McCann friends condemn 'leaks from the police'

Bemused and angry friends of Kate and Gerry McCann have hit out at "leaks and untruths" surrounding Madeleine's disappearance that they believe are finding their way from the police to the Portuguese media.

Rachel Oldfield was one of several friends dining with Madeleine's parents in the Algarve on the night of the four-year-old's disappearance nearly 100 days ago. She said: "I think some leaks are coming from the police... When we gave a statement... we were told it is all confidential... [The police] are throwing mud at us and we are not able to defend ourselves."

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The heated remarks came amid claims - described as "made up" by Mrs Oldfield - that police were monitoring phone calls between Madeleine's parents, as well as re-interviewing the McCanns and their friends.

Forensic science tests are being carried out in Britain on evidence - thought to be traces of blood - found at the apartment where Madeleine disappeared on 3 May. The Forensic Science Service in Birmingham is inspecting the samples, detected by specialist British sniffer dogs. Attempts had allegedly been made to wipe the blood.

Meanwhile hopes surrounding a possible sighting of Madeleine in Belgium last week were dashed after DNA tests on the scene came in as negative. But investigators maintained that the findings did not rule out that Madeleine was present. A flicker of optimism had emerged after a "highly credible" witness - believed to be a child psychologist - said she was "a hundred per cent sure" she saw Madeleine at a restaurant in Tongeren, near the Dutch border. Belgian police issued a photo-fit and began carrying out DNA tests on a bottle used by the party, which consisted of a middle-aged man, a younger woman and a little girl resembling Madeleine.

The reports about the traces of blood were not confirmed by police but they caused a frenzy among the media both at home and abroad, shifting the focus on to Mr and Mrs McCann and their friends. A new police search at the home of the only official suspect, 33-year-old Robert Murat, failed to find evidence against him.

Kate and Gerry McCann went on television on Tuesday to reaffirm their belief that their daughter was still alive. "We're not naïve," said Mr McCann, sitting beside his wife. "But on numerous occasions, the Portuguese police have assured us that they were looking for Madeleine alive, and not Madeleine being murdered. And I don't know of any information that's changed that."

The latest row with the Portuguese media erupted on Monday when the Diario de Noticias newspaper reported that traces of blood had been found in the Praia de Luz apartment. The reports added: "This evidence locates Madeleine's death inside the apartment, but the investigators are still not certain it was murder, despite the fact that forensic experts have revealed that somebody did try to erase the traces."

Forced to respond, Mr McCann said: "We expect the same thoroughness and to be treated the same way as anyone else who has been in and around this. And we wouldn't expect it any other way. The same high levels will be applied to us as would be applied to anybody else, and that's only right and proper."

Yesterday Mrs McCann echoed her husband's belief that their daughter will be found. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, she said: "We haven't had any news to the contrary that Madeleine isn't alive, and that's very important. And there have been many cases of children that have been found much later than this so again that's reassuring - so the hope's still there."

Earlier in the week, it was reported that another suspect was under surveillance by police in the resort's area without being aware of it, after it emerged that a man was seen taking a small girl towards the beach on that fateful night.

And last week another suspect, Urs Hans Von Aesch, 67, was found to have shot himself dead in a forest in his native Switzerland, near where belongings of five-year-old Ylenia Lenhard, who vanished from Appenzell in north-eastern Switzerland last Tuesday, were found.

But nearly 100 days after Madeleine McCann vanished from the Algarve, police attention appears to be coming back full circle to those within the apartment complex on the night. Behind it follows an international media pack whose coverage of the tragedy is undiminished by what remains after three months a terrible lack of real, new information.