THE hunt for missing Madeleine McCann has led to the smashing of a paedophile porn ring in Spain, it was reported yesterday.

A tip-off to the Barcelona based private detective agency hired by Liverpool-born Kate McCann and her husband Gerry six months after Madeleine disappeared from their holiday apartment on Portugal’s Algarve coast in May, 2007, led to the arrest of 13 people and an investigation into 10 others, according to a Madrid newspaper. El Mundo reported.

The tip claimed Madeleine, who was just a few days short of her fourth birthday when she vanished from a holiday apartment on the Algarve, Portugal, in May 2007, was among children shown in pornographic videos being distributed on the internet.

The Metodos detective agency traced the video material. Madeleine was not one of the children shown, but all the information was passed to Spain’s National Police which opened an investigation.

Last month a series of raids was carried-out across Spain and 13 people were arrested. A group of 10 others are being investigated. by a judge in Barcelona in over-all charge of the inquiry.

Francisco Marco, the head of the detective agency, said the videos were "the worst I have ever seen in my life". He said all the children shown were under 10.

A spokesman at National Police headquarters in Madrid confirmed yesterday (MON) that information supplied by the Metodos agency had led to 13 arrests and the seizure of "abundant material", including 28 hard discs containing pornographic film using various children, all of them younger than 10.