British woman buys Portugese holiday flat where Madeleine McCann vanished - for half the asking price

The Portuguese apartment that Madeleine McCann went missing from has reportedly been sold to a British woman – for half the asking price.

The apartment at the Ocean Complex in Praia da Luz had been on sale for £255,000, according to The Sun.

But despite already being up for sale for £50,000 less than similar properties nearby, the newspaper said it had obtained records suggesting that the ground floor flat had been sold to a British widow for just £113,000.

Kathleen Macguire-Cotton told the newspaper that she had secretly bought the flat years ago and has been staying in it herself.

And she said despite being offered money by tourists for a look into the place that three-year-old Maddie disappeared in May 2007, she would never let them.

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She told The Sun: “I’ve been offered money by the whole world but I’m not interested.

“I don’t think that’s very fair to the McCann family or the people of Praia da Luz, upsetting everybody – it’s terrible. It happened a long time ago and I don’t have any opinions on it.”

Mrs Macguire-Cotton bought the apartment from former British owner Ruth McCann, who struggled to sell the property after Madeleine’s disappearance.

British tot Madeleine disappeared after being left in the ground floor holiday apartment while her parents Gerry and Kate went for a meal nearby with friends.

Her parents, who were initially declared suspects by Portuguese authorities, believe their daughter was kidnapped after a bungled break-in.

Gerry and Kate are reportedly planning to fight a judgement by Portugal’s Supreme Court judgement backing ex-Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral over his 2008 book ‘The Truth of the Lie’.