Who leaked it to the media then?
Amaral gave sufficient evidence about the suspect's identity to an Australian podcast broadcast last year to enable journalists to work out who he was.
SnipGoncalo Amaral, the man who led the initial investigation, confirmed in April last year that 'a German paedophile currently in jail in Germany' - now named as Christian Brueckner - was identified 13 years ago as a potential suspect.
But Amaral, who was sacked after naming Kate and Jerry McCann as suspects in the disappearance and maintains they were responsible, said his detectives 'found nothing to suggest [Brueckner] took Madeleine'.
That is despite revelations today that Brueckner had a lengthy criminal record including burglary and child sex crimes, lived in a property just three miles from where Maddie went missing, and can be placed in the area on the night in question using mobile phone records.
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He was then brought to the attention of Amaral as he investigated Madeleine's disappearance in 2007, but was dismissed as a 'scapegoat'.
Speaking to Australian podcast Maddie in April last year, Amaral predicted that British police 'are probably going to use a German paedophile who is in jail in Germany' as their chief suspect.
He said that the Portuguese Polícia Judiciária, 'investigated him at the time but found nothing to suggest he took Madeleine.'
Amaral suggested that British police had been working up cases against two German paedophiles - one of whom died a few years ago, leaving one suspect to pursue.
In the interview, he accused British detectives of 'wanting it to be' the now-dead paedophile.
German and British police say Brueckner was not on a shortlist of 600 suspects drawn up by Portuguese officers despite his criminal record.
On Wednesday evening, British detectives from Operation Grange - a £12million, eight-year investigation into Madeleine's disappearance - announced Brueckner as their new chief suspect, though without naming him due to privacy laws.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8387585/Did-Portuguese-police-let-Madeleine-McCanns-abductor-escape-justice.htmlSo back in 2007 it would appear that the judicial police really did think that there was more evidence against the McCanns than there was against Brueckner who they apparently ruled out of the case while upping the ante against Madeleine's parents.
Talk about an inability to see the wood for the trees !