Little girls’swimming costumes found inside Maddie suspect’s motorhome
Brueckner bragged vehicle ‘could hide drugs and children’
girls’ swimming costumes and other children’s clothes were found in an old motorhome owned by Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner, it emerged yesterday.
The convicted paedophile reportedly drove the 30ft-long American-style vehicle, which he also lived in for a time, back and forth between Portugal and germany.
it is not clear when Brueckner bought the 30-year-old Tiffin Allegro but he was known to be driving a vehicle matching its description in 2007, when Madeleine, three, vanished.
People who knew him described a ‘ large cream- coloured Winnebago campervan,’ which he allegedly bragged could hide ‘drugs and children’.
Police investigating the disappearance of five-year- old inga gehricke – known as the ‘german Maddie’ – found the vehicle during a search of a disused box factory in Neuwegersleben, near Braunschweig [Brunswick] in northern germany, in May 2016.
it was parked on land Brueckner bought six years earlier at auction. Brueckner, a convicted drug dealer and rapist, was under suspicion after inga vanished from woods during a family outing. germany’s spiegel TV reported that during a six-day search of the site detectives found numerous items of children’s clothing, most of them ‘small swimsuits’ in the motorhome. Brueckner does not have any children.
Police also found six memory sticks with more than 8,000 files, mostly containing pictures and videos of child abuse. They were in a bag in a hole in the ground, underneath the body of his dead dog. Brueckner, now 43, was convicted of possessing the child porn but not charged in relation to inga. He was identified as a suspect in the McCann case in recent weeks and police near Hanover have reopened the file into inga’s disappearance, looking again at Brueckner.
it is alleged the motorhome was seen on Portugal’s Algarve on several occasions around 2007.
A former ambulance driver called Dieter, whose daughter knew Brueckner, said he was given a tour of the vehicle. He added: ‘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.”’
Dieter revealed to the Mail on sunday: ‘ 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 ... 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”.’
it is not known where the motorhome is now. Asked if it was a potential lead, the german prosecutor running the Madeleine case, Hans Christian Wolters, said: ‘Maybe, but i can’t comment on it.’ Brueckner has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that he could be released from jail as early as next month.
Brueckner is serving time for drugs charges but has applied to be released early after completing two-thirds of his sentence.
separately, he was found guilty of raping a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da luz – where Madeleine disappeared – in 2005 and jailed for seven years but has appealed against that sentence.
The case is now being considered by the European Court of Justice, which will make a decision by July 17. Other new pictures emerged showing Brueckner larking around including putting a bag on his head. A friend also alleged he boasted about breaking into holiday apartments in Portugal wearing swimming goggles to disguise his identity.