Maddie's parents have lost their court appeal to silence former policeman Amaral

Why were the McCanns trying to stop the book from being published?

Portuguese Supreme Court judges upheld the decision from last April to reverse the McCann’s 2015 libel win against Goncalo Amaral.

The hearing took place in private in Lisbon on January 31, 2017.

The couple could now face a huge legal bill, which had been frozen until the outcome of the final appeal.

Amaral was ordered to pay Kate and Gerry £430,000 plus interest in damages after losing round one of their libel battle in April 2015 over his hurtful book ‘The Truth of the Lie.’

Appeal judges reversed the initial ruling by a court in Lisbon in April last year, siding with the former police chief and overturning a ban on his book.

The decision sparked a fresh appeal by the McCanns to the country’s highest law court.

The McCanns’ Portuguese lawyer Isabel Duarte lodged the couple’s new appeal last May after vowing to fight the U-turn by judges over Amaral’s book.

Criticising the ruling in favour of the ex-police chief, which a friend of the McCanns said had left them “seething,” she said: “This decision was an appreciation of the law and not the facts.

“We can appeal to the Supreme Court which we will do as we have instructions from our clients.”

What are the claims in Goncalo Amaral’s book?

In the book, it is claimed that Maddie had died in their holiday flat 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 on July 21 2008.

Amaral is understood to have earned £344,000 from his book before it was banned and a subsequent TV documentary.

The McCanns told the Lisbon court staging the Amaral libel trial in the summer of 2014 they were left “devastated and crushed” by his allegations

How many alleged sightings of Maddie have there been?

Potential sightings of the British three-year old followed up by British cops total 8,685 across 101 countries and territories, a Freedom of Information request by The Sun showed in October.

And there have been countless supposed sightings of Maddie if speculation such as that surrounding 'Maria' is included.

Most serious were the alleged sightings in the hours and days following Madeleine's disappearance.

On the night she was taken police received two separate potential sightings from members of the public -- however one was fully ruled out as being a holidaymaker with his daughter.

There were six reported sightings between 4-17 May in Portugal, including CCTV footage that showed a girl matching Maddie's description with two men and a woman at a petrol station in the town of Nelas.

Over the border in Spain there have been three reported sightings -- the latest being in April 2012 -- but all have been ruled out.

There have been roughly eight major alleged sightings in Morocco, two of which were in the immediate few days after her disappearance, leading to an Interpol investigation which was quickly closed.

British police have also been in the country chasing leads in the investigation.

Beyond these three counties there have been numerous alleged sightings across the world, including two in Belgium and New Zealand, six in Brazil, one in Bosnia, Sweden and India and many more.

There were as many as 29 in Malta in the month after the disappearance which led to the capital Valletta being briefly locked down.

One of the most serious potential sightings in Amsterdam was revealed when Portuguese police released their case files in August 2008.

It showed a girl of blonde girl of Madeleine's age and description told a shopkeeper her name was "Maddie" and she had been "taken from mummy".

The McCann's were not made aware of this alleged sighting at the time it was reported to police and it is not clear how if at all investigators followed it up.

The Portuguese case files contained a 14-page section listing potential sightings across the world in only the year since she disappeared.

Leicestershire Police released their tip-off files to the McCann's in July 2008 containing 81 reported sightings in the first year of the investigation.

A list of sightings from each of the 101 countries -- nearly all of which have been labelled NFA or No Further Action -- was compiled by The Sun.