Police have denied any arrest has been made after reports of a man bragging at a party in Greater Manchester that he saw missing child Madeleine McCann alive only weeks ago.
The Mirror last week revealed that a man allegedly made claims to a barrister that he had met the child on a Mediterranean island and that Greater Manchester Police had arrested the man as well as seized computers from a private address.
It is believed that the man told the barrister the shocking claims at a party on August 17 in an upmarket area of Manchester, who then contacted police the following day.
Yet a Greater Manchester Police spokesman told MM that it was ‘not true’ that they had made any arrest in connection with the case. They refused to comment further on the matter.
Despite this, Scotland Yard have reopened the case into Madeleine’s disappearance from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007.
Kate and Gerry are preparing to appear on Crimewatch tonight at 9pm on BBC1 and are being kept updated on any developments.
The show will feature a new reconstruction of events, with Madeleine played by a three-year-old girl to be aired in the UK as well as in Holland and Germany.
Officers have spoken to around 442 people since investigations into Madeleine’s disappearance with the team identifying 41 people ‘of interest’ including carers, residents and workers at the resort.
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