MADELEINE McCANN MYSTERY
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Appeal for holiday snaps 22/05/07

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Appeal for holiday snaps 22/05/07 Empty Appeal for holiday snaps 22/05/07

Post  Andrew Sat 16 Apr 2016, 9:46 pm

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/may/22/ukcrime.sandralaville

Appeal for holiday snaps to help track Madeleine's abductor
· Specialist British officers join hunt as inquiry wanes
· Photos to be cross-checked with paedophile database
Sandra Laville and Giles Tremlett in Praia de la Luz
Tuesday 22 May 2007 23.56 BST Last modified on Saturday 9 January 2016 20.12 GMT


Specialist detectives will use a high-speed database designed to detect paedophiles in an attempt to identify whoever abducted Madeleine McCann.
Senior police officers within Ceop - the child exploitation and online protection agency - appealed yesterday for anyone who had been on holiday in Praia de la Luz in the two weeks to May 3, the day Madeleine disappeared, to send in photographs taken in the area of the Ocean Club complex, where the McCann family was staying. Jim Gamble, chief executive of Ceop, said police were looking for pictures with people in the background who were not connected to the photographer.

The intervention of specialists, who have sent two officers to Portugal, suggests a focus on a paedophile ring, which may have abducted the four-year-old girl to film her and post the images online. Mr Gamble asked for families who had been on holiday in the area to examine their snaps again. "We can utilise the latest technology to build a larger intelligence picture," he said. "By taking in pictures from the public we can move the investigation forward - looking for people who might seem out of place or behaving strangely. No matter how small or insignificant the information may seem to you, it could be the missing part of the jigsaw, so let us decide if it is important."

The technology, known as the Child Base, uses image recognition to analyse and compare pictures of online abuse and abusers in a fraction of the time it takes to do so manually. The system can scan and analyse 1,000 images per hour.

Officers believe whoever abducted Madeleine must have been watching children at the complex run by tour operator Mark Warner for some time. They hope by scanning holiday snaps they might be able to match up the perpetrator with their online library of paedophiles.

"Look at your prints and see if there are, for instance, people in the background of the picture that at first you may not have noticed," Mr Gamble said. He said such pictures should be uploaded to madeleine.ceopupload.com. "Alternatively if you are not sure then go into any photographic shop and ask them to help you upload them."

In Portugal yesterday, hopes of finding Madeleine appeared to be on the wane as police reportedly began to admit she might be dead. Her father, Gerry McCann, spent a day away from his family yesterday for the first time since Madeleine disappeared 19 days ago. He travelled to Britain to sort out "personal matters" and meet organisers of the fund set up to help find her before returning to Portugal today.

Police appeared to have moved forward little since raids on houses in and near Praia de la Luz early last week. Forensic examination of evidence from the house of Briton Robert Murat, 150 yards from the Ocean Club complex, has reportedly failed to add to the case against him. Mr Murat claims he is an innocent scapegoat.

Andrew
Andrew

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