Madeleine suspect may have had the chance to destroy evidence

A FORMER German police chief has admitted that it had been a “huge mistake” to notify the new Madeleine Mccann suspect in 2013 that he was a person of interest in her disappearance.

Police in Braunschweig, northern Germany, sent 43-year-old Christian Brückner a summons letter seven years ago to appear for “questioning” in relation to the “missing persons case Madeleine Mccann (crime scene Portugal)”. The premature move occurred before a significant police investigation and could have allowed him to destroy any evidence that may have existed, experts told the German newspaper Der Spiegel last week.

Last night, a senior Portuguese police source, who has seen the German evidence against Christian B, told the BBC it is “very important” and “significant”.

Another source said Portuguese police accepted that Christian B was now a suspect. Ulf Küch, the former head of police in the German city of Braunschweig, said sending the letter “was a huge mistake”. Mr Küch said he knew nothing of Brückner’s summons, despite being in charge of the city’s police department at the time and acting as the direct supervisor for the officer who sent it, according to the Braunschweig Zeitung. “This should not and is by no means the usual procedure in such a delicate case,” one experienced police officer said, adding that it is common practice to collect confirmation on a suspect before directly confronting him. One of Brückner’s lawyers, Friedrich Fülscher, said his client will not talk about the Madeleine case until the German prosecutors can prove his guilt. Mr Fülscher said. “No accused person has to prove his innocence to the investigating authorities. Silence on an accusation never constitutes admission of the crime.”

Brückner’s name was first publicly connected to Madeleine nearly two weeks ago after Braunschweig prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters made an appeal for further information linking the 43-year-old to Praia de Luz on the night she went missing. Despite mobile phone data placing the suspect in the area just hours before the British three-year-old was last seen, Mr Wolters admitted that the German authorities do not have strong enough evidence to charge him with the alleged crime. It has also been reported that the sexual assault of a 10-year-old British girl in 2005 in Praia da Luz is forming part of the inquiry against Brückner. Details of the attack were only reported to police in 2014, but Mr Wolters told The Sunday Times they were investigating any links to the German paedophile. The Met did not comment on the case.