Madeleine McCann probe has been hit by shocking oversights and blunders – but most sickening mistake is about to happen
NEARLY 20 years have passed since three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal.
It is the most heavily reported missing person case in history, but has had few credible leads.
And despite it being a hugely costly police operation across Europe, her parents Gerry and Kate have been let down time and time again by a series of hideous and shocking oversights and blunders.
But is the biggest and most sickening mistake of all about to happen now?
Because the most credible lead this tragic case has ever had is about to disappear.
The main suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance is due to walk free from prison without facing a single question about what really happened to that innocent little child.
How disgraceful.
It just doesn’t seem possible after all this time, does it?
For the past five years paedophile and convicted rapist Christian Brueckner has been suspected of being the man behind Madeleine’s disappearance.
In just 19 weeks time he is due to leave a prison in Germany, where he is serving a sentence for rape, and could travel to a country with a non-extradition treaty.
Police in Germany are convinced he kidnapped and murdered that poor child but have never been able to charge him.
Now they are hoping our Metropolitan Police will reopen their live investigation into the case and share evidence and expertise.
No time can be wasted — but apparently our detectives haven’t knocked on the door of the German cops offering their services.
Which to my mind defies belief.
Evidence published by The Sun and turned into a Channel 4 documentary this week shows he may have direct links to the case.
His phone was in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine vanished, he has an obsession for snatching young girls and there are reports he allegedly confessed to her abduction.
German cops found a hard drive at his lair containing disturbing material including child-abduction stories written by Brueckner, plus chilling Skype chats with other paedophiles.
Remember, he is behind bars for raping a woman just streets from where the McCanns stayed and Madeleine went missing.
Tip-offs
It would be madness for this man to walk free without interrogation about Maddie and it would make sense for British cops to be involved.
The Met Police have already spent £13million on Operation Grange trying to track down Madeleine’s abductor.
If they stopped now it would seem like that was an utter waste of taxpayers’ money.
There are currently just three officers working in Operation Grange, who have been given £108,000 for the next year, to staff hotlines and monitor tip-offs.
Which seems pointless when the man they really should be speaking to is counting down the days to freedom.
Tragically, Gerry and Kate McCann will be counting down the hours today too, but for a very different reason — tomorrow is Madeleine’s birthday.
They will remember what their daughter might have been doing as she turned 22; finishing university perhaps, having boyfriends, thinking of a career and a family of her own.
They have carefully brought up their remaining twins Sean and Amelie, who were just two years old when Madeleine went missing, away from the spotlight to protect them.
Gerry and Kates’s continual anguish must be unbearable.
But still, somehow, they have continued to fight for answers, always saying they are hoping for a “breakthrough”.
It would be unthinkable if they were let down yet again.
MAKING WINNIE PROUD
ALTHOUGH King Charles’s speech on the VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations stirred emotions as we remembered the past, and our own loved ones who fought for this country, it was little Alexander Churchill that truly stole the show and made me think of the future.
What an amazing little boy, confident and so clear as he read a prayer for peace.
You know that his great-great-grandad, wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston, would have been so proud.
But it was also a reminder of the many mighty, world- changing prime ministers who have led Britain in the past.
The famous names we learned about in school.
I feel sorry for the kids of the future struggling to learn about the leadership qualities of Sunak, Truss, May, Johnson and Starmer.
That will make for some very dull history lessons.
ARE WE DIPPY?
THE saucy lot at Heinz think we are thick, don’t they?
They’ve ditched tartare sauce and have renamed it “fish and chips sauce” instead.
Just in case we don’t know what to do with it.
Heinz says it is a “fresh and herby condiment” and “poised to become Britain’s new go-to pairing for fish dinners – and, of course, the nation’s beloved dish, fish and chips”.
Yes, yes, we get that, thanks to the genius new name on the bottle.
But who cares anyway?
Haven’t we all learnt by now to buy supermarket own brands to save yourself cash?
I’ll be leaving this one on the shelf because the last thing I need is a bottle on the table stating the bleeding obvious.
NOW RAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
I’M not surprised Amanda Holden’s new Netflix show is a hit.
Amanda and a relationship expert help love rats reconnect with their exes, and Cheat: Unfinished Business is so successful after only launching this month that there’s already a second series in the pipeline.
We all love it because it is relatable.
We all know a cheat – or have been one.
Amanda included.
IT’LL BE MAGIC
THREE unknown British kids are about to become multi-millionaires when they are chosen to become the stars of a TV reboot of Harry Potter.
Let’s hope the next Harry, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are a bit more gracious than their predecessors and treat JK Rowling, the woman who catapulted them to fame and fortune, with respect.
I still find it shocking how the actors who first filled those roles turned against her when she spoke out in the trans debate.
Ungrateful little upstarts.
TOP QUALITY CRACK
IT could only happen in America.
This week a woman in Ohio was pulled over and found with methamphetamine and crack cocaine while her raccoon called Chewy was sitting in the front seat with a crack pipe shoved in his mouth.
The cops are now trying to find out if the 55-year-old woman had a licence for the animal – when surely what they should be doing is just checking poor Chewy into rehab.
DOG AND ROME
WHEN Pope Leo XIV was chosen, the crowds were huge in St Peter’s Square.
Men, women, priests, nuns . . . and Romeo Valentino, a dog who was dressed up in papal robes and mitre for the historic occasion.
He was at the Vatican with his owner Meryl Espiniero, originally from New York, who said Romeo’s papal motto is “all creatures great and small”, he has favourite saints and goes to mass every day.
Must be pope-y love
IN THE FAME GAME
THE sons of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are chips off the old blocks.
They are both playing in under-15 teams – Kai Rooney with Manchester United, Ronaldo Jnr for Portugal.
Nature or nurture?
When you grow up watching your dad constantly playing on the pitch at home, being taken to matches when you are still in nappies and living in a house where football is the be all and end all of life, then there was only ever one career option on the cards.
But a combination of lucky genes and a famous surname certainly helped these lads land their amazing contracts.