McCanns wait for news on Madeleine inquiry

Missing Madeleine McCann’s parents are waiting today to learn whether crucial forensic results will shed new light on what happened to their daughter.

Portuguese police could make arrests within days after a British laboratory produced “significant new information”, it was reported yesterday.

Experts at the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham have spent the past month analysing samples taken from the McCanns’ holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

The evidence recovered from the flat includes blood flecks found by British sniffer dogs on the wall in Madeleine’s bedroom, where she vanished on May 3.

A source confirmed yesterday that information gathered by the FSS had been “regularly fed back” to investigators in Portugal, although the official line remains that tests are “ongoing”.

Portuguese police said they were now giving “special attention” to the theory that Madeleine is dead, which depends on the results of the FSS analysis.

Also desperately waiting for details of the forensic tests is the only official suspect in the case, 33-year-old Anglo-Portuguese ex-pat Robert Murat.

He strenuously denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance and believes the Portuguese authorities will shortly clear him formally.

Mr Murat’s spokesman Tuck Price said he had not been told about any developments in the case.

Mr Price added: “Why are they holding him in limbo? That is still a concern - unless they are using him as cover so that they can continue investigating somebody else…

“It’s still very frustrating – it’s been five weeks since they went back in there again (to search Mr Murat’s house for a second time), and we thought this would all be sewn up.”

Kate and Gerry McCann only heard about the possible forensic breakthrough from a report in the London Evening Standard, and received no briefing from police about it.

Their family spokeswoman said: “The Portuguese police have not phoned Kate and Gerry, and have not told them about the test results.

“We will await official confirmation as we do for any story. Clearly the Evening Standard report may be speculation.”

It is understood that the news was “unexpected” for the couple, although they have been awaiting the test results for many weeks.

A friend of the McCanns said: “If you were the parents of a missing child, you would expect that the police would let you know.

“They used to have a good working relationship with the police, but this is bound to affect it.”

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, spokesman for Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria (PJ), who are leading the investigation, refused to confirm the Evening Standard report.

He said yesterday: “The information is that the results haven’t arrived yet, but it might be they arrived during the day.”

A source linked to the investigation said any developments made by the FSS were immediately passed to Leicestershire Police, who would then communicate them to the PJ.

“Information has been regularly fed back as to the progress and where the investigation is up to,” the source said.

“Information is always being fed back, which Leicestershire Police then pass on to the Portuguese authorities.

“The Portuguese are leading on the investigation and they have to be the ones to act on any information.

“On any important case, as soon as any progress is made the information is passed on. On something so important, any information would not be sat on – it is always being fed back.”

An FSS spokeswoman would not comment on the specifics of the case, but said: “There has been a lot of speculation. The tests are ongoing.

“There has been no change in that, despite what the reports say. It’s a live investigation and we are working with the police.”

Meanwhile, the McCanns will take part in a religious festival in Praia da Luz this weekend.

They will attend an ecumenical service in the village church of Nossa Senhora da Luz on Saturday night as part of the Festival of Our Lady of Luz.

Speculation is mounting that this could be the family’s farewell to the village, after which they would return to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire.