McCanns 'will not be forced out'
Updated on 10 August 2007
Madeleine McCann's parents have hit out at the Portuguese press and insisted they will not be forced out of the country.
They spoke out after being besieged by the media outside their apartment in Praia da Luz and after newspapers repeated claims that detectives now believe four-year-old Madeleine was killed in the McCann holiday flat rather than abducted.
Kate McCann said: "We will never go through anything worse than being parted from Madeleine.
"We will not be leaving or be forced out. I am not prepared to be bullied into doing something that I don't want to."
On Thursday the couple halted their daily routine of taking their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie to the creche at the Ocean Club resort in the seaside village.
That move followed concerns about photographers and film crews taking pictures of their children and disturbing holidaymakers using the child-minding facility.
Mrs McCann said: "We can cope with a lot and we still have a lot of strength, but this speculation and the actions of the Portuguese press has been hurtful, intrusive and disrespectful to our other two children.
"The press here have badly overstepped any reasonable line."
The McCanns say the Portuguese police have reassured them that they are still treating the investigation as relating to an abduction rather than a murder.
© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
