Mystery of Madeleine parents' secret emails 'intercepted by police'

They have spoken out after a Portuguese newspaper claimed police had 'intercepted' emails and phone calls between Kate and Gerry McCann and their friends.

These, the newspaper reported, provided 'decisive proof' that Madeleine was not kidnapped, but died in the family's holiday apartment in Portugal.

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Diario de Noticias, a respected national daily, said 'police sources' insisted the intercepted 'messages' were key evidence.

Other newspapers have already made a series of lurid and unsubstantiated claims about the McCanns.

Yesterday, stung by such claims, their friend Rachael Oldfield, a 36-year- old London recruitment consultant, suggested the police could be 'leaking' confidential information to the Press.

"I think there are some leaks coming from the police, but a lot of what I have read recently has been completely untrue," she said.

"Whether a journalist has had a bit of information and made the rest up, or the police are feeding some truth or untruths I just don't know."

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Another of the party, Dr Fiona Payne, said: "You cannot attach any significance to what is being reported (in the Portuguese press)."

Mrs Oldfield, who is married to doctor Matthew Oldfield and has a one-year-old daughter, said: "It is very hurtful and it is all rather ludicrous. But it is difficult to defend because the investigationand everything in it is confidential. We don't want to jeopardise the investigation in any way or Madeleine's life. We are a bit stuck, really."

The Oldfields were at dinner with the McCanns and the rest of their party, Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien from Exeter, Fiona and David Payne from Leicester and an unnamed woman, when Madeleine vanished from her bed in the holiday apartments in Praia da Luz on May 3.

The adults told police they had taken it in turns to check on their sleeping children, including Madeleine and her twoyearold twin brother and sister, in nearby apartments.

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In statements to the Policia Judiciaria investigators, which were leaked to Sol magazine, Mr McCann said he first checked his three children at 9.05pm and thought it 'strange' that the bedroom door was ajar. He checked the window and shutters, which were both closed, and left.

Jane Tanner said she took her turn ten minutes later and saw a darkhaired man carrying a child in his arms as she came back.

Minutes after her return, according to police statements, Matthew Oldfield checked the children and noticed nothing unusual.

Mrs McCann went at 10pm and said she found the apartment window open, heavy metal shutters raised and her daughter missing.

Police say there are discrepancies between the timings given by the McCann party and staff and other diners in the restaurant that night.

One Portuguese newspaper yesterday, which quoted 'police sources', said: "If everything happened as the English holidaymakers say, in terms of their checking the children, it would be almost impossible for a kidnap to have taken place."

Mrs Oldfield said: "There would only be a small window for somebody to do it (abduct Madeleine), but presumably if somebody had been watching our movements then it would have been possible."

The McCanns, who on Tuesday denied stories in the Portuguese press that implied they had 'accidentally' killed their daughter, spent an hour with detectives yesterday afternoon.

They learned that a possible sighting of Madeleine in a Belgian cafe had been largely discounted after tests on a drinking straw used by the little girl spotted showed the DNA of an adult male.