Key witness in Madeleine McCann case makes bombshell claim in first public comments

A former friend of the key suspect in the case of missing UK toddler Madeleine McCann has spoken publicly for the first time.

A key witness in the Madeleine McCann case has spoken publicly for the first time about claims the alleged kidnapper told him the missing toddler “didn’t scream”.

Helge Busching provided information to police linking Christian Brueckner to the three-year-old’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007.

In an interview with German newspaper Bild, Busching gave his account of the moment he crossed paths with the German after Madeleine’s disappearance.

“He asked me: ‘Don’t you go to Portugal anymore and do business there?’

“’I said ‘no’, since the girl disappeared there, there have been too many police checks for me and I don’t need that at all.’

“We came to Maddie and I said, ‘Anyway, I don’t understand how the little one could have disappeared without a trace’.

“Christian had drunk two or three beers and then said: ‘She didn’t scream’.

“I immediately checked what he said. I thought, he knows that. He has something to do with it.

“At 3 or 4am he left a packed festival with his mobile home. I looked for him the next morning, his neighbours said: ‘He’s gone’.”

Madeleine McCann disappeared in Praia da Luz, Portugal on May 3. Picture: Handout / METROPOLITAN POLICE / AFP

Key suspect Christian Brueckner. Picture: Handout / ITALIAN CARABINIERI PRESS OFFICE / AFP

Busching, 48, a German national, also claimed he told Scotland Yard about Brueckner in 2008, but they ignored his call.

He said he first met Brueckner around the time Madeleine vanished from her parents’ holiday home in Praia da Luz in 2007.

Busching, a petty criminal and burglar, said Christian B boasted about his climbing skills which allowed him to enter hotels via balconies.

“The first impression was that he was a nice guy – personable, sociable,” he said.

Busching said he unearthed a gun and a video camera while searching for diesel fuel in Brueckner’s Portugal home.

He claims the video depicted Brueckner sexually abusing an elderly woman and a teenage girl in Portugal.

Brueckner is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for the 2005 rape of a woman on the Algarve. Brueckner lived in the region between 1995 and 2007, say police.

The German denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance, saying he was “miles away” at the time.

Earlier this month, police searched the Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal, nearly 50km from where Madeleine went missing. Police discovered a “number of items” but were unable to make a direct link to Brueckner.

Last month, the McCanns marked the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, saying she is “still very much missed” and they “await a breakthrough”.