Madeleine McCann was kidnapped in 2007

INVESTIGATORS working for Kate and Gerry McCann are trying to discover if a Portuguese lorry driver facing prosecution for child kidnapping is linked to the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.

They are looking into whether the 34-year-old accused of kidnapping an 11-year-old Portuguese boy was in Praia da Luz, on the Algarve, when Madeleine vanished nearly four years ago.

Rui Pedro Teixeira Mendonca vanished from his home town of Lousado, near Porto in the north of the country, in March 1998. Detectives believe he was kidnapped while walking home from school and taken to a prostitute who was paid to have sex with him.

Shortly after he was snatched there was also an unconfirmed sighting of the boy at Disneyland in Paris with a middle-aged man, suggesting he could have been moved around Europe by a paedophile gang.

In 2001 his mother was flown to Switzerland to see if a child sex video seized in that country contained footage of her son.

A breakthrough in the case was made when the prostitute allegedly confessed that she had been with the boy. She confirmed the suspect was seen with Rui Pedro on the day he vanished.

 Former British detectives working as private investigators for Kate and Gerry McCann will now try to discover the movements of the suspect over the past 13 years. The Sunday Express knows the identity of the man, but cannot name him for legal reasons. It is understood he travelled extensively around Portugal.

Dave Edgar, the McCann's main investigator, is keen to know if he has ever visited the Algarve, and in particular the resort from where Madeleine was kidnapped in May, 2007.

The man lived in Lousada but moved away after the disappearance of Rui Pedro and is believed to be married with a small child.

Detectives have passed a file on the case to a court for prosecution on child kidnapping. It is expected the suspect will be arrested and questioned in the coming weeks. In the past Rui Pedro's mother Filomena has sent several messages of support to Kate and Gerry McCann. Pictures of both missing children appear on a missing persons' website in Portugal.

After Madeleine disappeared, Filomena said: 'When I saw the news about the disappearance of the English girl I was terrified. I immediately thought of my son, even though the cases are different, and I thought of Madeleine's parents, the anguish they are suffering.'

Three years ago the suspect, who admits being with the boy on the day he disappeared, said: 'As far as Rui Pedro is concerned, the thing I want most in the world is that he appears.

'I never denied being with him. But I never saw him again after we parted company that day and I haven't a clue what happened to him.'