Jerry Lawton8 May 2009
Daily Star
McCanns in fury as he cashes in
The police chief sacked from the Madeleine McCann probe after declaring her parents suspects is selling interviews at £75,000 a time. Goncalo Amaral, 48, has already cashed in on Maddie's disappearance by writing a bestselling book. He also acted as adviser to a controversial TV documentary based on his belief that Madeleine died in her parents' holiday apartment.
Now Amaral is trying to rake in more money by selling interviews to TV firms across Europe. According to his representative Luis Varela Marreiros, the disgraced detective is willing to spout his views about the mystery "for `80,000 plus VAT'' - which works out at £75,000.
In an email Mr Marreiros said:
"Since he left Policia Judiciaria his main concern is to reveal the facts that occurred during the investigation. "If you prefer to interview Mr Goncalo Amaral at this moment he will be available but will charge a fee of `80,000 + VAT.''Last night Madeleine's doctor parents Kate, 41, and Gerry, 40, slammed his money-making antics.
Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell raged:
"It is scandalous that anyone should seek to make money out of Madeleine's abduction.They had to conduct their own search for their daughter - helped by public donations - after Amaral heaped suspicion on them four months after Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007. Kate quit her job as a GP to spend six months going through 17 volumes of police files.
"Further than that Kate and Gerry will not dignify anything that Mr Amaral says with any comment.''
Last night's Channel 4 documentary, Madeleine Was Here, highlighted potentially vital leads that Portuguese police ignored. These include five reported sightings of a sinister scar-faced stranger casing out the McCanns' apartment - by four witnesses.
The McCanns' investigators believe her kidnapping was a planned two-man operation. They think she may still be alive and not even realise she has been abducted.
BLOGGER QUESTIONS:
- Was Amaral "selling interviews" or did this reporter contact his representative asking for an interview? The email was obviously a reply rather than soliciting.
- Every single reported sighting, including the ones listed in this article, have been proved to be false leads.
- How could a five year old child "not know" she'd been abducted?
- Goncalo Amaral has clearly stated his reasons for writing the book and it was done in a quest to see the truth of the investigation available to the public.
- Wikileaks published a cable indicating that the British police involved in the investigation came to the same conclusions as the Portuguese - Goncalo Amaral was not SOLELY responsible for making the McCanns arguidos.
- The public donations have been used to pay the McCann mortgage and lawyers.
- The McCanns announced in 2010 that they would be writing a book about the case and their publisher expects the book to result in over a million dollar profit for the McCanns.
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