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The parents of Madeleine McCann are feeling the stress of a vicious hate campaign aimed at the family and have decided to sue a Portuguese newspaper over an article alleging police believe they accidentally killed the toddler. According to the Express, Gerry McCann the father of Madeleine is feared to be on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

Madeleine McCann Father Stressed, Near Breakdown From Hate Campaign

Last night a close friend said she is worried he can no longer cope with the intense scrutiny and urged him to fly his family home. "Gerry has worked hard for everything he has achieved," a close friend told the paper.


"He has always kept his emotions and feelings under control and is a very calm person. What has happened has been a huge blow and he is really struggling to keep going. He is now finding this hard because he can no longer control events or the cruel things that are being said about him."

According to family friends said Gerry and wife Kate McCann may move back to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, for the sake of their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie. The family are expected to leave Portugal, where they have been dogged by hostile media reports, when the lease on their rented villa in Praia da Luz runs out on September 11.


Another source told the Express, "No father under this amount of pressure could possibly cope with what he is having to go through. This has been going on for four months and still shows no sign of slowing down. It’s getting nastier every day."

Kate and Gerry McCann said they were "deeply hurt" by the front page report last month in the weekly Tal & Qual, which claimed that police were certain they accidentally killed their 4-year-old daughter, Madeleine, by giving her an overdose of sedatives.


Portuguese police have said repeatedly that the McCanns are not suspects and the couple claim they have been forced to take legal action to defend their professional and personal reputations.

Yesterday, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, the McCanns’ Portuguese lawyer, said he did not believe the paper had any police sources and that the article was false.