Amaral is now a shadow of his former self... and still utterly unrepentant

THE graffiti on the side of the run-down apartment building reads “Foda a policia”. You don’t need to be fluent in Portuguese to figure out the expletive-laden translation.

This crime-ridden Lisbon estate is home to the ex-detective once tasked with solving Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

The past decade has not been kind to Goncalo Amaral, the former high-flying head of the Policia Judiciariac. He was sacked from the Maddie probe after criticising British police and making mistakes.

Amaral then penned a damning book pointing the finger of blame at her parents, Kate and Gerry. He accused them of covering up her death and faking her abduction.

The couple sued, sparking an eight-year libel battle that the ex-cop has now won. But the fight took a heavy toll on the dad-of-three, who is a pale shadow of the larger-than-life Portimao chief tasked with solving the case in May 2007.

In the early days, he was alleged to work just four-and-a-halfhours a day. Sporting a large beer belly, he regularly enjoyed three-hour lunches.

Amaral, 57, split from second wife Sofia in 2012, blaming the pressures of the case. He moved back to the tough Lisbon suburb of Olivais, where he grew up. His expensive suits and fedora are gone. So too has the beer belly and chauffeurdriven Mercedes, replaced by a battered Citroen Picasso.

But the arrogance remains – as the Mirror discovered when we confronted Amaral last week. He cruelly said he has no sympathy for the McCanns, who mark the 10th anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance next month.

Amaral also refused to apologise for the mistakes that hampered the early days of the probe. Instead, he threatened to have our reporter and photographer arrested.

But it was his cruel refusal to offer any sympathy to Kate and Gerry that was the most damning.

The couple blame him for a string of errors at the beginning of the much-criticised probe. But Amaral, who resigned in June 2008 after a 27-year career, is unrepentant.

Asked if he would apologise to the McCanns for botching the probe, he said: “No”. He has previously accused Kate and Gerry, of trying to ruin his life. Amaral blames them for his decision to quit, giving up one third of his pension pot as a result.

Asked if he had any sympathy for them ahead of the 10th anniversary, Amaral replied: “No.”

He now spends his days writing crime novels and drinking pints in the Cabeca de Touro bar in Olivais.

One local said: “He used to be a big guy, a face, everyone around here knows him. Now he just blends in, he isn’t the big man any more. We all know about the Madeleine case. It was not good for him.”

It is a far cry from his time on the Algarve, when he was regarded as one of the country’s most dogged detectives. But even when he was handed joint control of the Madeleine case in May 2007, Amaral was already mired in controversy.

He was under investigation for his role in covering up an alleged attack on the mother of another missing girl, Joana Cipriano, nine. Three officers were accused of beating a confession out of mum Leonor.

Joana’s body was never found but Leonor and brother Joao were convicted of her murder in 2005. The three officers were cleared of torture but Amaral was convicted in 2009, after his retirement, of falsifying documents. He blamed “political pressure” for the verdict and 18-month suspended sentence.

Later that year, Kate and Gerry began their legal battle after he penned The Truth of the Lie. At one point, Amaral was so broke he relied on £50,000 in donations from the UK to defend the libel action. Some of it came from anti-McCann trolls.

Amaral was eventually ordered to pay £360,000 after Kate and Gerry won their defamation case in 2015.

But the order was overturned in April 2016, forcing the McCanns to appeal in Portugal’s Supreme Court. Senior judges sided with him in February and their ruling angered the McCanns by saying they had not yet been proved to be innocent.

Lawyers for the couple lodged a complaint but judge Jorge Manuel Roque Nogueira dismissed it.

They may still decide to try the European courts but this is considered unlikely. Amaral is now set to sue the McCanns. HARD TIMES Amaral quit police in 2008