PORTUGAL: Anglican Priest Hubbart Heynes tells Reuters about comforting Kate McCann after Portuguese police named her a suspect in her daughter's disappearance

Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter's disappearance has riveted Europe, are shocked to have been declared suspects by Portuguese police and decided not to attend a mass held at the beachside church of Praia da Luz on Saturday evening (September 8). Local Anglican priest, Father Hubbart Heynes, and Catholic Father Manuel co-officiated mass as part of a local festivity where prays for the safe return of Madeleine were made. A family friend said the McCanns considered attendance but decided against it as they though it wouldn't be fair on the community. Father Heynes and his family have become a major support for the mother of the missing 4-year-old. Their home was Kate's first stop on Friday (September 7) after she left Portimao's judiciary police headquarters where she was declared a formal suspect in the disappearance of her daughter. Father Heynes told Reuters how they comforted her that night. "My children played with their children, my son played with the twins and she just found a family to come home to and a place where she was not a suspect -she was just a mom who was missing her daughter," he said. Both the Anglican and the Portuguese Praia da Luz community have been very supportive of the McCanns since Maddie vanished from their apartment on May 3rd. Several masses and vigils have been held at the local church to pray for Madeleine safe return, including the ones marking her 4th anniversary and the 100th day of her disappearance. According to Father Heynes, the latest developments concerning Maddie's case are not going to change that. "My family and the community that I represent which is the Anglican community here -and I know I share this with the Roman Catholic priest here, Father Manuel, that we are going to continue to pray for the little girl that is missing; we are going to stand and wait and love and hold on and care for her mom and dad and sister and her brother, and nothing is going to change that," said the priest. The Anglican priest payed a visit to the McCanns before the mass. After the private meeting Father Heynes officiated a service next to an altar displaying a picture of Madeleine inside a makeshift heart-shaped red poster under which the local faithful had lit candles. After the mass, locals showed mixed reactions to the latest developments involving Madeleine's parents in her case. "Yes, I do believe they are guilty -yes, because this is been a very big story. I've been an immigrant in the United States. When all this started I was in the US and I followed it from there. They are cynical people, they just go around Portugal," said Nazaret. Others like Chris, a Praia da Luz English resident, chose not to speculate just yet. "Would I be supportive of them? I can't say until we know more about what's happened. I mean, you just can't put your fingers one way or another. I mean I can't turn around and say someone is done something. All I know is what I've read on the papers and seen on TV, and I can't say someone's done something," he said. After hours of questioning on Friday (September 7), police named both British parents as suspects in four-year-old Madeleine's disappearance on May 3 but did not file charges against them, according to a lawyer for the McCanns. "They are shocked, disappointed, tired," spokeswoman Justine McGuinness told Reuters on Saturday. The couple had been planning to return from the Algarve to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, on Sunday but a friend of the family said they would now remain in Portugal to try to prove their innocence and find their daughter. Declaring the McCanns as suspects indicates police believe they may have been involved in a crime but does not necessarily mean they will be detained. No conditions were imposed on the McCanns, which according to the couple's defense lawyer in Portugal means they are free to travel abroad -the case however seems to have no end in sight. Relatives have urged Portuguese police to eliminate the couple from their inquiries and resume the hunt for their missing child. But Abreu, the McCanns' lawyer, said he had no idea how long the Madeleine case would take to be concluded in a country with serious bureaucratic problems and delays in its justice system. Portuguese weekly Expresso on Saturday cited legal experts as saying it could take at least one year. Police changed their line of investigation after receiving results this week of forensic tests on evidence collected by Portuguese and British experts from various sites including the holiday apartment from which Madeleine vanished. McGuinness said Kate had told her that police found blood in a car hired by the couple but there was no confirmation that it was Madeleine's. Police have pursued a series of leads during the four-month investigation, including that Madeleine might have been taken by a pedophile. The only other suspect is a Briton living in Praia da Luz, who has not been arrested. His house has been searched twice. Hundreds of people from around the world contacted police offering help after the McCanns launched a massive publicity campaign to find their daughter who vanished a few days before she would have turned four. Pictures of the girl have been posted across Europe at schools, airports and restaurants and the McCanns have met Pope Benedict, who blessed a picture of Madeleine.

ITN Source | September 9, 2007

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