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The parents of missing Madeleine McCann "were being tried by the media" and faced a barrage of innuendo suggesting they were involved in murdering their missing child, they told the Leveson Inquiry.
Dr Gerry McCann and Dr Kate McCann felt "we were ... unable to defend ourselves adequately", they said.
Madeleine, also known as Maddie, went missing in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
Her parents left Maddie and her younger twin brother and sister sleeping in a holiday apartment as they dined with friends.
When they returned to the apartment, Maddie was no longer there.
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Among the press coverage the McCanns told the inquiry about were articles by different titles belonging to Express Group Newspapers, including the Daily Star and Daily Express.
One headline in the Star read "Maddy sold' by hard-up McCanns".
"That's nothing short of disgusting," said Gerry McCann.
Other articles implied the two stored Madeleine's body in a freezer, and took part in wife-swapping orgies, as well as enduring headlines referring to Madeleine as a "corpse".
All claims made in the newspapers were false and the McCanns successfully sued for libel, securing a front page apology and a £550k donation to the Find Madeleine Fund.
However before a deal was agreed, the newspaper group had suggested they do an interview with Hello! Magazine - which it also owned.
Gerry said this was "breath-taking".
An 'irate' call from the News of the World
In the run up to the year anniversairy of Madeleine's disappearance, they struggled to get coverage in the press of a new appeal for information on their daughter's whereabouts.
