Prosecutors are still trying to find who made a 30-minute phone call to Brueckner, causing his mobile to be ‘pinged’ by a cell phone tower in Praia da Luz, close to where Madeleine disappeared
The prosecutor leading the case into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has issued a fresh appeal for information about the prime suspect, just days ahead of his release from prison.
Hans-Christian Wolters still remains hopeful his team will be able to charge German paedophile Christian Brueckner – who is due to be released by September 17 at the latest – in relation to the case. He said they are still working on it “every single day” and hinted they could yet launch more searches in Portugal, where Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared while on holiday with her family in May 2007.
In an exclusive interview, Mr Wolters said: “We know it is unlikely that after all this time and press coverage that no-one has not heard of the Maddie case and still has information, but the point is we cannot rule this out. It is a possibility.
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“So I would also like to therefore make a new appeal. Anyone who has information about such events, anyone who has any information, or who made any observations back at this time back in 2007, please contact the German Federal Criminal Police, the BKA, where there is a website where you can access photos of his house.
“Anyone who can provide us with further details about Christian B, particularly details like where he was and when, and what he was doing or saying, do please get in touch, because the information you may have may still be very significant for us and we are still extremely grateful for any information that could help us.”
Brueckner, 48, is preparing to be released from Sehnde prison, near Hanover, afterserving a seven-year sentence for raping and beating an US pensioner in 2005. The attack, in Portugal, took place in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz, where three-year-old Madeleine was last seen in May 2007.
Mr Wolters first named Brueckner, who used to live in a ramshackle farmhouse in the area, publicly as the “prime suspect” in the Madeleine case in June 2020. But despite more than five years having passed, prosecutors have as yet not charged him in relation to it.
The team is still trying to trace the person who made a 30-minute call to Brueckner, causing his mobile to be ‘pinged’ by a cell tower in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine vanished. Mr Wolters admitted: “We don’t know yet who made this phone call.
“We don’t have any forensic evidence so this would be extremely, extremely important to us because it could lead us to the stage that our suspicions become so strong that we can then justify securing an arrest warrant for Christian B. Or, of course, it could even mean that we can bring charges.”
Giving a potential message of hope to Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry, he added: “We work on this case tirelessly. There are always officers working on this case every single day, even if it is not making the headlines, and that is actually how we prefer to work – behind the scenes. It means we can focus on the case and we are not constantly being distracted. So we remain hopeful and we will explore every single avenue of investigation that we have.”
Mr Wolters claims his team “have strong evidence” against Brueckner “which suggests very strongly to us he is definitely responsible for both the disappearance and death of Maddie McCann”. He said: “The truth is, we do actually have news, we have found things, but it is not strong enough for us to make it public in the form of pressing for an indictment or arrest warrant. And the state of affairs now is that we are still investigative, our evidence is stronger than it was five years ago, although we have not been able to disclose the details for strategic investigative reasons.”
Mr Wolters added: “We want to stress that over all this time, we have found nothing to contradict this evidence. On the contrary, we have found evidence that simply strengthens our opinion that he is involved. He is not just the top suspect, he is our one and our only suspect, and nothing at all has been uncovered by us that could exonerate him of this suspicion.”
Brueckner vehemently denies any role in Madeleine’s disappearance. His lawyer Philipp Marquort has said his client may flee to a country without extradition to the UK or Germany and have surgery to change his appearance. And he added Brueckner is in discussions with his lawyers about suing Mr Wolters as part of a legal case he believes could win him millions of pounds.
Mr Wolters admitted: “We are not at a stage right now in the investigation where we will be pressing charges, which means that Christian B will be released from prison and be a free man in a very short time. I don’t know where the prime suspect will go when released, it could well be that he leaves the country.”