McCanns take legal action to close death claim website

Published on Saturday 19 September 2009 19:56

LAWYERS representing Kate and Gerry McCann have demanded a website claiming their daughter Madeleine was not abducted be taken down.

The Madeleine Foundation claims she is dead and that her parents bear some responsibility.

In a statement on its website, the foundation says libel specialists Carter-Ruck have also demanded they hand over leaflets and booklets they published to support their claims.

The spokesman for the McCann family, Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry have consistently made it clear they will not dignify the actions of the so-called Madeleine Foundation with any comment whatsoever.

"However Carter-Ruck's position is now clear and it is in the hands of Kate and Gerry's defamation lawyers."

The statement on the foundation's website says they were given until Saturday to reply to Carter-Ruck and are now taking legal advice.

Madeleine, below, was nearly four when she was abducted from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.

The McCanns tapped into the huge public interest into their daughter's disappearance and made repeated appeals for information.

They feared their daughter had been kidnapped and taken abroad and set up the findmadeleine.com website as part of their campaign to find her.