Paedophile Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's tragic disappearance.
The 47-year-old, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005, has denied any involvement in the missing person's case. But now, German police say they have found an email account linking him with the three-year-old's disappearance.
In May 2007, Maddie vanished without a trace during a family holiday in Portugal and while extensive search efforts followed, her parents Kate and Gerry have never been able to track her down. The Metropolitan Police has spent more than £13million on the case, dubbed Operation Grange, to date.
In 2020, German investigators identified Brueckner, and two years later, he was made a formal suspect by Portuguese prosecutors. Investigator Hans Christian Wolters said in May 2022: "We are sure he is the murderer of Madeleine McCann". As Brueckner's trial for sex offences continues, we take a look at his dark world, from his upbringing and twisted convictions...
Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Maddie
He is currently on trial for a string of sex offences unrelated to Maddie's case (Daily Mirror)Brueckner was born in Germany in 1976 and moved to Portugal in his late teens. It is believed he lived in the country between 1995 and 2007 in a campervan located not far from the holiday resort where Madeleine was abducted. He is described as being around 6ft tall and slim, with short blonde hair.
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The 48-year-old is currently on trial accused of a string of sex offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017, unrelated to Madeleine's case. He is charged with raping an Irish tour rep, a teenage girl and an elderly woman in her holiday apartment. He also allegedly exposed himself to a German girl on a beach and a group of children in a playground.
Brueckner has more than a dozen previous convictions for burglary, theft and sex offences, including serving an 18-month sentence in Germany for a sex attack on a youth when he was a teen. He is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for raping a US pensioner in the Algarve and drug trafficking.
'Murder account'
A senior detective has said they have discovered emails on Brueckner's Hotmail account that link him to the case - which is the first time an official has revealed where they have found evidence allegedly connecting Brueckner to Maddie. Titus Stampa told the court he had no clearance to discuss the contents of the emails because it was "related to the killing" of the tot. He referred to it as the "murder" account but refused to say if the emails contained videos or photos.
The detective said cops found a second account where he had swapped sickening child abuse videos with fellow paedophiles. He said Brueckner deleted all emails in that Hotmail account from the first half of 2007 - when Madeleine vanished.
Mr Stampa revealed details of Brueckner's email accounts as he gave evidence at Braunschweig regional court. He told the court that he found vile images on a secret email address used by the German. Prosecutors got access to the inbox after making an application to US software giant Microsoft in 2019.
Brueckner opened the Hotmail account in January 2007, just four months before Madeleine vanished in Praia da Luz. He was living in a ramshackle farmhouse on the edge of the popular Portuguese resort at the time. Mr Stamper said the German drifter had attempted to delete "many emails" which he shared with other paedophiles. He said the emails contained "numerous" videos which showed horrific abuse of "three or four-year-old" children.
Brueckner also used the email account to write a vile fantasy about raping a mother and her young daughter, the court heard. "It was a very detailed story about a five-year-old girl and her mother who are kidnapped and taken away in a van," he said. "It was about violence and brutality and them being abused sexually - one is raped in front of the other." A copy of the sickening fantasy story was found on a laptop Brueckner used in Portugal in 2017, the court heard.
'Maddie tip-off'
Rapist Brueckner has more than a dozen previous convictions for burglary, theft and sex offences (Daily Mirror)
Photograph of Madeleine McCann taken on the family's holiday at Praia Da Luz, Algarve, Portugal. (PA)Last month, a Met Police detective shared details of a voicemail about Brueckner left on a Scotland Yard answer machine in May 2017. Det Con Mark Draycott was the first police officer to answer questions in court about the youngster's disappearance. He has worked on Operation Grange since it was launched in 2011.
DC Draycott, 49, was called by the defence team to give evidence. He told the court that Brückner's former friend, Helge Busching, who knew him in the Algarve in the mid-2000s, gave officers a tip-off. Busching claimed the German told him during a conversation that "she did not scream" when the pair discussed Maddie.
"Back then we still had a public phone number which was publicised around the world," DC Draycott said. "Members of the public could ring in information in relation to Operation Grange, the Madeleine McCann investigation. One of my jobs was to check the answer phone messages. On May 18 I checked the answer phone and there was a message.
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"It was from a male by the sound of his voice, he spoke good English and he asked to speak to David Edgar (private investigator). He said he had information and he left a Greek mobile number. I then rang this Greek mobile number and spoke to a male I now know to be Helge Lars Busching. He referred to himself as Lars and he gave information in relation to the Madeleine McCann investigation."
DC Draycott shared the information with German and Portuguese authorities, sparking the probe into Brueckner. He met with Busching in Athens and questioned him in top secrecy in a hotel - after bugging equipment was brought in to check for listening devices.
"He said he had a conversation with Christian at the Orgiva Festival in 2008. That conversation was in relation to Operation Grange. I can't talk about that," DC Draycott said. Busching later flew to London in February 2018 to give a formal statement to British police. It has recently been announced that Busching has been diagnosed with cancer and has weeks to live.
Brueckner allegedly said he was going to steal a child from a rich family before Maddie went missing (PA)
Brueckner's ex-girlfriend has claimed he boasted about breaking into Algarve apartments (REX/Shutterstock)'Burglary boasts'
Brueckner's ex-girlfriend told the court he cheated on her and boasted about breaking into Algarve holiday apartments. Marina Flache, who is nearly 20 years older than the paedophile, said she had a 19-month fling with the German after meeting him in a bar in Lagos in late 2005. She was a regular visitor to his ramshackle farmhouse in the Portuguese resort, where Madeleine vanished in May 2007.
In April, Flache gave evidence in court, as part of Brueckner's trial, and described him as "very friendly and orderly". "He was very approachable," the travel agent said. "We met in 2005, around October or November. He spoke to me when I was with friends in a bar. He was polite, he had money, he was independent. He worked in restaurants and he painted.
"But at some point, I found out from him that he also financed himself from burglaries. His house was full of rubbish, car parts and various electric things. Everything was lying around. It was just an old house. I was often in the house. I stayed over just once, on New Year's Eve in 2005. I encouraged him to get a job, because he is not a stupid person, he was kind, nice, and approachable. He had little to drink and didn't take any drugs."
Asked by the judge if they had sex, Flache replied: "Yes, in the living room." She later visited him in prison in Portimao while he was serving an eight-month sentence for stealing diesel from lorries. Flache said they split up in March 2007, just six weeks before Madeleine vanished from her parents' holiday apartment in the Algarve resort. "It was clear to me that we were not really a pair, he had met someone, and he introduced me to her, and yeah, that was it," she said.
'Kidnap plot'
Ken Ralphs, who was part of the same nomadic community in the resort, previously claimed Brueckner told him how he was plotting to kidnap a child just a week before Madeleine's abduction. The 59-year-old told Sky News in February that Christian had made an offer to a friend of his, who was desperate for money.
"We were sitting around the fire one night after a meal, we had a few beers and during the early hours of the morning my friend began to cry," he said. "I asked him what the matter was and, eventually, he confessed to me he was getting involved with Christian to steal a child from Praia da Luz from a rich family." Ken claims he went on to report the conversation to police back in England.
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