The Telegraph gets in on the act

Home»News»News Topics»Madeleine McCannGerry McCann contacted police after abduction threat to twins
Gerry McCann was forced to contact police after threats were made to kidnap one of their twins by vigilantes, inspired by a detective’s book on the case, in a bid to find out what really happened, a court heard.

Gerry McCann talking to journalists last year Photo: JOHN STILLWELL/PA
By Claire Carter
5:12PM BST 20 Sep 2013
Some of the threats against the couple and their twins, Sean and Amelie, were so “disturbing” that Michael Wright, a close friend of the family, didn’t want to tell Kate McCann.

A court in Lisbon heard that the release of a book which implicated the McCann’s in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007 sparked suggestions by vigilantes about abducting one of the twins to find out the truth. Mr McCann eventually contacted police over the threats.

Michael Wright monitored internet activity after Madeleine was abducted from a holiday apartment in Portugal and said forums exploded after Goncalo Amaral, a former policeman and head of the investigation, published his book The Truth of the Lie.

He told the court: “There were several instances of inciting forum members to abduct one of the twins as they felt they could throw some light on what had happened. On the ‘The 3 Arguidos’ forum there was a thread of great length where one member was suggesting that someone should abduct Sean or Amelie as they would be able to confirm Mr Amaral’s theory.”

Gerry McCann contacted Leicestershire Police about the threats and Mr Wright was interviewed at his home in Skipton, Yorkshire by officers.

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Mr Wright said he was concerned about the twins being able to read about the allegations on the internet after Amelie McCann had already found her name through an online search.

He told the court how he and his wife, Kate’s cousin Anne-Marie Wright, had spent the weekend with the McCann’s on the second anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. This followed a documentary broadcast on Portuguese TV channel TVI in April 2009.

He said: “The weekend we all spent together was horrible. They arrived at the cottage having received phone calls from friends they had made in Praia da Luz telling them that people were tearing down posters we had put up saying ‘we know what happened. The child is dead.´

“That news had a terrible impact. To hear that people were accepting the thesis of the book caused them huge, visible distress and great anger.”

Around 2.2 mllion people in Portugal watched the documentary – leading Mr McCann to admit to his friend that for the first time he felt he could not go on.

Mr Wright told the court: “Both he and Kate are very strong and driven people and for two years they had been dealing with the disappearance of their daughter, the media backlash, being made arguido… Through all this they had led the rest of the family and other people in helping find Madeleine. So to hear G Talk about it being too much to carry on and to see him almost broken was a great shock.”

The McCann's are suing Amaral, his publishers Guerra & Paz, TVI and filmmakers VC Filmes for libel and damages equivalent to £1million.

The book sold 120,000 copies until an injunction filed by the McCann’s removed it from bookshops. The injunction was later lifted when the court ruling was overturned.

The trial is due finish hearing evidence in November.

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What the h*** is going on , do the Press really beleive Michael Wright's testament or are they tongue in cheek reporting this nonsense.

FFS!!!!!! You can't make this shit up. I'm so fed up with all this absolute nonsense.
Just what the hell is going on?
We had the first 2 days of the trial with full reporting, now nothing at all has been written or tweeted, about the last 2 days, now all this Bullshit is being printed.  

fgs - instead of protecting the twins they are still being used in all this - poor poor children - for the sake of the twins i wish they would go away -

I think Clarence has been drumming up support by letting the Press know what has been said in the closed door testimony. Michael Wright's testimony shows just how much the McCanns had their spies out ......what did they have to be afraid of if they are innocent? Wright is Kate's Cousin isn't he? He spent some time in PDL and the McCanns spent the first Christmas without Madeleine with his Family in Yorkshire.

Obviously the McCanns are worried , otherwise why stoop so low to gain sympathy....why wasn't the 3a's report published by them at the time?

As I write sky news are discussing the report in the Daily Star that trolls threatened to kidnap Amelie, consensus appears to be nuetral and amazement that this case is still ongoing. You can email :news@sky.com with your comment.

Panda wrote:

I think Clarence has been drumming up support by letting the Press know what has been said in the closed door testimony. Michael Wright's testimony shows just how much the McCanns had their spies out ......what did they have to be afraid of if they are innocent?  Wright is Kate's Cousin isn't he? He spent some time in PDL and the McCanns spent the first Christmas without Madeleine with his Family in Yorkshire.

Obviously the McCanns are worried , otherwise why stoop so low to gain sympathy....why wasn't the 3a's report published by them at the time?

As I write sky news are discussing the report in the Daily Star that trolls threatened to kidnap Amelie, consensus appears to be nuetral and amazement that this case is still ongoing. You can email :news@sky.com with your comment.

"He told the court how he and his wife, Kate’s cousin Anne-Marie Wright, had spent the weekend with the McCann’s on the second anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. This followed a documentary broadcast on Portuguese TV channel TVI in April 2009. "

weissnicht wrote:

Panda wrote:

I think Clarence has been drumming up support by letting the Press know what has been said in the closed door testimony. Michael Wright's testimony shows just how much the McCanns had their spies out ......what did they have to be afraid of if they are innocent?  Wright is Kate's Cousin isn't he? He spent some time in PDL and the McCanns spent the first Christmas without Madeleine with his Family in Yorkshire.

Obviously the McCanns are worried , otherwise why stoop so low to gain sympathy....why wasn't the 3a's report published by them at the time?

As I write sky news are discussing the report in the Daily Star that trolls threatened to kidnap Amelie, consensus appears to be nuetral and amazement that this case is still ongoing. You can email :news@sky.com with your comment.

"He told the court how he and his wife, Kate’s cousin Anne-Marie Wright, had spent the weekend with the McCann’s on the second anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. This followed a documentary broadcast on Portuguese TV channel TVI in April 2009. "

Thanks weissnicht , do we know whether the McCanns took action to have 3a's closed down when Wright reported it....he did report it at the time I hope.

Panda, I've just been reading today's Daily Mail McCann article and it, ridiculously, referred to the 3As website as 'a cesspit'! Now anyone who regularly tuned into it will know that it was a great sprawling multi-faceted site, reflecting all sorts of views, some of them unpleasant, some of them decidedly odd, but most of them requests from normal citizens wanting to find out more about the disappearance of Madeleine, and share information from the PJ files when they were released, and from people who did things like actually travel out to PDL and pace out the distance from A to B when it was disputed. It had its fair share of nutters, all large websites do, but cesspit it was NOT! Do the McCanns want to rewrite history as well as sue everyone who moves who does not feel their 'version of the truth' is the most likely one? Of COURSE they do. The puzzle is why they are being allowed to get away with it. When we find out that, if we ever do, a large part of the mystery may be solved.

Years ago (i think it was on 3As) I had this sig:

This is not a cesspit -it's a sceptic tank.

comperedna wrote:Panda, I've just been reading today's Daily Mail McCann article and it, ridiculously, referred to the 3As website as 'a cesspit'! Now anyone who regularly tuned into it will know that it was a great sprawling multi-faceted site, reflecting all sorts of views, some of them unpleasant, some of them decidedly odd, but most of them requests from normal citizens wanting to find out more about the disappearance of Madeleine, and share information from the PJ files when they were released, and from people who did things like actually travel out to PDL and pace out the distance from A to B when it was disputed. It had its fair share of nutters, all large websites do, but cesspit it was NOT! Do the McCanns want to rewrite history as well as sue everyone who moves who does not feel their 'version of the truth' is the most likely one? Of COURSE they do. The puzzle is why they are being allowed to get away with it. When we find out that, if we ever do, a large part of the mystery may be solved.

I agree with you comparedna, the press act like village idiots , ready to post all this garbage without question.......what is it about the Mccanns that they can get all this publicity from practically every Daily in the U.K and the beguiling photo of little Madeleine in her red velvet dress added to add poignancy.

It really is quite disgraceful of the Press when there is so much tragedy going on with Floods, Tornados, etc, how much are the McCanns paying MitChell to keep them in the Press ????

I'm trying to remain optimistic and think that the media is trying to alert people to the other side of the story. Remember that previous hearings received little, if any, coverage at all.

If the way they have to impart the message is by ridiculous stories about cesspit vigilantes, so be it.

I've read somewhere about thousands of visitors in recent days to sites where The Truth of the Lie can be read.

That can only be down to the publicity.

I quite agree NBY. The more Kate screams like a toddler, and stamps her size 6 feet, the more that people will want to look for themselves, just to see what all the brouhaha is about.

comperedna wrote:Panda, I've just been reading today's Daily Mail McCann article and it, ridiculously, referred to the 3As website as 'a cesspit'! Now anyone who regularly tuned into it will know that it was a great sprawling multi-faceted site, reflecting all sorts of views, some of them unpleasant, some of them decidedly odd, but most of them requests from normal citizens wanting to find out more about the disappearance of Madeleine, and share information from the PJ files when they were released, and from people who did things like actually travel out to PDL and pace out the distance from A to B when it was disputed. It had its fair share of nutters, all large websites do, but cesspit it was NOT! Do the McCanns want to rewrite history as well as sue everyone who moves who does not feel their 'version of the truth' is the most likely one? Of COURSE they do. The puzzle is why they are being allowed to get away with it. When we find out that, if we ever do, a large part of the mystery may be solved.

"Cesspit" is definitely a term I've heard the one who lies with as many teeth as he has in his mouth use, and that lying mouth is both brought and paid for by the gruesome twosome.  

Yep, it's all in the family!

Gerry McCann contacted Leicestershire Police about the threats and Mr Wright was interviewed at his home in Skipton, Yorkshire by officers.

So, was in NYPolice or Leic Police?

Didn't Mr Wright say he was monitoring 3a's , not Gerry??? Looks like Wright was used by the McCanns to publicise the death threat and he didn't come out of the interview very well. Will the Press publish the Court hearing?