Disgraced former Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral has branded the new Madeleine McCann searches over the top and wheeled out a sick theory about her disappearance.
The ex-detective, who was sued over a 2008 book about the 18-year-old mystery in which he wrongly pointed the finger at the missing youngster’s parents, also accused his own former police force of ‘connivance’ with ‘shoddy’ German cops in a foul-mouthed blast 24 hours after the start of a fresh operation to find Maddie’s body.
Amaral, thrown off the Madeleine investigation in 2008 after publicly criticising British police involved in the case, revealed his theory to Portuguese daily Correio da Manha.
He claimed of the fresh searches that are taking place near suspect Christian Brueckner‘s old cottage close to the Algarve holiday resort of Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished on May 3 2007 as her parents Kate and Gerry ate tapas: ‘This much wasn’t needed.
‘A plane with geo-radar would have been enough and reduced the search area.’
He added: ‘The Germans should have had nothing to do with the investigation. This was a British police strategy with support from the Portuguese police.’
Fresh police searches are under way near the spot where Madeleine McCann was last seen near Praia da Luz, Portugal
Firefighters and search teams check a well at a derelict and abandoned property to the west of Praia De Luz, Portugal, where searches are being carried out by officers investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal in 2007
Search teams clear branches at a derelict and abandoned property to the west of Praia De Luz
Amaral repeated earlier claims convicted paedophile Brueckner was 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.
‘We’ve already searched the area that’s being looked at now, there’s nothing new.
‘We’re abdicating our technical competence. We’re not being complacent anymore, we’re conniving.’
He added: ‘This show came in handy for the British to divert attention from the principal focus.
‘Normal suspects in child disappearances are people with a duty of care towards them.’
Amaral went on to put another bizarre theory into the mix with an allegation he has made before and investigators have ruled out, focusing on a coffin ‘incineration’ in the municipality of Ferreira do Alentejo a near-two-hour drive north-east of Praia da Luz.
Madeleine vanished on May 3 2007 while on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and her twin siblings Sean and Amelie
Portuguese officers during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025
Search teams near to a derelict and abandoned property to the west of Praia De Luz, Portugal, where searches are being carried out by officers investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Emergency services vehicles are pictured amid new search operations amid the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann at Atalaia, Lagos in Algarve on June 3, 2025
He spouted: ‘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 continued to make hurt claims about Madeleine’s parents since his 2008 book in which he accused them of covering up her ‘accidental’ death in their holiday apartment.
The ex-cop’s claims about them were dismissed years ago by Portuguese police and Scotland Yard detectives.
Amaral described the last German police searches in Portugal two years ago, at the Arade Dam a 40-minute drive away from Praia da Luz, as another attempt to ‘frame’ Brueckner after being given a previous platform to air his controversial opinions.
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.’
