Disgraced cop to be key speaker at Madeleine McCann conference

Sep 13 2009 by Vicky Farncombe, Sunday Mercury

“However, I am able to share one piece of news with you.

Gonçalo Amaral, the author of Maddie: A Verdada da Mentira (Maddie: The Truth About The Lie’) has agreed to be the key guest speaker at our conference.”

Amaral, 49, worked on the original investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve coast of Portugal in May 2007.

He claimed that Gerry and Kate McCann, both 41, covered up their daughter´s death, even though there was no evidence to support his theory.

In July 2008 the McCanns were cleared of any wrongdoing in a formal report by Portugal´s Attorney General Jose Pinto Monteiro. They are suing Amaral for £1 million for defamation, and for breaching their human rights.

They also plan to take action against the Madeleine McCann Foundation for distributing a leaflet blaming them for Maddie’s disappearance.

The sickening leaflets were received by 10,000 people in the McCanns’ home village of Rothley.

A source close to the couple said they were “totally horrified” by the four-page publication. which said that if she died in the family’s holiday flat those “This is an evil, despicable act,” she said. “These people are self-obsessed, self-absorbed individuals.”

McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “We do not wish to dignify the actions of the so-called Madeleine Foundation in any way.”