Madeleine ‘not the only victim’
THE chief prosecutor in the Madeleine McCann investigation in Germany has said that authorities there believe that Christian Brueckner, the man suspected of abducting the little girl, may have had accomplices.
“Our investigation is focused on this suspect, but we’re not ruling out that he may have worked with others and that there are other persons who may be of interest,” Hans Christian Wolters told the Sunday Independent.
“We have also had indications that there may be other victims of the suspect, and there was evidence to this effect. However, I can’t say at the moment how concrete these indications were and whether they can bring progress to the investigation.”
On Friday, German police resumed their search of an allotment near Hanover with metal detectors and radar equipment. The site is about 65 kilometres from Braunschweig where Brueckner was last registered as living. The foundations of a cabin which stood on the site have been removed, German news agency DPA has reported.
The lawyer for Brueckner, Friedrich Fulscher, said on Thursday that he believes the main witness against his client is a criminal who swapped information for police favours.
The witness is believed to have told German police that Brueckner told him what had happened to Madeleine, who disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
Fulscher derided the witness as “the worst you can get” and said that Brueckner has no faith in the legal process in Germany.
However, chief prosecutor Wolters said: “In Germany, everyone gets a fair trial, and I think the last trial that Christian B was involved in was also fair.”
Wolters acknowledged that the fact Brueckner’s name and face have been published across the world would make the case more difficult, but he added: “I do believe that the justices here in Germany are experienced in deciding what a witness has really observed or heard and what has merely been reported in the media.”
In July, a Portuguese woman told Portuguese police that she had seen a girl in 2017, whom she believed matched Madeleine’s description. The girl spoke German, the woman said.
“We know about the woman in Portugal and we’ve been in touch with authorities there, but it doesn’t change the fact that we are certain that Madeleine is, in fact, dead,” Mr Wolters said.
“We have made progress with the investigation, I can say that.”