Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner's disturbing past and sick crimes in full
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Paedophile Christian Brueckner will soon walk free if detectives cannot find evidence to charge him with Madeleine McCann's disappearance. In May 2007, Maddie vanished without a trace during a family holiday and her 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. Brueckner, who was made a formal suspect by Portuguese prosecutors in 2022, has denied any involvement in her case.
He is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping a pensioner in Portugal in 2005, but could be freed in September, with prosecutors now admitting he will not faces any charges for the forseeable future. Brueckner, 48, was cleared in October last year of a string of unrelated sex charges, and prosecutors are now working to appeal the verdicts - but, German legal observers believe they are unlikely to succeed.
The only way to stop him from being released in September is by charging him in the Madeleine case. As Kate and Gerry face yet another devastating blow, the Mirror takes a look at Brueckner's dark past - from his upbringing to his twisted convictions...
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.
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 seven-year prison term for raping an American pensioner in Praia da Luz and drug trafficking.
