Madeleine McCann's father in call for greater press regulation

Madeleine McCann's father has called for greater scrutiny of the UK media as he talked about his family's “monstering” by sections of the press.

- Emine Sinmaz

Gerry McCann said his family had been tormented by press “abuses” and the media had “repeatedly interfered” with the investigation into his daughter’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007.

The intrusion took a “huge toll” on his family. “We had sustained interest and misleading headlines for 15 months or more that forced us to take legal action to stop it,” he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

“We are lucky. We survived. We had tremendous support. But I can promise you, there were times where I felt like I was drowning, and it was the media, primarily, not the situation we were in, being declared arguido [suspect]. We knew the legal process. It was what was happening and the way things were being portrayed, where you were being suffocated and buried, and it felt like there wasn’t a way out.”