|
Post by Admin on Jul 30, 2020 20:22:48 GMT
German police investigating the 2007 disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann in Portugal have ended their search of a garden plot on the outskirts of Hannover, northern Germany, prosecutors said Thursday. The investigators left Wednesday evening, a spokeswoman for the Braunschweig prosecutor's office said. She didn't give any further details on the specific motive for the search or whether police found anything related to their investigation. Police started searching the garden on Monday, but prosecutors only said that the activities on the site were connected to their investigation. Madeleine was 3 at the time of her 2007 disappearance from an apartment while her family vacationed in the seaside town of Praia da Luz, in Portugal's Algarve region. German authorities said last month they had identified a 43-year-old German citizen as a suspect in the case and are investigating him on suspicion of murder. The suspect, who is currently in prison in Germany, spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's disappearance, and has two previous convictions for "sexual contact with girls," authorities have said. Authorities have not released the suspect's name, but he has been widely identified by German media as Christian B.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 2, 2020 21:05:18 GMT
THE prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will never co-operate with the police, his lawyer says. Convicted rapist and child abuser Christian B's lawyer Friedrich Fulscher said his client would not help cops trying to find out what happened to the missing three-year-old. "Before our client starts to co-operate with the prosecutor's office, you could order holy water as a long drink in hell," Mr Fulscher told the Sydney Morning Herald. "That is not unusual. It is very normal not to talk to the police when you are suspected of committing a crime. The prosecutor's office has to prove that a suspect has committed a crime, and not the suspect prove that he hasn't." Mr Fulscher claimed a cellar search on Tuesday at a property in Hanover where Christian B briefly lived was an attempt to sway opinion ahead of an upcoming European Court of Justice decision on his client's extradition to Germany for a rape trial and conviction in 2019. "I am very surprised they have started a search there now and not much earlier. I was very surprised because the police had known for over two years that the garden was used by my client," Mr Fulscher said. The lawyer said Christian B was not a "monster" - despite his list of previous crimes, including the sexual abuse of a child, rape and drug offences. "I don't recognise the person the media describes. I am able to describe him as a very calm and friendly person when I talk to him in prison," Mr Fulscher said. He also disputed claims made by German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters that Christian B's phone 'pinged' at a reception tower near the Portuguese hotel where the McCanns were staying shortly before Madeleine went missing.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 5, 2020 1:06:01 GMT
The youngster disappeared on May 3, 2007, while sleeping in Apartment 5A of the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, as her parents ate dinner at a tapas restaurant just metres away. German media recently reported that police searching a property – linked to prime suspect Christian B – had found a hidden cellar. It came after three days of relentless excavation work at the holiday chalet in Seelze, outside Hanover, using ground-penetrating radar, sniffer dogs and a drone. Kate and Gerry McCann have always supported the theory that Maddie was snatched by an opportunist criminal working in the local area. Reports in the Portuguese newspaper 'Correio de Manha' indicated that the new prime suspect may have been tipped off by a hotel employee about British tourists leaving valuables in their apartments while going out for long dinners. Kate and Gerry were dining out with their seven friends – Jane Tanner, Russell O’Brien, Matthew and Rachael Oldfield, David and Fiona Payne, and Dianne Webster – when Maddie disappeared. In her book, ‘Madeleine: Our Daughter's Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her,’ Kate detailed the group's routine over the week and how it may have aided someone who was monitoring them. She wrote: “Gerry and I have always quite liked having a routine, though we wouldn’t say we were obsessed by it. ”Our children, like most children, seemed to like it and this holiday was no exception. “It’s hard to accept that living our lives in such an ordinary way may have been our downfall. “Was someone watching us that week? Watching Madeleine? Taking notes of our days? “In spite of what we’d been told about booking the tapas restaurant, Rachael managed to get a table for nine at 8:30pm pencilled in for the rest of the week after having a word with the receptionist at the pool and tapas area.”
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 9, 2020 23:13:39 GMT
Police are adamant that the convicted German paedophile is the culprit and insist they have “concrete evidence’’ Madeleine is dead.
However, his lawyer Friedrich Fulscher has dismissed what cops say. He said: “Where is the evidence?
"Why has the prosecution not revealed it?
"There won’t be a trial for my client for Madeleine McCann. I am certain.”
Meanwhile, top forensic expert Professor Angela Gallop has said Madeleine McCann’s disappearance WILL one day be solved.
Professor Gallop, a world-renowned scientist whose work has helped to solve numerous cold cases, said the riddle would finally be solved because “contact always leaves a trace”.
Phone records that prosecutors say place Christian B near the apartment from which Madeleine McCann vanished don't incriminate him in the case, his lawyer has said.
Prosecutors have said that a pre-paid mobile phone owned by Christian B “pinged” a phone mast close to the McCanns' apartment around the time Madeleine disappeared.
Investigators continue to search for evidence that Christian B was on the 30-minute call and of who he was talking to.
Representing the 43-year-old, lawyer Friedrich Fulsche said: “You can't say because of the fact that this cell phone was logged to this tower that he was standing near to the apartment of Madeleine MCaCann's disappearance.
“He could have been 20 kilometres away.”
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 13, 2020 0:23:39 GMT
PROSECUTORS investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are opposing prime suspect Christian B's bid for parole stressing the ''security interests of the general public''. The 43-year-old convicted rapist and paedophile was identified as the man suspected of being responsible for the toddler’s abduction and murder two months ago. He is eligible for parole after serving 14 months of a 21 month sentence for drug trafficking and his lawyer Friedrich Fulscher has filed a request with authorities demanding his release. But top investigating prosecutor Stephanie Gropp told The Sun: “There is no way we will allow him to be freed early from prison. He does not meet the requirements for parole. "The security interests of the general public have to be preserved and we are strongly opposing this request for parole. We do not advocate his early release from prison." It comes just days after Mr Fulscher told The Sun Christian B would not face any trial for Madeleine's disappearance as he did not believe there was any evidence against him despite prosecutors’ claims. He challenged investigators to prove their case and insisted they were ''just chasing down a blind alley''. Mr Fulscher added that just because Christian B's phone was logged at the Ocean Club apartments in Portugal's Praia da Luz where Madeleine was taken from in May 2007, didn't mean he was responsible. A prosecution source in Germany said: “We are happy that our suspect is the person responsible and are building a case against him. “We will not be pushed or challenged by anyone and just want justice to be served.” Paperwork regarding his appeal has been lodged at the local court in Kiel, where he is currently in prison and a lone judge will decide in the next few weeks whether he should be released early. But officials are confident he will remain in prison as he is also serving a seven year sentence for the rape of a 72 year old American woman at Praia da Luz in 2005. Madeleine was taken and yards from where she was on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry in 2007.
|
|