Three days after the announcement that they were no longer suspects, Gonzalo Amaral, PJ’s former chief investigative coordinator who left the McCann investigation in October 2007 and retired in June 2008, published a book about the case that floated the theory that Kate and Jerry covered up what really happened to their daughter, and shed a more flattering light on the department’s actions during the investigation.
The couple sued Amaral for defamation in 2009, and the process dragged on for years. A trial began in 2014, and in April 2015 a Lisbon judge awarded the McCanns more than $500,000 in damages. The money would be donated to the Madeleine Foundation, which has been helping fund search efforts since 2007. In addition, further sales of the book “The Truth of Lies” were prohibited. However, arguing that the book was the record of an extensively documented police investigation, Amaral won an appeal the following year, paving the way for his book to be sold again.
The McCanns appealed to Portugal’s Supreme Court, which refused to accept the ruling in 2017. They said they were “extremely disappointed” by the verdict but had only hoped that the British and Portuguese authorities would do everything in their power to find their daughter.
