POLICE HAD HIM UNDER SURVEILLANCE

GERMAN police considered Christian Brueckner so dangerous that they put him under roundthe-clock surveillance.

The convicted paedophile was released from jail in 2018 as a result of a bureaucratic bungle against the wishes of German police and prosecutors. In panic, officers were sent to follow him, but he gave them the slip.

Brueckner had been arrested in Portugal in 2017 and extradited to Germany to serve 15 months in prison for child sexual abuse and possession of child pornography.

He was eligible for release in August 2018, but the German authorities were desperate for him to remain behind bars for drug trafficking. Under extradition law, Portugal had to give its consent and it is claimed the Portuguese authorities did not do so in time – meaning Brueckner was released.

Detectives first tried to covertly track his movements but he soon realised that he was under surveillance. The officers then began openly following him.

‘We stood in front of his house at night, walked beside him when he was out, and talked to him,’ said an investigator.

Brueckner went to the Netherlands, where the Dutch police who took over surveillance lost him. From there he fled to Italy, where he was arrested a month later and extradited back to Germany where he was convicted of the 2005 rape of a pensioner.