The McCann v Gonçalo Amaral libel trial as it happens.

[drummer]

Mr Oliveira also asked if she was aware that 70% of British people in August 2007 condemned the couple for having left the children alone on the night Madeleine disappeared, to which she replied: "No I did not know that."

Bullsh&t.
70% of CMOMM sounds more likely.

[C.Edwards]

Mr Oliveira also asked if she was aware that 70% of British people in August 2007 condemned the couple for having left the children alone on the night Madeleine disappeared, to which she replied: "No I did not know that."

Bullsh&t.
70% of CMOMM sounds more likely.

If you know how to do a date-based google search and limit it to news up to the end of 2007, you'll be in for something of a surprise about that then...

[icabodcrane]

Mr Oliveira also asked if she was aware that 70% of British people in August 2007 condemned the couple for having left the children alone on the night Madeleine disappeared, to which she replied: "No I did not know that."

Bullsh&t.
70% of CMOMM sounds more likely.

I disagree

I think saying 70%   of the British public condemned the McCanns childcare arrangements is quite generous 

I would guess the actual figure would be higher

What percentage do you think would say  "yeah,  nothing wrong with what they did "   ?

[stephen25000]

The McCanns and their lawyer had nothing to do with this impediment to Santos' grown-up son ...

Both of the Mccanns could have been witnesses if they wished from the start of the trial.

They thought they had the case wrapped up, they didn't.

This is just sour grapes.

[drummer]

Do you know when this survey was carried out, and by whom or is it a forum poll I wonder?

[C.Edwards]

Do you know when this survey was carried out, and by whom or is it a forum poll I wonder?

I repeat. Do a bit of research into date-limited google searches and type some pertinent phrases into said search. If you can come away after that feeling smug about it "being a forum poll" then good luck to you.

[Montclair]

The McCanns' pain over the disappearance of their daughter was "multiplied 100 times" by a book by a former Portuguese police chief, a court has heard.

Gerry McCann's sister Trish Cameron said he and wife Kate had been left in "purgatory" by the disappearance of Madeleine and claims that they were somehow involved.

Speaking at the libel trial of former police chief Goncalo Amaral, Mrs Cameron said the publication of his book in 2008 and a TV documentary based on it the following year caused the family to be "vilified" and "demonised".

And she said Madeleine's twin siblings Sean and Amelie, now eight, were aware of them by comments made by fellow pupils at their school.

"My brother and sister-in-law live in purgatory because they have no end and they are looking for the truth," she told the court.

"They would like an end but there is no end because they don't know what's happened."

The McCanns say the former detective's claims in the book The Truth Of The Lie, including suggestions that they hid their daughter's body after she died in an accident and faked an abduction, damaged the hunt for Madeleine and exacerbated their anguish.

If successful the family stands to gain around £1 million in damages.

Mrs Cameron, whose voice cracked as she gave evidence, said: "They were vilified in this book so their distress was multiplied 100 times.

"This pain was felt by all of their family because we still have a missing child and we knew that what is in there is not true."

The nurse, from Glasgow, travelled to Lisbon with brother Gerry, who has applied to give evidence in the case.

No decision was made today and other legal teams are thought to have until October 16 to give their views before the judge's decision.

As Mr McCann left court at lunchtime, he said: "Obviously it's disappointing, but we will just keep going."

Mrs Cameron told the court that she travelled to Portugal after her brother told her about Madeleine's disappearance in May 2007, spending three months there with him and Kate, and later continuing to help them as they struggled to cope.

She described how her brother called her in a "cry for help" when Mr Amaral's book was published.

She described how a family "rota" to help the couple when they first returned from Portugal had to be reinstated in the aftermath of the publication in July 2008.

"Kate was in a very low mood, she was not coping with daily things," she said.

"She was doing solitary things, almost like torturing herself, out running long, long distances by herself.

"She was going to church and praying on a daily basis, and she was sleeping for a long time too.

"She wouldn't go out socially at all, she would not go to a shop.

"We had to help with practical things like the shopping and cooking and looking after the children to help her."

The effects of the book were worse than when the McCanns were made arguidos, or formal suspects, she said.

"This was a different thing. It was much more conclusive and demonising them, dehumanising them, saying they did not care for their children, that they were responsible.

"It makes it out that they weren't truthful and they have been vilified and it's very hard to turn round opinion about them that has been so widely spread."

She told the court the Portuguese people had "turned against" the McCanns, saying Mr McCann had been jeered at in the street when he returned to Portugal in April 2009, and was advised to hire security.

"This (the book) perhaps gave people a conclusion, but it's not the right conclusion, it's all lies," she said.

She said the couple had only started to socialise again in the last year or two but are more comfortable in people's houses "where they are not being watched or scrutinised".

And asked if twins Sean and Amelie knew about the book and the TV programme, she said: "Last week Amelie came in from school and said some people had been talking about it.

"She said that people were talking about them at school, and that it was not all good things that had been said.

"In the past Sean has come in and said to Gerry, 'daddy are you famous?' .

"Gerry said, 'why are you asking that?', and he said because a boy at school had seen him on the television.

"Gerry continued doing what he was doing and said, 'no I'm not famous, it's because your sister is missing'."

Kate McCann's mother Susan Healy, who also travelled to the court, was expected to give evidence today but it emerged that the McCanns' lawyer Isabel Duarte had previously dismissed all of her English-speaking witnesses other than Mrs Cameron, but forgotten the request amidst the confusion of the case.

Madeleine, who was then nearly four, disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 2007 as her parents dined at a nearby restaurant with friends.

Mr Amaral, who initially led the inquiry into her disappearance, was removed from the Portuguese investigation in October 2007 after criticising the British police.

He has also applied to give evidence at the trial.

Under cross-examination from the former police chief's lawyer Vitor Oliveira, Mrs Cameron was asked if she was aware of a petition, signed by 17,000 people in England, in January 2008 calling for social services to investigate the McCanns for leaving their children alone.

"I had heard of it, yes," she said. "They were not happy about it and they took action to counteract it."

Mr Oliveira also asked if she was aware that 70% of British people in August 2007 condemned the couple for having left the children alone on the night Madeleine disappeared, to which she replied: "No I did not know that."

The case, at the Palace of Justice in Lisbon, was adjourned to next Tuesday after hearing evidence from Eduardo Damaso, deputy editor of Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manha.

It is expected to finish hearing evidence in November.

British detectives launched a fresh investigation into the youngster's disappearance in July this year - two years into a review of the case - and believe she could still be alive.

The Portuguese investigation into Madeleine's disappearance is officially closed.

Where did article come from? I just noticed that they did not report on Eduardo Damâso's testimony, who was a witness for the McCanns. For what he said he might as well have been a witness for Gonçalo Amaral. I do not understand what the strategy is for this trial. The parents call witnesses, such as Alípio Ribeiro and Melchior gomes and now Eduardo Damâso, who add nothing to their case and even go against them.

[drummer]

Sorry, the article was from Cambridge News.

[drummer]

 Do a bit of research into date-limited google searches and type some pertinent phrases into said search.


Probably what the defence did.

[C.Edwards]

Probably what the defence did.

And you'd know that how?

[drummer]

I don't.

Just like the defence.

[C.Edwards]

I don't.

Just like the defence.

So stop talking complete garbage then, it has no place here.

[drummer]

So stop talking complete garbage then, it has no place here.

Stop being so rude please. My posts have as much right to be here as yours thank you.

[C.Edwards]

Stop being so rude please. My posts have as much right to be here as yours thank you.

You posted a simple opinion.  That opinion was shown to be pure conjecture and you attempted to mitigate that by drawing a parallel with another personal opinion on what you think the defence is doing in this case. No evidence, nothing plausible, just noise and yet another attempt at McCann bashing. There are forums where you will get plaudits for doing such things. This is not one of them, thankfully.

[TrueSardine]

Mr Oliveira also asked if she was aware that 70% of British people in August 2007 condemned the couple for having left the children alone on the night Madeleine disappeared, to which she replied: "No I did not know that."

Bullsh&t.
70% of CMOMM sounds more likely.

«Esther Addley, sub-editor of The Guardian agrees "it was not edifying, nor admirable" what was written and said in the United Kingdom about the case.

"But when we have so many journalists trying to get the slightest piece of news it is at that time that we risk things getting out of control", she notes.

Only one day after the 3rd of May of 2007, the issue was the opening news of all channels and on the front cover of all British newspapers - without speaking of the Portuguese, Spanish and even German or Japanese - and the little village in Algarve was invaded by journalists.

Some of the interest generated in the public was due, according to Adley, to the fact that several people identified themselves with the situation, which led the journalists to show empathy with the case.

"It is a story that affects many people because it is a medium class story, a nightmare to go to a calm tourist resort and a child goes missing", she justifies.

But Greenslade, actually a teacher in the City University, London, understands that the posture grew, first to a phase of scepticism, "which is the right attitude that should be adopted by journalists and after to distrust when they were treated as suspects".

In his opinion this is the dominant position now because the newspapers reflect the doubts and reproach of the readers concerning the McCanns.

"The great majority of people in United Kingdom thinks that they should not have left their children (alone), he says quoting numbers of a poll made in the Internet for the Sunday Times in August of 2007, when around 70% of the British condemned the couple for leaving the children alone.

The tendency is proved by the large number of hostile comments received on the Sky News website about the issue, that refers to Lusa the journalist Martin Brunt is superior to the messages of support.

But the news channel's crime correspondent considers that the British press continues, in general, to support the McCanns and the criticism was redirected against the Portuguese police due to the idea of facing a "weak police investigation".

"The difficulty of knowing with exactitude what the police were doing led to criticism of the press and to the impression that the investigation was not going anywhere", he says.

An important changing moment in the way the the case was covered was the action initiated by the McCanns against the Express group, Daily Mirror and Daily Star, that were obliged to apologise and to pay a financial compensation.»

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id99.html