THE mother of missing Madeleine McCann arrived for the second day of the family's libel action against a former Portuguese police chief who penned a book claiming that parents Kate and Gerry covered up their daughter's death to make money.
Kate McCann, 45, arrived at the civil court in Lisbon with her mother, Susan Healy, after earlier saying that she hoped winning the legal action against Goncalo Amaral would "stop the damage" his book had done to the investigation into the disappearance of the three-year-old in the Algarve in 2007.
Mrs McCann said: "Obviously, I strongly hope for justice. I'm here to stop the damage that has been caused and is still being caused, both directly and indirectly, to the search for our daughter."
Mr Amaral led the initial investigation into Madeleine's disappearance but was removed from the case after five months. He went on to write Maddie: the Truth of the Lie, in which he claimed doctors Kate and Gerry McCann drugged their three children - Madeleine and infant twins Sean and Amelie - so they would sleep while their parents left them in their holiday apartment to dine at a nearby tapas restaurant.
However, he said they returned to discover Madeleine had died and plotted with their holiday companions - the so-called "Tapas Seven" - to cover up her death and hide her body, then inventing a story about her abduction to make money out of public donations.
Friends have told the court that the book, and a subsequent Portuguese documentary based on it, devastated the McCanns.
Family friend and filmmaker Emma Loach, 40, said: "[Kate] described it as a deep everlasting pit of despair - and she was falling deeper and deeper."
The book netted its author an estimated £320,000.
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