17.25 hours
KATE MCCANN has not been arrested or charged over the disappearance of her daughter Madeleine.
She left police headquarters in Portimao this afternoon after being questioned by PJ investigators for almost five hours. This followed an 11-hour session yesterday (Thursday) which ended at 1am today.
She has, however, been made a formal suspect, or arguida, in the case.
Family members now fear Kate McCann may be charged and that evidence may have been planted in order to “frame her”.
Portuguese police are understood to have another 48 hours in which to press charges.
The news came as Gerry McCann arrived at the police station in Portimao to be questioned again. He is still being treated as a witness.
Before going to the police station Mr McCann, writing on his blog, dismissed the suggestion that his wife could have been involved in the four-year-old’s disappearance as “ludicrous”.
He said: “Anyone who knows anything about the 3rd May knows that Kate is completely innocent. We will fight this all the way and we will not stop looking for Madeleine.”
Portuguese police had suggested during interviews last night that Mrs McCann that traces of Madeleine’s blood were found in a car the family hired 25 days after the girl went missing. Speaking on behalf of the McCann family, Justine McGuiness said: “The police are treating Kate as if she is involved in the death of her daughter. That suggestion hasn’t been put to Gerry, so they are treating them differently. It is a ridiculous suggestion.” British Consul Celia Edwards arrived at the PJ headquarters in Portimao as Kate McCann was being questioned today. And late on Friday afternoon, PR consultant Max Clifford, who acts for main suspect Robert Murat, said his client had not been contacted or spoken to by the Portuguese police “for several weeks”.
