Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Police summit on Maddie suspect
Scotland Yard, German and Portuguese cops share Brueckner notes
BRITISH, German and Portuguese police hunting for Madeleine Mccann have held a summit on prime suspect Christian Brueckner.
Detectives met in Lisbon to “fine-tune” the rapist and paedophile’s profile as they try to gather evidence they hope will prove he is behind the youngster’s 2007 abduction in the Algarve.
German prosecutors have said they are sure Brueckner murdered Madeleine and they have proof she is dead.
But they now claim they do not have enough evidence to even quiz him.
Details of the recent meeting between Scotland Yard, the Policia Judiciaria and Bundeskriminalamt were reported in the respected newspaper Correio de Manha.
It said: “Portuguese, British and German authorities haven’t given up and are c ontinuin g to try to gather information ab out t h e su sp e c t ’s
past. They regard it as essential to work out his routine in 2007, when Madeleine disappeared and Brueckner was living near the Ocean Club.”
Portuguese officials handed over information relating to searches carried out in abandoned wells in the Algarve.
German detectives shared details of interviews carried o u t w i t h B r u e c k n e r ’s associates, including hi s
Br it i sh e x- g i rl f r i e n d – a Berkshire-born mum-of-two who was interviewed for 12 hours in Faro in August.
She dated the pervert several years before Madeleine’s disappearance and told detectives how he brutally beat and stalked her.
It was the first time German police investigating Brueckner had been allowed to work on the case in
Portugal. Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has admitted without new clues, the 43-year-old will never be questioned over Madeleine, who was three when she vanished from the family’s holiday apartment at Praia da Luz as parents Kate and Gerry dined nearby with friends.
The Mirror revealed details of a similar meeting in June last year between British and Portuguese detectives i n Porto. Brueckner is coming to the end of a 21-month prison sentence in a German jail for drug trafficking. But he faces at least f our more years behind bars after losing a legal battle over a rape conviction.
He appealed the seven-year term handed to him for attacking a pensioner in Praia da Luz two years before Madeleine’s disappearance.
Brueckner argued he should not have
stood trial because he was extradited from Portugal in 2017 for another offence. But the European Court of Justic e last month dismissed his argument – to the relief of detectives.
A final ruling by Germany’s Supreme Court on his appeal against the rape conviction is now regarded as a mere formality.
It was reported last month Brueckner is being investigated over the rape of an Irish woman in the Algarve in 2004.
His lawyer Friedrich Fulscher insists the German has nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.
The Mirror approached him but he was unavailable for comment.
Scotland Yard would not comment on the Correio de Manha report yesterday.
Doctors Kate and Gerry, of Rothley, Leics, have refused to give up hope their daughter could still be alive.