Three days after the announcement that they were no longer suspects, Gonçalo Amaral—the PJ’s former chief investigating coordinator who had stepped down from the McCann investigation in October 2007 and retired from the force in June 2008—released a book about the case that floated the theory that Kate and Gerry had covered up what really happened to their daughter, as well as shed a more flattering light on his department’s actions during the course of the investigation.
The couple sued Amaral for libel in 2009, launching a process that stretched on for years: They went to trial in 2014, and in April 2015 a Lisbon judge awarded the McCanns more than $500,000 in damages—money they stated would go right to Madeleine’s Fund, which has helped finance search efforts since 2007—and banned further sales of the book, The Truth of the Lie. However, arguing that the book was an account of a widely documented police investigation, Amaral won his appeal the following year, clearing the way for his book to go back on sale.
The McCanns appealed to Portugal’s Supreme Court, which refused to take it up in 2017. They called the decision “extremely disappointing,” but said all that they’d ever really wanted was for British and Portuguese authorities to be doing all they could to find their daughter.
