|
Post by Admin on Jul 8, 2014 14:56:13 GMT
Gerry and Kate McCann spoke to reporters after delivering personal statements at Lisbon's Palace of Justice in the libel case brought by them against Goncalo Amaral over claims he made in a book about their role in the disappearance of their daughter from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007. Mr McCann said that whoever was involved must have been laughing during these last six years at what Amaral has claimed - that there was no abduction and there is no predator out there. 'There is - he or she or they may strike again,' he said. 'There's an unsolved serious crime and there's a series of other crimes against children which have come to light who have been on holiday so at the very least these people need to be brought to justice. 'We don't know if Madeleine is alive or dead but there is no evidence that she is dead and she is a missing child and she is completely innocent.' The couple earlier told the court that there was no doubt that Amaral's claims had done 'severe damage' to their struggle to find Madeleine. Answering questions from judge Maria Emilia Castro during the hearing, Mrs McCann said that her young son Sean had asked her about the allegations that she was involved in her daughter Madeleine's disappearance. She told the court that Sean heard about Mr Amaral's allegations on the radio while travelling on the school bus. 'Sean asked me in October 'Mr Amaral said you hid Madeleine'. I just said that he said a lot of silly things,' she said. Speaking to reporters after the hearing today, Mr McCann said that Mr Amaral's claims had caused a 'tremendous amount of damage' but he hoped that people would now see that all he and his wife wanted was a conclusion to the case. 'We want to make clear that it is a very complex investigation, it is a huge dossier and we just want as much as possible to be worked through,' he said. He hoped continuing investigations would catch whoever snatched his daughter. He said: 'Whoever took Madeleine is still out there and whoever the person is they must have been laughing these past six years at what was told in the book, that there was no predator out there. 'There was and he or she may strike again.' Mr McCann said he and his wife 'could not undo' the damage he said Amaral's book has caused, and expressed his upset that some residents of Praia da Luz had written on the walls of the town that he and his wife where the murderers. 'We obviously never thought seven years down the line that we would be in this situation, but we do still have hope because of all these of children who have been taken and kept for a long time,' he said. But he added: 'We know it could be an awful outcome.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 9, 2014 13:53:40 GMT
Kate McCann was asked by her son about claims she was involved in the disappearance of her daughter Madeleine, a court has heared. Mrs McCann was speaking at a Portuguese libel case relating to the claims - made by ex-police chief Goncalo Amaral. The court heard her son Sean had asked about whether she "hid Madeleine", but she told him the Portuguese detective had said "a lot of silly things". On Tuesday, Mr and Mrs McCann both delivered personal statements at Lisbon's Palace of Justice in the libel case brought by them against Mr Amaral. Mrs McCann told the court her son had brought up the allegations after he heard them on the radio on a school bus. "Sean asked me in October, 'Mr Amaral said you hid Madeleine'. I just said that he said a lot of silly things," she said. Mrs McCann also told the court the detective's claims had done "severe damage" to efforts to find her daughter. She said that when she had first found out about the allegations she was "quite desperate because of the injustice I felt towards my daughter and our family as a whole". "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," she said. Mrs McCann said she was aware the couple did not have a high level of support in the country, telling the court she found that "distressing and upsetting because we need the Portuguese people to help us to find Madeleine". She said: "It also makes me feel uneasy and uncomfortable when I come to Portugal because I think people are thinking negative or really bad things about us." Speaking outside the court, Mr McCann also spoke about the couple's efforts to protect their children from press reports related to the case, saying: "Obviously they are not immune to the media. They hear things, they go to school, they hear the radio. "They hear the theories and Sean has obviously asked Kate explicitly, 'Why did Mr Amaral say you hid Maddy?' - so we will have to deal with that and we are doing everything in our power." "We hope that the current investigation being run by the Metropolitan Police does lead to a real breakthrough."
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2014 15:41:23 GMT
Gerry McCann said of ex cop Goncalo Amaral's book: "It says Madeleine is dead, that there is no abduction and claims myself, my wife and our friends are liars and would be so cold and ruthless as to hide our daughter’s body" And yesterday the pair told how allegations made in a book by disgraced Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral left them “crushed and devastated”. Kate said the policeman’s claims left her unable to sleep at night and are hampering the hunt for Madeleine, who vanished from the family’s Algarve holiday apartment in 2007. And the 46-year-old former GP told a court she believed Amaral’s book, The Truth of the Lie, had turned the Portuguese people against the couple. Kate also revealed the policeman’s smears had reached the ears of their nine-year-old son who asked her: “Mr Amaral said you hid Madeleine, didn’t he?” She was asked by judge Maria de Melo e Castro about claims she and 45-year-old Gerry dumped Madeleine’s body after she was accidentally killed in their Praia da Luz apartment. Kate branded the allegation “far-fetched” and added: “It was about Madeleine being killed and us having moved the body and then storing her in a freezer and then transporting the body in a hire car several weeks later. “We were so desperate to find Madeleine and I just felt it was destroying our chances.” Asked how she felt when she first read Amaral’s book, she replied: “I was devastated. It made me feel quite desperate because of injustice I felt towards my daughter and our family. It was very painful to read and I felt sad for Madeleine and I also felt anxious and fearful because of the damage I felt it was doing in Portugal. “For example, he insists Madeleine was dead. He also essentially accuses myself and my husband of being somehow involved in her disappearance and of faking an abduction. Throughout the book he consistently smears myself and my husband.” Kate and Gerry are suing Amaral for libel, claiming his book and interviews on TV and radio are wrecking their bid to find their daughter, who was three when she vanished. Kate said: “I think Mr Amaral’s book had most impact in Portugal. It was read by hundreds of thousands of people and this has been fortified by multiple media interviews. If they believed what he said, that Madeleine was dead, or that we were involved, they would not look for Madeleine and they would not come forward with information.” Asked about a 2009 Portuguese TV documentary, based on the book, Kate said: “To be honest it felt even worse with regards to the potential power and damage. I felt the documentary was Mr Amaral being even more insistent.“For me that intensified the pain because of the injustice and anxiety about the damage this could cause to the search. We were working so hard, we were flat out, drained, doing everything in our power to try and find Madeleine. It was hard enough in itself but when your efforts are being crushed in this way, it intensifies the pain.” Kate told the hearing in Lisbon she felt anxious about returning to Portugal where she believes locals are now suspicious of her and her husband. She said: “I still feel, and this is supported by what friends and associates have told us, that in Portugal the majority of people are against us. It also makes me feel uneasy and uncomfortable when I come to Portugal because I think people are thinking bad things about us. “There were many, many nights where I was unable to sleep because I was too upset and crying too much. This pain and emotion was caused by what Mr Amaral was doing.” Asked about how Sean and his twin sister Amelie have been coping with the relentless bad publicity, Kate replied: “They know Mr Amaral has written a book and about the documentary. Sean asked me in October, ‘Mr Amaral said you hid Madeleine, didn’t he?’ I just said, ‘He did, he said a lot of silly things.’” Kate spoke for 55 minutes before making way for Gerry. He told the court: “The book is an affront to me, my wife, my family and the people who believe in us. The documentary is even worse. It starts off that Madeleine is dead, that there is no abduction and essentially claims myself, my wife and our friends are liars and would be so cold and ruthless as to hide our daughter’s body rather than try to help her should something have happened. “When the file was closed it was made clear there was no evidence Madeleine was dead and no evidence Kate and I were responsible for hiding her body.” Kate and Gerry flew back home last night. A decision in the case is not expected until later this year.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 27, 2014 16:48:37 GMT
The former Portuguese police chief accused of libeling Madeleine McCann's parents is planning to sue them back, it emerged today. Goncalo Amaral, who was axed from the Madeline investigation, accused Kate and Gerry McCann of causing him 'enormous damage' and the effect was 'moral, professional and financial'. Writing on Facebook, Amaral, 55, said: 'The time to judicially react to those who put my privacy, intimacy, freedom of expression and opinion and survival at stake is approaching. 'They have tried to assassinate me civilly. But due to the support and solidarity of all of you, they were not successful.' Amaral has been on trial at Lisbon's Palace of Justice after claiming Kate and Gerry McCann faked their daughter's abduction. Now he is believed to be launching a counter case against the couple claiming they breached his right to 'privacy and freedom of expression'. Amaral made the claims in a book about their role in the disappearance of their daughter from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007. The book, The Truth of the Lie, was published a year later. Amaral also ridiculed the McCanns' claims of feeling socially isolated by pointing out they spoke in Parliament and were quizzed by TV's Oprah Winfrey, The Sun on Sunday reported today. Madeleine disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3, 2007, as her parents dined at a nearby restaurant with friends. The McCanns are suing for libel over claims made in Mr Amaral's 2008 book, including suggestions that they hid Madeleine's body after she died in an accident and faked an abduction. They say the allegations damaged the hunt for their daughter and exacerbated their anguish. Mr McCann also told the court in Lisbon that one group distributed a leaflet called 60 Reasons Why Madeleine McCann Was Not Abducted to their neighbours in Leicestershire. If successful, the family stand to gain around £1million in damages. A judgment is not expected in the trial until later this year.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 13, 2014 16:35:41 GMT
The ex-police officer who bungled the Madeleine McCann investigation made a fortune by spinning a web of lies about the case, a court heard today. Goncalo Amaral, 56, earned at least £344,000 from his book and TV documentary about Madeleine's disappearance, it was said. Amaral wrote 'distortions', 'fallacies', 'supposition' and 'a web of conspiracy theories' about the investigation, a libel trial in Lisbon was told. Mr Correia Afonso said the ex-detective made £270,000 from sales of his book in Portugal and £18,000 from sales abroad. He earned £26,000 from the broadcasting of the documentary, watched by 2.2m viewers in April 2009, and another £28,000 from sales of a DVD. The book is still on sale in some Portuguese bookshops despite being out of print, he said. And Mr Amaral has continued to publicly repeat the central claims in the book - that Madeleine died in the family's rented holiday apartment in the Algarve in May 2007 and that her parents covered up her death. The former head of the Madeleine investigation gave an interview in June this year in which he 'had no problem stating that the parents of the child are the only guilty parties', the lawyer said. Mr Amaral even told a Portuguese newspaper a theory that Madeleine had been buried in a coffin alongside a dead women in a church in the resort of Praia da Luz, the court was told. Mr Amaral's discredited theories on Madeleine's disappearance have been widely repeated in newspapers in Portugal and around the world including Brazil and Spain, he said. The McCanns are suing Mr Amaral for £1m over his book The Truth Of The Lie and the accompanying documentary. He was thrown off the investigation in 2007 after criticising British police officers involved in the search for Madeleine. In July the McCanns, both 46-year-old doctors from Rothley, Leicsestershire, told the court at the Palace of Justice in Lisbon that they had been 'devastated and crushed' by the book about their daughter, who was days short of her fourth birthday when she disappeared. But Miguel Cruz Rodrigues, for Mr Amaral, said the McCanns were suing 'to rid themselves of guilt for their negligent conduct and their conduct in relation to the investigation. He added: 'There was a lack of cooperation with the police authorities. That lack of cooperation led to the archiving of the investigation.'
|
|