Police: 'traces of Maddy blood in car'
Updated on 07 September 2007
The mother of four year-old Madeleine McCann fears she could be charged with her daughter's murder.
A family friend has revealed that Portuguese detectives suggested to Mrs McCann during questioning that traces of blood from her daughter Madeleine (pictured below) were found in a hire car the family leased 25 days after the girl went missing.
It's expected that Kate McCann will be declared a suspect by the police today.
She and her husband Gerry deny any involvement in their daughter's disappearance. A member of the McCann family has described the turn of events as "unbelievable".
Kate McCann strode back into Portugal's CID headquarters - at 11am this morning knowing she was faced a hostile interview, but was greeted for the first time during this investigation by hostility from the crowd.
Detectives had told her the night before that they had 22 questions to put to her, questions which required her to be treated as an "arguido" - a suspect.
She'd only left 11 hours earlier after a marathon interview session. Afterwards her lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, said:
"Kate was held throughout the whole day as a witness and remains a witness. It is obvious that investigations will continue. I am bound by the secrecy laws not to say anything further."
But it has emerged that just before she left she'd been offered "arguido" status - the Portuguese term for suspect. It gives her the right to remain silent, but also means the police can ask her more direct questions about her daughter's disappearance.
"She's stunned and disappointed really. Disappointed not only at this stage to be a suspect, but I think the realisation that they're not actually looking for Madeleine."Jon Corner, family friend
She had declined but was told she would be named as a suspect anyway.
Madeleine's godfather, Jon Corner, spoke to Kate McCann after her release:
"She's stunned and disappointed really. Disappointed not only at this stage to be a suspect, but I think the realisation that they're not actually looking for Madeleine. I think it's a double whammy."
The McCanns have always maintained they had returned to their holiday apartment where they'd left their three children asleep after eating at a tapas bar just next door to find a window wide open and Madeleine gone.
"I think it's quite similar to a summer's evening at home, eating in your garden while your children are in bed. You know, it's that close," said Kate McCann, speaking on 10 August 2007.
Her husband, Gerry McCann, insisted at the same interview said: "At the moment Madeleine was abducted, we were not there."
The British press have covered the worldwide campaign the McCanns launched to keep their daughter's disappearance in the public eye over the past four months in a sympathetic light. The foreign press have been more suspicious.
But after the results of forensic evidence analysed by a lab in Birmingham were returned to Portuguese detectives earlier this week speculation is now mounting over whether they implicate the McCanns - including reports that traces of sedatives were found in their villa.
Gerry McCann is due to be questioned separately from his wife at two this afternoon. A family friend revealed this morning that Kate McCann feared she would be charged over her daughter's death later today.
