The stepfather of missing six-year-old Kiesha Abrahams says police asked him to take them to the little girl's body.
Robert Smith told The Daily Telegraph homicide detectives had identified him as the key suspect in her disappearance.
"Absolutely, they think I did it," he said in today's paper.
He said investigators had "got tough" with him during a formal interview on Wednesday night.
"They said 'lead us to her body' and that sort of thing. It was pretty tough," Mr Smith said.
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But he denied hurting the little girl, saying "there was no way in the world" he could cause her harm.
Meanwhile, Fairfax newspapers reported that accusations between the missing girl's separated parents had boiled over.
Police said they were aware of allegations Christopher Weippeart pointed a gun at his daughter, her half-sister, Brianna, and her stepfather, Mr Smith, last month.
But a spokesman for Mr Weippeart said he was at Nepean Hospital at the time, having his toe amputated.
The involvement of NSW welfare agencies in Keisha's family life will be scrutinised by the public watchdog, as speculation into her wellbeing before her disappearance intensifies.
NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour said he would make inquiries into "relevant activities by key agencies" in the weeks leading up to the disappearance.
Kiesha, who was reported missing from her home at Mount Druitt in western Sydney on Sunday morning, is believed not to have been seen by anyone outside her immediate family since July 7.
