DOUBTS ON EVIDENCE
MADELEINE Mccann suspect Christian Brueckner is just a “scapegoat”, a former police chief claimed.
Goncalo Amaral, the Portuguese detective who led the initial probe into the three-yearold’s disappearance, said the German paedophile was as an “almost perfect suspect”.
But asked if he believed Brueckner is guilty, he replied: “To answer that question it has to be proven first that an abduction took place.”
And he said the German was now being used as a “scapegoat” for the crime.
Maddie disappeared on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.
Amaral said in a television interview that former colleagues remembered “knocking” on Brueckner’s door but left when there was no answer.
And incredibly the ex-detective said he was not aware if any more inquiries were made following that visit, which took place shortly after the British girl vanished from a holiday apartment.
Amaral insisted that Portuguese police did not know at the time of the initial investigation that Brueckner was a convicted paedophile.
And he also claimed German authorities altered photographs of Brueckner’s VW camper van.
He handed TV presenter Jose Alberto Carvalho what he claimed were photos taken of the vehicle last year.
They showed it had cartoonstyle characters painted on the front and back and a Portuguese number plate.
Amaral said: “I think it’s important to ask why the photo put out by the authorities of the van was altered.”