It has been revealed that Portuguese police dismissed dozens of potential sightings of Madeleine McCann – including one in a supermarket in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Filed CCTV footage from New Zealand shows a child who looks remarkably like Madeleine. It had been classified as ‘not relevant’.
Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate, formed their relationship together in New Zealand. Gerry McCann worked in the Hawkes Bay and played soccer for the Napier City Rovers in 1996.
The sighting of the girl occurred seven months after Madeleine’s disappearance. She was seen entering a supermarket with a chubby man in shorts.
A security guard became suspicious after observing the man’s behaviour and they approach the girl.
While she said her name was ‘Hailey’, the security guard was not convinced and reported the incident to police. The CCTV footage was then sent by Interpol in Wellington to police in Portugal who promptly deemed it to be irrelevant.
Despite being considered important, information was also discarded from Europe, the United States and North Africa.
None of the files were passed on to private investigators working for Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate.
It was the legal action by the McCann’s against disgraced detective Goncalo Amaral that brought about disclosure of the secret files.
They had wanted to stop him airing the slur that they had been involved in their daughter's disappearance.
The leads were all received and archived after Algarve police closed the case in July 2008.
Mrs McCann has described the revelation as heartbreaking and shocking.
Madeleine was four years old when she went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007.
In August 2009, private investigators began searching for a woman described by a witness as a “Victoria Beckham lookalike” who spoke with an Australian or New Zealand accent.
The woman was reportedly seen by two British men in Barcelona three days after Madeleine went missing.
3 News
The CCTV picture still has been taken down due to a police request