Marcos Aragão Correia from Funchal had sponsored searches for Madeleine at the Arade dam six weeks ago, acting on a tip-off he says he received from the underworld. Nothing was found at the time, but he decided to return this week with additional divers to cover a greater area.

The searches were scheduled to last until Friday, but Marcos Correia told The Portugal News that searches could continue into next week should divers, led by a team from Dive Time, a Lagos-based diving school, request more time to effectively rule out his suspicions.

The cost for the latest search is being shared by SPEC, a Portimão construction and engineering company.

The daily cost of the searches, says the lawyer from Madeira comes at a total cost of around €1,000.

To date, the only discovery of note was that of a sock, and pieces of rope, which, when joined together, measure 5.20 metres. Aragão said they will be handing these over to the Spanish private detective agency Metodo 3.

He says the decision to not hand over their latest discovery, stems from the inactivity by Portuguese police after he handed them another piece of rope back in February.

Supervisor at the dam, Hélder Brás, expressed pessimism that the searches would prove fruitful.

In comments to The Portugal News, he explained: “It is virtually impossible to find anything on the floor bed of the dam as the mud at the bottom is about four metres deep”.

Meanwhile, it emerged this week that the McCann family are contemplating taking action against newspapers over their coverage of the case, especially after they were declared formal suspects last September. According to reports in the Portuguese press, the McCanns have singled out the Express group of newspapers.

While no action has been taken in court, the coverage given by the group’s newspapers, which include Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and the Daily Star on Sunday has become almost non-existent.

A search on the Express website for information on Madeleine McCann returns no matches, except for one where Heather McCartney compares herself with Madeleine’s mother Kate McCann.

In a related story, the latest entry by Gerry McCann on his blog focuses on the discovery of the body of Spanish girl Mari Luz Cortés, who had been missing since mid-January.

“Kate and I were so sad to learn that Mari Luz’s body had been found. This is the news that any parent of a missing child dreads and a situation we desperately hope that we never have to face. We deeply sympathise with her family and pray they remain strong and in time are able to find peace”, wrote Gerry McCann this week.

He adds: “All of our family have been traumatised by Madeleine’s abduction and continued absence and the tremendous support we have received has undoubtedly helped us enormously over the last ten months.”

The Portugal News