Liverpool Daily Post

Madeleine McCann: Gran hits out over daughter Kate

Sep 9 2007 by Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

An astonishing day in the search for Madeleine McCann saw her Liverpool-born mother and her husband accused of killing. Caroline Innes reports

KATE McCANN’S mother last night told the Daily Post her daughter believed she was being framed by Portuguese police over the disappearance of Madeleine.

Susan Healy, of Mossley Hill, broke down as she pledged her daughter’s innocence and said: “Kate would never have harmed her beloved Madeleine.�?/P>

It came on the day Portuguese detectives accused Kate McCann of killing her three-year-old daughter, albeit accidentally and, it is claimed, offered her a “deal�?if she confessed.

In an emotional interview, just minutes before her daughter was released from a second day of police questioning, Mrs Healy said if evidence of Madeleine’s blood had been found in the McCann’s hire car, it had been planted to frame her daughter.

She said she spoke to Kate, who was yesterday named as a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance �?with her husband, Gerry, also given the same status by police early today �?and the 39-year-old was “shocked and distressed�?at claims traces of Madeleine’s blood were in the car, hired 25 days after she vanished.

Sister-in-law, Philomena McCann had earlier revealed that Portuguese detectives interviewing Kate had promised she would serve only a two-year sentence if she admitted to accidentally killing Madeleine.

Mrs Healy said Mrs McCann was “destroyed�?but said no matter what the police did to her �?or the growing speculation of her involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance �?that nothing would be as painful for her as the pain of missing Madeleine.

Mrs Healy, who was being supported by husband Brian and her sister-in-law at home in south Liverpool, called on the Government to intervene and protect her daughter from the Portuguese police.

Mrs Healy said: “We just cannot believe what is happening. It is ludicrous. None of us knows what on earth the Portuguese police are thinking This is a desperate situation. You could not meet a nicer person than Kate.

‘SHE is kind, gentle, loving and sensitive and loves her children.

“We are so proud of how she has conducted herself through all of this.

“But behind closed doors, she is not calm and collected �?she is destroyed. She is missing her daughter, Madeleine.

“She was so close to her and nobody could possibly consider that she could have anything to do with this.�?/P>

She asked the people of Liverpool to lobby their MPs to intervene in the case which the McCanns believe has been mishandled from the start.

Mrs Healy went on to explain that, despite their doubts, the family had trusted the Portuguese police and now felt betrayed by them. She added: “It is fright- ening. But we are all so shocked it is just hard to take it seriously.

“It is as if people and the police have forgotten about Madeleine. She is still missing.

“If they do have evidence then it must have been planted by the police. We all feel she is being set up by the police as they have not made any progress in the case.

“Kate and Gerry have always defended the police as they always saw them as the best way to get Madeleine back.

“Despite their doubts about the investigation, they have never criticised them publicly and now Kate is being treated as a suspect. It is so unfair.

“I want to know how the police will ever justify this.�?/P>

Mrs Healy went on to demand police reveal any evidence that implicates her daughter and said the people of Liverpool must now stand together.

She said: “I want people to consider what type of people Kate and Gerry are.

“I want the Daily Post readers to understand that they are good people and to appreciate the nightmare they have found themselves in.

‘EVERYBODY should be concerned about this and we can’t allow innocent parents to be treated like this.

“If this can happen to Kate, it could happen to anyone. Anybody could be set up.

“We have been silent for too long and it is time we stood up and called for the British Government to get involved and offer Kate and Gerry some protection.

“I would ask everyone to lobby their MPs for action as if this continues. I don’t know what will happen to Kate and Gerry and Madeleine may never be found.

“The strain on our family is unbearable. My other sister-in-law collapsed and has been in hospital for three days now as a result of the stress of this.�?/P>

In an interview with ITV News, Kate’s sister-in-law, Philomena McCann, said: “They tried to get her to confess to having accidentally killed Madeleine by offering her a deal through her lawyer �?’if you say you killed Madeleine by accident and then hid her and disposed of the body, then we can guarantee you a two-year jail sentence or even less”�? Claims of a “deal�?could not be confirmed last night with Portuguese police or the McCanns�?representatives.

Last night, family spokeswoman Justine McGuiness, who is with Kate in Portugal, said the first thing the former Notre Dame High School pupil wanted to do after her questioning was to give a big hug to her two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie.

Ms McGuinness said: “They [the police] believe they have evidence to show that in some way she’s involved in the death of her daughter, which of course is completely ludicrous.

“They have suggested that blood has been found in a hire car that they hired 25 days after Madeleine was taken.

“Anyone who knows anything about May 3 knows that Kate is completely innocent. We will fight this all the way and we will not stop looking for Madeleine.�?/P>

Kate McCann has been told by her lawyer that she could be charged in connection with the disappearance of her daughter.

It is understood Portuguese police have put 22 key questions to Mrs McCann, who grew up in Anfield and Allerton.

She was interviewed by police the day after Madeleine disappeared, but Thursday was the first time her lawyer had been present.

Ms McGuinness added: “She is shocked and surprised in several ways. First of all that such an accusation could be made.

“And obviously she is concerned that such a line of investigation can become a distraction from further attempts to find Madeleine.�?/P>

GERRY McCANN, 39, arrived at the police station at 3.55pm just a few moments before his wife left looking strained and shell-shocked. After hours of questioning, he, too, was declared an arguido, or formal suspect, by police, his lawyer Carlos Pinto de Abreu said early today.

In a statement released before her first police interview, Mrs McCann appealed to her daughter’s abductors, saying: “It is not too late �?please let her go or call the police.�?/P>

Mrs McCann became the second formal suspect. The first was Robert Murat, a British man living locally, who has not been arrested or charged.

Samples, including suspected traces of blood, have been recov- ered from the McCann’s holiday apartment. The UK’s Forensic Science Service has spent the past month analysing them.

Jon Corner, from Liverpool, a close friend of the McCanns and godfather to their twins, said: “I did speak to Kate in the early hours of Friday morning and clearly she is disappointed.

“Really disappointed, not only to be at this stage a suspect but I think the realisation that they’re not actually looking for Madeleine I think is almost a double whammy.�?/P>

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said the McCanns would be given assistance by consular staff at the British Embassy in Portugal.

carolineinnes