The mother of missing Madeleine McCann has said she is in Portugal to “stop the damage” she believes is being caused to the search for her daughter by a former local police chief.

Relatives of missing Madeleine McCann will not be celebrating Christmas this year, her grandmother said today, but there is still a present waiting for the four-year-old for when she does come home.

Madeleine McCann’s parents accept she is now probably dead, their spokesman admitted for the first time.

Kate McCann fears she is being “persecuted” by people who believe she is involved in her daughter Madeleine’s disappearance because she does not look maternal enough, her mother said today.