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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 17 October 2007 the Daily Mail reported “Portuguese police 'call in crack team of investigators to target Kate McCann'”.

It said that Portuguese police are focused on tracing every step that Kate McCann took on the night her daughter Madeleine disappeared, a Portuguese newspaper has reported. A special team of investigators from Lisbon has been formed to reconstruct her movements on the night of May 3, according to 24Horas. Mrs McCann remains the centre of a Portuguese theory that she killed her daughter while her husband Gerry was eating dinner in a tapas restaurant nearby. Madeleine's body was disposed of long before the alert was raised that she had disappeared, according to the theory circulating the Policia Judiciara and reproduced in 24Horas.

To reconstruct Mrs McCann's movements on the night of May 3, the PJ are using a team of six investigators from Lisbon: two homicide investigators, two sex crime investigators, one information analyst, and one team leader. Members of the PJ that had worked on the case in Portimao are to be ranked alongside this team, 24Horas reported.

Earlier, a judge gave Portuguese police permission to seize Kate McCann's diary. Judge Pedro Daniel Dos Anjos Frias has also said that a computer used by Gerry McCann can be examined by detectives in front of him. The seizure of other personal items belonging to the couple has also been granted, according to Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha. Police sources have previously said that entries in the diary will bolster their case by revealing Mrs McCann's allegedly "volatile" state of mind. She has kept the journal updated since the girl vanished from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on 3 May. Police need judicial authorisation to use it in any trial.

Police have seized a laptop computer rented by Gerry McCann during his time in Portugal. Legal letters requesting interviews with the seven friends who were dining with the McCanns on the night the girl went missing have also been drawn up, according to reports. Mr McCann and his wife Kate set up a mini-office from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz after the disappearance, in order to campaign for the safe return of their daughter.

It is possible that emails to high-profile supporters including David Beckham, Sir Richard Branson or even Government ministers could have been sent from Gerry's PC, which he rented in Portugal and which has now been seized by Portuguese police. The seizure is another indication that the Portuguese investigation is still firmly focused on the theory that the McCanns were involved in Madeleine's disappearance, despite the appointment of a new head of the investigation. But friends of the McCanns played down the significance of the computer, saying it contained nothing of any importance.

A source close to the family said it was given to the couple by a local businessman but that its slow internet connection meant they ended up using their own laptops. A friend said: "There has been total radio silence from the police. But if that's the computer they're talking about then there's nothing of any interest on it all. "It was only ever used for a couple of statements and to store a database of journalists' numbers." The team investigating Madeleine's disappearance at the Policia Judiciara is renewing its efforts to find the missing girl after months of desperate searching.

The new lead investigator on the case, Paulo Rebelo, is reportedly trying to give his team a fresh vision of the case, sources told newspaper 24Horas. "After months of working on the case it's only natural that people get tired," the source told the newspaper. The objective with the new team, the source added, is to open up fresh lines of inquiry in the investigation. That appears to include placing focus once more on Kate McCann's diary - and, pending a judicial decision, on the McCanns' emails.

17th October 2007 Daily Mail “Portuguese police 'call in crack team of investigators to target Kate McCann'”

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