Portuguese police told Gerry McCann they had found incriminating DNA from his missing daughter Madeleine FOUR days after British scientists warned them the forensic evidence could have come from anyone, it emerged.

Detectives were informed that 'evidence' gleaned from the family's holiday apartment and the boot of the hire car, crucially rented 25 days after the three year old vanished, was inconclusive.

Yet they still made Gerry and his wife Kate officials suspects -  and in an eight hour interrogation of Gerry stated as fact that damning DNA had been found.

The bedroom where Madeleine McCann disappeared from in Portugal last year and (inset) the three-year-old's bed

Door B shows entrance to children's bedroom and door A points to the entrance to the apartment.

Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions when grilled by Portuguese police over her missing daughter, fearing she would be implicated

The extraordinary police tactics were revealed as the mammoth, 20,000 - page 'Madeleine File' detailing the 14 month Portuguese investigation was opened up to the public.

The dossier includes lines of inquiry pursued by detectives, forensic reports, witness statements and transcripts of interviews with the McCanns.

One file reveals that Kate McCann refused to answer 48 specific questions put to her during an 11 hour interview in which police ask her directly whether she had anything to do with her daughter's disappearance.

But it is an email from British scientist John Lowe, part of the major incidents team at the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service (FSS) on September 3, 2007, that provides a damning indictment of the controversial Portuguese investigation.

It is written to Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the British side of the investigation, and said that a sample taken from the McCanns' Renault Scenic hire car contained 15 out of 19 of the young girl's DNA components.

But Mr Lowe warned that this result -  based on the controversial 'low copy' DNA analysis technique which uses very small samples -  was 'too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion.'

The scientist wrote:' Let's look at the question that is being asked: ' Is there DNA from Madeleine on the swab?

'It would be very simple to say 'Yes' simply because of the number of components within the result that are also in her reference sample.

Outside the holiday apartment and (circled) the window to the children's room

The stairs leading up to the veranda and the apartment where Madeleine McCann was sleeping

'What we need to consider, as scientists, is whether the match is genuine -  because Madeleine has deposited DNA as a result of being in the car or whether Madeleine merely appears to match the result by chance.'

Mr Lowe then pointed out that components of the missing girl's DNA were not unique to her -  in fact, some of them were present among FSS scientists, including himself.

He stressed that low copy analysis couldn't determine when or how the DNA was deposited, what body fluid it came from -  and whether a crime had been committed.
He concluded : 'We cannot answer the question: is the match genuine, or is it a chance match.'

According to the official document, the email was translated into Portuguese 24 hours later, on September 4, and three days later -  in a  blaze of publicity -  the McCanns were made arguidos.

Notes of Gerry McCann's lengthy interrogation were among documents released yesterday which show his interview was not recorded but an unidentified police officer's notes of the questioning were included.

The McCanns are desperately hoping the files contain a missed clue which could lead them to their missing daughter

The police officer wrote :' 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 this would be.'

The police files were released late yesterday afternoon under Portuguese law after the lifting of the period of judicial secrecy in the case.

Lawyers for the McCanns, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were formally given access to the documents last week.

They are studying them for fresh leads that the couple's private detectives can follow up in their own search for their daughter.

The McCanns are keen not to give 'a running commentary' on their legal team's trawl through the files, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today.

And they are reluctant to respond to questions raised by journalists allowed access to the documents.

Mr Mitchell said: 'The Portuguese Attorney General, in his recent statement, made it very clear indeed that there's absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kate and Gerry in any way, shape or form and journalists should bear that in mind when they examine the police files.

'A lot of this is historical detail drafted by officers who failed to find Madeleine and who quite wrongfully were going down inaccurate lines of supposition and assumption. We will not be commenting on any of this.

'Kate and Gerry are no longer arguidos. The Portuguese judicial system has accepted that they were not involved in Madeleine's disappearance in any way, shape or form and these files should be seen in that context.

Kate and Gerry were made official suspects in Madeleine's disappearance, despite warnings that DNA evidence in the case was inconclusive

'All that matters is the search for Madeleine. Kate and Gerry's lawyers are continuing to examine all of the information in minute detail and where anything that is relevant to finding Madeleine needs to be done it will be.'

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 as her parents dined with friends nearby.

Despite a huge police investigation and massive coverage in the Portuguese and British media, she has not been found.

On July 21 Portuguese prosecutors announced they were shelving the case, although it can be reopened if credible new evidence comes to light.

At the same time the McCanns and Algarve resident Robert Murat were told they were no longer arguidos in Madeleine's disappearance.

The McCanns endured a long and anxious 15-month wait for details surrounding the investigation into their daughter's disappearance to be made public.

The dossier also showed that Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions when grilled by Portuguese police over her missing daughter, when it was clear the direction of the questions were designed to implicate her.

The devastated mother fell silent after police told her she was being made an official suspect in Madeleine's disappearance.

Mrs McCann, a GP, was subjected to 11 hours of interrogations at Portimao police station on September 7 last year.

The case files showed she faced a barrage of questions over her relationship with her oldest child.

Both she and husband Gerry have denied any involvement in their daughter's disappearance.

Last month the Portuguese attorney general formally cleared them as suspects in the investigation and said police had found no evidence they had committed any crime.

Mr Mitchell said: 'Kate was well within her rights not to answer if she didn't want to.

THE 48 QUESTIONS KATE DIDN’T ANSWER
1. On May 3 2007, around 22:00, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch?

2.  Did you search inside the bedroom wardrobe? (she replied that she wouldn’t answer)

3. (shown 2 photographs of her bedroom wardrobe) Can you describe its contents?

4.  Why had the curtain behind the sofa in front of the side window (whose photo was shown to her) been tampered with? Did somebody go behind that sofa?

5. How long did your search of the apartment take after you detected your daughter Madeleine’s disappearance?

6. Why did you say from the start that Madeleine had been abducted?

7. Assuming Madeleine had been abducted, why did you leave the twins home alone to go to the ‘Tapas’ and raise the alarm? Because the supposed abductor could still be in the apartment.

8. Why didn’t you ask the twins, at that moment, what had happened to their sister or why didn’t you ask them later on?

9. When you raised the alarm at the ‘Tapas’ what exactly did you say and what were your exact words?

10. What happened after you raised the alarm in the ‘Tapas’?

11. Why did you go and warn your friends instead of shouting from the verandah?

12. Who contacted the authorities?

13.  Who took place in the searches?

14.  Did anyone outside of the group learn of Madeleine’s disappearance in those following minutes?

15. Did any neighbour offer you help after the disappearance?

16. What does 'we let her down' mean?

17.  Did Jane tell you that night that she’d seen a man with a child?

18.  How were the authorities contacted and which police force was alerted?

19. During the searches, with the police already there, where did you search for Maddie, how and in what way?

20. Why did the twins not wake up during that search or when they were taken upstairs?

21. Who did you phone after the occurrence?

22. Did you call Sky News?

23. Did you know the danger of calling the media, because it could influence the abductor?

24. Did you ask for a priest?

25. By what means did you divulge Madeleine’s features, by photographs or by any other means?

26. Is it true that during the searches you remained seated on Maddie’s bed without moving?

27. What was your behaviour that night?

28. Did you manage to sleep?

29. Before travelling to Portugal did you make any comment about a foreboding or a bad feeling?

30. What was Madeleine’s behaviour like?

31. Did Maddie suffer from any illness or take any medication?

32. What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister?

33. What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister, friends and school mates?

34. As for your professional life, in how many and which hospitals have you worked?

35. What is your medical specialty?

36. Have you ever done shift work in any emergency services or other services?

37. Did you work every day?

38. At a certain point you stopped working, why?

39. Are the twins difficult to get to sleep? Are they restless and does that cause you uneasiness?

40.  Is it true that sometimes you despaired with your children’s behaviour and that left you feeling very uneasy?

41. Is it true that in England you even considered handing over Madeleine’s custody to a relative?

42. In England, did you medicate your children? What type of medication?

43.   In the case files you were SHOWN CANINE forensic testing films, where you can see them marking due to detection of the scent of human corpse and blood traces, also human, and only human, as well as all the comments of the technician in charge of them. After watching and after the marking of the scent of corpse in your bedroom beside the wardrobe and behind the sofa, pushed up against the sofa wall, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

44.   When the sniffer dog also marked human blood behind the sofa, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

45.  When the sniffer dog marked the scent of corpse coming from the vehicle you hired a month after the disappearance, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

46.  When human blood was marked in the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

47.   When confronted with the results of Maddie’s DNA, whose analysis was carried out in a British laboratory, collected from behind the sofa and the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?

48.   Did you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter’s disappearance?

A QUESTION SHE DID ANSWER
Q.  Are you aware that in not answering the questions you are jeopardising the investigation, which seeks to discover what happened to your daughter?

A.  'Yes, if that’s what the investigation thinks.'