Madeleine McCann search latest updates: Police launch new search in Portugal’s Praia De Luz 18 years after disappearance – UK Times

More than £100,000 was approved in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann this year.

Home Office sources said in April that a request to provide up to £108,000 was approved for the probe, known as Operation Grange, for 2025-26.

It is understood one detective chief inspector, one detective constable and one member of police staff are working on the investigation.

German prisoner Christian Brueckner was first named in connection with the unsolved mystery that summer, and officially named as a suspect last year. His yellow and white VW T3 Westfalia campervan was reportedly identified as having been near to the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where the young girl went missing on May 3, 2007.

Here, The Independent takes a look at who Christian Brueckner is and what the accusations against him are:

German police investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann are to carry out fresh searches near the Portuguese holiday resort she was last seen 18 years ago, police said on Monday.

The 3-year-old disappeared from her bed while on vacation with her family in the Praia da Luz resort, in southern Portugal, on May 3, 2007. She has not been seen since.

The main suspect in the case is Christian Brueckner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.

Read the full story here:

Madeleine McCann, a three-year-old girl from Rothley, Leicestershire, was reported missing from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3, 2007.

The McCanns – affluent doctors Kate and Gerry, their three-year-old daughter Madeleine and her two-year-old twin siblings Amelia and Sean – had joined a group of seven family friends and their five children on holiday at the Ocean Club.

The adults in the party went out for dinner at the resort’s open-air tapas bar, with the McCann children left sleeping in their apartment with the door unlocked.

When Kate McCann took her turn and returned to her apartment at 10pm, she raced back to the restaurant screaming “Madeleine’s gone! Someone’s taken her!”.

The police were called shortly after and searched the complex alongside dozens of staff.

Border police and airport staff were put on alert and hundreds of volunteers joined the search in the coming days.

Christian Brueckner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, was acquitted of unrelated sexual abuse charges in Germany last year.

In the trial in Brunswick, which started in February 2024, Brueckner faced three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children committed between 2000 and 2017.

The judge ruled there was insufficient evidence for a conviction.

Brueckner is already serving a seven-year prison term in Germany for raping a woman in the part of the Algarve where McCann went missing.

He denies any involvement with the disappearance of Madeleine and has never been charged in the case.

Scotland Yard detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann received an additional £108,000 in funding last April.

Operation Grange has been given more than £13.2 million since 2011.

The new search operation comes just a month after Madeleine’s family marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance.

A statement from her parents Kate and Gerry McCann and the family said: “The years appear to be passing even more quickly and whilst we have no significant news to share, our determination to ‘leave no stone unturned’ is unwavering. We will do our utmost to achieve this.”

The latest search comes two years after police searched a remote reservoir in Portugal for evidence linked to Madeleine’s disappearance.

As part of the investigation, police dug holes of around 60cm and cut through woodland using heavy machinery.

The Met Police have said they are aware of a new search taking place for Madeleine McCann in Portugal, following a request from German police.

CNN Portugal reported that a new search will take place in Praia da Luz, where McCann disappeared in 2007.

“We are aware of the searches being carried by the BKA (German federal police) in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann,” a spokesperson for the Met said in a statement.

Portuguese police are to search again an area around Praia da Luz, the civil parish in the southern Algarve region where Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007.

The search starting on Tuesday has been requested by German authorities, who in 2022 formally identified German national Christian Brueckner as an official suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance. Portugal’s investigative Judicial Police have so far declined to comment.

German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Brueckner was likely responsible. Brueckner has denied any involvement and has not been charged with any crime related to the case.

The search for traces of the child’s body will focus on an area between Praia da Luz and one of the houses where Brueckner lived when Madeleine disappeared 18 years ago.

The last search for Madeleine was carried out in May 2023, when the police combed an inland reservoir in the Algarve but did not find anything.