Chilling details of how ‘paedophile’ charmed Maddie’s parents over risotto with strawberry vodka to win their trust just weeks after she vanished near his villa
The McCanns had met with alleged paedo multiple times and kept in touch via email
IT began over a lunch of strawberry vodka and a chicken risotto at a luxury villa in Portugal.
The unlikely bond struck between the McCanns and Clement Freud now lay in tatters after shocking allegations emerged of the former TV star having sexually abused young girls as young as 10 and 11.
The sentiment that visiting Freud was "like going to see your grandad after a horrible day at school" - once written by Kate McCann of her friendship with the late ex-MP - is now likely to have been overshadowed by the horrific detail of the allegations made by two of his victims.
Kate and Gerry McCann were said to be "horrified" last night after discovering that a former TV star they'd befriended in the days following Maddie's disappearance has been exposed as a child sex abuser.
The parents of Madeleine McCann, who went missing from their Portugese apartment on May 3, 2007, were said to have been appalled by the news that ex-Liberal MP Clement Freud has been outed as a paedophile.
The shocking revelations will be aired tonight in a documentary on ITV.
A source close to the couple told : "It certainly raises a lot of questions. They will be appalled to hear the details."
After the little girl vanished, Freud invited the McCanns around to his villa in Praia da Luz - just minutes away from where their apartment was.
Kate McCann later wrote in her book 'Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her' that Freud had been a good friend of her and her husband's, staying in touch by email when he wasn't in Portugal.
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The first time they met him, a lunch, took place in July 2007 - two months after Maddie's disappearance - which came about after Freud wrote a letter to the couple.
The letter said: 'I have a house in P da L, been ashamed of the intrusion to your lives by our media…and if you would care to come to lunch/dinner at any time before Wednesday next, do ring and let me know.
I cook decent meals.'
In her book, Kate McCann said of the surprise letter from Freud, then aged 83, - who was at the time a complete stranger: 'I’m embarrassed to admit that Gerry and I thought this letter was a hoax; more embarrassing still, while we were vaguely aware of Sir Clement, we had to have our memories refreshed by Sandy and Justine before we could place him exactly.'
She added: 'Mind you he wore so many hats – humourist, MP, gourmet, gambler, press columnist, advertiser of dog food, radio and TV personality – that he was hard to pin down.'
The mum wrote that husband Gerry called Freud and they went over to his house with their family for lunch the next day - enjoying a watercress and egg salad followed by a chicken and mushroom risotto -
just a few hours before the former MP returned to the UK.
She said: 'His opening words were ‘Can I interest you in a strawberry vodka?’ It was midday.'
She said Freud kept in touch by email after his return to England, and called them again when he was back in the town the following month.
Mum Kate described the telly star as "warm" and "likeable" and even wrote: 'Thank God for people like Clement who kept us smiling.'
The next time they saw him was after the McCanns had been made suspects by bungling Portuguese police.
In her book, which came out in 2012, she said the couple were due to have dinner with Freud but cancelled after the trauma of being accused of being involved in Maddie's disappearance.
However she went on to say she later called him up at 9.50pm and they went to his villa for drinks.
She said: 'We found Clement watching a cookery programme, dressed, as promised, in his nightshirt. It was so ordinary and comforting, a bit like going to see your grandad after a horrible day at school.
'He gave me one of his looks and a giant glass of brandy, and managed to get a smile out of me with his greeting: “So, Kate, which of the devout Catholic, alcoholic, depressed, nymphomaniac parts is correct?'
A source close to the McCanns told MailOnline: "Clement Freud invited them round for drinks, just to show some sympathy.
"He had a family home in Praia da Luz and the invitation came as a bolt from the blue. They were grateful for his sympathy. It was a chance for them to take time out and have a drink by someone being friendly."
There is no sign that Freud's name featured in the botched Portuguese police investigation and the Metropolitan Police, which launched Operation Grange in 2011 to re-examine the Madeleine case, has never said anything about him.
Last night his son Matthew Freud told the newspaper that his father had been in the UK on the night Madeleine vanished in Portugal.
He said detectives had never asked the family anything about their father.
However cops could now probe how the allegations against Freud might be linked to Maddie's disappearance nine years ago - although no official investigation has yet been launched.
Former murder squad detective Colin Sutton told the: "If this is something that investigators had not been aware of then it would be certainly a potential line of inquiry that would be worth pursuing.
"It is not something that ought to be taken lightly and you would also want to look any connections he may have had in the area at the time."
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