MADELEINE McCANN UPDATE 24

Video released of missing Madeleine.
Press Association
Tuesday May 29, 2007 10:43 AM


MADELEINE MCCANN

Video footage of missing Madeleine McCann has been released by her parents as they prepared to travel to Rome to meet the Pope.

Kate and Gerry McCann have been given "verbal assurances" that a meeting will go ahead on Wednesday morning at the Vatican.

They are expected to use a private jet to fly there and will hold a news conference for the international media to keep the attention focused on Madeleine.

It is now 25 days since the four-year-old was abducted in Praia da Luz in Portugal and there is no sign of police getting any closer to finding her.

One theory being considered is that Madeleine was taken away by boat, and the manager of the Lagos marina told on Monday how there was "constant police activity".

Four people at the marina have been questioned, including three Britons, according to Ingrid Fortunato.

On Monday the McCanns visited an 800 square foot inflatable poster of Madeleine set up on the beach and thanked all their supporters "from the bottom of our hearts".

The two short film clips of their daughter, taken by a family friend on their mobile on April 28. They are the last moving images of Madeleine.

They showed the little girl - dressed all in pink - clambering up the steps to the aircraft at East Midlands airport and sitting on a shuttle bus at Faro airport.

Mr McCann said his daughter had been so excited about the holiday that she had barely complained when she tripped and grazed her shin.

Phone experts who tracked Huntley join the hunt for Madeleine's abductor.
Last updated at 09:54am on 29th May 2007

British mobile phone experts are joining the hunt for Madeleine McCann with techniques that helped pinpoint the movements of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

A team of telecommunications specialists is trying to track mobiles in use around the resort in Portugal where she was abducted 26 days ago.

The technique, which is based on the silent transmissions mobiles send even when they are not in use, can pinpoint a phone's position to within a few yards.

It was used to provide evidence against school caretaker Huntley who was found guilty of the 2002 murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Detectives hope to use the information about phone movements on the night of Madeleine's disappearance to check against statements made by guests and staff at the Ocean Club complex.

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