The father of missing Madeleine McCann said last night 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 urged the government to carry out a "comprehensive review" of the case.
He 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, 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".
The pre-recorded interview will be broadcast today.
Mr McCann said it was "incredibly frustrating" that police in Portugal and Britain were not doing more to find the missing youngster.
The parents 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.
Kate 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".
Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3, 2007.
A massive police operation and worldwide publicity followed, but no trace was found.
The McCanns hired private investigators to look into their daughter's disappearance, and have previously expressed shock that Portuguese police failed to follow up apparent new leads.
Mrs McCann 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," Mrs McCann said.
Belfast Telegraph
