Maddie suspect’s chilling boast: I can transport kids in my campervan
THE prime suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann showed off his campervan just months before she disappeared and boasted: ‘I can transport children in this.’
Christian Brueckner allegedly made the comment to the father of a female friend who lived in the Portuguese village of Foral, about 40 miles from Praia da Luz, the resort from where Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007.
The 43-year-old sex offender is claimed to have chillingly added: ‘Nobody can find them, nobody can catch you.’
The father – who asked to be referred to only as Dieter F – was visiting his social worker daughter, Nicole, at a villa where she helped to rehabilitate troubled German teenagers in the early part of 2007 when Brueckner arrived in a large cream-coloured Winnebago campervan with Hanover licence plates.
Brueckner asked to refill the van with water and recharge the battery, as he had done several times before, and took the opportunity to show Dieter inside.
Dieter, 65, a former ambulance driver, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘As I looked inside, I asked him: “Herr Brueckner, what do you do in Portugal? What is your job?” He told me: “I work, I get money, because I have a special business. I transport grass [cannabis] in my van.” I was surprised, I did not believe it exactly.
‘Brueckner told me again: “I have 50kg of grass, and I transport it around Europe.” I thought he was joking at the time. He said: “In my van, I can take 50kg of grass, nobody can see it.”
‘He told me: “I can transport children, kids, in this space. Drugs and children, you can transport them in this van, it’s a safe space in the van, nobody can find them. Nobody can catch you.” ’
At the time, Dieter thought Brueckner was bragging, but now fears he was outlining his future evil plan. ‘I believe he kidnapped Maddie and brought her out of Portugal in his big van,’ he said.
Dieter said his daughter knew Brueckner in the mid-2000s, but contrary to reports was never romantically involved with him. He was, however, concerned during his visit in early 2007 that Brueckner had designs on Nicole, now 43.
‘At the time, I thought he was interested in my daughter, he was a bad boy. I felt, as a father, my daughter was not safe with such a man,’ he said.
Nicole met Brueckner in 2006 and he visited her at Foral about half a dozen times – either driving the Winnebago or his dark-coloured Jaguar – until she returned to Germany in 2010.
Dieter hopes that by speaking out, other witnesses may go to the police. He is haunted by how close Brueckner came to his daughter and his granddaughter, who was six years old in 2007 and, like Madeleine, had blonde hair.
‘ I want to kill Brueckner. My daughter was in danger at the time, as was her daughter, because he is a paedophile,’ he said.
Dieter said Nicole had been surprised in 2012 when Brueckner arrived unexpectedly on her doorstep in Bavaria and alarmed four years later when he phoned her out of the blue and asked to stay with her because he did not want to be alone over Christmas. She declined.
He said Nicole had spoken to the German authorities about Brueckner and he would be happy to also talk to them.
Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Brueckner had visited the villa in Foral in the months after Madeleine’s disappearance. Villagers this weekend expressed surprise that police had not conducted any searches.
One retired expat, who asked not to be named, said: ‘We know that Christian was in that house and around t hat village for many months. At the very least they should come and ask some questions about the movements in Foral.’
Dieter has seen police appeals for information about Brueckner’s white VW campervan with distinctive yellow trim and his Jaguar, but is puzzled why the authorities have not mentioned his larger Winnebago, which boasted a bedroom, living room and kitchen facilities.
‘It’s a safe space in the van, nobody can find them’