 |
|
Kate McCann attended the
opening day of the trial but
has since stayed away,
leaving it to friends and
family to represent her,
until Mr Armal began his
defense |
The tormented mother of Madeleine McCann
has said she wants to defend herself in
open court for the first time against
Portuguese police 'smears' over her
daughter's disappearance.
Kate McCann has asked a judge for
permission to address a libel trial
brought after a controversial book
suggested the McCanns may have hidden
their daughter's body and staged an
abduction.
The author of The Truth Of The Lie is
ex-police chief Goncalo Amaral, 56, who
was tasked with investigating
Madeleine's May 2007 disappearance.
Kate's husband Gerry and Mr Amaral have
already applied to speak in the
Portuguese court.
Her application, revealed at the libel
trial today as former police colleagues
of Mr Amaral spoke in his defence, paves
the way for an emotional finale to the
case.
It comes just days ahead of a new appeal
by the McCanns for information on their
missing daughter on BBC's Crimewatch
which will feature a reconstruction of
events in Praia da Luz on May 3 2007.
It is thought Gerry and Kate, 45, will
appeal directly to a kidnapper during
the programme.
Madeleine's mother flew to Portugal for
the start of the libel trial last month
- but had left it to friends and
relatives to testify before Mr Amaral's
side launched its defence.
Judge Maria Emilia Melo e Castro,
referring to Kate by her maiden name as
she revealed her change of heart, said:
'On October 2 Kate Healy made an
application to make a statement to this
court.
 |
|
Hearing: Gerry McCann has
also expressed a wish to
testify against police chief
Goncaro Amaral |
'The court will decide on this
application once evidence has been heard
by both sides as only then will it be
able to judge on the need for and the
pertinence of this application.'
If given the go-ahead, the McCanns and
Mr Amaral are expected to speak on the
same day on or after November 27 when
the last hearing in the trial at
Lisbon's Palace of Justice is
scheduled.
Former colleagues of Mr Amaral's turned
up the heat on the McCanns today by
insisting nothing he wrote in his July
2008 book was new.
The book was published just three days
after the McCanns had their status as
suspects over Madeleine's disappearance
officially lifted.
Around 120,000 copies were sold before
it was withdrawn when the McCanns won an
injunction against the ex-police chief.
 |
|
Proceedings: Mr McCann in
the court building, where
the case against Mr Amaral
is being heard |
 |
|
Anger: Mr McCann claims the
allegations made it harder
to search for his daughter,
who vanished in 2007 |
Portuguese TV station TVI, also being
sued by the McCanns along with Mr
Amaral's book publishers, broadcast a
controversial documentary based on the
book in April 2009.
Former family liaison officer Ricardo
Paiva told the court: 'What is in the
book is based on our investigation and
contains the professional and personal
opinions of Goncalo Amaral as a police
officer.
'Everything that is there can be found
in the case files.'
Contradicting earlier claims by the
McCanns' family and friends that Mr
Amaral's book had hindered their search
for their daughter by turning the
Portuguese public against them, he
added: 'The flow of information
continued to come in regularly.
'Neither this book or any other book
affected the flow of information.'
Luis Neves, head of a national police
unit tasked with investigating organised
crime, including kidnappings, said Mr
Amaral's conclusion Madeleine was dead
was an idea accepted early on by her
parents.
He insisted Kate was the driving force
behind a failed July 2007 search for
Madeleine by controversial ex-south
African detective Danie Krugel, who
claimed to have invented a machine which
could locate a body if provided with a
DNA sample.
Neves said the reservations he felt over
Mr Krugel were shared by colleagues
about sniffer dogs supplied by British
police which went on to smell the 'scent
of death' in the McCanns' holiday
apartment and place a huge question mark
over the hypothesis Madeleine was
kidnapped.
The performance of the dogs was later
called into question after they also
reacted to remains at Haut de la Garenne
orphanage in Jersey, which were later
found to be animal bones.
 |
|
Battle: Mr McCann and his
family are still looking for
Madeleine, who was aged
three when she disappeared |
Mr Neves told the court: 'The McCanns
convinced us we should bring in the
south African man with his equipment.
'We didn't want to place any obstacles
in the way and so the investigating
officers eventually allowed it.
'It was during this part of the
investigation our British colleagues
said there was a team made up of dogs
and their handlers that could help us to
find out where the child could be
buried.
'It was from then on that the Algarve
police division decided to allow the
dogs to come and the idea of Madeleine's
death began to form and things took
another direction.
'I know the suggestion of the dogs was
not accepted lightly.
'We had no experience of it in Portugal
and the cost was another factor.'
Retired police officer Francisco Moita
Flores, now a TV commentator, described
the Madeleine McCann investigation as
one of the 'most complex and
well-investigated cases' he had had ever
seen and called Mr Amaral 'competent.'
He insisted the Tapas Nine - the McCanns
and the friends dining with them at a
tapas bar near their apartment the night
Madeleine disappeared - should have had
their phones tapped because of
'inconsistencies' in their statements.
Attacking the ongoing Home Office-funded
Met Police investigation into
Madeleine's disappearance, called
Operation Grange, he told the court:
'There's a prophetic and dogmatic vision
behind it.
'These detectives are only putting
forward the hypothesis of abduction.'
Judge Maria Emilio Melo e Castro stopped
lawyers on both sides asking Mr Amaral's
former police colleagues what they
thought about his conclusions on
Madeleine and her parents in his book
because they were 'opinions' and not
'facts.'
 |
|
Victim: Madeleine's
disappearance sparked a
worldwide police search, but
she has not yet been found |
 |
|
Couple: Gerry and Kate
McCann say they were
extremely distressed by Mr
Amaral's book, published in
2008 |
She waved the book in her hand as she
demanded to know from Ricardo Paiva:
'The back cover says it contains
exclusive revelations.
'What's new in the book that's not in
the police files?'
Told by Mr Paiva, 'Nothing', she
replied: 'Ok, so then I have to conclude
this is misleading advertising.'
Another defence witness, Mr Amaral's
ex-number two Vitor Tavares de Almeida,
was bizarrely dismissed after being
asked just one question.
The police chief, still a serving
officer despite being convicted in
January of torturing a crime suspect and
receiving a two and a half suspended
jail sentence, has previously claimed he
believes the McCanns concealed
Madeleine's body.
He was overheard on a video link
muttering: 'What am I doing here?'
before being sent away after admitting
he had only read the final two pages of
Mr Amaral's book.
Mr Amaral denies defamation. The case
continues. |
