
Gerry McCann told MPs that the demands placed on his family by journalists were "unbelievable" and launched an attack on the way many media outlets reported on the case.
He said: "Our family have been the focus of some of the most sensationalist, untruthful, irresponsible and damaging reporting in the history of the press.To be thrust from being on holiday one minute into the middle of an international media storm, and how to cope with that, was very, very difficult."
Mr McCann, 40, and his wife Kate, 41, sued a number of British newspapers for defamation instead of going through regulatory body the Press Complaints Commission. (ITN)