Police to deliver Madeleine files

“We planned to get it in today, but after all it’ll be delivered tomorrow morning,” police spokesman Olegario Sousa said last night.

He declined to provide further details, citing Portugal’s secrecy law covering ongoing police investigations.

The parents of the missing four-year-old are waiting to find out whether the Portuguese prosecutor will file charges against them after police submit their case.

Portimao District Attorney Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses will review the case files, which contain detail of forensic evidence, and police interviews with the McCanns are expected to come in more than half a dozen volumes, each containing about 200 pages.

Sky News reported that Portuguese police have found DNA evidence – a full match - indicating that Madeleine’s body was in the trunk of a car the McCanns rented five weeks after her disappearance. The station cited unidentified sources.

Portugal’s national police chief Alipio Ribeiro, however, suggested last night that the forensic tests had not been conclusive.

“We can’t say with certainty whether it was the blood of person A or person B,” Mr Ribeiro told Portuguese state Broadcaster RPT.

“They help guide us in our investigation but not with the mathematical precision some people are saying,” he said.“

The McCanns, who returned to Britain on Sunday with their 2-year-old twins, kept a low profile yesterday, avoiding reporters camped outside their home. Both have denied any role in Madeleine’s disappearance.

Philomena McCann, Gerry’s sister, accused the police of “clutching at straws” to clear the case up.

“Kate and Gerry have been a thorn in their sides for a long time. What better than to cast them as the villains?” she told GMTV.

“It is unbelievable they have been named as suspects – no one believes the Portuguese police,” she said.

The McCanns, who are both medical doctors, have hired a high profile legal team that includes Michael Caplan, who represented former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet when Spain tried to extradite him from Britain in 1999.

However, it could be hard to challenge any attempts by Portugal to extradite the McCanns because of the cross-border European Union Arrest Warrant introduced in 2004 to make it easier for people accused of serious crimes to stand trial in other EU countries.

The administrators of a fund set up to help find Madeleine were investigating whether some of the money could be used to help pay the McCanns’ legal bills, according to a family friend.

Police spokesman Olegario Sousa said he expected the public prosecutor to “quickly decide” on what action to take. The public prosecutor’s office determines whether charges should be brought against anyone, whether further investigation is required, or if the case should be dropped.

Madeleine’s disappearance, and her parents’ publicity campaign to find her, has attracted worldwide attention. The story took a startling twist Friday when Portuguese police formally named them as suspects.

Until Friday, suspicion had centred on Robert Murat, a British man who lived near the hotel from which Madeleine disappeared and who was the only formal suspect. He has not been charged, and he has said he is innocent.

Gerry McCann said on Sunday it was “heartbreaking” to come home without Madeleine, despite an extensive effort to find her. His voice shaking, he said “it does not mean we are giving up the search for her.”

“We have played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter Madeleine,” he added.

The McCanns say Madeleine vanished from a hotel room in Portugal’s Algarve region, where she and her siblings were sleeping, while her parents ate dinner at a nearby restaurant.

The case took a turn in recent days, after police said forensic tests on evidence gathered months after the girl vanished found traces of blood in the couple’s car. The traces, apparently missed in earlier tests, were uncovered by sniffer dogs brought from Britain.