MCCANNS WARN OVER LIBEL ACTION
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10:30 - 30 January 2008
Madeleine McCann's parents have not ruled out suing newspapers and websites that they believe have libelled them.
Kate and Gerry McCann have stopped reading the "tittle-tattle" written about them in the press - but their representatives are keeping an eye on any "rubbish" printed in the press they believe to be defamatory.
Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told the Leicester Mercury that the McCanns, of Rothley, had more important things to worry about as they continue the search for the missing four-year-old.
However, he said under libel laws they still had up to three years to bring potential cases before the civil courts.
Mr Mitchell spoke after Portuguese police questioned a builder fitting sketches of a potential suspect which were released by the family.
The builder - the fourth man to be interviewed since the sketches were issued on January 20 - was eliminated as a suspect when it emerged he had an alibi for the night Madeleine disappeared.
Madeleine, who was three at the time, disappeared from a Portuguese holiday complex at Praia da Luz on May 3, last year.
Some reports have said the Portuguese police were unhappy about the family issuing the sketches independently, suggesting they could be a diversion to take suspicion away from the family.
Today, Mr Mitchell said: "I'm afraid we dismiss this criticism out of hand.
"There are one or two voices in Portugal who say things which get picked up by the press and magnified. Anyone who says we are doing diversionary tactics is wrong.
"We have made it very clear that publications in Britain and Portugal are subject to the laws of libel and defamation, like everyone else, and our lawyers are watching all of this.
"We reserve the right to take legal action and have three years in which to do it."
Source:
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/d ... K=19714382
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