Parents of the missing girl, Madeleine McCann have now been named as “arguidos” or formal suspects in the case, their spokesman Justine McGuinness has told the press that the Portuguese police believe Madeleine was killed by accident.

All of this though raises some questions about the Madeleine Fund, which now tops 1 million GBP, donated by people to help find the missing girl. Not only are the funds being spent on Justine McGuinness’s services and the PR team in Portugal, they are also investigating the possibility of using them for their defence. (Telegraph)

Mrs McCann was joined by top Lisbon lawyer Carlos Pinto de Abreu who arrived in Praia da Luz yesterday morning.

The couple is looking into whether the fighting fund to help find Madeleine will be able to pay for his legal advice.

They have been offered support from the British consulate in Portimao but a consul can only sit in with British nationals in police interviews if they have been arrested.

I don’t imagine this use of the fund will sit well with the British public. Especially as they have now returned to the UK to continue the fight to clear their name from here. They have also launched a seperate libel case against a Portuguese newspaper, although these costs will apparently not be taken from the fund.

Separately, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, the McCanns lawyer, has been instructed by Kate and Gerry McCann to bring charges against a Portuguese weekly newspaper for defamation.
The case will be taken against Emidio Fernando, Tal & Qual’s Director, and Catarina Vaz, Tal & Qual’s journalist. Papers have been sent to the Court in Oporto.

The legal expenses for the proceedings will not be paid from Madeleine’s fund, Mr McCann explained recently.

We get some more details about the fund from their mySpace page:

A series of concerts and other fund-raising events helped money flow in. So far £70,000 has been spent on staff, housing, transport and communications.

Kate and Gerry McCann’s campaign manager Justine McGuinness is also paid out of the funds.

According to the fund’s website, it is a non-charitable company set up to help find Madeleine and support her family. It says any surplus “will be used to help families and missing children in the UK, Portugal and elsewhere.”

The fund has not been set up as a charity because it would have to show public benefit.

Because it is currently focused on searching for only one child it cannot register as a charity.

But sources close to the McCanns said there are plans to give the fund charitable status in the future. It is managed by a team of financial experts and McCann family members.

They include Brian Kennedy, Madeleine’s great uncle, and John McCann, Gerry’s brother.

However as this is a private fund there is no obligation to use the surplus for any other purpose. The conditions of the fund are quite vague it seems, with one of the clauses being “To provide support, including financial assistance, to Madeleine’s family”. So it seems quite likely that this support could extend to legal fees.

It also raises some questions about how funds like this should be organised and managed. If they are going to use it for legal fees it is very unlikely that this fund can be turned into a charity. As the quote above suggests, a charity has to show it is performing some public good. That would be hard to demonstrate when it would be used to defend a case brought by the public procecutor (regardless of the country) or even an extradition.

Preferably the money should have gone to a more independant body, such as the NSPCC. Maybe it’s not too late for the McCanns to think about moving it now, if they don’t want a public backlash over the issue.

The British press seem remarkably biased over this case, especially when the recent forensic evidence was found through a cooporation between Portuguese and British investigators. This issue of the funds may well catch them off guard. You can already see some references to this on the internet (1|2) where the reactions to the case are a less xenophobic.