Christian Brueckner, a convicted paedophile and rapist, was named the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann back in 2020 – but police haven’t been able to charge him due to lack of evidence
Police could get an extra three months to charge the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann after a mystery donor withdrew her financial support for the paedophile.
Christian Brueckner is currently imprisoned in Germany for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, the same Portuguese resort town where Madeleine was last seen at her parent’s holiday apartment.
But prosecutors are becoming worried as they fear his seven-year sentence – which finishes in September – will come before they can make charges stick in relation to the British youngster’s disappearance. Brueckner denies any involvement in her disappearance.
A former female police officer’s mystery donation had allowed him to be released in September after she settled an outstanding £1,300 court fine he owed.
However, the officer – who worked for Germany’s version of the FBI – has told prosecutors she made a “mistake” and is begging for the funds to be returned.
According to The Sun, the request is being carefully considered, and officials are trying to find a way they can send the money back.
Reports in Germany said: “In an email to the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor’s Office, the former BKA employee is now demanding repayment of the money. She stated that she was unaware that Christian B. had been convicted in previous cases, including forgery.”
The ex-cop told officials: “I therefore wish to contest my declaration of intent to repay the payment and invalidate the legal transaction accordingly.”
The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) (Federal Criminal Police Office) officer made the payment in relation to a Helmstedt District Court fine for drunkenness in traffic and forgery of documents from 2016, and a 2017 fine for assault in Braunschweig.
The prosecutors say they have now found evidence “the payment was made by mistake” and that they’re investigating how “the payment received in the criminal case against Christian B. can actually be credit toward the fine imposed there.
Brueckner has been the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine since 2020 but he has never been charged in relation to the crime. Through letters, he’s claimed his innocence, but has yet to provide an alibi and refuses to answer police questions.
On the night of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007, investigators found that he made a 30-minute call from the area, and he re-registered his vehicle under a different name the following day.
It’s feared he will disappear as soon as he is given his freedom – meaning detectives only have a few months to uncover more evidence, and definitively link him to the case.
Brueckner was only a teenager himself when he was handed his first conviction for child sexual abuse in Germany in 1994.
He fled to Portugal the next year in a bid to escape his youth custody sentence, but was extradited to to Germany in 1999 to serve his sentence.
Upon release from prison, Brueckner went back to Portugal, where he lived a nomadic lifestyle in a VW camper van. He stole from hotels and holiday flats to support himself financially.
In 2005, he raped a 72-year-old American woman, an offence for which he was jailed 14 years later.
Brueckner spent time in the Praia de Luz area of Portugal between 2000 and 2017. His home was just one mile away from the Ocean Club, where the McCann family were staying when Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007.
Years later, investigators reportedly found his mobile phone had received a call close to the holiday flat complex around one hour before the three-year-old was reported missing.