WITNESSES who say they saw suspect Robert Murat outside Madeleine McCann's apartment on the night she vanished may have named the wrong man.

The 34-year-old ex-pat has always denied claims that he was just yards from the flat where the little girl was last seen – and now police believe he could be telling the truth.

Detectives think Murat could have been mistaken for one of the McCanns' friends, 41-year-old medical researcher David Payne.

And they say witnesses who claim to have seen Murat actually spotted Mr Payne out searching for the missing four-year-old.

Mr Murat insists he never left his mum's villa 150 yards away from the holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, that night. A source close to the investigation said: "The similarity between the two has rendered many witnesses' accounts virtually worthless." But he added: "What is baffling is that Mr Payne's own wife and two of his friends are among those who claim to have seen Mr Murat outside the McCanns' apartment that night. Mrs Payne may not have known Mr Murat well but you'd think a wife would recognise her own husband."

SCREENSHOT

Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39, the Paynes and five more of their friends on the ill-fated holiday in May are due to be re-interviewed by British detectives.

The couple's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We are confident the accounts of eyewitnesses . . . were given in good faith. It is for the police to determine the value of identification evidence."