`Make abusive priests beg for forgiveness`

`Make abusive priests beg for forgiveness`	16.07.2008

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Latest Comments:

Just goes to show the media says whatever it likes to sell papers.Forget the facts, forget decency.......
Posted by: Media of Neverland 9:44am today

It's all a numbers gameThe paper knew that get sued but figured the awardl would be a small price to pay given how this story would push their circulation numbers through the roof...Never mind that it meant trashing the names of parents grieving for their child
Posted by: Jonathan 9:31am today

The money should be use to fund missing children not just their child only, guess the payout would go to paying off their luxury mansion instead.
Posted by: Jane of sydney 9:20am today

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McCanns win $1.2m libel payout
Money to be used to help find Maddie
Doubts judgment will rein in British media

THE parents of Madeleine McCann have won £550,000 ($1.2 million) in libel damages from newspapers that repeatedly alleged they killed their missing daughter and covered up her death.

Kate and Gerry McCann received an apology at the High Court in London from the publishers of the Daily Express and the Daily Star over more than 100 defamatory stories.

Enlarge In-depth: The search for Madeleine McCann

"It is difficult to conceive a more serious allegation than to be falsely accused of being responsible for the death of one`s daughter," their lawyer Adam Tudor told the court.

The McCanns said the money would be donated to the fund set up to find their daughter. The family has not yet decided whether to take action against other newspapers.

False claims

Mr Tudor told the court that the articles included a variety of false claims, including that the McCanns killed their daughter, sold her to pay off debts or were involved in "wife-swapping".

"The general theme of the articles was to suggest that Mr and Mrs McCann were responsible for the death of Madeleine," he said.

The Daily Express and Daily Star published rare front-page apologies and said there was no evidence to support the claims.

The papers` lawyer Stephen Bacon told the court: "Express Newspapers regrets publishing these extremely serious, yet baseless, allegations."

`Grossly defamatory`

In a statement read by their spokesman outside court, the McCanns said: "We are pleased that Express Newspapers have admitted the utter falsity of the numerous grotesque and grossly defamatory allegations that their titles published about us on a sustained basis."

Madeleine McCann disappeared shortly before her fourth birthday while on holiday in Praia da Luz, prompting a huge police investigation and blanket media coverage.

Media commentator and former Daily Mirror editor Roy Greenslade said "wild claims" about the McCanns had undermined British journalism.

"This was no journalistic accident, but a sustained campaign of vitriol against a grief-stricken family," he wrote in a blog.

"The stories were not merely speculative, but laced with innuendo."

Sensationalism

But opinion was divided over whether the judgment would rein in the notorious British media.

Adrian Monck, head of the journalism at London`s City University, told the Associated Press the case would make editors more careful.

"Editors took a calculated bet that they could push the envelope in terms of the sort of information they could get away with,`` he said.

"This is a reminder that the rules apply and you can`t just circulate half-truths and rumours.``

But public relations guru Max Clifford doubted anything would change.

"Sensational stories sell. Sensational headlines sell,`` he told AP. "That`s a fact of life.``

Mystery

The McCanns believe their daughter was abducted from their flat while they had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.

They hired private investigators to help find their daughter after police named them as suspects in September.

The investigation dominated newspaper front pages and TV bulletins for months, with many stories questioning the role of the girl`s parents in her disappearance.

Despite a string of possible sightings, her whereabouts remains a mystery.

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