Team McCann: the supportive PR campaign

The couple themselves are barred by Portuguese secrecy laws from speaking about the investigation into their daughter's disappearance.

But as the days go by there has been a definite shift in tactics, with a pro-active PR campaign of relatives and friends speaking on their behalf of the couple about the "craters" in the case against them.

They have engaged top criminal lawyers Kingsley Napley, who have provided the services of barrister Michael Caplan QC and Angus McBride.

They are also understood to be receiving financial help from anonymous wealthy benefactors.

And "Team McCann", as the friends and relatives have become known, have been contacting red-top newspaper editors.

The purpose of these private contacts is to rebut some of the more outrageous claims in the Portuguese press and put across the family's point of view.

Yesterday, for example, Gerry McCann was quoted in The Sun as having told a "friend" the accusation that his wife had given Madeleine an overdose of sleeping pills was "ludicrous".

"As far as Kate and I are concerned, there is no evidence to suggest that Madeleine is dead. We are 100 per cent together on this, not one grain of suspicion about each other."

The McCanns' current campaign manager, Justine McGuinness, will step down today when her contract runs out.

Miss McGuinness, a former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate who ran against Tory Oliver Letwin in Dorset West at the 2005 General Election, is responsible for having kept the Find Madeleine campaign in the public eye from her base in Praia da Luz.

But with the seriousness of the McCanns' position heightening by the day, the family is reportedly preparing to call in more experienced PRs.

Gerry McCann's sister Philomena defended the couple's need for a public relations expert.

"If you look at how they had to travel back from Portugal and how their house, outside, is camped with media, you can't expect to live normal lives," she said.

"It's just become very difficult. More than anything, they want some normality for the children."