Madeleine McCann’s parents are 'awaiting a breakthrough' as they share poem on anniversary of disappearance

3 May 2023, 10:25 | Updated: 3 May 2023, 12:28

Kate and Gerry McCann have posted a moving message about their missing daughter on the 16th anniversary of her disappearance.

Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal on the evening of May 3 2007.

Sixteen years on, the parents of Maddie, who would now be 19 years old, posted a message for her on the official Find Madeleine website.

They wrote: “Today marks the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction.
“Still missing…….still very much missed. It is hard to find the words to convey how we feel.”

They also shared a poem titled The Contradiction by Clare Pollard which they said “resonates strongly” with them.

It contains the lines:

The absence contradicts itself:

the missing conjures what we miss.

You are not here, I’m not myself,

but still I talk to you like this.

Kate and Gerry added: “The police investigation continues, and we await a breakthrough. Thank you to everyone for your support- it really helps.”

Read more: Madeleine McCann prime suspect may not face charges over her disappearance after German court ruling

Last month, a German court decided not to hear a sex offences case against Christian Bruckner, who also is a suspect in Maddie’s disappearance.

The court said in April that the region where the case is located is not the last place where Bruckner lived in Germany.

Prosecutors in the northern city of Braunschweig in October charged Bruckner in several separate cases involving sexual offences allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

He has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder.

Bruckner spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.

The suspect is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005.

In the German legal system, a court must decide after it receives an indictment from prosecutors whether to take a case to trial.

The Braunschweig state court said its supposed responsibility for the case being in the area had been based on his last residence before going abroad and then to prison.

But it said that is not valid, because the suspect produced evidence of a later residence in the neighbouring state of Saxony-Anhalt, where he was registered as the owner of a property that he kept after going abroad.

The court said that, as a result of its decision, it has lifted an arrest warrant it issued for Bruckner in November.

It said in a statement that this has no influence on Bruckner completing his current sentence.

The court said that its decision can be appealed to a higher court in Braunschweig.

Prosecutors said later on Thursday that they will examine the reasons for the decision carefully and then are likely to appeal.