Portuguese police chiefs traveled to London earlier this year to meet with Maddie’s father, Gerry McCann. This is what the research program reports BBC Panorama. In London they apologized for the way detectives investigated Maddie’s disappearance and the way the McCann family was treated.
Parents accused
Four months after Madeleine disappeared, father Gerry and mother Kate McCann were questioned in the Portuguese police investigation. They were briefly suspected of staging Maddie’s own kidnapping and hiding her body. Kate even claimed she was offered a deal by police to admit she covered up her daughter’s death in exchange for a shorter sentence.
In 2008, the parents were officially no longer suspects. Yet Goncalo Amaral, the former lead detective who was later removed from the case, wrote a book in which he still accuses the McCanns of being involved in the disappearance of their daughter. Mother Kate filed a complaint of defamation.
Suspect Brückner overlooked
Portuguese police now say their initial investigation into Maddie’s disappearance was not handled properly, and that other missing children in the region were not properly investigated at the time. Portugal is currently working with British and German police to find evidence linking German Christian Brückner to the girl’s disappearance.
Brückner, who has previously been convicted of sexual abuse of a child, rape of an elderly woman and possession of child pornography, lived near Praia da Luz at the time of the disappearance. Brückner is seen by the German police as the main suspect in Maddie’s disappearance case, although the 46-year-old German has not yet been officially charged.
The McCann family has not yet responded to the Portuguese officers’ apology. A German prosecutor called it ‘a good sign’. “It shows that there is development in Portugal in the McCann case.”
In the video below you can see how Maddie’s belongings were searched for in a lake earlier this year.
2023-10-30 08:46:52
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