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Police tried to secretly film McCanns in interviews - but forgot to turn sound on

From VANESSA ALLEN in Praia da Luz
Last updated at 18:26 26 October 2007

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Bungling detectives tried to secretly film Madeleine McCann's parents during their police interviews - but switched the volume off, it was revealed yesterday.

It was only when they tried to watch the video of the interrogations that they realised the sound had been accidentally switched off, a source close to the case said.

Detectives had to draft in lip-readers to discover what the McCanns were saying, uring the two days the McCanns were interrogated and made suspects.

"The filming was done in secret. the Evening Standard reported.

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Police made handwritten notes during the formal interviews but tried to use the covert filming to pick up what the McCanns said to their advisers at Portimao police station.

A source said: "The cameras were set up in the interview suite at Portimao during the two days the McCanns were interrogated and made suspects.

"The filming was done in secret. But when detectives went to examine the tapes afterwards they realised they hadn't picked up any sound.

"It then gets really farcical because they made an approach to lip readers to try and get the words to go with the visuals on the tape."

Portuguese police refused to comment on the claims. Police interviews are not routinely recorded in Portugal as they are in Britain.

Detectives instead take down statements line by line, prompting fears that the McCanns' evidence could be manipulated to implicate them in their daughter's disappearance.

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The allegation comes amid growing unease over the police conduct in the inquiry.

Today the McCanns, exasperated by the failings of police in Portugal to trace their missing daughter, released their own artist's impression of a man seen walking away from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, clutching a child, on the night Madeleine vanished in May.

The man was spotted by Jane Tanner, one of the McCanns' holiday companions, at 9.15pm ? 45 minutes before Mrs McCann discovered her daughter was missing.

The McCanns, both doctors from Leicestershire, were convinced they were being bugged during their stay in Portugal and were cautious about speaking over the telephone.

The investigation has prompted a huge row over the extent of bugging in Portugal with the country's attorney general complaining this week that it happens far too frequently and that his own phone may even be bugged.

Mrs McCann, interviewed for almost 15 hours over two days and with very little sleep in between, was accused during the interrogation of killing her three-year-old daughter, possibly in an accident, and then colluding with her husband to dispose of the body.

The couple deny the claim and insist Madeleine was abducted and may still be alive.

The case has raised serious issues over the treatment of paedophiles in Portugal with new laws only now planned to prevent convicted child sex offenders from working with children.

According to a Portuguese newspaper report today, the Policia Judiciaria detained 134 people suspected of sexually abusing children in the first nine months of the year, with child sex crimes trebling in the country in five years.

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Meanwhile, friends fear for 39-year-old Mrs McCann's health as the six-month anniversary of her daughter's disappearance nears.

They are concerned that she is fragile and falling into ?moments of total despair?.

A friend said she was in a ?much worse frame of mind? than her husband.