Madeleine Suspect Questioned Again

The only named suspect in the disappearance of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann was questioned again by police yesterday in Portugal.

British expatriate Robert Murat, 33, entered a police station in Portugal's Algarve yesterday and has been questioned by detectives, a spokesman for the McCann family said.

The spokesman, Justine McGuinness, said that the issue was a matter for Portuguese detectives and that Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, did not wish to comment.

Murat has been hoping for several weeks that he will be cleared after a DNA sample was recovered from the bedroom from where Madeleine was taken. He lives with his mother 160 yards from where Madeleine was snatched and has always insisted he is innocent.

The DNA sample is the first piece of scientific evidence showing that a stranger was in the room the night she vanished at the beginning of May while her parents, Kate and Gerry, ate with friends nearby.

Forensic scientists have been unable to find any DNA linking Madeleine's disappearance to Murat, who had returned to Portugal three days before Madeleine's abduction after visiting his estranged wife and their three-year-old daughter in Hockering, Norfolk.

Meanwhile, the disappearance of Madeleine was discussed by Gordon Brown when he raised concerns about the investigation with the Portuguese Prime Minister earlier in the week.

Brown thanked Jose Socrates for his government's help in trying to track down four-year-old Madeleine after she disappeared from her bed in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz 69 days ago.

"I have talked to Madeleine McCann's parents. I have heard from them their appreciation of the work that has been done in this investigation," said Brown.

"Obviously there are issues they want to be assured about and I have raised these with the Portuguese Prime Minister.

"He has assured me that everything that can be done will be done and obviously we look for progress in something that's heart-rending in its sadness, that a young child can be separated from her parents for so long."

Socrates said: "It's important for Great Britain but it's important for Portugal, and it's very touching in public opinion in Great Britain but also in Portugal.

"We have dedicated to this investigation all the resources we have in order to give it high priority and we are doing our best. Everyone in Portugal and the family knows we are doing our best."