Breakthrough in Maddie McCann case
Convicted rapist named an ‘official suspect' over 15-year-old mystery
There has been a major breakthrough in the investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
Christian Brueckner has been named an “official suspect” in the case by Portuguese prosecutors, almost 15 years since the young British girl vanished while on holiday in Portugal.
Madeleine went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in the holiday resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, just a few days before her fourth birthday.
Despite an extensive police operation, in which several people, including her parents, were officially made suspects, nobody has ever been held accountable for her disappearance.
Brueckner has been the prime suspect since he was named by German police two years ago, with officials revealing they believed he killed the
3-year-old. But since then no charges have been brought.
He is currently serving time in a German prison for the 2005 rape of a
72-year-old woman and has denied being involved in McCann's disappearance.
However, German newspaper Bild yesterday reported the 44-year-old has now been named as an “arguido” or “official suspect” by prosecutors in Portugal, which is often followed by official charges.
A written statement issued by the Portimao section of the Faro Department of Criminal Investigation and Prosecution (DIAP) said: “As part of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007, a person was made an arguido on Wednesday.”
Portugal’s Attorney-General’s
Office and the country’s national criminal investigation police agency have yet to make any official comment.
Brueckner’s lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher told Bild that the step taken by Portuguese authorities should not be overstated.
“Without knowing the Portuguese legal situation in detail, I assume that this measure is a procedural artifice to
stop the statute of limitations threatening in a few days,” he said.
Next month will be the 15th anniversary of then 3-year-old Madeleine's disappearance.
Portuguese police would have had to charge Brueckner by the anniversary of her disappearance on May 3 — in less than two weeks — or face a seriously reduced risk of convicting him.
According to Portuguese law, crimes punishable by more than 10 years in jail, which covers kidnap and murder, must be heard within 15 years.
Portugal's Attorney General agreed to reopen the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance in 2013, more than five years after it was archived, following a formal request from the Portugal police.
Brueckner allegedly confessed to kidnapping the youngster while sitting in a German bar on the 10th anniversary of her abduction.
Reports at the time said he and a friend were watching a television news report on the case in 2017 when he said he knew what had happened to her.
He is also said to have boasted that he had “snatched her”.
However, earlier this year, Brueckner claimed in a series of letters from prison that it would have been “absurd” for him to have abducted the little girl.
In a string of letters to German TV station Sat 1 — that were broadcast in February as part of a new documentary — Brueckner went further to dismiss the case against him, saying if he had been involved, it would have risked his criminal life.
He wrote that he survived as a drug dealer and was never caught by police because he “followed a few key principles”.
“Where possible, only driving during the day so that my battered ‘hippy bus’ didn’t attract attention, only driving on the roads I needed to and, most importantly, never provoking the police,” he wrote.
“So that means not committing any crimes, certainly not abducting anyone.
“Having said that, this was just as absurd to me at the time as starting a nuclear war or slaughtering a chicken.”
It was the first time Brueckner responded publicly to the various allegations.
Brueckner is also being investigated over a 2004 rape and a sex assault on a 10-year-old girl at Praia da Luz just a month before then Madeleine vanished.