Madeleine leads not followed up

New details about the Portuguese police enquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann show potential leads that were not followed up.

The Portuguese authorities released the police files on Monday after lifting the period of judicial secrecy in the case.

They reveal that a Dutch shopkeeper said a little girl aged three or four came into her party store with a man, woman, and two other children, according to a witness statement to Dutch police.

Anna Stam said she spoke to the girl, who called herself "Maddy", and replied to a question about her mother: "They took me from my holiday."

The man she was with - who "did not look like a nice person" - appeared to be speaking Portuguese but the woman spoke in English and told Ms Stam they had a small circus in France.

Ms Stam was at the back of the shop when the young girl approached her and asked in English without an accent: "Do you know where my mummy is?"

The shop assistant answered that her mother was a little further back in the store but the child replied, "She is not my mummy," and added: "She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy."

She said the girl had dark brown hair in a ponytail, "huge" green-brown eyes and a pale face which showed "little or no emotion".

The report was sent to the Portuguese authorities on June 18 last year but it is not clear what action was taken.

Meanwhile, e-fits of suspicious men seen hanging around Praia da Luz before Madeleine went missing were drawn up but never made public.

Two computer images of potential suspects were created based on eyewitness accounts on May 6, 2007, three days after she vanished.

Derek Flack, from Ilford, east London, was staying in his holiday home in Praia da Luz in early May last year.

While out for a walk with his partner he saw a suspicious man gazing towards the Ocean Club complex, where Madeleine and her family were staying at the time.

A report in the Portuguese police file states: "He then realised the man was staring fixedly at the area in question, very focused on what he was doing, and did not notice Flack's presence."

The man was white, tanned and apparently aged between 25 and 35, and Mr Flack was convinced he was not a tourist.

Another witness, British ex-pat Lance Purser said he had seen someone similar in the area several times, about a fortnight before Madeleine disappeared.

The man he saw was scruffy, aged 35 to 40, thin, and usually dressed in dark clothes.

The Portuguese police report based on his interview reads: "(Mr Purser) said he thought the individual looked like he could have some slight psychological problems, from his appearance."

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.

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