Following a huge crowd-funding drive that has raised over £29,000 from well-wishers almost exclusively from the UK, former police inspector Gonçalo Amaral has today filed his appeal against the €500,000-plus damages awarded against him in a civil case taken out by the parents of Madeleine McCann.

The Projecto Justiça Gonçalo Amaral published the news this morning, thanking “each and every one” of the nearly 2000 people who have given money to the British gofundme appeal that has helped take Amaral’s legal fight to its next stage.

As the message went out, donations continued apace - with over £390 raised in a matter of hours.

Several of the day’s donors commented this was “news worth celebrating”, but more than one suggested the story is “unlikely to be covered by mainstream media”.

Indeed, by coincidence British media is much more focused today on Madeleine’s mother Kate who is leading a bike ride for a missing people’s charity. Kate McCann has told reporters that she is “really encouraged” by progress being made by police in the eight-year hunt for her daughter.

Meantime, the gofundme appeal - started by a young Birmingham woman who was only 14 when Madeleine went missing - is set to continue.

Updates are promised - though with the speed of Portuguese justice it is anyone’s guess when Amaral’s appeal will be set a date for hearing.

As readers may be aware, the long-running civil case taken out by Madeleine’s parents centred on claims Amaral made in his book The Truth of the Lie in which he suggested the McCanns had faked their daughter’s abduction.

The McCann’s said the book caused them “devastation, desperation, anxiety and pain”.

Amaral’s supporters however claim they “will not let this case pass into obscurity” and “do not tolerate the leaving of unanswered questions”. natasha.donn@algarveresident.com