Madeleine McCann: McCanns’ Legal Pitfalls As Amaral’s Book Goes Back On Sale – Anorak was Right
MADELEINE McCann: Lisbon’s Court of Appeal has overturned the ban on Goncalo Amaral’s book The Truth Of The Lie.
The law now says the ban breached “a constitutional and universal right: that of opinion and freedom of expression. The contents of the book do not breach the basic rights of the plaintiffs.”
Earlier this year, the McCanns won an injunction banning the book from sale in Portugal. (Read their statement here.) It was always a massive risk going to a foreign country and taking on an ex-copper.
As Anorak’s AGW wrote 8 MONTHS AGO:
You know when an accident is going to happen. They even have corporate speak phrases for it these days: “Risk Assessment” is one.
You know when a playing kitten is going to fall from the arm of the chair, you know when the child is going trip and fall, no matter how quick you are to try and get there.
Sometimes you see disasters being created and thundering, in silent-movie slowed down train-wreck style, toward you or others and there’s little you can do other than stand and watch horror-struck by the enormity of it all.
You know the accident’s about to happen and there is nothing you can do but perhaps wonder why you knew?
It has nothing to do with sixth senses, it is because the most powerful computer known to man, your brain, has gathered in all the previous experiences you have weighed in the balance and made a predictive analysis.
That is what is so strange about the current and past behaviour of the parents of the missing child Madeleine McCann.
They have started a court action defending their reputations in Lisbon because the former chief investigating officer Goncalo Amaral, above, is accusing them of being involved in Madeleine’s disappearance. They have also started an action seeking a money settlement for the Portuguese equivalent of libel and in addition are taking on a Lisbon-based documentary production unit for reporting on the detective’s objected to book and the case.
Lisbon was never going to be a perfect spot for the McCann’s to start legal sparring and this week they were dealt what can only be termed a body-blow when the detective’s lawyers produced evidence the UK’s top criminal profiler has said there were “contradictions” in their statements and both should be treated as possible “homicide” suspects.
No arguments, no amount of reshuffling or clarifications can change that and the facts can not be forced back into the can of worms which the McCann parents themselves have allowed to be opened.
Damage Limitation
The background PR work after the Lisbon shocker has been impressive. The McCann lawyers strode from the courtroom and counter-claimed there were tens, hundreds or more sightings of the missing girl. The UK’s Red Tops dutifully followed the thread and reported the lawyer’s statement. My experience and training gave the brain the predictive text that this looked like a smoke screen, a damage limitation. The missing fact was all these sightings came after the McCann’s themselves had been released from Arguido, suspect, status. The case was archived. It was a cold, leading nowhere, case in the eyes of the top legal and police professionals in Portugal…the responsible authorities have no clues and have suspended work on the case.
It has already been said in these columns, taking on the Portuguese legal system was going to be a minefield but there is one question:
Who is taking the responsibility for the Risk Assessment for this McCann course of action?
Whoever it was needs to be replaced or kept out of the limelight.
Mass public opinion is turning. The McCanns are slipping lower and lower down the celebs’ to be seen with list, certainly no-longer A list and slightly embarrassing to be around according to some whispers.
The McCanns are innocent. No charges have been brought against anyone…except the Chief Investigating Police Officer, Goncalo Amaral.
Wake up!
A second question would have to be: Who on earth took the Risk Assessment decision Amaral was a buffoon an incompetent, bungling, Jacques Clouseau Pink Panther type of police officer?
Come on, wake up! Police officers do not rise through the ranks to positions of authority without being good thief-takers and being very good at spotting the wrongness of something.
Amaral is tougher than the baying section of Britain’s media has portrayed.The McCanns are becoming battered and worn by this. Just look at their recent photographs. The child is still missing, lost, gone. Arguments still rage over the rightness or wrongness of it all.
Something is judgementally wrong in the Risk Assessments taken here. This week has been hugely damaging to the McCann’s and their cause. The information given this week in the Lisbon court can no longer be ignored or forgotten. It will have a high cost and one of the costs are potential new helpers and donations to the campaign of finding the child. The parents WERE involved in Madeleine’s disappearance because they left her alone to her fate and that is a tragic inescapable fact. No legal action, nor anything else, can change it.
The truly awful fact is this piece been written and illustrated without one mention of the first names, professions or use of photographs of the McCann parents but everyone of you knows the name, the job and carries the image for further risk assessment.
That is a risk position NOT to be in.
Pictures Of All The Madeleine McCann Suspects
You can now buy the book in Portugal, and read Amaral’s opinion that Our Maddie died in an accident at the McCanns’ holiday home in Praia da Luz in 2007. Amaral, who worked on the investigation, also alleges Gerry and Kate faked her abduction.
Maddie fans /ghouls /armchair detectives can also legally buy a 50-minute DVD documentary to get the full multi-media experience as they are entertained by the disappearance of an innocent young child.
The McCanns deny any wrongdoing. There is no proof that they did any wrong and that Amaral’s claims are valid. The McCanns are looking to sue Amaral for defamation.
The papers react.
The Star, which libelled the McCanns, reminds its readers that the parents are “both doctors”.
Why this facts needs repeating is unclear?
Says McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell:
“The legal action against Mr Amaral is very much continuing. Kate and Gerry’s lawyers are examining this latest court action and are considering an appeal.”
The Guardian recalls:
After Amaral lost an earlier appeal, the McCanns claimed his book had caused “significant, ongoing damage to the search for our beloved daughter Madeleine and to the rights of our family … there is no evidence that Madeleine has come to any harm.”
Hard to argue with that.
They added: “As painful and personally damaging as the slanderous claims of Mr Amaral and his supporters have been to us and our family, our primary focus has always been, and always will be, to find Madeleine through our own best investigative efforts.”
Madeleine McCann is missing. There are no suspects. There is no proof she is alive nor dead. There is no proof of a crime having befallen her. There is only one fact, a single-thread story spun for news, hope, personal gain and sensation.
Madeleine McCann: ‘Bungling’ Portuguese Police Leave ‘No Stone Unturned’ In Casa Pia Case
The Story In Pictures
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(Left to Right), Gerry McCann, Martin Houghton-Brown, Chief Executive Missing People, Kate McCann and Francis Herbert, Secretary General, Missing Children Europe at a Madeleine McCann fundraiser held at the Roof Gardens in London, exactly 1,000 days after their daughter Madeleine McCann went missing.
Posted: 20th, October 2010 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (162) | TrackBack | Permalink
