Madeleine McCann: How Kate recalled ‘potentially crucial event’ night before disappearance

Last month, prosecutors in Germany announced that the Maddie is “assumed to be dead” and they have opened a murder investigation into a 43-year-old German man, named as Christian B. The tragic update came following an appeal for information from police in Britain, Germany and Portugal, after a child sex offender, who is currently serving a long sentence in prison, was named as a new prime suspect. Scotland Yard continues to treat their investigation as a “missing persons” case and said that German authorities have not revealed evidence that Maddie is dead, leading to relationships between officials investigating the case to be strained.

In response, the McCann family released a statement which said reports suggesting they had been told Maddie was dead were false and had caused "unnecessary anxiety to friends and family and once again disrupted our lives". Kate and Gerry have always supported the theory that Maddie was snatched by a criminal working in the local area and reports over the weekend surfaced that the new prime suspect may have been tipped off by a hotel employee about British tourists leaving valuables in their apartments while going out for long dinners. In her book, ‘Madeleine: Our Daughter's Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her,’ Kate revealed the details of the night before her disappearance. She wrote in 2011: “Wednesday, May 2, 2007. Our last completely happy day, our last, to date, as a family of five, if only it was possible to rewind, even for an hour.

“Today it rained, the children went to their clubs, but our tennis lessons were postponed. “Instead we joined Fiona, David and Dianne at the Millennium restaurant for coffee. “We then returned to our apartment and a little while later I left again, to go for a run with Matt. “As we ran along the promenade, a small dog jumped out from under a bench and attacked my right calf, it was pretty sore and I was a bit shaken, but I carried on as coolly as I could manage.” Kate went on to reveal the intricate details of the rest of that day. READ MORE: How Kate McCann recalled 'haunting' question Madeleine asked before disappearance

She added: "Gerry and I picked up the children, had lunch in the apartment and then took them to the play area for an hour before walking them to their clubs. “The tennis group lessons were rescheduled for the afternoon, after that it was the usual routine, tea with the children, playtime, bath time, milk, stories, kids' bedtime, get ready, Tapas at 8.30pm. "Tonight it was Rachael's turn to be feeling a bit under the weather and she gave dinner a miss, remaining in her apartment next door to ours. “The only other difference was that after dinner we ventured into the enclosed bar area – where it was, to my relief, warmer – for a liqueur. “As a result, we went back to our apartments a little later than normal and it also meant that the time between our last check of the children and our return was longer, closer to 45 minutes.” DON'T MISS

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Kate then explained how Gerry had "hurt" her by his actions during dinner. She added: “At about 11.50pm, Gerry abruptly announced, 'Right, I'm off to bed. Goodnight.' “As he turned to leave, Dave said jokingly, 'She's not that bad, Gerry!' “I must admit I was slightly hurt that Gerry should just go off without me, as if I was unimportant – irrelevant, even – and Dave's remark was an indication that it wasn’t just me being over-sensitive. “Let me tell you something about Gerry, his honesty and openness makes him very direct, often to the point of bluntness, and he’s not a touchy-feely guy.” Justifying Gerry’s actions, she added: “Like many men, he assumes I take his feelings as read and doesn’t see any need to express them with soft-soaping, flowers or cards.

“And although, like most women, I would appreciate the odd romantic gesture, the fact that he has always been loyal, solid and loving deep down when it really matters, is far more important. “It's just Gerry, I'm used to his foibles and generally any deficiencies in gallantry simply go over my head.” But, Kate did explain how the altercation had led to an “unprecedented” move. She continued: "As far as Gerry was concerned, it was late, he was tired, and he was going to bed. End of story. I am not sure why I was miffed by his lack of social grace that particular evening. “Perhaps because the other guys in the group were all attentive ‘new men,’ compared with Gerry, at least, and I was a bit embarrassed. “I followed him a few minutes later, by the time I got into the apartment, he was asleep.

“Still feeling a bit offended, I decided to go and sleep with the children. “This was highly unusual, unprecedented, even, the only occasions when we ever slept apart were when our jobs and on-call duties dictated it.” Finally, Kate explained why she decided to include such a personal account in her book. She added: “I wasn't the type to flounce off to the spare room and never would have done so at home. "I suppose it was because there was a bed made up and ready in the other bedroom and at that moment my peaceful, slumbering babies were more attractive room-mates than my snoring husband. “It was a storm in a teacup, and I'm loath even to mention it as it was such an isolated incident and not at all representative of our relationship.

“However, since every scrap of information was shortly to become potentially crucial, I feel it is necessary to state for the record that I was in that room that night. "Though it can have no bearing that I can imagine on subsequent events, the thought of Gerry and me sleeping alone on this of all nights still makes me feel sad." Maddie vanished from Apartment 5A of the Ocean Club complex, in Algarve, Portugal, just days before her fourth birthday, while her parents ate dinner just metres away. Scotland Yard is offering a £20,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction regarding two vehicles owned by their new suspect and also want to speak to an individual who called the suspect an hour before Madeleine’s disappearance. Scotland Yard said the male was driving the vehicle in the Praia da Luz area in the days before Maddie's disappearance and is believed to have been living in it for days or weeks before and after May 3. The suspect has also been linked to a 1993 Jaguar XJR6 with a German number plate seen in Praia da Luz and surrounding areas in 2006 and 2007. Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her' was published by Transworld Publishers Ltd and is available here.