TALENTED Bradford artist Simone Malik has produced a sketch of what she believes missing girl Madeleine McCann may look like now as an 18-year-old.
The child went missing while on holiday in the Alagarve with parents Kate and Gerry McCann in 2007.
Her whereabouts remain unknown.
Simone, a 'super-recogniser' meaning she can recall and memorise faces easily, felt she needed to put her artistic talent and ability to study faces to good use and create a sketch which could be used by detectives at home and abroad as well as the Press. Her efforts have drawn praise from a retired detective chief inspector.
Simone said: "My reasons for doing the sketch are to help find Madeleine. Even if there is a tiny chance she could be alive, then I want to grab that chance with both hands and get this image out there to try to locate her. Surely, she deserves that? Surely her parents need that support and effort too?
"I feel that Madeleine would have an overall look of her mother, but she has features which point towards an obvious genetic link with the women on Gerry McCann's side too - such as her aunt Philomena and Madeleine's paternal grandmother. As a super recogniser, I can clearly spot those facial links.
"I believe Madeleine's face would be longer in length and not the shorter, round face images seen out there already as both parents have longer prominent faces.
"Madeleine is likely to have a distinct, chiselled jaw line, which was already evident in her pictures as a child, dimples in both cheeks, a squarish nose with a wide bridge along the length, a high and wide forehead, cool skin tones. She also has a large gap from under the tip of her nose to the top of her lip - similar to what her mother is like."
Mike Neville, retired Detective Chief Inspector with Scotland Yard and current CEO at Super Recognisers International and managing director of Neville Forensic Recognition said the sketch was a remarkable image of what Madeleine is likely to look like now.
"Simone has done a super job. I think the family resemblance is very good.
"Now it's a case of getting the image out there to the public. We have to continue believing that Madeleine is still alive until we learn anything different. We do not know where Madeleine is so have to remain open-minded and hopeful."
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