Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I FOUND MADDIE BEAST UNDER MY BED
Brueckner ex on German’s violence He ‘smashed my head against wall’
CHRISTIAN Brueckner’s ex-girlfriend claimed he once lay in wait under her bed after a violent bust-up.
The woman alleged the Madeleine Mccann suspect had earlier battered her in a jealous rage because she hugged a male pal at a bar.
She feared he was ready to attack her if she brought a man back to her Algarve flat.
Telling how the relationship turned sour, the ex said: “I think he would have really hurt that person and me, too.”
THE former girlfriend of Christian Brueckner told how he brutally smashed her head against a toilet wall in a jealous rage after she innocently hugged a male pal.
And the 45-year-old Brit claimed the main suspect in the Madeleine Mccann case later broke into her flat on the Algarve and lay in wait for her under her bed.
She feared he had planned to attack her again if she brought a man home.
Instead, the woman claimed, the German gave her a chilling stare and said calmly “goodbye” before leaving.
She alleges he then embarked on a stalking campaign against her, leaving her too afraid to walk home alone.
She now believes Brueckner, 43, may have been behind Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007 from her family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz.
The woman, who is still so terrified of the paedophile she does not want to be identified, was working as a barmaid at Taberna de Lagos when she met Brueckner in 2003.
They later started dating and she said he was “charming and chivalrous” to begin with, and they had a normal sex life. But she claimed he started to change and would get “angry about really small things”.
The ex told how he flew into jealous rages when other men paid her attention or even spoke to her.
And the fury allegedly erupted one New Year’s Eve, 2005, at the Metro Bar in Lago where she worked.
The woman, originally from Berkshire, said: “Chris was at the bar and was drunk. Some really nice guys I’d made friends with came in from the bar next door to say Happy New Year and gave me a hug.
“Chris just suddenly came round the bar in a crazy rage and dragged me out in front of everybody.
“He grabbed me by the neck, pulled me into the girls toilets and was ramming my head against the wall. There were people pulling him off me, I think it took four big guys to get him off me.
They called police and officers came. I was on the floor and couldn’t move because I was in shock.
“I didn’t talk to the police because I was scared of what he would do if it meant he got arrested. I stayed there the rest of the night recovering and eventually two friends walked me back to my flat. “Something was really strange inside there. I was sure someone was either in there or had been in there. “I thought I’d check under the bed. I peeked under and got the shock of my life. He was hiding under there, lying on his back, staring at me. I just froze. I didn’t know what he was going to do to me. He got out from under the bed, acted like everything was normal, said goodbye to me, walked out and closed the door behind him.
“I was there all alone, just shaking and shaking. I think he was there waiting to see whether I brought anyone home with me. To this day I still wonder what would have happened if I had brought someone back that night. I think, from previous behaviour, he would have really hurt that person and me, too.”
Portuguese police were twice called out to deal with Brueckner – for the attack and stalking – but he was never charged. The woman told of her shock when she heard Brueckner, who is in a German jail, had been identified by police as the main suspect in the case of Madeleine, who was three when she vanished as her parents Kate and Gerry ate with friends nearby.
She said: “Until now I’ve refused to believe someone I was involved with could commit such a horrible thing like hurting a child. But I’m not sure
any more. I’m starting to wonder if he did do it.
And if he did, he needs to be really punished for it.
“It’s chilling to think my ex is suspected of abducting Madeleine.
“There was absolutely no sign of him being into young children or young girls. It’s shocking to discover he was a paedophile. I find it absolutely disgusting. It makes me feel sick.
“If the British police want to speak to me of course I would talk to them.” The woman said the first inkling that things were not right between the couple came when she bumped into a male friend in Lagos in late 2004. She added: “We were chatting and suddenly he stopped talking to me, like he was spooked.
“Someone later told me Christian had previously threatened the guy because he’d seen us speaking before.
The ex also claimed Brueckner branded her a “lazy Brit” and “lost it” because she would not clean his Praia da Luz flat. She said: “He was like, ‘You should clean it, you’re a woman.’
“He said, ‘English women are all lazy.’ He said he had seen an English girl for a little while and she was lazy like me. He started to get possessive but not to my face, behind my back.”
The woman told how she feared Brueckner was seeing another woman back in Germany after he started going backwards and forwards between Portugal and his homeland.
She said: “I found messages on his phone from someone called ‘B’ saying ‘Ich liebe dich’ - I love you.
“I confronted him and he went crazy crazy. We had a huge fight.”
The ex revealed despite her beating in the toilets, she went back to him.
She added: “He begged for my forgiveness, saying he lost control because he was drunk and would not drink again. Stupidly I believed him.”
The final straw came when she found another woman’s underwear in Brueckner’s bag and she dumped him.
But even then she claimed he stalked her work.
She added: “One day I was carrying a big tray of drinks and because I wouldn’t talk to him he knocked them out of my hand.”
Brueckner was eventually banned from the bar by police.
The woman also told how she was quizzed by officers about Brueckner raping a US pensioner in Praia da Luz.
She said: “They wanted to know if he liked older women, younger women, what kind, what types. They never said it was about Madeleine.”
I still wonder what he’d have done if someone came back
HIS EX ON NIGHT SHE FOUND HIM UNDER BED