A nanny who looked after Madeleine McCann has revealed what happened the night the then three-year-old vanished.
The former childminder, who was working at the Portuguese resort where the child disappeared, says she is still haunted by the image of Gerry and Kate McCann's despair.
She said father Gerry McCann desperately tried to find his daughter while Kate wailed 'They've taken her' when she realised the toddler was missing.
She also criticised Portguese police for how they handled the investigation and revealed the resort was considered so unsafe that nannies were given rape alarms and told not to stray outside alone.
Speaking of that night on May 3, 2007, she told the Mirror: “She [Kate] was pacing up and down. The worst possible thing had just happened to her.
“She was crying, but almost in a catatonic state, and Gerry was very distressed. That’s the one thing I really remember from him, looking under the cars. I can’t forget that.
“We were told to start looking in bins in case her body was in there. It was at that point we realised this was serious.”
The former carer, who does not wish to be named, helped other staff to sift through bins and piping leading to the sea after they were told to hunt for her body.
She also claimed they were forced to their beds at 5am after spending the evening walking the streets of Praia da Luz searching for the girl.
She claims people were in and out of the apartment Madeline went missing from, contaminating the crime scene.
She also said she was shocked Mr and Mrs McCann were ever considered suspects after telling the Mirror there "was not a chance" the pair were involved in her disappearance.
She blamed the numerous failings of Portugeuse police for Madeline having never being found in time.
She told of how detectives took 90 minutes to arrive at the scene and only passed two pages of interview script to the Met’s Operation Grange after receiving five pages of interview material, skipping out massive sections of information.
The carer added: “I wonder if she’s alive. Does she even remember? Does she remember her parents?"
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