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[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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Settlement of defamation action: this is the report of the settlement of the defamation action concerning the McCann family in respect of publications which have cast aspersions upon their inegrity

On 25 September 2007 Martin Evans and David Pilditch in Praia da Luz for the Daily Express reported 'Find Body or McCanns Will Escape'

They said that police searching for Madeleine McCann have been told: Find her body or her parents will escape prosecution. The stark warning was issued by the District Attorney’s office in Portugal as police chiefs admitted that the case against Kate and Gerry McCann is now hanging by a thread. The admission that charges are unlikely ever to be brought comes almost five months after Madeleine disappeared. A police source said: “There is a determination within the force to bring this investigation to a satisfactory conclusion but there is a growing fear that without a body, that goal will be impossible.”

But last night the McCanns hit back and insisted the idea they have to “face justice or escape justice” is misplaced. A family friend said: “Why should they have this stain on their characters? The suggestion that they have to face justice or escape justice is loaded with assumptions of their guilt, which are simply untrue.” But senior officers within the Policia Judiciaria remain convinced that Kate, 39, killed her daughter with an accidental overdose of sleeping pills and disposed of her body with Gerry’s help.

However, apart from DNA evidence collected from their holiday apartment in the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz and the couple’s hire car, detectives have been struggling to build a solid case. Last night Portugal’s most senior prosecutor, Antonio Cluny, said charges were now unlikely. Mr Cluny, president of the District Attorneys and Magistrates Council in Portugal, said: “There is no confession and according to what has been made public the evidence gathered until now keeps all leads open, from abduction to homicide or at least to a simple accident.”

The Portuguese newspaper 24 Hours yesterday ran the headline, ‘District Attorney’s Office Launches Ultimatum To PJ: Find Maddie’s body Or The McCanns Will Escape’. And a well-placed Policia Judiciaria source admitted that without a body, the McCanns would not face charges. Last month detectives admitted they were fearful Madeleine’s body would never be found and are working on the theory that it was either burned or thrown into the sea.

Officers have conducted many searches in and around Praia da Luz but have found nothing. Earlier this week detectives swooped on a remote incinerator 20 miles from where Madeleine went missing. Eef Hoos a convicted Dutch terrorist, was questioned about the McCanns. But the 61-year-old, who served seven years in jail in Holland, has denied knowing them. He was due to attend police headquarters in Portimao yesterday to face further questions but failed to show up.

Meanwhile, ocean specialists have been analysing tides and currents on the Algarve to work out where a body may have been washed up. But detectives privately admit it is a long shot because if the corpse had been weighed down and dumped in deep water, it would be virtually impossible to locate. Despite the pessimism within the judiciary, police continue to hunt the crucial breakthrough.

They have up to eight months from the time someone is declared a suspect before they have to bring charges. With the McCanns being made arguidos earlier this month, detectives are not under any immediate deadline. But they believe the longer the case goes on, the less chance they have of a breakthrough. Last week the judge in the case finished examining 4,000 pages of evidence. He concluded that there was not enough solid material to order the couple back to Portugal for further questioning.

Detectives had hoped that a further period of interrogation might encourage one of the pair to break down and confess. But one senior Portuguese criminologist told the 24 Hours newspaper that without a body, the most serious charge that could be brought would be one of negligence and even that would probably get thrown out of court.

Source: 25 September 2007 Martin Evans and David Pilditch in Praia da Luz 'Find Body or McCanns Will Escape'

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