By Gerard Couzens Kate McCann contemplated suicide after a 'smear campaign' by a Portuguese police chief who claimed she had covered up daughter Madeleine's death, a libel trial heard today. A British psychologist who counselled Mrs McCann revealed she confessed to secret 'dark thoughts' after disgraced detective Goncalo Amaral's shocking book was followed by a TV documentary based on it. Alan Pike, a trauma expert who has been helping the McCanns since Madeleine's May 3 2007 disappearance on the Algarve, told a Lisbon court: 'Kate thought about not being around anymore. Defamed? Kate McCann, pictured speaking to press outside Lisbon's civil court last week, has brought a case of libel against the former police chief in the country who she says launched a 'smear campaign' against her
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Alan Pike, Kate McCann's psychologist, told a civil court she confessed 'dark thoughts' to him after the former detective's book was published
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Police chief claimed the McCanns hid their daughter's body after a car crash
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Kate's psychologist Alan Pike said she experienced a 'second trauma'
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Evidence heard in Lisbon in £1million libel case against Goncalo Amaral
'@placeholder in particular wasn't very well and she shared with me some very dark thoughts which she hadn't done before.