Madeleine's father: 'Abductor was hiding in apartment while I checked on her'

Madeleine McCann: Missing since May 3rd

Mr McCann has told friends he believes the kidnapper was already there when he looked in on Madeleine and their two-year-old twins.

The McCanns, who remain suspects in the investigation, now believe the kidnapper got in through unlocked patio doors and left carrying Madeleine through a bedroom window at the front of the ground-floor apartment.

The girl's parents are convinced Madeleine was being watched during the course of their week-long holiday in the Algarve. She went missing on the sixth day of their break and they are convinced she was stolen to order.

The Standard can also reveal for the first time today that Kate McCann first realised something was wrong when she went to open the bedroom door to check on her daughter at 10pm.

She said a blast of wind from the open window in the bedroom caused the door to slam shut as she held it. Discovering that Madeleine was not in her bed, she then frantically searched the apartment three times - spending as much as 10 minutes doing so - before racing out screaming: "Madeleine's gone, Madeleine's gone."

The girl was six days short of her fourth birthday when she went missing.

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The McCanns now believe the abductor got in the apartment more than an hour before the alarm was raised, according to the Evening Standard.

Mr McCann checked on the children at 9.05pm and saw Madeleine asleep in her bed with the twins Sean and Amelie in cots beside her.

But the door to the bedroom was open and although Mr McCann thought nothing of it at the time, he is now certain he had previously shut it.

Mr McCann is convinced the girl's abductor must have opened it and then hidden in either the bathroom or the McCanns' bedroom when he heard him approaching through patio doors at the rear of the apartment.

A source close to the family today told the Standard: "When Gerry went to check on Madeleine he realised the bedroom door was open. Gerry is firmly of the view the abductor was already in the apartment.

"When he went in he saw Madeleine was asleep but the bedroom door was slightly open. He thought, 'That is odd' because he had left it firmly closed. But all the children were asleep. So he just went in and closed the door again and came out at about 9.10pm.

"Gerry is convinced the man must have been hiding and once Gerry went out through the patio doors the only way out for the abductor was through the window.

"The front door was locked so the kidnapper took Madeleine and climbed out of the window.

"The theory is the man came in through the patio doors, knowing he has a few minutes until the McCanns' next check. The rear doors are out of sight from the tapas bar where the McCanns and their friends are eating.

"The abductor goes in and he hides and when Gerry goes into the bedroom, he just thinks he didn't close the bedroom door properly.

"When Gerry leaves, the man realises he only has a few minutes. He thinks the only way to get out without being seen is through the window."

Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist, and his wife, a GP, returned to Rothley in Leicestershire after being named official suspects.

They have now begun a fight to clear their name and last night announced they have hired a new Portuguese lawyer, Rogerio Alves, described as the finest defence lawyer in the Iberian peninsula, to handle the case alongside their existing attorney Carlos Pinto de Abreu.