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Judges ordered Goncalo Amaral to pay
McCanns £395,000 damages
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Group of Britons gave cash to a web
fund to help retired officer, 57
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£1,000 claimed to be from a ‘very
large’ group of Met police officers
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Last month Portuguese judges decided
to overturn the payout order
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More than £50,000 was raised by Britons
– including an apparent group of police
– in support of a Portuguese detective
who claimed Madeleine McCann's parents
covered up her death.
The group, some of whom admit they are
internet ‘trolls’, gave cash to a web
fund for Goncalo Amaral, 57.
Judges had ordered Amaral to pay Kate
and Gerry McCann £395,000 in libel
damages after he wrote a book claiming
that Madeleine died in an accident and
the parents covered it up. |
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More than £50,000 was raised
by Britons in support of
Portuguese detective Goncalo
Amaral (left with his book
entitled Maddie: The Truth
about the Lie), 57, who
claimed Madeleine McCann's
(right) death was covered up
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But a student from Birmingham launched a
GoFundMe
page to pay for an appeal by the
retired officer, who was sacked as head
of the investigation after he launched
an outspoken attack on British police.
Last month Portuguese judges decided to
overturn the payout but the McCanns will
now take the case to the country’s
supreme court.
One of the biggest payments to the
detective’s appeal fund was
£1,000 claimed to be from a ‘very
large’ group of unnamed Met police
officers who said they were ‘outraged’
at the way the officer had been treated. |
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The post accompanying the donation,
which cannot be verified, added: ‘This
strikes at the very basis of the way
investigations should be conducted,
without fear or favour, malice or ill
will. The world can clearly see where
the malice and ill will are in this
case.’
Other donors included Tony Bennett, 67,
of Harlow, Essex, who has previously
been convicted of breaking court
undertakings not to publish allegations
linking Madeleine’s parents to her
disappearance.
Many of those who donated gave regular
payments and made abusive or sarcastic
comments about the McCanns. One made a
reference to a sponsored cycle ride done
by Mrs McCann to raise funds to support
families with a missing loved one. |
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Judges had ordered Amaral to
pay Kate and Gerry McCann
(pictured) £395,000 in libel
damages after he wrote a
book accusing them of
covering up their
three-year-old daughter's
death |
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Jo Petteford gave £50 to the Amaral fund
and posted: ‘My pledge for Kate
completing her bike ride. I am pleased
she has helped fund GA’s [Goncalo
Amaral’s] legal fees by her efforts. Way
to go Kate!’
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"Hard
questions that need to be
answered" |
After the donors were accused of being
‘trolls’, some were furious, insisting
they were ‘truth-seekers’. Others
adopted the term as a badge of honour,
with one even using the name ‘Honourable
Troll’.
Many of those giving cash accused the
Government, lawyers and national
newspapers of a cover-up and of lacking
the ‘decency and courage’ to tell the
truth.
The fundraising page was started by
psychology student Leanne Baulch in
April last year. She told the Daily
Mail: ‘I set up the page to help him
[Amaral] with his appeal because I felt
he had suffered an injustice. His assets
had been frozen so he had no way to
defend himself |
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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’
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Ann-Kristine
Westwood
(left)
raised £100
after giving
up smoking
and Karen
Laverick
(right) gave
about £200 |
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‘I’m not anti-Kate and Gerry McCann. I
don’t know what happened and I don’t
claim to know. But I do believe there
are hard questions that need to be
answered.’
She said she was ‘happy’ after the
latest ruling in the detective’s favour.
‘The people who donated are very
passionate and are pro-truth and
justice, not against the McCanns,’ she
added.
Madeleine vanished from her family’s
holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the
Algarve on May 3, 2007, as her parents
dined at a nearby tapas restaurant with
friends.
Amaral’s book, The Truth Of The Lie, was
published three days after the
Portuguese authorities formally closed
the inquiry in 2008 and cleared the
couple of any wrongdoing.
Madeleine’s parents said the detective
had sparked a ‘massive tidal wave of
lies’ against them in his book. In an
online post thanking his supporters
after he won his appeal, Amaral said he
felt ‘extremely humble’. He added: ‘None
of this would have been possible without
you.’
In her book, entitled Madeleine, Mrs
McCann said: ‘Goncalo Amaral has been
convicted of falsifying statements… Why
is this man being allowed a platform
from which to peddle his absurd and
offensive ideas?’ |
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