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| Kate and Gerry McCann won
a case against Tony Bennett who published
letters alleging they were responsible for
their daughter's disappearance in Portugal.
|
The parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann won a court case
against a retired lawyer who'd published letters
alleging they were responsible for their daughter's
disappearance.
Tony Bennett
was
found guilty of contempt for defying court orders
when he posted letters online in 2011 that blamed
Gerry and Kate McCann for the three-year-old's
disappearance in 2007, the Guardian reported. He was
given a three-month suspended sentence, the BBC
reported, for 13 breaches of the order.
The McCann family was on a vacation in Portugal when Madeleine
vanished from her bedroom while her parents ate in a
nearby restaurant with friends.
The Portuguese attorney general in 2008 said McCann's parents
weren't suspects.
Bennett, 65, however, has vowed to solve the case and repeatedly
linked her parents to an alleged cover up, the Daily
Star said. Letters he wrote to British Prime
Minister David Cameron, the lead Scotland Yard
detective on the case and other public officials
carried the allegations against the McCanns.
"I recognise the distress I have caused on a number of occasions to
the claimants," Bennett said, according to the
Guardina. "I would like to apologise to them for
that distress."
A spokesman for the McCanns said they brought the case as a "last
resort," according to the BBC.
"Mr Bennett has pursued an incessant campaign against them,
repeatedly making false accusations against them,"
said Clarence Mitchell.
