Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann investigation, has claimed he was within 150 yards of her holiday apartment on the night she disappeared.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, the convicted rapist and paedophile, 49, said police stopped his van three times later that evening as he attempted to make what he described as a “quick getaway”. He claimed officers allowed him to continue without searching the vehicle.
The German national denies any involvement in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine, who vanished from her family’s apartment at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. Until now, he had declined to discuss his movements that night.
Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, were dining with friends at a restaurant about 100 yards from the apartment when she disappeared.
Brueckner told the MoS that he had been on the beach, close to the family’s accommodation, selling drugs. “I was on the beach, not far from Maddie’s hotel, selling drugs. I’d been in Spain and smuggled the weed into Portugal,” he said.
He added: “I was even stopped by police three times on the street [in Praia da Luz] while they were looking for Maddie.”
“Luckily, they didn’t find the drugs. My van was full of them,” Brueckner claimed.
Describing the scene, he said: “I was making a quick getaway; there were flashing blue lights and checkpoints everywhere. I just thought, ‘Get me out of here’.” He said he had not spoken about his whereabouts because “the police want to frame me for the Maddie thing”.
Convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, the main suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, claims he was just 150 yards from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the night she vanished in 2007
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Brueckner said he had been selling cannabis on the beach and claimed police stopped his van three times while searching for Madeleine, but did not inspect the vehicle
A source close to the McCann family said the claims raised questions about what might have happened if Portuguese police had searched Brueckner’s van. “If what he [Brueckner] says is true, it obviously begs the question of what might have been if the Portuguese police had not let him slip through their fingers,” the source said.
Portuguese police faced criticism at the time for what was described as a lack of urgency and for failing to treat Madeleine’s disappearance as a possible abduction from the outset.
German prosecutors identified Brueckner as the leading suspect in the case in 2020.
They said they possessed “concrete evidence” linking him to the investigation, although not enough to bring about a conviction.
Brueckner was frequently in Portugal in 2007, and a mobile phone registered in his name was traced near the McCann family’s accommodation on the evening Madeleine disappeared.
Metropolitan Police detectives are seeking to bring Brueckner to Britain to stand trial over Madeleine’s alleged abduction and murder. He has two rape convictions and has also been found guilty of offences including theft, drug trafficking, assault and child sexual abuse.
He was released from a German prison in September last year after serving six years for raping a 72-year-old American tourist. Brueckner was subsequently placed under round-the-clock surveillance.
Separately, Brueckner is being investigated over an alleged sexual assault involving a nine-year-old girl in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, in 2015.
It remains unclear whether his claims about the night Madeleine disappeared will accelerate efforts to extradite him to the UK.
The Metropolitan Police said yesterday that a dedicated team continued to examine the case and remained in close contact with police colleagues in Germany and Portugal.
Brueckner, who denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance, said he had been trying to leave the area as police checkpoints were set up
The Metropolitan Police continue to investigate the case alongside German and Portuguese authorities
A spokesman added: ‘We will continue to pursue any viable lines of enquiry.’ In 2020, German prosecutor Christian Wolters said Brueckner’s Portuguese phone received a call from another Portuguese number at 7.32pm on the evening that Madeleine disappeared.
He said the call, which lasted 30 minutes, was significant. It was later discovered that it was from Diogo Silva, of Portugal.
But in his interview with the MoS, Brueckner stonewalled questions about this call, saying he could not remember whether he had ever used the mobile number released by German police. He also denied knowing Silva.
On the morning after Madeleine disappeared, Brueckner re-registered the Jaguar XJR-6 car he owned in Germany to a friend’s name. As for a VW camper van, which he sometimes used to live in, Brueckner sold it to a car dealer, identified as Peter W, in Regensburg, Bavaria, for £5,000 in 2015.
Brueckner insisted to the MoS: ‘I have nothing to do with the little girl’s disappearance ‘I would be happy if Maddie turned up tomorrow, then everyone would immediately understand that everything against me is and was staged. But that probably won’t happen, so I remain the prime suspect.’
