Four year-old Madeline McCann went missing from her British parent’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May, 2007. Her parents mounted a media campaign and website, but no trace of Madeline has been found despite massive publicity. It was a case that dominated the headlines for months in the UK. The tabloids relentlessly went after her parents and printed rumor and innuendo once they were named as suspects by the Portuguese police four months after their daughter disappeared.

Now two newspapers, The Daily Star and Daily Express, have printed front page apologies to Madeline’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, after awarding them an undisclosed substantial settlement in a libel suit:

The Daily Star has made a wholehearted apology to Kate and Gerry McCann for stories suggesting the couple were responsible for, or may be responsible for, the death of their daughter Madeleine and for covering it up.

We now recognise that such a suggestion is absolutely untrue and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance.

As an expression of our regret we have now made a substantial donation to the Madeleine Fund in the hope that it helps efforts to find her.

We sincerely apologise for any additional distress we have caused the family.

[From The Daily Star via NY Daily News]

There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the Madeline McCann case, and I believe that it was only natural to question her parents and that the police should have done it a lot sooner. It seemed odd the way Kate and Gerry McCann handled the situation in that they retained a public relations firm and quickly organized a search fund to accept donations. They are educated doctors, though, and what may seem cold and calculating on their part could be the best way that they could figure out to deal with a terrible situation.

The Portuguese police department responsible for investigating the McCann case has a history of scheming to pin missing children’s cases on their parents. Detectives involved in the McCann case are under investigation for mishandling a similar case concerning an eight year-old girl who went missing just seven miles from Madeline in 2004. The mother was tortured by police for 48 hours, after which she confessed to murdering her daughter. The mother recanted once she had access to a lawyer, but she was eventually convicted of the murder, and is now serving a 16 year prison sentence. The body of the little girl was never found.

Another detective involved in that same torture investigation was writing columns for a Portuguese newspaper about the McCann case. Those very biased articles were picked up by the British tabloids and reported as fact:

Amaral is not the only accused officer linked to the McCann investigation. Another is the recently retired Chief Inspector Paulo Pereira Cristovao, who has been writing a daily column on the Madeleine inquiry for a Portuguese newspaper that has been reporting sensational stories, leaked by sources close to the police inquiry, some of which have later been proven to be untrue.

Cristovao makes clear in his column that he considers the McCanns are probably responsible for Madeleine’s death or disappearance.

[From The Daily Mail]

While the McCanns may have seemed to act defensively and way too professionally, you can hardly blame them given the circumstances. It’s tough to judge what they were up against with a police force that tortured a grieving mother into a confession and newspapers printing every salacious detail of what seems to have been a failed frame up.

source: celeb*tchy.com