More recent events related to Madeleine McCann's case

[barrier]

Has there been a plea bargain of sorts entered into here? and that is why the alleged accomplice is said to be 'immune' from prosecution.
If as is said the employee had Brueckner's number in his phone he couldn't have had a leg to stand on when confronted and would have to have thought on his feet to avoid becoming the second suspect.
The information he was able to supply must have been very valuable to the investigators.

If that information is valid now - it was even more so back in 2007.  The tremendously sad thing is that the 'missing link' to it was there all the time nestling away in the retrieved phone data in police hands.


Suspected of killing Maddie had accomplice at ocean club
Catherine da Eira Ballestero
jun 7, 2020
Christian Brückner received information from a former employee of the Algarve village, who revealed to him the habits of the English. I'd tell him how long it took them to have dinner and told him they had valuables in the apartments.

There is increasing news linking Christian Brückner, a 43-year-old German, to the abduction and possible murder of Madeleine McCann. After it was known that the suspect lived in the area of Praia da Luz at the time of the crime, and that he had a criminal record, it was made public that the German had an "undercover" in the Ocean Club, the Algarve village where the McCann were vacationing, along with a group of friends.

A former employee of the venture revealed to authorities that he passed on information about the habits of the English group, including Maddie's family, Christian Brückner. Already convicted previously of petty theft and referred to for sexual abuse of children, the German will have known, through his accomplice, that the various couples used to spend hours for dinner, leaving valuables in the apartments, writes the "Correio da Manhã".

The hypotheses about what happened inside the McCann apartment are several, but one of those shared by the Portuguese Judicial Police and the German authorities is that Christian Brückner entered the house to rob her when he realized the presence of the three children , Maddie and the twin brothers. Surprised by this fact, and recalling the background related to child abuse, the German will have decided to take the older one.

Although only now the authorities are considering Christian Brückner as the main suspect in the media case, the German's phone number has been in the process since 2007, due to the fact that it was one of the devices fired in the vicinity of the village a few hours before Maddie's disappearance. However, it wasn't until the suspect told a friend that he knew what happened to the English girl that the Judiciary Police made the call between the number, which the former Ocean Club employee had on his personal calendar, and the German.

https://magg.sapo.pt/atualidade/artigos/maddie-cumplice-ocean-club

All supposition and hearsay, OG had over 30 officers at one stage having the files translated yet never picked up on CB, they (OG) are either useless or there was nothing to suggest anything suspicious about CB.

[Vertigo Swirl]

All supposition and hearsay, OG had over 30 officers at one stage having the files translated yet never picked up on CB, they (OG) are either useless or there was nothing to suggest anything suspicious about CB.

Is Bruckner in the files then?

[barrier]

Is Bruckner in the files then?

Where did Wolters get the phone records from ?

[Vertigo Swirl]

Where did Wolters get the phone records from ?

No idea.

[Brietta]

Is Bruckner in the files then?

If he had been it wouldn't have taken until the penny dropped amongst Brueckner's friends who contacted the police as a result for him to be checked out.

He has been checked out.

Significantly the investigators didn't rule him out.  Instead they consider him to be the Prime Suspect in Madeleine's disappearance.
That should probably tell people something.

But it is nice to see that people do recognise the importance of the presumption of innocence - now all they need to do is work out why they believe it is not applicable to the McCanns.

[Vertigo Swirl]

If Bruckner’s number is in the files then why didn’t the PJ make more strenuous efforts to investigate him, or do sceptics believe it’s quite acceptable to rule suspects out on the strength of an unanswered  knock on the door?

[Brietta]

All supposition and hearsay, OG had over 30 officers at one stage having the files translated yet never picked up on CB, they (OG) are either useless or there was nothing to suggest anything suspicious about CB.

You really would have to ask the Portuguese why Brueckner didn't appear in the files.  The Policia Judiciaria who knew about him but failed to follow through when they tried to contact him at the time might be able to tell you.

This is nothing to do with translations if the information was never there to be translated.  It is far more to do with the incompetence of the Amaral led investigation which thought they had the answers and neglected to check out information which did not support that limited view.

[Eleanor]

You really would have to ask the Portuguese why Brueckner didn't appear in the files.  The Policia Judiciaria who knew about him but failed to follow through when they tried to contact him at the time might be able to tell you.

This is nothing to do with translations if the information was never there to be translated.  It is far more to do with the incompetence of the Amaral led investigation which thought they had the answers and neglected to check out information which did not support that limited view.

Amaral didn't want anyone else to be responsible.  Mothers kill their children, Okay.

What a coup that would have been.  Two dead daughters in a 7 mile distance in three years, both killed by their mothers.  Accolades all the way to the top.

[G-Unit]

If Bruckner’s number is in the files then why didn’t the PJ make more strenuous efforts to investigate him, or do sceptics believe it’s quite acceptable to rule suspects out on the strength of an unanswered  knock on the door?

Do you know how many phone numbers were included in the information from the mobile phone companies? Thousands.

"Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is leading the inquiry, said officers were examining a "substantial amount of data" from thousands of mobile phones thought to belong to people who were in the resort of Praia da Luz in the days just before, during and after Madeleine's disappearance."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24386130

Many, like the number attributed to Brueckner, were unregistered, so unless police knew Brueckner's number the records were of no use at all.

[Eleanor]

Do you know how many phone numbers were included in the information from the mobile phone companies? Thousands.

"Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is leading the inquiry, said officers were examining a "substantial amount of data" from thousands of mobile phones thought to belong to people who were in the resort of Praia da Luz in the days just before, during and after Madeleine's disappearance."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24386130

Many, like the number attributed to Brueckner, were unregistered, so unless police knew Brueckner's number the records were of no use at all.

I think you might find that it was the number of Breuckner's caller who was the problem.

You need to verify that Breuckner's number was unregistered.

[Brietta]

Amaral didn't want anyone else to be responsible.  Mothers kill their children, Okay.

What a coup that would have been.  Two dead daughters in a 7 mile distance in three years, both killed by their mothers.  Accolades all the way to the top.

He was an arguido in the torture of the mother of one of them.  I think as a process of some twisted logic he imagined that charges laid against the other would mitigate his crime.

http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=8490.msg512855#msg512855

Detective in McCann Case Investigated For Beating Convicted Child Murderer
Portuguese detective in McCann case accused of beating suspect in 2004 case.

By FABIOLA ANTEZANA
12 February 2009, 16:42
• 7 min read

PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal, Sept. 26, 2007 — -- The husband of a convicted murderer has accused the Portuguese investigator spearheading the case of Madeleine McCann of beating a confession out of his wife.

Leonor Cipriano, 36, was convicted of the murder of her eight-year-old daughter Joana, who disappeared in the Algarve region in September 2004 under similar circumstances to the McCann disappearance.

In an exclusive interview, Cipriano's common-law husband, Leandro Silva, told ABC News that his wife said she was beaten repeatedly as police grilled her during a three-day long interrogation.

"'They beat it out of me', she told me, 'they beat me until I confessed,'" Silva said as he recalled his first visit to his wife about a week after police took her into custody.

"The only difference between the McCanns and us is that we don't have money," Silva said. "They have means, they have high powered attorneys that they can pay."

According to Silva, his wife told him that chief inspector Gonçalo Amaral, one of the leading detectives in the McCann case, watched as police hit her in the face and chest again and again.

Local newspapers have reported that Amaral and four other officers will be in court next month to face charges surrounding the beating allegations. But Amaral has not been suspended from his work on the McCann case.

Cipriano is currently serving a 16-year sentence for the murder of Joana who disappeared in 2004 in a town less than 15 miles from where Madeleine McCann disappeared nearly five months ago.

Joana's body has never been found. McCann, who was 3 years old when she went missing has also not been found, but the family and police still hold out hope that she is still alive.

Kate McCann and her husband, Gerry, were declared "arguido," or official suspects, last month, although under Portuguese law, the police are not allowed to divulge publicly what evidence they have. But the couple, both doctors and substantially well-off, have been allowed to leave Portugal.

Confession at All Costs Alleged

Silva said his wife retracted her statement just two days after confessing to Portuguese police, but she remains in a women's prison in Odemira, about a two-hour drive from Praia da Luz.

Joana went missing one night when her parents say she went for a short walk to the local market in her home town of Figuera, near Portimão. Cipriano was arrested and convicted, in part because of her confession, along with the discovery of some of Joana's blood, police say they found in Cipriano's home.

Maddie also disappeared just minutes from where her parents were dining at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz in May 2007.

"I knew immediately that it was the police that had done that to her," Silva said. "They wanted her to confess to a crime she did not commit."

He shakes his head back and forth saying that the police in Portugal don't work professionally.

Amaral could not be reached for comment and police refused to talk about the allegations.

"We all saw the bruises," Silva said. "My mother, my sister and me. Leonor's face was all battered and bruised, so was her chest."

"Leonor was a good person, she didn't deserve this, but then there is no justice for the poor."

Inequality Alleged Between Rich and Poor Suspects

Silva, a 41-year-old auto mechanic, said his wife is not the only member of his family to be treated roughly by Portuguese police.

Maria de Lourdes, Silva's mother, who visits her daughter-in-law regularly in prison, said she was also abused by Portuguese police in Faro in interviews conducted during the Joana investigation.

"The police in Portimão treated us really well," she told ABC News in her home near Lagos. "But the Faro police were awful. They gave us nothing to eat or drink the whole day," said the 57-year-old mother of nine. "They battered us physically and mentally."

Amaral was always present during questioning, de Lourdes said her daughter-in-law told her.

"He controlled everything," she said. "And he kept asking me: 'Did you see blood in the house?' 'I'm sure you cleaned the house with petrol to get rid of the smell.'"

"They have accused us of everything that we killed Joana, that we stabbed her, even that we sold her," de Lourdes said.

But as far as de Lourdes is concerned, the worst thing is not knowing what happened to Joana and then being blamed for her disappearance.

"How can they prove that we had anything to do with her disappearance?"

Privileged vs. Poor

"If Kate McCann were Portuguese, she would already be in jail," said de Lourdes.

The McCann's circle of friends and savvy contacts have been able to generate the kind of media attention that has made their daughter's face instantly recognizable all over the world. They have also hired top attorneys in Portugal and the U.K., as well as forensic experts to pick apart every DNA sample gathered by investigators.

The couple has also received financial backing from a British millionaire Brian Kennedy, a move that may have saved the 39-year-old doctors from having to sell their home to cover their legal defence.

Still, despite her bitterness over what she believes is her own daughter-in-laws wrongful conviction de Lourdes is convinced of Kate McCann's innocence. In fact the slightest mention of the couple brings empathy from de Lourdes.

"I don't think that that woman is capable of doing something like that to her daughter," she said. "I just don't believe it."

"The same Portuguese press that are now chasing the McCanns are the same journalists who were on my doorstep when Joana disappeared," she said.

And while she knows that she and Kate McCann come from very different worlds their situations are parallel.

"Our plight is not so different anymore," she said. "So I cannot help but feel for that woman. After all we are on the same path."

De Lourdes recalls vividly the day Joana went missing.

"I got the phone call around midnight," said de Lourdes. "My son Leandro was asking me if Joana was here with me." They then went to look for her at the cousin's house where she spent the afternoon.

"When I didn't hear from them again, I assumed they had found her," she said.

But the following morning when de Lourdes was getting ready to pick up her son to go to work, she saw her daughter in law Leonor walking down the street sobbing hysterically.

"'Joana is missing,'" she told me.

The girl's parents called police within an hour of Joana's disappearance. But according to Leandro and his mother, police did not begin searching for his daughter until 48 hours after they reported her missing.

Life After Joana

Silva remains convinced of his wife's innocence. But he is particularly bitter about Amaral, against whom he has lodged a formal complaint.

"He (Amaral) should not even be working on this (the McCanns') case," said Silva.

If the beating charges turn out to be true it will hurt the McCann investigation, according to Roy Ramm, former commander of special investigations at Scotland Yard. Ramm told ABC News: "This is not something you would expect to find in the U.K. When someone has allegations of falsifying evidence and beating a witness and these are very serious allegations -- it does not bode well for the case."
"People have to have confidence in the person leading the investigation," he added. "Otherwise the chances of a satisfactory outcome are jeopardized."

In a book entitled "The Star of Joana," former Portuguese detective Paulo Pereira Cristovão alleges how police took too long in organizing a search for the little girl.

Silva thinks his wife's beating was a simple matter of the police needing to find a suspect as well as maintaining a safe image for tourists who come to the Algarve.

He calls the accusations against her ridiculous. "She was a great mother," said Silva. "She never even hit Joana, not once even when our little girl insulted her."

Joana was not Silva's biological daughter but he insists she was still his daughter. "First they took my daughter, now the police have taken my love, my lifelong partner."

https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3646987&page=1

[Brietta]

Amaral didn't want anyone else to be responsible.  Mothers kill their children, Okay.

What a coup that would have been.  Two dead daughters in a 7 mile distance in three years, both killed by their mothers.  Accolades all the way to the top.

Two little girls vanishing without trace in such close proximity to each other would have given rise to a "gut reaction" in most investigators that there might have been a connection between them which merited investigation.

I think that was ruled out by the circumstances surrounding the 'solving' of Joana's case meaning that Madeleine was thrown to the wolves just as Joana was before her.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Do you know how many phone numbers were included in the information from the mobile phone companies? Thousands.

"Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is leading the inquiry, said officers were examining a "substantial amount of data" from thousands of mobile phones thought to belong to people who were in the resort of Praia da Luz in the days just before, during and after Madeleine's disappearance."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24386130

Many, like the number attributed to Brueckner, were unregistered, so unless police knew Brueckner's number the records were of no use at all.

Do you have any idea how much hard work is necessary by police forces investigating the disappearance of a little child?  Clearly some police forces are prepared to put in the work while others are happy to let lots of stones remain unturned.

[Carana]

He was an arguido in the torture of the mother of one of them.  I think as a process of some twisted logic he imagined that charges laid against the other would mitigate his crime.

Snipped.

That reminds me of an in-depth article by a British journalist (not sure I could find it now), who'd chatted with an unnamed Portuguese one, who gave an analogy to the effect that when you lose a football match, the pressure is on to win the next one.

It stuck in my mind as, technically, he hadn't "lost" the Cipriano case.

[G-Unit]

Do you have any idea how much hard work is necessary by police forces investigating the disappearance of a little child?  Clearly some police forces are prepared to put in the work while others are happy to let lots of stones remain unturned.

I suspect that the phone data was examined because the German investigators had a phone number they had already connected to Brueckner. That information wasn't available to the previous investigators.