The Sun: MADDIE CONSPIRACY COP Who is Goncalo Amaral?

MADDIE CONSPIRACY COP Who is Goncalo Amaral? Ex-Madeleine McCann cop who claims Kate and Gerry killed their daughter

The McCann's eight-year legal battle to silence the Portuguese detective has come to an unsuccessful end
By Richard Wheatstone
12th July 2017, 12:00 pm Updated: 12th July 2017, 12:08 pm

GONCALO Amaral has been a thorn in the side of Gerry and Kate McCann ever since he took onto the investigation of their missing daughter Madeleine in Portugal in 2007.

Amaral made the McCanns ‘arguidos’ – or official suspects – in the case before he sacked from the investigation for astonishing public attacks on his British counterparts. He has repeatedly claimed Maddie was killed by her parents ever since.
Who is Goncalo Amaral?

Amaral is a retired detective who led the initial hunt when three-year-old Maddie went missing from the Ocean Club holiday complex in Praia da Luz in 2007.

He removed as head of the investigation after criticising British detectives and claiming they were only following leads the McCanns asked them to pursue.

The 57-year-old has remained an outspoken critic of British police and the McCanns and has repeatedly claimed Gerry and Kate killed their daughter.

Amaral released a book and subsequent TV documentary called ‘The Truth of the Lie’ in which he claims the McCanns faked the abduction to cover their tracks after she had been accidentally killed.

The McCanns have accused Amaral of waging a “relentless battle” against them.

Once one of Portugal’s most senior detectives, since retiring he has moved back to the tough Lisbon suburb of Olivais where he grew up.

What has Amaral claimed in his book and on television?

In the book, it is claimed that Maddie had died in the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz and her parents faked her abduction to cover up the tragedy.

The book was released just three days after Gerry and Kate were told their status as formal suspects had been lifted as the Portuguese police investigation was closed in July 2008.

Amaral claimed it was entirely based on official evidence and Policia Judiciaria files but Kate and Gerry branded the book “downright lies”.

The ‘The Truth of the Lie’ became a bestseller in Portugal and legal sources close to the McCanns claim it could have earned him as much as £1million.

But the ex-detectivessays subsequent legal battles with the McCanns have left him close to financial ruin.
Since the book was published Amaral has made further claims in controversial media interviews.

He recently said on Australian TV show Sunday Night that MI5 “for sure had an involvement”either by helping to hide Maddie’s body or covering up the alleged crime.

He also suggested Madeleine’s body could be hidden in a well on Praia da Luz.

Just days later he told a Portuguese TV documentary he believes Madeleine was cremated in a church near where she vanished and the McCanns prayed in the first days of the search for her daughter.

When informed of Amaral’s latest conspiracy theories, Gerry McCann said: “The less said about Goncalo Amaral the better.”
Why did Goncalo Amaral and the McCanns end up in court?

The McCanns claimed the book was "unfounded and grossly defamatory" and launched legal action against Amaral in 2009.

In 2015, Kate and Gerry were awarded around £450,000 in libel damages by a Portuguese court.

However, in April last year Amaral won an appeal against the decision.

The McCann's lost a subsequent appeal in Portugal's Supreme Court in February this year, with the court ruling Maddie's parents had not been cleared of involvement in Maddie's death by the Portuguese police investigation being brought to an end in 2008.

A court statement said: "It should not be said that the appellants were cleared via the ruling announcing the archiving of the criminal case. In truth, that ruling was not made in virtue of Portugal's Public Prosecution Service having acquired the conviction that the appellants hadn't committed a crime.

"The archiving of the case was determined by the fact that public prosecutors hadn't managed to obtain sufficient evidence of the practice of crimes by the appellants.

"There is therefore a significant, and not merely a semantic difference, between the legally admissible foundations of the archive ruling. It doesn't therefore seem acceptable that the ruling, based on the insufficiency of evidence, should be equated to proof of innocence."
Why has the McCann's legal battle against him come to an end?

Pals of Kate and Gerry have said Goncalo Amaral “has won once and for all” because they don’t have the “time, energy or funding” to take him to the highest court in the land.

A source close to the couple believe the lack of action by Maddie’s parents and their legal team indicates “the end of the road” in the bitter eight-year fight.

The family pal said: “Realistically a European Court appeal was never going to succeed plus it would be too expensive to launch. It seems Mr Amaral, regrettably, has won once and for all. The fight is finally over.

“It means he can continue to spout his malicious lies about Kate and Gerry being involved in a cover up of their daughter’s death, which is almost laughable if it wasn’t so hurtful and damaging in the hunt for Madeleine.

“Kate and Gerry have always said they’ll keep no stone unturned in the global search and that’s what they want to concentrate on. I don’t think they have the time, energy or funding to lodge yet another appeal.”

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Amaral has acted with complete dignity throughout this "case". I sure hope he has a great legal team and sues the backsides of the Sun... it is outrageous what these supposed "journalists"  are doing and being allowed to do.


In fact it's time they stopped using "a close source" or  " a friend" and named names!

I notice that the Sun is not allowing comments on this article. Always significant, I feel.

Ellie wrote:

I used to really like Goncalo.  Now I think I might have been cleverly taken in. Goncalo Amarel is very certain he is right.  This bothers me.  He has no definitive proof, which makes his ideas just a theory. He is hooked on just that the parents can't explain how their daughter disappeared and that they have been awkwardly inconsistent and muddled. I can think of many reasons why this might be so.  This makes him rather arrogant.  I think there is a lot more to the case of Madeleine's disappearance.  I think Madeleine probably was very expertly abducted by a cleverly organised group and that there could even be Police corruption involved in the abduction. That would explain a lot of anomalies like the trampling on the crime scene, the impossibly speedy arrival of Interpol, and other issues raised on very well researched websites. It may even be that her parents had some idea she might be lined up for this, hence Kate's tortured "they've got her! We let her down!" Please go to: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] , where it is proposed that high level officials of Portugal and other countries are involved in paedophile rings even up to the President of the European Commission who was Portuguese at the time.  It is made clear that finding Madeleine will be nigh on impossible as there are too many high level people and Police involved. Also that the aim was to incriminate the parents.  It is said that this was successfully done in the case of the mother of the little Cipriano girl from nearby.  

We must stay vigilant and not make any "final decisions" until the truth is completely revealed.  We must not give up hope that Madeleine is alive, can survive whatever happened/is happening and can escape to tell us, as other brave girls have managed to do.  If she died - well, then we need more evidence before we reach this conclusion.  However frustrating it is, let us not stop trying to find out.  Also it might save other children from a terrible plight. Please keep looking into the paedophile organisations.

Cadaver dog's evidence points to death in apartment 5A

@ Ellie - You must be aware that we, the general public, have NOT been privy to all files in this case, indeed we have only had sight of a very small amount of what is actually in there.  

The files which were released by Portugal are deemed as sufficient to show as to why the case was shelved in the first instance.

Sr. Amaral knows far more than we do, we must never forget that.

Maddie's Hero

Would be my reply if the Sun allowed a reply to this question.