Portuguese police have apologised to the parents of Madeleine McCann for the way they handled the three-year-old’s disappearance.
Madeleine went missing from a holiday complex in the Algarve in May 2007.
A delegation of senior officers travelled from Lisbon to London earlier this year, BBC Panorama has been told.
They met Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s father, and apologised for the way detectives investigated the case and treated the family.
The McCann family has not commented on the apology and their daughter’s disappearance remains unsolved.
In September 2007, four months after Madeleine vanished, Kate and Gerry McCann were made “arguidos” – or suspects – in the Portuguese investigation. Both were questioned by detectives, who believed they had staged an abduction and concealed Madeleine’s body.
Mrs McCann said she was offered a deal to admit covering up her daughter’s death in exchange for a shorter sentence.
The couple’s arguido status was lifted in 2008 but they remained under suspicion in Portugal for years.
Goncalo Amaral, the senior detective who led the case, was later removed from the investigation but went on to write a book accusing the McCanns of being involved in their daughter’s disappearance. He said he was defending his professional reputation.
The McCann’s libel case against the former detective over the claims he made about them in his book was thrown out by the Portuguese supreme court. The couple appealed to the European Court of Human Rights but lost that challenge in September 2022.
The couple have also been subjected to a vitriolic campaign online accusing them of causing Madeleine’s death and then covering it up.
Portuguese police now say their initial investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance was not handled properly, there was insufficient importance given at the time to missing children and that her parents’ position as foreigners in an environment they did not understand was not appreciated.
They also told the BBC they had briefed the McCanns on their ongoing investigation.
The officers gave their support to the German authorities, who believe 46-year-old German national Christian Brueckner killed Madeleine McCann.
Hans Christian Wolters, one of the German prosecutors on the case, welcomed the Portuguese apology.
“It’s a good sign,” he said, adding: “It shows that, in Portugal, there’s development in the McCann case.”
Mr Wolters said his team hope to complete their five-year investigation into Brueckner next year. No charges have been brought against him in connection to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance to date and he has publicly denied being involved in her disappearance.
Brueckner was living near the Praia da Luz resort when the McCann family was on holiday there and spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017.
He was made a formal suspect by Portuguese prosecutors in 2022 and is currently serving a seven-year prison term in Germany for drug trafficking and the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman in the same area where Madeleine went missing.
Earlier this year, a three-day search of a Portuguese reservoir looking for evidence to link the British toddler’s disappearance to Brueckner was carried out by German authorities.
“We think that he was involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and we think that he murdered Madeleine McCann,” Mr Wolters said.
Brueckner has already been charged with a further three rapes, sexual assault and sexual assault of a child. The five offences are alleged to have been committed on the Portuguese Algarve. Mr Wolters confirmed that they would go to trial in February 2024.
Brueckner’s lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, said his client was exercising his right to silence.
“We know the contents of the files and I think the charges are all based on very, very shaky foundations,” Mr Fulscher said.
Kate and Gerry McCann have not commented on the Portuguese police apology and marked the 16th anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance on 3 May, saying Madeleine is “still very much missed” and that they “await a breakthrough”.
Prime Suspect: Who Took Madeleine McCann?
It’s been 16 years since the disappearance of a three-year-old girl shocked the world. German authorities now think Madeleine McCann was murdered by a drifter with a history of sexual violence. So, who is Christian Brueckner and how strong is the evidence against him?