It's 10 years today that Madeleine McCann was discovered missing from her bed in her family's holiday apartment in Praia Da Luz.

What followed has dominated the global news agenda for a decade as an £11 million police investigation with more than 500 lines of enquiry failed to provide answers.

Gerry and Kate McCann have spoken powerfully on the 10th anniversary of their daughter's disappearance, revealing they still buy presents for Maddie every birthday and Christmas in the hope a miracle could come true.

Their eldest daughter will be nearly 14 if she is still alive today and along her twin siblings Sean and Amelie - who were lying alongside her when she was last seen - they still dream of the day their family of four returns to a family of five.

The probe into the most high-profile missing person case in living memory has totalled 40,000 documents, 8,685 potential sightings, enquiries into 650 sex offenders, 560 lines of investigation and more than 60 'persons of interest'.

Gerry and Kate McCann have campaigned for 10 years to find Maddie (
Image:
PA)
The three-year-old pictured on the day she disappeared (
Image:
PA)

Here's how the case unfolded:

The night Maddie disappeared

  • 8.30pm - McCanns go for dinner

The McCanns were on holiday with a group of friends who met for dinner each night at a Tapas bar at the Ocean Club complex where they were staying.

Kate read a story to Maddie and her younger twin sisters Sean and Amelie before putting them to bed in the second bedroom of the two-bed apartment.

She pulled down the bedroom blinds before heading to the restaurant at around 8.30pm.

Maddie vanished from her family's holiday apartment at the Ocean Club complex (
Image:
Daily Mirror)

They were joined at the table by friends Matt and Rachel Oldfield and Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien.

Mr O'Brien left to check on his children at 9pm and shortly after three other friends - David and Fiona Payne and Dianne Webster - joined them at the table. The group would later be dubbed 'The Tapas 9' as details of the case spread around the world.

At around 9.05pm, Gerry McCann went to check on his children and saw all three asleep in their beds and cots, he left the door slightly ajar and returned to the bar.

Around 10 minutes later, Jane Tanner went to check on her children and made a sighting which would become the main thread of the investigation for years to come.

Gerry and Kate were dining at a nearby Tapas bar on the night (
Image:
Daily Mirror)

The long-haired man was seen carrying a child wearing similar light pink pyjamas to Madeleine but it wasn't until 2013 a fresh Scotland Yard probe concluded it was "almost certain" the man was a British tourist and not involved in any abduction.

At 9.30pm Mr Oldfield to check on the McCanns' and his own children. He listened at the door to check the McCanns weren't making any noise but did not go into the room.

Kate McCann got up to do the next check around half an hour later.

  • 10pm - Madeleine discovered missing

Kate told police as she was about to enter the children's bedroom, the door was caught by a draft and slammed shut.

In 2014, she told the BBC's Crimewatch programme: "It was only at that point that as I opened it a bit, I looked into the room and I was looking at Madeleine's bed and I couldn't make her out. It was then I realised she wasn't in that bed.

"I wondered if she'd woken up and gone into our bed, but she wasn't in our bed and that was the first time panic kicked in. It was literally at that point when the curtains, that were closed, went 'whoosh'.

The front door of Apartment 5A (
Image:
Daily Mirror)

"Then I could see that the window had been pushed right open and the shutters were up."

Kate ran back out to the restaurant, with witnesses telling police the mum-of-three screamed: "They've taken her, they've taken her".

The couple are said to have known immediately their daughter had been taken because her Cuddle Cat teddy was left on a ledge impossible for Madeleine to reach.

A nanny who looked after Maddie several times on the holiday told the Mirror how friends comforted Kate as Gerry began desperately searching the complex.

She said: "She was pacing up and down. The worst possible thing had just happened to her.

Police were called to the Ocean Club complex at 10.14pm (
Image:
Getty)

"She was crying, but almost in a catatonic state, and Gerry was very distressed. That's the one thing I really remember from him, looking under the cars. I can't forget that.

"We were told to start to start looking in bins in case her body was in there. It was at that point we realised this was serious."

  • 10.14pm - Police called (but scene not preserved)

The police were called at 10.14pm. The McCanns told officers they had put Maddie to bed wearing her short-sleeved Marks & Spencer Eeyore pyjamas with her favourite Cuddle Cat soft toy and a pink comfort blanket.

Witness reports vary, but two local police officers are believed to have finally arrived at the scene more than an hour later.

After a laboured questioning session involving a translator then call the Policia Judiciaria who investigate serious crimes.

Inside the McCann's holiday apartment (
Image:
PA)
Maddie was last seen sleeping alongside twins Sean and Amelie (
Image:
PA)

More shockingly, the apartment was not treated as a crime scene and around 20 people were allowed to wander in and out freely, potentially contaminating vital forensic evidence.

One former police officer described it as the "worst preserved crime scene" he had witnessed and the McCanns believe their report was not taken seriously - with officers appearing to believe Maddie had wandered off.

Roadblocks were not put in place until 10am the next day, Spanish border patrols - less than three hours' drive away also weren't informed until the next morning.

By this time, any kidnapper had been given ample time to flee.

McCanns questioned as Portuguese investigation stalled

The Portuguese police investigation got off to a woefully slow start and spent much of its early stages pursuing dead-ends.

Most notably, Gerry and Kate McCann were subjected to an 11-hour grilling under 'arguido' - or person of interest - status four months after Maddie's disappearance.

Kate refused to answer 48 questions put to her by police as she became frustrated by a lack of progress and a suspicion detectives were looking to pin Maddie's disappearance on her and her husband.

Twelve days after Maddie's disappearance 34-year-old British-Portuguese property consultant Robert Murat was named as the first 'arguido' - or person of interest - in the case.

Robert Murat

He was questioned by police, had his home searched, swimming pool drained and cars and computers seized.

There was nothing to link Murat to the disappearance and his arguido status was removed in July 2008 when Portuguese police closed their investigation.

In 2014, he was questioned as a witness by Operation Grange.

Weeks later Portuguese police files released after the closure of the initial investigation reveal how Gerry and Kate McCann were forced to face a gruelling 11-hour interrogation as officers appeared to try and force a confession out of the heartbroken parents.

The grilling came despite advice from British forensics experts that the DNA evidence found behind the holiday apartment sofa and the McCanns' Renault Scenic hire care was 'inconclusive' and 'flawed'.

Despite this, the couple were grilled over the DNA discoveries and asked if they were responsible for Maddie's disappearance.

Kate used her right to remain silent, speaking only once - and was accused by police of harming the search for her daughter.

She later said that she refused to co-operate because she thought the police treating her as a suspect was distracting them from the work they should have been doing to find Maddie.

Gerry and Kate with Sean and Amelie in 2007 (
Image:
AFP)
Gerry and Kate were questioned under arguido status (
Image:
Getty)

During the interrogation, police asked:

1 On May 3, 2007, around 22:00, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch

2 Did you search inside the master bedroom wardrobe

3 (Shown two photographs of her bedroom wardrobe) Can you describe its contents?

4 Why was the curtain by the sofa near the side window tampered with? Did someone go behind the sofa?

5 How long did your search of the apartment take after you detected Madeleine's disappearance?

6 Why did you say Madeleine had been abducted?

7 Assuming Madeleine was abducted, why did you leave the twins to go to the 'Tapas' and raise the alarm? The supposed abductor could still be in the apartment.

8 Why didn't you ask the twins then what happened to their sister or why didn't you ask them later on?

9 When you raised the alarm at the 'Tapas' what exactly did you say - what were your exact words?

10 What happened after you raised the alarm there?

Maddie's picture attached to the gate of Nossa Senhora da Luz in 2007 (
Image:
Reuters)

11 Why did you go and warn your friends instead of shouting from the verandah?

12 Who contacted the authorities?

13 Who took place in the searches?

14 Did anyone outside the group learn of her disappearance in those following minutes?

15 Did any neighbour offer you help?

16 What does "we let her down" mean?

17 Did Jane Tanner tell you that night she'd seen a man with a child?

18 How were the authorities contacted and which police force was alerted?

19 During the searches, with the police there, where did you search for Maddie, how and in what way?

20 Why did the twins not wake up during that search or when they were taken upstairs?

21 Who did you phone after the occurrence?

22 Did you call Sky News?

23 Did you know the danger of calling the media, because it could influence the abductor?

24 Did you ask for a priest?

25 By what means did you divulge Madeleine's features, by photographs or by any other means?

26 Is it true that during the searches you remained seated on Maddie's bed without moving?

27 What was your behaviour that night?

28 Did you manage to sleep?

29 Before travelling to Portugal, did you make any comment about a foreboding or a bad feeling?

30 What was Madeleine's behaviour like?

31 Did Maddie suffer from any illness or take any medication?

32 What was Madeleine's relationship like with her brother and sister?

33 What was Madeleine's relationship like with her brother and sister, friends and school mates?

34 As for your professional life, in how many and which hospitals have you worked?

35 What is your medical speciality?

36 Have you ever done shift work in any emergency services or other services?

37 Did you work every day?

38 At a certain point you stopped working, why?

39 Are the twins difficult to get to sleep? Are they restless and does that cause you uneasiness?

40 Is it true sometimes you despaired at your children's behaviour and it left you feeling very uneasy?

Inside the children's bedroom in Apartment 5A (
Image:
Daily Mirror)

41 Is it true that in England you even considered handing over Madeleine's custody to a relative?

42 In England, did you medicate your children? What type of medication?

43 In the case files, you were shown canine forensic testing films. After watching them, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had?

44 When the sniffer dog also marked human blood behind the sofa, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had?

45 When the sniffer dog marked the scent of corpse coming from the vehicle you hired a month after the disappearance, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had?

46 When human blood was marked in the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had?

47 When confronted with the results of Maddie's DNA, carried out in a British lab, collected from behind the sofa and the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn't explain any more than you already had?

48 Did you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter's disappearance?

The McCanns were questioned over their Renault Scenic hire car

The McCanns left Portugal on September 9, 2007 - two days after the appalling ordeal.

The national director of the Policia Judiciaria Alipio Ribeiro later publicly stated the police had been hasty in naming the McCanns as suspects and the investigation was closed with no evidence to link the Gerry and Kate to the disappearance.

The great red herring pursued by Portuguese police was the sighting by Jane Tanner - one of the 'Tapas Seven' - which became a defining image of the investigation and six years on was established by British detectives to be 'almost certainly' a red herring.

Mrs Tanner said she left the group's table at the tapas restaurant inside the Ocean Club complex to check on her children around an hour before it was discovered Madeleine had disappeared.

An e-fit based on the Jane Tanner sighting (
Image:
PA)

She said she noticed a man wearing a dark jacket and beige trousers walking away from the McCanns' apartment carrying a child in pyjamas similar to Maddie's.

Portuguese police released an artist's impression of the man and described him as a key suspect.

In 2013, British detectives under Operation Grange identified the man was in fact a British holidaymaker who had been carrying his own daughter.

Former Operation Grange head DCI Andy Redwood described it as a 'revelation moment' which shifted the focus of the investigation.

Three main theories emerged

Arguido status was dropped against the McCanns when the Portuguese police investigation was closed in July 2008.

When Operation Grange was tasked with re-visiting the investigation in 2011, three main theories emerged of how Maddie may have vanished as detectives spoke of their conviction the three-year-old had been taken as part of a criminal act.

  • 1. A burglary gone wrong

Former Operation Grange head DCI Andy Redwood championed a theory that Maddie had been kidnapped by thieves during a bungled burglary at the holiday flat.

There had been a fourfold increase in burglaries from the start of 2007 to the day the three-year-old went missing.

In the three weeks before Maddie's disappearance, windows were used to gain access to apartments in the Ocean Club complex and British detectives believed the toddler may have disturbed an intruder.

But Portugal's Policia Judiciaria made little secret of their dismissal of the theory.

Burglars were targeting the Ocean Club complex (
Image:
Sunday Mirror)

The burglary theory matched a line of enquiry over heroin addict Euclides Monteiro, a convicted burglar who died in a tractor accident in 2009.

Monteiro used to work as a waiter at the Ocean Club but was sacked for stealing tips a year before Madeleine disappeared.

He was working at a water and sewage plant half a mile away from where Madeleine vanished from the Ocean Club complex at the time of her disappearance.

In 2014, police searched the site behind the water plant with sniffer dogs but the search ultimately proved fruitless.

Police searching land near Praia da Luz in 2014 (
Image:
Reuters)
Euclides Monteiro (
Image:
Phil Harris)

Around the same time, four Portuguese men were questioned under arguido - or person of interest - status as detectives pursued the line that Maddie had been killed during a break-in and her body buried on waste ground nearby.

The arguido status of all four men has since been lifted.

Met Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley today described the burglary theory as a "sensible hypothesis" which has not been "entirely ruled out".

  • 2. Maddie was abducted by child traffickers

The child trafficking theory was first raised in late 2007 by private detectives who believed there could have been gang ‘spotters’ working in Praia da Luz.

They believed Maddie was hidden and handed over to a child trafficker two days after she went missing and taken to Morocco.

Investigators have told of fears the missing youngster was smuggled into Africa by slave traders who “snatched her to order” for a wealthy family.

Gangs operating in lawless Mauritania, West Africa, regularly sell youngsters to rich Middle Eastern families.

Ex-Scotland Yard detective Colin Sutton told the Mirror: “The Mauritania line is certainly a possibility and needs to be looked at.

Potential trafficking route into north Africa

“If someone wanted to get a three-year-old child into Africa it’s the obvious route.

"The infrastructure and contacts for people smuggling are clearly there.”

A girl “identical” to Madeleine was seen on a key trafficking route in Morocco, looking sad and asking the man with her: “Can we see Mummy soon?”

Roadblocks were not put in place until 10am the next day, Spanish border patrols - less than three hours' drive away also weren't informed until the next morning.

An e-fit based on the description made by Martin Smith (
Image:
PA)

By this time, any abductor had been given ample time to flee.

Irish couple Martin and Mary Smith reported seeing a man carrying a child on the night of the disappearance.

They gave a description to police and said they did not think he was a tourist.

They added that the man was walking towards the beach and the child looked to be uncomfortable at being carried.

A team of private detectives hired by Madeleine's Fund created an e-fit which was eventually released by Scotland Yard when they took over the investigation.

  • 3. Maddie was snatched by a paedophile

In 2014, Scotland Yard revealed they believed a serial paedophile had targeted young British girls in the Algarve in the years before Maddie went missing.

They include a serious sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl in Praia Da Luz in 2005, just two years before Maddie was snatched.

Convicted British paedophile Hewlett had been staying in a converted truck at a camping site near the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz in 2007.

Raymond Hewlett (
Image:
Neil Atkinson)

He died, aged 64, of cancer in Germany in 2010.

Hewlett was jailed three times in the UK for sex crimes against young girls in the 1970s and 1980s.

But he went to his grave refusing to speak to investigators probing Maddie's disappearance.

Retired Detective Inspector Dave Edgar, who led a three-year private investigation, said: "In terms of fitting the profile, Hewlett would probably come as close as you would get to a main suspect

But he added: “There was no hard and fast evidence because, if there had been, he would have been arrested. He was someone who we just wanted to speak to and look at."

Artists' impressions showed changing face of girl world refused to forget

As the investigation stalled, forensic experts used the latest digital 'age-progressing' techniques to create images of what Maddie may have looked like as she grew up.

Maddie was known to have an inoperable blemish in her right eye - which has sparked previous false sightings - but remains a key factor of artists' impressions

  • 2009 - Aged 6

An e-fit of Maddie produced in 2009

The first computer-generated image of Maddie was released around two years after her disappearance showing what she would look like as a six-year-old.

The image was first shown as Gerry and Kate McCann were interview by US chat show queen Oprah Winfrey in 2009.

She is depicted as confident-looking young schoolgirl looking back with a closed-mouth smile. She is wearing an Alice Band in her longer but still blonde straight hair, which has a similar fringe.

She wears a blue party dress with a white lace collar. Her right eye carries the familiar unique mark in the iris.

  • 2010 - Aged 7

A new artist's impression was created in 2010 (
Image:
Getty)
The image was adapted to show what Maddie would look like living in a different climate (
Image:
Getty)

The Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre released updated pictures showing how Maddie may have aged in a warmer climate as theories developed that she may have been smuggled overseas.

The digitally-enhanced pictures gave two version of how she may have aged in a cooler climate, or if she had been taken to North Africa as detectives probed whether her disappearance may have been linked to child trafficking.

The images were accompanied by a video message in seven different languages including English, Portuguese and Arabic as the search went global.

It followed concerns the previous artist's impression had been 'too American'.

  • 2012 - Aged 9

An artist's impression from 2012 (
Image:
Teri Blythe/Metropolitan Police/PA)
Gerry and Kate publicly backed the artist's impression (
Image:
Getty)

Scotland Yard released a fresh age-enhanced image in 2012 to coincide with Maddie's ninth birthday.

Gerry and Kate McCann helped create the image and were said to have been "pleased" with its likeness.

A spokesman said at the time: "Kate sees Madeleine in the image, and also sees Madeleine’s siblings Sean and Amelie and herself in it."

Kate is understood to want a new image created as she fears no-one would recognise the now-teenage Madeleine.

A friend of the couple told the Mirror last year: “It’s lengthy and costly but they are thinking about doing it again on advice from US forensic scientists.

"No one thought Madeleine would be missing so long and sometimes Kate worries the public won’t recognise her.

"Nine years is a long time. The only real tell-tale sign is the distinctive blemish in her right eye."

Global hunt sparked sightings around the globe

The global hunt to find Madeleine McCann has triggered more than 8,500 reported sightings across more than 100 countries in the last decade.

A Freedom of Information request to Metropolitan Police published in October last year found Operation Grange had collated 8,685 sightings in 101 countries and territories.

Sightings have spanned across the globe from Australia and Singapore to Mexico and the USA but the majority have been made in mainland Europe.

None have been confirmed but several have raised hopes - even if only temporarily - that Maddie may one day be found alive.

Hundreds of potential sightings have been reported (
Image:
PA)

High-profile sightings have been made across nine countries over the past decade:

  • 1. Spain

A holidaymaker claims he saw Madeleine McCann on board a flight from Ibiza to Munich in August 2012.

Tourist Frank Bode contacted British cops after he saw a little girl resembling the missing youngster with a German family on the holiday jet.

The 42-year-old managed to take a blurry photograph of the child, who he said was British and did not seem to fit with her family.

“My intuition told me that the girl, who was around seven to 10 years old, could be Madeleine,” Mr Bode told the Olive Press, an English newspaper published in Spain.

“She didn’t seem to fit with her family at all. Her father was clearly German, as were her two brothers, both around 10 to 12 years old, but her mother appeared to be British.”

Gerry and Kate McCann have been kept up to date with sightings (
Image:
PA)

He claims said the family all spoke German except for the little girl, who he claims he heard speaking English. The mother, he said, did not speak for the entire flight.

Spanish cops also swooped on a Costa del Sol holiday town in June 2012 after a “credible” tip-off.

Detectives were in Nerja after Portuguese officers were told by an informant that a girl with a “strong physical resemblance” to Madeleine had been spotted in the Spanish resort, near Malaga.

Another possible sighting of little girl who looked like Maddy was at a campsite on the Costa del Sol in May 2012.

Brit holidaymaker Karen Sisson told The Sun that the blonde girl, wearing a pink T-shirt, shorts and a beige hat, appeared "out of it" and out of place with the German couple she was staying with.

  • 2. India

Maddy was reported to have been seen in the Indian city of Leh in February 2012 after an elderly British woman spotted a youngster who looked very similar to her.

A French woman and a Belgian man who were with the girl insisted they were her parents but police took their passports for checking. They were later released.

The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “They have seen photographic evidence and concluded that it was not her.”

He said Kate and Gerry were grateful for the public’s vigilance.

  • 3. France

A student insisted she saw Madeleine McCann in a French cafe and said how the girl answered to her name and had the same eye mark.

Melissa Fiering, 18, spotted the little blonde girl with a dark-skinned man near Montpellier.

She said: "I know Madeleine's got a defect in her right iris and when I looked this girl had it too.

"I called her name and she looked up at me. I knew then it was definitely her."

Ms Fiering said how the man grabbed the girl and hurried away before she could stop him. She said: "I could hardly believe my eyes but I knew for sure it was Madeleine.

Maddie has a distinctive blemish on her eye (
Image:
PA)

"I called out her name and she looked up at me - she obviously recognised it.

"But when I called out 'Madeleine' the man she was with got worried and started dragging her away from the queue."

Melissa said the man was about 6ft, with black hair, a black leather jacket, several days growth of stubble and a small moustache.

  • 4. Morocco

In 2007 there were reports of around 10 separate sightings of a girl fitting Maddy's description in northern Morocco.

Three officers and an army of local informers were in the Rif mountains chasing reports a youngster has been spotted with a woman in her 60s.

In October, one woman reported that she had seen a girl matching Madeleine's description in a petrol station in Marrakech. She said the girl was 'sad' and was accompanied by a man in his late 30s.

At around the same time, a British tourist reported a possible sighting near the Marrakech Ibis hotel.

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Interpol discounted these sightings but officers from Leicestershire police stayed in Morocco for some days afterwards.

A Spanish tourist also saw a similar girl as she drove through Zaio in northern Morocco at the end of May.

Then, police again focused on Morocco in June, after GCHQ in Cheltenham picked up phone intercept messages in Arabic referring to "the little blonde girl", a German man, and a ferry from Tarifa in Spain.

There was another possible sighting in Zaio, one in Fnideq, a sighting in Zinat and one in Karia Ba Mohamed in October.

  • 5. Belgium

There were also two reported sightings in Belgium, on in May 2007 in Liège and the second in July in a café in Tongeren.

Witness Katleen Sampermans said that Madeleine was in the cafe in the company of a Dutch man and an English woman but the girl turned out to be the four-year-old daughter of a Belgian man.

Police searching Praia da Luz in 2014 (
Image:
Roland Leon / Daily Mirror)
  • 6. Bosnia and Herzegovina

An Irish tourist said they saw 'Maddy' in Međugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in November 2007.

The child was later found to be the three-year-old daughter of Slavko Dedić, a dentist from Ljubuški.

  • 7. Malta

There were at least five 'sightings' of Maddy in Valleta, Malta, in June 2007 on the island.

The total sightings had risen to 29 by 27 June but police investigations didn't produce results.

  • 8. Netherlands

There was a possible sighting in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in early May 2007 after witness Anna Stam reported to Dutch police that a girl aged three or four told her she was with a 'stranger' who had 'taken her from her mummy'.

Ms Stam said the girl, who resembled Madeleine, had come into her shop and told her she had been taken while she was on holiday.

She added that her name was "Maddy". Police drew a blank.

  • 9. Sweden

A picture of a girl who looked similar to Maddy was printed in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in October 2009.

The image was taken by the photographer who claimed that the girl only spoke English, but that she was accompanied by a man who spoke Swedish.

after 10 years of hoping, waiting, praying – every day – for a miracle, the McCanns have had to adapt from being a family of five to a family of four.

That doesn’t mean giving up on Madeleine. But, as they spell out so movingly today, it does mean giving twins Sean and Amelie – ­Madeleine’s beloved little playmates, now aged 12 – a happy and fulfilling life of their own.

The couple reveal they still live in hope of finding Madeleine, but do not hide the pain of the decade without her. Kate, 49, says: “It’s time we should have had with Madeleine. We should have been a family of five for all that time. It just feels stolen.”

Family still haven't given up hope

The McCanns hope their family of four will become a family of five again (
Image:
AFP)

In an interview to mark the 10th anniversary of Maddie's disappearance, Gerry and Kate spoke of their enduring hope that one day a sighting or a breakthrough in the investigation will give them the answers they've waited a decade for.

Gerry, now 48, said: “Before Madeleine was taken, we felt we had managed to achieve our little perfect nuclear family of five.

"We had that for a short period and, almost the same way as if your child becomes ill or seriously ill, or has died, like many other families have suffered... then your vision is altered and you have to adapt.

“You adapt and you have a new normality. Unfortunately for us a new normality is a family of four. But we have adapted, that’s important.”

A family portrait before Maddie's disappearance (
Image:
Spindrift)

Speaking about the twins, Kate said: “One of our goals – while obviously ultimately finding Madeleine – was to ensure Sean and Amelie have a very normal, happy and fulfilling life and we’ll do everything that we can to ensure that.

"Obviously massive events like this cause a lot of reaction, a lot of trauma and upset. But ultimately you have to keep going, especially when you have got other children involved.

“I do all the present buying. I obviously have to think about what age she is and something that, whenever we find her, will still be appropriate so there’s a lot of thought goes into it.

"But I couldn’t not, you know, she’s still our daughter, she’ll always be our daughter.

"Madeleine is part of our life, there’s photographs all round the house.

"Whether it be a birthday, family occasion or even an achievement or something, that is kind of when you really feel her absence.”

Maddie has been missing for 10 years today (
Image:
PA)

A former GP, she also reveals she has now returned to work, adding: “I am back into ­medicine, but a different area to my general ­practice.

"That was a big step to re-establish as normal a life as possible. Life’s busy. It keeps us going.”

The couple express fears for the twins and how they might be affected by online trolls who post vile slurs about the case.

Gerry, a hospital cardiologist, said: “We have been as open with them as we can. We have told them about things and people writing things that are untrue and they need to be aware of that.

Gerry and Kate revealed they still buy presents for Maddie (
Image:
PA)

"I don’t want to dwell on the negative aspects too long, but people just need to think twice before they write and the effect it has.

“I think we’ve seen the worst and the best of human nature and our experience, rather than on the internet, has been overwhelmingly seeing the better side of human nature.

“We’ve had fantastic support and because there’s a lot of attention now around the anniversary, we are starting to see that again.”

Of Wednesday, 10 years since Madeleine went missing, Kate says: “Every day is another day, without Madeleine.

"That 10-year mark makes it more significant. I think we’ll get by as any other year really, surrounded by family and friends, remembering Madeleine, as we always have.”

Gerry and Kate spoke to mark the 10th anniversary (
Image:
PA)

Gerry adds: “I think the day and the poignancy of it, that we don’t tend to go back to the time, because it’s so draining.

"But inevitably, on ­anniversaries and her birthday, they are by far the hardest days, by far.”

The McCanns say they take heart from the “real progress” that has been made by the Metropolitan Police probe in the past five years.

Kate says: “We’ve come a long way. There is progress and there are some very credible lines of enquiry that the police are working on.

“We have to go with the process and follow it through – whatever it takes, as long as it takes. My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than 10 years ago.

"In some ways it feels like it was only a few weeks ago, in other times it has felt really long, but it’s a hard marker of time.”

Kate and Gerry say they still hold on to hopes of Maddie being alive (
Image:
PA)

Gerry says: “No parent is going to give up on their child, unless they know for certain their child is dead, and we just don’t have any evidence.

“There is still an active investigation and there is still hope.”

Kate was asked about how she would react if reunited with Madeleine.

She says: “I try not to go there too often to be honest, it’s one of those real bitter-sweet kind of thoughts...

“It would be, well, it would be beyond words really.”

Prime suspect identified as investigation reaches 'last roll of the dice'

In December, Scotland Yard revealed £85,000 of extra funding has been handed to Operation Grange as it pursues one last lead which sources described as a "last roll of the dice".

A mystery “woman in purple” is the prime suspect British police are thought to be searching for over Madeleine McCann ’s disappearance.

Jenny Murat, 79, has told how she saw the woman outside the apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, which Maddie vanished from in 2007.

Jenny, whose son Robert was the first “arguido” – official suspect – but was formally cleared of suspicion in 2008, said: “I saw the woman standing on the corner of the street.”

The woman was looking up at the apartments, “watching intently” .

Jenny said: “She caught my eye as she was dressed in purple-plum clothes.

“It struck me as strange. It’s so usual for anyone, particularly a woman, to be standing alone on the street in our resort, just watching a building.”

The next morning she heard that Maddie had gone missing and told police about the woman.

Jenny Murat (
Image:
BBC)

A police insider said they were ready to “move in” and arrest the mystery women, who is not currently living in Portugal, in the latest “hugely significant line of inquiry”.

It is understood from sources close to the investigation that the woman had a connection to a worker at the Ocean Club resort – now renamed the Garden Club – where the McCanns were staying.

The source said: “Detectives have scoured Europe looking for this woman who is thought to hold the key to solving the entire case. They want to know exactly where she was on the night Madeleine was taken from the apartment. After months of tireless police work they will soon be in a position to move in and finally get some answers after a decade of dead ends.”

Pensioner Jenny, 79, told how the Maddie case had worn her and fellow locals down.

She said: “It’s been non-stop for 10 years and some locals have become very fed up with it. It’s not helped our lovely resort in respect of tourism but slowly people are coming back to visit in bigger numbers than ever.”

The search for Madeleine McCann goes on (
Image:
PA)

Jenny vividly remembers the night three-year-old Maddie vanished while her parents were dining at a nearby tapas restaurant with pals.

She said: “Robert was at home and I’d driven to the local Baptista store to get some shopping and the local paper, the Portugal Resident, which comes out on a Thursday. When I was heading back past the Ocean Club at about 8pm I saw a woman standing on the street corner near a lamp post staring at the flat.

“It was unusual to see a woman standing alone. I didn’t recognise her and don’t have a clue who she is but it seems a bit suspicious. If she is important to the policy inquiry I hope they find her wherever she may be.

“Officers here never questioned me about her, I suppose they had other leads initially to follow up.”

Jenny said her heart went out to Maddie’s parents, saying: “It’s never ending for them and they must need some answers. All people want is for there to be a happy ending for that family. I hope after all this time there can be a resolution.”