German police shock revelation: We have evidence Maddie is dead
But German prosecutor won’t say what it is... and can’t charge suspect yet
‘Where has the suspect been?’
THE German prosecutor leading the Madeleine McCann investigation last night said he had evidence that she was dead.
However, he warned that there was not enough evidence to charge the main suspect – 43-year-old Christian Brueckner.
Hans Christian Wolters made another appeal for information about Brueckner, in the hope it will lead them to a body and closure for Madeleine’s devastated parents.
For 13 years Kate and Glasgow-born Gerry McCann have been tortured by the mystery of what happened to their daughter after she disappeared from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, in Portugal, in May 3, 2007.
Mr Wolters also said he believes there are other British victims of the convicted paedophile and rapist. The more evidence against Brueckner they have, the more likely it is they can put him on trial, the prosecutor said.
‘After all the information we got, the girl is dead,’ he told Sky News. ‘We have no information that she is alive. All indication we have got that I can’t tell you points in the direction that Madeleine is dead.
‘We [have] got things we cannot communicate that speak for the theory that Madeleine is dead, even if I have to admit that we don’t have the body.’
Mr Wolters’ intervention suggests Mr and Mrs McCann’s search for the truth may soon be over after years of false trails and heartache – but dashes any lingering hopes that Madeleine may still be alive somewhere.
In a case that transfixed the world, Madeleine disappeared while her parents, from Rothley in
Leicestershire, were having a meal with friends at a tapas bar close to their apartment. Portuguese police are facing serious questions about why Brueckner was not identified earlier as a suspect, given he had child sex abuse convictions dating back to 1994.
He was living two miles from the resort where Madeleine vanished.
Mr Wolters stood at a press conference last week and said: ‘We think Madeleine McCann is dead and are appealing for witnesses.
The suspect is a multiple sexual predator already convicted of crimes against little girls.’
Mr Wolters suggested then that police knew the method used to kill Madeleine and said others would have ‘concrete knowledge’ of how she died.
Because of the German legal system, police have not yet spoken to Brueckner about Madeleine, snatched when she was just three. They must first show they have enough evidence to do so. Last night, Mr Wolters said: ‘We expect that she is dead, but we don’t have enough evidence that we can get a warrant.
‘We also don’t have enough proof for a trial, but we have some evidence that the suspect has done the deed. That’s why we need more information, especially places he has lived, so we can target these places especially and search there for Madeleine.’
Brueckner, a drifter with a long criminal record, was revealed to be the main suspect in Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance last week.
Scotland Yard published pictures of two vehicles he used on the Algarve around that time, including a battered VW camper van, and mobile phone numbers connected to him.
Mr Wolters said: ‘We need help from the people, from British tourists that might have been between 1995 and 2007 in Praia da Luz. Only with these calls we can solve the case of Madeleine McCann.’
Since the first appeal was launched last week, Scotland Yard has taken hundreds of calls with possible pieces of information.
The prosecutor said his office and that of the German police had also been flooded with tip-offs.
‘We are going through them right now and we hope that there are some of them which can help us to make a big step to solve this case,’ he said. ‘Basically, we need every information in that time period, where did he live, where did he work, to which places he had a special relationship, who were his friends and the people he knew.
‘Who can tell us what the suspect’s life was like, where has he been with his cars, who has been in his houses and can tell us what they look like from the inside. And we hope that maybe we find victims that maybe also got in these houses, victims of sexual crimes.’
Among those victims, Mr Wolters believes, are other British people, some of who may not have reported being attacked. ‘We think our suspect has done more crimes possibly against British, Irish or American people. All these people are asked to call us,’ he said.
Brueckner is currently in jail in Germany on drugs offences but last year was convicted over the rape of an elderly American woman in Portugal in 2005. He was sentenced to seven years in jail but is challenging the conviction and so had yet to start his term.