'Madeleine is dead' claims ex-police chief in charge of the case

Goncalo Amaral, 48, said he was convinced Madeleine will not be found alive and said that British officers only chased leads Kate and Gerry McCann wanted following up.

Amaral quit the force and handed over his gun and badge to bosses on Monday evening after 28 years as a police officer. He is now preparing to publish an "explosive" book on the case.

The father-of-three was in charge of the Madeleine investigation for five months before he was kicked off the probe for publicly criticising his British counterparts.

'I am not saying that the English police were under the command of the McCanns, but they were influenced', he said.

'In a way, we were all influenced by the campaign that they organised, according to which the girl was alive and had to be found.'

Amaral was thought to be the source behind many of the stories in Portugal suggesting the McCanns were involved in their daughter's disappearance.

He was also photographed enjoying long boozy lunches while in charge of the country's biggest ever missing persons case.

On his final day as an officer he enjoyed a two-hour lunch in the seaside town of Portimao, newspaper 24 Horas reported.

He later marked his early retirement with a dinner with two police colleagues from Lisbon.