Portuguese police appeared to take a step back from charging Madeleine McCann’s parents last night after a senior officer said they had “nothing concrete” to implicate them in her disappearance.
Detectives may be depending on Kate and Gerry McCann making a confession, a Portuguese newspaper reported. They were declared formal suspects a week ago, and are now back in Britain.
A “high-ranking” officer in the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) – Portugal’s criminal investigation department – said the evidence was not even strong enough to prove whether Madeleine was dead.
The unnamed PJ officer told the 24 Horas newspaper yesterday: “We have nothing concrete. There are a lot of indications, but without more elements it’s impossible to determine what happened in those four vital hours [between 6pm and 10pm on the night of May 3, the night Madeleine disappeared].
“Even if the blood and traces gathered in the car or in the apartment were confirmed to correspond 100 per cent to the little girl’s DNA, that wouldn’t prove anything. . . just that the body had been transferred in the vehicle.”
