Paedophile’s name ‘passed to German cops seven years ago’
CHRISTIAN Brueckner was identified as a prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance after a German TV appeal seven years ago, it emerged yesterday.
The paedophile’s name was passed to police by an associate who saw e-fits on the programme and remembered him from Praia da Luz in Portugal, where the three-yearold disappeared in 2007.
The 2013 programme featured two computer-generated images of a suspect Scotland Yard detectives described as being of “vital importance” to the investigation.
Appearing in front of a studio audience, Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate were interviewed alongside an investigating British detective.
At the time of the appeal Brueckner, now 43, already had a history of horrific sex crimes.
Scotland Yard last night declined to answer questions about the claims, saying only that Brueckner became a suspect in 2017. But a source in Germany said: “The guy that came forward after the 2013 TV appeal provided really valuable information. He named Brueckner.
“The Federal Criminal Police Office is responsible for liaising with foreign police forces and, it must be said, I cannot understand why they wouldn’t pass the information on, especially since the programme featured the McCanns and the Met officer so prominently.”