Maddie McCann prime suspect buried sick child abuse images under dead dog

13 May 2024 , 14:00

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Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in Maddie's disappearance (Image: PA)

Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner has been linked to many horrifying cases.

In recent years, the 47-year-old has emerged as one of the prime suspects in Madeleine McCann's disappearance. He denies any involvement in the case. The British toddler - who would have turned 21 yesterday - vanished during a family holiday in Portugal on May 3, 2007. Her distraught parents Kate and Gerry McCann have never been able to track her down.

Brueckner was made a formal suspect by Portuguese prosecutors in 2022 after police received a series of 'tips'. Earlier this month, new details emerged about a voicemail left on a Scotland Yard answer machine in 2017, when Brueckner's former friend, Helge Busching, claimed the German told him Maddie "did not scream".

Brueckner is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for raping a US pensioner in the Algarve and drug trafficking. He is also on trial accused of a string of sex offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017, unrelated to Madeleine's case.

Police found a sickening cache of images when searching Breuckner's 'secret' lair' in 2020 (REX/Shutterstock)

He is currently on trial accused of a string of sex offences unrelated to Maddie's case

Back in 2020, authorities announced that they had found a collection of USB sticks linked to Brueckner, that were filled with child pornography and buried next to a dead dog in a rubbish dump, in the woods of Saxony Anhalt, Germany. The disturbing stash was found when police searched the site of an abandoned box factory where it is believed Brueckner once lived.

Body of boy, 5, missing for three months recovered from fast-flowing river

Police were looking for clues relating to the disappearance of five-year-old Inga Gehricke - who was last seen while on an outing with her family in 2015 - when they made the grim discovery. Investigators found 8,000 pieces of potential evidence, including a cache of child abuse images on USB sticks that were found under a pile of animal bones.

Brueckner was prosecuted in relation to the images. Police then started their search of Barragem do Arade reservoir, which is around 31 miles from the Praia da Luz in Portugal, where the McCann family was on holiday when Maddie was last seen in May 2007. The reservoir is said to be a favourite spot of Brueckner, who allegedly referred to it as his "little paradise".

Investigators searched the remote reservoir last June, after receiving evidence from a "very credible" police informer. They examined soil samples alongside Brueckner's VW campervan in a bid to confirm he was in the area at the time. However, officers were left 'disappointed' by the search as the evidence did not prove to be of 'any use' in the case.

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 on the reservoir. He 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.

The 47-year-old 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.

Nia Dalton