MADDIE: WORLD EXCLUSIVE, FIRST PICTURES INSIDE FLAT

By Keith Gladdis

TODAY for the first time the News of the World takes you right INSIDE the holiday flat where Madeleine McCann was snatched one year ago. We are the ONLY media organisation in the world to be given this exclusive access and the sensational pictures reveal startling new evidence and insights on the crime mystery that has shocked and obsessed millions.

Our detailed survey of the flat reveals a host of places her abductor could have hidden when he was almost caught in the act by dad Gerry when he checked on Madeleine and twins, Sean and Amelie, at 9.05pm.

But our on-site reconstruction proves that if the kidnapper was already in the flat, as the McCanns fear, he had a full TEN SECONDS to conceal himself after hearing Gerry open the patio doors and enter the apartment.

And he had no fewer than FOUR boltholes to choose from—behind Madeleine's BEDROOM DOOR, inside her roomy WARDROBE, in her parents' nearby BEDROOM or in the family BATHROOM. Our on-the-spot picture on Page 1 also reveals the view into Madeleine's bedroom that must haunt family friend Matthew Oldfield for ever.

It startlingly highlights the fatal error he made when he checked on the children at 9.30pm while the McCanns were at the nearby tapas bar with friends.

Matthew could only see the bottom corner of Madeleine's bed, but the twins' travel cots were beyond on the floor in full view. Seeing them sleeping, he assumed— probably wrongly—that all was well.

The telltale sign that the kidnapper could already have struck was the open bedroom door—for Gerry had closed it just 25 minutes earlier.

Our photos heartbreakingly spell out that if Matthew had only walked a few feet further into the room he could have raised the alarm 35 minutes earlier, giving the police a real chance of catching the culprit.

and our right-hand shot of the room above shows the nightmare scene that confronted mum Kate when she arrived at 10pm—her three-year-old daughter Madeleine gone and the rolldown window shutter OPEN.

Tellingly, she had found the bedroom door now closed, blown shut by the draught from the open window looking out on to the ROAD below.

Standing on the very spot it was not hard to imagine Kate's terror-struck scream as the horrible truth sank in after three seconds of stunned disbelief.

The other poignant graphic image above pinpoints the exact spot controversial forensic "evidence" was found——a bloody footprint which was visible to the naked eye.

Inconclusive lab tests found there was a "moderate" chance the blood was Madeleine's. There was a report that this footprint matched another in the McCanns' hire car although there has never been any confirmation.

As our team went inside the flat for the first time it rammed home the terrible blunders made by Portuguese cops in not sealing it off immediately, allowing up to 20 people in and contaminating evidence.

As we unlocked the front door to apartment 5A at the Mark Warner Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve coast it was like turning back the clock. The rooms are now eerily silent but it is easy to imagine the excited chatter and kiddies' laughter that filled the flat right up until the night Madeleine vanished on May 3 last year.

If one year on, the News of the World found clues, surely the detectives could have established more AT THE TIME?

Crucial DNA evidence could have been lost during those early hours. As we walked through the crime scene it was difficult to believe the abductor did not leave any traces.

He must have touched windows, doors, shutters, particularly if he was disturbed and had to stay longer than he planned.

It is hard to accept that absolutely no telltale fibres or hairs were left behind. The stillness and silence of the apartment now is just as it would have been after the McCanns left the children asleep in bed that fateful night. And our team heard for themselves how much noise an intruder would have made—reinforcing the theory that this was not an opportunistic snatch but carefully planned.

When the bedroom shutter is opened by a pull-cord it makes a loud piercing creak that could easily have woken the youngsters or alerted the woman living upstairs, Pamela Fenn.

This is crucial NEW evidence as it shows the difficulty of entering the property by the window and suggests the likelihood that the kidnapper gained access by the front door or even the rear patio doors.

It also underlines theories that the abductor probably had crucial inside knowledge.

Even walking across the ceramic tiled floors in the wrong sort of footwear could have raised the alarm. After the police finished their investigations inside the bedroom, the walls—which had apparently had traces of blood—were repainted white.

Now the rest of the flat has been redecorated and is ready to welcome more holidaying families to Portugal.

But it will take more than a lick of emulsion to remove the terrible images seared into every parent's mind just one year ago.