Mr Mitchell was at Trinity & All Saints College giving a lecture as news broke that the Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann were preparing to close the case due to lack of evidence.

And it was trainees on the Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism who were first to report the story when they interviewed Mr Mitchell as he left the lecture.

The news bulletin was live on Bradford Community Broadcasting before any other broadcast media.

Postgraduate television students Ester Halligan and Michelle Brown also broke off from a story they were covering in another part of Leeds to record the interview.

Jason McCartney, postgraduate television tutor and former Calendar reporter, said: "They have seen at first hand the rolling news agenda in action.

"Being given the chance to see how the professionals act on a real, live news story – and then to cover the story themselves - is a fantastic opportunity."

Mr Mitchell was visiting students studying for the Postgraduate Diploma in Public Communication, to talk about his experiences working for the BBC and the Media Monitoring Unit at the Government's Central Office of Information just before being hired by Gerry and Kate McCann just over a year ago.

Jo Willis, a mature student said: "Listening to Clarence Mitchell speak about his experiences makes you think and look at the media from a different perspective.

"Knowing there were news crews waiting outside for interviews he put his phone on silent and continued with his presentation, he was very professional."

He has travelled all over the world helping to support the McCanns in the search to find their daughter and their campaign for a child alert system in Europe.