Madeleine: £300,000 of fighting fund has been spent on the search

Last updated at 00:10 27 September 2007


Nearly £300,000 of the fighting fund set up to

help finance the search for Madeleine and

support her family has been spent so far.

This represents a little under a third of the

£1,036,104 given by individuals and organisations

to Madeleine's Fund, a non-charitable not-for-profit company.

The Fund's board of directors –

comprising colleagues, friends and relatives –

met yesterday to decide how to use the money.

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Gerry and Kate McCann

The exact figures for what the donations are

spent on will not be disclosed until the end of

the financial year when the accounts are made

public, said director Esther McVey.

But the board

did reveal that nearly a third of the money

collected has been used.

With hospital consultant Mr McCann, the

family's main earner, on unpaid leave, part of the

Fund has been used to meet their living costs.

Other costs incurred include the launch of the Find

Madeleine campaign, advertising, legal fees and

the employment of former campaign manager

Justine McGuinness.

Private investigators, said

to be ex-military personnel, are being employed

to search for the youngster outside Portugal.

They are focusing on countries such as Morocco, where there have been several sightings of Madeleine since she disappeared from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3.

But the news has infuriated the Portuguese police.

Police trade union chief Carlos Anjos said it was "another diversion manoeuvre by the McCanns".

"It's another strategy by the McCanns, who today say one thing and tomorrow something completely different.

"Portugal does not have legislation in this area. Private detectives cannot intervene in criminal cases."

Madeleine McCann

A senior magistrate said the couple could be prosecuted for obstructing justice over the move.

Daily newspaper 24 Horas covered the story under the headline "Maddie's parents risk being accused of obstructing justice".

Mr Anjos told the paper: "The law only allows private detectives to collect information, and only on questions of people's private lives, such as extra-marital relations."

Antonio Martins, head of Portugal's union of investigating magistrates, told the paper any private investigation in the country would have no legal basis.

"As far as I know, it is still the job of the state to carry out criminal investigations," he said.

"This type of activity has no legal basis."

Mr Martins said the McCanns and the detectives could be accused of "obstructing justice" if they were carrying out a parallel investigation in the country.

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