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Kate
McCann with her husband, Gerry at a news conference |
KATE McCANN has responded angrily to attacks against her and her husband
by Spanish television producers over drugs found after the
disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.
In a new epilogue for the paperback edition of her book, Madeleine, Kate
reveals that drugs filmed being removed from the apartment they were
renting in Portugal were actually Parkinson’s drugs to treat her father
Brian, who has the illness, and not sedatives.
She said she and Gerry were confronted by a “propaganda” film just
before giving an interview during a Spanish television programme.
They sat in stunned silence as “damning images” gathered from the media
and Portuguese files were displayed on a big screen. The shots included
barking dogs trained to find dead bodies, books, documents and
medicines taken from the villa they had rented in Praia da Luz after the
disappearance of their daughter from apartment 5a of the Ocean Club.
Kate writes: “The commentary presented these ‘exhibits’ as fact, as
evidence of guilt.
“One of the books was a novel Gerry had taken to Portugal as holiday
reading, The Interpretation Of Murder, a best-selling historical crime
thriller inspired by a visit made to New York by Sigmund Freud in 1909,
presumably singled out for no other reason than its sinister title.
“The tablets shown were actually my father’s Parkinson’s disease
medication, as was confirmed by the patient’s name on the packets,
conveniently out of shot, and not, as the voiceover suggested, sedatives
that we had administered to our children.
“The Portuguese police knew this, and so would the producers of the
programme, had they properly read the book they were supposed to be
interviewing us about.
“I’ve run out of superlatives to adequately express my shock and disgust
at this abhorrent behaviour.” Although she does not say so in her new
chapter, Kate’s parents, Brian and Susan Healy, flew to join them to
offer support in Portugal after Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007.
The epilogue is largely a tirade against the media but Kate does say of
Scotland Yard’s investigative review of the case: “Almost immediately
Gerry and I felt confident, reassured and hopeful. We know the review
will be a long haul and results won’t appear overnight.
“We know the ‘golden nugget’ may not be among the data accumulated thus
far but what we are sure of is that this process, whether it takes
months or years, will bring us closer to attaining our goal, and
possibly even all the way there.
“From the moment I heard the news of this major step forward for
Madeleine, a positive feeling had begun to spread inside me and it has
remained with me ever since.”
The paperback will be published on May 10 by Corgi Books priced £7.99.
Meanwhile, Kate and Gerry say they are more hopeful than ever that
Madeleine will be “back home soon” after revealing: “New leads are
coming to light”.
The couple told well-wishers in their village of Rothley,
Leicestershire, they now had “the best chance” of finding Madeleine.
Gerry addressed crowds who had gathered to support the family and pray
for Madeleine on the fifth anniversary of her disappearance. He said:
“We are very positive.
“There is information, coming directly from us, and there is real, new
information. New leads are coming to light. The Metropolitan Police are
determined to get to the bottom of this.” |
