Chapter 27 – The Petty Criminal

(article from here)

 

1. Our synopsis

Textusa26 Oct 2021, 16:10:00

Our synopsis of the book:

Chapter 27 – The Petty Criminal

There seems to be someone who seems to have a memory that doesn’t betray them and that person is a self-claimed petty criminal arrested in Greece in 2015 for human trafficking, for which he was sentenced to seven years and 3 months in prison.

This individual while serving his sentence decided to contact Operation Grange.

Helge B, a German citizen who lived in Germany until 1993, then moved to Nice and in 1994 to Corsega, where he seems to currently reside. There, he started to live with a French woman and they had a son.

In 2001 or 2002 he left his family, leaving them their house and 2 cars and took with him 30,000€ to restart his life.

Marseille, Paris, Barcelona and Valencia, where he met Manfred S, another German traveller.

Once the money ran out, he started a life of crime of burglaries, robberies and other crimes.

In 2003, he settled together with Manfred S, in a hippie community in the Spanish town of Órgiva [about 600km East of Praia da Luz, to have an idea, Seville, North of the Gibraltar, is roughly in between them].

He used to come to the South of Portugal to steal fuel, solar panels and other items. When in Portugal he used an autocaravan parked in Fazenda Rebelde, in Santa Clara, near the dam with the same name in the Alentejo [about 85 km NNE of Praia da Luz], where there is a large German community. The owner of the Fazenda Rebelde is a German citizen known as Cheyenne.

In 2005, in Órgiva, he met the German Michael T, quoting Amaral: “…an individual that, like with Manfred S, is described by the criminal as a junkie and alcoholic, besides being stupid. This Michael T was integrated in the practice of stealing solar panels, joining Helge B and Manfred S.”

Helge B states that in the beginning of 2006, when Michael T was already living in the Algarve, he came to Portugal with Manfred S who had set up a meeting with Michael T although they were in a state of disagreement.

This is how Amaral describes the encounter between Christian Brueckner and Helge B:

“The meeting will have happened in a bar in Portimão. Michael T arrived with the person in whose house he lived at the time, a German who presented himself as Christian, known as Oberkellner [Google translate: Head Waiter], by the careful way of dressing, with buttoned-up shirts and always with a jacket. It was the now suspect Christian B.
For the criminal there was something strange about Christian B, not knowing the reason for having that bad impression. On the other hand, Christian B was suspicious of Helge B and did not allow that he, that night, accompany him to his house. He stayed in the bar waiting for Manfred S’s return with the stolen solar panels given by Michael T and Christian B.
Two or three days after this first encounter. Michael T and Christian B appeared in Órgiva to sell solar panels. Helge B was not happy with the situation, as it was him who held there the exclusive of that illegal commerce. The bad relations between him and Christian B must have further deteriorated, even because, at that moment, he took Michael T aside and told him of his displeasure. Christian will have been aware of these comments. To Helge B, it wasn’t enough the lack of trust shown by Christian B in the first encounter towards himself, he further had had the nerve to come to Órgiva to meddle in his business”.

Sometime later, date unknown, Helge B and Manfred S when in Fazenda Rebelde got to know that Christian Brueckner and Michael T were in prison for fuel theft. They, Helge B and Manfred S decided to steal fuel from deposits they knew existed near Brueckner’s house.

Amaral then describes this way the third encounter between CB and HG:

“In March 2008, Helge B was still living and doing business in Órgiva when he saw and talked again with Christian B. At first, he was afraid that he knew who the authors of the burglary of his house were, even because a lot of people got to know it, but even though there was this fear, and that Christian had been suspicious of him from day one, the petty criminal with very fragile principles will make a relevant and compromising confession with a future impact. It is to be highlighted that Christian B’s stay at Órgiva at said date is confirmed by the fact that he had an accident with the autocaravan he used. The accident was reported to the insurance company (German), but it is not known when did the German police got to know of this event.”

In 2010, a 40 yr old Helge B, holding a huge secret and penniless leaves Órgiva and heads for Italy.

On April 22 2011, in Brindisi, in the Italian region of Apulia, while homeless he’s arrested for “participation in a fight, resisting and threatening the police and abusive possession of wounding objects”

Days before, he had been arrested for the theft of 20€ and violent aggression on a young Polish homeless woman.

Even though he had this direct contact with the police and judicial authorities, he doesn’t make use of the secret.

Helge B is arrested in Igoumenitsa. Greece, for being caught red-handed trafficking 3 illegal immigrants. Initially he was arrested for 5 days and then again doesn’t use Christian Brueckner’s confession.

In 2015 he’s sentenced to seven years and 3 months in prison in Crete for human trafficking even though he claims he was just giving them a ride.

Strangely, he was released on parole in April 12 2017 when the sentence would end in 2021.

Such an early release raises the suspicion that something strange may have happened, eventually having used the pseudo-secret he held all those years.

In Amaral’s words:

“What is known is that he was approached by elements of the British police from operation «Grange», after phone contact made by the prisoner’s initiative and that, months after his release on parole, he was being formally heard as a witness against Christian B.
The police authorities involved in the «discovery of the secret» say that this petty criminal, thief, women aggressor and traveller linked to the consumption of alcohol and drugs, former homeless, provided the information in a voluntary way without any money or other considerations, even though, at the time of providing the information, was serving a heavy prison sentence.
Manfred S, his companion in the criminal life of over 20 years, someone who knows well Helge B, defines this individual as a manipulator, a frightening opinator, dominant and aggressive, who makes other people evil in order to be well seen by those listening to him. Helge B presents himself as a «good boy», if «he puts in the effort, can express himself and sell very well». He’s a junkie, has consumed all one can imagine, from crack to heroin, cocaine, cannabis and mushrooms. After his stay in prison things got a bit better but, after four months, he consumed drugs again.”

More to follow.

 

2. Our analysis

Textusa26 Oct 2021, 16:19:00

On this Chapter, we would like to highlight what Amaral is trying to convey: the time it took Helge B to tell authorities about the alleged confession.

Please note - and Amaral will call out this detail later in the book - that the alleged confidence takes place in March 2008, when literally Maddie was hitting the headlines every single day and this was happening:

https://thetab.com/uk/2019/03/20/madeleine-mccann-reward-fund-96101 

“A breakdown of the reward, and a full list of who, including celebrities, has donated to the Madeleine McCann reward fund is:
£10,000 from The Sun newspaper, €15,000 (£10,250) from the Portuguese newspaper Record, £100,000 (€147,000) from a colleague of Kate McCann, £1,000,000 (€1,470,000) from British businessman Stephen Winyard.
A further £1,500,000 (€2,200,000) was raised through a News of The World pledge, including £250,000 from the News of the World themselves, £250,000 from Sir Philip Green, £50,000 from Simon Cowell and £25,000 from Wayne and Coleen Rooney.
Other notable contributors include Sir Richard Branson, JK Rowling, and Bill Kenwright. Harry Potter author JK Rowling donated the highest amount to the News of The World fund, but her figure was undisclosed.”

Also, we ask readers to retain the fact that until he goes there to steal fuel from deposits that allegedly existed near it, Helge B had never been before in Christian's B house and from what we can understand after reading the book, he never went there again.