I felt violated by publication of my diary entries, says Kate McCann

She described feeling “violated” by the newspaper’s publication of the leaked journal, which she began after her daughter Madeleine disappeared on holiday in Portugal in 2007.

Mrs McCann, 43, said the diary – which was so private she did not even show it to her husband Gerry – was the only way she felt she could communicate with her missing daughter.

She had just returned from church on Sunday September 14 2008 when she received a text message from a friend which read “Saw your diary in the newspapers, heartbreaking. I hope you’re all right”.

Mrs McCann recalled that this came “totally out of the blue” and left her with a “horribly panicky feeling”.

The News of the World had apparently obtained a translation of her diary from the Portuguese police and published it without her permission, the inquiry was told.

Mrs McCann said: “I felt totally violated.

“I had written these words at the most desperate time of my life, and it was my only way of communicating with Madeleine.

“There was absolutely no respect shown for me as a grieving mother or a human being or to my daughter.

“It made me feel very vulnerable and small, and I just couldn’t believe it.

“It didn’t stop there. It’s not just a one-day thing. The whole week was incredibly traumatic and every time I thought about it, I just couldn’t believe the injustice.

“I just recently read through my diary entries at that point in that week, and I talk about climbing into a hole and not coming out because I just felt so worthless that we had been treated like that.”

Mr McCann, 43, said his wife felt “mentally raped” by the News of the World publication of the journal under the headline: “Kate’s diary: in her own words.”

Mr McCann said the story gave the impression that his wife had authorised publication.

“This added to our distress as it gave the impression that we were willing to capitalise financially on inherently private information, which could not have been further from the truth,” he said in a statement to the inquiry.

The News of the World’s then-deputy editor, Ian Edmondson, had told the couple’s spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, that the paper was going to run a positive article that week but did not mention that it had a copy of Mrs McCann’s diary.

The McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, also described how News of the World editor Colin Myler “beat them into submission” after they gave an interview to a rival publication.

Mr Myler was “irate” when he learned they had spoken to Hello! magazine around the first anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance to promote a Europe-wide alert system for missing children.

Mr McCann said: “He was berating us for not doing an interview with the News of the World and told us how supportive the newspaper had been.”

Mr McCann acknowledged that news media initially helped the couple, with appeals having brought in “huge amounts of information” about the possible whereabouts of their daughter but said this gradually changed over the summer.

After they returned to Britain in September 2007, photographers camped outside their house.

Mr McCann called for reforms to Press regulation, including rules banning the publication of photographs of private individuals going about their business without their written consent.