MADDIE SUSPECT NOW
THE suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine Mccann is being linked to the murder of a German teenager as well as two other missing children, it emerged last night.
It comes as hundreds of tips flooded into Scotland Yard following the naming of Christian Brueckner, 43, as the prime suspect in the Madeleine case.
The Bruges public prosecutor’s office in Belgium said it is reviewing the investigation into the murder of German Carola Titze in the summer of 1996 and any possible connection to Brueckner.
The 16-year-old girl’s mutilated body was found on a beach in the De Haan area. Convicted sex attacker Brueckner would have 19 at the time. The German is currently serving a seven-year prison term in his home country for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005 – two years before Madeleine went missing.
The little girl vanished from her family’s apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007, while on holiday.
German prosecutors fear that Madeleine is now dead.
Yesterday, it also emerged that the family of six-year-old Rene Hasee, who went missing in Portugal in 1996, have also been contacted by police.
Rene, from Elsdorf, Germany, vanished from a beach while on holiday with his family in the Algarve. An investigation has also been opened into whether the suspect could have been involved in the disappearance of Inga Gehricke. She was aged five when she went missing in a forest in the Saxony-anhalt region of Germany on May 2, 2015.
The German federal police have been accused by the country’s media of ignoring warnings about Brueckner for years.
His name was given as a possible suspect in the Mccann case by the public following a broadcast of German TV’S Crimewatch equivalent in 2013. In it, Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate made an appeal for information in 2013.
Police in Braunschweig, where Brueckner had lived, made inquiries due to his criminal past but found their report was ignored when forwarded to the Federal Criminal Office, the BKA.
Christian Hoppe, a BKA investigator, said there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue it.
Portuguese police who led the first probe have also been criticised for not investigating Brueckner at the outset, despite knowing he was in the area and had a history of offending.
But authorities in Portugal last week insisted that his details were among many names passed to the Met Police, who took over the probe in 2012.
Last night the Met confirmed to the Sunday Express that it had Brueckner’s details for some years but had not considered him a suspect. A spokeswoman said his name was given again following an anniversary appeal in 2017 and further inquiries led to him becoming a suspect.
The source said: “We will not go into the details of what those inquiries are or what the evidence is against him.that’s to ensure that we’re are doing the best we can to protect the integrity of our investigation. “We can confirm that the name of this man that we were provided with, we were [already] aware of within the investigation but he was not a suspect.” She added: “We have now received just short of 400 pieces of information. We are pleased with the amount of calls and emails coming in and we are assessing and prioritising them.”
Residents in Braunchsweig, northern Germany, confirmed that Brueckner had been working in a shop in the city.
Former primary school caretaker Peter Erdmann, 64, said the prime suspect would give gifts to young children.
“He was giving them presents nearly every day and it went on for a couple of years.at the time I thought nothing of it and just thought he was a friendly man.”
Peter, who worked at the school until 2016, said he was sorry for not reporting him.
He added: “I regret not being more suspicious. It is gut-wrenching and I am disgusted by what I read about him.” There is no sugbeen