Madeleine: Boatman spotted 'kicking something in the middle of the night'

•Portuguese papers claim Kate McCann killed Madeleine while Gerry played tennis

•Couple 'then hid the child's body in a fridge and later disposed of it in Spain'

•British tourist seen 'hiding' in a stairwell outside the McCann's appartment

A mystery boatman was seen kicking at something in the middle of the night two days after Madeleine McCann disappeared, detectives have been told.

Former Mark Warner nanny Charlotte Pennington said she spotted the man in a small dinghy just off the Praia da Luz seafront at 11.30pm. She claims he was kicking at an object stored in the boat's hull.

When she moved closer to investigate, the man - whose name she has given to Portuguese and British police - stooped out of sight then hurriedly rowed away.

Portuguese police are taking the sightings seriously and Miss Pennington, 20, has twice spoken to Leicestershire detectives about her evidence.

She was working in the Ocean Club's creche on May 3, the night Madeleine disappeared. She is the only person to have given a full, public description of the events of that evening.

She told police how she heard Kate McCann scream: "They've taken her" on the night of May 3, when Madeleine vanished, and that she saw the first official suspect Robert Murat standing outside the Ocean Club that night.

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Yesterday Miss Pennington said the man was wearing a reflective yellow jacket with a hood but she could not make out his face.

However the following day she was shocked to see a man - whom she had come to know over the preceding week - wearing exactly the same distinctive jacket as the man in the boat.

Miss Pennington's account potentially tallies with repeated suggestions that Madeleine was smuggled out of the Algarve on board a boat, or that her body was dumped at sea.

Reports today meanwhile suggest a british tourist seen 'hiding' in a stairwell outside the McCann's appartment the night Madeleine went missing is being investigated by police.

An employee at the Ocean Club resort spotted the stocky man in glasses just twelve metres from the flat. The worker told the Daily Mirror: "It was around 6pm on the day the little girl went missing.

"I saw this Englishman standing under the stairwell.

"He was round-faced and stocky, wearing light clothes and positioned so that he was monitoring the car park area, stairs and elevator. He was hiding and watching what was going on. I didn't see him at first. I was collecting some linen, bent down to pick it up and nearly bumped into him.

"We gave each other a big fright and both jumped back. We moved aside for each other. But he didn't move away."

The witness was later interviewed by police, who said they seemed uninterested in his story, but later detectives re-interviewed him. The worker was shown a series of pictures and he pointed out who he thought the person was.

Police are understood to be investigating his claims further.