Now the Portuguese police say Madeleine died in a fall on a staircase

Madeleine McCann died in a fall down a flight of stairs at her parents' holiday apartment, Portuguese police claimed yesterday in the latest leak from inside the investigation.

A police report has pinpointed a set of ten stairs leading up to the McCann family apartment's patio doors, it was claimed.

The report was based on the findings of two British sniffer dogs which allegedly found the "scent of death" and microscopic traces of blood inside the apartment and on Kate McCann's clothes.

Detectives have also been looking at another theory - that a former maid at the resort where the family were staying abducted Madeleine.

Portuguese and British police have been told that the woman was sacked from the Mark Warner resort in Praia da Luz a few days before Madeleine went missing on May 3.

They are working on the theory that the woman - whose name they have been given - may have taken Madeleine as a form of revenge against her former employers.

The tip-off was passed to British and Portuguese police this week, after it was initially sent by email to the Prince of Wales's website.

Detectives think the informant was impressed by Prince Charles' public support for the McCanns.

A source revealed: "It appears that the email came from somewhere in the Iberian peninsular. The information does appear to check out.

"Whoever sent this email might not have wanted to trust it in the hands of the Portuguese police. They may well have thought that in order for people to take notice, they should sent it to Prince Charles.

Claims that Madeleine fell down the stairs at the McCann's apartment were made by allegedly highranking police sources to the Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas.

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The sources were reported as saying there were "strong suspicions" the girl smashed the back of her head against tiles on the steps.

"The only thing to investigate is how the body disappeared," said one.

Mrs McCann has already faced accusations that she and her husband Gerry covered up their daughter's accidental death after they sedated her so she would sleep while they went out for dinner.

Fearing a post-mortem would lead to accusations that they drugged their children, they hid the body and later moved it in their hire car and dumped it, it has been claimed.

The Policia Judiciaria also believe Mr and Mrs McCann, a GP, may have been helped by their holiday friends, the so-called Tapas Nine.

Detectives want to re-interview all of the Tapas Nine and the newspaper 24 Horas said it was "highly possible" that some of them could be made official suspects, or arguidos.

Friends of the couple accused police of inventing theories. One said: "How can you tell what anyone died of without a body? There appears to be leak after leak to smear the name of the McCanns."

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell added: "Some of the leaks that appear on a daily basis are hurtful, surely it is time to stop."

The couple are increasingly frustrated that they cannot campaign on Madeleine's behalf or defend their reputations because their arguido status means they are banned from speaking out.

Mrs McCann was reported to have said she was willing to risk a 12-month jail sentence under Portuguese judicial laws if it kept people looking for her daughter.

She told close friends: "What does any of it matter if it helps find Madeleine?"

The McCanns, both 39, marked the 150th day since Madeleine vanished by going to church in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire.

Sir Richard Branson, defended the couple against the barrage of slurs from Portuguese police.

Speaking for the first time since it emerged he had donated £100,000 to their legal costs, the Virgin billionaire said: "The Portuguese press have behaved abysmally, fed inaccurate stories by the Portuguese police, which all turned out to be a load of garbage."