Maddy visited me in my sleep
Shattered Kate's 'vision'
Tormented Kate McCann claimed she was "visited" by her missing daughter, it was revealed last night.
Kate told her mother Susan Healy how little Madeleine came to her this week as she lay in bed.
Mrs Healy, 61, said: "She told me she was unable to sleep a couple of nights ago.
"I said, 'Did the twins wake you up?' Sometimes they get up and go into her bed. But she said, 'No, Madeleine came'."
Mrs Healy said her daughter, also mum to two-year-olds Sean and Amelie, was fighting to cope with Madeleine's disappearance.
She told ITV news: "Sometimes she will have periods where she's absolutely devastated, hysterical and bereft.
"This lasts only for a short period of time but it happens once or twice a day."
The day Madeleine vanished her dad Gerry asked a friend to check on Kate as she was alone with the children while he played tennis, sources said yesterday.
Pal David Payne was asked to "stick his head round the door to make sure Kate, 39, and the kids were all right".
Portuguese police are now suspicious the request may show Gerry thought Kate's mind was fragile.
They suspect she may have killed four-year-old Madeleine accidentally and her husband helped her cover it up.
It is a claim the couple, both doctors, strongly deny.
The source said: "David Payne saw Madeleine at around 6.30pm.
"He popped in because Gerry wanted to make sure Kate was OK. I expect it was said like, 'If you are heading back that way, see if Kate is all right'."
Gerry, 39, was in the middle of a 6pm tennis lesson at the Mark Warner Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on May 3 when Mr Payne, holidaying with them and other friends, walked past.
Mr Payne, 41, popped in and later told police all was well.
He was the last person outside the family to see Madeleine alive before she vanished.
Yesterday he said: "Kate is a fantastic mum. She can cope. She is a very able person."
Mr Payne, who has known the couple for at least five years, added: "I have never witnessed anything untoward."
Last night a friend said: "Gerry simply asked him to put his head round the door.
"He had no concerns about Kate coping.
"To suggest this casual remark implies he was worrying about Kate's ability to cope is absolute rot."
Mirror