http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/08/son-claims-hid-madeleine-kate-mccann-courtKate McCann: my son asked about police chief's Madeleine claims
Mother of missing girl tells court her son asked her about detective's allegations that she was involved in disappearance
The Guardian, Tuesday 8 July 2014 13.56 BST
Kate McCann told the court in Lisbon her son, Sean heard about Amaral’s allegations on the radio while on the school bus. Photograph: Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Image
Kate McCann has told a court that her young son asked her about allegations by a former Portuguese police chief that she was involved in her daughter Madeleine's disappearance.
McCann and her husband, Gerry, also said they feared that their daughter's kidnapper may strike again and believed that he or she would have been laughing at claims they hid the girl's body.
The couple spoke to reporters after delivering personal statements at Lisbon's Palace of Justice in a libel case brought by them against the former detective Gonçalo Amaral over claims he made in a book about the disappearance of their daughter from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007.
They told the court that there was no doubt that Amaral's claims had done "severe damage" to their struggle to find Madeleine.
Answering questions from the judge, Maria Emilia Castro, during the hearing, Kate McCann said her young son, Sean, had asked her about the allegations that she was involved in Madeleine's disappearance.
She told the court that Sean heard about Amaral's allegations on the radio while travelling on the school bus. "Sean asked me in October: 'Mr Amaral said you hid Madeleine.' I just said that he said a lot of silly things," she said.
Sean and his twin sister, Amelie, were two years old when Madeleine, who was nearly four, went missing. Kate McCann said the couple made efforts to keep information about the abduction away from their children.
"We try and anticipate if there is going to be any media coverage so they don't get any shocks and are prepared and confident to handle it," she told the court. "It is very distressing to us as adults, so for a child it would be very, very distressing."
She told the court that the children were now old enough to use computers at school and at home and had to be supervised.
Gerry McCann said that whoever was involved in the kidnap of their daughter must have been laughing during the past six years at what Amaral had claimed – that there was no abduction and there no predator on the loose. "There is – he or she or they may strike again," he said.
"There's an unsolved serious crime and there's a series of other crimes against children which have come to light who have been on holiday, so at the very least these people need to be brought to justice. We don't know if Madeleine is alive or dead but there is no evidence that she is dead and she is a missing child and she is completely innocent."
Earlier, Kate McCann told the court that she was aware that the couple did not have the support of many people in Portugal. She said this was hampering the investigation, as Portugal was the "most important country" in the search for her daughter.
"It is distressing and upsetting because we need the Portuguese people help us to find Madeleine," she said. "It also makes me feel uneasy and uncomfortable when I come to Portugal because I think people are thinking negative or really bad things about us."
She admitted she once said that she would like to be in a coma to stop the pain, and added that she had felt "defeated". She told the court that when she read Amaral's claims she was "quite desperate because of the injustice I felt towards my daughter and our family as a whole".
"It was very painful to read and I also felt anxious and fearful because of the damage I felt it was doing here in Portugal," she said. "We were working so hard, we were the only ones trying to do everything in our power to find Madeleine. It was hard enough in itself without all our efforts being crushed in this way. It just intensified the pain and fear that there was no point and we might as well give up."
No date has been set yet for the next hearing in the case as investigators look into Amaral's financial affairs. Closing speeches are not expected to take place before September.
