A former PSNI officer said that it looks like an end could be in sight for the heartbroken parents of Madeleine McCann.
Officer Jim Gamble was the UK’s most senior child protection police officer when three-year old Maddie went missing while on holiday in Portugal in 2007.
Her parents, Gerry and Kate, were questioned extensively after their daughter went missing in the Praia de Luz resort in the Algarve.
This Morning host Phillip Schofield asked probing questions on Thursday’s show as he and co host Holly Willoughby spoke to Mr Gamble.
It comes as a new suspect has been named in the case, 13 years after Maddie went missing.
Former detective Jim is also the former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
Jim explained that the new suspect, an unnamed 43-year-old German man who is currently in prison, is a “very very significant person of interest”, with several factors pointing to him being present on the night Maddie disappeared.
Jim explained: “The truth is, the beginning of this investigation in my opinion, was bungled.
“That’s not a direct criticism of the Portuguese police, it’s a reflection of the fact these cases are very rare.
“Lots of pieces of information in the beginning, I discovered from the review I carried out, weren’t kept together.”
Jim said they should have used a different software system to collate the information together, and said “cell dumps”, or telephone information, were not properly interrogated at the time.
He said people of interest and leads were not all followed through at the time either.
He added: “It’s the most hopeful I’ve been in 13 years.”
Jim said the suspect had committed similar offences, was in proximity at the time, his phone pinged off a cell tower near where Maddie disappeared, and he received a call an hour before Maddie is thought to have vanished.
Shortly after her disappearance, he changed his car registration.
The McCanns' spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, also appeared on the show and said Kate and Gerry McCann would not be commenting on the development.
He insisted they do not want any of the focus to be on them personally, just on the investigation itself so the truth can be uncovered.
Madeleine’s disappearance has been the subject of many conspiracy theories over the years, some even suggesting Kate and Gerry hid evidence that their daughter had died, something they have always denied.
