________________________________________
The files to which Paiva referred in court contained information on the Dunedin sighting which was sent to Portugal via Interpol and there it sat ignored until released to the McCann lawyers in 2010 by order of the judge.
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Portuguese ignored NZ Madeline McCann 'sighting' - police3 Mar, 2010
SnipA 2000-page dossier from Portugal police contained a series of sightings from around the world - including CCTV footage from the Dunedin supermarket of a child resembling Madeleine - which were never investigated, Britain's Daily Mail reported today.
The Dunedin footage showed a girl "very like" Madeleine being led into a supermarket by a "portly man in shorts", The man's behaviour aroused the suspicions of a security guard who approached the girl to establish whether she was British.
Although the girl said her name was Hailey, the security guard was convinced the girl was Madeleine and reported the incident to police.
Dunedin police today confirmed they had received the information from the security guard.
Acting Southern District Commander, Inspector David Campbell, said police spoke with the woman to establish what had been seen.
A report was filed and police gathered security footage of the child, who had the appearance of Madeleine McCann, and the family with her, Mr Campbell said.
Police could not get any other information to help with the inquiry.
The file was then forwarded to Interpol, Mr Campbell said.
"The lead jurisdiction, in this case, Portugal, directs how the case progresses and has not asked NZ Police for any follow-up to date." The file has remained open ever since, Mr Campbell said.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10629715