could anyone blame them for sueing?
Sept.
Mr Wright said he was concerned about the twins being able to read about the allegations on the internet after Amelie McCann had already found her name through an online search.
He told the court how he and his wife, Kate’s cousin Anne-Marie Wright, had spent the weekend with the McCann’s on the second anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. This followed a documentary broadcast on Portuguese TV channel TVI in April 2009.
He said: “The weekend we all spent together was horrible. They arrived at the cottage having received phone calls from friends they had made in Praia da Luz telling them that people were tearing down posters we had put up saying ‘we know what happened. The child is dead.´
“That news had a terrible impact. To hear that people were accepting the thesis of the book caused them huge, visible distress and great anger.”
Around 2.2 mllion people in Portugal watched the documentary – leading Mr McCann to admit to his friend that for the first time he felt he could not go on.
Mr Wright told the court: “Both he and Kate are very strong and driven people and for two years they had been dealing with the disappearance of their daughter, the media backlash, being made arguido… Through all this they had led the rest of the family and other people in helping find Madeleine. So to hear G Talk about it being too much to carry on and to see him almost broken was a great shock.”
The McCann's are suing Amaral, his publishers Guerra & Paz, TVI and filmmakers VC Filmes for libel and damages equivalent to £1million.
The book sold 120,000 copies until an injunction filed by the McCann’s removed it from bookshops. The injunction was later lifted when the court ruling was overturned.
The trial is due finish hearing evidence in November.
