Madeleine McCann’s disappearance still remains unsolved, 12 years after the toddler went missing in the Portuguese town of Praia da Luz in May 2007. Her mother Kate McCann released her own memoir in 2011, titled “Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her”. In it, Kate describes her “horror” at discovering a note from the holiday apartment complex, a year later when she was combing through Portuguese police files.
She writes: “It wasn’t until a year later, when I was combing through the Portuguese police files, that I discovered the note."
The McCann family were not granted access to investigation files until August 2008, when they were released to the public, and Kate writes how she spent six months scrutinising the 5,000 pages of information.
In the book, Kate explains how the booking at the tapas restaurant, where the McCanns and their group of friends would have their meal each evening, was slightly unusual.
The restaurant was small and the group of nine friends was a large party to accommodate.
Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3 2007 (Image: Getty)
The toddler disappeared from the Ocean Club apartments in Praia da Luz (Image: Getty)
However, they managed to get a block booking for 8.30pm “pencilled in” for the rest of their holiday week, “after having a word with the receptionist at the pool and tapas area”.
Kate writes: “The note requesting our block booking was written in a staff message book, which sat on a desk at the pool reception for most of the day.
“This book was by definition accessible to all staff and, albeit unintentionally, probably to guests and visitors, too.
“To my horror, I saw that, no doubt in all innocence and simply to explain why she was bending the rules a bit, the receptionist had added
