From victim to suspect - the agony of Kate McCann

By Anna Tomforde Sep 7, 2007, 15:00 GMT

Kate McCann, mother of missing four-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann, arrives for further questioning at the headquarters of Policia Judiciaria, the Portuguese criminal police in Portimao, Portugal, 07 September 2007. Kate McCann was named as a suspect over the disappearance of her daughter Madeleine, a family spokesperson said. EPA/MELANIE MAPS

London - Four months after launching an unprecedented worldwide campaign that climaxed in an audience with the Pope to find their missing daughter Madeleine, Kate and Gerry McCann have themselves become the story.

In an extraordinary turn of events in the town of Portimao on the Algarve in southern Portugal Friday, Kate McCann was formally declared a 'suspect' in the case, a status expected later also to be given to her husband Gerry.

The couple, both doctors, deny any involvement in Madeleine's mysterious disappearance from her bedroom in the nearby resort of Praia da Luz on the evening of May 3.

They have not been charged, but the status of 'arguido' would allow the police more intense questioning, and the suspects to remain silent.

When she arrived at the police station Friday, Kate, looking drained and clutching her daughter's favourite toy, Cuddle Cat, ran a gauntlet of jeers and abuse from bystanders.

Only after she had entered the headquarters of the Policia Judiciaria, did the police move to push the crowd behind barriers.

From the start, the McCann case has been the subject of media- driven mutual mistrust, allegation and counter-allegation between Britain and Portugal.

Soon after Madeleine, four, disappeared, British media criticized the 'slow and flawed' police investigation in Portugal, alleging that the police had 'allowed' the girl to be taken out of the country.

Portuguese police, while complying with laws restricting public statements on ongoing investigations, nonetheless vented their anger at the criticism by providing the media with leaks and insinuations of the parents' possible involvement.

On Friday, Kate McCann's spokeswoman confirmed that the police had confronted her with the 'completely ludicrous question' of whether she was responsible for Madeleine's death.

'Did you sedate Madeleine?', Portuguese police asked McCann in her 11-hour interview Thursday, according to Britain's Sun newspaper.

'Kate is a caring and loving mother. She would never hurt her children,' said spokeswoman Justine McGuinness.

All three McCann children, Madeleine and her twin siblings Shean and Amelie, aged two, who were asleep in the same room with Madeleine, were born after IVF treatment.

Both Kate, who is a general practitioner from Rothley, in northern Britain, and Gerry, a cardiologist, deny any involvement in what happened to Madeleine.

But he fact remains that, four months after the disappearance of Madeleine, and with her pretty image flashed around the world, absolutely no trace of her has been found.

'There is no clothing, no shoes, no trace of her,' said a BBC reporter Friday.

While the McCann's believe that they are being 'framed' by Portuguese police in an effort to 'distract from their own inefficiency,' a Portuguese newspaper alleged that a 'scent of death' had been detected on Kate McCann's clothing.

Police are understood to work on fresh evidence which show the discovery of blood stains in a Renault Scenic car the McCann's hired five weeks after Madeleine disappeared, as well as on results of forensic examinations carried out in Britain of blood, hair and fibres found in Madeleine's bedroom.

The McCann's have insisted throughout that they 'checked' on their children every 30 minutes while they were eating with friends in a Tapas bar 50 metres away.

Portuguese police, according to the Sun, are now working on the possible theory that 'Kate and Gerry accidentally killed the tot with an overdose of sedatives, intending that she would sleep as they were eating out with pals.'