Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The missed chances to quiz sex monster
CONVICTED paedophile Christian Brueckner was flagged as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance 12 years ago – but was inexplicably ruled out.
Brueckner, with child abuse convictions dating from 1994, was identified as a person of interest after Madeleine vanished.
But the then lead Portuguese investigator in the case, Goncalo Amaral, has claimed Brueckner was ruled out of the inquiry in 2008.
Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange said Brueckner was mentioned in files handed to them during a review in 2011.
DRUGS
He had lived in Praia da Luz for 12 years after fleeing to Portugal to escape German police.
In 2006, thieves stole a camera showing a brutal rape, which eventually led police to him.
Cops have revealed he received a mystery halfhour call in Praia da Luz just over an hour before Madeleine’s abduction on May 3, 2007.
He is suspected of burgling hotels and holiday homes in the area as well as dealing drugs.
He is alleged to have confessed to kidnapping Madeleine in a German bar on the 10th anniversary of her disappearance.
He and a pal were watching a TV news report on the case in 2017 when he allegedly said he knew what had happened to her.
He is said to have boasted he “snatched her”.
Brueckner is also alleged to have shown a video of him raping a woman. That is said to have led to him being convicted for the rape of a woman, 72, in Praia da Luz.
MADELEINE McCann suspect Christian Brueckner walked into a police trap clutching a BIBLE.
The convicted paedophile was seized by armed officers in Milan while on the run from his home country Germany.
The bizarre arrest took place in 2018 and was 43-year-old Brueckner’s last moment of freedom.
Italian officers yesterday told how the man suspected of kidnapping three-yearold Madeleine from a holiday flat in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in 2007 cut a “pathetic figure”.
Lieutenant Andrea Papa, part of the city’s elite murder squad, said: “When we arrested him we could see the surprise on his face – he was really worried.
“He seemed like someone who lived on the streets. He was unshaved and his clothes were dirty. He smelled bad.
“He was in jeans, trainers and a military jacket. He had no phone or money, just a Bible and a business card with his lawyer’s number.
“He seemed pathetic. We even felt sorry for him and gave him a bottle of water.”
Now Colonel Michele Miulli, commander of the crime-hardened squad who usually deal with Mafia horrors, says it has “touched their soul” to learn Brueckner is being linked to the
McCann case. Police pounced on the German – who also has two convictions for abusing young girls – after a fake appointment which was set up for him to collect a fresh passport was set up at the German consulate in Milan.
Brueckner had first turned up there on September 19 asking for new ID documents.
He said he had just arrived from Switzerland and they were stolen from him while he was asleep on a train.
But German officials realised he was a fugitive after picking up a drug conviction. So they prepared an international arrest warrant and asked Italian police to seize him.
“We agreed a time with the consulate and set our trap on September 28, said Lt Papa.
“We had a description of him as blond and tall and we waited out of sight near the entrance.
“At first he didn’t want to come with us but then he saw there were six of us so he didn’t resist. He looked like a homeless person.
Brueckner did not speak Italian so he asked police in English what he was being arrested for.
Then he asked to ring
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