How Hulk Hogan's sex tape led to drug-friendly Games
What does Hulk Hogan's home-made porno - with his mate Bubba the Love Sponge's wife - have to do with it?
For Australian entrepreneur Aron D'Souza, a fair bit.
Hogan's romp is a link in the chain leading D'Souza to Las Vegas' sunset strip for this week's launch of Enhanced Games, a multi-sports event with no drug testing.
D'Souza, a 40-year-old Melbourne-born businessman, has the backing of multi-billionaires, and a family company of US President Donald Trump.
And he's pinching himself that a concept first planted in his mind 15 years ago when he read a bioethicist's paper is now in fruition.
"I think about my life and it's like truth is stranger than fiction," D'Souza told AAP in an interview in Las Vegas.
"If someone wrote the story of my life, you just couldn't believe it.
"The Peter Thiel/Gawker case, that's a book and a movie in itself."
The Gawker case involves Hulk Hogan and a home-made pornographic film.
In 2006, the world famous wrestler was down in the dumps.
A mate, a shock-jock known as Bubba the Love Sponge, offered his wife to Hogan. The wrestler agreed, on condition it wasn't recorded.
Bubba lied, filmed the frolic and, six years later, it was leaked to a brash New York publisher known for flaunting rules, Gawker.
In 2007, Gawker outed Thiel as gay. That article, while legal, enraged the German-born multi-billionaire who is now among financiers of D'Souza's Enhanced Games.
The Australian met the German around 2010 when D'Souza, then 24, was completing a law degree at England's Oxford University.
They got talking. Thiel told of his Gawker gripe. D'Souza got thinking.
Why doesn't Thiel fund lawyers to find cases against Gawker, then sue them into extinction? Thiel agreed.
When Gawker publishes Hulk Hogan's sex tape in 2012, D'Souza's plan swings into action.
Backed by $10m of Thiel funds, Hogan wins damages to the tune of $100 million. Gawker goes bankrupt.
Thiel was soon revealed as Hogan's bankroller.
But D'Souza - the mastermind of a ruthless tactic earning some nods of approval among those in high society - stayed in the shadows, anonymous.
Those who knew of his involvement in the case, knew him only as Mr A, adding to international intrigue.
"I said I just want to be a private guy; I just want to go back to Australia, run my family property, business, run my start-ups," he said.
"Today I am a very public figure but I was not comfortable with being a public figure 10 years ago.
"The Gawker case, looking back, gave me the confidence to believe that I could do anything.
"I'm very thankful to Peter Thiel because we decided to work on the Gawker case together when I was only 24 years old, I just met him socially."
D'Souza remained connected with Thiel, who co-founded PayPal among other companies and was Facebook's first outside investor.
And Thiel was an early investor when D'Souza floated Enhanced Games, a concept he nicked from an academic paper by Oxford bioethicist Professor Julian Savulescu debating merits of a sports event for athletes on drugs.
"It wasn't my idea. I just said: 'You know what? I'm going to make a business out of this'," D'Souza said.
Two years ago, he envisioned Enhanced Games interest streaming from various US college facilities.
But he was shocked by the level of interest - and cash - from left field.
Thiel, who wants to be cryogenically preserved when he dies, was joined as a backer by fellow multi-billionaire venture capitalist and biotech pioneer Christian Angermayer, who credits a magic mushroom trip for changing his life and wants to commercialise psychedelics.
The pair, and others, view Enhanced Games not as a sports and entertainment event, but a shop-front stake in an anti-ageing and health industry worth trillions of dollars.
"This is when two of the largest industries in the world merge - care, and sports and entertainment," D'Souza said.
"There's so many more partnerships to be done, so many more levers in public policy to push, so many avenues of science to advance.
"I do view this as still as a human rights struggle because, fundamentally, the principle human right is to be able to do with own body what we wish.
"And that might mean taking synthetic testosterone. It may mean prosthesis. It may mean brain computer interfaces.
"If you read the scientific literature, there is a pipeline of all this technology being developed right now."
D'Souza said Enhanced Games' mission was "bringing super humanity - making the first super human".
"Probably today, only one-tenth of a per cent of Americans would view themselves as enhanced," he said.
"But in a few years, that will be five per cent, 10 per cent.
"And that's how we're going to measure this.
"I could get hit by a bus today and this event, this movement, will continue to succeed and grow because it's not about me, it's not about even the company that we have built.
"It's about cultural zeitgeist that is happening in the world.
"We timed it right but I am certain that within 20 years' time, all sport will be enhanced."
The event has been decried by sports administrators worldwide, most notably the Olympic movement.
But D'Souza said Olympic criticism had quietened since 1789 Capital, a company of Donald Trump Jnr, recently jumped aboard as a partner of the fledgling games.
"I think there's been an order from the very top, and I mean from (soon-to-be retired IOC president Thomas) Bach himself," D'Souza said.
"Because of the support we have from the Trump administration, and that the LA28 Olympics are coming around, they don't want to be seen as opposing us.
"Because if they do, that risks the political support for LA28 and LA28 needs billions of dollars of taxpayer money to succeed."
This AAP article was made possible by support from the Enhanced Games.
What does Hulk Hogan's home-made porno - with his mate Bubba the Love Sponge's wife - have to do with it?
For Australian entrepreneur Aron D'Souza, a fair bit.
Hogan's romp is a link in the chain leading D'Souza to Las Vegas' sunset strip for this week's launch of Enhanced Games, a multi-sports event with no drug testing.
D'Souza, a 40-year-old Melbourne-born businessman, has the backing of multi-billionaires, and a family company of US President Donald Trump.
And he's pinching himself that a concept first planted in his mind 15 years ago when he read a bioethicist's paper is now in fruition.
"I think about my life and it's like truth is stranger than fiction," D'Souza told AAP in an interview in Las Vegas.
"If someone wrote the story of my life, you just couldn't believe it.
"The Peter Thiel/Gawker case, that's a book and a movie in itself."
The Gawker case involves Hulk Hogan and a home-made pornographic film.
In 2006, the world famous wrestler was down in the dumps.
A mate, a shock-jock known as Bubba the Love Sponge, offered his wife to Hogan. The wrestler agreed, on condition it wasn't recorded.
Bubba lied, filmed the frolic and, six years later, it was leaked to a brash New York publisher known for flaunting rules, Gawker.
In 2007, Gawker outed Thiel as gay. That article, while legal, enraged the German-born multi-billionaire who is now among financiers of D'Souza's Enhanced Games.
The Australian met the German around 2010 when D'Souza, then 24, was completing a law degree at England's Oxford University.
They got talking. Thiel told of his Gawker gripe. D'Souza got thinking.
Why doesn't Thiel fund lawyers to find cases against Gawker, then sue them into extinction? Thiel agreed.
When Gawker publishes Hulk Hogan's sex tape in 2012, D'Souza's plan swings into action.
Backed by $10m of Thiel funds, Hogan wins damages to the tune of $100 million. Gawker goes bankrupt.
Thiel was soon revealed as Hogan's bankroller.
But D'Souza - the mastermind of a ruthless tactic earning some nods of approval among those in high society - stayed in the shadows, anonymous.
Those who knew of his involvement in the case, knew him only as Mr A, adding to international intrigue.
"I said I just want to be a private guy; I just want to go back to Australia, run my family property, business, run my start-ups," he said.
"Today I am a very public figure but I was not comfortable with being a public figure 10 years ago.
"The Gawker case, looking back, gave me the confidence to believe that I could do anything.
"I'm very thankful to Peter Thiel because we decided to work on the Gawker case together when I was only 24 years old, I just met him socially."
D'Souza remained connected with Thiel, who co-founded PayPal among other companies and was Facebook's first outside investor.
And Thiel was an early investor when D'Souza floated Enhanced Games, a concept he nicked from an academic paper by Oxford bioethicist Professor Julian Savulescu debating merits of a sports event for athletes on drugs.
"It wasn't my idea. I just said: 'You know what? I'm going to make a business out of this'," D'Souza said.
Two years ago, he envisioned Enhanced Games interest streaming from various US college facilities.
But he was shocked by the level of interest - and cash - from left field.
Thiel, who wants to be cryogenically preserved when he dies, was joined as a backer by fellow multi-billionaire venture capitalist and biotech pioneer Christian Angermayer, who credits a magic mushroom trip for changing his life and wants to commercialise psychedelics.
The pair, and others, view Enhanced Games not as a sports and entertainment event, but a shop-front stake in an anti-ageing and health industry worth trillions of dollars.
"This is when two of the largest industries in the world merge - care, and sports and entertainment," D'Souza said.
"There's so many more partnerships to be done, so many more levers in public policy to push, so many avenues of science to advance.
"I do view this as still as a human rights struggle because, fundamentally, the principle human right is to be able to do with own body what we wish.
"And that might mean taking synthetic testosterone. It may mean prosthesis. It may mean brain computer interfaces.
"If you read the scientific literature, there is a pipeline of all this technology being developed right now."
D'Souza said Enhanced Games' mission was "bringing super humanity - making the first super human".
"Probably today, only one-tenth of a per cent of Americans would view themselves as enhanced," he said.
"But in a few years, that will be five per cent, 10 per cent.
"And that's how we're going to measure this.
"I could get hit by a bus today and this event, this movement, will continue to succeed and grow because it's not about me, it's not about even the company that we have built.
"It's about cultural zeitgeist that is happening in the world.
"We timed it right but I am certain that within 20 years' time, all sport will be enhanced."
The event has been decried by sports administrators worldwide, most notably the Olympic movement.
But D'Souza said Olympic criticism had quietened since 1789 Capital, a company of Donald Trump Jnr, recently jumped aboard as a partner of the fledgling games.
"I think there's been an order from the very top, and I mean from (soon-to-be retired IOC president Thomas) Bach himself," D'Souza said.
"Because of the support we have from the Trump administration, and that the LA28 Olympics are coming around, they don't want to be seen as opposing us.
"Because if they do, that risks the political support for LA28 and LA28 needs billions of dollars of taxpayer money to succeed."
This AAP article was made possible by support from the Enhanced Games.
What does Hulk Hogan's home-made porno - with his mate Bubba the Love Sponge's wife - have to do with it?
For Australian entrepreneur Aron D'Souza, a fair bit.
Hogan's romp is a link in the chain leading D'Souza to Las Vegas' sunset strip for this week's launch of Enhanced Games, a multi-sports event with no drug testing.
D'Souza, a 40-year-old Melbourne-born businessman, has the backing of multi-billionaires, and a family company of US President Donald Trump.
And he's pinching himself that a concept first planted in his mind 15 years ago when he read a bioethicist's paper is now in fruition.
"I think about my life and it's like truth is stranger than fiction," D'Souza told AAP in an interview in Las Vegas.
"If someone wrote the story of my life, you just couldn't believe it.
"The Peter Thiel/Gawker case, that's a book and a movie in itself."
The Gawker case involves Hulk Hogan and a home-made pornographic film.
In 2006, the world famous wrestler was down in the dumps.
A mate, a shock-jock known as Bubba the Love Sponge, offered his wife to Hogan. The wrestler agreed, on condition it wasn't recorded.
Bubba lied, filmed the frolic and, six years later, it was leaked to a brash New York publisher known for flaunting rules, Gawker.
In 2007, Gawker outed Thiel as gay. That article, while legal, enraged the German-born multi-billionaire who is now among financiers of D'Souza's Enhanced Games.
The Australian met the German around 2010 when D'Souza, then 24, was completing a law degree at England's Oxford University.
They got talking. Thiel told of his Gawker gripe. D'Souza got thinking.
Why doesn't Thiel fund lawyers to find cases against Gawker, then sue them into extinction? Thiel agreed.
When Gawker publishes Hulk Hogan's sex tape in 2012, D'Souza's plan swings into action.
Backed by $10m of Thiel funds, Hogan wins damages to the tune of $100 million. Gawker goes bankrupt.
Thiel was soon revealed as Hogan's bankroller.
But D'Souza - the mastermind of a ruthless tactic earning some nods of approval among those in high society - stayed in the shadows, anonymous.
Those who knew of his involvement in the case, knew him only as Mr A, adding to international intrigue.
"I said I just want to be a private guy; I just want to go back to Australia, run my family property, business, run my start-ups," he said.
"Today I am a very public figure but I was not comfortable with being a public figure 10 years ago.
"The Gawker case, looking back, gave me the confidence to believe that I could do anything.
"I'm very thankful to Peter Thiel because we decided to work on the Gawker case together when I was only 24 years old, I just met him socially."
D'Souza remained connected with Thiel, who co-founded PayPal among other companies and was Facebook's first outside investor.
And Thiel was an early investor when D'Souza floated Enhanced Games, a concept he nicked from an academic paper by Oxford bioethicist Professor Julian Savulescu debating merits of a sports event for athletes on drugs.
"It wasn't my idea. I just said: 'You know what? I'm going to make a business out of this'," D'Souza said.
Two years ago, he envisioned Enhanced Games interest streaming from various US college facilities.
But he was shocked by the level of interest - and cash - from left field.
Thiel, who wants to be cryogenically preserved when he dies, was joined as a backer by fellow multi-billionaire venture capitalist and biotech pioneer Christian Angermayer, who credits a magic mushroom trip for changing his life and wants to commercialise psychedelics.
The pair, and others, view Enhanced Games not as a sports and entertainment event, but a shop-front stake in an anti-ageing and health industry worth trillions of dollars.
"This is when two of the largest industries in the world merge - care, and sports and entertainment," D'Souza said.
"There's so many more partnerships to be done, so many more levers in public policy to push, so many avenues of science to advance.
"I do view this as still as a human rights struggle because, fundamentally, the principle human right is to be able to do with own body what we wish.
"And that might mean taking synthetic testosterone. It may mean prosthesis. It may mean brain computer interfaces.
"If you read the scientific literature, there is a pipeline of all this technology being developed right now."
D'Souza said Enhanced Games' mission was "bringing super humanity - making the first super human".
"Probably today, only one-tenth of a per cent of Americans would view themselves as enhanced," he said.
"But in a few years, that will be five per cent, 10 per cent.
"And that's how we're going to measure this.
"I could get hit by a bus today and this event, this movement, will continue to succeed and grow because it's not about me, it's not about even the company that we have built.
"It's about cultural zeitgeist that is happening in the world.
"We timed it right but I am certain that within 20 years' time, all sport will be enhanced."
The event has been decried by sports administrators worldwide, most notably the Olympic movement.
But D'Souza said Olympic criticism had quietened since 1789 Capital, a company of Donald Trump Jnr, recently jumped aboard as a partner of the fledgling games.
"I think there's been an order from the very top, and I mean from (soon-to-be retired IOC president Thomas) Bach himself," D'Souza said.
"Because of the support we have from the Trump administration, and that the LA28 Olympics are coming around, they don't want to be seen as opposing us.
"Because if they do, that risks the political support for LA28 and LA28 needs billions of dollars of taxpayer money to succeed."
This AAP article was made possible by support from the Enhanced Games.
What does Hulk Hogan's home-made porno - with his mate Bubba the Love Sponge's wife - have to do with it?
For Australian entrepreneur Aron D'Souza, a fair bit.
Hogan's romp is a link in the chain leading D'Souza to Las Vegas' sunset strip for this week's launch of Enhanced Games, a multi-sports event with no drug testing.
D'Souza, a 40-year-old Melbourne-born businessman, has the backing of multi-billionaires, and a family company of US President Donald Trump.
And he's pinching himself that a concept first planted in his mind 15 years ago when he read a bioethicist's paper is now in fruition.
"I think about my life and it's like truth is stranger than fiction," D'Souza told AAP in an interview in Las Vegas.
"If someone wrote the story of my life, you just couldn't believe it.
"The Peter Thiel/Gawker case, that's a book and a movie in itself."
The Gawker case involves Hulk Hogan and a home-made pornographic film.
In 2006, the world famous wrestler was down in the dumps.
A mate, a shock-jock known as Bubba the Love Sponge, offered his wife to Hogan. The wrestler agreed, on condition it wasn't recorded.
Bubba lied, filmed the frolic and, six years later, it was leaked to a brash New York publisher known for flaunting rules, Gawker.
In 2007, Gawker outed Thiel as gay. That article, while legal, enraged the German-born multi-billionaire who is now among financiers of D'Souza's Enhanced Games.
The Australian met the German around 2010 when D'Souza, then 24, was completing a law degree at England's Oxford University.
They got talking. Thiel told of his Gawker gripe. D'Souza got thinking.
Why doesn't Thiel fund lawyers to find cases against Gawker, then sue them into extinction? Thiel agreed.
When Gawker publishes Hulk Hogan's sex tape in 2012, D'Souza's plan swings into action.
Backed by $10m of Thiel funds, Hogan wins damages to the tune of $100 million. Gawker goes bankrupt.
Thiel was soon revealed as Hogan's bankroller.
But D'Souza - the mastermind of a ruthless tactic earning some nods of approval among those in high society - stayed in the shadows, anonymous.
Those who knew of his involvement in the case, knew him only as Mr A, adding to international intrigue.
"I said I just want to be a private guy; I just want to go back to Australia, run my family property, business, run my start-ups," he said.
"Today I am a very public figure but I was not comfortable with being a public figure 10 years ago.
"The Gawker case, looking back, gave me the confidence to believe that I could do anything.
"I'm very thankful to Peter Thiel because we decided to work on the Gawker case together when I was only 24 years old, I just met him socially."
D'Souza remained connected with Thiel, who co-founded PayPal among other companies and was Facebook's first outside investor.
And Thiel was an early investor when D'Souza floated Enhanced Games, a concept he nicked from an academic paper by Oxford bioethicist Professor Julian Savulescu debating merits of a sports event for athletes on drugs.
"It wasn't my idea. I just said: 'You know what? I'm going to make a business out of this'," D'Souza said.
Two years ago, he envisioned Enhanced Games interest streaming from various US college facilities.
But he was shocked by the level of interest - and cash - from left field.
Thiel, who wants to be cryogenically preserved when he dies, was joined as a backer by fellow multi-billionaire venture capitalist and biotech pioneer Christian Angermayer, who credits a magic mushroom trip for changing his life and wants to commercialise psychedelics.
The pair, and others, view Enhanced Games not as a sports and entertainment event, but a shop-front stake in an anti-ageing and health industry worth trillions of dollars.
"This is when two of the largest industries in the world merge - care, and sports and entertainment," D'Souza said.
"There's so many more partnerships to be done, so many more levers in public policy to push, so many avenues of science to advance.
"I do view this as still as a human rights struggle because, fundamentally, the principle human right is to be able to do with own body what we wish.
"And that might mean taking synthetic testosterone. It may mean prosthesis. It may mean brain computer interfaces.
"If you read the scientific literature, there is a pipeline of all this technology being developed right now."
D'Souza said Enhanced Games' mission was "bringing super humanity - making the first super human".
"Probably today, only one-tenth of a per cent of Americans would view themselves as enhanced," he said.
"But in a few years, that will be five per cent, 10 per cent.
"And that's how we're going to measure this.
"I could get hit by a bus today and this event, this movement, will continue to succeed and grow because it's not about me, it's not about even the company that we have built.
"It's about cultural zeitgeist that is happening in the world.
"We timed it right but I am certain that within 20 years' time, all sport will be enhanced."
The event has been decried by sports administrators worldwide, most notably the Olympic movement.
But D'Souza said Olympic criticism had quietened since 1789 Capital, a company of Donald Trump Jnr, recently jumped aboard as a partner of the fledgling games.
"I think there's been an order from the very top, and I mean from (soon-to-be retired IOC president Thomas) Bach himself," D'Souza said.
"Because of the support we have from the Trump administration, and that the LA28 Olympics are coming around, they don't want to be seen as opposing us.
"Because if they do, that risks the political support for LA28 and LA28 needs billions of dollars of taxpayer money to succeed."
This AAP article was made possible by support from the Enhanced Games.
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The search for Madeleine McCann is due to resume in Portugal, near where the British girl was last seen 18 years ago. Fresh searches for Madeleine began on Tuesday, as teams drained a well and cleared areas of dense vegetation near abandoned buildings in countryside a few kilometres from the southern Portuguese resort town of Praia da Luz. Three-year-old Madeleine vanished while on holiday with her family in the Algarve resort on May 3, 2007, after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings. German investigators and Portuguese police officers and firefighters took part in the searches on Tuesday, as teams used strimmers, shovels and chainsaws to clear the undergrowth and debris around an abandoned building, and drained a well using a yellow hose. About a dozen officers focused on one abandoned building where digging was taking place, while another member of the search team cleared large rocks. The Sun reported that investigators are also planning to use radar equipment to scan beneath the ground. It has been reported that teams will look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks, and that there are plans to examine 21 pieces of land. The search is being carried out at the request of the German federal police, as they look for evidence that could implicate prime suspect Christian Brueckner, who is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. He is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought. In October Brueckner was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. About 30 German police, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search, with Portuguese officers, which is expected to last until Friday. The Metropolitan Police said British officers are not part of the search team. German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 50km from Praia da Luz. Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir. It was previously searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it, after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine's body was there. British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014. "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," they said in a statement. The search for Madeleine McCann is due to resume in Portugal, near where the British girl was last seen 18 years ago. Fresh searches for Madeleine began on Tuesday, as teams drained a well and cleared areas of dense vegetation near abandoned buildings in countryside a few kilometres from the southern Portuguese resort town of Praia da Luz. Three-year-old Madeleine vanished while on holiday with her family in the Algarve resort on May 3, 2007, after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings. German investigators and Portuguese police officers and firefighters took part in the searches on Tuesday, as teams used strimmers, shovels and chainsaws to clear the undergrowth and debris around an abandoned building, and drained a well using a yellow hose. About a dozen officers focused on one abandoned building where digging was taking place, while another member of the search team cleared large rocks. The Sun reported that investigators are also planning to use radar equipment to scan beneath the ground. It has been reported that teams will look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks, and that there are plans to examine 21 pieces of land. The search is being carried out at the request of the German federal police, as they look for evidence that could implicate prime suspect Christian Brueckner, who is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. He is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought. In October Brueckner was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. About 30 German police, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search, with Portuguese officers, which is expected to last until Friday. The Metropolitan Police said British officers are not part of the search team. German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 50km from Praia da Luz. Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir. It was previously searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it, after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine's body was there. British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014. "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," they said in a statement. The search for Madeleine McCann is due to resume in Portugal, near where the British girl was last seen 18 years ago. Fresh searches for Madeleine began on Tuesday, as teams drained a well and cleared areas of dense vegetation near abandoned buildings in countryside a few kilometres from the southern Portuguese resort town of Praia da Luz. Three-year-old Madeleine vanished while on holiday with her family in the Algarve resort on May 3, 2007, after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings. German investigators and Portuguese police officers and firefighters took part in the searches on Tuesday, as teams used strimmers, shovels and chainsaws to clear the undergrowth and debris around an abandoned building, and drained a well using a yellow hose. About a dozen officers focused on one abandoned building where digging was taking place, while another member of the search team cleared large rocks. The Sun reported that investigators are also planning to use radar equipment to scan beneath the ground. It has been reported that teams will look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks, and that there are plans to examine 21 pieces of land. The search is being carried out at the request of the German federal police, as they look for evidence that could implicate prime suspect Christian Brueckner, who is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. He is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought. In October Brueckner was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. About 30 German police, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search, with Portuguese officers, which is expected to last until Friday. The Metropolitan Police said British officers are not part of the search team. German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 50km from Praia da Luz. Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir. It was previously searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it, after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine's body was there. British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014. "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," they said in a statement.
