German detective issues update after bombshell claims that Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner had confessed to abducting girl from Algarve flat
A German detective has provided an update on the claims against the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, confirming some of the bombshell revelations an ex-prisoner made about the suspected perpetrator earlier this week.
A German detective has provided an update on the claims against the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, confirming some of the bombshell revelations an ex-prisoner made about the suspected perpetrator earlier this week.
Convicted paedophile and rapist Christian Brueckner is the man who German investigators believe abducted and killed Madeleine, then aged just three, from her parents holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
Yesterday at Braunschweig Regional Court, Larentius Codin, a former inmate in the same prison as Brueckner, made shocking claims that the suspect had told him about various rapes.
He was giving evidence in Brueckners trial for a series of sex offences unrelated to Maddies disappearance.
Codin, 50, claimed that Brueckner had boasted of raping young girls in a bus near Hanover, and also abducting a child from an apartment in Portugal, then driving away with her.
He also claimed Brueckner had asked about whether sniffer dogs could detect childrens bones hidden under the earth.
Christian Brueckner (C) is brought to the courtroom for a session of his trial at court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, on September 25, 2024
Madeleine McCann (pictured) went missing on May 3, 2007 at the age of just three. She has never been found. German criminal Christian Brueckner has been named by German prosecutors as their chief suspect in her disappearance
Christian Brueckner, 47, is currently serving a seven-year sentence for the rape of a US pensioner in 2005 and drug trafficking, and is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Speaking in Braunschweig today, detective Niko Mueller confirmed that some of the allegations Codin made in court earlier this week matched those he disclosed when questioned back in August 2020.
Mueller, 35, is an investigator with the BKA, Germanys equivalent of the FBI, that has conducted investigations into the case.
We had him named as a possible contact to Christian Brueckner, so we were able to establish he was in prison and so we approached him in this capacity, the detective said.
He was told what it was about, we said was a murder case involving Madeleine McCann and that there was a suspect, Christian and we wanted to talk to him about that.
At first he talked about Christian Brueckner having asked him if he could sort him out with a fake passport and driving licence, as he said it would be good for Brueckner if he goes back to Portugal.
But later he reported that Christian Brueckner had committed rapes in Hanover… at this moment I hadnt heard of this before.
Mueller also confirmed that Codin had said Brueckner committed several rapes in Portugal.
He talked about two rapes in Portugal. He said that one was a 70-year-old woman in a hotel and that another woman had been raped in Portugal.
There were however elements of Codins testimony this week that the BKA had not heard.
When it came to the issue of Brueckner having raped girls in a bus in Hanover, or of taking them for a few days and then letting them go, officer Mueller said that Codin had not previously revealed this information to authorities.
No, this not reported to me like this, he said.
He also said that Codin had not discussed anything about Brueckner having supposedly broken into an apartment in Portugal to find money and gold, or that he had instead found a child which he then took and drove off with, before asking about whether dogs could sniff out the DNA of childrens bones hidden under the ground.
German investigators sensationally named Brueckner as the key suspect in the abduction of the British three-year-old
Kate and Gerry McCann pose with a computer generated image of how their missing daughter Madeleine might look now, during a news conference in 2012
Pictured: The holiday complex where the McCanns were staying in Portugals Algarve region in May 2007, when their three-year-old daughter vanished without a trace
There are strong indications that Brueckner will be acquitted of the offences he currently faces.
The only way German authorities could then keep him in prison would be if the courts forensic psychiatric expert, Dr Christian Riedemann, deems him dangerous for society.
So far the presiding judge, Uta Inse Engemann, who the prosecution has already tried to have removed on the basis that she is allegedly biased in favour of the defence, has already stated that there is no longer sufficient suspicion of guilt for all of the charges, strongly indicating that he is likely to be acquitted.
But if Brueckner is acquitted, the prosecution could then move to initiate preventative detention, whereby criminals deemed to pose a threat to society are kept in prison.
Tomorrow will be the second time that Dr Riedemann gives an assessment of Christian Brueckners personality.
On day 33 of the trial, he also did this, first discussing an introduction of scientific research on sadistic offenders, and arguing that their main motivation is not sex, but rather power.
Here he said that sadists enjoy humiliating their victims, physically hurting them, tying them up and subjugating them.
Brueckner has never been formally charged in relation to Madeleines disappearance and has always strongly denied any involvement.
