DETECTIVES are to quiz a drifter who looks uncannily like a mystery suspect in Maddie McCann’s disappearance.
Joaquim Agostinho, 42, denies he is the creepy man depicted in a sketch issued by parents Kate and Gerry McCann.
 

But Metodo 3, the Spanish private investigators hired by the McCanns, are taking the possibility seriously.

The artist’s impression was based on a description by tourist Gail Cooper of a man she saw lurking near kids in Praia da Luz, Portugal, before Maddie, four, disappeared.

A source close to Metodo 3 said: “We are going to be talking to this man as a priority, to establish if he is the one Mrs Cooper saw.”

When shown a photo of Agostinho, Gail, 50, of Newark, Notts, gasped: “He’s the spitting image of the man I saw three times at the resort. It’s deeply shocking to see my drawing come to life.”

Unkempt Agostinho lives on disability benefit in Altura, 87 miles east of Praia da Luz.

He said: “People will claim the crazy guy is me — but I don’t even know where that Praia da Luz place is.
“I’ve never been there. I can’t even drive. I accept the drawing looks like me. But I did not kill Madeleine and the police haven’t spoken to me.”

Sinister ... face of the man seen in Praia da Luz

Cops now accept Kate and Gerry, both 39, may be innocent in Maddie’s disappearance, it has emerged.

They have so far clung to just one theory — that Maddie was accidentally killed and her parents disposed of her body.
Now they are taking seriously the alternative that she was snatched from the holiday apartment last May — which Kate and Gerry have always insisted must have happened.

But detectives are not ready to climb down and clear the couple as official suspects yet.
A source said: “Everything points to accidental death. But the possibility of abduction has again been taken up.”
A source close to the McCanns, of Rothley, Leics, said: “They have been baffled by attempts to blame them.”