Madeleine McCann: Kate To Attend Libel Hearing

Madeleine McCann's mother is attending a Portuguese court for the start of the family's libel action against a former police chief which could see them receive £1m in damages if they succeed.

Kate McCann will be accompanied by her mother Susan Healy for the first hearing of the case against Goncalo Amaral, who published a book making allegations about the three-year-old's disappearance in 2007.

The McCanns have strongly denied the accusations and say the former detective's claims have damaged the hunt for Madeleine and exacerbated the anguish suffered by her relatives.

Their lawyer Isabel Duarte is expected to set out the case - on behalf of Mrs McCann, her husband Gerry and their twins Sean and Amelie, now eight - at Lisbon's civil court.

The McCanns pose with a computer-generated image of their daughter

Mrs McCann, who is travelling to Portugal without her husband, could have been called as a witness, but is not expected to give evidence.

Instead, a number of relatives will appear in the witness box. They will speak about the "damage" caused by Mr Amaral's book which, they claim, poisoned public opinion in Portugal against the family and allegedly deterred people from hunting for Madeleine.

Spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry McCann remain very confident that they will win the case.

"They have a strong case against Mr Amaral. The matter is now in the hands of their lawyer as it goes through court."

Goncalo Amaral's book "poisoned public opinion", it is claimed

It is understood Mr McCann is staying at the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, to look after the couple's children.

Madeleine, who was nearly four at the time, disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3, 2007, as her parents dined at a nearby tapas restaurant with friends.

British detectives launched a fresh investigation into her disappearance in July - two years into a review of the case - and believe she could still be alive.

The Portuguese investigation into Madeleine's disappearance is officially closed.

The libel case will be heard today and tomorrow. It will then be adjourned until next Thursday when the court will sit again for two days. A final hearing is expected on September 27. The judgement is expected to be deferred.

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Sunday Mirror Phone-Hacking Probe Launched

The publisher of the Sunday Mirror is being investigated over alleged phone hacking by former employees at the newspaper.

Trinity Mirror said Scotland Yard has informed its national newspaper publishing subsidiary, MGN Limited, that a probe is under way to establish whether it is criminally liable for alleged unlawful conduct by former employees at the weekly tabloid.

A spokesman said: "Trinity Mirror plc notes that its subsidiary, MGN Limited, publisher of the group's national newspapers, has been notified by the Metropolitan Police that they are at a very early stage in investigating whether MGN is criminally liable for the alleged unlawful conduct by previous employees in relation to phone hacking on the Sunday Mirror.

"The group does not accept wrongdoing within its business and takes these allegations seriously.

"It is too soon to know how these matters will progress and further updates will be made if there are any significant developments."

The development is thought to be the first formal confirmation that a newspaper group is being investigated as a corporate suspect for alleged phone hacking by its journalists.

Piers Morgan's claims on phone hacking were "utterly unpersuasive"

It was reported last that Rupert Murdoch's News International had been placed under investigation, but the Metropolitan Police has yet to officially confirm that claim.

Several former Trinity Mirror employees have been arrested since the phone hacking scandal began.

Former Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver, who worked at the paper between 2001 and 2012,  was arrested in a dawn raid as part of the Metropolitan Police's Operation Weeting inquiry into phone hacking in March.

At that time, lawyers representing victims of phone hacking said they had been contacted by police to say they were looking into new claims relating to the now defunct News of the World's feature desk and Trinity Mirror titles.

During his inquiry into press standards, Lord Justice Leveson described former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan's claim that he had no knowledge of alleged phone hacking at the newspaper as "utterly unpersuasive", and said the practice may well have occurred at the title in the late 1990s.

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