How donors justified gifts
Student Leanne Baulch set up the funding web page because she wanted to help an ‘honourable’ man. The mother of one, from Birmingham, who describes herself as a freelance journalist who ‘loves crime stories’, said the fund was part of a ‘quest for justice’ backed by supporters ‘in solidarity, friendship and above all, in the interest of furthering the investigation...’ She said she had to remove her name as organiser after receiving threats from McCann supporters.
Grandmother Ann-Kristine Westwood, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, said she was delighted to have helped Amaral. She donated £100 to his legal fees after raising the money by giving up smoking. She said: ‘I think it’s a marvellous result that he won his appeal. I think it was an outrage the case was ever brought … We don’t live in the 14th century or under the Stasi.’
Retired solicitor Tony Bennett donated £100 to the fund last year, saying: ‘I think he has the right to publish his record of what he was doing in his investigation.’ Of the trolls, he said: ‘Some of those who have contributed have expressed nasty and hateful views. I do not support that in any shape or form.’
Administration officer Karen Laverick, 50, gave about £200. The mother of three, from Langley Park near Durham, said her interest in the case stemmed from taking holidays in Praia da Luz. She said Amaral ‘was a policeman doing his job and was persecuted for giving his opinion’.