A former Portuguese police chief has said he would be “disappointed” if a woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann turns out to be the missing youngster.
Vitor Paiva made the comment on national TV before attacking German prosecutor Hans-Christian Wolters on the way he was conducting his investigation.
Polish 21-year-old Julia Faustyna has alleged the McCanns have approached her to take a DNA test after making claims on social media she and Madeleine could be the same person despite their apparent two-year age difference.
Mr Paiva, who led the Policia Judiciaria force in Setubal south of Lisbon and is not believed to have ever played any active role in the hunt for Madeleine, urged police to DNA test her to “clarify the situation” and get her medical help if it turns out her claims are fake.
Making his bizarre assertion his hope was Julia was not Madeleine because it would disprove Mr Wolters’ insistence the missing British youngster is dead, he said on leading TV station CMTV: “Then we can reach another conclusion which is the total discrediting of the German prosecutor.
“He says Madeleine is dead and the kidnap involved Christian Brueckner.
“We have been anxiously awaiting the evidence which hasn’t arrived.
“I would feel disappointed if this young woman were Maddie.
“It would mean the state prosecutor, who deserves credit for the profession he exercises, has ended up deceiving us.”
Mr Paiva, now a regular TV commentator, also made it clear he was very dubious about Julia’s claims, stressing he thought police would have contacted her by now if they thought she was telling the truth.
But although he described her story as “far-fetched”, especially because Madeleine would now be 19 and not 21, he also argued a quick DNA test was the obvious way forward after the “millions already spent on investigating” the British youngster’s May 3 2007 disappearance and “the numerous private detectives hired by Gerry and Kate McCann.”
Last autumn Bruecker was charged with several sex crimes on the Algarve against women and children including the rape of an Irish holiday rep in 2004 and the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl on a beach near Praia da Luz in 2007.
But the German deviant, currently serving time for the September 2005 rape of an American OAP in the resort where Madeleine vanished, has yet to face any formal accusation over the then-three-year-old’s disappearance.
Mr Wolters has continued to insist he believes authorities have the right man in Brueckner despite growing concern about the failure so far to charge him over Madeleine’s disappearance and increasing fears he may never stand trial.
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