Social workers can decide to take the twins into care · 2007-09-14 13:15
The McCanns had invited child protection experts to their Leicestershire home after being warned that officials would want to visit to check that their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, were being properly cared for.
But officials stressed it was standard practice in such cases. Social workers can in theory decide to take children into care or place them on the "at need" or "at risk" registers.
It is understood relatives will step in to look after the twins if the couple are called back to the Algarve in the next few days to face further questioning, Telegraph.co.uk reports.
Gerry's sister, Philomena McCann said, Kate McCann was terrified the twins might be taken.
There were further damaging reports in the Portuguese press on Thursday. Mrs McCann was portrayed as a woman who struggled to cope with her "hysterical" children.
There were also claims that body fluids found in the boot of the car hired by the McCanns 25 days after their daughter disappeared showed traces of a "heavy" dose of sleeping pills.
Portuguese sources said toxicology tests on the fluid "prove the little girl had ingested medicine, without doubt sleeping pills, in large quantities."
Detectives in Portugal are working on the theory that Kate McCann may have killed her daughter by accident and asked her husband to help cover it up. This couple dismiss this theory as "ludicrous", informed.
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