McCanns must wait to be cleared of suspicion

Gerry and Kate McCann. Photo / Reuters

Kate and Gerry McCann hoped inconclusive forensic test results would clear them as official suspects in the disappearance of their 4-year-old daughter Madeleine - but Portuguese police are returning to Britain to question their friends.

Portuguese investigators had left Britain after meeting forensic experts to discuss tests carried out on DNA samples, believed to have been blood, bodily fluids and hair found in the family's Portuguese holiday flat from where Madeleine disappeared in May.

The test results are understood to be inconclusive, raising the McCanns' hopes that Portuguese police will no longer consider them suspects.

But detectives are preparing to return to Britain to speak to members of the so-called Tapas Nine.

The McCanns had hoped that police would lift their status as official suspects in their daughter's disappearance by Christmas, after DNA tests failed to find any evidence which proved they were involved.

But police will deliver letters of appeal to British police, asking them to interrogate the friends again, and asking that Portuguese officers be allowed to be present in the interviews, reported the Daily Mail.

There have been reports that four of the friends - Jane Tanner, her partner Russell O'Brien, Matthew Oldfield and David Payne - fear they could be made suspects in the case, said the Mail.

Police and the prosecutor met for more than three hours at Faro police station to discuss the DNA tests results. Three detectives and a forensics expert who met with Forensic Science Service experts reported back to the head of the investigation, Paulo Rebelo. The new British ambassador to Portugal, Alex Ellis, was also at the police station, with the British consul to the Algarve. The Foreign Office insisted his visit was "unrelated" and that he was there as part of a pre-planned tour to introduce himself to important officials in the country, but the timing appeared significant. McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the couple's friends would cooperate with fresh interviews. He said: "If this report is true, Kate and Gerry's friends have consistently said they are happy to be re-interviewed by police if necessary."

Alleged contradictions in the statements of the Tapas Nine first raised suspicions among detectives that the group were lying.

But the McCanns and their friends have always denied any suggestion that they were involved in Madeleine's disappearance, or that they constructed a "pact of silence" to cover up their involvement.

The McCanns, both 39, were named as suspects in September following the disappearance of their daughter from their holiday apartment on May 3. They have always denied any involvement and had looked to the DNA tests to clear them of any suspicion.