Investigator 'knows who took Madeleine McCann'

The private investigator searching for Madeleine McCann claims that he knows who abducted her and hopes that she will be back with her parents by Christmas.
Francisco Marco said that Madeleine, who disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal on May 3, is being held by a group of paedophiles.
The Método 3 detective agency is being paid £50,000 a month by the public fund set up to find Madeleine after she vanished from the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz. The Barcelona-based agency, which specialises in corporate investigations, has no expertise in looking for missing people.
Despite the inevitable scepticism about the claim, Mr Marco, who is the director-general of Método 3, insisted: “We know who kidnapped her but not where she is. We believe she is in an area not very far from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. And we have a fairly certain idea of who she is with. I cannot say who she is with because we are putting together conclusive proof that we can present to the authorities so they can proceed with their arrests.”

Mr Marco said: “God willing, I hope she’ll be back with her parents before Christmas. I have to believe it 100 per cent because I know how to look for living people, not dead ones.
“I have no proof that Madeleine is alive. We have proof of her movements after her kidnap and we know that she was alive the day after her disappearance.
“We are not certain that she left Portugal. We are certain that the kidnappers left Portugal at a certain moment in time,” he told the Spanish newspaper Metro.
“I talk of certainties because we know which group may have her or could have kidnapped her to sell her on to others.”
The Times has been told that the agency believes that a resident of Praia da Luz had been hired to identify suitable girls for abduction. The man is alleged to have been seen taking pictures of little blonde girls in the town for several days before Madeleine was abducted. The “spotter” is then alleged to have monitored Madeleine’s movements and discovered that her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, left their children alone each evening when they went out to eat.
It is claimed that a second man was paid to abduct Madeleine from her bed and to transport her to a gang. Mr Marco said: “In principle, we’re talking about paedophiles. It’s not a kidnap carried out for economic reasons.”
Mr and Mrs McCann, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were made official suspects in their daughter’s disappearance three months ago. Detectives have suggested that Madeleine was accidentally killed in the holiday apartment and her parents then disposed of her body. The couple have strenuously denied any involvement and have appealed for police to concentrate on the theory that their daughter was abducted by a stranger.

Source: TimesOnline.co.uk