Court orders libel payout for McCanns

[Raptor]

Madeleine McCann's parents win libel payout



Madeleine McCann investigation

A Portuguese court has awarded the parents of missing Madeleine McCann damages of £357,000 after a libel case.


Kate and Gerry McCann sued ex-police chief Goncalo Amaral, who led the search for their daughter, following claims he made about them in his book.


Mr Amaral, who claimed the McCanns faked Madeleine's abduction, must also pay interest in excess of £70,000.


Madeleine went missing in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007, aged three.




The former police officer can appeal against the ruling.


In his book - The Truth Of The Lie - Mr Amaral alleged Madeleine had died in the family's holiday apartment in the Algarve, and that her parents had simulated her abduction and hidden her body.


The McCanns, from Rothley in Leicestershire, said the claims exacerbated their anguish and discouraged people from coming forward with information after Madeleine disappeared.

<figure class="media-landscape full-width has-caption"></figure><figure class="media-landscape full-width has-caption"><figcaption class="media-caption">

Kate and Gerry McCann pictured at the libel trial in Lisbon last year </figcaption></figure>Mr Amaral, who initially headed the inquiry into Madeleine's disappearance, was taken off the case in October 2007.


His book, published in 2008, has been a bestseller in Portugal.


The McCanns were originally seeking 1.25m euros (almost £900,000) in damages from Mr Amaral, his publisher and a company that produced a documentary based on his book.
During the trial, Mrs McCann told the court 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.

<figure class="media-landscape full-width has-caption"></figure><figure class="media-landscape full-width has-caption"> <figcaption class="media-caption">

The McCanns sued Mr Amaral following claims he made in his 2008 book, The Truth Of The Lie </figcaption></figure>Portuguese authorities dropped their investigation into Madeleine's disappearance in 2008, but Scotland Yard started a review in May 2011, after Prime Minister David Cameron responded to a plea from the McCanns.


In 2013, the Met Police opened a formal investigation, known as Operation Grange, which remains ongoing.


In June 2014 police officers used dogs to search several sites in the Praia de Luz resort, as well as "ground penetrating radar" to look for disturbed earth, but their searches did not yield any results.



BBC News