Now Portuguese author claims Madeleine and the twins were NEVER in holiday apartment

A Portuguese journalist has written a book blaming Kate and Gerry McCann for the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.

In yet another attack on the British couple by the Portuguese media, "A culpa dos McCann" (The guilt of the McCanns) opens with the lines: "This story did not begin in the Ocean Club, but in London where the official truth was conspired and established: an English girl was kidnapped in the Algarve."

The author, Manuel Catarino, editorial chief of Correio da Manha then goes on to accuse Kate McCann of failing to report Madeleine's disappearance to Portuguese police, then pretending she had done so.

He also claims the McCanns holiday apartment showed no signs of having had children in it.

"Pamela Fenn offered herself immediately to call GNR (Portuguese police).

"Kate thanked her — but said it was not necessary because she'd already called them. Maddie's mother didn't say the truth.

"The first phone call to the Guard was made by a Tapas waiter at around 22:40 — more than half an hour after Kate noticed her daughter was missing. The first patrol arrived at 23:00 sharp." Later, the author states "The apartment didn't look like a holiday location where three children jump up and down all day.

"The sofas didn't have a single wrinkle and the chairs were milimetrically aligned. There wasn't a piece of clothing out of place, not even a toy in sight. Only the furry Cuddly bear.

"The kitchen was spotless, without the slightest trace of remains of the children's milk or baby food."

The books' publisher said today: "The characters of the book are real, the related facts are precise, and the descriptions are accurate.

Scroll down for more...

"All the steps of the investigation appear in this essential document that constitutes an invaluable vision about a colossal web of information, manoeuvres, certainties and conjectures that continue to feed the media around the world."

The McCanns spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, denied the allegations and said their lawyers would examine its contents closely.

He said: "The very title of this book is a lie and its contents an utter fabrication.

"You can imagine the sort of pain and anguish that this sort of rubbish brings Kate and Gerry.

"If people are seeking to capitalise on their suffering in the run up to Christmas then that is a matter for them and their conscience."

Meanwhile, it has also been claimed police in Portugal rushed to make Madeleine McCann's parents official suspects to beat a change in the law.

Eight days after Kate and Gerry McCann were declared "arguidos" in their daughter's disappearance, a penal code was brought in which demands credible evidence before someone can be made a formal suspect.

Yesterday, the McCanns' lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, suggested police had deliberately acted to avoid the new legal requirements - and friends of the couple accused officers of a smear campaign.

Fernando Pinto Monteiro, Portugal's attorney-general, also admitted that he did not know whether the couple would have been made suspects in light of the code, which came in on September 15.

"The law did not demand justified suspicions at the time in which they were made arguidos," he said.

Mr de Abreu said: "After September 15, a new procedural penal code was introduced making it necessary for there to be evidence against the citizen to make him an arguido.

"Before September 15, it wasn't necessary. You could be made an arguido without any suspicions or evidence against you.

"Now to constitute anybody as an arguido, it is necessary to have evidence in the file.

"That's why the national public prosecutor said that if this inquiry was launched now, maybe they would not have been made arguidos.

"Maybe that's why the inquiry happened then, why they were made arguidos eight days before the new laws came in."

The McCanns were declared suspects at a time when police were under increasing criticism.

Scroll down for more...

The Policia Judiciaria claimed that forensic evidence proved Madeleine came to harm in her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

But experts at the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham have since thrown doubt on this theory, saying the DNA samples were inconclusive.

Now Portuguese investigators are analysing mobile phone records of calls in the resort before and after the four-year-old disappeared in May.

Child protection expert Mark Williams-Thomas said: "Although not initially analysed, it has now been and will provide vital information about mobile phone usage in and around Praia."

Under Portuguese law, a person can be arrested only if he or she has first been given arguido status.

Arguidos can be taken before a judge for restrictions to be placed on their movements, including house arrest.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said yesterday: 'Being declared arguidos almost three months ago caused the McCanns immense anguish and continues to do so.

"To think they could have been saved that under a law introduced only days later makes a mockery of the case against them.

"They are entirely innocent victims of a horrible crime that has taken away their daughter and they want to be cleared as soon as possible so the focus can return to finding Madeleine.

"If it is true that changes to the law would have meant that they would not have been made arguidos, that's all the more reason for their status to be dropped now."