UK officials have given up on Madeleine, her father claims

The father of Madeleine McCann urged the UK government to review her disappearance and said his "innocent, vulnerable" daughter had been "essentially given up on" by British authorities.

During a television interview days before the third anniversary of her disappearance, Gerry McCann said it was "cruel" that he and his wife Kate had to lead efforts to find their child.

The couple have hired private investigators to look for Madeleine, who disappeared from a holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007.

In a pre-recorded interview broadcast yesterday Mr McCann told GMTV's Lorraine Kelly: "It's not right that an innocent, vulnerable British citizen is essentially given up on.

"And I don't think it's right that as parents, that we have to drive the search. Of course we will, but not everyone has had the same resources and support that we have had to be able to do that. And I think it's pretty cruel."

Mr McCann said it was "incredibly frustrating" that police in Portugal and the UK were not doing more to find the missing youngster.

At the time of her disappearance, the couple were criticised for leaving their three children alone in a holiday apartment as they went for dinner nearby.

Mr McCann said that if they could go back, they would not have left her alone.

He said: "If we could turn back the clock and change what happened, obviously we wouldn't have done it.

"We can't. And what I would say is, you know, people have got to put themselves into our position. What would you do if it was your daughter? After this, what would you do?"

But he said that they have learned to ignore negative comments.

"Anyone who is in the public eye for whatever reason gets criticised. And early on when we were campaigning, you know, you would say, 'oh my goodness, we are getting criticised for doing this and doing that,' and you start to let that influence what you do.

"But then you realise you get criticised whatever you do from some quarter. And what you need to do is make the decisions for the right reason and do it with the best intentions and really stick to your guns."

The couple still believe Madeleine, who went missing when she was three, is alive and are releasing a pack for people to take abroad and put up posters featuring her picture.

Ms McCann said: "Certainly in my heart I feel she is out there. I mean I know there is nothing to say that she isn't, so we have to carry on working and thinking like that."

The mother-of-three said she finds her daughter's birthday, May 12, harder to cope with than the anniversary of when she vanished.

"Her birthday is actually (a) much more difficult day for us than May 3. May 3 really is just another day without Madeleine, but the 12th is obviously a day when we should be celebrating Madeleine, celebrating with Madeleine."

She said that the couple spend lots of time with their five-year-old twins Sean and Amelie and manage to have some kind of "normality", but the burden of Madeleine's absence is always there.

"It will just suddenly stop you. We had a lovely day last week and it was really sunny, and you could smell the grass being cut and I thought, 'oh it's really nice'. And then it just kind of gets you - Madeleine is still not here."

At one point Amelie wrongly believed that her older sister had run away, but the McCanns, who are from Rothley, Leicestershire, told the twins that someone had taken her.

Mr McCann, who is a consultant cardiologist, said: "They believe that it was a man that took her, and it was a naughty man and we need to try and find him. So it's part of what they say - that Mummy is working to help find Madeleine."

Former GP Ms McCann said she cannot give up until her daughter is found.

"If we haven't found Madeleine, if we don't know what has happened, you haven't done enough. I mean there is obviously more that can be done.

"And it might just be time. There could be a group of people out there who are sitting with this on their conscience. And every time Madeleine is mentioned or every time there is an image - again, it's just pricking their conscience.

"And it might just be a question of time until they come forward. Their situation might change and they may then feel comfortable to come forward."

Mr McCann said whoever took their daughter is dangerous and must be caught.

"We need to have a proper review of all the information - that's how we will move the investigation forward. And at the end of the day, the person that has taken Madeleine is still out there and they are a potential danger to other children, so they need to be brought to justice."

Timeline: Key events since Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

2007

• May 3 - Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, leave their three children asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in southern Portugal while they dine with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant. Nothing is amiss when Mr McCann checks on the youngsters at just after 9pm, but when his wife goes back at about 10 p.m. she finds three-year-old Madeleine missing. Jane Tanner, one of the friends eating with the McCanns, later reports seeing a man carrying a child away earlier that night.

• May 5 - Portuguese police reveal they believe Madeleine was abducted but is still alive and in Portugal, and say they have a sketch of a suspect.

• May 14 - Detectives take Anglo-Portuguese property developer Robert Murat in for questioning and make him an "arguido", or official suspect. Officers also search the home he shares with his mother in Praia Da Luz, just 100 yards from where the youngster was snatched.

• May 25 - Portuguese detectives finally release the description of the man reported by Ms Tanner three weeks earlier following pressure from the McCanns, their legal team and the British Government.

• May 30 - Mr and Mrs McCann meet the Pope in Rome in the first of a series of trips around Europe and beyond to highlight the search for their daughter.

• August 6 - A Portuguese newspaper reports that British sniffer dogs have found traces of blood on a wall in the McCanns' holiday apartment.

• August 11 - Exactly 100 days after Madeleine disappeared, investigating officers publicly acknowledge for the first time that she could be dead.

• September 7 - During further questioning of Mr and Mrs McCann, detectives make them both "arguidos" in their daughter's disappearance.

• September 9 - The McCanns fly back to England with their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

• October 2 - Goncalo Amaral, the detective in charge of the inquiry, is removed from the case after criticising the British police in a Portuguese newspaper interview.

• October 25 - The McCanns release a new artist's impression drawn by an FBI-trained expert showing the man described by Ms Tanner.

2008

• May 3 - A tearful Mrs McCann urges people to "pray like mad" for Madeleine as she and her family mark the first anniversary of the little girl's disappearance.

• July 21 - The Portuguese authorities shelve their investigation and lift the "arguido" status of the McCanns and Mr Murat.

• July 24 - Mr Amaral publishes a book about the case, entitled The Truth Of The Lie, in which he alleges that the young girl died in her family's holiday flat on the day she went missing.

• August 4 - Thousands of pages of evidence from the Portuguese police files in the exhaustive investigation into Madeleine's disappearance are made public. They reveal details of the lines of inquiry pursued by detectives, witness statements and scores of previously unknown sightings of the little girl.

2009

• January 29 - Nearly £2 million was raised for the official fund to find Madeleine in the first 10 months after she went missing, Companies House accounts show.

• April 4 - Mr McCann goes back to Portugal to help film a reconstruction of the events on the night his daughter vanished for a Channel 4 documentary.

• August 6 - The McCanns' investigators launch a worldwide hunt for an Australian lookalike of Victoria Beckham seen at a marina in Barcelona three days after the little girl disappeared.

• September 9 - A Portuguese judge bans further sale or publication of Mr Amaral's book following legal action by Mr and Mrs McCann.

• November 3 - The London-based Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre releases an internet video aimed at pricking the conscience of a friend or relative of the person responsible for Madeleine's disappearance.

• December 12 - Mrs McCann says she feels closer to her daughter after returning to Praia da Luz with her husband for the first time since she was made a suspect.

2010

• January 12 - A civil court in Lisbon hears that Portuguese detectives believed Madeleine's parents covered up her death by faking her abduction as Mr Amaral tries to overturn the injunction on his book. Mr and Mrs McCann strongly deny the allegations and defend their decision to take legal action against the former policeman.

• January 27 - The McCanns mark the 1,000th day since their daughter went missing with a fund-raising event in London and the release of 1,000 lanterns in Britain, Portugal and the US.

• February 19 - The couple criticise the "heartbreaking" failure by Portuguese and British police to investigate new leads in the case.

• March 3 - 2,000 pages of previously secret case documents are released to British newspapers by the Portuguese police. The couple call the move "incomprehensible" and "upsetting" and claim it jeopardises the search.

• April 28 - A GMTV interview with the McCanns is broadcast in the run up to the third anniversary of their daughter's disappearance.