Convicted sex offender Christian Bruekner is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, who vanished from a popular holiday resort in Portugal in 2007
Christian Bruekner is a convicted paedophile who has been linked to many horrific cases.
In recent years, Brueckner, 47, has emerged as one of the prime suspects in Madeleine McCann's disappearance. He denies any involvement in the case. On May 3, 2007, three-year-old Maddie vanished during a family holiday in Portugal. Extensive search efforts ensued but parents Kate and Gerry have never been able to track her down.
The Metropolitan Police has spent more than £13million on the case, dubbed Operation Grange, to date. In 2020, German investigators identified Brueckner, and two years later, he was made a formal suspect by Portuguese prosecutors. Investigator Hans Christian Wolters said in May 2022: "We are sure he is the murderer of Madeleine McCann".
Brueckner was born in Germany in 1976 and moved to Portugal in his late teens. It is believed he lived in the country between 1995 and 2007 in a campervan located not far from the holiday resort where Madeleine was abducted. He is described as being around 6ft tall and slim, with short blonde hair.
The 48-year-old is currently on trial accused of a string of sex offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017, unrelated to Madeleine's case. He is charged with raping an Irish tour rep, a teenage girl and an elderly woman in her holiday apartment. He also allegedly exposed himself to a German girl on a beach and a group of children in a playground.
Brueckner has more than a dozen previous convictions for burglary, theft and sex offences, including serving an 18-month sentence in Germany for a sex attack on a youth when he was a teen. He is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for raping a US pensioner in the Algarve and drug trafficking.
'Maddie tip-off'
Earlier this week, a Met Police detective shared new details of a voicemail about Brueckner left on a Scotland Yard answer machine in May 2017. Det Con Mark Draycott was the first police officer to answer questions in court about the youngster's disappearance. He has worked on Operation Grange since it was launched in 2011.
DC Draycott, 49, was called by the defence team to give evidence. He told the court that Brückner's former friend, Helge Busching, who knew him in the Algarve in the mid-2000s, gave officers a tip-off. Busching claimed the German told him during a conversation that "she did not scream" when the pair discussed Maddie.
"Back then we still had a public phone number which was publicised around the world," DC Draycott said. "Members of the public could ring in information in relation to Operation Grange, the Madeleine McCann investigation. One of my jobs was to check the answer phone messages. On May 18 I checked the answer phone and there was a message.
"It was from a male by the sound of his voice, he spoke good English and he asked to speak to David Edgar (private investigator). He said he had information and he left a Greek mobile number. I then rang this Greek mobile number and spoke to a male I now know to be Helge Lars Busching. He referred to himself as Lars and he gave information in relation to the Madeleine McCann investigation."
DC Draycott shared the information with German and Portuguese authorities, sparking the probe into Brueckner. He met with Busching in Athens and questioned him in top secrecy in a hotel - after bugging equipment was brought in to check for listening devices.
"He said he had a conversation with Christian at the Orgiva Festival in 2008. That conversation was in relation to Operation Grange. I can't talk about that," DC Draycott said. Busching later flew to London in February 2018 to give a formal statement to British police. It has recently been announced that Busching has been diagnosed with cancer and has weeks to live.
'Burglary boasts'
Brueckner's ex-girlfriend told the court he cheated on her and boasted about breaking into Algarve holiday apartments. Marina Flache, who is nearly 20 years older than the paedophile, said she had a 19-month fling with the German after meeting him in a bar in Lagos in late 2005. She was a regular visitor to his ramshackle farmhouse in the Portuguese resort, where Madeleine vanished in May 2007.
Last month, Flache gave evidence in court, as part of Brueckner's trial, and described him as "very friendly and orderly". "He was very approachable," the travel agent said. "We met in 2005, around October or November. He spoke to me when I was with friends in a bar. He was polite, he had money, he was independent. He worked in restaurants and he painted.
"But at some point, I found out from him that he also financed himself from burglaries. His house was full of rubbish, car parts and various electric things. Everything was lying around. It was just an old house. I was often in the house. I stayed over just once, on New Year's Eve in 2005. I encouraged him to get a job, because he is not a stupid person, he was kind, nice, and approachable. He had little to drink and didn't take any drugs."
Asked by the judge if they had sex, Flache replied: "Yes, in the living room." She later visited him in prison in Portimao while he was serving an eight-month sentence for stealing diesel from lorries. Flache said they split up in March 2007, just six weeks before Madeleine vanished from her parents' holiday apartment in the Algarve resort. "It was clear to me that we were not really a pair, he had met someone, and he introduced me to her, and yeah, that was it," she said.
'Kidnap plot'
Ken Ralphs, who was part of the same nomadic community in the resort, previously claimed Brueckner told him how he was plotting to kidnap a child just a week before Madeleine's abduction. The 59-year-old told Sky News in February that Christian had made an offer to a friend of his, who was desperate for money.
"We were sitting around the fire one night after a meal, we had a few beers and during the early hours of the morning my friend began to cry," he said. "I asked him what the matter was and, eventually, he confessed to me he was getting involved with Christian to steal a child from Praia da Luz from a rich family." Ken claims he went on to report the conversation to police back in England.
