McCann V Amaral: Supreme Court verdict 31 Jan 2017

With great thanks to Anna Guedes and Pamalam the 44 pages from the Supreme Court Verdict have now been translated


McCann V Amaral: Supreme Court verdict 31 Jan 2017 Link

Fresh anguish for Madeleine McCann's parents as Portugal's supreme court insists they haven't been proved innocent over their daughter's death

Kate and Gerry McCann always claimed they were innocent of any wrongdoing 

Former Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral's allegations Maddie died in their holiday flat and her parents faked her abduction to cover up the tragedy 

Court in Lisbon said lifting of 'suspect' status did not mean they're innocent


By Alisha Rouse For The Daily Mail and Gerald Couzens In Spain For The Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 01:10, 9 February 2017 | UPDATED: 17:38, 9 February 2017

The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have been challenged by Portugal's highest court over their insistence they had nothing to do with their daughter's disappearance.

Kate and Gerry McCann have always claimed they were innocent of any wrongdoing despite former police chief Goncalo Amaral's allegations Maddie died in their holiday flat and her parents faked her abduction to cover up the tragedy.

But Portuguese Supreme Court judges who ruled last week against their last-ditch appeal over Mr Amaral's 2008 book 'The Truth of the Lie' said the lifting of their status as 'arguidos' - or formal suspects - did not mean they were innocent.

         Kate and Gerry McCann (pictured in 2014) have always claimed they were innocent 

of any wrongdoing despite former police chief Goncalo Amaral's allegations Maddie died 

in their holiday flat and her parents faked her abduction to cover up the tragedy

The statement came in the court's 76-page ruling on the McCann's fight against another court's decision to reverse their 2015 libel win against the former detective.

The couple were left facing a huge legal bill and the prospect of being sued by Mr Amaral, who led the initial hunt for Madeleine when she vanished, after being told last week the Supreme Court had gone against them in a ruling which was not made fully public until yesterday.

Judges made it clear in their decision their job was not to decide whether the McCanns bore any criminal responsibility over their daughter's disappearance and it would be wrong for anyone to draw any inferences about the couple's guilt or innocence from their ruling.

But they added: 'It should not be said that the appellants were cleared via the ruling announcing the archiving of the criminal case.

'In truth, that ruling was not made in virtue of Portugal's Public Prosecution Service having acquired the conviction that the appellants hadn't committed a crime.

'The archiving of the case was determined by the fact that public prosecutors hadn't managed to obtain sufficient evidence of the practice of crimes by the appellants.

'There is therefore a significant, and not merely a semantic difference, between the legally admissible foundations of the archive ruling.

'It doesn't therefore seem acceptable that the ruling, based on the insufficiency of evidence, should be equated to proof of innocence.'

Highlighting the McCanns' Tapas Nine friend Jane Tanner's much-questioned sighting of the suspected 'abductor', they added: 'It's true that the aforementioned criminal inquiry ended up being archived, namely because none of the apparent evidence that led to the appellants being made 'arguidos' was subsequently confirmed or consolidated.

'However even the archive ruling raises serious concerns relating to the truth of the allegation that Madeleine was kidnapped.'

The McCanns were told their 'arguido' status had been lifted on July 21 2008 when the Portuguese probe into Maddie's disappearance was shelved, three days before the controversial book was published.

The former detective was ordered to pay the couple £430,000 by a Lisbon court in April 2015 after they won round one of their lengthy judicial battle.

Mr Amaral got that ruling - and a ban on selling his book - overturned on appeal in April last year.

The decision by Lisbon's Court of Appeal sparked the Supreme Court fight which was resolved last Tuesday.

The McCanns were told their 'arguido' status had been lifted on July 21 2008 when the 

Portuguese probe into Maddie's disappearance was shelved, three days before the 

controversial book was published

The Supreme Court judges said the McCanns claimed the book and a TV documentary based on the book would have damaged the honour and good name of any 'innocent person who had been cleared through the shelving of the criminal investigation.'

It is believed the McCanns are discussing the possibility of taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Madeleine was three years-old when she disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia de Luz, Portugal, on May 12, 2003.

British police have spent more than £10 million looking for Madeleine.

A spokesperson for the McCann's did not want to respond to request for comment last night. 

MailOnline

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UK media rounds on Supreme Court ‘shock’ that McCanns “have not been proved innocent”

Posted by PORTUGALPRESS on February 09, 2017

UK tabloids - which for so long have been so ‘anti-Portuguese’ in their reporting of the Madeleine McCann mystery - are changing their tune following publication of the Supreme Court judgement which stressed that parents Kate and Gerry McCann have not been proved innocent in the context of their daughter’s disappearance (click here).

Media sources in touch with the Resident warn: “The tide is turning in UK. Did you know that Panorama was in Luz last week? Tell your readers to batten down, they’re all coming”.

The Sun, the Mirror, the Daily Mail began the day leading with hurtful headlines.

Curiously, the Daily Mail’s “Portuguese court says Madeleine McCann’s parents HAVEN’T been cleared” (with large capital letters for the word haven’t) was later changed to: “Fresh anguish for Madeleine McCann's parents as Portugal's supreme court insists they haven't been proved innocent over their daughter's death”.

But the thrust of the story is busily steaming its way through the English-speaking mainstream while the McCann couple themselves, and their representatives, must be considering a response with care.

Says the Mail: “A spokesperson for the McCann’s did not want to respond to request for comment last night”, while the Mirror - running with the story under “Kate and Gerry McCann ‘not formally in the clear’ over daughter Madeleine’s disappearance” says the Supreme Court ruling “means suspicion still hangs over the heads of the McCanns, who have always claimed their innocence”.

Another cloud highlighted by the ruling is the fact that there remain “serious concerns relating to the truth that Madeleine was kidnapped” (Daily Mail today, as well as Portuguese papers, quoting directly from the 76-page text).

For Praia da Luz - the holiday village perennially dragged into the spotlight over this almost decade-long mystery - the question on everyone’s minds is “if there is a media stampede back” could it spell a rush of welcome pre-season business, and would it disappear in time to let the popular sun-blessed village enjoy a trouble-free summer?

natasha.donn@algarveresident.com



PORTUGALPRESS

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