‘Pieces in puzzle point to chief Maddie suspect’
MANY pieces of the Madeleine Mccann “puzzle” point towards suspect Christian Brueckner, say German investigators.
But prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters admitted there still was no “smoking gun” evidence allowing charges to be brought against the 43-year-old paedophile over the British youngster’s disappearance.
Referring to Brueckner only by his first name and initial of his surname, he insisted in an interview on Portuguese state broadcaster RTP: “All I can say is this is like a puzzle and there are many pieces that lead us to believe Christian B is responsible.
“One of the pieces is the signal from the mobile phone he was using at the time Madeleine Mccann disappeared and has been shown to have been in the area of the Ocean Club resort where she was staying.”
Making his strongest assertion yet to justify the German decision to treat her disappearance as a murder case and not a missing persons inquiry, Mr Wolters added: “The result of our investigation does not point in any way to the possibility the suspect might have kept Madeleine alive.
“We have nothing to indicate she could be alive. Everything we have points to her being dead. We have no margin of manoeuvre.”
He also dismissed reports last week that German police believed their chief suspect was assisted by an ex-girlfriend.
The Braunschweig-based prosecutor said: “Naturally we investigate everyone known to us to see if they had something to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.
“This woman was the suspect’s ex-girlfriend and she is classed as a witness but we have no reason to believe she is linked to this crime.
“She is not a suspect for us. We are only investigating Christian B, nobody else. At this stage we believe he acted alone in this case.”
Brueckner’s defence lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, has always insisted his client was not involved in the British girl’s disappearance on May 3, 2007, and claimed prosecutors are basing their case on information from dubious witnesses.
Mr Wolters revealed earlier this month that German authorities had asked Portuguese police to investigate “more sexual abuse and rapes” they believe Brueckner could have carried out on the Algarve.
He has already been linked to a sex offence on a beach near Praia da Luz a month before Madeleine vanished and has been confirmed as an “official suspect” in the 2004
‘Nothing indicates she could be alive’ ‘We are only investigating him’
rape of Irish tour rep Hazel Behan. Ms Behan waived her right to anonymity in June to say she believed the masked man who attacked her in her Algarve apartment could have been Brueckner.
His lawyer has denied his involvement.
Brueckner is currently in Germany’s Kiel Prison for drugs offences and is due to start a seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape in Praia da Luz of an elderly American woman.