Portuguese police say sorry to Madeleine McCann's parents

The parents of Madeleine McCann have reportedly received an apology from Portuguese police for the way detectives investigated the case and treated the family.

Madeleine disappeared at the age of three in May 2007 while on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, in Praia da Luz. The Leicestershire couple had left their first-born daughter alone with her twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they went out to dinner with friends.

According to BBC Panorama, a delegation of senior Portuguese police officers travelled from Lisbon to London earlier this year, where they met and apologised to Mr McCann. The delegation reportedly said the initial investigation was not handled properly, insufficient importance was given at the time to missing children, and officers did not properly appreciate the McCanns’ position as foreigners in an environment they did not understand.

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During questioning of Madeleine’s parents in September 2007, detectives made them both “arguidos” – or suspects – in their daughter’s disappearance. That status was eventually lifted and the investigation was shelved in 2008, but the couple remained under suspicion in Portugal for years.

In 2012, Scotland Yard detectives said they believed Madeleine could still be alive, released an age-progression picture of how she might look as a nine-year-old, and called on the Portuguese authorities to reopen the case, but Portuguese police said they had found no new material.

Months after Scotland Yard launched its own