A Lisbon court has this week told the former lead detective who investigated the disappearance of Madeleine McCann that he can no longer publicise his suspicions that she is dead and that her parents concealed her body. While Gonçalo Amaral’s lawyer has blasted the ruling for limiting the freedom of expression, Madeleine’s father Gerry has welcomed the decision, arguing Mr Amaral’s views resulted in fewer people looking for his daughter. It was also revealed that Kate and Gerry McCann’s legal representatives in Britain now plan to sue the former detective for a minimum of €1.2 million in damages.

Following legal proceedings that had been kept under wraps, a controversial book and a DVD by Gonçalo Amaral have been forced off the shelves by a Portuguese court.

‘The Truth of the Lie’ was on the verge of being published in English, explained António Cabrita, lawyer for the detective, and said he believed the ruling coincided with this very fact.

In comments to the Lusa News Agency, he said he found the timing of the injunction odd, saying the book has been on sale for a year and that sales peaked some time ago.

It has also emerged that Mr Amaral is facing a seven-figure civil claim over the publishing of the book.

“We are currently demanding €1.2 million in damages, but we are reserving the right to increase this value as soon as we can ascertain what profits have been generated from the sale of this book”, Ed Smethurst, a lawyer for the McCanns said on Wednesday as news of the injunction was made public.

The action against Amaral was filed by Kate and Gerry McCann, along with Madeleine and her twin siblings, Sean and Amelie.

The McCanns have so far received around €700,000 in damages from British newspapers, though Gerry McCann told The Portugal News back in April that he believed the cash in the Find Madeleine Fund will have run dry by the end of the year.

In the ruling, the judge at Lisbon’s main civil court outlawed any further sales or publications of the book.

Mr Amaral has insisted since being taken off the case back in 2007 that there are a number of discrepancies in the accounts given by the McCanns as to what happened on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance.

The injunction states that Mr Amaral has to ensure all unsold copies of his book are removed from shops and warehouses across Europe or face a 1,000 euro-a-day fine.

But before going to press, publishers of the book said they were still awaiting legal documentation signalling them to remove the book.

The order bans the former detective from repeating any of his claims about the McCann family and also applies to a television programme, later produced as a DVD, he made earlier this year in conjunction with TVI.

Copyright for the book and film must also be passed to the McCanns’ lawyer in Portugal, Isabel Duarte.

In May, the McCanns had said they were suing Mr Amaral for defamation over the “hurtful” book’s “unfounded and grossly defamatory claims”.

Mr Amaral has since said he would counter-sue the McCanns, had a clear conscience and was more than willing to face them in a court of law.

Following the decision, Kate and Gerry McCann released a statement praising the Portuguese court’s decision.

“We are pleased with the Judge’s decision preventing further distribution and sale of Mr Amaral’s book and DVD –‘The Truth of the Lie’.

“Mr. Amaral’s central thesis has no evidence whatsoever to support it. To claim as he did, that Madeleine is dead, and that we, her parents, were in some way involved with her disappearance, has caused our family incredible distress and it continues to do so.

“Without doubt, Madeleine will have suffered as a result of the negative effect this book and DVD will have had on the search for her.

“Sean and Amelie need protection too from such awful claims.

“Hopefully this injunction today will go a long way towards reducing further unnecessary and unjust distress to us all and allow people to concentrate completely on what is important - finding Madeleine,” the statement read.

In the only extensive interview granted to an English-language publication, Gonçalo Amaral told The Portugal News back in 2007 that his premature removal from the case hampered the search for the truth.

“We should have continued investigating the parents in order to either charge them or rule them out as suspects. If I had represented this couple, I would have insisted the police investigations continue. Not everything we do is to incriminate a suspect”, he reasoned, adding: “Often a phone will be tapped in order to obtain information that will clear a suspect”.

When questioned over legal action he would face over his views, Mr Amaral said: “My book is based on facts. It could be a good occasion to take all the case files to court and compare what I wrote with that which is contained in the files.”

Arguing the opposite to be true, Gerry McCann told The Portugal News: “There’s one thing that has been revealed in the case files which is that there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead and there is no evidence to suggest that Kate and I were involved in any theories. It’s about Madeleine. As her parents, I hope people understand that we have to do what we are doing.”

Kate and Gerry have also since referred to the Jaycee Lee Dugard case as an example of why they will continue their search for their daughter.

“Once again - this shows that children can seem to disappear off the radar, only to be found years later alive. It emphasises that we should never assume that someone is not alive without any evidence to support this - we should never give up. This case only makes us more determined to find Madeleine. She is somewhere and somebody knows where”, the McCanns said.

Madeleine McCann went missing from the holiday apartment she was staying at on May 3rd, 2007 in Praia da Luz shortly before her fourth birthday.

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