THE FAMILY of Madeleine McCann have revealed how being inundated with messages of support had helped to keep them strong “during the worst times”.

In their first in-depth interview since being made official suspects in the disappearance of their daughter, Kate and Gerry McCann said they had received messages of goodwill from far and wide.

They said they had seen a groundswell of support from people closer to home in Leicestershire and said they wanted to thank the residents of their village, Rothley, and the surrounding area for their continued backing.

In August, while still in Portugal, Liverpool-born Kate McCann told the Daily Post that the support from her home city had been so important.

And speaking today, Mrs McCann said: “I’ve had days when, if I wasn’t crying about Madeleine, I was crying from the letters and messages people have sent to us. It has helped so much.”

Mr McCann said that so many people had written to them that, until recently, they had to collect their mail from the post office in their car.

There would be three crates of letters and cards awaiting collection every day, he said.

The couple, both 39, said they wanted the focus to remain on finding four-year-old Madeleine.

It is 153 days since she went missing from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

Mr McCann said: “We want to increase awareness, get back to basics if you like. Target specific areas with pictures and billboards and messages. We want to refocus the coverage.”

Mrs McCann said: “The coverage has been on us. The coverage should be on Madeleine, no one else.”

The mother of three said nothing can compare with the nightmare of the evening her eldest daughter went missing.

She said: “A lot has happened since then. Sometimes, the most trivial of things can bring you crashing down.”

Mr McCann said: “I think when we were made suspects in our own daughter’s disappearance, when the inference was that Madeleine was dead and that, somehow, we were involved... But, no, it can’t get worse than that first night.

“Everything that has happened, everything we do and feel, it is all put into perspective by how we felt on that first night.”

Mrs McCann told the Mercury: “Something carries you through. We have Sean and Amelie of course. We are there for them.

“And we still have hope. The messages of support, friends and family rallying round. You just can’t underestimate what those messages of support have meant for us.

“They have kept us going on low days, kept us strong during the worst times.”

Meanwhile it was reported that a senior police officer in the investigation has asked for an extended leave of absence.

Chief Inspector Tavares Almeida’s request, reported in the Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas, emerged after his boss, Goncalo Amaral, was taken off the case earlier this week.

A police source told 24 Horas: “As a rule, requests of a short, medium or long duration are granted.

“It is very unlikely to be denied. If that happened, it would be the first time in the PJ (Judicial Police).”

Mr Almeida reportedly refused to confirm or deny the report, telling the newspaper: “I don’t speak to journalists.”

To lose a second senior officer would raise further concerns about an inquiry that appears no closer to finding out what happened to the youngster.

Mr Amaral was removed from the investigation after reportedly saying that her parents, Kate and Gerry, had been calling the shots by identifying lines of inquiry for officers in their home county, Leicestershire.

The officer, who heads the regional Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, also accused the couple of releasing new information each day in a bid to distract and confuse the five-month inquiry.

The authorities in Portugal refused to discuss the decision to take him off the case.

Now the PJ’s investigation looks set to lose a man described by one colleague to 24 Horas as “an excellent investigator ... very good, very committed and persistent”.

It is reported that Mr Almeida has asked for a “licenga sem vencimento” - an extended period of absence, lasting between one month and a year, usually used for studying or training.

Guilhermino Encarnacao, currently director of the Judicial Police in Faro, is said to be favourite to replace Mr Amaral as the head of the PJ in Portimao.

Asked about Mr Almeida’s reported move, Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, said: “We are not going to comment.

“Gerry and Kate are very happy to continue to co-operate with the Portuguese inquiry, irrespective of which officers are in charge of it.

“We would hope that any officers who are removed are replaced swiftly and that this is an opportunity to re-focus and re-energise the search for Madeleine.”