( AFP ) - The family of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann have been using the services of a private security firm because of fears that Portuguese police were not properly searching for their child, according to a report published Monday.
The Times reported that Kate and Gerry McCann, the 39-year-old medical doctor parents of Madeleine, hired Control Risks Group in May to build up profiles of likely abductors and to check up on reported sightings of the girl.
"Control Risks are one of the groups who've offered their services to the McCanns," an unnamed source close to the parents' legal team told the daily.
"You can assume that they are doing some things that the Portuguese police can't do."
The source declined to discuss how Control Risks were being paid.
Similar reports were published in the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail newspapers.
According to The Times, Control Risks has more than 600 employees, many of whom formerly worked within British intelligence agencies, and is the highest-earning British security firm in Iraq.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from the family's hotel apartment at a resort in Portugal's Algarve region on May 3.
Sightings of the girl have also been reported in European countries including Belgium, Greece and Malta, as well as in Morocco.
Initially the case appeared to focus on an alleged abduction but Gerry and Kate McCann were named earlier this month as formal suspects by Portuguese police.
According to the family, Portuguese police suspect Kate McCann was involved in the accidental death of her daughter and both parents then tried to cover it up. The McCanns strongly deny any role in Madeleine's disappearance.