The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann Trailer. Video / Netflix
The main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British 3-year-old Madeleine McCann has mocked investigators just days before he is due to appear in court.
German national Christian Brueckner is serving a seven-year prison sentence in his home country for raping a 72-year-old woman in the Algarve region of Portugal in 2005 – the same area from which Madeleine went missing.
German police named him in 2020 as the man responsible for her disappearance, but he has denied the claim.
This week he will face a court in the German city of Brunswick charged with offences relating to five women aged between 10 and 80, all in Portugal.
One charge is an indecent assault against a 10-year-old girl on a beach near where McCann went missing. Another is an indecent assault charge related to a child at a playground in the Algarve.
He also complained about his treatment in prison. His lawyer, Friedrich Fuelscher, described the legal proceedings as a “witch hunt” in comments to German tabloid Bild.
“I am convinced that there can only be an acquittal,” Fuelscher said.
Who is Christian Brueckner?
In 2020, about 13 years after Madeleine disappeared, police identified Brueckner as the main suspect. He had been living in a campervan just kilometres away from the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz when she disappeared and has a history of sexually abusing children.
German police have claimed they have substantial evidence linking Brueckner to Madeleine, including a confession he allegedly made to a friend while drinking at a bar.
He has repeatedly denied any involvement with her disappearance.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters was interviewed on a show called Sabado in 2022, in which he claimed investigators found fibres from Madeleine’s pink pyjamas in Brueckner’s van.
“It’s not forensic evidence but evidence and, because of our evidence, we are sure he is the murderer of Madeleine McCann. We are sure he killed Madeleine,” he said.
Christian Brueckner's VW T3 Westfalia campervan, used in and around Praia da Luz, Portugal. Photo / Metropolitan Police
A phone call made by Brueckner just 60 minutes before Madeleine disappeared placed him within kilometres of the Ocean Club complex. Wolters said the phone call connected to the mast belonging to the club.
Brueckner has since sent a letter from his prison cell saying he has no connection to the case.
“I wasn’t kidnapping anybody and, of course, I wasn’t killing anybody,” he wrote.
“I’ll go further: I’ll tell you I wasn’t attacking anybody after I was 18. I made some silly mistakes when I was younger but who hasn’t?”
Brueckner noted there was “no proof” against him and that German authorities were leaking information to portray him in a poor light.
“I know of about five open cases against me, all of them including raping and abusing. They have manipulated the truth in such an unprofessional way that I am laughing.
“I still have not lost my sense of humour. Even in this critical situation. This is what keeps me alive.”
Timeline: The day the McCanns’ lives changed forever
On May 3, 2007, the McCann family, from Leicestershire, in England’s East Midlands, were on holiday at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz in Portugal.
Kate and Gerry McCann were out for dinner with friends at a restaurant complex. Madeleine and her younger twin siblings were put to bed in an apartment about 100m away and left unattended.
According to Kate, the adults – later dubbed the Tapas Nine – had a roster system to check on all the children about every hour that evening. Gerry had checked his children at 9.05pm. They were all accounted for. Eventually, it was Kate’s turn to check on the unaccompanied children.
She opened the apartment door about 10pm to find Madeleine wasn’t there. Her cot was empty and all that was visible were a blanket and a cuddly toy. The police were immediately called while staff and guests searched the complex everywhere for any sign of her.
The bed Madeleine McCann slept in on holiday before she disappeared.
As the sun rose on May 4, there was still no sign of Madeleine. Border police and airport staff were put on alert and hundreds of locals donated their time searching for her.
Nine days later, on May 12, 2007, police said they believed she had been abducted but was likely still alive in Portugal. But the truth was there were no leads.
“Please come forward, return Madeleine, leave her in a place of safety,” Gerry begged in a press conference just two days after his daughter disappeared.
Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann, hold up a picture of her during a press conference on June 6, 2007, in Berlin, Germany.
By May 26, police issued a description of a man seen on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, possibly carrying a child.
In June, a Portuguese police chief admitted vital forensic clues may have been destroyed as the scene was not protected properly. A month later, British police sent dogs to search the apartment and rental car the McCanns used. A hundred days after Madeleine disappeared, police admitted she might not be alive.
On September 7, 2007, Kate and Gerry McCann were named as “arguidos”, or “official suspects”, in their daughter’s disappearance and were both interrogated by local police. Gerry responded to some questions but Kate refused to answer any of the 48 questions she was asked over an intense 11-hour interrogation period.
Police were alleging that the couple had faked their daughter’s abduction and hidden her body. However, years later it was claimed detectives had manipulated DNA results to get the answers they wanted.
By November, Gerry released a video claiming his family believed a “predator” was watching days before Madeleine’s disappearance.
In January 2008, the couple released sketches of a suspect now known as a “creepy man” seen at the resort.
Artist's impressions of the man the McCann family believed could provide a link to their missing daughter. Photo / Supplied
By July 2008, Portuguese police submitted their final report and shelved their investigation.
Fast forward to 2010 and the McCanns became critical of the Portuguese police’s decision to end the investigation.
After a book release in 2012, UK detectives announced in 2013 that they had reviewed the case and identified “a number of persons of interest”. By July 2013, Scotland Yard claimed to have “new evidence and new witnesses”. It said it had identified 41 suspects.
In 2014, e-fit images emerged on a BBC Crimewatch appeal showing a man carrying a blonde-haired child in Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine disappeared. This prompted Portuguese police to reopen their investigation.
British police dig topsoil in Portugal while searching for Madeleine McCann. Photo / AP
By June 2014, searches of scrubland were carried out near the Ocean Club complex. Nothing of note was found. A month later, four suspects were questioned but again nothing came of it.
In 2020, after millions of dollars were poured into finding Madeleine, and with the help of German police, 43-year-old German paedophile and rapist Christian Brueckner was identified as a suspect. German authorities classed Madeleine’s case as a murder inquiry, assuming she was dead.
Despite German police saying they were extremely close to having enough evidence to charge Brueckner, they have yet to do so.
