Paper apology over McCann diary

The News of the World has apologised for publishing extracts of Kate McCann's diary without her permission.

Extracts on last week's front page and four other pages revealed Mrs McCann's "black thoughts" and her dreams of lying beside missing Madeleine again.

The diary was seized and photocopied by Portuguese police after three-year-old Madeleine McCann, of Rothley, Leics, went missing while on holiday.

The paper said: "We today offer Kate our immediate and sincere apologies."

In the apology, the News of the World explained: "We published the extracts in the belief held in good faith that we had Kate's permission to do so.

'Cherished moments'

"It is now clear that our belief was misplaced, and that, in fact, Kate neither approved of nor knew the extracts were to be published."

The paper said it had agreed to make a donation to be used in the search for missing Madeleine.

The News of the World's sister paper, the Sun, has published a similar apology on its website.

It is not the first time a newspaper has published an apology to the McCanns.

In March, Madeleine's parents won a libel settlement and apology from Express Newspapers for suggesting they were responsible for Madeleine's death.

The newspaper group paid £550,000 to the Find Madeleine campaign and the Daily Express and Daily Star both carried front-page apologies under the headline, "Kate and Gerry McCann: Sorry".

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