KATE CLAIMS - POLICE TRY TO FRAME HER

MADELEINE: THEY'RE TRYING TO FRAME ME, SAYS MOTHER AFTER NINE HOUR INTERVIEW
By SAM GREENHILL -
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» Last updated at 23:38pm on 6th September 2007

The mother of Madeleine McCann was dramatically reinterviewed by police yesterday - and is terrified they are trying to frame her.

Late last night Kate McCann was still being questioned at police headquarters in Portimao, 30 miles from Praia da Luz.

It is the first time she has been formally interviewed since May 4, the day after her daughter vanished from her bed in the Mark Warner holiday complex.

Mrs McCann, 39, had a lawyer present, something that has not happened in any previous meetings with the Portuguese police.

Friends said she was extremely nervous about being "set up" and fears detectives were attempting to crack the case by pinning the blame for Madeleine's disappearance on her.

A Portuguese newspaper stoked her fears yesterday with hurtful slurs about a "scent of death" allegedly detected on her clothing.

Although police made clear the McCanns are witnesses and not suspects, it is understood that inquiries are concentrating on alleged discrepancies in their accounts of the night Madeleine disappeared.

A British source with knowledge of the investigation claimed: "Forensic tests have opened new lines of inquiry which undermines their version of events."

Mr McCann will be interviewed separately today.

Their answers will be compared and police will decide whether or not to change their status to "arguido", the Portuguese term for suspect.

Under Portuguese law, an arguido is someone who is under ongoing questioning.

Arrests can be made only once someone is an arguido.

Friends said Mrs McCann had absolutely nothing to hide and had chosen to walk through the police station front door with her head held high.

Neither she nor her husband are under arrest, they are not suspects, and they were not being interviewed under oath.

But a friend of the couple said: "Kate is terrified that she is being set up. This has been the worst week since Madeleine vanished, and we're not through it yet.

"They have no idea why they have been called back.

"Police have refused to tell them. They fear that they might be suspects."

The extraordinary development blows apart the couple's plans to return home to Rothley, Leicestershire, which they had been arranging to do this coming Sunday.

Now their departure is on hold while the latest drama unfolds.

And it came a day after a forensics breakthrough when police took delivery of "significant" results on samples of blood, hair and fibres found in Madeleine's bedroom and elsewhere.

Scientists in Birmingham spent a month analysing the traces, which were found during a review of the case by British forensic experts.

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