Maddie's dad blasts pill claims

2007-09-14 11:43

London - The father of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann labelled as "ludicrous" allegations in some newspapers that his daughter died of a sleeping pill overdose, in comments reported on Friday.

Several British dailies quoted a Portuguese prosecutor's report as alleging that body fluids found in the boot of a hire car "prove that the little girl had ingested medicines, without doubt sleeping pills, in large quantities".

But Gerry McCann, who has been made an official suspect in the case along with his wife Kate, dismissed the allegations - the latest leaked claims linking the couple to the alleged accidental death of their daughter.

"There are large craters in every one of these theories, in these just ludicrous accusations," he was cited by the Sun tabloid daily as telling friends.

"As far as Kate and I are concerned, there is no evidence to suggest that Madeleine is dead. We are 100% together on this, not one grain of suspicion about each other," he added.

Madeleine went missing from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3 as her parents ate an evening meal with friends at a nearby restaurant.

For the last four months, the McCanns based themselves in the resort and led a high-profile international campaign to find out what happened to her, focused on the theory that she was abducted.

But last week Portuguese police named the couple as formal suspects in the case.

Two days later they returned to Britain with their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

- AFP