A SCOTTISH policeman whose brother has been missing in Hamburg for a week has criticised how German detectives are conducting the search.
Friends of Liam Colgan also claimed that Hamburg officers 'mocked' the family and failed to help them search for for the missing 29-year-old.
Liam disappeared on February 10 during his brother Eamonn's stag weekend. Eamonn, who is still in Hamburg searching from his brother, said he felt police in Hamburg were being 'reactive' and all the hard work was being done by the family.
Liam, from Inverness, organised the trip for his brother Eamonn, 33, a policeman in Dundee who was due to marry his fiancée Susan Dolan on March 2.
The couple have put their plans on hold to co-ordinate the search in Hamburg, while a school friend of Liam and Eamonn, James Peter Campbell, helps to co-ordinate the appeal in Scotland.
Campbell, 33, said: “There’s no indication as to why Liam went missing and there was no indication on the night. The night was a fun, happy occasion. There were no grounds for him to disappear, there was no hint that he was going to. It’s very shocking and very out of character. It’s hit the boys hard, to be honest.”
Liam, who is to be brother Eamonn’s best man, was last seen in the early hours of Saturday, February 10 in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg. The group had been drinking at the Hamborger Viermaster and left separately. Liam did not return to the youth hostel where they had been staying.
There have been no confirmed sightings of Colgan but some locals say they have seen a “confused” Scottish man in the Buxtehude area.
Campbell spoke to Eamonn Colgan about the investigation by German police at the request of the Sunday Herald. He said: “I asked Eamonn about the investigation and his view is that the proactivity is coming from the family. The sightings have come via the work the family has done to promote the appeal. Eamonn’s view is the police are taking a reactive approach.”
When Campbell was asked whether local police had joined the search, he said: “Not as far as I understand. [The family] are getting regular reports from police. But as far as I understand the police are not there.”
However, Campbell said the German public’s reaction has been positive. “Complete strangers have been getting in touch, offering to flyer areas,” he said. “The response from people we don’t even know has been quite incredible. It’s really inspiring. So many people are concerned and want to try to help.”
Colgan’s family were last night searching homeless shelters in Hamburg, while volunteers searched Buxtehude.
“That’s where the sighting was on Wednesday,” said Campbell. “There is a team of seven from Scotland out there, plus a translator, who’s a friend. There’s Eamonn and his fiancée Susan, Eamonn’s future brother-in law and his partner, and some of Eamonn’s cousins too.
“There was also a sighting on the Saturday morning at Baumwall towards the Portuguese quarter of the city an hour or two after the boys last saw Liam. The family have identified potential CCTV in that area, but I don’t think they’ve had any progress getting that via the police so they’re going to make some enquiries there.”
Another family friend, Alan Pearson, said yesterday the response from German police was “not great”.
“I know the family experienced almost mocking replies from one of the police officers at the time,” he said. “The natural assumption is that he could have had too much to drink, he got lifted by the police, something like that. But this was at midnight on the Saturday night. Liam hadn't turned up to things that he'd organised. And for one of the police officers to jokingly say 'oh yeah, I'll go and jump in a helicopter' wasn't very helpful.”
Hamburg police have defended their response to the disappearance, insisting they acted “very, very quickly”.
“We came to the conclusion that, even though this is a 29-year-old male, he was highly alcoholised in a city he doesn't know, possibly without orientation,” a police spokesperson said. “So we have to presume, especially with the temperatures outside, that this is in fact a threat to his life and wellbeing.”
To donate to a fund to help the family search for Liam Colgan, visit www.gofundme.com/help-find-liam-colgan.
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