Two national newspapers have made unprecedented front-page apologies to the parents of Madeleine McCann for suggesting that the couple caused the death of their daughter and then covered it up.

The Daily Express and Daily Star accepted that Kate and Gerry McCann were “completely innocent” of any involvement in her disappearance during a holiday in Portugal last May.

They have both agreed to pay “very substantial” sums to the fund set up to find the missing girl. It is expected that their Sunday stablemates will follow suit this weekend.

All four papers, owned by Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers group, have taken an accusatory tone in much of their coverage of the case.

After the McCanns threatened legal action the publications greatly reduced their coverage.

The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said this month that the libel law specialists Carter Ruck had been enlisted to “seek redress”. He said the McCanns were not targeting any one story but were angry about a series of “wildly and grossly defamatory articles”.

The couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Shrinking violet Gordon turns into raging bull
• Eddie Izzard: 'I keep thinking if I do all these things she'll come back'
• Is sex for the disabled the last taboo?