London - The parents of Madeleine McCann returned to Britain Sunday vowing to continue the search for their missing daughter and rejecting Portuguese police allegations that they could be responsible for the "accidental killing" of the four-year-old. "As parents, we cannot give up on our daughter until we know what has happened. We have to keep doing everything to find her. Despite their being so much to say we are unable to do so, except to say this: we played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter," they said in a statement.
In a dramatic twist in the four-months investigations, police in Portimao, southern Portugal, Friday named Kate and Gerry McCann formal suspects, or arguidos, in the case.
The couple, both doctors, and both aged 39, touched down at East Midlands airport, near Sheffield in central Britain, at lunchtime Sunday, to return to their home town of Rothley, in the county of Leicestershire.
They said they left Portugal with the "full agreement" of the authorities. The couple described the events of the past few days "deeply disturbing" and appealed for privacy.
They were each carrying one of their 2-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, as they came off the easyJet flight from Faro, on the Algarve in southern Portugal.
Their rented apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz had been besieged by the world's press since last week's events, and the mood among the crowd had turned hostile towards the McCanns, who had launched an unprecedented worldwide campaign in their search for Madeleine since she disappeared on May 3.
The campaign, backed by popstars and businessmen, raised more than a million pounds (2 million dollars) and climaxed in a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.
But since last week, the investigations by Portuguese police have centred on DNA samples examined by forensic experts at a British government laboratory in Birmingham, which reportedly show that traces of Madeleine's blood were found both in the holiday apartment and in a Renault Scenic car the couple hired five weeks after the girl's disappearance.
According to British press reports, Portuguese detectives are working on the theory that Kate McCann was involved in the "accidental killing" of Madeleine - probably through sedatives to make her sleep - and that the couple then conspired to dispose of her body 25 days later.
The chief of criminal police in Faro, Guilhermino Encarnacao, told respected Lisbon daily Diario de Noticias that it was "increasingly likely" that Madeleine was dead, reports said.
The continuing police search would focus on the coastal area close to Praia da Luz, said the paper. British press reports said investigators had not ruled out that Madeleine had been "thrown into the sea."
Spokesmen for the McCanns and members of their family have described the allegations as ""preposterous" and said Kate and Gerry McCann were "loving and caring parents" who would never harm their children.
Portuguese law prohibits both the police and the McCann's to make public comments on the ongoing investigations. However, as formal suspects - a status that can hold for up to 10 months - the McCann's would be obliged to return to Portugal for further questioning if asked.
The status of "arguido", or "arguida" in the female case, enables investigators to ask detailed questions while giving the suspect the right to silence and legal representation.
Madeleine disappeared from her bed, in the room where her twin siblings were also sleeping, on the evening of May 3, while Kate and Gerry McCann were dining with friends in a nearby Tapas bar, as they did every night of their one-week holiday.
During their campaign, which had images of Madeleine flashed around the world and showed pictures of the pretty girl carrying the slogan "look into my eyes," the McCanns said they could not bear leaving Portugal "as a family of four when we came as a family of five."
But in the four months of her disappearance, absolutely no trace of Madeleine has been found, and numerous alleged sighting have proved fruitless. Due to Portuguese secrecy laws, the exact course of events on the night of May 3 remains unknown.
The McCann's said in British newspaper interviews Sunday that they feared they were being "set up" by the investigating authorities in Portugal.
"Police want me to lie - I'm being framed," Kate McCann told the Sunday Mirror in relation to her marathon questioning by police last week, during which she was also reportedly offered a reduced prison term of two years if she "confessed."
"Police don't want a murder in Portugal and all the publicity about them not having paedophile laws here, so they are blaming us," she said.
Gerry McCann said the couple's "worst nightmare keeps getting worse and worse."
He told the News of the World newspaper that Portuguese investigators were "looking for a quick end to the case" and were exploiting apparent discrepancies in accounts of what happened on the evening of May 3.
"In a system that you don't know and don't really trust it's incredibly frightening," said Gerry McCann.
