McCanns hire new team of detectives to comb police files

The couple are expected to have their "suspect" status lifted in the coming weeks after detectives found no evidence linking them to the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.

Lawyers acting for the McCanns will demand access to police files once the official Portuguese investigation is shelved.

The files, thought to run to several boxes, will be passed to a team of private detectives in a desperate search for clues. After 14 months, police still do not know whether Madeleine is still alive.

Sources close to the McCanns revealed that work done by Spanish detective agency Metodo 3 has been scaled back and a new Britain-based team has been assembled.

Metodo 3 was being paid £50,000 a month out of the Find Madeleine Fund, but in recent weeks this has been reduced to a retainer of about £8,000 a month.

It was heavily criticised for a series of public pronouncements, including a promise by its boss to find Madeleine by last Christmas.

Details of the new team - and what they are being paid - are being kept under wraps.

A source close to the McCanns said today: "There is a new team working on it, based primarily in the UK although there are elements working abroad.

"They don't want to be identified for operational reasons. If we get access to any official documentation - either from Portugal or Britain - it will be examined by them.

"Any active leads it is felt the police have not followed up properly or left open-ended, they would move on."

As reported in yesterday's Evening Standard, the Portuguese investigation into Madeleine's disappearance is understood to be "inconclusive", and found no evidence to bring charges against the McCanns, who were made official suspects - or arguidos - in September.

The files are now with local prosecutor José Magalh"es e Menezes who is expected to make the formal decision to shelve the case.

There are suggestions that suspect status could be lifted as soon as 14 July, which is when the Portuguese take a summer break. Otherwise, the McCanns will have to wait until mid-August to learn their fate.

A third suspect, Robert Murat, is also expected to be officially cleared, with no evidence found against him.

Madeleine was three when she vanished from her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on 3 May last year.

At the time, her parents, both aged 40 and doctors from Rothley in Leicestershire, were dining with friends at a nearby tapas bar.