German prisoner identified as suspect

[Carana]

Search live on Sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbpkHnsV5js

[Pedro]

does anyone with common sense thinks that something will appear in that dam, all this time passed? the answer is no.

that is what I think about it.

[Pedro]

I´m only interested in what the British police has to say, also only interested in what the couple McCann has to say about it.

[sal]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-new ... e-30051782

[Pedro]

I agree with: "It's really important that everyone keeps an open mind. But up to it until he's charged people need to be consciously aware that it could be someone else".

but, for me, without any evidence or body or something related with it, I keep an open mind, hoping that Madeleine is stil alive somewhere. therefore I´m not worried at all with the search in that dam, nothing will be found, but, let´s wait.

[sal]

Making a statement to German TV channel RTL, German state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said he could not "give any concrete information" on the clues on which the search operation is based.

"They are not tips that come from the accused... but you can imagine that we don`t start searching somewhere in Portugal on the off chance, but that there must be a good reason for it.

"We do have one, but I ask for your understanding that I cannot disclose it here at the moment for tactical reasons."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65680151

[sal]

C d M

British police in Portugal to inform Maddie's family of "any developments"
London Metropolitan Police Chief Inspector thanked "the Judiciary Police and the Bundeskriminalamt" for allowing the British police "to be present".
Portuguese
3:30 pm

The British police confirmed that they have agents present in Portugal to assist in the searches related to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and keep the family informed.
London Metropolitan Police Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell revealed that the force "continues to work and support its colleagues in Portugal and Germany in their investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann".



The official thanked "the Judicial Police and the Bundeskriminalamt" for allowing the British police "to be present while their work is taking place, so that they can inform Madeleine's family of any developments".

[scoobydoo]

It looks like the search is going to be in a secluded clearing near the dam more than the actual dam. And it does look like they are going in very carefully rather than charging in with diggers.

Madeleine has to be somewhere and someone did take her. He has been named a suspect by the German police based on unreleased information, but even just by looking at the evidence such as witness statements that have been known for years plus and publicly available information about him it's easy to see he is an exceptionally likely suspect.

I suspect the tip is not do much someone coming forward with information directly on what the suspect may have done but is more likely someone recognising a location from a photo or mentioning a location the suspect frequented which the police then linked to photos.

Regarding all the pond scum on hater sites who have enjoyed hurting the parents and being horrible about Madeline for sixteen years. Well I hope if this ever goes to court and there is wall to wall coverage with press looking anyway for a new angle, I hope they do an absolute number on them.

[Pedro]

translation from the words of hernani carvalho:

"Portugal is a sovereign republic, sovereign where? the Germans arrived here, and this morning they gave a statement, who is in charge here, the Portuguese police are there just to be there, the English are there, what do the Germans know about this? anything. zero. the suspect is german says the journalist, and hernani says that doesn't mean anything.

what counts is the place where things are practiced. what do the germans have to come here? I'll tell you what the Germans achieved: they wanted to enter the championship,

one day someone will have the courage to say what moves them? These people have no shame in their faces. what moves these people? we know that there is a natal attorney from germany here, there are those who call him the pai natal of germany, this attorney has been saying for two years that this christmas is going to be, he started by saying this: in a week I have the indictment ready, it's been two years

this brueckner who is arrested according to the rape process, there is a sheet that was not translated by the medico-legal police, that is, this man was not convicted of having abused a woman who he never abused, according to the medico-legal police no there is no sign that the woman has been raped or abused. and he is arrested. it's true that he assaulted the wife but otherwise it's all talk, or is the german prosecutor coming to portugal to arrest all the pedophiles who were at the arade dam that day?

because if that's the case, a lot of people will be arrested.

so if the idea is to find anything here and that proves that brueckner had something to do with maddie, then they're going to have to arrest all the known pedophiles who were at the arade dam. but do you believe that the Germans know something? there was a man who said brueckner said that, now see how many drunk people says what comes to mind? and now, who are we going to believe? now imagine that they find something, I have the right to imagine, for those who believe that something might appear there, I believe that if something appears there, it was posted there, now everyone believes in what they want. this is showoff, this is a scam, a farce."

[sal]

^^ Just another paid up member of the Amaral fan club........

[sal]

JANE MOORE Spare a thought for Madeleine McCann’s parents today… and pray you never walk in their shoes
Jane Moore
Published: 21:20, 23 May 2023Updated: 21:20, 23 May 2023

“EVEN though the possibility may be slim, we have not given up hope that Madeleine is still alive and we will be reunited with her.”

Those were the words of Kate and Gerry McCann last April, so one wonders what must be going through their minds as German police start to dredge a reservoir in Portugal in the 16-year search for their missing daughter.


Spare a thought for Madeleine McCann's parents today… and pray you never walk in their shoesCredit: AFP
Madeleine McCann vanished in 2007 while on holiday with her family
5

My heart goes out to them. For a discovery might bring closure but snuff out that last vestige of hope they cling to.

And drawing a blank will plunge them back into the daily nightmare of not knowing what happened to her.

Either way, it’s a relentless emotional torture that any parent of a missing child will be familiar with.

Ben Needham’s mum Kerry still endures that torture 32 years after her one-year-old son vanished during a family holiday to Greece, and so do the parents of 14-year-old Andrew Gosden, who left his home in Doncaster on September 14, 2007, got a train to London and hasn’t been seen since.

Not to mention all the other parents whose children — be they under 18 or adult — seemingly vanish into thin air.

Imagine waking up every morning and experiencing those blissful few seconds of oblivion before your mind floods with the torturous reality that your child is missing and you don’t know if they’re alive or dead.

In May 2007, the McCanns were dining with friends next to the swimming pool as three-year-old Maddie slept in their holiday apartment with her younger twin siblings S*** and A*****.

When Kate went to check on them, Maddie was missing, and she hasn’t been seen since.

But unlike most missing children cases, where the plight of the distraught parents garners only sympathy, the poor McCanns have endured being wrongly named as “arguidos” (suspects) in their own child’s disappearance, as well as suffering disgraceful online trolling by those who remain convinced of their guilt.

Trolls with nonsensical accusations – back off
Maddie would now be 20 and, given the rare examples of abducted children being found many years later with no recollection of their earlier life, it’s understandable that Kate and Gerry still hold on to the “slim” possibility that she might be found alive.

But German police believe she died in Portugal at the hands of their chief suspect, convicted rapist Christian B, who has reportedly referred to a reservoir 30 miles from Praia da Luz as his “little paradise” — prompting this week’s underwater search and dig of nearby land.

So whatever the police do or don’t find, spare a thought for the ongoing plight of the McCanns and all the other parents whose children remain missing.

And if you are one of those armchair detectives who continue to troll them with nonsensical accusations, back the hell off.

God forbid that any of you will ever have to walk a mile in their shoes.

[Whiterose]

Thanks sal

Well said Jane Moore.

I can't imagine what the McCanns and family are going through, wondering if Madeleine will be found. If she is their hope that maybe Madeleine is alive will be dashed, but on the other hand they will be able to have a funeral and say goodbye to Madeleine which will bring closure.

[sal]

Sandra Felgueiras
4 May 2022
·
It's been two years that I've heard the most diverse conspiracy theories about Christian Bruckner since German justice pointed him out as Madeleine McCann's murder.
I have a well-educated opinion on this subject, but as I work my job is to report facts, not rumors, not convictions.
But my real duty to public opinion is no less when we’re talking about a politician or a police officer. Or former police officer who hopelessly influenced public opinion.
For this reason, back in 2008, when I read all the volumes of the investigation conducted by Gonçalo Amaral, I found that the alleged evidence he collected against the McCann couple were not evidence but assumptions. A kind of "copy-paste" of what I had done in the Investigation of Joana case.
The so-called evidence found by the dogs in the room of the apartment where they vacationed and in the McCann rental car a month after their daughter's disappearance has not been lab-confirmed to belong to Madeleine. And it was this irrefutable fact by science that led the Portuguese justice system to eliminate them.
But when this truth came out, Gonçalo Amaral had already been removed from the case for speaking to journalists. One of them used a statement from him on and that was the reason for his removal.
From then on, the said inspector started a fight, writing books and making documentaries insisting on his thesis and accusing the superiors who fired him for not letting him do the job he was supposed to because of political pressure.
But the question I ask is, does any good cop start by identifying a suspect and then force their theory to fit the theory they preconceived?
Nope. No good investigator does this. Gonçalo Amaral did it though. And insists on doing it.
And therefore there are no eternal truths.
Facts are being revealed.
Until 2019, no one had associated Christian Bruckner to the Madeleine case despite him being outside the Ocean Club at the time of his disappearance and being a known pedophile to the Portuguese and German authorities.
I understand that it is easier for the Portuguese public to believe that the McCann's blatant negligence to leave their children alone while out for dinner with friends, turns them into the real culprits.
But this couple has been living with that guilt from day one. 15 years ago.
And that's the only fact we can point them at.
Today, the Portuguese Judicial Police has only one defendant in this case. His name is Christian Bruckner and he had traces of Madeleine in the caravan he was wearing at the time.
Intellectual honesty demands that all who have been persuaded by an outdated false theory see reality.
Too bad they stand still in time
Like the thousands who believe Elvis Presley didn't die or that the Man didn't go to the moon.
I do not tell you this for any reason other than my duty of intellectual honesty.
Truth dont always please you. But if it is the one, it is the only one we should report.
· ·

[scoobydoo]

translation from the words of hernani carvalho:

"Portugal is a sovereign republic, sovereign where? the Germans arrived here, and this morning they gave a statement, who is in charge here, the Portuguese police are there just to be there, the English are there, what do the Germans know about this? anything. zero. the suspect is german says the journalist, and hernani says that doesn't mean anything.

what counts is the place where things are practiced. what do the germans have to come here? I'll tell you what the Germans achieved: they wanted to enter the championship,

one day someone will have the courage to say what moves them? These people have no shame in their faces. what moves these people? we know that there is a natal attorney from germany here, there are those who call him the pai natal of germany, this attorney has been saying for two years that this christmas is going to be, he started by saying this: in a week I have the indictment ready, it's been two years

this brueckner who is arrested according to the rape process, there is a sheet that was not translated by the medico-legal police, that is, this man was not convicted of having abused a woman who he never abused, according to the medico-legal police no there is no sign that the woman has been raped or abused. and he is arrested. it's true that he assaulted the wife but otherwise it's all talk, or is the german prosecutor coming to portugal to arrest all the pedophiles who were at the arade dam that day?

because if that's the case, a lot of people will be arrested.

so if the idea is to find anything here and that proves that brueckner had something to do with maddie, then they're going to have to arrest all the known pedophiles who were at the arade dam. but do you believe that the Germans know something? there was a man who said brueckner said that, now see how many drunk people says what comes to mind? and now, who are we going to believe? now imagine that they find something, I have the right to imagine, for those who believe that something might appear there, I believe that if something appears there, it was posted there, now everyone believes in what they want. this is showoff, this is a scam, a farce."

Does this guy just think the Germans randomly decided to investigate Madeleines disappearance. Does he think the Germans just told Portugal they were going to be looking in Portugal, no they very clearly sent a letter of request. Portugal gave permission and are involved. The German police were looking into another little girls, Inga, disappearance and he appeared as a suspect. They searched his property and found something which made them connect him to Madeleine. They knew he had been in the area at the time and was a convicted p.a.e.dophile and rapist of an adult.

This guy should have been on the radar right from the beginning as he was known to be a paecophile and to live in the area. If he had been questioned Madeleine may have been found and Inga would be a teenager enjoying life. That is what is most unforgivable, the original Portuguese ineptitude (and that is being generous) may have killed a five year old girl.

[sal]

PHOTO: CMTV
This Wednesday begins the second day of searches for clues in the context of the case of Maddie McCann at the Arade dam, in Silves, 50 km from Praia da Luz. The steps began this Tuesday and so far no discoveries related to the disappearance of the British girl have been reported.

The works, carried out by the Judiciary Police and requested by the German authorities, also count on the presence of the British authorities. This is the biggest operation carried out in recent years regarding Maddie's disappearance.

During the first day of searches, the CM knows that the police searched for pajama fibers from the British girl who disappeared 16 years ago.

The searches used state-of-the-art technology and trail dogs prepared to detect human remains . Authorities pounded the ground and carried out excavations with pickaxes. Soil samples were collected for analysis.

READ TOO
Police look for fibers from Maddie's pajamas in land from the Arade dam taken for analysis
Police look for fibers from Maddie's pajamas in land from the Arade dam taken for analysis
Civil Protection, Firefighters and GNR are assisting in the steps. The operations are being followed by dozens of journalists from different countries.

The Silves dam gained relevance in the investigation after it was discovered that the place was frequented by the main suspect in the disappearance of the girl, Christian Bruckner. The man is being held in his home country for rape.

C D M

[sal]

Local media reported the search may go into a third day after thunderstorms on Tuesday meant operations had to be suspended.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-new ... e-30049461

[Pedro]

Well said Jane Moore.

[Pedro]

“we have not given up hope that Madeleine is still alive and we will be reunited with her.”

[sal]

Jim Gamble Retweeted
TalkTV
@TalkTV
“People see every opportunity to attack the parents as sport. Even Madeleine's innocent siblings have to wade through a trail of bile every time they go online”.

Child safety expert Jim Gamble highlights the “toxic social media” that surrounds the McCanns.

[sal]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22461115/ ... h-pyjamas/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22452762/ ... ent-money/

MADDIE SEARCH Madeleine McCann cops given £110k of government money to keep search going as divers scour lake in Portugal

[Alibongo]

Jim Gamble Retweeted
TalkTV
@TalkTV
“People see every opportunity to attack the parents as sport. Even Madeleine's innocent siblings have to wade through a trail of bile every time they go online”.

Child safety expert Jim Gamble highlights the “toxic social media” that surrounds the McCanns.

It seems that if your a victim then certain types of people just want to traumatise you over and over again.
They never ever go after the villains, I guess it's because they have more in common with them!

[sal]

It is claimed the search at the lake - 31 miles from the Ocean Club apartment where Maddie vanished - was prompted by a tip-off to Germany's FBI.

Expresso, a flagship weekly publication of Portuguese media group Impresa, claimed today: "Rainer Grimm is among the investigators who are carrying out searches at Arade Dam on the Algarve.


“Expresso knows that these searches have their origin in a tip from a BKA informant who that police force considers very credible.

"This informant told investigators details that the German police took very seriously."

[sal]

EXCLUSIVE: Lawyer who pinpointed Portugal lake where cops are searching for Madeleine McCann’s body links the case to another missing girl, 8
Marcos Aragao Correia slams Portuguese police and courts of ‘brutal torture’, ‘corruption’ and not tackling crimes against children as high-level search continues at Arade lake


‌
By Jon Clarke in Silves

A LAWYER who twice oversaw searches at a reservoir looking for Madeleine McCann in 2008, has slammed the Portuguese police and state over the ‘shameful’ way the case was handled.

Marcos Aragao Correia organised two searches around the Barragem de Arade alongside the Spanish detective agency, Metodo 3, who were hired by the McCann family.

As well as insisting their findings – including bones in a bag weighed down by a stone and a child’s sock – were ‘ignored’ by police, he claims the ‘corrupt’ government of the time orchestrated a cover up.

In a damning interview by email with the Olive Press, he drew parallels with another missing girl, Joana Cipriano, who vanished at the age of 8, just 10 miles from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing in May, 2007.

Joana Cipriano Netflix 1Joana Cipriano Netflix 1Joana Cipriano. Photo: Netflix
Writing from his home in Madeira, he slammed the way the mother of the girl, Leonor Cipriano, who he represented as a lawyer, had been tortured by police into signing ‘a false confession’ that she had killed her daughter.

And he described it as particularly ‘shameful’ that the same group of detectives, led by Gonzalo Amaral, was later tasked with investigating the case of missing Maddie, who vanished while on holiday in Praia da Luz.

“It is totally shameful that the Portuguese Government, led by the corrupt socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates, allowed Amaral, already accused of torturing Leonor, to again be responsible for an investigation into the disappearance of another child, Madeleine McCann.”

The father-of-four continued: “And soon it was found that the same ‘script’ of the police was always to accuse the parents of the children without any evidence.”

He added: “The Portuguese State is in fact a dictatorship disguised as democracy.”

Marcos CorreiaMarcos CorreiaMarcos Correia
In the shocking case of Joana, she had vanished in 2004 without trace, as she ran an errand to her local grocery shop, in Figueira, for her mother at dusk.

Incredibly, both her mother and uncle were accused of killing her after police claimed she had walked in on them in bed.

Detective Amaral – who was eventually removed from the Madeleine case – built up the accusation and claimed Joana was killed and her body was ‘fed to pigs’.

But it proved to be a total fantasy and Amaral received an 18-month sentence for perjury and covering up his officers’ dirty work, while two of them also received a prison sentence for the attack.

Leonor Cipriano With PosterLeonor Cipriano With PosterLeonor holding a poster pleading for information about Joana
“After months of trial, we were able to prove, with a final and unappealable decision, that Leonor was brutally tortured by the Portuguese Judiciary Police (PJ) forcing her to sign a false confession saying that she had killed her own daughter,” Correia explained to the Olive Press this week.

He claimed Amaral had overseen the entire 48 hours of beatings and Leonor later picked him out in an ID parade.

The father-of-four added he was supported by both the Portuguese Bar Association and Amnesty International in the long miscarriage of justice, which only saw the mother exonerated after over a decade in prison.

This came, despite shocking photos showing Leonor with appalling injuries after two days of interrogations in an Algarve police cell.

TorturaleonorciprianoTorturaleonorciprianoShocking images of Leonor after her ‘interrogations’
And incredibly, Correia added: “The same Portuguese State that admitted the torture but refused to arrest any of the convicted officers, including Goncalo Amaral, accused me of defamation for having said what the Courts had already said… that is, that Amaral was involved in the torture of Leonor and covered it up.”

He eventually won the case, forcing Amaral to apologise and pay his costs.

Now based in his native Madeira, he has left the legal profession to support his children and set up a museum for his father, a famous writer and poet.

He insists that ‘protection’ of his children is his main concern, after years of battles with the Portuguese judiciary and police.

“We cannot count on the State, especially the Portuguese State, to help us if something bad happens to our children.

“After 16 years of institutional neglect, only a miracle could now find Madeleine McCann’s remains.”

His remarkable insight came as police continued to search the large reservoir and surrounding area of the Arade lake today.

It comes after a good new tip off about the main suspect, Christian Brueckner, came in to the chief prosecutor leading the search in Braunschweig, in April.

Christian Brueckner And MaddieChristian Brueckner And MaddieChristian Brueckner and Madeliene McCann
First made aware of the plans for ‘an action’ on May 7, the Olive Press was told last Thursday that a search was ‘24 hours to 48 hours away’. We chose to stay quiet.

Coordinated between a female prosecutor in Portimao and her counterpart in Braunschweig, Hans Christian Wolters, around 10 German BKA detectives are working with over 20 Portuguese police and ‘up to five’ detectives from Operation Grange, in London.

Yesterday, police with sniffer dogs combed the edge of the reservoir, while divers entered the murky water.

During the course of the day at least three sacks of materials dug up had been put in Ford Ranger SUVs, which had driven down from the BKA’s headquarters in Wiesbaden.

Sources claimed photos of main suspect Brueckner had appeared of him beside the lake, while police were allegedly specifically looking for fibres of the pink pyjamas Madeleine was wearing on the night she vanished.

While sources in Germany told the Olive Press the new tip was ‘entirely credible’ and came from a totally different source, it ties in closely with ‘underworld sources’ who had told Correia about the lake in 2007.

The lawyer had first heard the claims that Madeleine had been killed and dumped in the lake within 48 hours of her kidnap, on Sunday, May 6, just three days after she vanished.

Jon Clarke Barragem Do AradeJon Clarke Barragem Do AradeThe lake that is being searched. Photo: Jon Clarke
He had first visited the lake with detectives from Metodo 3 in December that year and had finally identified the site where he thought she was dumped on December 10.

While he immediately told police investigating the case he claimed they ‘did nothing’.

He also claimed (and sued the Portuguese Post Office) that a recorded letter with information on the kidnap which he sent to the McCanns’ home in Rothley, in the UK, had been seized by Portuguese police.

Today, he once again recalled his anguish to the Olive Press, writing: “The clues I received shortly after Madeleine disappeared pointed to her having been kidnapped, raped and murdered and her body thrown into a lake in the Algarve.

“I didn’t know at the time which lake it was, but I soon communicated all this data to the Portuguese Judiciary Police, who completely ignored it, and then to Metodo 3, the Spanish detective agency that was later hired by Madeleine’s parents to look for their daughter.

“Metodo 3 did its best to search for Madeleine and discover what had happened to her. It was the only ‘institution’ that listened to me.

“The work that Metodo 3 was carrying out in the field in Portugal in the meantime gathered several clues from different sources that also reinforced that Madeleine had been kidnapped, raped and murdered shortly after her disappearance and that she would never have left Portugal.

“After exhaustive research on all the lakes in the Algarve, I therefore hired a private company of divers from the Algarve to carry out searches in the Arade lake, however, as we did not have the support of the Portuguese police (although I had requested this), our means were quite limited and the budget I had offered quickly ran out, so a few days later we were forced to abandon the search.

“However, very suspicious material was found, such as bags tied with heavy stones, which was handed over to Method 3.”

The searches, that had cost €1,200 per day, took place in February and March, 2008 and included mostly British divers, who lived in the area.

Marcos Correia With Sock From Arade LakeMarcos Correia With Sock From Arade LakeMarcos Correia with sock found in Arade Lake
Among items found was tape and a 17-foot long piece of ‘knotted cord’ that Correia believed could have been used to tie up the toddler.

Metodo 3 later said they believed Madeleine had been switched from one vehicle to another at a parking spot on the main road between Arade and nearby Silves.

A truck driver had later come forward to say he had spotted a woman passing what looked like a small child to someone at the time.

Concluding, the length of time it has taken to return to the lake, Correia insisted the Madeleine case had taken ‘far too long’ to solve and was a ‘abandoned at the highest level by the Portuguese State, and her parents, clearly innocent, were persecuted’.

“Thank you very much for your interest in the work I have done on behalf of Madeleine McCann and her parents,” he added. “Many people directly donated money to Madeleine’s parents. I donated my work, time and also money.

“As the resumption of searches starts again at Arade dam, I hope you can disclose everything in the name of public interest.”

We are carefully analysing a total of eight key legal documents he sent us and plan to release them at a later date.

READ MORE:

[jjbd]

live stream

[honestbroker1]

EXCLUSIVE: Lawyer who pinpointed Portugal lake where cops are searching for Madeleine McCann’s body links the case to another missing girl, 8
Marcos Aragao Correia slams Portuguese police and courts of ‘brutal torture’, ‘corruption’ and not tackling crimes against children as high-level search continues at Arade lake


‌
By Jon Clarke in Silves

A LAWYER who twice oversaw searches at a reservoir looking for Madeleine McCann in 2008, has slammed the Portuguese police and state over the ‘shameful’ way the case was handled.

Marcos Aragao Correia organised two searches around the Barragem de Arade alongside the Spanish detective agency, Metodo 3, who were hired by the McCann family.

As well as insisting their findings – including bones in a bag weighed down by a stone and a child’s sock – were ‘ignored’ by police, he claims the ‘corrupt’ government of the time orchestrated a cover up.

In a damning interview by email with the Olive Press, he drew parallels with another missing girl, Joana Cipriano, who vanished at the age of 8, just 10 miles from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing in May, 2007.

Joana Cipriano Netflix 1Joana Cipriano Netflix 1Joana Cipriano. Photo: Netflix
Writing from his home in Madeira, he slammed the way the mother of the girl, Leonor Cipriano, who he represented as a lawyer, had been tortured by police into signing ‘a false confession’ that she had killed her daughter.

And he described it as particularly ‘shameful’ that the same group of detectives, led by Gonzalo Amaral, was later tasked with investigating the case of missing Maddie, who vanished while on holiday in Praia da Luz.

“It is totally shameful that the Portuguese Government, led by the corrupt socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates, allowed Amaral, already accused of torturing Leonor, to again be responsible for an investigation into the disappearance of another child, Madeleine McCann.”

The father-of-four continued: “And soon it was found that the same ‘script’ of the police was always to accuse the parents of the children without any evidence.”

He added: “The Portuguese State is in fact a dictatorship disguised as democracy.”

Marcos CorreiaMarcos CorreiaMarcos Correia
In the shocking case of Joana, she had vanished in 2004 without trace, as she ran an errand to her local grocery shop, in Figueira, for her mother at dusk.

Incredibly, both her mother and uncle were accused of killing her after police claimed she had walked in on them in bed.

Detective Amaral – who was eventually removed from the Madeleine case – built up the accusation and claimed Joana was killed and her body was ‘fed to pigs’.

But it proved to be a total fantasy and Amaral received an 18-month sentence for perjury and covering up his officers’ dirty work, while two of them also received a prison sentence for the attack.

Leonor Cipriano With PosterLeonor Cipriano With PosterLeonor holding a poster pleading for information about Joana
“After months of trial, we were able to prove, with a final and unappealable decision, that Leonor was brutally tortured by the Portuguese Judiciary Police (PJ) forcing her to sign a false confession saying that she had killed her own daughter,” Correia explained to the Olive Press this week.

He claimed Amaral had overseen the entire 48 hours of beatings and Leonor later picked him out in an ID parade.

The father-of-four added he was supported by both the Portuguese Bar Association and Amnesty International in the long miscarriage of justice, which only saw the mother exonerated after over a decade in prison.

This came, despite shocking photos showing Leonor with appalling injuries after two days of interrogations in an Algarve police cell.

TorturaleonorciprianoTorturaleonorciprianoShocking images of Leonor after her ‘interrogations’
And incredibly, Correia added: “The same Portuguese State that admitted the torture but refused to arrest any of the convicted officers, including Goncalo Amaral, accused me of defamation for having said what the Courts had already said… that is, that Amaral was involved in the torture of Leonor and covered it up.”

He eventually won the case, forcing Amaral to apologise and pay his costs.

Now based in his native Madeira, he has left the legal profession to support his children and set up a museum for his father, a famous writer and poet.

He insists that ‘protection’ of his children is his main concern, after years of battles with the Portuguese judiciary and police.

“We cannot count on the State, especially the Portuguese State, to help us if something bad happens to our children.

“After 16 years of institutional neglect, only a miracle could now find Madeleine McCann’s remains.”

His remarkable insight came as police continued to search the large reservoir and surrounding area of the Arade lake today.

It comes after a good new tip off about the main suspect, Christian Brueckner, came in to the chief prosecutor leading the search in Braunschweig, in April.

Christian Brueckner And MaddieChristian Brueckner And MaddieChristian Brueckner and Madeliene McCann
First made aware of the plans for ‘an action’ on May 7, the Olive Press was told last Thursday that a search was ‘24 hours to 48 hours away’. We chose to stay quiet.

Coordinated between a female prosecutor in Portimao and her counterpart in Braunschweig, Hans Christian Wolters, around 10 German BKA detectives are working with over 20 Portuguese police and ‘up to five’ detectives from Operation Grange, in London.

Yesterday, police with sniffer dogs combed the edge of the reservoir, while divers entered the murky water.

During the course of the day at least three sacks of materials dug up had been put in Ford Ranger SUVs, which had driven down from the BKA’s headquarters in Wiesbaden.

Sources claimed photos of main suspect Brueckner had appeared of him beside the lake, while police were allegedly specifically looking for fibres of the pink pyjamas Madeleine was wearing on the night she vanished.

While sources in Germany told the Olive Press the new tip was ‘entirely credible’ and came from a totally different source, it ties in closely with ‘underworld sources’ who had told Correia about the lake in 2007.

The lawyer had first heard the claims that Madeleine had been killed and dumped in the lake within 48 hours of her kidnap, on Sunday, May 6, just three days after she vanished.

Jon Clarke Barragem Do AradeJon Clarke Barragem Do AradeThe lake that is being searched. Photo: Jon Clarke
He had first visited the lake with detectives from Metodo 3 in December that year and had finally identified the site where he thought she was dumped on December 10.

While he immediately told police investigating the case he claimed they ‘did nothing’.

He also claimed (and sued the Portuguese Post Office) that a recorded letter with information on the kidnap which he sent to the McCanns’ home in Rothley, in the UK, had been seized by Portuguese police.

Today, he once again recalled his anguish to the Olive Press, writing: “The clues I received shortly after Madeleine disappeared pointed to her having been kidnapped, raped and murdered and her body thrown into a lake in the Algarve.

“I didn’t know at the time which lake it was, but I soon communicated all this data to the Portuguese Judiciary Police, who completely ignored it, and then to Metodo 3, the Spanish detective agency that was later hired by Madeleine’s parents to look for their daughter.

“Metodo 3 did its best to search for Madeleine and discover what had happened to her. It was the only ‘institution’ that listened to me.

“The work that Metodo 3 was carrying out in the field in Portugal in the meantime gathered several clues from different sources that also reinforced that Madeleine had been kidnapped, raped and murdered shortly after her disappearance and that she would never have left Portugal.

“After exhaustive research on all the lakes in the Algarve, I therefore hired a private company of divers from the Algarve to carry out searches in the Arade lake, however, as we did not have the support of the Portuguese police (although I had requested this), our means were quite limited and the budget I had offered quickly ran out, so a few days later we were forced to abandon the search.

“However, very suspicious material was found, such as bags tied with heavy stones, which was handed over to Method 3.”

The searches, that had cost €1,200 per day, took place in February and March, 2008 and included mostly British divers, who lived in the area.

Marcos Correia With Sock From Arade LakeMarcos Correia With Sock From Arade LakeMarcos Correia with sock found in Arade Lake
Among items found was tape and a 17-foot long piece of ‘knotted cord’ that Correia believed could have been used to tie up the toddler.

Metodo 3 later said they believed Madeleine had been switched from one vehicle to another at a parking spot on the main road between Arade and nearby Silves.

A truck driver had later come forward to say he had spotted a woman passing what looked like a small child to someone at the time.

Concluding, the length of time it has taken to return to the lake, Correia insisted the Madeleine case had taken ‘far too long’ to solve and was a ‘abandoned at the highest level by the Portuguese State, and her parents, clearly innocent, were persecuted’.

“Thank you very much for your interest in the work I have done on behalf of Madeleine McCann and her parents,” he added. “Many people directly donated money to Madeleine’s parents. I donated my work, time and also money.

“As the resumption of searches starts again at Arade dam, I hope you can disclose everything in the name of public interest.”

We are carefully analysing a total of eight key legal documents he sent us and plan to release them at a later date.

READ MORE:

As well as insisting their findings – including bones in a bag weighed down by a stone and a child’s sock – were ‘ignored’ by police, he claims the ‘corrupt’ government of the time orchestrated a cover up.

What happened to those bones? Were they ever properly examined?

If they turned out to be what is being looked for, but were discarded, then, well .....