Sun article - EIGHT YEARS ON, HOW 'SUPER SLEUTH' FAILED THE McCANNS plus Express and Sun Articles

Monster who made a mint out of Maddie The Sun (paper edition, pages 36&37)
EIGHT YEARS ON, HOW 'SUPER SLEUTH' FAILED THE McCANNS

By ANTONELLA LAZZERI
Saturday, May 2, 2015

ADORING women flock around him, chanting his name, throwing red roses and blowing him kisses.

Smiling and waving, their idol laps up the attention, posing for photos, signing autographs and even giving a lucky few a peck on the cheek.

For all the world you may have thought the man at the centre of the fuss and flashing a diamond earring stud was an ageing pop star greeting his fans at the stage door.

In fact the setting was the entrance to Lisbon's Palace of Justice and the man was former Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral.

This is the man Madeleine McCann's parents hold responsible for virtually destroying every hope there was of finding their daughter in the first crucial hours and days after she went missing on May 3, 2007.

And he is a man who has continued to add to their torment in the years since by claiming over and over that their beloved daughter is dead.

He has raked in nearly £400,000 from spouting these claims in a book and TV documentary.

He even hired an agent and was at one time charging £75,000 for an interview.

Before long he was driving a flashy Jag and living in a plush villa.

Tomorrow marks the eighth anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine, who was three years old.

The scenes of Amaral preening in front of besotted fans outside court were witnessed by parents Kate and Gerry more than two years after that terrible night.

'Kate driven to tears by missed opportunities'

It was December 11, 2009, and incredibly, it was the first time Kate had ever set eyes on him.

As the mum was to write later in her book Madeleine: "It was also the first time he had laid eyes on me.

"It is extraordinary that he could have said and written so many awful things about a person he had never met."

This week the couple finally won their libel battle against Amaral that had begun back on that December day more than five years ago. He was ordered to pay them £433,000 and his book, The Truth of the Lie, was banned.

Kate, 46, has mostly kept a dignified silence on the subject of Amaral, but in one interview she revealed how son Sean, now nine, had told her: "Mr Amaral said you hid Madeleine."

When Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, Amaral, now 56, was quickly drafted in as the super-sleuth who would crack the case.

At the time he was the co-ordinator of the Policia Judiciaria's Criminal Investigation Department in Portimao.

But during the investigation he only met Gerry once and seemingly had not thought it relevant to even meet, let alone talk to, the mother of the child he was tasked with finding.

This isn't surprising given Amaral's arrogance and self-importance. Having met him several times he is unlike any police chief I have ever known.

At court, in his heavy gold chain and with his bulging belly, he conducted himself like a celebrity.

He gave TV interviews at every opportunity and wined and dined his fans – who all seemed to be women of a certain age with a fondness for bright red lipstick and fur coats – over long lunches.

Back in October 2007 it was his comments made during a similar lunch that saw him taken off Madeleine's case.

Journalists overheard him loudly complaining that the McCanns were getting special treatment because they were from the UK, and criticising British police. He was removed after his comments were reported.

But it was surprising that Amaral was ever in charge in the first place.

Because at the time he was himself an "arguido" – an official suspect – in a case involving another mother of a missing child.

He was being investigated for falsifying documents in a case involving three of his officers accused of torturing the missing girl's mum and uncle to get their confessions.

Little Joana Cipriano, eight, had disappeared in September 2004 from her village seven miles from Praia da Luz. She has never been found. The officers were cleared, but in May 2009 Amaral was convicted of perjury and received an 18-month suspended sentence.

Years later, as Kate combed through police files, she was to be driven to tears of frustration and rage by all the missed opportunities. So many leads and sightings had simply not been followed up.

The reason? From an early stage in the investigation, as Amaral later admitted in his book, he decided Madeleine had died in an accident.

Then, he reckoned, her parents panicked, hid her body and made up the story about her abduction.

So while Kate and Gerry were clinging to the hope that a huge manhunt would soon bring their daughter back to them, Amaral's team were in fact searching for clues and evidence to implicate them.

Even the cop assigned to be the McCanns' family liaison officer was in fact looking for hints of guilt, it emerged during the libel case.

Conclusions based on bizarre 'evidence'

One night, he told the court, Kate had phoned him to beg for a hilltop in Praia da Luz to be searched, because she had had a dream that Madeleine was buried there.

From this, he reported back to Amaral, he believed that Kate was admitting Madeleine was dead – further proof of the couples "guilt".

It seems absurd that a top police chief would base his conclusions on bizarre "evidence" such as this. And yet, much to Kate and Gerry's complete despair, he did.

No wonder Kate wrote in her book: "What probably galls me the most about Amaral's interviews is the way he presents himself as a person who, perhaps above all others, really wants to find Madeleine and get to the bottom of her fate.

"I cannot begin to express how much this outrages me."

Amaral began his attacks on the McCanns soon after being taken off the case and in July 2008 published his book, a bestseller in Portugal.

Amaral is well thought of in Portugal and his utterings were clearly turning locals against the McCanns.

As Kate told me despairingly: "If people believe Madeleine is dead they will stop searching for her." Yet she never wanted to enter into a long libel battle against him.

It was Portuguese lawyer Isabel Duarte who told Kate and Gerry, 46, that they had no choice but to do it, declaring: "That man has accused you of burying your daughter!"

Meanwhile, Amaral's second wife Sofia Leal, 45 – with whom he has a daughter the same age as Madeleine – has said he has been "completely destroyed" by the case.

And recently Amaral himself, who is now retired, said: "It's hard to accept that I have to live this way just because I did my job."

For Kate and Gerry those words must cut deep.

Because they believe if Amaral HAD done his job their beloved Madeleine may now be with them.

candyfloss wrote:Thanks for that caricature, and knocking my blood pressure up.   oops You can feel the hate oozing out of every word.  You are right Andrew, it is a disgrace. It makes you wonder why the need for this after their victory - or was it??  This article makes me wonder whether something is going on.

TheTruthWillOut wrote:The article is completely libelous but at the same time states things that could/should make readers curious and look up the files and makes Kate look bad.

Me wrote:What do you expect from Miss Antonio?

She's been waiting years to write that. It's all bull crap let's see what happens once the Met's investigation has finished and see where we are.

Plus I fully expect Goncalo to win the appeal. How can this judge go against the Supreme Court ruling in 2010?

EXCLUSIVE: Ex-cop who lost libel case against McCanns has British backers

THE luxury home where former Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral, central to the Madeleine McCann investigation, hoped to spend his retirement is boarded up and desolate.

Freedom wrote:It's still here at 8.35.

Freedom wrote:"Guard dogs patrol inside the house while Amaral, who is now broke, lives with his father in Lisbon following his divorce from his wife Sofia".

I'm sure I've heard that his father died a few years ago.

Russian Doll wrote:   JM  is to be commended for writing the only balanced piece about the Lisbon judgment. This is a brave piece of writing in the face of the closing of ranks and the press onslaught of the last few days. Some standout points:

The judge accepting the dog alerts as fact.
The many claims which were dismissed by the judge

 Only on a 2nd reading did I really appreciate what a strong piece this is.

Have to say, something of a WOW moment for me.

Markus 2 wrote:That woman ANTONELLA LAZZERI certainly reminds me of someone ,  not Kate ,wonder if it is a relation.