Maddie suspect’s ‘child kidnap plot’
Paedo tried to rope in friend week before girl vanished, says expat
THE chief suspect in Madeleine Mccann’s disappearance hatched a plan to kidnap a child in Portugal a week before the girl went missing, it is claimed.
Christian Brueckner tried to recruit a pal to help him find a youngster to sell to a childless German couple, a British expat says. Ken Ralphs said the paedophile wanted to target a rich family in Praia da Luz – the resort where
Madeleine was snatched from in May 2007.
Mr Ralphs, Brueckner and the friend were part of a nomadic community living in off-grid spots in the Algarve in 2007.
Mr Ralphs told how his pal began to cry at a late night campfire chat before making his confession.
The Brit said: “He said he was getting involved with
Christian to steal a child from Praia da Luz from a rich family. I said you can’t get involved in kidnapping a person for ransom, that’s ridiculous. He explained, ‘it’s not like that’. Christian had a customer lined up, a German couple who couldn’t have children.”
Mr Ralphs, 59, said he convinced his friend not to take part. Mr Ralphs had been hiding from gangsters after being outed as an informant by police in Manchester. He later successfully sued them.
A week later he was back in the UK when he saw on the news that Madeleine had vanished from her parents’ holiday flat. He said he alerted Cumbria Police about the earlier plot and told them where Brueckner was. He told Sky News: “I said, here’s the secret map of how you get to this point in the woods I said that must be sent immediately to the Portuguese police.”
Mr Ralphs said he also spoke to Portuguese police when he returned to the Algarve and found the off-grid spot deserted. He never saw Brueckner or his friend again. He said Portuguese police assured him British police were working on the lead but he was not contacted about it.
Mr Ralphs was interviewed by Portuguese police in 2020 after again when Brueckner was named as a suspect.
He said: “They told me someone had contacted my friend abroad and he denied knowing me. I have a dozen witnesses who will say that he’s lying. I guess he just didn’t want to be interviewed by police.” Mr Ralphs also contacted Scotland Yard and German prosecutors. He said he met Brueckner in 2007 when they parked their camper vans at the same beach.
Brueckner, 47, will stand trial in Germany next week accused of a string of sex attacks in Portugal.
The German is currently in jail for rape and drug trafficking. He denies any involvement in Maddie’s disappearance.