British police were tipped off that small child Madeleine McCann had been
snatched by members of an international paedophile ring who photographed her
three days before she vanished while on holiday in Portugal, police files have
disclosed.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 7, 2008) REUTERS -
 British press reports on Thursday (August 7) focussed on newly
released documents which revealed that an informant told police in London that
missing British child Madeleine McCann was stolen to order by an international
paedophile ring.
    The unnamed source said a spotter took photographs of Madeleine Mccann
while she was on holiday with her family in Portugal and sent them to the
group in Belgium. 
    The ring then ordered her abduction from the Algarve resort of Praia da
Luz three days later on May 3, 2007, according to the informant. 
    Scotland Yard sent the information in an email to their counterparts in
Leicestershire, where the McCann family lives. It was then passed to
detectives in Portugal. 
    "Intelligence suggests that a paedophile ring in Belgium made an
order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken," the
email says. 
    "Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of
her and sent it to Belgium. The purchaser agreed that the girl was suitable
and Maddie was taken." 
    A Scotland Yard spokeswoman confirmed that they had passed on the
information in an email, but would not comment on the identity of the
informant, the reliability of their information or how seriously the claim was
taken. 
    In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "Unsubstantiated
information was received by CO14 (Scotland Yard's clubs and vice unit)
relating to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. This was passed onto
Leicestershire Police on March 4, 2008. 
    "The information was further discussed with Leicestershire Police
verbally and all possible lines of enquiry were conducted." 
     A former Head of the British Metropolitan Police's paedophile unit
Michael Hames said British police should have liaised better with their
Belgian and Portuguese counterparts. "I hate to criticise my old squad
but what they ought to have done is to liaise with their colleagues in Belgium
and Portugal and at Interpol and get a meeting together of operational police
officers to decide how they were going to to deal with it," Hames said on
Thursday. 
    Madeleine MCann's case has grabbed international headlines, especially
after police named the parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, as suspects last
September. 
    Portuguese police released thousands of files relating to the girl's
disappearance, which happened shortly before her fourth birthday, after they
said Kate and Gerry McCann were no longer suspects. 
    Portugal's chief prosecutor Fernando Pinto Monteiro said the case was
being shelved due to a lack of evidence. 
    The McCanns have always denied having anything to do with their
daughter's disappearance and say they fear she was abducted.