Kate McCann tells of angry outburst

Kate McCann said she felt she was being bullied by Portuguese police

Published: 10:13am, 9th May 2011
Updated: 1:24pm, 9th May 2011

Kate McCann has laid bare her shock and outrage after Portuguese police officials made her and husband Gerry suspects in the abduction of her daughter Madeleine.

The former doctor, 43, also reveals how she smashed a bed in frustration over their handling of the investigation and how detectives attempted to bully her into a murder confession.

In a personal account of the three-year-old's 2007 disappearance, Mrs McCann said she and her husband were appalled by the treatment they received from the Policia Judiciaria, especially in the early stages of the hunt.

Describing one police interrogation in an extract from the book Madeleine, released on Thursday, she said: "I felt I was being bullied, and I suppose I was.

"I assumed the tactics were deliberate - knock her off balance by telling her that her daughter is dead and get her to confess.

"On and on it went. They tried to convince me I'd had a blackout - 'a loss of memory episode', I think they called it. My denials, answers and pleas fell on deaf ears. This was their theory and they wanted to shoe horn me into it, end of story."

In another stinging criticism of the Portuguese authorities in the immediate aftermath of the abduction, she added: "I was appalled by the treatment we received. Officers walked past us as if we weren't there. Nobody asked how we were doing, whether we were okay. Our child had been stolen and I felt as if I didn't exist."

Mrs McCann also describes how she and her husband felt "completely alone" while searching for their daughter the day after her disappearance.

In another extract, serialised by The Sun, she said: "Nobody else, it seemed, was looking for Madeleine.

"The frustration and anger were reaching boiling point. I felt like a caged, demented animal. This was torture of the cruellest kind, Finally, I erupted. I began to scream, swear and lash out. I kicked an extra bed that had been brought into the apartment and smashed the end right off."