Kate McCann 'wants a job in child welfare'

The mother of missing Madeleine McCann has told friends she wants to help other children and will not go back to her old job as a GP.

Mrs McCann, 39, has said in the past that she does not want to return to work until she knows what has happened to her four-year-old daughter.

But during a publicity trip to Madrid she met anti-paedophile and child care workers and told them she might be interested in campaign work about the plight of other missing children in the future.

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Her husband Gerry, also 39, has begun talks with his bosses at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester about returning to his job as a consultant cardiologist. He is on unpaid leave from his £75,000-a-year post, but has told friends he hopes to return to work before Christmas.

Last night the family's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, played down speculation about Mrs McCann's future.

He said: "No decision has been taken. Kate has not been approached or been in touch with any particular children's charity."

He added that she had not ruled out a return to her former surgery near the family's home in Rothley, Leicestershire, at some stage.

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Mr and Mrs McCann remain official suspects in the disappearance of their daughter who went missing on May 3 from their holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

They say they remain 'focused' on their campaign to clear their names and discover what really happened to Madeleine.

Sources close to the couple denied claims that they had hired a Portuguese public relations firm for £35,000 a month to improve their image in the country.

They have begun talks with their lawyers about using a PR consultant on an ad hoc basis to advise them about how to deal with the Portuguese media, which has been relentlessly negative about them.

But a friend said it was 'utterly ridiculous' to suggest they would pay £35,000 a month and added that they did not have that kind of money at their disposal, even from their wealthy benefactors.

Lawyers acting for the couple have advised them that their popularity in Portugal needs to improve.

They fear that if the couple were to face trial a jury might convict them, even on weak evidence, because they have faced such public opprobrium.

Portugal's top law officer, attorney general Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro, compared the public prosecutors and police involved in the investigation to a medieval fiefdom.

He said the Ministerio Publico, the equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service, "is a feudal power at the moment. There is a count, a viscount, a marquis and a duke".

He admitted he had no control over the police and could not guarantee they were not acting outside the limits of the law. Mr Monteiro also conceded that mistakes had been made in the investigation.

Last night Mr McCann said he welcomed the news that the friends who were dining with him and his wife on the night Madeleine disappeared would be questioned by police again.

Members of the so- called Tapas Nine face questions from British police with Portuguese officers sitting in.