Fury of police forces at war in Madeleine probe
TENSIONS between police forces probing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are threatening to derail hopes for justice, it emerged last night.
Portuguese detectives are said to be ‘livid’ at criticism of them by a German prosecutor.
High-ranking Portuguese officers have privately accused their German counterparts of ‘pretending to know it all’.
It comes amid growing outrage over the apparent refusal of Portuguese police to make fresh inquiries into the 2007 abduction of Madeleine, three, from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.
Witnesses in Portugal who knew German suspect Christian Brueckner have come forward in recent days while several new sites he frequented on the Algarve have been identified.
But none of the potential witnesses have been spoken to this week by Portuguese detectives and officers have not even visited addresses and plots of land now being linked to Brueckner.
In the eight days since Scotland Yard and German police revealed that 43-year- old sex offender Brueckner was a suspect, the two forces have received more than 1,000 calls from the public.
The announcement of a new suspect was hailed as the biggest breakthrough since Madeleine’s disappearance and was followed by a major plea for information. Those who knew Brueckner during his 12 years in Portugal, as well some of his alleged victims, have spoken publicly and have revealed crucial details of his predatory behaviour. They have provided a clearer picture of his movements on the Algarve before and after Madeleine’s disappearance.
New witnesses include a British barmaid who was beaten up by the German drifter. The owner of a villa where Brueckner lived after Madeleine disappeared has called on police to search the grounds, but heard nothing back.
Portuguese police have made it clear they have no current plans to carry out fresh digs. They claim they are waiting to receive requests from UK or German forces. One official said: ‘We will do what they say.’
But British police have indicated there is no need for Portugal to wait for an official request – and they have tended to be ignored in the past anyway.
On Wednesday, German state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said working with police in Portugal was ‘cumbersome’ and officers ‘take a long time’ to respond.
In an apparent breakdown of trust, he admitted his team had not shared all their evidence with their counterparts in the Algarve.
Mr Wolters also believes Portuguese officials ‘still think that Maddie’s parents are responsible for her disappearance’.
Detectives hit back yesterday, accusing the Germans of ‘pretending to know it all despite their relatively new involvement in the case’.
A source in Portugal said: ‘Senior officers are seriously livid with the comments made by the German prosecutor. It has only increased tensions between the two forces.’
Meanwhile, detectives in Belgium have reopened the case of a murdered teenager after her death was linked to Brueckner, who is currently serving a jail sentence for drugs offences in Germany.
Carola Titze’s mutilated body was found in the resort town of De Haan in July 1996. The German girl, 16, was on holiday with her parents.
The suspect was identified as a German man in his early 20s who had bragged to her about his criminal past. Brueckner was 19 when Carola was killed and has a history of sex offences.
Police earlier reopened an investigation into Inga Gehricke, who was six when she vanished in Germany in 2015. Brueckner’s squalid farm was searched at the time. His links are now being re-examined.
‘Seriously livid at criticism’