Kate McCann came close to suicide after Portuguese former police chief unleashed a 'smear campaign' against her, reveals her psychologist

• Alan Pike, Kate McCann's psychologist, told a civil court she confessed 'dark thoughts' to him after the former detective's book was published
  
• Police chief claimed the McCanns hid their daughter's body after a car crash
• Kate's psychologist Alan Pike said she experienced a 'second trauma'
  
• Evidence heard in Lisbon in £1million libel case against Goncalo Amaral

By Gerard Couzens

PUBLISHED: 12:15 EST, 19 September 2013 | UPDATED: 13:12 EST, 19 September 2013

Kate McCann contemplated suicide after a 'smear campaign' by a Portuguese police chief who claimed she had covered up daughter Madeleine's death, a libel trial heard today.

A British psychologist who counselled Mrs McCann revealed she confessed to secret 'dark thoughts' after disgraced detective Goncalo Amaral's shocking book was followed by a TV documentary based on it.

Alan Pike, a trauma expert who has been helping the McCanns since Madeleine's May 3 2007 disappearance on the Algarve, told a Lisbon court: 'Kate thought about not being around anymore.

Defamed? Gerry and Kate McCann, pictured speaking to press outside Lisbon's civil court today, has brought a case of libel against the former police chief in the country who she says launched a 'smear campaign' against her

'She referred to killing herself as an option to end the trauma she was experiencing.

'I deduced it was an indicator of how she felt rather that something she ever intended to do.

'Kate in particular wasn't very well and she shared with me some very dark thoughts which she hadn't done before.

'When people are going through trauma they sometimes feel helpless and one of the things they say is, "I wish I wasn't here".

'One solution some people formulate is to take themselves away from it all.

'To share that with anyone will often alarm or worry the people they live with so I think I was the only person Kate shared this with.'

Mrs McCann is being accompanied by her friend Susan Hubbard for the first hearing of the case against Mr Amaral, who published a book making allegations about Madeleine's disappearance

Mrs McCann (left) is suing the Portuguese ex-police chief (right) for the book, titled 'Maddie: The Truth of The Lie', which accuses her of staging her daughter's disappearance, despite a lack of evidence

Mr Amaral, the Portuguese policeman who led the botched hunt for Madeleine, claimed in his bombshell 2008 book 'The Truth of the Lie' the McCanns hid their daughter's body after she died in an accident and faked her abduction.

He also suggested the couple cashed in on £2million of public donations.

Mr Amaral's book was published in July 2008 just three days after the McCanns - made suspects over their daughter's death in September 2007 - had their status as 'arguidos' formally lifted.

Around 120,000 copies of the book were sold before it was withdrawn when the McCanns won an injection against him.

The couple, both 45, from Rothley, Leics, launched £1million libel proceedings against the former police chief, sacked as head of the Madeleine McCann investigation after he attacked British detectives.

They are also suing his book publishers and a TV station which broadcast an April 2009 documentary repeating Mr Amaral's claims.

Mr Pike, who has stayed in touch with the McCanns after being called in by their tour operator Mark Warner when Madeleine disappeared, told the court the book and documentary caused Kate 'secondary trauma' after the 'primary trauma' of Madeleine's disappearance.

He said she relapsed into despair at the idea people would believe the claims and stop searching for Madeleine after she, Gerry and their twins Sean and Amelie, now eight, made good progress on their return to Britain in September 2007.

Kate McCann and Gerry McCann, pictured in interview in London this spring, launched £1million libel proceedings against Goncalo Amaral, who sacked as head of the Madeleine McCann investigation after he attacked British detectives

Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007, from the family villa while they were on holiday in the Algarve, Portugal. Mother Kate McCann has campaigned tirelessly to try raise awareness to help find her daughter

'She spent many days in tears sobbing about the injustice being done to Madeleine by the very people who ought to have been helping her,' Mr Pike told the court.

'There were times when she felt so incensed by Amaral and his friends, by which she meant his publishers, that she simply couldn't get through each day with the panic and the anguish she felt.

'These were things Kate told me when I spoke to her that she'd recorded in her diary in September 2008.' He added: 'I remember Kate being further devastated by the content of the film.

'The second traumatic reaction we have is sometimes more profound than the first one, more deep-seated, more entrenched and often more extreme.

'They can be more difficult reactions to deal with. When I spoke to the family about the film this is what I found.

'They were extremely angry and very disappointed and very frustrated.

'It was broadcast on TV in Portugal and the McCanns felt there was little or no chance of Madeleine ever being found in Portugal.'

Mr Pike, a partner at a trauma after-care centre based in Skipton, Yorkshire, said the McCanns viewed Mr Amaral's book as a 'gross breach of confidentiality' because it showed he had been speaking to publishers while he and colleagues claimed laws on secrecy prevented them from discussing the Madeleine case with the couple.

Crime scene: The Ocean Club Resort in Praia da Luz where Madeleine went missing in 2007

Unsolved: Kate and Gerry McCann hold a news conference to mark the 5th anniversary of the disappearance of their daughter

He added: 'The judge said there was no evidence whatsoever that Kate and Gerry had been involved in any way in Madeleine's abduction and Kate was wondering how it was possible for a police officer involved in the search to reach his conclusions and for no-one in Portugal to challenge them.

'One of the most devastating effects of the book was that the family were worried it would influence public opinion in Portugal and people they would believe the book.

'Basically if people believed what was written in the book they were concerned people in Portugal would stop looking for her.

'Even now Kate and Gerry believe the most likely chance of finding Madeleine would originate from Portugal and so the publication in their minds meant the finding of their daughter in Portugal would be diminished.'

Amaral, 56, is denying defamation and insists everything he published in his book is already contained in police and court case files on Madeleine which have been made public.

The case, due to finish hearing evidence in November, continues.