McCanns sought 'reconciliation'

Portimao: Kate McCann wrote to Portuguese police begging for information about her daughter and calling for an end to hostility over the case, newly released police files show.

McCann, 40, contacted the head of the investigation while she was still a suspect and said it was "torture" not knowing what was happening. She pleaded with Paulo Rebelo for a thaw in the frosty relationship between the couple and detectives in the Algarve, and the British police.

But her letter, sent in last December, prompted nothing more than a curt acknowledgement from the Policia Judiciaria.

Rebelo took over the Madeleine investigation last October after his predecessor, Goncalo Amaral, was removed from the case for openly criticising British police.

A month earlier, McCann, a GP, and her husband Gerry were made formal suspects, or arguidos, in their three-year-old daughter's disappearance. McCann's letter, in the last released police dossier into the case, was passed to the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) by Leicestershire police.

Appealing to Rebelo's "heart" and his role as a father, she said she wanted an end to the infighting. "This shouldn't be about 'finger-pointing blame' nor should it be about differences in culture," she wrote. "It should be about a beautiful, innocent little girl who is still missing.

"As her mother, the pain and anxiety I feel for her is indescribable and the feeling of helplessness overwhelming."