Gerry McCann had his wallet stolen during a brief trip to London, losing two "irreplaceable" photos of his missing daughter Madeleine.



Mr McCann was returning to Britain for only the second time since the four-year-old was abducted. He returned for a series of meetings about his global campaign to find his daughter.

Around an hour after Mr McCann flew into Gatwick his wallet was stolen from his back pocket at a cash machine at Waterloo station in London.

Philomena McCann, his sister, said that after all the goodwill directed towards Mr McCann and his family in Portugal, the theft in London was a "demoralising" sign of the times.

She said: "He bent down to put something in his rucksack and some dirty animal had the wallet out of his back pocket. We don't care about the money, but we do care about getting the pictures back."

One picture is said to show Madeleine at 15 months while another was taken in church more recently.

Ms McCann said: "I hope whoever took the wallet is so ashamed when they realise what they've just done that they get those pictures back to us as soon as possible.

"He's desperate to get them back because they're precious to him.

"They can contact any member of the family, or go through the website, hand it in to a police station, anything. We just want them back as soon as possible."

During the trip Mr McCann, a cardiologist, helped a stricken passenger on the easyJet flight from Faro to Gatwick on Tuesday morning.

He wrote in his blog on the official findmadeleine.com website:

"I flew in to London to for a series of meetings. Helped a passenger on the flight who collapsed.

"He was ill enough to require a full assessment on arrival and went off to hospital in an ambulance."

Ms McCann said: "He told me he had been called into action on the flight over but he didn't give me any details.

"In a situation like that, you just go into your natural modus operandi and help.

"It's what you're trained to do, it's who you are. He didn't make a big deal out of it because it's the kind of thing that he does all the time at work."

A spokesman for EasyJet confirmed that Mr McCann helped an elderly man who fainted midway through the flight.

Mr McCann left behind his wife Kate and their twins, Sean and Amelie, to make the trip in which he attended a series of meetings about the Madeleine campaign and interviewed candidates for the role of campaign manager.

Writing on his blog, he said: "The role for Kate and I in the campaign will not be nearly be so public.

"We have to balance any campaigning in the search for Madeleine with protecting Sean and Amelie and making sure their privacy is protected."

Mr McCann is working to a punishing schedule behind the scenes, organising events, writing the daily blog and reading through hundreds of letters still being sent to the family in Praia da Luz every week.

A main event is planned for tomorrow, to mark the 50th day since Madeleine disappeared.

The family have organised for 50 green and yellow balloons to be released in more than 50 countries.

source : telegraph