Portugal’s Supreme Court has ruled Kate and Gerry McCann cannot sue former Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral for libel after his book claimed the couple covered up their child’s death.
The hearing took place to resolve the couple’s fight against a lower courts decision to reverse their 2015 win against the former police officer.
Amaral, who led the initial investigation when then-three-year-old Madeleine vanished from a holiday home in Portugal’s Algarve region in May 2007, alleged in his 2008 book, Maddie: The Truth Of The Lie, that the toddler’s parents were involved in the highly-publicised disappearance.
Amaral claimed that Madeleine had died in the holiday accommodation and the couple had faked her abduction to cover up the tragedy.
The Portuguese Supreme Court’s latest ruling has found that Amaral’s “exercise of his freedom of expression was not considered abusive,” adding that his comments were “within admissible limits in a democratic and open society, which excludes the illegality of possible damage to the honour of the McCanns.”
In his defence, Amaral argued that the claims made in his controversial book stemmed from first-hand experience within the police investigation.
According to The Mirror, well-placed sources close to the long-running case have revealed that the McCanns will now face a hefty legal bill.
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