Maddie nanny: Cops showed me picture of suspect just five days after she vanished

Questions raised about original probe Digging could start at suspect’s house

Police could now carry out fresh searches in Portugal in a bid to solve Madeleine’s disappearance.

Portuguese authorities yesterday refused to rule out digging on land next to a farmhouse where Brueckner lived in the hills on the outskirts of Praia da Luz. It is close to where Scotland Yard teams previously used cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar in a hunt for remains.

Brueckner left the isolated property before Madeleine vanished, but he knew the area well. The house has several disused deep water wells nearby that have not been searched.

Neighbours say police visited the area and spoke to them several months ago but no major digs have been carried out.

An eight-day Scotland Yard search in June 2014 involving sewer searches and digs of two sites in Praia da Luz uncovered no new evidence.

The most significant police operation in Praia da Luz since Madeleine vanished, it included a search of scrubland 300 yards from the Ocean Club complex. Officers used groundpenetrating radar and specialist CSI dogs, then turned their attention to two other sites on the outskirts of the resort close to the main road to Lagos.

A military plane flew over the sites and took detailed images which were emailed to the British team on the ground to aid the search.

They compared the photographs with satellite imagery taken in 2007 to see if any soil had been moved over the previous seven years.

Portuguese police privately dismissed the British-led police work at the time as “senseless”. But it is understood new digs are “on the table” if concrete evidence about where Madeleine could be comes to light.

In another development, a “crucial witness” who called Brueckner’s mobile an hour before Madeleine was snatched has been named.

Respected Portuguese daily Jornal

Near house where Brueckner lived