Prime suspect in Madeleine McCann case released from prison in Germany

THE MAIN SUSPECT in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal was released from a German prison this morning. 

Christian Brueckner, 49, had been serving a seven-year sentence at Sehnde prison in northern Germany for raping a 72-year-old American woman in 2005 in Portugal’s Algarve region, where Madeleine went missing. 

Brueckner was named by prosecutors in 2020 as a prime suspect in Germany’s federal investigation into the toddler’s disappearance but was never charged due to a lack of evidence.

The three-year-old vanished in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in 2007, shortly after she was left sleeping by her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who went for dinner in a nearby restaurant.

Despite a major international manhunt, global media attention and multiple lines of inquiry, no trace of the British child has been found and no one has been charged over the disappearance. 

Brueckner has previously denied any involvement in her disappearance.

German chief prosecutor Christian Wolters warned that Brueckner remains “dangerous” and was considered likely to reoffend.

Prosecutors had applied for conditions on Brueckner’s release, such as making him wear an electronic ankle tag and requiring him to inform them where he lives.

Wolters also voiced fears that Brueckner might leave Germany “because of all the media hype”.  

Brueckner was first convicted of sexually abusing children when he was still a teenager, as reported by Der Spiegel news magazine.

He was also charged in October 2022 with five separate counts of rape and child sex abuse allegedly committed between 2000 and 2017 in the same region of Portugal where the British toddler went missing. Brueckner was acquitted on all charges, thwarting prosecutors’ hopes of keeping him in jail while they continued to investigate the McCann case.

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Prosecutors in Braunschweig, where Brueckner was tried on the 2022 charges, have applied for a retrial in a different court, but a decision on those proceedings is not expected before next year.

Wolters said German investigations into the child’s disappearance were ongoing.

Prosecutors “have not yet evaluated everything” found during the new search in Praia da Luz in June, and there are also still “other lines of inquiry”, he said.

“We just hope that if we need him again, we’ll be able to get him” Wolters said.

Brueckner’s defence lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher told public broadcaster NDR that the comments by the public prosecutor’s office “will have an impact on his future life”, predicting his client might struggle to reintegrate into society because “people will not want to have any kind of contact with a suspected child murderer”.

The UK’s Metropolitan Police confirmed that the German man also remains a suspect in their own investigation into the McCann’s disappearance. 

Ahead of his release from prison, Brueckner has refused to speak with the Met, who requested an interview with the German suspect. 

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, a senior officer for the Met’s investigation, said the force will “continue to pursue any viable lines of inquiry” in the absence of an interview with Brueckner.

In 2023, investigators carried out searches near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz.

Brueckner spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017 and had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.

In June, police searched an overgrown area and abandoned buildings in Portugal near where Brueckner previously lived but have not yet shared if evidence was found. 

- Additional reporting by Faye Madden