Saturday, 09 Jun 2007
The heart-broken parents of Madeleine McCann are to take a break from their high-profile campaign - to give themselves time to grieve.
Kate and Gerry McCann have been at the centre of a media storm ever since the four-year-old was snatched from the Algarve resort town of Praia da Luz 37 days ago.
They have travelled across Europe to raise the profile of her disappearance and are about to fly to north Africa to continue the hunt.
But once they return on Tuesday, the couple said they would "take stock" and decide what to do next.
Mrs McCann said it was time to pull back from all the attention.
"When I'm speaking in public it helps take my mind off things. It's a distraction because you know that might help, but it's time to step back from that."
Mr McCann said he was finding increasingly hard to control his feelings: "There's been a lot of emotion in the last 10 days.
"In the first few weeks when I slipped into dark moments of despair I was finding it quite easy to emotionally switch a light back on, but I've been finding it increasingly difficult to do.
"More importantly, I don't want to do that anymore. I want to be able to grieve and let those emotions out."
Mr McCann said they felt they had covered the main countries where appeals might help but now it was time for a break.
"We'll still meet with the Portuguese police as we have done fairly regularly and with the British Police. But it is definitely going to be a period of reflection.
The couple plan to stay in the Algarve at least until the end of the summer or until Madeleine is found.
