GONCALO Amaral has been a thorn in the side of Gerry and Kate McCann ever since he took onto the investigation of their missing daughter Madeleine in Portugal in 2007.

Amaral made the McCanns 'arguidos' – or official suspects – in the case before he was sacked from the investigation for astonishing public attacks on his British counterparts.

Who is Goncalo Amaral?

Amaral is a retired detective who led the initial hunt when three-year-old Maddie went missing from the Ocean Club holiday complex in Praia da Luz.

He was removed as head of the investigation after criticising British detectives and claiming they were only following leads the McCanns asked them to pursue.

Amaral has remained an outspoken critic of British police and the McCanns and has repeatedly claimed Gerry and Kate killed their daughter.

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 accused Amaral of waging a "relentless battle" against them.

Once one of Portugal's most senior detectives, since retiring he has moved back to the tough Lisbon suburb of Olivais where he grew up.

Amaral's probe into Maddie's vanishing is examined in a new Netflix documentary, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

What has Amaral claimed in his book?

In the book, it is claimed that Maddie had died in the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz and her parents faked her abduction to cover up the tragedy.

The book was released just three days after Gerry and Kate were told their status as formal suspects had been lifted as the Portuguese police investigation was closed in July 2008.

Amaral claimed it was entirely based on official evidence and Policia Judiciaria files but Kate and Gerry branded the book "downright lies".

The The Truth Of The Lie became a bestseller in Portugal.

Court documents seen by The Sun revealed he made more than £350,000 from his book and the subsequent DVD.

Since the book was published Amaral has made further claims in controversial media interviews.

He said on Australian TV show Sunday Night that MI5 "for sure had an involvement"either by helping to hide Maddie's body or covering up the alleged crime.

He also suggested Madeleine’s body could be hidden in a well on Praia da Luz.

Just days later he told a Portuguese TV documentary he believes Madeleine was cremated in a church near where she vanished and the McCanns prayed in the first days of the search for her daughter.

When informed of Amaral's latest conspiracy theories, Gerry McCann said: "The less said about Goncalo Amaral the better."

Why did Goncalo Amaral and the McCanns end up in court?

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.

The court ruled that Maddie's parents had not been cleared of involvement in Maddie's death by the Portuguese police investigation being brought to an end in 2008.

A court statement said: "It should not be said that the appellants were cleared via the ruling announcing the archiving of the criminal case.

"In truth, that ruling was not made in virtue of Portugal's Public Prosecution Service having acquired the conviction that the appellants hadn't committed a crime.

"The archiving of the case was determined by the fact that public prosecutors hadn't managed to obtain sufficient evidence of the practice of crimes by the appellants.

"There is therefore a significant, and not merely a semantic difference, between the legally admissible foundations of the archive ruling.

"It doesn't therefore seem acceptable that the ruling, based on the insufficiency of evidence, should be equated to proof of innocence."

Maddie vanished from her family's holiday apartment in 2007

What is the latest in the European Court Of Human Rights case?

Kate and Gerry McCann are in a legal battle with Amaral at the European Court of Human Rights over the smears.

The McCanns have gone to the ECHR in a final effort to avoid paying Amaral £750,000 in compensation after accusing him of libel – which saw sales of his book banned for six years.

A source close to them said: “If Goncalo Amaral continues to make these outrageous claims then he will find he has a tough fight on his hands.

“Kate and Gerry are not going to let him get away with what he said about them.”

Amaral’s earnings from the book are revealed in documents filed at the ECHR.

They show he made 342,111 euros from book sales in 2008-2009 and another 40,000 euros from the DVD spin-off.

The book was translated into multiple languages, with more than 180,000 copies printed. There are fears Amaral plans a follow-up.

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