BUNGLING Portuguese cops thought Kate and Gerry McCann had accidentally killed Maddie with an overdose of Calpol, a new Netflix documentary has claimed.

The ludicrous allegation was reportedly behind the justification for their brief status as suspects in the case of their three-year-old daughter's disappearance.

Maddie disappeared from her bed on May 3, 2007, while on holiday with her parents and family friends at a resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

Her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, had left her sleeping with her siblings while they had dinner at the hotel's restaurant – only realising about 10pm that she was gone.

The youngster's disappearance is the subject of a new eight-part Netflix documentary, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Investigator and author Anthony Summers told documentary producers: "By late summer there was an implication that they may have over-sedated her by administering a drug."

LUDICROUS ALLEGATIONS

His co-author, Robbyn Swan, said: "Essentially the Portuguese cops' case against the McCann's involved the following: that she died by accident on May 3; that the supposed checks on the children had been concocted; that they had hidden their daughter's body… and that her body had subsequently been transported in the rental car they had rented some weeks later."

Kate and Gerry were officially named arguida – official suspects – around this time, and were both interrogated by cops.

However, months later final forensic reports confirmed there was no viable evidence linking Madeleine's DNA to the holiday apartment or car.

Jim Gamble, a former top child protection officer, told producers: "Ultimately when you read through the detail of the DNA you see the absolute red herring it was, but it was a dangerous red herring because I think investigators in Portugal thought this was a smoking gun."

And Portuguese journalist Sandra Felgueiras said she had felt "lied to" by her Portuguese police sources, who had tried to claim the evidence was damning.

'I REALISED THESE COPS …. WERE NOT HONEST'

She added: "When this happened I understood that the intention of those cops that were inside this investigation was not honest."

However, this cruel theory has continued to be propagated by internet trolls for years, many of whom falsely accuse the couple of being involved in Maddie's disappearance.

It is also similar to the theory put forth by disgraced Portuguese cop Goncalo Amaral.

He released a book and subsequent TV documentary called The Truth Of The Lie in which he cruelly alleged the McCanns faked Maddie's abduction to cover their tracks after she had been accidentally killed.

The McCanns have also accused Amaral of waging a "relentless battle" against them.

The McCanns claimed the book was "unfounded and grossly defamatory" and launched legal action against Amaral in 2009.

In 2015, Kate and Gerry were awarded around £450,000 in libel damages by a Portuguese court. However, in April last year Amaral won an appeal against the decision.

The McCann's lost a subsequent appeal in Portugal's Supreme Court in February this year.

Meanwhile, Maddie's parents have slammed the new Netflix documentary on her disappearance, saying it "won’t help" the search.

The family also believe the controversial new film could "fuel conspiracy theorists", their spokesman said.

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