Madeleine McCann lake search is best chance of finding tot in 16yrs – cops clearly know something, says ex-Maddie cop
A TOP investigator who probed the disappearance of Madeleine McCann believes detectives are now closer than ever to finally solving the case.
Jim Gamble was the UK’s top child protection officer and oversaw a review of the case that led to the creation of the Met Police’s ongoing probe Operation Grange.
The 63-year-old, from Bangor, Northern Ireland, is backing the new probe as cops launch a search of the Arade Dam some 45 minutes Praia da Luz.
“I think we are looking at the best chance we’ve had in 16 years to find out what happened to Madeleine,” he told The Sun Online.
Mr Gamble believes the Germans must have strong evidence against prime suspect Christian B based on the sheer confidence they are displaying in the probe.
He explained: “They must have something definitive.
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“Having worked with German police it grabbed my attention when the prosecutor was so sure in his assessment Madeleine was dead.
“They are obviously keeping what they have close to their chest and they don’t want to lose the evidential edge”.
And while he acknowledged there have been many “false dawns” in the Maddie case, he said the probe into Christian B is the “most promising” since she vanished in 2007.
German and Portugese police have launched a massive new operation to scour the reservoir and the surrounding areas.
Pictures show a huge police presence as officers clutching shovels accompanied by sniffer dogs arrived at the scene.
It is unclear exactly what has led to the new search - but sources have said Christian B thought of the area as his “little paradise”.
Cops leading the probe are believed to have obtained new video evidence showing the convicted sex offender at the site.
Mr Gamble, who is now CEO of the INEQE Safeguarding Group, said the German police’s lead on the probe gives him hope the case could finally be solved.
“The search is significant is because of who is leading it,” he told The Sun Online.
“German authorities, prosecutors and investigators are normally very conservative - so when they do say something definitive you know they have the additional information.
“They have been absolutely adamant on two things, one, they have the right suspect, and two, that Madeleine is dead.”
He also praised the presence of Scotland Yard detectives who currently have a “watching brief” on the search.
Mr Gamble explained authorities will be likely staging a “focused and directed” search based on their new intelligence.
And he said the drop in the water level due to drough conditions at the reservivor will also help police.
The land search will also be carried out in a “targeted and specific way” using new advanced technology.
Despite it being 16-years on, Mr Gamble however said its “not impossible” that a body could be found.
“A human body is very very difficult to dispose of - that is whey bodies are normally buried or dumped at sea,” he explained.
“Bone fragments can last for well over 30 years - and even 1 microgram of powdered bone can include sufficient DNA for profiling.”
Mr Gamble however did warn there risks being “tunnel vision” - especially as Christian B appears to so perfectly fit the suspect profile and there is lots of circumstal evidence.
“I’ve seen, I’ve been involved it, you are so conviced that this person committed the crime, only to then find out it wasn’t them,” he told The Sun Online.
“People need to keep an open mind.”
And he urged anyone who was in Praia Da Luz when Maddie vanished to rethink the days she disappeared, as even the smallest shred of information could unlock the case.
Maddie reservoir was like a 'mud bath'
ONE of the divers who originally searched for Madeleine McCann in the dam now being probed by cops described conditions as a "mud bath".
Martyn Falkous, 51, a dive instructor, originally from Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, was hired by Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia.
Mr Correia claimed he had received an "underworld tip" that Maddie had been killed and dumped at the site.
Falkous, based in nearby Lagos, was then drafted in to help search an area of the lake near a tower.
He described the challenging conditions - with visibility being nearly zero and cold temperatures.
“It is probably warmer now than when we did it - they will be looking at between 5 and 8 degrees water temperature maximum,” he told The Sun Online.
“And there is absolutely no visibility, everything is by feel with your hands. It's not as simple as just swimming around looking for something.
“There is nothing to be seen at all. It's not very pleasant conditions. It's a mud bath essentially.”
He added: “If they are searching again then good luck, but I am very very confident we did a very thorough search on two occasions - even outside the area were told to [search in].”
Martyn said: “I was a bit surprised they were going back. But I guess the authorities want to rule it out.
“This case seems to go on forever. Round in circles.”
Martyn also revealed he has been contacted by German police as Christian B is believed to have drunk in the same pub as him in Burgau, Portugal - the town next to Praia da Luz.
But he said he had “no memory” of him.
Martyn said: “The police will probably have a bigger team available and can cover more ground. Best of luck to them and I hope somehow this can be closed and settled.
“We did a very very thorough search - unless she is outside the area we were asked to search.”
Teams of officers clutching shovels are being accompanied by sniffer dogs as they comb the desolate Arade Dam under a no-fly zone in the first major search for Maddie in nine years.
The airspace above the area is open to police drones only, while roads leading to the man-made Arade Dam were sealed off yesterday as two white tents were put up.
Police from Germany, Portugal and the UK arrived at first light, with German cops heading to the site in a convoy of black-out Mercedes vans and off-road vehicles.
Officers wore kerchief-style bandanas covering the lower part of their faces to conceal their identities as they passed watching press photographers.
By noon the search team had extended to a line of at least 18 Portuguese and German officers combing every inch of an area of barren scrub near the reservoir’s shore line.
All wore rubber gloves and the Germans pulled down their face masks in 20C heat as they toiled with shovels, pick axes and rakes.
The search appeared to methodically cover ever a strip of dusty ground as close as 10 yards to the water.
Underwater teams were standing by but the initial stages of the search appeared to be focused on a land below a dense wooded copse overlooking the dam wall and a waterside tower structure.
Sources close to the investigation said they had evidence the clearing in the trees was the spot Christian B used to spend time at after parking up his campervan nearby.
A local who asked not to be named, but knows the area well, said: “It’s pretty well-hidden by the trees and you don’t realise it’s there until you’re almost upon it.
“People wild camp there overnight from time to time which is why you’ll find the remains of fires inside small walls of stone.
“It’s got old sun loungers in it and makeshift benches that visitors use to rest on.
“It’s very out-of-the-way and very peaceful but at the same time it’s got a slightly eerie feel about it.”
Local Portuguese reports, partly confirmed by police sources, claimed the searches were requested and authorised after German police obtained videos and photos of Christian B by the planned dig site.
They are thought to have been found buried in the paedophile’s “secret lair” in a dilapidated factory site in the German village of Neuwegersleben 65 miles south-east of Hanover.
Police raided the site in February 2016 in search of the body of missing five-year-old Inga Gehricke, who vanished while on a family outing in Saxony-Anhalt in May 2015 and has been dubbed the ‘German Maddie.’
Reports at the time said German detectives had discovered more than 8,000 images and videos on USB sticks and hard drives filled with child abuse images.
They were said to have been buried under the body of Christian B’s dead dog.
The area being searched today is around 30 miles from the Ocean Club apartment where the three-year-old disappeared from while on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry.
Arade Dam can only be accessed by a dirt road and has been linked to the Maddie case before and was searched in 2008.
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The lawyer who organised the first search told The Sun Online he believes police need a "miracle" to find Maddie.