Madeleine McCann suspect was extradited from Portugal — twice
The suspect in the case of missing toddler Madeleine McCann was extradited twice from Portugal for child sex crimes but local authorities never linked him to her disappearance, a report has revealed.
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Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner was booted out of Portugal twice for child sex offences - but cops never linked him to the missing toddler.
The convicted paedophile was sent to Germany for the first time in 1999 after spending four years on the run in the Algarve.
The Sun reports, he then served a two-year sentence for sexually abusing a child before returning to the tourist hotspot.
But in 2017, Brueckner was extradited back to his native Germany for a second time to serve a 15-month prison sentence for sexually abusing a child and possession of child abuse material.
The 43-year-old had been caught exposing himself at a kid’s playground just a 30-minute drive from where Madeleine vanished in Praia da Luz in 2007, the Mail Online reports.
But the serial offender, who lived in Portugal on and off for around 22 years, was never put on the sex offenders register in the country.
This blunder meant cops probing Madeleine’s disappearance never considered Brueckner could be linked to the crime, Portuguese broadcaster RTP reports.
Presenter Sandra Felgueiras said: “It may be hard to believe, but it is true.
“The suspect in the murder of Madeleine McCann was twice extradited from Portugal to Germany for sex crimes against children but was never investigated into her disappearance from Praia da Luz.”
Parents who raised the alarm after Brueckner exposed himself in the playground in Sao Bartomoleu de Messines have now expressed their horror at the latest claims.
One mum said: “He could have taken my daughter.
“It is so difficult to realise that somebody linked to so many criminal cases and so potentially dangerous, was so close to my daughter.”
Portuguese police have confirmed the sex offender was dismissed from their inquiries into Madeleine’s disappearance because they didn’t know about his child sex crimes.
But it emerged last month Brueckner told officers he was a sexual predator a year before she vanished.
Despite that, his confession was not recorded by police and his name was never added to a list of known sex offenders living in the Algarve.
His name should have been added to a list held by the Portugal’s investigative Policia Judiciaria [PJ].
After the little girl disappeared, officials were tasked with listing all foreign nationals who had been convicted of sex crimes living in the area around the resort - meaning he should have flagged up if his name was added.
But instead, Brueckner was not considered a suspect until 2017 on the tenth-year anniversary of the toddler’s disappearance.
His name was given to police after he allegedly boasted to a friend in a German bar that he knew what had happened to Madeleine.
Officers then discovered he took a 30-minute phone call just before the three-year-old vanished.
The Sun also revealed 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 B is said to have phoned on the night Madeleine vanished.
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.
Madeleine’s disappearance remains a mystery, although German police say they know she is dead.
POLICE HONE IN ON PHONE CALL LEAD
German police believe a mysterious phone call made by Christian Brueckner just before Madeleine McCann was snatched may have happened directly outside the Ocean Club where the McCanns were staying.
Prosecutors claim they have traced the phone used by their prime suspect and found it connected to the mast owned by the resort complex where Maddie was sleeping as her parents dined nearby.
According to The Sun, Hans Christian Wolters, the chief prosecutor in the case, said successfully tracing the call has allowed them to place Brueckner at the scene around the time Madeleine was taken.
The phone call has been a central part of the renewed police probe since the twice-convicted paedophile was named as a key suspect earlier this month.
Police are probing the 30-minute call which occurred just one hour before Madeleine is believed to have been taken.
The content of the call is unclear, and police took the extraordinary step to release both of the phone numbers in the case.
Portuguese media reported the number Brueckner was called from (+351) 916 510 683 was registered to a man named Diogo Silva, which is a common name in Portugal.
Brueckner is believed to have been using the number (+351) 912730680 – with the call starting at 7.32pm and ending at 8.02pm on May 3, 2007.
Around one hour after the call ended, Madeleine is believed to have been taken from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz some time between 9.10pm and 10pm.
POLICE DISCOVER SUSPECT’S ‘SECRET LAIR’
A secret lair combined with video, audio and photographic evidence and a mobile phone trace may hold critical clues to solving Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the investigation into their prime suspect Christian Brueckner, told 60 Minutes they have strong evidence their suspect killed her.
“We don’t have the body and no parts of the body, but we have enough evidence to say our suspect killed Madeleine McCann,” he said.
Police searched a deserted factory owned by Brueckner where they discovered hard-drives and USB sticks hidden in a plastic bag buried with his dog.
Inside Brueckner’s abandoned lair, they found “8,000 pieces” including videos and pictures before they found his parked American camper van where police found swimsuits that belonged to little girls.
Mr Wolters also confirmed when the three-year-old British toddler was taken between 9pm and 10pm.
Mr Wolters'’s team also discovered the day after Madeleine’s disappearance, Brueckner deregistered a second car he owned.
An identikit of photos released at the time also reportedly appeared to show similarities to him.
According to 60 Minutes, a source who knew Brueckner told the program he ran a kiosk next to a kindergarten after he left Portugal in 2007 and moved to the German city of Brunswick.
“There’s a kindergarten and a junior school next door, they spent their pocket money on sweets here. He gave the kids lollies for free,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
In 2013, six years after McCann vanished, police found audio of what they believe to be Brueckner allegedly talking about his sexual fantasies in a paedophile chat room online.
He allegedly said: “ … want to f**k a little girl!”
He also allegedly said: “I will document exactly how they will be tortured.”
Crime & Intelligence Analyst Mark Hofmann, who works with German police and has studied Brueckner’s sordid criminal past, told Nine from what he has seen Brueckner “absolutely matches the facts of the evidence”.
“Number one, he was there,” he said.
“And because most serial offenders, it’s all about power and control, and they like to do it in environments which are their comfort zone.
“So they are doing what they do near to the places where they live.”
MADDIE SUSPECT’S EX-NEIGHBOUR MAKES STUNNING CLAIM
A British woman has revealed she cleaned the home where the chief suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance once lived, inadvertently destroying any potential DNA evidence.
Ruth Maclean, who lived next door to suspect Christian Brueckner in Sitio de Lakes, near Praia de Luz, said she and her daughter went into the home a year before McCann vanished in 2007.
In a documentary aired on Portuguese television, Ms Maclean said they removed contents of the property at the request of the homeowner back in May 2006 after it was robbed.
“We went there to clean the house out because it had been burgled,’ she said.
“It was empty for some time, I believe, and it was in a really terrible state with food in the fridges, rats, it was not pleasant, not pleasant at all.
“We just emptied the house.
“There was a massive mess, several computers all turned over, on the floor, dirty clothing, blankets, everything just had to be ditched.
“We just cleared it up, emptied the fridge, the kitchen, cleaned all the surfaces.”
The documentary looked at a series of rapes and robberies in 2004 and 2005 which police suspect Brueckner may have been linked to before he was investigated for taking McCann.
Ms Maclean claimed Brueckner first moved to the seaside resort in either 1994 or 1995.
“We didn’t have interaction really and you wouldn’t suppose you lived next door to a monster,” she said.
Her daughter Rosie, 29, recalled how he used to make her “feel uncomfortable”
“I had a bad feeling about him, maybe I had a good sixth sense,” she said.
“I remember his Jaguar and I remember vans, loads of cars, it looked like a scrapyard.”
The mother and daughter said he suddenly disappeared after they saw him everyday for years as his neighbour.
“We just did not know if Christian was alive or dead and so we decided to go and report him as a missing person,” Ms Maclean said.
They were unaware Brueckner was in jail serving an eight-month prison term with his former best friend Michael Tatschl for petrol theft.
Tatschl has alleged Brueckner did take McCann, and had “hundreds of passports” kept in hiding places in the house.
He also alleged he had cameras, mobile phones, computers and watches.
He also alleged he made some videos, including one of him raping an elderly woman.
The lawyer for the German paedophile has said he is being bullied in jail, as it emerged that he has still not been interviewed over the case.
Brueckner has become the target of inmates at the German prison where he is serving time for a drugs offence.
The 43-year-old convicted rapist and paedophile’s lawyer Friedrich Fulscher told German magazine Der Spiegel: “Fellow inmates try to bully him where they can.
“He is pilloried worldwide and easily identifiable.”
He added: “There has not yet been an official offer of interrogation.
“As a precaution, we have informed the public prosecutor’s office that Christian will only comment on the allegations, if at all, through us.
“He is currently making use of his right to remain silent. This does not mean he has anything to hide.”
Asked what Brueckner was like, Mr Fulscher said: “He makes a calm and friendly impression on me. He has never been loud or angry.
“I find the conversation pleasant in the meetings.”
German prosecutors said they have “concrete evidence” McCann who vanished aged three at Praia da Luz in Portgual, is dead.
They claim Brueckner’s mobile placed him near the scene of her abduction.
Besides rape, Brueckner has 16 other convictions including child abuse dating back to when he was 17.
WITNESS CASTS DOUBT ON SUSPECT
It comes as a key witness in the case who may have seen the toddler being snatched in her pyjamas did not recognise chief suspect, Brueckner.
Former business executive Martin Smith and his family made a statement to cops saying they saw a man carrying a young pyjama-clad girl the night the toddler vanished.
Martin, his wife and two kids were holidaying in Portugal at the same time as the McCanns and claim they saw a man aged around 35 to 40 with a youngster in pink and white PJs down a quiet street around 150m from the beach near the complex where Maddie was staying.
Irishman Martin, made a statement along with his wife Mary, daughter Aoife and son Peter saying the man they saw was caucasian and around 170cm to 175cm in height.
He helped compiled an e-fit of the man in 2008 but the image was not made public until 2013.
But when asked if Brueckner fitted the man he saw, Martin told The Sun: “I cannot add to the statement I gave police six years ago. This all happened 13 years ago.
“I have seen the pictures and coverage this week (of Christian B) but everything I could say I said in my statement to police. I don’t recognise this man.”
Martin added he has not heard from German investigators and officers from the Met had not been touch.
The reported sighting by the Smiths was at around 10pm on May 3, 2007 and was later labelled ‘The Smith Sighting’.
It was less than 300 metres from the resort where the McCanns were staying and the man was heading to the beach 150 metres away.
Martin and family members who were interviewed stated that they went to bar before leaving at around 10pm.
As the group made their way back to their apartment, several noticed a man walking down the middle of the street, Rua 25 de Abril, carrying a girl, about three or four years old.
The child seen had blonde hair, according to descriptions given, and her skin was very fair.
At the time, the family thought little about it, and headed home the following day.
At the time, local officers were focused on another sighting of a man near Kate and Gerry McCann’s holiday apartment.
Martin and his family’s e-fit was compiled by private detectives in September 2008.
In 2012 Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood from the Met said for years the Smiths’ sighting had been seen as “wrong place, wrong time” by investigators and was deemed unimportant.
But now Brueckner has been identified as a prime suspect in Maddie’s disappearance, it is likely Martin may be interviewed again by authorities.
It has now emerged Brueckner left Portugal days after Madeleine McCann vanished on May 3, 2007, to set up an illegal drugs network.
A European Arrest Warrant revealed he fled back to Germany to sell cannabis bought with cash and gems stolen on the Algarve.
He was known to be driving a vehicle matching the description of his Tiffin Allegro motorhome when Madeleine disappeared.
Brueckner is serving time for drugs charges but has applied to be released early after completing two-thirds of his sentence.
He was separately found guilty of raping a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005 and jailed for seven years but has appealed against the sentence.
CHIEF SUSPECT ‘MAY NOT BE CHARGED’
Meanwhile, it has been revealed Brueckner may evade criminal charges despite prosecutors being “convinced of his guilt”.
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said they had “concrete evidence” that Madeleine has `been killed.
But in a mind-boggling about-face, Mr Wolters said: “You also have to be realistic enough that the investigation may not lead to a charge for the murder of Madeleine McCann. It could be stopped if we fail to find the missing evidence.
“I am currently unable to predict the outcome of our investigation but we are still convinced of the guilt of the accused and hope for further promising investigative approaches.”
Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, where Brueckner ran a bar, said he was “hopeful of finding other victims, who have been sexually assaulted by the suspect’’ even if it meant they could not pin a murder charge on him.
The dramatic development will bring new anxiety to Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry.
Mr Wolters said dealing with Portuguese counterparts was ‘’cumbersome’’ before adding that police in Praia were obsessed with the ridiculous theory that Kate and Gerry were involved in their daughter’s abduction.
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Then it emerged one of two letters informing the McCann family of the investigation had failed to arrive after being sent from Germany to Scotland Yard further adding to confusion and suggestions of disjointed handling.
Brueckner is in Kiel prison serving 21 months for drug trafficking but is eligible for parole and could be out as early as next week if an appeal to Germany’s Federal Court succeeds.
The suspect, 43, is believed to have been leading a “transient lifestyle” at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, as he travelled between Portugal and Germany.
He had been living near Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished from her room in May 2007.
In December he was convicted at Braunschweig court of the brutal 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman not far from Praia da Luz and given seven years but the sentence is not definitive as his legal team has appealed.
In December he was convicted at Braunschweig court of the brutal 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman not far from Praia da Luz and given seven years but the sentence is not definitive as his legal team has appealed.
They are arguing Germany breached the regulations of the European Arrest Warrant used to bring him back from Italy to Braunschweig in September 2018 as it was for the drugs conviction and he was then subsequently put on trial for rape.
His claim is before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and is being fast tracked with a decision expected by July 17 which could see him cleared of the accusation or put on trial once again.
Parts of this article originally appeared in The Sun and are republished here with permission.