Madeleine McCann: Former suspect describes shock at being questioned by UK cops over disappearance

Missing : A photo of Madeleine as the tenth anniversary of her disappearance approaches
PA

A former suspect who was interrogated by Scotland Yard over missing Madeleine McCann has described his shock at being hauled in for questioning.

On the 10th anniversary of the three-year-old’s disappearance, former suspect Paulo Ribiero said he found it “incredible” when British police identified him as a suspect.

Mr Ribiero was among four local suspects questioned by Met officers who were investigating the theory that the tot was taken in a botched burglary.

All four men, who were questioned in 2014 and are still living in the Portuguese town of Praia Da Luz where Madeleine was last seen, denied being involved in her disappearance. No one was charged.

Ten years on: Kate and Gerry McCann whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal in 2007.
PA

It comes as the former head of the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria officers' union Carlos Anjos, said he believes the UK investigation was “a waste of money”.

Madeleine went missing from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia Da Luz in Portugal on May 3 in 2007 and has never been found.

Scotland Yard has to date spent more than £11 million on their own six-year investigation into her disappearance.

In a special anniversary BBC Panorama programme airing tonight, Mr Ribiero said: “I knew of nothing when the police arrived at my door with a piece of paper that had a drawing on it, saying it bore a likeness to me and that someone had said I was involved and that I looked like the person who had kidnapped Maddie.

"I don't know who that person was."

The Portuguese police never considered the four men to be suspects in the case. Deputy head of the Policia Judiciaria, Pedro de Carma, said those suspects were only identified by the Met.

He told the BBC: “This burglary theory is absurd. Not even a wallet disappeared, no television disappeared, nothing else disappeared. A child disappeared."

Madeleine McCann - In pictures

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