McCanns granted newspaper apologies

March 19, 2008

The parents of Madeleine McCann, the four-year-old British girl who went missing in May 2007, have won a court case against the Express Newspapers group in the settlement of a libel case regarding the group's coverage of their daughter's disappearance. In a statement read outside London's High Court on behalf of the McCanns, the couple say that the outcome was 'the only just and proper response' to the 'utter falsity' of the reports.

The Express Newspapers' four publications, including the Daily Express and Daily Star, will also print front-page apologies to the couple, in which the papers admit they were wrong to suggest the couple were responsible for their daughter's death. Kate and Gerry McCann explained they welcomed the outcome of the case, and that the £550,000 settlement will be paid to the Find Madeleine Campaign.

Madeleine's parents have been named as suspects by Portuguese police, but the Daily Express admits that they hold "no evidence whatsoever" to suggest that their reports that Madeleine's parents were involved in her death and disappearance were true. The front-page apology in the Daily Express reads "We accept that a number of articles in the newspaper have suggested that the couple caused the death of their missing daughter Madeleine and then covered it up," and goes on to explain that Madeleine's parents are "completely innocent" of any involvement.