It’s not every day that the police permit journalists access to an area where they are conducting forensic investigations.
But this morning in the village of Atalaia, a few miles east of Praia da Luz in Southern Portugal, GB News were granted access to the site where German and Portuguese teams were hunting for evidence into the murder of Madeleine McCann.
The British toddler was taken from an apartment in Praia da Luz 18 years and one month ago, but search teams have renewed their investigations as the chief suspect, Christian Brueckner, is expected to leave prison in Germany as early as September.
German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was presumed dead and that Brueckner, in his 40s, was probably responsible. He has denied responsibility.
German prosecutors are desperate for more evidence that could tie him to the three-year-old’s disappearance and are searching 21 plots of shrubland and abandoned buildings that have ties to Brueckner.
But if the authorities are so desperate to find any possible evidence that might lie in the area, why did they permit me and my camera operator onto the scene?
At 6am, as the sun was rising over the Algarve, we approached the main entrance to the search site. When we arrived yesterday, it was blocked off with a barrier and a police van.
But this morning, no one stopped us as we advanced half a kilometre up the path towards the search area.
Parking at a T-junction, we were able to walk onto the shrubland, past a dilapidated farmhouse guarded by police officers, to be within 100 metres of the main forensic tents.
It was in this area yesterday that search teams were spotted using chainsaws and strimmers to hack away at key areas, hunting for any evidence of Madeleine’s remains or her pyjamas from the night she was taken from her bed.
'I'm left astonished after visiting the desolate area at the heart of the new Madeleine McCann search'
GB News/PA/Reuters
Portuguese police were roundly criticised in 2007 for their lax approach to the Ocean Club crime scene in the days after Madeleine was taken.
There were concerns that critical evidence might have been destroyed.
Christian Brueckner was jailed for raping an elderly American tourist after a single hair of his was found on her bed.
Sometimes, that little forensic gold dust is all it takes to secure an indictment.
And with the authorities running one last desperate roll of the dice, it was astonishing to find ourselves on a crime scene that they would be scouring for any forensic value like that slither of hair.
Police are searching abandoned buildings near to where Madeleine is thought to have disappeared
GB News
By 7:30 am, more senior officers rushed to us and another camera crew, leaping out of an SUV to order us to leave the area. They argued that we were not permitted to be on the site, even though their colleagues said we could film on the spot just moments before.
Perhaps they finally came to their senses, realising the reputational risk.
Every journalist wants access, but moments like these make you wonder if all the appropriate protocol and security is being followed.
If there is to be a breakthrough in the Madeleine McCann case this week, search teams will need to be far more diligent than their colleagues on the gate were this morning.
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