Kate and Gerry
McCann have used the £1million Find Madeleine fund to pay their
mortgage, it was revealed yesterday.
Fund organisers refused to say how much had been spent but
confirmed that money donated by the public was made available
for the family's living expenses.
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Payments: The McCanns have used part of the Find
Madeleine
fund to pay their mortgage |
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Neither has
worked since Madeleine vanished on May 3, although Mr McCann is
due to return to his £75,000-a-year post as a hospital
consultant this week.
Mortgage repayments on the couple's £500,000 detached home in
Rothley, Leicestershire, are believed to be £2,000 a month.
The Find
Madeleine fund, which has received more than ?1.09million in
donations from all over the world, was set up primarily to fund
a publicity campaign after the little girl vanished on May 3.
It also met
legal fees involved in setting up the not-for-profit business,
which does not have charitable status.
But the fund's
directors - who include colleagues, friends and relatives of the
McCanns - ruled that they cannot use it to pay the legal team
defending them against Portuguese allegations that they were
involved in Madeleine's disappearance.
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Family
home: The mortgage repayments on the house in
Rothley are
believed to be around £2,000 a month |
That has been
met by a separate fund, using donations from wealthy benefactors
including Sir Richard Branson.
The salary of
the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell is paid by another
millionaire, double-glazing tycoon Brian Kennedy.
But the Find
Madeleine fund has paid for other staff, including former
campaign manager Justine McGuinness,
In the weeks
after Madeleine's disappearance it paid for her parents'
campaign trips to Madrid, Amsterdam, Berlin, Washington DC and
the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
It was revealed
last month that about ?300,000 had been spent, and a further
?80,000 was paid out this month for a new publicity campaign in
Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
Donations have
slowed dramatically, however, since the McCanns, both 39, were
made official suspects in the case.
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Fund:
The campaign to find Madeleine has raised more than
?1million |
Exact details
of where the money has gone will not be disclosed until the end
of the financial year when the accounts are made public.
Fund officials
said an administrator has been appointed to ensure "the highest
standards of transparency and accountability".
Mr Mitchell
said last night: "The fund exists to support Kate and Gerry
where their living costs would become difficult.
"Gerry is going
back to work this week and they hope they will not have to rely
on it for their living costs for much longer."
The McCanns
have said any surplus money from the fund would be given to
charities to help families of other missing children.
Friends of the
McCanns have said they are anxious to keep the fund's money for
the campaign to find Madeleine.
They denied Mr
McCann was returning to work for financial reasons, insisting he
wanted to regain a "sense of normality".
He has been on
unpaid leave and his wife, a part-time GP, has not been paid
while she has been off work.
It is
understood that Mr McCann will initially work three half-days a
week at Leicester's Glenfields Hospital and will not have any
direct contact with patients until his employers believe he is
ready.
His return has
been approved by the General Medical Council, which regulates
the medical profession, but a senior heart specialist warned
last night that it could put patients' lives at risk.
The consultant,
who did not wish to be named, asked: "How will he be able to
concentrate on his work with his daughter missing? It is a
high-pressure job and you have to make difficult decisions.
"I can tell you
from personal experience that if your mind is not totally on it,
it is hard.
"If he is going
to be doing procedures where you have to totally focus, the only
way you can do it is compartmentalise and if you can't do it, it
could be very difficult. He could break down and make a
mistake."
The group
Patient Concern said Mr McCann should be monitored for at least
three months and the public should be able to choose not to be
treated by him.
Director Roger
Goss said: "It's a good idea he is allowed back, but he should
be monitored to ensure he is all right.
"Patients
should be allowed the option of not being treated by him while
the case has such a high profile. I know it sounds
discriminatory but it is not unreasonable." |