His smiles, their pain By ANTONELLA LAZZERI in Court 7, Palace of Justice, Lisbon STROKING a photo of Maddie tied to her handbag, Kate McCann asked an interpreter what Chief Inspector Tavares Almeida was saying. When told of his cruel accusations, she looked tearfully down at the floor, horror-stricken. And she flinched when the cop said of Madeleine in a loud and stark voice: "She is dead." Nearby sacked police chief Goncalo Amaral smiled confidently, the diamond in his left ear glittering in the courtroom's lights He knew he was achieving what he had always yearned for - to put the McCanns on the spot over the disappearance of their daughter. He rocked back in his chair as one after another, former colleagues backed up his scurrilous insistence that Kate and husband Gerry covered up Maddie's death after an accident at their holiday flat. The cops' testimony was the kind normally heard at a criminal trial. The boot will be on the other foot if Amaral loses his case and the ban on his book remains. But for Kate and Gerry McCann nothing will make up for the loss of their precious daughter.

KATE McCann had a dream in which she saw the body of missing daughter Madeleine on a hillside above their holiday resort, a court heard yesterday.

And after she told Portuguese cops of the nightmare, they became convinced the little girl had been KILLED rather than abducted.

The McCanns' Portuguese police liaison officer Inspector Ricardo Paiva even called it "the turning point of the investigation".

His description of the dream was among a series of wicked claims made about Kate and husband Gerry, both 41-year-old doctors, at Lisbon's Palace of Justice.

Texts

The devastated parents held hands and looked emotional as a judge heard wild allegations they:

KNEW all along that Maddie, nearly four when she disappeared, had died in an accident in their apartment in May 2007.

SIMULATED a kidnapping and concealed the girl's body.

SENT each other "suspicious" texts after Maddie went missing.

WERE "involved" in the child's disappearance in the opinion of a British crime profiler, and SHOULD have been charged with neglect because they left Maddie and her younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie in the Praia da Luz apartment while they dined out with friends.

The claims came from Portuguese cops in a case brought by their ex-boss Goncalo Amaral, the officer who led the initial investigation into the Maddie mystery.

He is seeking to overturn a ban on his book The Truth of the Lie, in which he makes similar allegations to those heard in court yesterday.

The McCanns, who have always maintained Maddie was snatched and is still alive, won a legal order barring the book in September.

They say it is libellous and harms the search for the little girl.

And they are poised to launch a ?1million damages claim against Amaral.

Yesterday a spokeswoman for the couple said they were "hurt" by the courtroom claims.

But she added: "However, they know what really happened so they are confident. They just want to find their daughter."

Insp Paiva told how tearful Kate told him about her dream in a phone call two months after Maddie vanished - and asked cops to search the hill she had "seen".

He said: "She gave me the impression she thought Madeleine was dead." He added police combed the area but found nothing.

Quizzed by the McCanns' lawyer Isabel Duarte, Paiva admitted Kate told him Maddie might be on the hillside as she had seen a lot of cars heading there.

He said sniffer dogs were then brought in from Britain.

Chief Insp Tavares Almeida repeated allegations the dogs found the scent of a body in Maddie's bedroom, the apartment's lounge, the McCanns' hire car and on a piece of clothing in a flat to which they later moved.

Asked how Maddie might have died, he said: "We always spoke of a tragic accidental death, not homicide. The McCanns did not kill her but they hid the body."

Local public Prosecutor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes told how police suspected Kate and Gerry texted each other immediately after Maddie's disappearance.

They asked to see the messages but were turned down by the authorities on the grounds of "human rights to freedom".

Asked if he thought Maddie was dead or alive, he replied: "50-50." The case continues.

a.lazzeri@the-sun.co.uk