Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have re-interviewed Robert Murat, the British expatriate who was first questioned by police when the three-year-old went missing in 2007.
Murat arrived at Faro police station in the Algarve in Portugal shortly after 9am on Wednesday to be interviewed by British and Portuguese police.
He arrived in an unmarked police vehicle accompanied by his wife, Michaela Walczuch, who is also due to be questioned, his lawyer and a detective.
Murat is being treated as a witness detectives want to speak to after Scotland Yard reopened its investigation into the case. He is among 10 men and women who are being interviewed this week under Operation Grange, the renewed investigation launched in 2011 following a request by David Cameron.
Sources close to the investigation said on Tuesday night that an 11th witness, who is resident in the Algarve, would be interviewed in Britain at a later date.
Robert Murat, an IT consultant, was the first person to be declared a suspect during the high profile police search for Madeleine seven years ago. He was never arrested and he later won several hundreds of thousands of pounds in libel damages from British newspapers.
Speaking to the Guardian last month, Murat said he was happy to cooperate with the police inquiry. “My conscience is clear and I have no problem speaking to police again,” he said.
In interviews lasting over six hours on Tuesday investigators questioned three men, including a former worker at the Ocean Club hotel, where Madeleine was staying with her parents, Kate and Gerry, when she disappeared.
Operation Grange is being led by DCI Andy Redwood, who announced last week that he is retiring from the Metropolitan police on 22 December and handing control of the investigation to DCI Nicola Wall, of the Homicide and Major Crime Command.
