McCanns win a €500,000 libel payout
A former detective has been ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of euros to the McCann family following a libel case in a Portuguese court.
Goncalo Amaral had been on trial over claims he made in a book and a documentary that Gerry and Kate McCann were involved in their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in 2007.
In a written verdict, a Lisbon court agreed that Amaral should pay Mr and Mrs McCann €250,000 each in damages and it banned further sales of his book The Truth Of The Lie.
Madeleine was aged three when she went missing from her family’s holiday apartment on May 3 2007 as her parents dined at a nearby tapas restaurant with friends.
Mr Amaral, who led the initial investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, released his book The Truth Of The Lie three days after the case was closed in 2008.
He later took part in a documentary for Portuguese television in which he claimed that Madeleine was dead, that there had been no abduction and the McCanns had hidden her body.
Giving evidence at Lisbon’s Palace of Justice last year the couple spoke of their “devastation, desperation, anxiety and pain” over the claims.
The couple also said that the book and documentary had hampered support from the Portuguese people as they looked for their daughter.
Mrs McCann told the court that her young son Sean had asked about Mr Amaral’s allegations after hearing about them on the radio while travelling on the school bus.
Answering questions from judge Maria Emilia Castro last summer, Mrs McCann admitted once saying that she would like to be in a coma to stop the pain.
She also told the court that when she read Mr Amaral’s claims she was ”quite desperate because of the injustice I felt towards my daughter and our family as a whole”.
She said: ”It was very painful to read and I also felt anxious and fearful because of the damage I felt it was doing here in Portugal.
”We were working so hard, we were the only ones trying to do everything in our power to find Madeleine.
”It was hard enough in itself without all our efforts being crushed in this way.
”It just intensified the pain and fear that there was no point and we might as well give up.”
When Sean asked her about Mr Amaral’s allegations, she told him that “he said a lot of silly things”.
Sean and his twin sister Amelie were aged two when Madeleine, who was nearly four, went missing.
Mr McCann said: ”We have had very many sleepless nights over the publication of this book and certainly when we first heard about these things, it caused distress, anxiety and a lack of appetite.“
He said the documentary was ”even worse than the book”.
”It starts off by stating right at the beginning that Madeleine is dead, that there was no abduction and essentially claims that me and my wife and our friends are liars.
”It says that we would be so cold and ruthless as to hide our daughter’s body rather than try and help her, should something have happened.
”And of course, it has no factual basis or supporting evidence and any evidence that is not in agreement with his thesis is ignored.”
Speaking to the media outside court, Mr McCann told of his fear Madeleine’s kidnapper may ”strike again” and claimed that whoever was responsible will have been ”laughing” at Mr Amaral’s claims.
British officers spent eight days searching three areas of land in Praia da Luz last June, close to where Madeleine disappeared, but found no new evidence.
Madeleine’s disappearance is one of the most famous missing persons cases of all time.
The Metropolitan Police launched their own operation in 2011.
