McCanns reject account of Madeleine's death

LISBON – Gerry McCann angrily dismissed Portuguese detectives’ claims that his daughter Madeleine is dead as he arrived at court…

LISBON – Gerry McCann angrily dismissed Portuguese detectives’ claims that his daughter Madeleine is dead as he arrived at court yesterday.

Senior officers involved in the case told a hearing in Lisbon of their belief that the little girl died in her family’s holiday flat and that her parents faked her abduction.

Returning for a second day of evidence, Mr McCann and his wife, Kate, insisted that none of the claims were new.

Mr McCann was asked by a Portuguese reporter whether it was worth the emotional cost for the couple to attend the court case.

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He replied: “Do you have children? Anyone who has children would go through the same process.”

Lisbon’s main civil court is hearing an attempt by former police chief Goncalo Amaral to overturn a ban on his book questioning the McCanns’ account of what happened to Madeleine.

Speaking as he arrived at the court building hand-in-hand with his wife, Mr McCann seized on public prosecutor Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses’s testimony that it was “50-50” whether the child was dead.

Mr McCann said: “The most important thing yesterday was what the prosecutor said: there is absolutely no evidence that Madeleine is dead and there is absolutely no evidence that we were involved in her disappearance.” – (PA)