This month marks 18 years since three-year-old Madeleine McCann was snatched from a Portuguese holiday apartment while her two-year-old twin siblings, Amelie and Sean, slept next to her.
Since then, the children’s parents Gerry and Kate have been unwavering in their determination to keep Maddie’s disappearance in the public eye, while doing all they can to ensure the twins’ lives remain as normal lives as possible.
Last week, which would have been Madeleine’s 22nd birthday, it was revealed how Sean and Amelie have thrived against the odds and have become young adults with bright futures ahead of them.
NEW DETAILS
Twenty-year-old Amelie and Sean are both at university and a family friend told the Mail Online how they are “carving out their own lives”.
Sean, who is studying chemical engineering, is also a champion freestyle swimmer who has ambitions to be part of Team GB at the 2028 Olympics and trains 20 hours a week.
He recently shared on a charity website, which had granted him a sports award, that he began swimming competitively at eight. “I have since gone on to win multiple county titles as well as becoming regional and National champion in my age group,” Sean wrote. “In order to have achieved this, I have had to remain extremely dedicated, getting up at 4am multiple mornings each week to train, since the age of 11.”
He also added that he is aiming to compete at the 2026 Commonwealth Games as well as the Los Angeles Olympics.
Studying in the north of England, Amelie remains sporty, after competing in cross country running and triathlons at school. In 2023 she spoke publicly for the first time at the vigil marking Maddie’s disappearance, which is held yearly at the Leicestershire village where the family live. She told people gathered, “It’s nice that everyone is here together, but it’s a sad occasion.”
At the same event, the twins’ great-uncle Brian Kennedy gave a glimpse into the siblings’ lives.
“Kate and Gerry are pleased with their achievements, and the fact that they are making their own way in life,” he told The Mirror.
FIERCELY SUPPORTIVE
Residents in the close-knit community where the family have lived since 2006 are fiercely protective and supportive of the McCanns. In the village square there is a candle burning at the war memorial in Madeleine’s name. One local has a sticker on their car window with a link to the Find Madeleine campaign website while another keeps a yellow ribbon on his car.
Kate, formerly a GP, now works with dementia sufferers and is a Missing People charity ambassador. Gerry is a professor of cardiac imaging at the University of Leicester. Colleagues have praised his “life-changing work”, which was awarded a prestigious $160,000 award in March to fund on-going heart disease research.
Over the years the couple have faced harmful conspiracy theories about Maddie’s disappearance in 2007. Given “arguido” status, meaning a person who is questioned but not a formal suspect, by local police, Kate and Gerry were finally cleared of involvement in their daughter’s vanishing in 2008.
Despite this, an ex-police officer who led the hunt for Madeleine in 2007 released a book alleging she died by accident and her parents covered it up. The McCanns were awarded a six-figure fee after beginning a libel action against him and his publisher.
In 2020, German prosecutors said they had “concrete evidence” convicted German paedophile and rapist Christian Bruckner killed Maddie.
NEW KILLER EVIDENCE?
The currently incarcerated prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance is due in court again this week, accused of insulting a prison staffer.
Christian Bruckner, now behind bars in Germany for rape, is set to be released in September unless his jail term is extended. Last week a new UK documentary reported how prosecutors face a race against time if they are to charge him ahead of this.
It also showed the disturbing evidence found by German police when they raided an unused factory linked to Bruckner in 2016. Items included children’s clothing, toys and a hard drive which reportedly suggests that Maddy is deceased.
Bruckner denies any involvement in Maddie’s disappearance and charges have not been brought.
