Re: Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann'

by sequested 29.09.21 8:35

Scrap my comment above - just seen Silentscope's post today on the other thread

by **Silentscope** 29.09.21 8:37

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 2d23ab10

It was a REAL PLATE, traced by the German Police to a Citizen who was NOT CHRISTIAN BRÜCKNER.

by **Jill Havern** 29.09.21 8:39

But Martin Brunt said Jon's bewk was "Tirelessly researched" think

by sequested 29.09.21 8:41

Doesn’t say by who though !

by **Silentscope** 29.09.21 8:48

I would love to see Herr Fülscher’s face when he gets in to the Office this morning!

Bild should send Kai Feldhaus straight to Berlin for this report!

I doubt it will make the British Press or Sky news somehow?

by Guest 29.09.21 16:49

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 Scre1887

The official Portuguese investigation

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 Scre1888

The Metropolitan Police 'Operation Grange' investigation

Public service voluntary investigation

Team McCann's private investigation

Jon Clarke of the Olive Press - journalistic investigation

by Guest 29.09.21 17:10

Can someone please direct me to the chapter in Jon Clarke's book that covers the sighting in Spain and the VW camper van.

Thanks!

by **crusader** 29.09.21 18:09

Such is the layout of the book, I had trouble finding the chapter on the Spain sighting.
Chapter 46 page 265, he writes about Tunnels Restaurant in Alcossebre if that is what you are seeking Verdi.

by **PeterMac** 29.09.21 19:37

For research purposes only :

"Is Maddie Alive? Chapter 45 While the German prosecutors are convinced that Madeleine McCann is dead and the investigation is a murder inquiry, the British police continue to call it a missing persons inquiry. Some suggest this is out of respect for the family, but I think it is entirely justified until German police offer up the evidence that proves she is dead. And there is some possibility that Maddie may still be alive. I have long been intrigued by the many claimed sightings of Maddie on the Spanish coastline in the years after she vanished. She was seen in up to a dozen places, as earlier mentioned, a number of which I personally investigated and two I believe could genuinely have been her.

I think it is highly likely that after Brueckner snatched Maddie he drove her inland to the village of Foral where she was kept for one or two weeks – perhaps abused by a group of paedophiles – before being driven across an inland unmanned border into Spain near Rosal de la Frontera in the Sierra Morena, of Huelva. From there, he would have dropped down the empty N-433 through the Aracena Natural Park, past Sevilla, potentially towards Malaga before heading inland into the Alpujarras where his best friend Michael Tatschl had been living since March 2007, and an area he knew extremely well. He could equally have headed north up towards Badajoz and then taken the rarely travelled E-903 from Merida east towards Ciudad Real and Albacete, before taking the E-901 that skirts up to Valencia on his route north towards Germany. What I think is highly credible is a sighting of him on May 28 at Tunnels restaurant in Alcossebre, a small little-visited seaside town in the Castellon province, north of Valencia. This is an uncommercialised part of the Spanish coastline, with few British tourists, which would have been important for Brueckner if he was travelling with Maddie, who was by then known to everyone in the UK. It is also popular with people living the camper-van lifestyle, such as Brueckner himself.

The restaurant sits in a wild, isolated place called Capicorb, and I have spoken to two witnesses who are certain they saw his yellow and white VW Westfalia van parked there. It was on German plates and one of them saw a girl ‘identical to Maddie’ walk out of the restaurant around 11am and get into it. They were so sure, they even made a note of the number plates. Dutch expat, Jorge, who asked me not to reveal his surname and who has lived near the restaurant for years, remembers the day well. He told me it was ‘the talk of the town’ and his friend Juan, a handyman at the restaurant, ‘still swears it was Maddie.’ ‘I remember seeing the Volkswagen from my balcony, but I don’t remember seeing the girl,’ Jorge told me. ‘Juan though was convinced he saw her that day, and he asked the owner of the restaurant to phone the police. He has been saying it for 13 years that he saw Maddie that day, but nobody believed him because it’s 1,000 kilometres from Portugal.’

Juan himself eventually turned up to talk. Now in his sixties, he does a lot of different jobs in the Capicorb area in the Alcala de Chivert municipality, and is by all accounts a reliable and solid chap. ‘First of all, I remember the van, because it was very eye-catching,’ he told me. ‘I’m a car fanatic and we often get car shows down here. And so it caught my attention. It was one of those old Volkswagen Westfalias. It’s exactly the same as the photos that came out, and the van I saw was in a bad state and had a yellow stripe running around it. ‘In Spain, collectors usually have these vans with a historic number plate. So I remember seeing a foreign number plate on this one. Secondly, the girl’s face was also strangely recognisable. I remember coming home and thinking, “Where have I seen her face?” ‘And later I remembered I had seen her on the news: it was the English girl, Maddie, I had no doubt it was the girl I had seen. We get a lot of tourists down here with children and families and all sorts. So I remember thinking, “Why do I remember her face in particular?” I remember her face, the blue eyes and blonde hair down to her shoulders. It caught my attention because of course she doesn’t look like any other Spanish girl and I remember her with the man and the van.’ He said that even after all these years, the image is clear in his mind. ‘Then there’s that man,’ he added. ‘The Christian guy. When I saw his photo in the press, I knew immediately it was him that day ... I’m sure he was driving that van and I’ve seen him around here a few times since.’ He insisted the owner of the restaurant, who is also called Christian, call the Guardia Civil, which he did the following day.

His son Jan, the current owner, told me he remembers the Guardia Civil coming to ask for CCTV, but that the restaurant did not have cameras. Jorge and Juan had, however, noted down what they thought were the number plates, which were ‘BMS 1049’. Incredibly, I managed to find a link to the tip off in the detailed PJ files and discovered that it was in fact taken seriously. I discovered that a Leicestershire policeman DC John Hughes issued an international Interpol alert with a ‘risk to life missing person’ warning demanding that both Spanish and German police investigate the claims. He urged Spanish police to check the location for CCTV and witnesses and asked for the German van’s details. The police report, issued as part of Operation Task, explained that the restaurant was in an area called ‘Cap Y Corp’ and that the witness had an ‘unimpeded’ view of the girl who walked straight past him. This led to a request via SOCA (the Serious Organised Crime Association) to search for the German owner of the van. ‘We request the Spanish police check the location for any CCTV or witnesses,’ reported the PJ files. ‘We request German vehicle details. Can the vehicle be circulated for stop and check to be carried out if seen?’

However, I’ve tried to look further into the request and don’t believe police ever acted on it properly.

While I know Spanish police did turn up at the restaurant and German police were requested to track down the number plate BMS 1049, the only conclusion I could find was a handwritten note on top of the printed request from SOCA, in the PJ files, which said, ‘Spanish police traced a German man who is not connected to the missing girl.’ No names, nothing more. Having worked here as a journalist for nearly 20 years, I know the Spanish police well. I also know that in any case involving a foreigner they can be laid back, at best, and I am simply not convinced they went out of their way to locate and eliminate this ‘German man’ from their enquiries. Maybe they actually did locate Brueckner and, as in 2013, he managed to easily brush it off and evade them. This could well have been the best chance to have caught Maddie alive so far. We must never give up hope that she might still be alive. And the police finally charge Brueckner with her kidnapping. Only time will tell.

Clarke, Jon. MY SEARCH FOR MADELEINE: One Reporter’s 14-Year Hunt To Solve Europe’s Most Harrowing Crime (pp. 423-426). OP Books. Kindle Edition.

And Time HAS told. It was traced and eliminated just 5 weeks after the original report.
14 years ago.
3/5/7 to 12/6/7
Obviously didn't go to Spec savers . It was BritPol, Leic Pol who send the note about tracing the man and his family who Clarke was about to hound

by **PeterMac** 29.09.21 21:28

I’m sure he was driving that van and I’ve seen him around here a few times since.’

Which explains why the 'explanation' is that the man was ON HOLIDAY.
Nothing to hide, and no reason to. He was in the area and if the restaurant was any good visited more than once.
WITH HIS DAUGHTER

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 512

by **Mainline** 30.09.21 2:45

PeterMac wrote:GA has permitted us to announce that his new book is being printed, and will be released on 2nd October.
Details of the Cover, the Title and the Publisher will be released soon.

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 FAeDWtlXIAM9_lX?format=jpg&name=small

Seen this image floating around on Twitter, but can't find any info on the respective Contraponto Editores / Ambito Cultural websites. Can anyone confirm/link me to the source?

by **crusader** 30.09.21 8:22

There is nothing on the Ambito Cultural website about it.

It's an advert inviting people to the launch of the book by Goncalo Amaral at
The Cultural Scope room in Lisbon on 13th October.

by **PeterMac** 30.09.21 9:22

That's correct. It is a book launch.
We have been circulating the details to interested journalists.
Like the Olive Press

by Guest 30.09.21 12:36

I think this is going to turn very ugly, meanwhile the hungry wolves are frothing at the mouth just waiting to be first past the post.

You've got to hand it to Jon Clarke of the Olive Press, he's got a very vivid imagination. Spain's answer to Dan Brown or a contemporary Agatha Christie. He has the ability to combine fact with fiction to produce a not very well selling murder mystery.

The book is a collection of what ifs, maybes, it's possible, he/she/they/that/those could have or might have.

Booker raspberry award for you Meester Clarke!

As an aside, how can he get away with that image of the enigmatic Christian Brueckner on the cover of his novel? Did he get the man's permission before going ahead with publication, or is he covered by some legal technicality.

The more I see of this the more I think Christian Brueckner to be but a name - or an actor?!?

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out in the long term.

NB: Thanks for the book reference ^^^.

by Guest 30.09.21 13:05

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 Scre1893

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 Scre1894

Déjà vu?

by **PeterMac** 30.09.21 13:54

On the few occasions where Clarke has to confront evidence, such as the dogs' alerts, he is forced into strange logical
contortions to avoid accepting them.

I have never wavered in my belief that the parents were innocent. I laid out my argument in a long feature I wrote for the first anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance in May 2008. I repeated it again on the tenth anniversary in 2017 and nothing has come close to changing my view. Not even the so-called evidence from sniffer dogs – who allegedly scented her body and blood in the apartment in two places, particularly behind the sofa, as well as in the McCanns’ rental car. Some of their explosive findings might well have some critical relevance today, as we shall see.
(p. 77).
There had, apparently, been so much evidence that the McCanns had killed their daughter, not least from the sniffer dogs who detected Maddie’s blood. But when the DNA samples were analysed in a British lab, the results came back negligible.
(p. 80).
So desperate was Amaral to get a win, I now wonder if it was possible that the police even planted Maddie’s DNA in the rental car the family had hired from Europcar a month after she went missing.
(p. 83).

Which displays a crass lack of knowledge or even an attempt to understand the difference between Human cadaverine and Human Blood, and DNA. But he is writing mostly for Sun readers who will also not understand, but may think that he does.

Note he does not even address the other items of Kate's clothing on which the same scents were discovered.

And speaking of the VW Westfalia in Spain, he dismisses the fact that it was dismissed by dismissing the competence of thoroughness of the Spanish Police.

While I know Spanish police did turn up at the restaurant and German police were requested to track down the number plate BMS 1049, the only conclusion I could find was a handwritten note on top of the printed request from SOCA, in the PJ files, which said, ‘Spanish police traced a German man who is not connected to the missing girl.’ No names, nothing more.
Having worked here as a journalist for nearly 20 years, I know the Spanish police well. I also know that in any case involving a foreigner they can be laid back, at best, and I am simply not convinced they went out of their way to locate and eliminate this ‘German man’ from their enquiries. Maybe they actually did locate Brueckner and, as in 2013, he managed to easily brush it off and evade them.
(p. 426).

There is no way round that sort of thinking.

by Guest 30.09.21 14:00

So desperate was Amaral to get a win, I now wonder if it was possible that the police even planted Maddie’s DNA in the rental car the family had hired from Europcar a month after she went missing.

I've heard that/seen that written before now.

It will now be my personal mission to locate the previous source - it could lead to an important connection!

Watch this space ....

by **PeterMac** 30.09.21 14:09

Just going back the the VW, and Clarke's tireless research . . .

Just confirmed, and I have the photo but won't post it yet.

Brückner's VW Westfalia was on PORTUGUESE PLATES,
in the standard Portuguese format
like this - not the real numbers. 99-55-AB
and two smaller numbers on a yellow strip, indicating the date of registration.
In this case
82
07

Well done mild mannered Clarke-Kent

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 Vw_hal10

I've redacted the rest for the moment.

by **crusader** 30.09.21 14:35

@PeterMac

I think your book is set out different to mine.
Your page 77 is 41 in mine.

Your page 80 is 43 in mine.

Your page 83 is 46 in mine.

Your page 426 is 267 in mine.

my book ends on page 273.

Has anyone else who has the book got the same issue?

by **PeterMac** 30.09.21 14:39

I copy and paste from the Kindle version. Hence the difference.
I could, if you really wanted, look up the original in the hard copy, but life is short and I am getting old . . .

6 pages on Kindle - 5 pages on paper. Just done it. So if we divide Kindle by 5/6 we should get close to the dead tree number

by **crusader** 30.09.21 14:46

Ah I see, It's all there just the same, just on different pages. No prob, thanks.

by Guest 30.09.21 15:53

The kindle version is 400+ pages, the paperback is 200+ pages, from cover to cover.

What's sandwiched in between is a total mystery to me, I can't find anything which means I need to read the whole book in chronological order.

reading

Did someone say life is for living - whoever it was, send 'em back to go.

by **crusader** 30.09.21 16:02

I think the way Petermac is posting extracts from the book is very helpful.

by **Silentscope** 30.09.21 17:06

Snipped from PeterMac:

Juan though was convinced he saw her that day, and he asked the owner of the restaurant to phone the police. He has been saying it for 13 years that he saw Maddie that day, but nobody believed him because it’s 1,000 kilometres from Portugal.’

Silentscope-

Why would Juan have been saying it for 13 years, when he was told it was all checked out and okay just weeks later?

Why did Clarke not ask Wolters to check out this ‘most credible’ sighting in his three hour grilling interview in Braunschweig?

Why did Wolters not debunk this sighting when it was first published? A quick check with the StVA Strassenverkehrsamt (Dept of Motor Vehicles) would have sufficed.

by Guest 01.10.21 1:44

I'm more interested to know why DC Hughes of Leicestershire constabulary was making the request for the vehicle to be checked by the Spanish and German authorities via Interpol.

Don't forget this incident transpired in May/June 2007.

The PJ were and still are, the primary investigative force. If Leicestershire police received a tip-off from a possible significant witness, even if a British subject, shouldn't that have been referred to the PJ for further investigation?

In short, why did Leicestershire police take it upon themselves to check-out a potentially important witness who claimed to have seen who they thought to be Madeleine McCann leaving a restaurant and being bundled into a run down camper van, in a comparatively uninhabited blot on the landscape.

Why did DC Hughes take it upon himself?

There is such a thing as international policing protocol, a mechanism to cross borders but that does not involve a country taking it upon themselves to take control over a crime that has been committed outside their specific territory.

DC Hughes appears to have taken quite a prominent role in the UK prior to the case being referred, by political and media influence, the Metropolitan police - possibly even after.

It seems to me Leicestershire police and later the Metropolitan police, have been sticking their beak in matters that don't don't directly concern them.

The deeper this gets, the more tangled the sticky web.

The vehicle was seen in Portugal in Spain in Germany - take your pick, not the UK!!!

by **Jill Havern** 01.10.21 6:11

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 Jc_rev11

Jon Clarke has been a busy boy, deleting all the 1* reviews - yesterday there were 41 reviews and today there are only 25...and most of them 5* reviews.

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 Jc_rev10

He's such a fraudster.

by **PeterMac** 01.10.21 7:37

Extract from Jon Clarke's new book: 'My Search for Madeleine McCann' - Page 6 5512

This is the notice they are using to squash reviews.
I bought BOTH my copies, dead-tree and Kindle on the dot.es site, so I have just renovated the content.
It may show up on the .co.uk site

"The more people research Clarke’s ‘research’, the more holes we find.
He frankly admits that he set up the dreadful libel scandal against Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, and bought his house with the ill-gotten gains, – where Kidman donated her substantial libel damages to a charity.
He then confesses, and seems proud of setting up Robert Murat for little other reason that he has a noticeable disability, and no doubt made a lot more money selling that story (Murat was awarded £ 600,000 damages, so gross was the libel and the lies on which it was based)
And then changes the story to suit.
In his paper he says he drove to Braunschweig one evening to “interview friends of Brückner",
In the book he admits he spent the entire evening with a university journalist friend necking lagers.
He spends some pages on an alleged sighting in the east of Spain, apparently unaware that the vehicle and family were traced and eliminated in JUNE 2007.
The documents are in the PJ files, and in Amaral's book.

I will however say this, “The book is worth buying if anyone wants to understand the depths to which Tabloid journalists will descend to make money for themselves as they trample over the rights and privacy of their victims, and wish to see how facts are never allowed to get in the way of a good story”

For students of these things, if you click on the 4* and 3* rating - - - it says there aren't any ! ! !

by **PeterMac** 01.10.21 8:25

But that also means there are only 25 verified purchases.

by **Cammerigal** 01.10.21 8:42

Peter,
Your 1 star review has been whooshed from the .uk, .com and my .com.au

by **Silentscope** 01.10.21 8:51

Amazon’s security Department will be working hard to answer a lot of questions about these ‘Reviews’.

Who supplied them, from where they originated, and if those Amazon members are known to each other on other Digital platforms.

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