We failed, says Maddie police chief... but he refuses to apologise to her parents

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But Goncalo Amaral refused to apologise to her parents.

Kate and Gerry McCann were cleared this week after ten months as official suspects in the investigation.

Kate and Gerry McCann were cleared this week after ten months as official suspects in the disappearance of Madeleine

Sympathy: But Goncalo Amoral, who led the investigation, has refused to apologise to Kate and Gerry

They are preparing to launch legal action against the controversial former head of the inquiry, who yesterday published a tell-all memoir about their daughter's disappearance, called Maddie: The Truth Of The Lie.

Mr Amaral, 48, told a press conference in Portugal he sympathised with their pain and admitted there had been failings in the 14-month search for the girl, who vanished from her parents' rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.

But he said: 'There will be no apology, I was just doing my job.'

The former chief inspector was removed from the inquiry in disgrace in October, after accusing British police of only investigating leads which favoured the McCanns, both 40.

He faces criminal charges over his alleged role in the cover-up of the beating of a female suspect in another missing child case.

A source close to the couple said their lawyers would take legal action against Mr Amaral, his publisher and any newspaper or website that repeated his allegations about them and their friends.