Revealed: The three timings 'key to solving Madeleine case'

Crucially all three "windows of opportunity" are linked to Kate and Gerry McCann's movements, suggesting detectives still believe they were involved in their daughter's disappearance.

Investigators believe Madeleine either died in her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3 or was taken from it.

The three time-slots were developed by Portuguese documentary-makers who claim they have stripped away the contradictions and inconsistencies in different witness accounts and used only definitive information verified by detectives.

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The first identified 'window of opportunity' begins at 6.30pm when Mr McCann was on the tennis court and his wife was alone in the apartment with Madeleine and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

At 6.40pm one of the McCanns' friends, David Payne, went to their apartment and saw Mrs McCann playing happily with the children.

By 7pm Mr McCann returned from playing tennis and the couple bathed their children and put them to bed by 7.30pm.

They spent an hour together in their apartment and then joined their friends in the apartment complex's tapas bar.

Mr and Mrs McCann arrived at about 8.30pm and were joined by the rest of the so-called Tapas Nine.

Mr McCann, 39, was then said to have returned to the apartment at 9.05pm to check on Madeleine, Sean and Amelie. He has since said he believes the abductor could already have been inside.

This is the second "window of opportunity" allegedly identified by detectives, but Mr McCann left the apartment by 9.10pm.

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He met another witness, television producer Jeremy Wilkins, who confirmed that he stood and chatted with the consultant cardiologist near the apartment's staircase.

The pair were stood by the gate near the apartment's unlocked patio doors - where the intruder is thought to have gained entry - so the abductor would have been forced to flee through the bedroom window, on the other side of the apartment.

Mrs McCann said the window was still open when she went to check on the children at 10pm.

At 9.15pm another of the Tapas Nine, Jane Tanner, said she saw a man carrying a child away from the apartment and she now believes this was the abductor taking Madeleine.

But Mr Wilkins said he did not see Ms Tanner or the mystery man and that it would have been impossible for them to be there without him seeing them.

Detectives are probing claims that Mr McCann sent and received 14 text messages between 9.30pm and 11.40pm, which they believe are suspicious.

At 9.30pm the time-line says another of the group, Matthew Oldfield, went to the apartment to check on the children, but did not go inside. He said he saw Sean and Amelie sleeping but did not see Madeleine, whose bed was not visible from the patio doors.

Then at 10pm Mrs McCann, 39, returned to the apartment, discovered her daughter was missing and raised the alarm.

Portuguese police believe this was the third "window of opportunity" when Madeleine either died or was taken from the apartment.

Mrs McCann said she searched the flat three times before screaming 'She's gone!' But another witness, a Portuguese waiter, said she stood on the apartment's balcony and screamed across the swimming pool to where her husband sat with their friends at the tapas bar.

He said she shouted: "They've taken her, they've taken her, they've taken our little girl."

Mr McCann and the friends then ran to the apartment and began searching.

Police were called at 10.40pm, the first officers arrived at 10.47pm and senior detectives from the Policia Judiciaria arrived at 1am.

The apartment was not cleared of searchers until 2am, when police said there were up to 50 people inside.

The documentary 'Madeleine: Anatomy of a Mystery', was made by the Portuguese state broadcaster RTP, Portugal's equivalent of the BBC.

An English language version of the documentary is due to go on RTP's website on Saturday.

Reporter Sandra Felgueiras, who has covered the case since May, said: "We are certain that the time-line is the best ever produced.

"We have checked with our police sources and they have confirmed that this is the most accurate version of events produced to date."

But McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Several things in this supposed time-line do not ring true.

"But we are not going to comment on yet another speculative report in the Portuguese media about what happened that night.

"Kate and Gerry know that they had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance and they and their friends are happy to talk to police about any inconsistencies they may feel exist in versions of events that night."