Welcome to the MoroccanCulture Blog

By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:36pm GMT 25/01/2008

The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have been accused of wasting money raised by public donations on searching for their daughter in Morocco, despite no firm evidence she was taken there.
# Madeleine sketch man: First photograph
# In full: The Madeleine McCann investigation

Private investigators, who are being paid £50,000 a month to find the girl, have invested huge sums in sending teams to check out reported sightings of her in the Rif mountains of northern Morocco and Marrakech in the south.

New image of Madeleine McCann suspect
Watch: The man seen loitering on the beach at Praia da Luz

One theory is that Madeleine, four, was abducted and brought there after vanishing from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz while on a family holiday on May 3.

The agency Metodo 3 is following the line she was kidnapped by a paedophile gang to take to North Africa, where blonde children are said to be highly prized as a symbol of social status.

More than 40 investigators are working on the case in Morocco, Spain and Portugal.

However, some experts claim the line of inquiry is fruitless and is just being fuelled by tourists who have mistaken blonde local girls in Morocco for Madeleine.

Fair-haired children are rare in the country, but not unheard of among the Berber population.

Mark Williams-Thomas, a former detective and managing director of child protection consultancy WT Associates, said: "It is an astonishing amount of money that is being spent focusing on Morocco.
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"There is a big difference between a sighting and information. Unless you have definite information that suggests she is in Morocco then it seems pointless.

"The likelihood of Madeleine being taken out of Portugal is very slim. I would be concentrating more on Portugal than anywhere else. To me, it holds the key."

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann, admitted the search in Morocco was difficult.

"It's a needle in a haystack," he said.

To date, all reported sightings of Madeleine in Morocco investigated by Metodo 3 have drawn a blank.

The country's interior minister Chakib Benmoussa, who met the McCanns when they visited in June, said: "There is absolutely no evidence Madeleine is here."

Meanwhile the Madeleine Fund, set up to find the missing girl, is said to be running out of the estimated £1 million it has received in donations.

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