http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-police-trail-five-3434162#ixzz2zMzvnyJV



Madeleine McCann police on trail of five British holiday flat owners - but they are refusing to cooperate





Apr 19, 2014 22:00
By Matthew Drake


British detectives want to quiz them over who was in their apartments when the tot was abducted seven years ago


Missing: Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann police are trying to trace five mystery Britons who owned flats in the block where she vanished.

British detectives want to quiz them over who was in their apartments when the tot was abducted seven years ago.

But we can reveal all five – whose identities have been withheld from police under Portuguese data protection laws – have allegedly refused to allow managers at the Algarve complex to pass their details to the Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange team.

A source said: “They could hold vital clues to what happened. But it is down to the individuals if they want to get involved.

“They were all asked by email if they were happy for their names to be put forward to the investigation – and they said they were not.

“It may be that they did not want to get caught up in such a high profile case, but they could know something critical about Madeleine’s disappearance and may not even be aware of it.”


Philip Coburn / Sunday Mirror
Snatch flats: Five owners refuse to help investigation

Police are working on the theory that three-year-old Madeleine’s abductor spied on her from inside the 59-block Ocean Club complex of holiday flats in Praia da Luz.

Nearly all of the owners at the time were believed to be British and it has been claimed some properties may have been sub-let during May 2007 without the owners’ knowledge.

Anybody with access to certain ­apartments could easily have kept an eye on the McCanns’ movements without ­looking suspicious.

Madeleine’s dad Gerry has said he thinks they were being watched throughout their family break in ­apartment 5A.

Officers are believed to have ­questioned owners of all but five of the remaining 58 flats after they agreed to help the investigation.

They have pinpointed the mystery leaseholders as “persons of interest” who could help them unlock the case although none are suspected of wrongdoing.

But Scotland Yard has been hampered by a combination of data protection regulations and the botched original Portuguese investigation.

It is understood that a full list of owners was never made available even to local police.

Sub-letting at the complex has made ­detectives’ work even harder as they try to build a picture of who was where at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.


Our source said: “Operation Grange is trying to gather data through several agencies to collate a full picture of who was at the resort at that time.

“They are working hard to gather this information as quickly as possible and have appealed for full co-operation from everybody involved. But they are having to tread on eggshells.

"They would happily go round Praia da Luz and knock on doors asking everybody for information if they could.

“But they are still waiting for ­permission on the international letters of request they have sent to the ­Portuguese.”  

The formal letters are used to ask the Portuguese police to carry out certain pieces of work on the British force’s behalf.

“The frustrations at Scotland Yard are growing day by day,” said our source.

“The Portuguese police just keep referring them to what is in their files and that is not the full picture.”

A source close to Madeleine’s heartbroken parents Gerry and Kate said: “It is deeply disappointing that these five owners have chosen not to come forward.”