Why did PR man Freud give McCann adviser a job?

HE cancEllEd his star-studded summer party this week after his late father, Sir clement Freud, was exposed as a paedophile. now PR guru Matthew Freud finds himself the subject of an extraordinary coincidence.

Following the revelation that Sir clement had a connection to Madeleine Mccann, I learn that Matthew Freud put the Mccanns’ spokesman, clarence Mitchell, right, on the payroll of his agency Freud communications.

Mitchell was appointed to Freuds the year after Sir clement befriended the Mccanns in Portugal two months after Madeleine’s disappearance in May 2007.

Former liberal MP Sir clement, who died in 2009 aged 84, invited Gerry and Kate Mccann to dinner at his villa in Praia da luz, the resort where Madeleine disappeared aged three.

Mitchell started as a consultant at Freuds in September 2008, and kept his £80,000 annual retainer to advise the Mccanns, funded by their financial backer Brian Kennedy, the double-glazing tycoon.

according to one version of events, the former BBc correspondent was put in touch with Matthew through a mutual TV contact and met Freud to discuss the move, before announcing he was ‘ very pleased’ to accept the 12-month contract. at the time, Sir clement’s predatory nature was unknown, and it is not clear whether Matthew Freud knew about his father’s friendship with the Mccanns.

Victim Vicky Hayes, who was raped by Sir clement Freud as a teenager, said the late liberal MP’s closeness to the Mccanns made her ‘very uneasy’.

‘It really jarred with me,’ she told ITV news this week. ‘ He [Freud] had a home in Praia da luz, but why invite them and cook for them?’ Mitchell continues to advise the Mccanns alongside roles at various PR agencies. last month, he joined the consultancy JBP as a director.

But despite his three decades’ experience ‘at the highest levels of the UK media’, he’s keeping quiet. Both Mitchell and Freud decline to comment.