The former head of the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre says someone who knows what happened to Maddie will come forward within his lifetime.
Easily one of the world’s biggest child abduction cases ever, Madeleine McCann is a globally recognised name – and with the recent airing of Netflix documentary The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, public interest in Maddie’s case has skyrocketed.
Vanishing at the age of just three, Maddie is believed to have been taken from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on 3rd May 2007.
Missing for over 12 years, Jim Gamble – the former head of the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, has stated that he believes Maddie’s case will be solved within his lifetime.
In an interview with The Daily Star, Gamble said:
I genuinely believe that either a prompt to someone’s conscience or the advances in modern technology will take us to a point in my lifetime where we find out what happened to Madeleine.
I absolutely believe that. If this involves an abductor, someone will have seen something.
Someone will have suspected something and for personal loyalty perhaps, a relationship, or whatever else – the fact that they’ve been unsure, they’ll have kept that to themselves.
Gamble continued:
But as time goes on, relationships change and people who’ve done things have life changing experiences that make them feel the need to tell. I think that can happen.
But I also think there are advances in technology could also lead us down a different path and that might be what breaks the case.
Mr Gamble, who appeared prominently in the Netflix documentary – believes that Maddie’s abductor – or someone associated with them, will come forward with new information within his lifetime.
Heartbreakingly, just last week Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann marked what would be her 16th birthday on 12th May with a facebook post in the official Find Madeleine Campaign page.
They wrote:
Happy 16th Birthday, Madeleine!
We love you and we’re waiting for you and we’re never going to give up.
The McCann’s also hosted a party in honour of their missing child, at their home in Rothley.
Scotland Yard, who have already spent a huge £11.75M on the international investigation, have received an extra £300,000 pledged by the Home Office to continue following lines of inquiry.
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