Madeleine McCann: Suspect ‘threatened’ in jail
The prime suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann is under constant guard after other prisoners reportedly targeted the German paedophile as investigators continue to probe a “promising” new lead in the case.
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Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner must have at least one guard to leave his cell after alleged threats from inmates.
The convicted rapist and paedophile, 43, was put in solitary last month after German police said he was responsible for her abduction.
Since his name emerged, he has been subjected to threats and hate mail and is now escorted by guards when he leaves for exercise or to meet his lawyer, reports The Sun.
“Special measures have been put in place for him because of all the publicity surrounding him,” a source reportedly told the publication.
“He is aware of what is happening and so are the other inmates.
“He has been placed in solitary confinement and when he leaves his cell for exercise or to meet his lawyer he always has guards with him.
“The possibility that someone may attack him because of the Madeleine Mccann publicity is very real.’’
Brueckner is serving 21 months in Kiel, Germany, for drugs trafficking.
The suspect has so far remained silent and not spoken with prosecutors who claim that have “concrete evidence’’ Madeleine is dead.
Madeleine, three, vanished in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.
MADDIE COPS PROBE ‘PROMISING’ NEW LEAD
Meanwhile, police are probing a “promising” new lead following a TV appeal.
A viewer of Germany’s Crimewatch called cops to say they recognised a mobile number that suspect Christian Brueckner is said to have phoned on the night Madeleine vanished, The Sun reports.
Police now hope to trace the Portuguese number’s owner. They are also checking banks in Portugal to see if it was topped up at an ATM.
In the new TV appeal about three-year-old Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance, German police urged viewers to check diaries and contacts books to see if they recognised the number.
As the show ended, detective Alfred Hettmer revealed: “There have been 16 calls about this number and one of them is promising.”
The caller had contacted police in Bavaria — significant because that is where convicted Brueckner lived before moving to Portugal.
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office urged the viewer to get in touch with them.
Met Police data shared with the Germans has put Brueckner’s own mobile close to the Ocean Club where the McCanns were holidaying.
An initial German TV appeal last month led to 800 calls to cops but none turned up new leads.
Last night prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters confirmed the 16 new leads but declined to give further details.
Brueckner is serving 21 months in a German jail for drug trafficking. A court is considering his parole.
His lawyer Friedrich Fulscher accused the prosecution of clutching at straws and said: “At this stage the accused remains silent on our advice. This does not mean that he has anything to hide.”
POLICE BLUNDER LEFT MADDIE SUSPECT FREE
The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case could have been captured two years before she disappeared if it was not for a Portuguese police blunder over evidence in a rape case.
Clothes and rope from a villa where Christian Brueckner raped a US woman in 2005 were not DNA tested, so he was not caught until 2017,The Sun reports.
The villa, called Casa Jacaranda, was only a 10-minute stroll from the apartment in Praia da Luz where Madeleine, three, was snatched in May 2007.
The case was mothballed amid a catalogue of errors by Portuguese police with the attacker still at large.
Brueckner, 43, was finally arrested over the rape in 2017 and convicted in December after German police reinvestigated and did DNA tests on a sample of body hair from the villa.
After her disappearance Portuguese police failed to seal off the McCann family holiday apartment for almost 24 hours.
It led to a crime scene contamination by up to 50 people. Cleaners washed bed sheets and ash from officers’ cigarettes was found in evidence samples. The 2005 rape inquiry was abandoned after just five months.
A red T-shirt which was ripped up by the attacker and stuffed in his victim’s mouth was not DNA tested. Neither was nylon rope used to tie her hands.
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Official documents show Carlos Farinha, then Director of the Judicial Police’s Forensic Science Laboratory, wrote in a letter dated November 28, 2009: “We have learned by telephone that the examination is no longer necessary.
“We are therefore cancelling the tests and returning the material sent to us for analysis.”
Three weeks ago German police said they have evidence Madeleine is dead and identified Brueckner as the prime suspect in her abduction.
Kate and Gerry McCann said they have not been officially told there is evidence their daughter is dead.
German prosecutors are now convinced the mistakes made by Portuguese police in the 2005 rape case left child sex offender Brueckner free to snatch Madeleine.
Drug dealer Brueckner emerged as a possible suspect in the rape after a former friend told German police he had shown off a video of a sex attack.
Earlier this month it was revealed evidence linking Christian B to a 2005 sex attack on a 10-year-old British girl could also be gathering dust in Portuguese police stores.
Parts of this story were originally published in The Sun. You can find them here and here.
Originally published as Madeleine McCann: Suspect ‘threatened’ in jail