Ex-detective flags major flaw in investigators claims over Maddie McCann suspect

Just days after investigators said they were ‘100 per cent’ sure they had the right suspect, a former detective on the case has thrown a spanner in the works.

A former detective who worked on finding missing child Madeleine McCann has poured cold water on investigators’ claims they know who was responsible for her abduction.

Prosecutors said on Monday they were “100 per cent” sure rapist Christian Brueckner abducted and murdered Madeleine McCann. The sex offender, 44, was identified as the prime suspect by German authorities last year and now investigators say they have evidence to charge him.

He is already jailed in Germany.

German police have announced that Christian B., an inmate at the prison who is serving time on other charges and whom some publications have identified as Christian Brueckner, has become the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Picture Getty Images.

But a former British police officer said he fears there is still not enough evidence to secure a conviction.

“What it would seem to be, is the claim is they have got mobile phone evidence that he was in the area at the time, and they also claim that they have got a confession he made to a friend ... it is all very weak and I just feel that the parents might be let down,” ex-Met Detective chief inspector Mick Neville told Sunrise.

“I think the critical one here is what the Germans call concrete evidence and what we might call concrete evidence in Britain or Australia are two completely different things. In Britain and Australia, I think concrete evidence would mean we have CCTV of the scene, some fingerprints and a body.

“In Germany it means you have got some tangible reason to arrest the man. It is completely different and I just feel that the parents will be let down once again here.”

Madeleine McCann. Picture AFP

Madeleine, from Leicestershire, vanished in 2007 from parents Kate and Gerry’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

She was just three years old.

Two years earlier, Brueckner raped a 72-year-old American woman living nearby and is now in a German jail for the crime.

As he is in prison, detectives are using the time to gather as much evidence as possible and hope to take him to court next year.

Mr Neville added, the recent claims about Brueckner’s involvement may just be a tactic.

“I think they are trying to put pressure on Christian to make a confession and to make him admit it but I think we must be really careful about this mistranslation of what is concrete evidence in Britain and Australia and what is concrete evidence in Germany,” he said.