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Madeleine McCann: where the family are now, from Kate's moving memoir to the brother tipped for the Olympics
Memoirs and Olympic swimming: where Maddie McCann's family are now
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The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Madeleine McCann suspect ‘told police questions about him can never be answered'
Christian Brueckner, the key suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, reportedly wrote a letter listing 'decisive questions' that 'can never be answered' regarding his alleged involvement in the case. The 48-year-old German national reportedly sent the letter to officers saying questions which would implicate him in the case of the three-year-old British girl, who vanished from the Praia da Luz resort 18 years ago, cannot be answered. Brueckner is currently in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same resort in 2005. In the note, seen and translated by The Sun newspaper, Brueckner reportedly wrote: 'It is the important questions, the decisive questions that can never be answered. 'Was I or my vehicle clearly seen near the crime scene on the night of the crime? 'Is there DNA evidence of me at the crime scene? Are there DNA traces of the injured party in my vehicle? 'Are there other traces/DNA carriers of the injured party in my possession? Photos? 'And, don't forget, is there a body/corpse? All no, no no.' It is not clear when the letter was written. Brueckner spent time in the Praia de Luz area between 2000 and 2017 and had photographs and videos of himself near a reservoir. It comes as German and Portuguese investigators finished three days of searching a 120-acre stretch of land near Lagos, Portugal, on Thursday as part of attempts to source evidence to implicate Brueckner. In the searches, requested by German authorities, crews spent three days scouring scrubland and abandoned structures. Brueckner is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought. In October last year, he was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Wales Online
2 hours ago
- Wales Online
Madeleine McCann suspect sent letter about case to police, reports say
Madeleine McCann suspect sent letter about case to police, reports say He reportedly said 'decisive questions can never be answered' Christian Brueckner, in a light-coloured suit, stands next to his lawyer prior to the verdict in his trial on five unrelated sex crimes in Germany last year (Image: MICHAEL MATTHEY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images ) The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann sent a letter to police saying "decisive questions can never be answered", according to reports. Christian Brueckner, who is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, reportedly sent a letter to officers saying questions which would implicate him in the case of the three-year-old British girl, who vanished from the same resort 18 years ago, cannot be answered. In the note, seen and translated by The Sun newspaper, Brueckner reportedly wrote: "It is the important questions, the decisive questions, that can never be answered. "Was I or my vehicle clearly seen near the crime scene on the night of the crime? "Is there DNA evidence of me at the crime scene? Are there DNA traces of the injured party in my vehicle? "Are there other traces/DNA carriers of the injured party in my possession? Photos? Article continues below "And, don't forget, is there a body/corpse? All no, no no." It is not clear when the letter was written. Brueckner spent time in the Praia de Luz area between 2000 and 2017 and had photographs and videos of himself near a reservoir. It comes as German and Portuguese investigators finished three days of searching a 120-acre stretch of land near Lagos, Portugal, on Thursday as part of attempts to source evidence to implicate Brueckner. In the searches, requested by German authorities, crews spent three days scouring scrubland and abandoned structures. Brueckner is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought. In October last year he was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Madeleine McCann was three years old when she vanished on May 3, 2007, after her parents left her asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve, Portugal. Madeleine McCann (Image: PA ) Since then hers has become one of the highest-profile unsolved missing person cases in the world with British, Portuguese, and European police forces involved in the investigation. Police forces from across Europe have launched multiple searches for Madeleine since her disappearance in 2007. Early efforts focused on the Praia da Luz resort where she was last seen in her family's holiday apartment. In 2013 British police began Operation Grange, a formal investigation into the case. Searches have included digging in scrubland, draining reservoirs, and using sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar. Most recently German authorities searched the suspect's old place of residence in Praia da Luz, covering a large patch of land near the home of their prime suspect and the McCanns' holiday apartment. Brueckner moved to Portugal in 1995 after serving a two-year prison sentence in Germany for sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in 1994. He is known to have been renting a cottage in Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. Soon after the media descended on the resort in 2007 he moved back to Germany. Police have previously claimed he made a 30-minute phone call from the same area just an hour before Madeleine disappeared. He is alleged to have confessed on two occasions to kidnapping and sexually abusing the toddler – once to a friend in a German bar in 2017 and again to his prison cellmate in 2020. The German national was formally identified as a suspect in 2022 but has denied any involvement. He also denied committing the 2005 rape for which he was convicted of in 2019. In October 2024 he was acquitted of two charges rape and two of sexual abuse in a German trial where it was argued there was a lack of evidence and witnesses who were not credible. Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case but German authorities began investigating him in June 2020 for her alleged kidnap and murder. Article continues below German authorities maintain that he is the main suspect in Madeleine's disappearance and are pushing for charges before his scheduled release in September.
Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
'I found out I'm related to Will Young after watching his TV show'
The Pop Idol winner discovered on this week's episode of BBC1's Who Do You Think You Are? that he is related to King Edward I and William the Conquerer - so Mirror man Matt decided to dig into his ancestors too As if Will Young didn't already have reason to be smug, the Pop Idol and two-time Brit Award winner now has something else he can boast about - he's related to royalty. Specifically, King Edward I, his 20-times great-grandfather. Oh, and William the Conquerer too. The singer found out about his kingly lineage filming this week's episode of BBC1 's Who Do You Think You Are? And he's not the only celebrity who, besides being blessed with success, can also add royal blood to their claims to fame. Josh Widdecombe is another, having learned he's also directly descended from Edward I. Before him there was Danny Dyer, who discovered his ancestors include King Edward III, William the Conquerer and French king Louis IX. Then there's Matthew Pinsent – four-time Olympic gold medallist and, it turns out, also related to Edward I, William the Conqueror and one of Henry VIII's wives. What is it about being a celebrity, I wondered, that makes you more likely to have royal relatives? Knowing Will was going to be the latest to fill me with jealousy, I set out to find out if mere mortals like me had any remotely interesting ancestors. In my case, the chances of even finding anyone slightly aristocratic in my family tree seemed pretty bleak. Will was already born with a silver spoon in his mouth, a boarding school boy whose dad was a company director and whose grandad was an RAF flight lieutenant. Most of the relatives I knew about, on the other hand, were proud yet poor Nottinghamshire coal miners and their wives. Still, I set up an account on FindMyPast and added the names of the relatives I knew about over the last 150 years. As the site suggested potential matches based on birth, marriage, baptism and census records, I gradually worked my way back around 12 generations to the mid-1600s. Alas, what I discovered only confirmed my suspicions. My family were paupers, not princes – grafters who toiled for centuries in coal mines, stables, forges and along canals. My great-grandfather, I discovered, was a coal miner loader who had worked his way up to coal hewer - hacking coal from the mine bed by hand, hundreds of metres underground - just like his father and grandfather before him. Earlier still were nailmakers, boatmen, stonemasons and stablemen. Almost all lived and died in Derbyshire, Yorkshire or Lancashire. We were clearly the servants, not the masters. I had more in common with Baldrick than Blackadder. But just as I was about to give up, I stumbled on something unexpected. In the late 1500s, Derbyshire man William Gilbert, my 13th great-grandfather, married Anne Clere - and into a well-known family. The Cleres, it turned out, were an ancient family from Norfolk whose patriarch, Sir Robert Clere, was the High Sheriff of Norfolk and known for his great wealth. Anne's father, Sir Edward Clere, was an MP, but apparently not a very articulate one when speaking in the House of Commons. One diarist wrote how he made '"a staggering [stumbling] speech… I could not understand what reason he made.' He was knighted in 1578 after having Queen Elizabeth I stay over at his home in Thetford, Norfolk, when he entertained her with a theatrical performance and jousting. Fascinated that my family was at least good friends with royalty, I kept digging. Edward's father was Sir John Clere, an MP and naval commander who drowned in August 1557 when his fleet tried to conquer the Orkney Islands, but was beaten back to sea by 3,000 angry islanders. But it was her mother, Alice Boleyn, my 14th great-grandmother, whose name jumped out at me. Sure enough, as I followed the tree, her niece was none other than Anne Boleyn, Queen of England until she was beheaded in 1533 by Henry VIII - and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. I was astounded - that makes me Elizabeth I's first cousin, 16 times removed. On the other side of the Clere family, however, things were taking a more sinister - but no less fascinating - turn. Sir John Clere's wife, Anne Tyrell, also had royal connections, it turned out, but ones that probably changed the line of succession forever. On her father's side, her grandfather was Sir James Tyrell, a trusted servant of Richard III, who allegedly confessed to the murders of the Princes in the Tower under Richard's orders. James is also portrayed in Shakespeare's Richard III. I was astounded - I studied the play at school and had no idea I was reading about my 17th great-grandfather. Treason and treachery, it seems, ran in the family. His father William was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1462 for plotting against King Edward IV. William's father, Sir John Tyrell of Heron, was High Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire and knight of Essex, and three times Speaker of the House of Commons. That my 19th great-grandfather basically once ruled Essex is something I won't be letting people forget in Stansted, where I now live. But it was also through Anne Tyrell's mother's side that I found something even more astonishing. As I followed her line, the names began to get more and more aristocratic, through the Willoughbys, De Welles, Greystokes and Longsprees, until I found…. My 26th great-grandfather, King Henry II. His father was Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou and his grandfather, King Henry I. And Henry's father? No other than William the Conquerer - my 29th great-grandfather. And perhaps even more bizarrely, that would make Will Young my 9th cousin, 9 times removed. I'll be inviting him round for tea next week. Genealogists will tell me to calm down - apparently there are about five million people who are descended from William the Conquerer. Establishing myself as the true heir to the British throne could certainly be tricky. But just being as special as Will, Danny Dyer and Matthew Pinsent is enough for me. And not bad for the son of Nottinghamshire nailmakers, stablemen and coal miners. How to trace your family tree on Findmypast: Register for a free Findmypast account and create your tree. Add your own information, then details about your parents, grandparents and other relatives that you know. You don't need every detail such as date or place of birth, but the more you have the better. Findmypast then searches its records and provides hints about your ancestors, helping you expand your tree. To access the records you'll need to pay a subscription. Most of the records go back to the 1700s, but family trees created by other people can help you trace back even further. Use the internet to search some of the key names - you might find more clues and other historical connections.
