New German suspect in Madeleine McCann mystery disappearance.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Sceptics on here are either incredibly stupid or supremely insulting to suggest that anyone on this forum “needs” this man to have abducted Madeleine.  Guess what?  We don’t get to choose whether or not she fell off the sofa and died or was abducted by a paedo.  We cannot influence what happened to the child by “needing” or “wanting”.   This is not a game we are playing with different outcomes depending on which script we favour.  If I thought that by wanting Madeleine to have had an accident in which she had a swift, painless demise and was then disposed of by her parents  that it would rescue her from a much more prolonged and agonising death then I guess I would do so,  but this is not about what I want but about what is most likely to have happened.  Whether it’s this guy or not I don’t know, but if it’s not him it will be someone very like him, IMO.  Wishing it were not so does not change the past.  Can you really not get your sceptical little heads around that is it it just too tempting to use this as an exercise in faux outrage to score a pathetic point?

[ISpyWithMyEye]

What I have always found curious is why Christian Buecker wanted to live “hand to mouth” in Portugal for; staying there for years until leaving very soon after Madeleine disappeared...

Portugal isn’t the typical destination for a young man to want to go and live, doing odd jobs as a waiter. It’s a destination more suited to older people who like to spend the winters there. It isn’t a young persons usual haunt, say, like Ibiza where it’s teaming with nightlife, bars and packed with young men and women letting their hair down.

He had no relatives in friends there, so what was the attraction?

He said to a police officer he chose to go there as he “liked the name”. Yeah, that makes sense...not

Portugal is and has been a paedophiles paradise for decades, due to the lax laws, many people living in near poverty, children allowed to play out unsupervised, and the Portuguese people’s general relaxed attitude to allowing their young children to go out at all times of day and even night assuming they’ll be safe. In fact, my daughter had a childhood Portuguese friend whose parents were just as lax and trusting and often didn’t know where she was when she wa s just 10-years-old! And that was in London.

I wonder if CB had heard about the Portuguese lifestyle regarding their children including the terribly lax laws, hence why he chose to move there.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-488654/Why-Portugal-haven-paedophiles--disturbing-backcloth-Madeleine-case.html

[ISpyWithMyEye]

Sceptics on here are either incredibly stupid or supremely insulting to suggest that anyone on this forum “needs” this man to have abducted Madeleine.  Guess what?  We don’t get to choose whether or not she fell off the sofa and died or was abducted by a paedo.  We cannot influence what happened to the child by “needing” or “wanting”.   This is not a game we are playing with different outcomes depending on which script we favour.  If I thought that by wanting Madeleine to have had an accident in which she had a swift, painless demise and was then disposed of by her parents  that that would rescue her from a much more prolonged and agonising death then I guess I would do so,  but this is not about what I want but about what is most likely to have happened.  Whether it’s this guy or not I don’t know, but if it’s not him it will be someone very like him, IMO.  Wishing it were not so does not change the past.  Can you really not get your sceptical little heads around that is it it just too tempting to use this as an exercise in faux outrage to score a pathetic point?

Funny you said that, VS, as I get the distinct impression some people on here desperately want the McCanns’ to have killed her!

They’re almost obsessed.

[faithlilly]

Funny you said that, VS, as I get the distinct impression some people on here desperately want the McCanns’ to have killed her!

They’re almost obsessed.

I don’t think you’ll find anyone on this forum has expressed that opinion.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Funny you said that, VS, as I get the distinct impression some people on here desperately want the McCanns’ to have killed her!

They’re almost obsessed.

What they and especially Amaral desperately don’t want is to have their nasty 13-year long campaign against the parents to have been shown to have been entirely misplaced and a complete waste of their time and effort.  How much more foolish would they look if someone else is found guilty of Madeleine’s disappearance, how injured will be the egos and pride?  Personally, I wouldn’t be able to  live with myself if I’d spent such a long time pointing the finger at innocent people on social media day in, day out for years and years and years, but some people have no shame. As has already been pointed out however, it doesn’t really matter if it’s proven that this guy did it, to some the McCanns will always be the bad guys who tossed their daughter’s body in the bin.

[pathfinder73]

A suspect could make a full confession, show the police where the body is, which has his DNA on it, and still there will be people saying the McCann's did it.

If Smithman comes forward your wish is granted!

[Billy Whizz Fan Club]

What they and especially Amaral desperately don’t want is to have their nasty 13-year long campaign

Why is it "nasty" to have a different opinion to the one you have? The only difference is no-one will want to defend a self confessed sex offender when he's the subject of the same media speculation that the McCann's campaigned against.

I'm interested in the evidence and nothing more. Just because I believe some evidence points towards the parents involvement that does not make me "nasty". I also believe there's some circumstantial evidence against the German sex offender - does that go anyway towards redeeming my dark soul?

At the end of the day due legal process requires lay people to consider carefully the evidence that is presented to them in a court of law.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Why is it "nasty" to have a different opinion to the one you have? The only difference is no-one will want to defend a self confessed sex offender when he's the subject of the same media speculation that the McCann's campaigned against.

I'm interested in the evidence and nothing more. Just because I believe some evidence points towards the parents involvement that does not make me "nasty". I also believe there's some circumstantial evidence against the German sex offender - does that go anyway towards redeeming my dark soul?

At the end of the day due legal process requires lay people to consider carefully the evidence that is presented to them in a court of law.

Have you spent years on social media accusing the McCanns and their friends of lying, plotting, covering up and worse?  Have you bust a gut trying to educate the world about the Gaspar statement?  Have you regularly re-posted the picture of Kate and Gerry outside the church with ballons to demonstrate how happy and carefree they were in the aftermath  of Madeleine’s disappearance?  Have you tirelessly promoted the idea that Smithman is Gerry to anyone who will listen and plenty who aren’t remotely interested?  Do you “like” photoshopped pictures of the McCanns sat in frontof a big pile of money and retweet them, knowing they’re fake but hoping to further the misinformation and maligning of the McCanns?  Do you laugh at their misfortunes, sneer at their accents, rubbish their dress sense, mock their facebook messages?  If not then I wasn’t talking about you. 

[Robittybob1]

If Smithman comes forward your wish is granted!

I thought that was the Tooth Fairy.

[Brietta]

Amaral tells it like this:

........"When we receive this information, at the end of September, we think we finally have the piece that will allow us to complete the puzzle. Because of this, we may be able to reconstruct the course of events on that cold night of May 3rd in Vila da Luz. We have a better understanding of why Jane Tanner, "sent," the alleged abductor in the opposite direction to that taken by the man seen by the Smith family. Suspicion had to be diverted from Gerald who - if he was the guilty party - would have taken this route: leaving apartment 5A, the individual who was carrying the child, did not go east, towards Murat's house, but west in the direction of the beach.

We decide to get the Smiths back to the Algarve, for a formal identification of Gerry McCann - by means of televised images, certainly - direct confrontation being impossible - and possibly proceed to a reconstruction of the events of the night of May 3rd. The National Director of the Judiciary police agrees, the process is set in motion, all the details are sorted out; all that remains is to choose the hotel where they will be put up. But the Smiths were never to come back to Portugal. After my departure, the PJ were to change their minds."...........

He could and should have finished that sentence as follows ...
"After my departure, the PJ were to change their minds" having checked the evidence and "In the final report on the investigation, the PJ guarantee, however, that at the time Smith says he saw Gerry in the street, Madeleine's father was sitting at the table in the Tapas restaurant in the Ocean Club".

[faithlilly]

He could and should have finished that sentence as follows ...
"After my departure, the PJ were to change their minds" having checked the evidence and "In the final report on the investigation, the PJ guarantee, however, that at the time Smith says he saw Gerry in the street, Madeleine's father was sitting at the table in the Tapas restaurant in the Ocean Club".

Or....the PJ were to change their minds because the friends of the parents verified Gerry’s alibi. Ther wasn’t, however, one independent witness who did so.

[Brietta]

Sceptics on here are either incredibly stupid or supremely insulting to suggest that anyone on this forum “needs” this man to have abducted Madeleine.  Guess what?  We don’t get to choose whether or not she fell off the sofa and died or was abducted by a paedo.  We cannot influence what happened to the child by “needing” or “wanting”.   This is not a game we are playing with different outcomes depending on which script we favour.  If I thought that by wanting Madeleine to have had an accident in which she had a swift, painless demise and was then disposed of by her parents  that it would rescue her from a much more prolonged and agonising death then I guess I would do so,  but this is not about what I want but about what is most likely to have happened.  Whether it’s this guy or not I don’t know, but if it’s not him it will be someone very like him, IMO.  Wishing it were not so does not change the past.  Can you really not get your sceptical little heads around that is it it just too tempting to use this as an exercise in faux outrage to score a pathetic point?

It may be "point scoring" but both short term and longer term I think such allegations whether implicit or direct are very much an own goal.

[Brietta]

Madeleine McCann case has similarities with Scottish child abduction – Tom Wood

The identification of sex offender Christian Bruckner as the prime suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann could finally bring some peace for her parents, writes Tom Wood.
Monday, 22nd June 2020

There may still be a long road for the Madeleine McCann investigation.
For anyone who has followed the 13-year agony of the McCann family it has been welcome news. The identification of the German sex offender Christian Bruckner as a prime suspect in the 2007 abduction of three-year-old Madeleine may at last bring a resolution for her family.

To lose a child is a catastrophe. For your youngster to be abducted and simply disappear is an unimaginable horror. Add to that the botched early investigation and the suspicions that fell on Madeleine’s parents – it has been a nightmare.

In fairness to the Portuguese police, stranger abductions are so rare they could not be blamed for first looking close to home. But to publicise such suspicions without good evidence was utterly unprofessional and led the investigation on a false trail as well as to the hounding of the McCanns over the intervening years.

Now at last Bruckner has emerged as a man with right criminal background in the right place at the right time.
The other good news is that, as he is in custody in Germany, the investigation is now being led by the German federal criminal police – a crack outfit.
It sounds positive but, beware, there may be a long road ahead and perhaps even a dead end.

The case of Madeleine’s abduction always reminded me of our own search for the killer of Caroline Hogg, the five-year-old abducted from Portobello and murdered in July 1983. Caroline and Madeleine were both bonny wee girls snatched from under the noses of their families. Caroline’s body was found ten days later hundreds of miles from her home, Madeleine is still missing.

But it is the similarity between the suspects in the two cases that strikes you.
When Robert Black was caught, red-handed, abducting a young girl in 1990 it was obvious that he was a strong suspect for the murder of Caroline and at least two other girls. Like Bruckner, Black had all the right credentials but like Bruckner he was uncooperative and in custody with all the legal protections of a prisoner.

Lacking direct or forensic evidence, the McCann investigation will be painstakingly building a circumstantial case, charting their suspects movements over the last 20 years – associates, addresses, cars, phones, employment – fragments of evidence that could tie him to scenes of crimes.

Following Black’s arrest, we were in the same position but we had three advantages.
First, the Caroline Hogg investigation was one of the first to use the new computerised administration system (Holmes), so nothing would fall between the cracks.
Second, we had a unified command, Hector Clark, then Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders, had overseen the investigation from the start. He was a hugely experienced detective and was ably assisted by Roger Orr, another gifted investigator, and later head of Lothians CID – there would be no mistakes.
And lastly we were lucky.
Black was a delivery driver and his long-time employers were an old-fashioned firm who kept meticulous records. Over half a million fuel receipts had been carefully filed away. In a masterpiece of circumstantial evidence, this huge puzzle eventually tied Black to the scenes of five abductions and murders of young girls. He was convicted of four before he died in prison.

Bruckner is also suspected of other serious crimes but the McCann investigation does not have our advantages. Policing and legal systems are very different in Portugal and Germany. There is no unified command and bruised egos may impede cooperation. But let’s hope these differences can be overcome, that the pieces of evidence fall into place and that Madeleine’s abductor is trapped at last. Justice demands it and Madeleine’s parents deserve some peace and a crumb of comfort.

Tom Wood is a writer and former Deputy Chief Constable
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/madeleine-mccann-case-has-similarities-scottish-child-abduction-tom-wood-2889765

[sadie]

What I have always found curious is why Christian Buecker wanted to live “hand to mouth” in Portugal for; staying there for years until leaving very soon after Madeleine disappeared...

Portugal isn’t the typical destination for a young man to want to go and live, doing odd jobs as a waiter. It’s a destination more suited to older people who like to spend the winters there. It isn’t a young persons usual haunt, say, like Ibiza where it’s teaming with nightlife, bars and packed with young men and women letting their hair down.

He had no relatives in friends there, so what was the attraction?

He said to a police officer he chose to go there as he “liked the name”. Yeah, that makes sense...not

Portugal is and has been a paedophiles paradise for decades, due to the lax laws, many people living in near poverty, children allowed to play out unsupervised, and the Portuguese people’s general relaxed attitude to allowing their young children to go out at all times of day and even night assuming they’ll be safe. In fact, my daughter had a childhood Portuguese friend whose parents were just as lax and trusting and often didn’t know where she was when she wa s just 10-years-old! And that was in London.

I wonder if CB had heard about the Portuguese lifestyle regarding their children including the terribly lax laws, hence why he chose to move there.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-488654/Why-Portugal-haven-paedophiles--disturbing-backcloth-Madeleine-case.html

I wonder, might CB have been in a paedo ring and found many of them lived there? 

As you say, might he have heard of the lax way of life and Law over there ?


Or,
After his first German convictions, might a paedo trafficking /child offering 'service' have approached him with an offer, which happened to be in PT? 

So was he a minor member of a drug smuggling group, or a sex trafficking ring?   Was that how he got to drive that gigantic motorhome.  Did it belong to them?  Did he use it when children needed to be transported for paedophile purposes?

Was he protected by selected members of the PJ and the judiciary?   

Cos, in PT, he seems to have got off scot free in many instances.


He is a bit of an enigma, isn't he?

Any ideas?

[Vertigo Swirl]

Madeleine McCann case has similarities with Scottish child abduction – Tom Wood

The identification of sex offender Christian Bruckner as the prime suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann could finally bring some peace for her parents, writes Tom Wood.
Monday, 22nd June 2020

There may still be a long road for the Madeleine McCann investigation.
For anyone who has followed the 13-year agony of the McCann family it has been welcome news. The identification of the German sex offender Christian Bruckner as a prime suspect in the 2007 abduction of three-year-old Madeleine may at last bring a resolution for her family.

To lose a child is a catastrophe. For your youngster to be abducted and simply disappear is an unimaginable horror. Add to that the botched early investigation and the suspicions that fell on Madeleine’s parents – it has been a nightmare.

In fairness to the Portuguese police, stranger abductions are so rare they could not be blamed for first looking close to home. But to publicise such suspicions without good evidence was utterly unprofessional and led the investigation on a false trail as well as to the hounding of the McCanns over the intervening years.

Now at last Bruckner has emerged as a man with right criminal background in the right place at the right time.
The other good news is that, as he is in custody in Germany, the investigation is now being led by the German federal criminal police – a crack outfit.
It sounds positive but, beware, there may be a long road ahead and perhaps even a dead end.

The case of Madeleine’s abduction always reminded me of our own search for the killer of Caroline Hogg, the five-year-old abducted from Portobello and murdered in July 1983. Caroline and Madeleine were both bonny wee girls snatched from under the noses of their families. Caroline’s body was found ten days later hundreds of miles from her home, Madeleine is still missing.

But it is the similarity between the suspects in the two cases that strikes you.
When Robert Black was caught, red-handed, abducting a young girl in 1990 it was obvious that he was a strong suspect for the murder of Caroline and at least two other girls. Like Bruckner, Black had all the right credentials but like Bruckner he was uncooperative and in custody with all the legal protections of a prisoner.

Lacking direct or forensic evidence, the McCann investigation will be painstakingly building a circumstantial case, charting their suspects movements over the last 20 years – associates, addresses, cars, phones, employment – fragments of evidence that could tie him to scenes of crimes.

Following Black’s arrest, we were in the same position but we had three advantages.
First, the Caroline Hogg investigation was one of the first to use the new computerised administration system (Holmes), so nothing would fall between the cracks.
Second, we had a unified command, Hector Clark, then Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders, had overseen the investigation from the start. He was a hugely experienced detective and was ably assisted by Roger Orr, another gifted investigator, and later head of Lothians CID – there would be no mistakes.
And lastly we were lucky.
Black was a delivery driver and his long-time employers were an old-fashioned firm who kept meticulous records. Over half a million fuel receipts had been carefully filed away. In a masterpiece of circumstantial evidence, this huge puzzle eventually tied Black to the scenes of five abductions and murders of young girls. He was convicted of four before he died in prison.

Bruckner is also suspected of other serious crimes but the McCann investigation does not have our advantages. Policing and legal systems are very different in Portugal and Germany. There is no unified command and bruised egos may impede cooperation. But let’s hope these differences can be overcome, that the pieces of evidence fall into place and that Madeleine’s abductor is trapped at last. Justice demands it and Madeleine’s parents deserve some peace and a crumb of comfort.

Tom Wood is a writer and former Deputy Chief Constable
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/madeleine-mccann-case-has-similarities-scottish-child-abduction-tom-wood-2889765

Good article but I expect there will be sceptics on here who find it strange that he refers to the possibility that Bruckner would be id’ed as the culprit in the MM case as “good news” and that it could bring peace and resolution to rhe family.  They’ll be accusing him of wanting or needing Madeleine to have been raped and murdered by a paedophile next, but that would only be demonstrating their warped logic.