Cleared ... but still no end to torment of Maddy's parents

The McCanns, both 40, are understood to be on holiday at an undisclosed location, their first family holiday since Madeleine vanished from their apartment in the Algarve more than a year ago.

Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today the couple will "never give up searching for their daughter" despite the Portuguese police decision to shelve the case.

Mr McCann is back at work full time as a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester where he can busy himself with the day-to-day routine.

Mrs McCann has given up her part-time job as a GP to concentrate on bringing up their other two children - twins Sean and Amelie who are now aged three - and to put her energy into the campaign to introduce a European-wide response when children go missing.

Their search for Madeleine is orchestrated from the family home in Rothley in Leicestershire with the help of lawyers and private detectives paid for out of funds raised by the public, a libel payout from Express Newspapers and donations from multi-millionaire businessman Brian Kennedy.

With the case expected to be shelved, their lawyers will now demand the police files are made available to their own team of private investigators.

The McCanns have spoken of their guilt at leaving their children on their own on the night Madeleine disappeared. But nothing could prepare for the turn of events that would see them become suspects.

A series of police leaks last summer suggested variously that Madeleine had died accidentally in the apartment, perhaps from an overdose of sedatives, and that her parents had hidden the body to protect their professional reputations.

The theories, leaked to the Portuguese press, at first appeared outlandish. But in September, it became evident that the police who were then in charge of the investigation thought the McCanns were implicated in their daughter's disappearance when they were made official suspects - arguidos.

Officers believed forensic tests from a Renault Scenic hired by the McCanns almost a month after Madeleine's disappearance showed traces of her DNA in the boot.

The McCanns have always insisted that if such traces were found, there were always wholly innocent explanations for it. As the months passed, the police case against them appeared to slowly unravel.

First it became clear there was not enough evidence even to justify re-interviewing the McCanns while the Policia Judiciaria's national director, Alipio Ribeiro, was later quoted as saying detectives had been "hasty" in declaring them arguidos.

Divisions within the inquiry team emerged publicly a few weeks later when Goncalo Amaral, the detective in charge, was taken off the case for a public-outburst against the couple and Paulo Rebelo was parachuted in from Lisbon to replace him.

Mr Rebelo has since conducted a full review of the case files and come to the belief that there is nothing conclusive to draw from the evidence gathered.

For the McCanns it should come as a welcome relief - but there will be no let up from their torment while Madeleine remains missing.