Madeleine McCann "could have wandered off" before her disappearance , a top detective has today claimed.
Jim Gamble, who was the UK’s most senior child protection police officer when Maddie vanished, has argued the youngster might not have been kidnapped from her room after all.
"Either someone took her – could be anyone – or in fact she wandered out that night, came to harm and her body has never been discovered.
"You’ve got to consider the hypothesis that in fact she was taken," Mr Gamble, who was heavily involved in the initial search, said.
He told Daily Star Online : "What we do know is, Madeleine is missing."
It is understood the girl's family do not support this argument.
The family source said: "Kate and Gerry have always maintained that their daughter was abducted and simply didn’t get up and wander off to her fate.
"To suggest this is almost ridiculous. There were heavy shutters which would have been impossible for a small child to open."
Madeleine was three when she went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of May 3, 2007.
And Operation Grange — the Met Police’s probe into her 2007 disappearance — has recently discussed a new theory with Portuguese police.
A source in Portugal said: "A meeting took place recently at the HQ of the General Attorney’s Office, which was attended by the prosecutor from Portimao who is in charge of the Portuguese inquiry.
"One of the lines of investigation that continues to be pursued is that Maddie could have walked out of the holiday flat herself."
So far £11.6million has been spent on the search, with a further £150,000 released by the Home Office this year.
