Madeleine’s McCann’s dad Gerry was sent coded message by investigator in bid to get him to come clean about Maddie’s disappearance, Netflix doc reveals
A TOP cop sent Gerry McCann a coded message to “do the right thing” hoping he might confess what happened to his daughter Madeleine, a documentary reveals.
Jim Gamble, the senior child protection officer in UK’s first Maddie investigation, encouraged Gerry to write the message himself in a blog addressed to the kidnapper.
Ex-cop Jim has told the new Netflix documentary he suspected the parents “from the outset”, although later he was sure they were not involved in Maddie’s disappearance on holiday in May 2007.
He told the programme how he tried to prick Gerry’s conscience while advising him on what to say in an online appeal in 2007.
Gerry was writing a blog post aimed directly at whoever might be responsible, pleading with him to drop Maddie in a safe place or at least reveal her fate.
He said: “If you have done something you regret, if you find yourself in a situation you never intended, it is not too late to do the right thing.”
Jim, former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said he had suggested the wording as a way to suss out if Gerry knew more than he was letting on.
He said: “In shaping that, I was actually talking to Gerry.
“I think it was the only way of delivering that message or reflecting that thought – if something had happened, if it was a mistake, it’s never too late to come out and stop all of this.”
The former cop said his early suspicion was based on his experience that “statistically it’s likely to be the parents or somebody who’s in close proximity with the child.”
But after working more on the case he is sure Gerry and Kate McCann did nothing wrong.
And he blasted desperate Portuguese police for “clutching at straws” by trying to blame the parents when their investigation failed to come up with any leads.
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Experts told the documentary they believe people traffickers snatched Maddie and she may still be alive.
Mr Gamble said: “I absolutely believe that in my lifetime we will find out what has happened to Madeleine McCann.
“There’s huge hope to be had with the advances in technology. Year on year DNA is getting better. Year on year other techniques, including facial recognition, are getting better.
“And as we use that technology to revisit and review that which we captured in the past, there’s every likelihood that something we already know will slip into position.”
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