McCanns Tell Inquiry Of Distress And Disgust

Madeleine McCann's parents have revealed how incessant media pressure affected their family life and accused newspaper editors of hampering the search for their missing daughter.

Speaking at the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, Kate and Gerry McCann described how suspicion surrounding them led to a barrage of highly personal media reports.

Mr McCann told the inquiry there were "sinister reports" circulating about the couple's involvement after their daughter vanished and the reporting quickly became highly speculative.

His wife told of her distress at reports that her daughter was dead and said she felt her voice carried no weight against the power of the media.

Discussing the pain caused by the false headlines, Mrs McCann said: "We wanted to shout out 'It's not true', but when it's your voice against a powerful media, there's no point."

Asked about a newspaper claim that the couple had sold Madeleine because they were hard up, Mr McCann described it as "nothing short of disgusting".

The pair said they were browbeaten into doing an interview with the News Of The World (NOTW) when the newspaper's then editor Colin Myler called and berated them for doing an interview with Hello! magazine.

Mr McCann said: "He (Myler) basically beat us into submission verbally and we agreed to do an interview the day after."

Mrs McCann added that this had come during "an extremely stressful time" for the couple.

"To get a call like this - you actually almost feel guilty", she said.

Mr McCann explained they had chosen to give an interview to Hello! as it is sold across Europe and it was a European Amber alert system they were campaigning for.

Describing Mr Myler's reaction, Mr McCann wrote in a statement submitted to the inquiry: "In the end we were made to feel so guilty we agreed to give an interview to the News Of The World, despite not really wanting to do so."

Mrs McCann described feeling violated by the NOTW after it printed her intenselypersonal diary which she began after Madeleine's disappearance in 2007.

The NOTW had apparently obtained a translation of her diary from the Portuguese police and published it without her permission, the inquiry was told.

Mrs McCann said: "I felt totally violated. I had written these words at the most desperate time of my life, and it was my only way of communicating with Madeleine.

"There was absolutely no respect shown for me as a grieving mother or a human being or to my daughter.

"It made me feel very vulnerable and small, and I just couldn't believe it."

Mr McCann did admit that the media had been helpful at times, particularly when launching appeals.

But he said there was a huge amount of speculation, with small quotes in the Portuguese press being picked up in the UK and turned into fact. He gave the "She's dead" headline as the most distressing example.

The couple said they were hounded by the press as they finally left Portugal and after they arrived home in Rothley, Leicestershire.

Mrs McCann described how photographers would either spring out from behind the hedge or, on several occasions, bang on the windows.

She added: "Amelie (Madeleine's younger sister) said to me several times 'Mummy, I'm scared'."

The inquiry heard earlier from a lawyer for phone-hacking victims, who claimed the illegal interception of voicemails is "much more widespread" than just the NOTW.

Mark Lewis said the practice was "too easy to do" for journalists.

He suggested reporters considered it no worse than driving at 35mph in a 30mph zone.

Mr Lewis said he felt sorry in a way for the NOTW for being the paper caught out hacking phones thanks to private detective Glenn Mulcaire keeping such detailed records.

"Because it was a much more widespread practice than just one newspaper, " he told the inquiry.

Mulcaire was jailed along with the NOTW's former royal editor Clive Goodman in January 2007 after they admitted intercepting voicemail messages left on phones belonging to royal aides.

Mr Lewis represents several people who had their phones hacked - including the parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The lawyer negotiated a total of £3m from Rupert Murdoch and News International in compensation for the hacking of Milly's phone.

He also represented Gordon Taylor, boss of the Professional Footballers' Association, winning him a £425,000 settlement from News International as the first phone-hacking claimant.

Mr Lewis told the inquiry that NOTW journalists wrongly concluded Mr Taylor was having an affair after hacking his phone and misinterpreting a voicemail.

In recent weeks it has been revealed that Mr Lewis was followed by the NOTW and his ex-wife and daughter were put under surveillance by a private detective working for the paper.

The inquiry has also heard from the former wife of England football star Paul Gascoigne, Sheryl.

Their troubled relationship provided the tabloid press with a gold mine of highly personal stories.

Mrs Gascoigne told the inquiry she feels the responsibility falls on the people subject to intrusion by the media to prove their innocence, and branded the Press Complaints Commission a "waste of time".

Asked why the press portrayed her as a "money-grabber" who was "at the heart of Paul's problems", she replied: "I have no idea why they would say that. Maybe because I was a single mother with two children, maybe it was just I was an easy target."

The witness schedule:

:: Wednesday November 23

Gerry and Kate McCann (father and mother of missing Madeleine), Sheryl Gascoigne (ex-wife of footballer Paul), Tom Rowland (journalist), Mark Lewis (lawyer, represents some phone-hacking victims).

:: Thursday November 24

Sienna Miller, Max Mosley, JK Rowling, Mark Thomson (lawyer), HJK (anonymous witness - had a relationship with well-known person).

:: Monday November 28

Charlotte Church, Anne Diamond, Ian Hurst (former British Army intelligence officer), Jane Winter (Northern Ireland human rights campaigner), Chris Jefferies (landlord of murdered Joanna Yeates).