McCann libel case suspended on second day

Libel proceedings brought by the parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann against a former Portuguese detective who wrote a book about the case have been abruptly suspended.

The Lisbon court had been due to hear evidence from members of the McCann family about the effect the book by Goncalo Amaral had on them and the search for Madeleine, who was three when she disappeared in 2007 as the family holidayed on the Algarve, but proceedings were halted yesterday afternoon, the second day of the hearing.

“The judge had a problem. We are going to propose that the witnesses give their testimonies in written form so they do not have to return from Britain again, but it is not certain that this will be accepted by the court,” a lawyer for the McCann family told AFP.