McCanns plan first family holiday since Madeleine vanished 'for the sake of twins'

By Neil Sears
Last updated at 10:41 PM on 04th June 2008

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The parents of Madeleine McCann are to take their first holiday since her disappearance 13 months ago.

Gerry and Kate McCann, both 40, refused to say where they were going.

But they confirmed it would not be Portugal.

Painful: Kate and Gerry McCann are planning their first holiday with twins Sean and Amelie since daughter Madeleine disappeared last May

The couple were on holiday there with their three children when Madeleine, then three, disappeared from a bedroom at the family's rented apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz.

She and her younger brother and sister, twins Sean and Amelie, had been left unsupervised while their parents went out to a nearby tapas bar for dinner with family friends.

The McCanns, both doctors, stayed on for months at Praia da Luz during the police hunt for Madeleine last summer.

Still missing: Madeleine, then 3, vanished on May 3 during the family's holiday in Portugal

They finally returned home to Rothley, Leicestershire, last September after police named them as official suspects in the case.

Yesterday the couple's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said no details of the week-long holiday would be released.

The McCanns will take the break with the twins, who are now three.

He added: 'It will be incredibly painful to contemplate going away without Madeleine, but this is the reality they are faced with.

'Nothing has been booked yet. But one thing's certain  -  they won't be going to Portugal.'

A friend of the family said: ' Everyone needs a holiday  -  Kate and Gerry included.

'It's now 13 months since Madeleine was taken.

'Behind the scenes, there remains a lot of action to try to find her. But for Kate and Gerry life has returned as close to normality as they're likely to get.

'That includes taking a holiday and they're considering their options at the moment.

'The plan is to get away from it all for a few days this summer.

'After all they've been through, they want to give the twins a decent break to try to enjoy time as a family.'

The McCanns have always fiercely denied any involvement in their daughter's disappearance.

After returning to England Gerry McCann eventually resumed work as a hospital doctor.

Both parents continue to insist they have no reason to believe their missing daughter has died.

They say they are hopeful Madeleine, who would now be five, will one day be returned to them alive and well.

But in a recent TV documentary they admitted they were well aware that internet gossips and poison pen writers continue to blame them for Madeleine's disappearance and criticise them for everything they do.

The McCanns have repeatedly insisted they believed Madeleine, and the twins were safe in the apartment.

They were eating only 50 yards away with their friends, the socalled Tapas Seven, and say they checked on the children regularly.

Last week the McCanns pulled out of a planned reconstruction of Madeleine's disappearance because of suspicions about the motives of Portuguese police.

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