Maddie McCann’s nanny breaks 10-year silence

A nanny who looked after Madeleine McCann at the Portuguese resort she was holidaying at with her family has spoken out after 10 years of silence.

The women, who requested not the be named, told The Mirror Kate McCan was inconsolable as her husband frantically searched under cars looking for Maddie.

She said she heard from another parent at the resort that a child had gone missing and walked over to the McCann’s villa to see what was happening.

“I walked into Kate crying, friends comforting her, Gerry looking under cars, and it just blew up. I don’t even think she saw me. I just stood next to her and tried to comfort her,” she told The Mirror.

“She was pacing up and down. The worst possible thing had just happened to her.

“I think I said something like, ‘She’ll be found, these things happen all the time.’

“She was crying, but almost in a catatonic state, and Gerry was very distressed. That’s the one thing I really remember from him, looking under the cars. I can’t forget that.

“We were told to start looking in bins in case her body was in there. It was at that point we realised this was serious.”

The woman said she gave the Portuguese police a detailed version of events, but that large swaths of her story were left out of their final witness statement. 

She also accused police of mishandling the case, saying they let people walk in and out of the villa, contaminating the crime scene for over 90 minutes before they finally arrived at the resort.

Maddie’s father Gerry checked on her and her little brother at 9.05pm and found them both sound asleep. However, when Kate checked again at 10pm, Maddie was gone.

The subsequent investigation has been ongoing for the past 10 years with police unable to find any solid evidence or leads.

Read more: There has been a startling development in the Maddie McCann case

Last year, it was revealed police had investigated Sir Clement Freud, the British millionaire who had been accused of multiple counts of child sex abuse and rape before his death and who owned the villa the McCann’s were staying at.

Maddie’s parents were reportedly horrified when they found out about Freud’s past, saying they had no idea about his history when they allowed him to spend time with their children.

Have you followed the case over the years? What do you think of the nanny’s comments after all these years?