London - A convicted rapist was quizzed for six hours on Tuesday by detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Pig farmer Joaquim Jose Marques, who was twice interviewed by Portuguese police in the early stages of their bungled inquiry into the toddler’s disappearance, was questioned about his movements around the time Madeleine vanished from her Algarve holiday apartment.
Tuesday’s interview was led by Scotland Yard detectives, who are looking to question 11 men and women this week.
Marques, who is understood to have been ruled out of the original inquiry after giving an alibi, twice clashed with photographers outside a police station in Faro.
He was living with a British hairdresser girlfriend and their three-year-old daughter at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance in May 2007. It was reported that he was sentenced to five years in jail in 1996 for raping a British teenager in Praia da Luz in 1995.
Police also questioned Mario Marreiros, 48, a former laundryman at Ocean Club, the holiday resort Madeleine was staying at when she vanished. He has told police he saw a man lurking in a stairwell near the McCanns’ apartment 24 hours before she vanished.
A third unidentified man was also interviewed.
Daily Mail