Chief Maddie suspect ‘in plot to kidnap and sell child’
THE chief suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance plotted to snatch a child to sell to a family just days before she vanished, it was claimed yesterday.
Christian Brueckner allegedly planned to steal a youngster from the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared to sell to a childless couple in Germany.
British expat Ken Ralphs said he learned of the plot from a friend of Brueckner’s in 2007, days before three-year-old Madeleine vanished
Riddle: Madeleine McCann and suspect Christian Brueckner from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve.
He told Sky News that German drifter Brueckner had tried to recruit the unnamed friend to help in the abduction, and claimed he had ‘a buyer’ ready. Brueckner, a convicted paedophile who is serving a prison sentence for rape, was named as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2020 and declared an official suspect in 2022. He has denied any involvement.
Mr Ralphs said he learned of the alleged plot from his friend, a penniless man who was living in a tent in a remote part of the Algarve.
He said: ‘We were sitting around the fire one night and during the early hours of the morning my friend began to cry. I asked him what the matter was. Eventually, he confessed to me he was getting involved with Christian to steal a child from Praia da Luz from a rich family.’
Mr Ralphs, 59, a former political campaigner, said he knew Brueckner because they parked their camper vans on the same beach.
He said he warned his friend not to get involved: ‘I said you can’t kidnap a person for ransom, that’s ridiculous. Then he explained “No, it’s not like that”. Christian had a buyer lined up, a German couple who couldn’t have children.’
A week later, during a visit to the UK, Mr Ralphs learned Madeleine had vanished. Within three hours, he said, he drove to a police station in Workington, Cumbria.
He gave police a map to find his friend’s tent and said information needed to be sent to Portuguese police immediately. When he returned to the Algarve he went to a local police station and repeated the information, but said Portuguese detectives knew nothing about it. Meanwhile, his friend had disappeared, his teepee tent was burned and Brueckner was gone.
Mr Ralphs said he never saw either man again, but recognised Brueckner when he was identified as a suspect. Brueckner has not been charged in connection with the disappearance. He is serving a seven-year sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman near Praia da Luz in 2005.
‘He said he had a buyer lined up’