Charles Esther
Disgraced former Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral has slammed the latest searches for Madeleine McCann as excessive and has put forward a controversial theory regarding her disappearance.
Amaral, who faced lawsuits over his 2008 book accusing Madeleine’s parents wrongly, launched a harsh verbal attack on both the British and German police involved in the ongoing investigation.
He accused his former Portuguese police force of ‘connivance’ with what he called ‘shoddy’ German officers, criticizing the fresh search operation that began near suspect Christian Brueckner’s former cottage close to Praia da Luz.
Amaral told the Portuguese daily Correio da Manha that the new searches were unnecessary, stating that a plane equipped with geo-radar would have sufficed and kept the search area smaller.
He added that the Germans should have no role in the investigation, asserting that it was a strategy led by the British police with support from Portuguese authorities.
Reiterating previous claims, Amaral said convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner was being made a scapegoat.
He told Correio da Manha: ‘There’s nothing on him. I’m not trying to defend him, he’s not a flower you’d want to smell, but I’ve never seen such shoddy work as the German police’s.’
Amaral claimed that the area currently being searched had already been examined before, implying there were no new leads.
He accused the authorities of abandoning their technical expertise and being complacent, accusing them of collusion instead.
The ex-detective suggested that the entire operation served to divert attention away from the main focus of the investigation.
He asserted that typical suspects in child disappearance cases are those with a duty of care towards the child, hinting at a different direction for the investigation.
In a bizarre addition to his claims, Amaral revived a previously dismissed theory involving a coffin incineration in Ferreira do Alentejo, a town nearly two hours away from Praia da Luz.
He alleged: ‘There are strong indications Madeleine’s body was placed under another in a coffin in Praia da Luz that was incinerated in Ferreira do Alentejo.’
Amaral has maintained his accusations against Madeleine’s parents since the publication of his book in 2008, in which he alleged they covered up their daughter’s accidental death.
However, these claims were rejected by both Portuguese police and Scotland Yard investigators years ago.
Regarding previous German police searches at the Arade Dam two years ago, Amaral described them as attempts to frame Brueckner, echoing his controversial opinions once more.
He told Portuguese media outlet Sabado at the time: ‘In a simple analysis, I see there is no new investigation and what is occurring is more a case of constructing a profile and a scapegoat.’
Amaral’s continued criticism and unsubstantiated theories remain highly contentious as the world watches the renewed search efforts to find answers in the decades-old mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
