McCanns carry on libel fight
IT IS “unfair” to criticise the amount of public money spent on the continuing search for Madeleine McCann, her father has said.
Last month the Home Office confirmed £85,000 was being given to the UK-based Metropolitan Police inquiry to cover operational costs from April to September. In all, more than £11m has been spent on the inquiry so far.
Mr McCann said: “I think some of that criticism is really quite unfair... essentially you’ve got a British subject who was the subject of a crime.
“There were other crimes that came to light following Madeleine’s abduction, that involved British tourists, so I think prosecuting it (the investigation) to a reasonable end is what you would expect.”
Around 30 British detectives were working on the UK side of the investigation into Madeleine’s disappear- ance, known as Operation Grange, when it was established in 2011.
The team has now been scaled back to four detectives.
Officers have sifted through some 40,000 documents and looked at more than 600 individuals since 2011. KATE and Gerry McCann have said they will challenge the Portuguese courts’ decision to clear retired detective Goncalo Amaral, below, of breaching the country’s libel laws.
In this weekend’s television interview, the McCanns were asked if they would continue to fight Amaral over claims he made in his 2008 book about Madeleine’s disappearance.
The McCanns expressed disappointment in February after learning that Portugal’s highest court had thrown out their libel claim against Mr Amaral, who also took part in a Portuguese TV documentary claiming Madeleine was dead, there had been no abduction and her body had been hidden.
Mr Amaral was initially ordered to pay the McCanns 250,000 euros (£209,000) each in damages in 2015 over claims in The Truth Of The Lie, with further sales of the book banned.
But Portugal’s Supreme Court ruled against the libel action, saying the claims made are protected by freedom of expression laws.
During the interview, conducted ahead of Wednesday’s 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, BBC presenter Fiona Bruce asked the McCanns: “One of the police officers in Portugal has been a thorn in your side for many years, he was thrown off the investigation but then he wrote a book ... and you fought it through the courts.
“At the moment... he’s won... are you going to continue to fight him?”
Mr McCann replied: “I think the short answer is we have to because the last judgment I think is terrible.” MADELEINE McCann’s parents admit they have been shocked by hurtful online abuse – but prefer to focus on the kindness shown towards them by well-wishers over the past decade.
Cardiologist Gerry McCann told the BBC: “I don’t want to dwell on the negative aspects too long, but I think in this era of ‘fake news’ it is extremely topical and I think people just need to think twice before they write.”
Describing how he protects his twins, 12, from the issue, Mr McCann said: “We have been as open with them as we can.
“We have told them... that people are writing things that are simply just untrue.”
But Mr McCann stressed: “I think we’ve seen the worst and the best of human nature. And our personal experience, rather than on the internet, has been overwhelmingly seeing the better side of human nature.”