Local experts forecast liklihood of Madleine McCanns’ damages case

Mar 25 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

DEFAMATION specialists in the region have commented on the outcome of a case brought by the parents of Madeleine McCann which resulted in four national newspapers issuing front-page apologies for their coverage of the toddler’s disappearance.

The Daily Star, Daily Star Sunday, and the Daily and Sunday Express all ran the apologies last week following a hearing in the High Court.

A sum of £550,000 was given to the Find Madeleine fund as part of the settlement. More than 100 articles published in the Express group’s papers were found to be defamatory and harmful to the couple’s reputation.

The pieces appeared after Portuguese detectives last September named the couple as “arguidos”, or official suspects, in their daughter’s disappearance from their hotel room in Praia da Luz last May.

Their legal team argued the tone of coverage in the Express Group papers implied they may have been involved, and that this was defamatory.

David Rawlinson, partner at Halliwells, wrote an opinion piece for LDP Legal, in October last year, predicting the likelihood of a defamation suit being brought by the McCanns in the light of unscrupulous newspaper stories.

He said: “Clearly, the McCanns’ lawyers have been hard at work and last week two national newspapers ran front-page apologies and accepted that what they wrote was defamatory of the McCanns.

“Although the McCanns remain official suspects in the criminal investigation in Portugal – it was their being named as such which sparked the change in tone in the English press and the lash of what have now been acknowledged as defamatory articles – there seems never to have been any real evidence to implicate them in Madeleine’s disappearance.

“Their lawyers will have had quite a job to sift and analyse the many press and media reports in order to target those which were clearly defamatory of Kate and Gerry – those which were not caused in terms which made it absolutely clear that what was being said was mere allegation.

“Then they will have had to detail letters of claim which would seek undertakings not to repeat allegations, which are like-ly to have been given; retractions and apologies, which clearly have been given; compensation for damage to their reputations, which has been paid to the Madeleine fund; and legal costs, which no doubt have been paid.

“These will have been the sub- ject of lengthy negotiation to avoid the matters getting to court.”

Mark Manley, commercial litigation partner and specialist in defamation at Brabners Chaffe Street said: “Two front-page apologies in newspapers from the same group in one week is a first. It signifies the seriousness of the allegations and that only front- page apologies would suffice.

“Where the Express and Star went too far was in running a series of articles which conveyed a clear imputation of guilt. It’s hardly any wonder the McCanns were upset. Didn’t they have enough tragedy and heartbreak with the disappearance of Maddie without the British media accusing them so directly?”

vickyanderson