Daily TelegraphNew Madeleine McCann suspect lookalike found By Martina Smit
Published: 12:21PM GMT 28 Jan 2008
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Sketch of Madeleine suspect and, right, Agostinho Agostinho, right, admits he resembles the man in the sketch
A Spanish loner who admits he resembles a sketch of a "scruffy" suspect in the search for Madeleine McCann has denied any involvement in the case.
In full: The Madeleine McCann investigation
Joaquim Agostinho, who lives in the small seaside town of Altura, a 90-minute drive from Praia da Luz where the four-year-old disappeared, said the Portuguese police have not yet interviewed him.
New images of Madeleine suspect
With his thick moustache, dark, straggly hair and protruding teeth, the 42-year-old bears an uncanny resemblance to a man in two sketches released by Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents.
Metodo 3, the Spanish private detective agency hired by the couple, drafted in an FBI-trained artist to compile the drawings based on a detailed description by Gail Cooper, a British holiday-maker.
When shown photos of Mr Agostinho, Mrs Coop, 50, told the News of the World: "He's the spitting image of the man I saw three times at the resort where Madeleine vanished.
"It's deeply shocking to see my drawing come to life."
Mrs Cooper told detectives she saw a "strange-looking man" loitering near the McCanns' holiday apartment on three separate occasions on the night Madeleine vanished.
Her account matched a description given by Jane Tanner, a friend of the McCanns, of a man carrying a child wearing the same pyjamas as Madeleine.
"I accept that the drawing looks like me," Mr Agostinho told reporters at an impromptu press conference in front of a bar in Altura. "All my friends have been laughing about it during the week saying how much it looks like me."
However, he added: "I did not kill Madeleine and I've never been to Praia da Luz.
"I don't drive a car so I couldn't possibly have done what people think. I did own a motorbike once but I lost it couple of years ago."
He added: "I have no money. I earn a little bit by delivering newspapers to people and for that they pay me with a drink of beer."
Portuguese police have already ruled out another man with a similar appearance to the sketches.
They have apparently interviewed the man - named locally as Joaquim Jose Marques, a pig farmer who lives eight miles from Praia da Luz - twice: three weeks after Madeleine went missing and again after the publication of the images earlier this month.
Mr Marques, who has dreadlocks and lives in Barao de Sao Jaoa, eight miles from Praia da Luz, has since been eliminated from the investigation.
Mrs Cooper said she was sure Mr Marques, who has dreadlocks, was not the man she saw. But she added: "This new man must be interviewed, if only because they need to rule him out of inquiries."
