Bearing in mind that Madeleine could have been in France, I remember that a lot of people around here were convinced that The McCanns had killed Madeleine, so they certainly weren't looking out for her, although I remained mindful for a very long time. And Amaral was responsible for their attitude because people in general thought that he knew what he was talking about.
I was working for an English couple at the time who owned a house here and a house in Praia da Luz and they believed Amaral, although they were more concerned with how it all affected their bookings. But they did eventually become rather more sceptical about The PJ.
I think the problem is that everyone believed Amaral at the time and until very recently.
The McCanns did not take immediate action when his book was first published - they were far too busy campaigning and looking for their missing daughter.
But as the only people who were actively looking for Madeleine in the firm belief she might still be a living breathing child as there is absolutely no evidence to the contrary, they were best placed to make the assessment about what was and what was not prejudicing public opinion.
The propaganda hive built around Amaral and his cronies was deemed by them to be the worst factor damaging their at the time lone search for Madeleine.
As the people most in the know about the effect the lies were having, they took legal action to stop it.
I think they were perfectly within their rights to do so and I think that at the time it was absolutely the correct decision for them to make bearing in mind that the alternative would have been to roll over and allow Amaral to say and print whatever nonsense came into his head without challenge.
That would have blown any case they had for continuing the search for Madeleine right out of the water.
The McCanns were doing their utmost to find Madeleine: Amaral was doing his utmost to convince the world Madeleine was dead.
