A court has ruled against Madeleine McCann 's parents in the latest stage of their 13-year legal battle over allegations made by a former Portuguese detective inspector.
The European Court of Human Rights has today ruled that the Courts in Portugal did give the McCanns a fair hearing after they tried to claim damages against the retired officer who alleged they were involved in Maddie's disappearance.
Goncalo Amaral only led the initial investigation for a few months before being replaced, after the three-year-old disappeared on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, on May 3, 2007.
No trace of the young girl has ever been found.
Lawyers for Kate and Gerry McCann argued that the Portuguese Courts had breached their right to respect for a private and family life in the way the courts there dealt with their libel claims against Amaral.
Kate and Gerry were questioned by police in September 2007, but later cleared of any wrongdoing.
In April this year paedophile Christian Brueckner was named as Portuguese police's prime suspect for the first time.
Former Policia Judiciaria officer Amaral made his allegations in 2009 memoir The Truth Of The Lie.
The allegations were dismissed by Portugal’s attorney general Jose Pinto Monteiro, and there is no suggestion the McCanns did any wrong-doing.
Madeleine's parents, from Rothley, Leicestershire, lost their civil reputation case before the Portuguese courts and appealed their claim to the ECHR claiming that the former inspector's statements damaged their reputation, their good name and their right to be presumed innocent.
They also complained that they were unable to obtain redress before the domestic civil courts of Portugal.
They argued that the reasoning in decisions issued by the Supreme Court of Portugal on January 31 and March 21, 2017, at the close of an action for damages brought by them, breached their right to be presumed innocent.
In a judgment published on Tuesday (September 20) the ECHR found that the couple's reputation suffered by the fact they were made official suspects in the case for a short time.
And that that information was in the public domain, rather than Amaral's comments.
The ECHR said: "The Court considered that, even assuming that the applicants' reputation had been damaged, this was not on account of the argument put forward by the book's author but rather as a result of the suspicions expressed against them, which had led to their being placed under investigation in the course of the criminal investigation (the prosecutor's office decided to take no further action in July 2008) and had led to intense media attention and much controversy.
"The information had thus been brought to the public's attention in some detail even before the investigation file was made available to the media and the book in question was published.
"It followed that the national authorities had not failed in their positive obligation to protect the applicants' right to respect for their private life."
The applicants' complaint concerning their "right to be presumed innocent" was also rejected, because Amaral's book was published three days after the decision to take no action against them.
The ECHR also found that the claims did not appear to have impacted on the McCann's "social relations" or their campaign to find their daughter.
It said: "While the Court understood that the book's publication had undeniably caused anger, anguish and distress to the applicants, it did not appear that the book, or the broadcasting of the documentary, had had a serious impact on the applicants' social relations or on their legitimate and ongoing attempts to find their daughter."
The court also said that the McCann's right to respect for their private and family life had to be balanced against Amaral's freedom of expression.
In a press release about the judgement, the court said it had "also considered that in the Supreme Court’s judgments of January and March 2017 – concerning the civil claims lodged by the applicants – it had not made comments implying any guilt on the part of the applicants or even suggesting suspicions against them with regard to the circumstances in which their daughter had disappeared."
It added: "The applicants’ complaint concerning their right to be presumed innocent was thus manifestly ill-founded."
The McCanns now have three months to appeal against the decision.
Amaral has raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from his book alone.
The McCann's sought to halt its sale by issuing an injunction at same time as beginning the libel case in 2015.
But Amaral successfully overturned the ruling - forcing Kate and Gerry to lodge an appeal in Portugal’s Supreme Court, which in 2017 rejected their reputation case against the detective.
Prior to today's hearing, a source had previously said: “It hasn’t altered their determination to carry on searching for their daughter. They have never given up hope and this case is an awful distraction but they feel compelled to do something.”
Amaral also previously pointed the finger at the British, saying the Portuguese prosecutors felt "intimidated by the United Kingdom".
He claimed the McCanns were given special treatment by British authorities because they were doctors.
The ex-policeman refuted claims his officers’ probe was shoddy and says interference from the UK hindered the process.
He has also claimed to German newspaper Bild that prime suspect, Brueckner, is being framed for the crime.
Amaral led the investigation until October 2007 when he was removed after claiming British police were only helping with leads provided by the McCanns.
Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fulscher insists the German has nothing to do with the youngster’s disappearance.
