Following a new rush of Madeleine stories in the world’s press, former PJ detective Gonçalo Amaral has come out with all guns blazing.
Awaiting the decision of his appeal against the €500,000-plus damages awarded to Madeleine’s parents as a result of their long running civil suit against him, Amaral says it is “intolerable and reprehensible” to see what is quite clearly a “strategic campaign mounted with the view to pressurise a superior Portuguese court”.
“To produce, at this moment, sightings and interviews giving the false idea that a child that mysteriously disappeared around nine years ago has been found alive, is part of a campaign of pressure on a Portuguese institution of law” – in this case, the Court of Appeal, in Lisbon, he added.
To those who “feed the false idea” that Madeleine could appear at any moment alive, “just because there are cases where children have been recovered after several years”, Amaral stresses: “These children were all over nine years old when they disappeared.”
He goes on to refer people to his book “Vidas Sem Defesa” which “may teach (them) something about child disappearances”.
The strongly-worded statement followed a flurry of spurious news stories about a so-called Private Investigator having “found” Madeleine in the South American country of Paraguay.
The story is understood to have led to a “huge search” involving “four police stations, an anti-kidnapping division, intelligence personnel and Interpol”.
It was widely covered by the British press which went on to describe the “heartache” that it has since caused (as it was spurious) and how Madeleine “could have been put in danger”, as the Private Eye should not have announced the (spurious) sighting without first contacting the relevant authorities.
As Amaral explains: “It is important not to forget that the decision on my appeal is pending.”
It is a decision that he “awaits with the calm and serenity possible” when faced with regular Maddie stories, repeated ad infinitum in the world’s press.
One of the most recent involved the interpretation of a statement – by Madeleine’s mother Kate that her daughter was “not a million miles from Praia da Luz” – which was taken to suggest Madeleine was in fact still very much in Praia da Luz.
The British tot went missing from a tourist apartment in the holiday resort in May 2007, and despite a Metropolitan Police investigation that has cost €12 million, every single line of inquiry appears to have led nowhere.
Gonçalo Amaral was in charge of the original investigation and is the author of the book “A Verdade da Mentira” – the Truth of the Lie – which formed the basis of the McCann parents’ civil action against him.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
