Portuguese minister reveals: We didn’t charge Maddie’s parents out of compassion
By Jerry Lawton
29 April 2016
MADELEINE McCann’s parents escaped prosecution for leaving her in their holiday flat because of “compassion” from prosecutors.
Portuguese law chiefs also thought Brits had “peculiar customs” which allowed them to dine and drink without their children.
The revelations came from Rui Pereira, who was Portugal’s minister of internal affairs – the equivalent of the UK’s Home Secretary.
He told a Portuguese TV show it was an error not to make GP mum Kate, 48, and heart doctor dad Gerry, 47, suspects – or arguidos – for “abandonment”.
They left Madeleine, three, and her younger twin siblings in the apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz while they dined with pals in a nearby tapas bar on May 3, 2007.
Madeleine vanished that night and has not been seen since.
Mr Pereira told Portuguese channel CMTV: “The error was not constituting the parents as arguidos for the crime of abandonment.
"At the beginning there was an extraordinary and ridiculous theory that said the English have very peculiar cultural customs.
“And therefore it was natural for them to leave the two-year-old twin siblings and the other three-year-old child alone in a bedroom for the parents to go out a few hundred metres away to socialise with their friends.’’
Mr Pereira revealed a charge was given some thought at the time. But he claimed the Portuguese authorities had an inferiority complex regarding foreigners.
They believed the English “truly have very specific cultural customs and it was natural to dine and drink”. There was also “compassion” from the investigators towards the parents.
Former police inspector Moita Flores, below, previously told the same TV show he believed the couple would have been accused of abandonment if they had been Portuguese.
He said: “Have no doubts. If this had involved a Portuguese child our public ministry would have immediately set off measures which are in place to protect children.
“In our culture this kind of behaviour would have not been tolerated as reasonable. I am not even sure it is tolerated under Anglo-Saxon cultural values.’’
The McCanns, from Rothley, Leics, are aware they could have been jailed if found guilty of abandonment.
But spokesman Clarence Mitchell has said they vigorously denied neglecting Madeleine.
A close friend said: “They were well aware that they could be charged with child neglect.
“They’d have fought tooth and nail. In legal terms Kate and Gerry were doing everything well within the bounds of respectable parenting.
“A court would have to show they had wilfully neglected their daughter and they did not.’’
The Metropolitan Police believe Madeleine was abducted after disturbing a burglar.
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/511619/Portuguese-minister-reveals-charge-Maddie-McCann-parents-compassion-abandonment-prosecutor
