Madeleine McCann: Tragic detail about missing tot's bedroom as parents hold out hope

It's been 17 years since Madeleine McCann vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia Da Luz, Portugal, and her parents still don't know what happened that night

Madeleine McCann's parents, Kate and Gerry, have never lost hope of finding their little girl.

The three-year-old went missing during a holiday to Portugal in 2007 and never returned to her family home in Leicestershire. Maddie and her twin sisters were left alone in their rental apartment in Praia Da Luz while their parents went out for dinner nearby - and when they returned, she was gone.

Madeleine's loved ones have since campaigned to find her and the Metropolitan Police has spent over £13million on her case, dubbed Operation Grange. Now, investigators working on her disappearance have said the "clock is ticking" to bring charges against their prime suspect, Christian Brueckner.

Brueckner, a convicted paedophile, was made a formal suspect by Portuguese prosecutors in 2022 and has denied any involvement in her disappearance. This week, he was cleared of all charges at a rape trial in Germany, unrelated to Maddie's case. The 47-year-old was accused of raping women and exposing himself to children in the Algarve.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping a pensioner in Portugal in 2005 - but now he could be walking free again in just another year. In the wake of the legal decision, German police are keen to promise that charges will be brought before Brueckner's release.

Lead prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told The Sun: "We hope we will get an appeal decision from the supreme court. But if that is not decided by next September we will try to get an arrest warrant for Maddie. I can't say which witnesses we have, but we have more witnesses than the two or three from this current case."

For Maddie's parents, Kate and Gerry, it's a glimmer of hope. The couple have long wished for her to return home and have kept her childhood bedroom in its exact state in case she does. In her 2011 memoir, Kate shared: "Her pink bedroom remains exactly as it was when she left it but it's a lot busier now.

"There are gifts people have sent – from teddy bears to rosary beads – and photographs and pictures Sean and Amelie have drawn for her pinned on the walls." She explained that every birthday since Madeleine vanished, the family has had a tea party at home, with "balloons, cake, cards and presents".

Kate added: "She also has a keepsake box in which the twins leave little things for her: the last sweet in their packet, a new drawing, sometimes just a leaf that has taken their fancy. Everyone sits in there from time to time to feel close to her. The children sometimes borrow toys to play with for a while but they always return them for Madeleine."

Elsewhere in her book, she spoke about the toll Maddie's disappearance had on her marriage, with intimacy proving to be a difficult topic in the years following. She revealed: "The first was my inability to permit myself any pleasure, whether it be reading a book or making love to my husband.

"The second stemmed from the revulsion stirred up by my fear that Madeleine had suffered the worst fate we could imagine: falling into the hands of a paedophile." Such terrible images 'tortured' Kate to such an extent that the very thought of sex 'repulsed' her. Gerry understood her difficulties and the couple are still going strong to this day.