Britain’s Metropolitan police are examining an 80-page dossier of abusive messages sent in the last few years to Gerry and Kate McCann.
Internet “trolls”, people who post inflammatory or disruptive messages online, have wished them ill in Tweets, Facebook posts, and other online fora. Most of the armchair detectives have chosen anonymity.
British detectives searching for Madeleine McCann have submitted a further formal request to the Portuguese authorities.
Police officers working at Scotland Yard on Operation Grange are preparing to return to the Algarve in September in what has been described by media as a last ditch attempt to discover the truth by interviewing a full list of suspects identified as potentially important to the case.
Gonçalo Amaral insists that the lawfulness of his book Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira is “indisputable” and has reiterated that he may file a counter lawsuit against Kate and Gerry McCann.
The lead detective in the original investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann revealed this in a Facebook message to supporters in which he gave an assessment of his position on the current libel action brought against him by the McCanns.
With two futile weeks of ground searching and the questioning of four unlikely suspects still fresh in the memory, a former Scotland Yard commander had a new idea. In a report in the Mail on Sunday he urged detectives to examine an abandoned well “just 875 yards from the apartment where Madeleine McCann vanished.”
The newspaper carried an aerial view of the location and also a close-up photo of the supposed well.
In the continuing story of the McCanns and their action against policeman turned best-selling author Gonçalo Amaral, the libel trial resumed this morning at Lisbon's Palace of Justice. The McCanns insisted that Amaral’s book The Truth of the Lie had caused them great distress, was shocking and was an affront to their family.
At play is a cool €1.2 million, the sum the McCanns are seeking in damages.
The McCanns consider the attitude and actions of Gonçalo Amaral in sacking his lawyer as a further delaying tactic.
The trial has been postponed for 10 days and today’s hearing cancelled.
Kate and Gerry McCann fly into Lisbon this weekend in preparation for a 09.30 start in the number 1. Civil Court in the 'McCann v Amaral' case.
The McCanns are suing Gonçalo Amaral, a former Inspector from the Criminal Investigation Department of the Judicial Police in Portimão, for €1.2 million.
In the midst of the latest phase in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Sky News presenter Kay Burley entered the fray with an article in the Daily Mirror in which she castigated “conspiracy theorists” and “haters” of Madeleine’s parents.
Burley, a reporter and newsreader of long standing, wrote: “I am absolutely staggered by the number of people on social media who think they know exactly what happened to little Madeleine. Conspiracy theorists believe that it’s only a matter of time before the McCanns are held culpable for their daughter’s disappearance.”
