The father of missing girl Madeleine McCann has said that he wants to give evidence in a libel trial against the Portuguese detective who accused him and his wife of covering up her death.
Gerry McCann flew into Portugal for the trial, saying "I'm here for Madeleine, hopefully for justice," but conceded that he was not sure if he would be allowed to take the stand.
The McCanns are suing Gonçalo Amaral for €1.2m (£1m) in damages over a book he wrote, which their lawyers say was defamatory and helped poison public opinion against the couple. When the trial was abruptly adjourned for the day, Gerry McCann said he was disappointed, but that if he got the opportunity to come back he would take it.
Madeleine's mother, Kate, had previously attended the opening day of the trial against Amaral, who led the initial investigation into Madeleine's disappearance from a holiday resort in Praia da Luz in May 2007, shortly before her fourth birthday.
On the subject of the accusations made against against the family, Gerry McCann said on Friday: "Kate and I know better than anyone what we have experienced and what we have been through."
In his book Maddie: The Truth of the Lie, Amaral wrote that Madeleine died accidentally in her room and that the McCanns deliberately faked her disappearance in order to distract attention from her death. The McCanns strongly deny these claims and were cleared of any involvement in her disappearance when the Portuguese investigation was closed in July 2008.
A month later, Amaral, 56, who was removed from the investigation after criticising British police and has since retired from the force, published the book. In 2010 the McCanns succeeded in getting a court in Lisbon to ban it, but the decision was overruled later that year, and the book remains on sale in Portugal.
The court case has echoes of a previous trial in the UK. In March 2008 the McCanns won £550,000 in damages from Express Newspapers after what were described as "grotesque and grossly defamatory" allegations contained in more than 100 articles about their daughter's disappearance. The Express and Star newspapers ran front-page apologies to the McCanns for publishing the articles, some of which suggested the couple were involved in her death.
The McCanns' lawyer, Isabel Duarte, submitted a request for Gerry McCann to give evidence. The defence now has 10 days to say if they agree.