It was a difficult day for Kate and Gerry McCann on Sunday as they commemorated the 19th anniversary of the disappearance of their daughter, Madeleine, during a holiday in Portugal.
The family have never given up hope that their daughter might still be alive and on Sunday both Kate and Gerry, alongside Madeleine’s two siblings, Amelie and Sean, were seen attending a vigil in honour of her memory.
The family were seen wearing puffer jackets as they headed to the vigil with Amelie firmly standing beside her mother.
In a statement on their Facebook page, the couple shared: “19 years. The search goes on to find our Madeleine, to achieve some justice, to make the world that bit safer. We remain very grateful for all our support from friends and family, people we know and those we don’t – and from the police and authorities for their continued determination and effort. Thank you.
“For Madeleine, who we love and miss every day, we will never give up.”
Days after the message was shared, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that they were seeking a UK trial for Christian Brückner, who has previously been named as the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, police are hoping to amass evidence that is “strong enough” to extradite Christian, who is a German citizen, to the UK. However, there are legal barriers to the move, as Germany doesn’t allow its citizens to be extradited to non-EU countries.
A spokesperson told the publication: “The Met’s investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been active since 2011. A dedicated team continues to examine the events of the evening of 3 May 2007 in Praia da Luz, while supporting and updating Madeleine’s family.
“As part of ongoing enquiries, we remain in close working discussion with policing colleagues in Germany and Portugal. We will continue to pursue any viable lines of enquiry.”
Last year, the chief of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, confirmed that his force was looking into a possible extradition, saying: “One of the reasons we are involved is that murder is in many situations extraterritorial and potentially a murder of a British subject can in certain circumstances be charged in the UK.
© Getty Images“There’s lots of maybes, so at the moment we are taking stock with the Germans and Portuguese.”
An extradition process can only begin if the UK police can satisfy the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that they are in a position to charge a suspect. Once that has been satisfied, authorities can then apply to the home country of the suspect to detain them before beginning the process.
Prime suspect Christian Brückner
In June 2020, German police named Christian Brückner as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine. Christian, who has previously served unrelated prison sentences for sexual assault and drug trafficking, is believed to have been in the area at the same time that the young girl vanished.
Although the German authorities claimed that they had “concrete evidence” that Christian had murdered Madeleine, he has never been charged in the case and has denied any wrongdoing in the matter.
Christian was released from prison in 2025, and as part of his release conditions, he is required to wear an electronic tag and he was forced to surrender his passport.
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