McCanns pray for Madeleine

Kate and Gerry McCann are hoping to slip out of the public spotlight after marking the first anniversary of their daughter Madeleine's disappearance.

Mrs McCann said she was looking forward to being out of the public eye after her daughter's fifth birthday on May 12.

She said: "The media attention will wane after Madeleine's birthday, and that's a relief. I'd like to think that's how it will stay. That's why now, we're doing this. Media-wise it could be our last chance, or last opportunity to get all that information in."

The couple attended two special church services to remember their daughter, exactly 12 months after she vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, southern Portugal.

A tearful Mrs McCann urged people to "pray like mad" for Madeleine at a morning service in the couple's home village of Rothley, Leicestershire.

Then she, her husband and their two other children, three-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, travelled to Liverpool for a Mass in the church where they were married.

Part of the service at Bishop Eton Monastery - the parish church of Mrs McCann's parents - was taken by Father Paul Seddon, who married the McCanns in 1998 and later baptised Madeleine.

The couple were said to be extremely emotional after commemorating the sombre landmark.

The McCanns wanted to be in Portugal but their lawyers advised them not to return while they remained arguidos, or formal suspects, in Madeleine's disappearance.

Instead four of their relatives - Mr McCann's brother John, his sister Trish Cameron, her husband Sandy, and Mrs McCann's cousin Michael Wright - travelled to Praia da Luz on their behalf.

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