Maddie suspect ‘worked at restaurant in resort where she disappeared’
THE chief suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was working at the Algarve resort she vanished from in 2007, a British expat has claimed.
Ken Ralphs told the Mail German Christian Brueckner had been working cash-in-hand at the Ocean Club tapas bar in Praia da Luz, which Kate and Gerry McCann visited on the night of their daughter’s disappearance.
By working at the bar, Mr Ralphs suggests, Brueckner would have had access to the guestbook ledger and would have known that Maddie would be alone that night.
Mr Ralphs, 59, claimed Brueckner plotted with another man – who the Mail is naming only as ‘John’ – to abduct a young girl to sell. Around a week before Madeleine vanished, John began to ‘cry and confess’ during a latenight drinking session at a hidden camp ten miles from the resort where he and Brueckner were living in a tent.
Mr Ralphs said: ‘[John] told me Christian was planning to take a child from Praia da Luz to sell to a German couple who could not have children of their own. He assured me the child would not be harmed.’
He said John told him Brueckner ‘worked at the [Ocean Club] restaurant, and that he had been planning the kidnapping for months. Mr Ralphs added: ‘He said Christian knows the place inside out and was very clever and he knows what he is doing.’
Mr Ralphs saw the news of Madeleine’s disappearance a week later while visiting his father back in the UK. On his return to Portugal, Mr Ralphs went straight to the site of the camp – only to find that it had been destroyed by fire.
He added: ‘All that remained was a four-or-five-foot cage, which I found unusual, because the cage wasn’t there before when [John] gave his confession.’
Incredibly, he said he saw Brueckner working at the restaurant even as police combed through the resort looking for the missing toddler. He said: ‘This man [Christian] was standing there in his restaurant pinny still working for them illegally at the restaurant – which could have put further people at risk.’
The Ocean Club was approached for comment.