Private security team hired by Kate and Gerry McCann for secret investigation

A private security firm has been secretly investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann for four months because her parents feared that Portuguese police were failing to properly search for their daughter.

Control Risks Group (CRG) is believed to have been checking reported sightings of Madeleine from around the world and building up profiles of likely abductors.

Kate and Gerry McCann turned to the company, which employs former members of the intelligence services and Special Forces, after becoming concerned that officers in the Algarve assumed their daughter was dead.

A source close to the couple’s legal team confirmed that CRG had been working with the family since May but refused to discuss how the company was being paid.