Kate McCann takes drugs test to prove she wasn't on medication

Nov 24 2007

Kate McCann, mother of missing Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann’s mother had herself tested for drugs to counter accusations that she was on medication when her daughter vanished, her lawyer said today.

Kate McCann agreed to the tests to refute claims that she was mentally unstable and taking anti-depressants around the time of the child’s apparent abduction in Portugal on May 3, said Edward Smethurst.

One line of inquiry reportedly pursued by Portuguese police was that the qualified GP had killed Madeleine, now four, because she was struggling to cope.

Results of toxicology tests on Mrs McCann’s hair, taken in September, show no evidence of drugs in the mother-of-three’s body over the past eight months, said Mr Smethurst.

“There were various stories circulating that Kate might somehow be unstable and might be depressed and whatever, but the tests demonstrated that the kind of drugs she might be on did not show up,” he said.

Other independent tests have proven that Madeleine’s younger brother and sister, twins Sean and Amelie, have not been given sedatives, the McCanns’ legal team previously said.

One accusation levelled at the couple, both named by Portuguese police as suspects in their oldest child’s disappearance, is that they tried to conceal her death after an accidental overdose of a sedative drug.

The tests form part of a dossier of evidence compiled by the McCanns and their advisers, which they claim demolishes the police case against them.

DNA checks on a car hired by the couple in Portugal and research on the use of cadaver dogs in police investigations further bolster their defence case, their lawyers say.

Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley in Leicestershire, strongly deny any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

Mr Smethurst, in-house lawyer for McCanns benefactor’ Brian Kennedy, is co-ordinating their defence case and he is convinced of their innocence.

He said: “I am taking this case on free of charge, on a pro bono basis. I am here for no other reason than to see that justice is done.

“I have had access to the full evidence in this case. The fact that I am here continuing with the case is that I am completely convinced of the innocence of Kate and Gerry.”