these are the latest pictures. police divers have gone into the the reservoir thirty miles from where the british girl was last seen. officials are hoping to find evidence linking the main suspect a german sex offender christian brueckner was made a formal suspect, or an arguido , by portuguese prosecutors last year. german state prosecutor hans christian wolters issued the statement on the search: these measures are being carried out with legal assistance from (ani) portuguese law enforcement authorities, (ani) with support from earlier i spoke to navtej johal who is at the barragem do arade reservoir. divers have been seen entering the water and a police motorboat has been on the water as well. that was about an hour ago. where we are is about an hour ago. where we are is about 30 miles away from where it madeleine mccann disappeared in 2007. we are expecting official confirmation imminently from german police that they are beginning their search here today and that s
during a holiday in portugal 16 years ago. madeleine vanished from a portuguese holiday home 16 years ago on the 3rd of may, 2007. a week later portuguese police said they believed madeleine had been abducted but was still alive and in portugal. at the end of may 2007 police issued a description of a man seen on the night of madeleine s disappearance possibly carrying a child. byjuly 2008 portuguese police say they have submitted their final report on the case. weeks later authorities shelve their investigation. in 2022, a german man is declared an official suspect by portuguese prosecutors. joining me live now arejim gamble, a former police officer who helped with the madeleine mccann investigation, and jon silverman, a professor of media and criminal justice at university of bedfordshire and former bbc home affairs correspondent. thank you forjoining me. first, what exactly are we looking at? it s been many years now since we had any kind of fresh investigation. why is
now, let s bring more on our main story. police have begun a new search for the british toddler madeleine mccann who disappeared during a holiday in portugal 16 years ago. madeleine vanished from a portuguese holiday home 16 years ago, on the 3rd of may, 2007. that s when police started searching for her. a week later portuguese police said they believed madeleine had been abducted but was still alive and in portugal. at the end of may 2007 police issue a description of a man seen on the night of madeleine s disappearance, possibly carrying a child. byjuly 2008 portuguese police say they have submitted their final report on the case. weeks later authorities shelve their investigation. in 2022, a german man is declared an official suspect by portuguese prosecutors. although portuguese authorities do not formally reveal the suspect s name. jim gamble, a former police officer who s helped with the madeleine mccann investigation, has been explaining more about what s happening to
of inquiry in their investigation. what has really struck me about the german prosecutors and the german police is that they have been absolutely adamant they have got the right person. and they re pew pursuing lines of inquiry on the basis of information they have that is not in the wider public domain. so i do think this is significant. but i think once the german police issued a statement to let us know what they are doing, i think if they are focused, if are delivered, that is much more to do with following a line of inquiry than a needle in the haystack search over a reservoir, which would be less helpful in my opinion. if it s focused, if it s deliberate, if they are following lines of inquiry, this is an important step forward. let s remind ourselves. german important step forward. let s remind ourselves. german police important step forward. let s remind ourselves. german police are - ourselves. german police are investigating this because they suspect is a man called ch