Prime suspect says he was only 150 yards from McCann apartment on night she vanished
Christian Brueckner, the main suspect in Madeleine McCann’s 2007 disappearance, told the Mail on Sunday he was just 150 yards from the family’s apartment that night and was stopped three times by police without being searched.
In an interview, Christian Brueckner, the German one outlet identified by prosecutors as the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, admitted he was just 150 yards from the McCanns’ Ocean Club apartment on the night she vanished. He said he was on Praia da Luz beach selling cannabis and that police stopped his van three times as checkpoints were set up, yet they did not search it. Brueckner, who has convictions for rape and other crimes, maintains he had no role in the girl’s disappearance and alleges police want to frame him.
German prosecutors have held “concrete evidence” since 2020 but have not secured a charge, while the Metropolitan Police continue to work with German and Portuguese counterparts on extradition. He was released from a German prison in September after serving six years for the rape of a US tourist and remains under round-the-clock surveillance. A separate investigation links him to a 2015 alleged sexual attack on a nine-year-old in Braunschweig, and his new statements could affect the push to bring him to the UK for trial.
Why it matters
His admission could reshape the investigation and impact extradition efforts in a high-profile missing-child case.
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