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Report: British Police to Seize Evidence From McCann Home

By SkyNews
Published | Updated

British police have been been asked to seize crucial items of evidence from Kate and Gerry McCann's family home, Sky News reported Thursday.

A judge in Portugal has signed a warrant which will instruct British officers to go to the couple's home in Rothley, England, to obtain items that could include Madeleine's Cuddle Cat toy and a laptop computer, according to the report.

Philomena McCann, Gerry McCann's sister, said the possibility that police might seize the toy, a pink animal Kate McCann has been seen clutching almost continuously since Madeleine went missing, was a "disgrace."

Family spokesman David Hughes could not confirm the report, but said he believed Cuddle Cat had already undergone forensic testing.

A laptop computer could also be seized. Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said detectives are interested in the content of personal emails stored on the computer.

Gerry McCann took the laptop with him when the family flew home from Portugal on Sunday, and has used it to write his regular blog on the Find Madeleine Web site.

Police officers may go to the four-bedroom house where the McCanns are staying with their two daughters as early as this afternoon local time, the report said.

Kate McCann's diary is already in the hands of the police.

Brunt said investigators will examine the diary to probe her "state of mind" in the weeks following Madeleine's disappearance in the Algarve on May 3.

Click here to read the full Sky News report.

Detectives have passed their 4,000-page dossier of evidence against the couple to Algarve-based public prosecutor Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses. He immediately ordered that the 10 files should go before a judge.

Meanwhile, the McCanns have announced they will not use money raised for the fund to find Madeleine to pay for their legal defense.

They are facing the prospect of being charged over their daughter's disappearance after police named them as "arguidos", or formal suspects, during questioning last Friday.