A Lisbon court has ruled national daily Correio da Manha pay a total of 15,000 euros to Robert Murat who was dragged into the case of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann after volunteering to act as a translator between Portuguese authorities and the McCanns

In its judgment, the court found that publishing false allegations such as “Robert Murat is a predator who visits sites containing sexual violence” was not in the public interests and infringed upon his rights.

The newspaper frequently quoted anonymous police sources and alleged leaks by investigators in their coverage of the case to substantiate its claims.

“This is the 33-year old Englishman police believe dragged little Maddie from the bed in which she was sleeping up to the house where he lives with his mother”, the newspaper wrote in May 2007 shortly after Mr. Murat was declared a person of interest or arguido and questioned by police in a marathon 19-hour-long interrogation session in Portimao.

Following these and several other extraordinary statements as to his alleged personality and behavioural traits, Mr. Murat was forced to regularly wear a disguise when going out in public, all the while receiving threatening telephone calls and letters.

His real estate business was ruined as a result of the negative publicity, though he has since managed to set up a successful computer business in the Algarve.

Back in 2008, Robert Murat received 757,000 euros in damages from a number of British newspapers for false allegations they published. Amongst them were the Sunday Express, to which Robert Murat gave an exclusive interview last Sunday which was published on their front page under the headline, ‘Bring Them All Back to Portugal’. This was a call made in reference to Kate and Gerry McCann and the remainder of the so-called Tapas 9 coming to the country to carry out a reconscontruction of events leading up to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

Meanwhile, Kate McCann this week visited the Algarve.

One of her first visits was to the Nossa Senhora da Luz church to pray and light candles.

Sources close to the family said “she will spend a few days in Praia da Luz. She feels close to Madeleine there.

“It is a private trip alone, away from the spotlight, and a time for quiet reflection. She still has a lot of friends there”, the source was quoted as telling the Daily Mirror.

In a post on the findmadeleine.com site, Kate McCann confided that “it’s difficult to know what to write as each year passes, still without news of Madeleine. In many ways, nothing’s changed. We still worry about her, we miss her as much as we ever did, we remain as determined as ever to find her and to know what has happened.”

She praised the “significant progress” over the last year in the work of the Metropolitan Police and said the family remains greatly encouraged by their work and the many things they have managed to uncover so far.

“We continue to hope and pray that the Met working with the Portuguese Authorities will lead to a significant breakthrough. We need to find Madeleine and bring some peace to our family.”