McCanns hired security firm to find Madeline
Kate and Gerry McCann have hired a private security firm to investigate the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, it was reported today.
The couple employed Control Risks Group (CRG) four months ago after becoming concerned that Portuguese police assumed their daughter was dead.
The security company is tasked with checking reported sightings and building up profiles of likely abductors.
A source close to the couple’s legal team told reporters CRG had been working with the family since May and was in regular contact.
The source told reporters: “You can assume that Control Risks are doing some of the things that the Portuguese police can’t do.”
The news comes a day after it was revealed a British man believed he had spotted Madeleine near a hotel in Marrakech, Morocco, in the same location and on the same day as Norwegian tourist Marie Pollard reported seeing her.
The couple’s spokesman said they had “known for months” about the second, separate sighting on May 9, which was passed on to the Portuguese and Moroccan authorities but not disclosed to the media.
Ms Pollard claimed she saw Madeleine outside a petrol station, while the British witness, unnamed but said to be from Yorkshire, said he saw a young girl with a close resemblance outside the Ibis Hotel opposite.
Yesterday, the McCanns emerged from their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, where they have largely remained since their return from Portugal two weeks ago, with twins Sean and Amelie to attend their local Catholic church.
A top legal team has been assembled to help the couple, who have been named official suspects, or “arguidos” in their eldest child’s disappearance.
Madeleine went missing from her family’s rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on the night of May 3 while her parents Gerry and Kate were eating tapas in a restaurant nearby.
The McCanns were themselves declared arguidos after tests on DNA samples found in their hire car were taken as suggesting Madeleine’s body had been transported in the vehicle.
They strenuously deny any involvement.
