Kate McCann's diary 'tells of struggle to control Madeleine'

Kate McCann's diary reveals she struggled to cope with three 'hyperactive' children, it was claimed yesterday.

The notebook, photocopied by Portuguese police, is said to show she found her role as a mother hard.

Portuguese newspapers, which have published what they claim are extracts, say it is "fundamental" to the belief that she was involved in the death of her daughter Madeleine.

The 39-year-old GP is reported to have written about how difficult it was to control Madeleine and her two-year-old brother and sister, and how her husband Gerry often left her to get on with family duties on her own.

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Mrs McCann reportedly described Madeleine and the twins as hyperactive and "hysterical", and discloses that looking after them sapped her strength and emotions.

The diary is being used as evidence by Portuguese police in their attempts to prove that Mrs McCann and her husband were involved in their daughter's death.

Detectives applied for permission to make her diary part of their formal evidence as they show her state of mind before and after Madeleine vanished from the famleastily's Algarve holiday apartment on May 3.

It was examined and copied by detectives last month, and detailed in papers sent to the public prosecutor on Tuesday.

Sections purporting to be extracts from the diary were leaked to Portuguese newspapers yesterday - seen by the McCanns' supporters as part of a campaign by "police sources" to justify their case against the couple.

The fact that at two newspapers published purported extracts makes a mockery of Portugal's so-called secrecy of justice laws, which are supposed to forbid police from disclosing elements of the inquiry.

Yesterday, Mrs McCann's family dismissed the significance of any diary entries, saying she was just a normal mother.

Philomena McCann, Gerry McCann's sister, said Kate had kept the diary to show to Madeleine when she was found.

She said: "She's been writing down everything that we've been doing so we can prove to Madeleine that we have worked so hard to find her, that we've put our lives on hold to search for her and show our love for her is unending."

Miss McCann questioned why the Portuguese authorities wanted the diary.

She said: "God knows what they are expecting to find. And why didn't they ask for it before? It's just another way to stick the knife in."

A family friend said it was "disgraceful" that any private and emotional thoughts should now be in the public domain - but insisted that the diary entries would "add nothing" to the case.

The friend said: "Kate is kind and loving to her children and always has been. Any mother with three young children will recognise that it's a full-time job and it's not always easy."

Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manha has hinted that detectives in Portugal are unsure whether Mrs McCann had started to write the diary before or after Madeleine disappeared.

Yesterday the newspaper headlined its front page: "Kate insults her children in her diary."

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It claimed: "She complains frequently that her children are 'hysterical' and speaks of Madeleine as a child whose excess activity exhausts her.

"She tells also how Gerry doesn't help her with the family chores and that she has to cope alone with her two youngest children."

Publico, a respected daily newspaper, reported that the diary contained Mrs McCann's worries about her children's behaviour and her difficulties disciplining them.

The diary is known to contain details relating to May 3 and the hours before Madeleine's disappearance, when the family played tennis and relaxed with their children beside the pool at their Praia da Luz holiday complex.

Mrs McCann continued to make daily entries after Madeleine's disappearance.

Despite the impression given in Portuguese newspapers, the Daily Mail understands that the entries are not exclusively about motherhood and children.

It is believed to contain positive references to the family holiday, their journey from England, and Mrs McCann's thoughts about the resort of Praia da Luz.