Kate's grief was not fake - witness

The witness, who was present in Praia Da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, said it was impossible Kate and Gerry McCann could have been "faking" their grief after finding Madeleine missing that night.

And the witness dismissed reports that Kate McCann had run back from the apartment where Madeleine had been sleeping screaming: "They've taken her."

Portuguese Police are said to have found the choice of words suspicious believing it could be possible evidence of a cover-up. But, speaking to the Evening Standard, the witness, who asked not to be named, claimed Mrs McCann had in fact said: "Madeleine's gone, Madeleine's gone."

The witness added that Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry's had been so visibly horrified that it was impossible they could have been acting.

The source also revealed police had never put the suggestion that the McCanns' reactions might not have been genuine to the seven friends they had been dining with before declaring the couple to be suspects.

"It is farcical that detectives could even make Kate and Gerry suspects without speaking to witnesses at the time," the source said. "Throughout all of this the police have never come back and asked eyewitnesses whether they could be faking it."

The account of the events of the night Madeleine disappeared emerged as fresh doubts were raised about the direction of the Portuguese investigation.

Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias on Thursday quoted a source close to the lead prosecutor in the case as saying it had reached an "impasse phase".

On Thursday night Luis Bilro Verao, a prosecutor sent by Portugal's attorney general to handle the case, announced that no new evidence had yet emerged to justify questioning the couple again. The couple also took comfort from his disclosure that other lines of inquiry - apart from the McCanns - are not to be ruled out by detectives and no new bail conditions are to be imposed.