New Madeleine suspect revealed in Channel 4 documentary

Retired British detectives believe five separate sightings of a suspicious man could hold the key to solving the mystery of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

Three witnesses saw an odd stranger looking at her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in the days before Madeleine went missing over two years ago.

The former policemen have put these previously-unreported accounts together with two better-known sightings of a man carrying a child away from the flat on the night Madeleine vanished.

Their theory, revealed in a new documentary to be broadcast on Channel 4 tonight, is that someone was watching the McCanns' apartment for up to a week before the little girl disappeared.

Kate McCann also speaks in the programme of her belief that the chances of finding Madeleine are now higher following a flurry of media appearances around the second anniversary of her daughter's vanishing.

She said: "I think we've achieved a lot in the last few weeks, so we're really hoping that somebody who's been sitting there knowing something will suddenly feel the courage and compassion to come forward."

Two retired UK police officers - former detective inspector Dave Edgar, 52, and former detective sergeant Arthur Cowley, 57 - are being employed by the McCanns to continue the search for Madeleine.

They have scoured thousands of pages from the official Portuguese case files, which were made public last July, looking for clues.

At the heart of tonight's documentary are reconstructions of the five sightings in Praia da Luz in the days leading up to May 3 2007, when Madeleine disappeared from her bed as her parents dined with friends nearby.

The first witness, a British tourist, was out walking with her daughter on the morning of April 29 when she saw a man acting suspiciously.

She said in her statement: "I grabbed my daughter's hand and pulled her towards me because for some reason he unnerved me."

The woman then saw the same man again, this time apparently watching the McCanns' apartment, at 3pm on the day before Madeleine went missing.

She said he was about 5ft 10ins tall, slim and wearing casual clothes, and described him as "very ugly" with pitted skin and a large nose.

The second witness was a 12-year-old girl who saw a man outside the balcony of the McCanns' holiday flat at about 8.15am on April 30.

She said: "My grandparents used to live in that apartment so I always look at it as I pass by.

"The man seemed to be looking at the balcony of the ground floor apartment."

The girl saw the man staring at the McCanns' flat again at lunchtime on the day before Madeleine disappeared.

The third witness identified by the detectives was a man from Cheshire who was walking with his partner at about 11.30am on May 2 or 3 when he saw a man.

He said in his police statement: "I paid particular attention to him because he appeared to be focused on watching the apartment block.

"As I walked past him, I looked at him and for a split second we had eye contact, but then he just carried on staring at the apartment."

Mr Edgar, who is from Northern Ireland, worked for the Royal Ulster Constabulary before joining Cheshire Police, where he was involved in the inquiries into the murders of father-of-three Garry Newlove and schoolgirl Shafilea Ahmed.

He said it was most likely that Madeleine was abducted by a lone individual with close links to Praia da Luz, but stressed that he did not believe she was snatched at random.

"In my experience random just doesn't happen - someone just doesn't go in, a passer-by, and pick up a child and take it. These things are planned," he said.

Referring to the witness accounts, he added: "There's three of exactly the same location.

"I don't know what the Portuguese authorities have done to eliminate these people from the inquiry. So we've got to presume that they haven't done it and go with that."

Mr Edgar went on: "This offence happened in Praia da Luz. It's a very self-contained resort, and that's where I think the answer is."

Mr Cowley spent 34 years with Merseyside Police, where he assisted with the James Bulger investigation.

He said: "For me it's quite simple. Whether it be a high profile murder or any investigation, it's a jigsaw puzzle and it's just a case of putting little pieces in."

The other two witnesses highlighted in the documentary are Jane Tanner, one of the so-called "Tapas Seven" who were on holiday with the McCanns when Madeleine disappeared, and Irish tourist Martin Smith.

Ms Tanner saw a man carrying a child across the road behind the McCanns' holiday flat at the approximate time when the little girl is thought to have gone missing.

She speaks in the documentary of how she continues to reproach herself for not doing something at the time.

"You're probably the one person that could have actually stopped it, and you think, oh what if," she said.

Mr Smith, from Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland, was also on holiday in Praia da Luz at the time.

At about 9.50pm on May 3 he and his family were walking up a road less than half a mile from the McCanns' apartment when he saw a man carrying a blonde girl of about four.

Mr Smith said in his police statement: "I thought they were father and daughter so I wasn't so suspicious... The man didn't look like a tourist. I can't explain why - it was probably from his clothes."

The McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, used a high-profile appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in the US on Monday night to release a computer-aged picture of how Madeleine may look now if she is still alive.

The couple's private investigators have received hundreds of phone calls since the programme was broadcast.

These include details of around 30 possible sightings of Madeleine, the bulk of them in the US and Latin America but a handful in Europe.

Having marked the second anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance on Sunday, the McCanns are now bracing themselves for her sixth birthday on Tuesday.

Cutting Edge: Madeleine Was Here will be shown on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight.