Madeleine: Are Portuguese media smears a police tactic to break the McCanns?

Reports in the Portuguese Press claimed police believe Mrs McCann may have been "mentally unbalanced", that the McCanns refused to answer questions about traces of blood in a hire car and that Mr McCann admitted he had "sedated" his children on the night Madeleine disappeared.

The allegations were said to have come from police sources - banned under Portuguese law from discussing the case - in an escalation of what appears to have become a psychological battle between the police and the McCanns.

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It is a well-used police device to pressurise suspects into making a confession and investigators in Praia da Luz appear to be developing the theory that the McCanns accidentally killed their daughter through a drugs overdose and then hid her body for days or weeks before they somehow disposed of it.

The Diario de Noticias newspaper has quoted anonymous sources in the local Policia Judiciaria as saying Mr McCann admitted during his eight-hour interview on Friday night that he gave a sedative to his children on the night of May 3.

The newspaper says the police are following a line of enquiry that Madeleine may have been given an overdose.

In the same report, it makes the claim that Portuguese police believe Kate McCann may be "mentally unbalanced" and may have been "aggressive" towards her daughter.

The paper also cites police sources saying that they were suspicious because they believe Madeleine died before her parents had dinner on the evening her disappearance was reported - although the source admitted in the report that the "situation was complicated and the parents were disoriented".

The report contained specific details of the 15-hour police interrogation of Mrs McCann, which is said to have included examining in detail her movements on the day Madeleine disappeared and putting her under "strong pressure".

Meanwhile, another newspaper, Jornal de Noticias, says that Gerry McCann exercised his right to remain silent in response to questions about traces of blood which have allegedly been discovered in their hire car.

Forensic investigators discovered "biological traces" in the boot of a car hired 25 days after Madeleine's disappearance, according to the newspaper.

All the allegations will have made uncomfortable reading for the McCanns and their relatives, but however damaging they are, these are simply the latest stories in the Portuguese Press that have apparently been inspired by the local police.

What began for the McCanns as an abduction nightmare has slowly been transformed over the past 129 days into the torture of becoming the prime suspects for their daughter's murder. The story had been clear at first:

Madeleine had been sleeping with her brother and sister in the McCanns' hotel room at the Mark Warner resort in Praia da Luz while their parents ate dinner in the restaurant only a few yards away.

They checked the room every 15 minutes, until Kate McCann made the discovery that someone had broken into the locked apartment and abducted Madeleine, leaving the twins.

For the first three weeks, the campaign to find Madeleine ran at full tilt. All along, the Portuguese police had insisted the McCanns were not suspects.

The first tentative suggestion that the McCanns were being considered as anything other than victims of an appalling crime came just over a month ago.

Portuguese papers said Mrs McCann could have sedated the three children and that she might have concocted a smoke-screen to cover a fatal accident by pretending Madeleine had been abducted.

The theory has been sustained by an apparent drip-feed of information by the police.

On August 11, Mundo Real reported the McCanns might have "moved a dead body five weeks later in their hired Renault Scenic Car", a claim seemingly backed up now by forensic evidence.

There followed suggestions that sniffer dogs had picked up the "scent of death" on Mrs McCann's clothes. Then came the revelations that blood matching Madeleine's had been found in the boot of the hire car.

Just over a week ago, the McCanns felt compelled to launch a legal action against Portuguese newspaper Tal & Qual which made the most blatant claims of all - that Portuguese police now believed they had accidentally killed their daughter.

The couple's lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, said their image had been "dragged through the dirt" by "character-assassinating, tabloid-style" news reports.

Then, after weeks of damaging newspaper headlines, there came on Friday the astonishing announcement that the McCanns were being considered as "arguidos" or "official suspects".

The implications for the McCanns are tremendous. They have been sustained in Portugal by donations from worldwide well-wishers and already public opinion appears to be shifting, at least in Portugal.

Arriving at the police station in Praia da Luz for further questioning by police, Kate McCann was greeted by a large crowd. The sympathy was gone, replaced by jeers and boos.