Woman Spots Eye Defect Madeleine on Moroccan coast

A battered and bruised girl bearing "the mark of Madeleine" has been spotted in Morocco.

The blonde child was seen by a woman who told detectives she even recognised the distinctive fleck in Madeleine's eye, where her pupil runs into her iris.

Detectives working for the four-year-old's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were last night scouring a remote area in northern Morocco to find the child who, the witness said, was definitely missing Madeleine.

A Spanish tourist claims she saw the girl get into a taxi with a middle class Arab woman before being whisked away into the lawless Rif mountains on North Africa's Mediterranean coast.

Naouval Malhi is convinced it was Madeleine because the youngster had the distinctive flash in her right eye, where the pupil merges with the blue-green iris.

But when she tried to challenge the Arab woman, the tourist was forced away and could only report her concerns to the police.

Moroccan-born Naoual Malhi, 24, was convinced that the little girl was Maddie and phoned the driver later. He said he had taken them to nearby town El Housima.
Her blonde hair was cut shorter but she had a big bruise on her forehead and looked very unhappy.

The woman, who was about 40 or 50, was gripping her tightly and didn't want to make eye contact with me.

She started dragging Madeleine away and flagged down a taxi. I rushed over but she pushed me away. I managed to grab a business card from him before he sped off.

Private detectives from the Barcelona-based Metodo 3 agency who are working for Kate and Gerry McCann were yesterday in al Housima trying to trace the child.
They have pictures of Madeleine showing her flecked iris. They also have copies of an artist's impression of a man seen near the McCann's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine vanished carrying a bundle that could have been a child.

The taxi driver has already been interviewed by the Spanish private detectives.

But he has been able to give them no more information about the child, who was spotted by Naoul early in September.

The detectives are investigating a theory that Madeleine was snatched from Praia da Luz on May 3 then driven to the Spanish port of Tarifa, which is about 90 minutes away.

They believe she could then have been bundled aboard a ferry for the 35 minute trip to Tangier before she was transferred into the interior of Morocco by car.

A Spanish private detective hired by Gerry and Kate McCann has vowed to find missing Madeleine within five months.
Francisco Marco said he believes the four-year-old is alive in Morocco and is already following up reported sightings of a blonde-haired girl with her distinctive right eye.

The detective's Spanish-based agency, Metodo 3, was given the job of finding Madeleine in September.

He said: "We have a six-month agreement with the McCanns. We have already spent a month and a half working. I will find her before that period is up."

Mr Marco said he is certain Mr and Mrs McCann had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance from Praia da Luz, southern Portugal, on May 3.

Mr Marco, head of a 40-strong team, said: "Our staff interviewed the McCanns for 10 hours - enough time for us to tell if they were trying to fool us.

"My specialists assure me they are not hiding anything. I would not risk the prestige this agency has gained over 23 years without being convinced there is a case."

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the woman contacted Spanish police about six days later after seeing media reports suggesting the missing child could be in Morocco.
Sightings of blonde girls resembling Madeleine have been reported across Europe and Morocco but this one is reportedly significant because she apparently had a mark on her iris.

Madeleine McCann's father Gerry has returned to work nearly six months after his daughter's disappearance.
Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital, is expected to resume his duties by working three half-days a week."

"Kate and I have always said that if it ever got to six months that we didn't want to be looking back and wishing that we had done something that might influence our search for Madeleine. I think we're at that point now," said Mr McCann.

Kate McCann has a job as a part-time GP in Melton Mowbray but as yet has no plans to return to work.

A church service will be held in Rothley on Saturday to mark six months since Madeleine's disappearance.

Ernie Allen, head of the US-based National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), believes the youngster may still be alive.

"Nobody will care more than them - they are the primary activists for Madeleine," Mr Allen told Sky News Online.

"We are convinced you have to keep the focus on the search for a live child. If they stopped their campaign then people will forget about Madeleine.
"There is hope and the most encouraging thing is that there seems to be a new direction to the investigation with the new people in charge of the investigation in Portugal."

Mr Allen also gave a chilling insight into the possible fate of abducted children.

"The likelihood of finding Madeleine alive today depends on who took her and why."

He suggests that children who serve a purpose to their abductor have more chance of staying alive throughout their ordeal - and statistics show very young children are less likely to be murdered.

Almost 10 years ago, the US-based group set up a global site - the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children - to help find children around the world.