KATE and Gerry McCann have branded the use of a photo of their daughter Madeleine McCann to promote holidays in Portugal as “unforgivable”.

The advert - on website VoucherDigg.co.uk - used a photo of Maddie released by her parents soon after she disappeared.

One travel firm branded the use of the pic as “vile”.

The image was used to illustrate deals offered by lowcostholidays.com - and had the tagline: “£20 off: Great discount on holiday bookings.”

The voucher promotes holidays in a self-catering family apartment in Albufeira, Algarve - near the resort where Madeleine vanished five years ago.

The picture was taken just hours before Maddie, then aged three, disappeared from her family’s vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “The misuse of Madeleine’s picture in this way is utterly appalling and frankly unforgivable.

"Kate and Gerry were horrified when they found out about it. It is offensive in the extreme.”

Mitchell added: “Whether it’s a mistake or hacking, it’s an utter disgrace. That is the last picture of Madeleine that was taken on the holiday in 2007 just before she was taken, and for someone to use it - as some sort of sick joke, it would appear - advertising holidays to Portugal of all places, is just appalling. There is no excuse for it.”

He said that London law firm Carter-Ruck was called in to demand the removal of the picture.

Lawrence Hunt, chief operating officer at lowcostholidays.com, said,“We have no contract with VoucherDigg to advertise our holidays, and we are doing all that we can to contact the website and get the picture removed.

"We discovered this vile material on Monday and immediately broke all the links to our site and contacted our lawyers.”

Hunt also apologised for any distress caused by the picture and said its use was “completely beyond our control” and “disgusting”.