Maddy probe suspicion left me in despair

Sergey Malinka, 33, says it will include claims about “blackmail and bribery” and give details of threats made against him.

At one stage he became so depressed he was pushed to the “edge of despair”.

After Portuguese police interviewed him, his Audi car was firebombed and the word Fala – which means speak in English – was scrawled in red paint outside his apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

Pressure on him became so intense that he moved away from the area for a time because he feared for his safety.

But now that his partner is pregnant he wants to set the record straight with a book which, he hopes, will finally lift any cloud of suspicion.

Portuguese police interviewed him after they discovered there was a missed call to his phone from a local businessman at about 11.30pm on May 3, 2007 – about an hour and a half after Kate McCann had raised the alarm over the disappearance of Madeleine, then aged three, from apartment 5a of the resort’s Ocean Club.

Mr Malinka’s computers were seized but after lengthy investigations he was cleared and his arguido status was lifted.

The impact of being wrongly suspected has hung over him for a decade and has affected his business and personal life.

Mr Malinka said: “I was 22 years old when it happened, a young man alone in a foreign country."

“The shadow of this horrible event continues to disturb my future.

“I was forced into false statements and accusations concerning her disappearance. I’ve lost everything – jobs, friends and hope.

“I have been driven to the point of dejection, being involved in a web of lies, betrayals and threats. The deceits of others have driven me to the edge of despair, sometimes to the point of no return, but time heals even the deepest wounds.

“Now I am trying to rebuild my life from the wreckage left by this event. Ten years later I am about to become a father for the first time. My family is my life. I will no longer allow the lies of others to poison our future.”

Mr Malinka says he was slandered in media reports and wrong information was published about him.

His book, Collateral Damage, contains a lot of “sensitive” information about a very “difficult and painful” time in his life.

He added: “You will find out the most revealing details about my story – all the difficulties, the bribing, the threatening, the blackmailers, the defamation and just general aggravation from the public.”

Mr Malinka moved to Portugal in 2000 with his father, a carpenter, and his mother Svetlana, a cleaner, and now runs a property company on the Algarve.

During police interviews he said he was at home with his family when Madeleine disappeared and knew nothing about it.

British author David S. Jones, joint creator of the Fireman Sam children’s television series, helped Mr Malinka write the book, which is due to be published next year.

Mr Jones lives in Luz and as a teenager Mr Malinka worked in a restaurant he owns there.

Explaining why he got involved in the project, Mr Jones said: “Out of the blue he got himself involved in the McCann situation through no fault of his own.

“He got embroiled in the whole thing. A lot of bad things happened to him and it was very wrong.

“He came to me and asked if I would work with him, co-author a book he wants to write to let people know the truth about what happened. He wants his child to grow up not being named and blamed as the child of the Russian guy who was involved in the McCann saga.

“I think when you read the book you are going to be able to draw your own conclusions as to what happened to this guy and how wrong it was. Let’s see if he can go forward with his family and have a normal life.”