Brit tourist spotted

By Lucy Turner  29/09/2007

A british tourist seen "hiding" in a stairwell outside Madeleine McCann's apartment on the night she disappeared was being investigated last night.

The new suspect, stocky and wearing two-tone glasses, was spotted by an Ocean Club worker just 12 metres from the flat. The employee, who did not want to be named, exclusively told the Mirror: "I'll never forget him.

"It was around 6pm on the day the little girl went missing. I saw this Englishman standing under the stairwell.

"He was round-faced and stocky, wearing light clothes and positioned so that he was monitoring the car park area, stairs and elevator. He was hiding and watching what was going on. I didn't see him at first. I was collecting some linen, bent down to pick it up and nearly bumped into him.

After Madeleine vanished from the Ocean Club later on May 3 the witness was interviewed routinely by police.

But he said a young officer seemed uninterested in what he had to say. Later, detectives arrived at his home and insisted he be re-interviewed.

He was taken to the police HQ in Portimao and asked to go through photographs. It is believed he managed to identify the suspect.

Speaking to the Mirror before his interview, he said: "They showed me lots of pictures and I pointed out the person I thought it was. I've been told not to say any more about it." Asked by the Mirror why he had not pressured police to take notice of his statement from the start, he said: "I was too scared."

The worker said he discovered the suspect was British when he spotted him a few days later.

Yesterday he refused to speak any further, stressing he had been warned not to talk about the investigation.