A book called "Maddie - The Truth of the Lie" is going on sale in Portugal today, with claims from its author that someone who was there on the night Madeleine McCann vanished is hiding the truth. Former police chief Goncalo Amaral, who wrote the 224-page book, insists Madeleine is dead and believes she died in the apartment where the family were staying.
He criticises the McCanns, their friends, Gordon Brown and the British police.
Mr Amaral was in charge when Kate and Gerry McCann were made arguidos, or official suspects, so readers may question his agenda. He was later removed from the case after speaking out against UK officers and he then retired.
In the book, he accuses the McCanns of neglecting their children and questions why they needed a professional spokesperson. Why was their public image so important to them?
They and their friends, he writes, gave conflicting statements of who did what and when during their meal on the fateful night. And he questions how one friend, Jane Tanner, could have noticed such detail of the suspect she says she saw carrying a child near the apartment.
Mr Amaral also attacks Gordon Brown for trying to influence the investigation to the benefit of the McCanns. He says British police were slow to provide information asked for and took six months to pass on a potentially vital witness statement. A request for Madeleine's medical records was ignored, he writes. (Sky News Thursday 24th July 2008)
