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Court rules book caused McCanns to suffer but not "destroy" them

Xinhua, January 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Lisbon's civil court has deemed that missing British girl Madeleine McCann's parents were not "destroyed" by former Portuguese inspector's 2008 book The Truth Of The Lie, newspaper Publico reported on Thursday.

"It has not been proved that Kate and Gerry McCann have been destroyed from a moral, social, and ethical point of view," a judge of the court said Wednesday, according to Publico.

Kate and Gerry McCann sued former Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral for one million pounds (about 1.51 million U.S. dollars) after having won an injunction against him in 2013, which led to his book being withdrawn.

Amaral published a book with allegations that the couple had covered up their daughter's disappearance, by making up that she had been kidnapped, just a few days after the inquiries into the case were shelved.

Kate McCann claimed that his book had damaged efforts to search for her daughter.

On Wednesday, the judge said "from a sentimental point of view it is not credible that the consequences...go as far as destruction or beyond the pain caused by the disappearance of their child," and denied McCanns' claims that the book had led to halt the investigation into their daughter's disappearance.

However, the court admitted that the book, which also led to a TV documentary based on his claims, had included information from the investigation's official files and had led the McCanns' to feel "fury, desperation, anguish, and worry, having suffered insomnia and lack of appetite."

Madeleine MacCann disappeared in 2007 when she was three years old, at the Ocean Club resort in Praia de Luz, Algarve in Portugual while her parents dined with friends at a local restaurant.

The judge told Publico that the alleged "damages of social character" had not been proved and that therefore it was expected that Amaral would be acquitted.

Publico also reported that the court said most people who had read the book would not blame the McCanns' for their daughter's disappearance.

The case is still ongoing and no date has been set for a final judgement, according to local media. Enditem