

· 11,000 pages of material on case made public
· Scientist warned DNA test on car was inconclusive
The McCanns
Kate and Gerry McCann outside their house in Rothley, Leicestershire. Photograph: David Jones/PA

The Portuguese police file on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was made public last night, leading her parents to hope that the leaks and innuendo they have endured for 15 months may finally be at an end.

The file showed that a British scientist had warned that tests on DNA recovered from Kate and Gerry McCann's hire car had been inconclusive days before the couple were formally named as suspects.

It also shows that during a subsequent interview with Portuguese police, Mrs McCann refused to answer 48 questions about her daughter, apparently fearing they were intended to implicate her in the girl's disappearance.

Other notes showed that detectives told Mr McCann that Madeleine's DNA had been found in their hire car. Although the questioning on September 7 was not recorded, an unidentified police officer took notes which were included in the dossier.

The officer wrote that Mr McCann was told his daughter's DNA was discovered in the boot of the rented Renault Scenic and behind a sofa in the family's holiday apartment. The notes said: "Confronted with the fact that Madeleine's DNA was gathered from behind the sofa and from the boot of the vehicle, and analysed by a British laboratory, he said he could not explain why this would be."

This contradicted the Forensic Science Service (FSS) expert's opinion that the sample found in the car could not be definitively linked to the little girl.

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the 40-year-olds from Rothley, Leicestershire, said: "You have to ask what the police were trying to achieve by over-presenting evidence that they did not have, and clearly could not claim to have."

Among other material released were photographs showing the room where Madeleine had been left by her parents when they went out to dine with friends nearby. Compact discs containing 17 files running to 11,223 pages were released by court officials in the town of Portimão, near to where the child vanished, after a period of segredo de justiça, or secrecy of justice, was lifted following the decision to close the case.

Some information is thought to have been edited out, including the identities of any convicted or suspected paedophiles living in the Algarve at the time Madeleine disappeared.

Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year. Despite the lengthy police inquiry and global publicity, no clues to her possible whereabouts were ever uncovered.

Last month Portuguese prosecutors said they were shelving the case, although it can be reopened if new evidence comes to light. At that time, the McCanns and an Algarve resident, Robert Murat, were told they were no longer formal suspects in Madeleine's disappearance. All three denied any involvement.

The files released yesterday include an email written on September 3 2007 by John Lowe, from the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham, warning that it was impossible to conclude whether DNA from the Renault Scenic, hired 25 days after Madeleine disappeared, came directly from the missing girl. Lowe told Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the British side of the investigation, that the results were "too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion".



The components of the missing girl's DNA profile were not unique to her; in fact some were present among FSS scientists, including himself. He wrote: "We cannot answer the question: is the match genuine, or is it a chance match?"

The warning was passed to the Portuguese police the following day. Despite this, the McCanns were identified as suspects. Mitchell said yesterday: "The search for Madeleine goes on. Kate and Gerry ... know there is a possibility that Madeleine could be dead, and could be long dead. However, there is absolutely no evidence that she is dead."