Portuguese police deny leak claim

Portugal's Policia Judiciaria (PJ) issued a rare public statement singling out the couple's spokesman Clarence Mitchell, who last week angrily demanded an inquiry into how transcripts of their statements to detectives came into the public domain.

Damaging excerpts from the couple's first police interviews were broadcast on Spanish television on the day the couple went to Brussels to launch a bid to introduce a new EU-wide child alert system.

Mr Mitchell suggested the transcripts had been deliberately leaked to overshadow the visit.

The leak also emerged as Portuguese detectives were in the UK attending interviews with witnesses who were dining with the McCanns in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 last year when Madeleine went missing.

"The Policia Judiciaria regrets the baseless intervention of the spokesman above all at a moment when significant moves were being made in the investigation," the statement said.

The statement said: "At the end of last week, the Spanish television station Telecinco broadcast a news piece saying that it had exclusive access to alleged declarations by the McCann couple to 'investigators' looking into the disappearance of Madeleine.

"On the basis of this news, the spokesman for the couple Clarence Mitchell, publicly expressed the view, to diverse media outlets, his certainty that the PJ was responsible for the leaks.

"The PJ want to make it clear that it is entirely false that the contents of this report included material from the inquiry which is covered by (the law of) secrecy of justice.

"On the other hand, the Policia Judiciaria regrets the baseless intervention of the spokesman above all at a moment when significant moves were being made in the investigation."