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The parents of missing child Madeleine
McCann have sued The Sunday Times for
libel over a story which they said gave
the impression they had hindered the
investigation into her disappearance.
According to publisher News UK the claim
has been settled.
Kate and Gerry McCann took issue with a
front-page story from last year, which
the couple said suggested they had kept
"secret from investigating authorities a
crucial piece of evidence concerning the
disappearance of their daughter".
In addition to the article, which was
published on 27 October and remained
online until 8 November, the McCanns
also made reference to readers' comments
left on the article - in High Court
papers seen by Press Gazette.
The story, for which the paper
apologised on 28 December, said: “The
critical new evidence at the centre of
Scotland Yard’s search for Madeleine
McCann was kept secret for five years
after it was presented to her parents by
ex-MI5 investigators.”
The title reported that an intelligence
report produced for the McCanns
contained “crucial E-Fits” of a man who
was identified as the prime suspect last
year. The paper said that the “McCanns
and their advisers sidelined the report
and threatened to sue its authors if
they divulged its contents”.
The Insight story also quoted a source
close to the McCanns as saying that the
report was “hyper-critical of the people
involved”.
In their claim form, in which they were
claiming unspecified damages, the
McCanns said that the story was
understood to mean that they had
hindered "the search for [Madeleine] and
the investigation into her disappearance
by allowing the trail to go cold".
They said that the story led to them
having “suffered serious damage to their
reputations and severe embarrassment and
distress”.
They also claimed that the paper's
Insight team, which wrote the story, had
not told their spokesman the full extent
of the allegations which were to be made
against them.
The McCanns also said that the story did
not include several points made to
Insight by their spokesman. They said
this denied them "a proper opportunity
to inform the readers of The Sunday
Times of the falsity of the allegations
against them".
On 1 November, the couple sent editor
Martin Ivens an email headed: “Complaint
letter – urgent”.
They said that the email, outlining what
was wrong with the story with a
“detailed rebuttal”, was responded to by
executive editor Bob Tyrer six days
later.
The McCanns said in their claim form
that he told them “we could have made
some facts clearer in the story” and
that “we could have published more of
your pre-publication statement” but
largely rejected their complaint.
They said Tyrer offered them “three
limited revisions” to the online
article, publication of the statement
from their spokesman and “an extremely
limited” clarification in the
corrections and clarifications column.
On 8 November Gerry McCann wrote back
noting his disappointment that the
article remained online and he pointed
to the readers’ comments below.
The McCanns then consulted lawyers
Carter Ruck, who wrote to The Sunday
Times on 15 November “with proposed
wording for an apology”.
The Sunday Times published the following
apology on 28 December:
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In articles dated October 27
("Madeleine clues hidden for 5
years" and "Investigators had E-Fits
five years ago", News) we referred
to efits which were included in a
report prepared by private
investigators for the McCanns and
the Fund in 2008. We accept that the
articles may have been understood to
suggest that the McCanns had
withheld information from the
authorities. This was not the case.
We now understand and accept that
the efits had been provided to the
Portuguese and Leicestershire police
by October 2009. We also understand
that a copy of the final report
including the efits was passed to
the Metropolitan police in August
2011, shortly after it commenced its
review. We apologise for the
distress caused."
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