Madeleine McCann: Kate McCann And Gerry McCann Sue Goncalo Amaral
MADELEINE McCANN: The parents of Madeleine McCann are suing the
former Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral.
Over the newswires, a statement by Kate and Gerry McCann:
“We - together with our three children Madeleine, Sean and Amelie - are taking this legal action against Goncalo Amaral over his entirely unfounded and grossly defamatory claims -made in all types of media, both within Portugal and beyond - that Madeleine is not only dead, but that we, her parents, were somehow involved in concealing her body.”
It had to happen. The McCanns are innocent. Amaral is acting on a hunch. If he had proof that Madeleine McCann is dead - let alone that she died in the family holidy flat; let alone that crime has been committed - he would have presented a case against them.
Instead he has become a celebrity. He wrote a book - The Truth of the Lie - and featured in a television documentary.
The statement continues:
“The primary reason for our legal action is simple: to stop any negative effect that these absurd and deeply hurtful claims may be having on the ongoing search for Madeleine.
“We can no longer stand back and watch as Mr Amaral tries to convince the entire world that Madeleine is dead.
“Nor can we allow this blatant injustice to Madeleine, with its obvious risk of hindering our attempts to find her, to continue.
“Mr Amaral’s entirely unjustified claims have not only brought indescribable devastation and suffering to our lives, they have hugely compounded the already immense pain and anxiety we have endured since Madeleine’s abduction.”
We have been here before. And the McCanns have won before.
Madeleine McCann is missing - and we are still watching the parents…
Madeleine McCann: The Story In Pictures
Madeleine McCann: More on Amaral’s Book And Tabloid Bingo With Prince Harry
New TV Documentary Accuses Kate And Gerry McCann
Madeleine McCann: Amaral Accuses Kate McCann
Madeleine McCann: Goncalo Amaral’s Film, Selling Maddie And In Uganda
Madeleine McCann: Police Errors, Kate And Gerry McCann Speak, And Amaral’s Book
Madeleine McCann: Selling Amaral’s Opinion As Faction
Madeleine McCann: The Maddie Crunch, Goncarlo Amaral’s Interview And Lawyers
Madeleine McCann: The Truth Of The Lie, The Missing Pages And Blonde Lawyers
Posted: 16th, May 2009 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Media Comments (126) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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May 24th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Mods:
“Murat was also an arguido, was he not?”
Yes.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Lyn
Exactly right, a body search to find evidence. Dogs making an indication is not evidence. Sniffer dogs have been shown to get it wrong 75% of the time, so you really can’t assume their indication is evidence.
The same pertains to the cadaver dogs, they gave indications, but no evidence whatsoever was found where they made their indications, so to then assume their indications were ‘correct’, without real evidence to back it up, is ludicrous.
I am astounded that people persist in thinking the dogs indications were significant, in light of nothing to back them up, in PDL or Jersey.
May 24th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Mods:
“Fernando José Pinto Monteiro, the Portuguese Attorney General, said on 1 July that prosecutors had received the final police report.[123][124] He announced, on 21 July, that the case would be closed due to lack of evidence that any crime was committed by the persons placed under formal investigation.”
persons placed under formal investigation = arguidos = McCanns
Moderator _ Murat was also an arguido, was he not?
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Mods
Thanks for accepting the next post! I’ll be extremely careful how I word my posts in future. I’ll try to include the word “speculation” in them. It’s true anyway…only speculation.
May 23rd, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Stig
Right! Unlikely that he will be able to demonstrate that his case against the Mcs is sound, given that the official Portuguese investigation itself, led by a detective with an outstanding reputation, found no evidence of any crime.
In my personal opinion, most people watching Amaral’s film would probably find his theories somewhat absurd anyway, even without the fact that the PJ came to the conclusion that there was no evidence of anything against the Mcs.
As to his motives, one can only speculate. Whatever they are, he seems to have made a lot of money out of this case. His conviction for perjury (if upheld…he still has his appeal) is hardly likely to make people more inclined to believe him.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Moderator… I thought he had been accused of covering up for his officers who allegedy beat her up. They were acquitted because they couldn’t prove who did do it although it was agreed by the court that she was beaten up and did not fall down the stairs as was written in the reports!
However Amaral perjured himself over it nonetheless; it was proven by a Portugese court.
He was found guilty and given a suspended sentence.
IMO Cheryl reported correctly.
Moderator _ He may have been found guilty of perjury, but it wasn’t proven about the assault and battery. Its a fine line and Anorak could be in the firing line as a result, a Litigation Court may not agree with you or Cheryl.
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Lyn, Kate McCann did defend herself when Amaral asked her if she harmed her child. You may recall, if you have actually been following this tragedy from day one, she screamed at him in rage I did not harm my daughter. You will please recall he truly had no grounds to accuse the parents with and further lied to them about evidence that didn’t exist trying to pin it on them. Granted he and his goon squad didn’t have the chance to beat up Kate McCann as what took place in the other case he was just convicted on for perjury!
Now, where does a missing child go missing to? Well, if a paedo abducted her they are not known to hang around with the child they abducted waiting for the authorities or search parties to hand the child back over. Over here when a paedo takes a child, which unfortuantly happens too often, the police have found the bodies of abducted children: 1) laying along side mountain roads; 2) buried alive in a garbage bag in a yard but found too late to save; 3) laying out in the desert and only way to tell when that young child was dumped was studying the development of maggots and other insects that had invaded the dead child’s body; 4) buried in shallow graves in the woods; 5) dumped in creeks. Many times years go by and someone walking in the woods or hunting dogs will stumble across human bones.
Moderator _ He was accused of beating up someone, but it was unproven as to who by and where she was beaten up, either in police custody or in jail. Please be factual.
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:37 am
Sniffer dogs at airports are trained to sniff out drugs or the scent of drugs. So Real Stig, the usual procedure would be a body search for drugs. In the case of the McCanns, there was no body to be found. When a child goes missing, where has it gone? People go out searching for hours and hours. Police are brought in straight away. No one rests. The search goes on and on. Did the McCanns search?
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 am
I think if they do end up in court, Amaral hasn’t got a hope and that his loosing is a foregone conclusion.
His case is that the evidence gathered, and which is detailed in the files, supports his opinion that the McCann’s were the culprits. The opinion of the most senior legal and investigatory experts in the Portuguese judicial system - who are more than a few rungs up the ladder from Amaral - is that the evidence in those files contains no evidence against the McCanns whatsoever.
For Amaral to win, a conclusion would have to reached that the highest echelons of the Portuguese legal system are wrong and that a small town provincial detective with a conviction for perjury is right.
That isn’t going to happen. He can not win.
As I mentioned previously, he can’t have any unrevealed evidence up his sleeve or he really will be doing time in jail for perverting the course of justice by withholding crucial evidence.
No, his goose is cooked.
Crackling anyone?
Lyn:
If a drug sniffer dog picked you out at an airport and indicated you were carrying drugs, would you consider the dogs behaviour to be sufficient evidence to try and convict you for possession of drugs, or would prefer that they actually had to search you and find some drugs?
Moderator - Weren’t the findings of no evidence of criminal activity, or did they specifically mention the McCanns and Murat , as all 3 were released from ‘Arquido’
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 am
lyn
The Mcs have every right to stop Amaral’s accusations if they are lies. Wouldn’t you?
Kate did exactly what her lawyer told her. Wouldn’t you? Especially if you were being accused of crimes of which you were innocent? One does not hire a lawyer only to ignore his/her advice. That’s the point of the arguido status.
What precisely are they trying to control now? You mean hiring investigators to continue the search for their child instead of just leaving it? Wouldn’t you…or would you just give up? They vowed “no stone unturned”. That’s all they’re doing. Wouldn’t you?
They have been, of course, VERY careful NOT to accuse Hewlett. They did not put the story in the press. They are just saying they are aware of him and of what the papers are saying. Given their experiences to date, they’re unlikely to take any one “lead” very seriously anyway. The British police seem to be after this man for various offences. They are not saying he had anything to do with Madeleine. Just one possible lead, that’s all. Sounds reasonable enough to me, a known paedophile who was in the area at the time. Fair enough to check his alibi carefully. (And maybe the PJ DID do that anyway. Rebelo seemed very thorough.) The Mcs are not responsible for what the rags make of the story.
I can’t work out why anyone could possibly object to their continued efforts to find out what happened. Almost as if some people don’t WANT them to find out because it would spoil a good hate campaign.
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:41 am
Cheryl, Kate had the opportunity to clear herself in the beginning, but declined to answer questions asked of her. No one has to of course, but it does help to clear the air. Why would the press say the McCanns were trying to control the investigation? They are even now, trying to control what is going on.
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:53 am
Lyn, do you have any comprehension at all of the total mess that investigation was for the first four months? Who do you think is responsible for the lack of respect in statements made at times and people’s perceptions about the Portugal Police abilities or lack thereof? That case was a cock up from the very beginning until Inv. Rebelo took over four months later. Who do you think was responsible for the half-truths and outright untruths leaked to the papers the first four months? He “spoke out against the authorities” - you think they were all wrong and he was right? Frankly, imo I can imagine the embarrassment and somewhat disgrace he brought to the Portugal Police by the total lack of professionalism and total lack of following proper police procedures he showed those first four months before they removed him.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 am
Without a body as evidence it is hard to convict someone, Julia, but it has been done before. Just a matter of time.
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 am
Lyn
If the cadaver dogs have done their job, why havent the Mccanns been convicted????
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:50 am
Amaral spoke out against the authorities and they didn’t like that. The McCanns wanted the abduction theory to be IT. Cadaver dogs do their job. Unless of course another body was in the apartment that was not Madeleine’s. Too much went wrong in the first instance when Kate found Madeleine “missing” and that is what sent shivers around that all was not well. I think Amaral knew he would be found guilty as he would know the system well over there. He seems a strong person who is going to fight for justice, for Madeleine, in this case. Will have to wait to see what aces he has up his sleeve though. Hope he has some.
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 am
Lyn, why would the McCanns hope he would back down? Do you actually think Amaral thought for a second he’d be convicted? He is already starting with excuses on why he was convicted! Link is below. Why doesn’t he just try the truth? The only miscarriage of justice in this case was he received a suspended sentence not time in jail, imo! I hope the McCann’s go all the way on their suit then Justice will truly be served!
Did not the Portugese Police Hierarchy remove him from the McCann case? Why do you think they did? For the exemplary job he was doing in handling the case? The first four months of that case was worse than a nightmare, imo! By the time they brought Rebelo in to handle the case with professionalism and proper police procedures the investigation had to be started all over again from scratch. Then Amaral has had the unmitigated gall to write cya books, imo.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1186727/Madeleine-chief-detective-convicted-falsifying-evidence-separate-missing-child-case.html
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:28 am
I should say….It looks to ME as though he has tried to get away with……
Of course it’s speculation on my part. We await the result of the next court case.
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:24 am
lyn
Don’t think many would go so far as to suggest he’d got away with murder. He’s certainly tried to get away with murdering the good name of the McCanns, with no evidence (just watch his film!) and fuelling an appallingly vicious hate campaign against them. There certainly ARE many injustices in this world.
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:02 am
Yampster
Yep! That’ll be the next thing!
Yaaawn!
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:56 am
lyn
Agree it’s unlikely he’ll back out but I wonder if he “wants” to do it! Shouldn’t think the Mcs care either way. They have other concerns to worry about personally. It’ll be mainly their lawyers.
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:46 am
There have been many people wrongly convicted. There are many people who just get away with murder. There is corruption in the justice system in every part of this world.
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 am
I think you can drop the Mr now. He’s a convicted criminal. Let the conspiracy theories about how he was ‘fitted up’ commence.
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 am
Mr Amaral would have expected the outcome of the court case. He won’t back down now. McCanns are probably hoping he will.
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 am
Stig
Wonder if still “wants to see them in court”?!
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Cheryl
Naturally he must have had a good idea what the verdict was likely to be and made his fortune out of this family’s tragedy while he could. Indescribable.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Maria
Only for those who thought he had any to start with.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Yampster
Indeed.
As that master of understatement, Brunty, says in his Sky article, “This is a real knock to his credibility.”
Indeed.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Maria, Anorak has/had the video but can’t sort out how to get it out of the archives. Think maybe the Moderator will give us a hint on how to find it?
So Amaral got his day in court and Justice was served - finally convicted of perjury! Criminal he only got a suspended sentence! Wonder where his fan club is - rather quiet on here, isn’t it! Jo isn’t on here to gloat! She kept saying ‘wait and see’ and I have been waiting and waiting and at last I see. The sainted one isn’t so sainted! Poor Jo and fan club members must be crushed. Can’t wait to hear the title of the book he’ll surely pen to explain away this miscarriage of justice against him!
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Thank you for the clarification The Real Stig. Got your link OK too.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
The Truth of the Lie?
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Irish Times
‘McCann’ policeman convicted of perjury
The disgraced former Portuguese police chief who previously led the inquiry into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance was convicted of perjury in a separate case today, Portuguese media reported.
Goncalo Amaral was given an 18-month suspended sentence by a court in Portugal.
Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, said the couple thought the conviction “speaks for itself” and would be continuing their defamation action against Mr Amaral.
Moderator - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0522/breaking65.htm