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THE luxury home where former Portuguese
detective Goncalo Amaral, central to the
Madeleine McCann investigation, hoped to
spend his retirement is boarded up and
desolate.
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Detective
Goncalo Amaral and his
controversial book |
It is a place he aimed to retreat to
after writing a book about the
distressing case. Now, ruined and
shamed, he will almost certainly have to
sell it to pay libel compensation to
Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry.
But the property, in millionaires’
development Cerro Azul, near the town of
Olhao, has been seized as an asset by a
Lisbon court which last week ruled that
Amaral must pay the McCanns 500,000
euros (£357,000) compensation for
allegations he made in his book.
Amaral suggested that evidence showed
that Madeleine died in the apartment
from which she went missing, a claim
that caused the McCanns untold distress.
They are still searching for their
daughter, who, if alive, would be 12 on
May 12.
Guard dogs patrol inside the house while
Amaral, who is now broke, lives with his
father in Lisbon following his divorce
from his wife Sofi a. She lives with
their teenage daughter hundreds of miles
away in Faro – a city that the abandoned
property overlooks.
A family friend said: “He bought the
property about 10 years ago as an
investment and as somewhere to live with
his family during retirement but events
have taken a different turn.
The property is an asset of the court.
He still has a loan, which would have to
be paid back, with the rest potentially
going to the McCanns, leaving him
without anywhere to live except his
father’s small home. “Everything he has
worked for all his life could be lost.”
To help pay his legal fees, a fund in
Portugal has raised about £5,000 and now
a woman living in England, Leanne Baulch,
has set up a “gofundme”
crowd funding site, which has raised
£3,000.
After analysing the judgment from judge
Maria Castro, Amaral has decided to
appeal, which could take two years,
buying him time to raise more money.
Describing the judgment as “unfair” he
says he will appeal until the “very last
judicial instance”, which signals it
could end up in Portugal’s Supreme Court
or the European Court of Human Rights.
Supporters point to a section of the
judgment saying it was a proven fact
that British police dogs detected the
scent of human blood and a cadaver in
Apartment 5a of the Ocean Club in Praia
da Luz, from where Madeleine vanished
eight years ago today.
Amaral used this evidence to suggest in
his book that Madeleine had died in the
apartment, a theory vehemently rejected
by the McCanns who still hope that she
is alive somewhere.
The judge felt Amaral’s theory caused
the McCanns anger, despair and anguish
but she said it was not proven that they
had been destroyed from a moral, social
and family point of view beyond the pain
that the absence of their daughter
causes them.
Amaral’s retirement dream is locked
up by the Portuguese courts while he is
facing ruin
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People bang
on my gate and someone broke
in once. I just don’t feel
safe |
The couple had sought 500,000 euros
compensation for Madeleine and 100,000
euros for each of their twins Sean and
Amelie, now 10, but the judge threw that
out. She has still to decide if Amaral
had the right to promote his theories
under freedom of expression.
While the legal dispute looks set to
last for a further five years, the
anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance
is being quietly remembered in Luz.
On the noticeboard of the Nossa Senhora
yellow and white church, where the
McCanns regularly prayed, there is no
mention of Madeleine or the special
prayers which will be said there today.
There are no pictures or posters of her
and the only visible sign of the case is
on Stop street signs. Someone using a
sophisticated stencil has added “McCann
Circus”, highlighting the view of many
who feel the case should be forgotten
and people should be allowed to get on
with their lives.
Despite the costly Scotland Yard and
Portuguese police investigation, the
Sunday Express found that key witnesses
have still not been spoken to.
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road signs in
Praia de Luz emblazoned with
slogans to Stop the McCann
Circus |
Jenny Murat, 78, the mother of wrongly
accused Robert Murat, has potentially
breakthrough evidence but no one has
spoken to her. At 8pm on May 3, 2007,
she went to a supermarket and then drove
past Apartment 5a and saw a woman
hanging around. Her notes from the time
say: “There was a woman standing on the
corner under a lamp post.
“I don’t remember much of her other than
she was of slight build and was wearing
a plum coloured jacket. She moved around
the lamp post as if trying not to be
noticed.”
As she turned into the driveway of her
home, Casa Liliana, she was nearly hit
by a car going the wrong way. “When I
stopped to open the gates I could not
see the car but the woman was in the
road looking in my direction.”
After her son was wrongly made an
arguido (Portuguese for suspect), she
contacted Hugo Swire, a Tory MP in
Devon, and Leicestershire police about
her sighting but, astonishingly, she has
not been interviewed to this day.
Speaking at home this week, she told the
Sunday Express: “I am happy to speak to
Scotland Yard. This woman was just
outside Apartment 5a and it didn’t look
right. It could be relevant.”
After 12 years she has put Casa Liliana
up for sale. “It is very sad but the
place has become a tourist attraction
for all the wrong reasons,” she said. “I
get people banging on my gate and
someone broke in once. I don’t feel
safe. Robert’s life has been badly
damaged by lies. It never goes away, it
never ends. It gets you down.”
She will live with her daughter, Sammy,
in Devon, but Robert, wife Michaela and
their four-year-old son will remain on
the Algarve.
“I might buy a small flat in Luz but we
will see,” said Jenny. “It is not the
same place.” |
