Madeleine McCann suspect ‘snatched child’ days before toddler vanished and ‘filmed himself assaulting another girl’

18 January 2024, 15:41

The prime suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann's disappearance kidnapped another child just days before the British toddler went missing, according to new charges.

Convicted rapist Christian Brueckner, 47, has been accused of abducting a child from a beach and sexually assaulting her in 2007.

Brueckner, who has been accused of a series of sex crimes against women and children, is due to stand trial in Germany next month.

Documents released on Thursday show the convicted rapist has been accused of snatching a child from a beach in April 2007, days before Madeleine McCann disappeared.

Prosecutors allege Brueckner snatched the child at around 3:30pm from the beach before forcing her to perform sex acts on him.

The court documents also reveal that he is accused of attacking a 14-year-old girl and tying her to a post in his rented home in Portugal.

He allegedly beat her with a whip and forced her to perform sex acts on him and recorded the attack on camera.

The attack reportedly occurred at some point between December 2000 and April 2006 less than a mile from where Madeleine went missing.

Brueckner is set to go to trial next month over five separate attacks that took place across European locations between 2000 and 2017.

He is already serving a seven-year sentence in Germany for rape and drug trafficking.

Brueckner is the prime suspect in the case of missing Madeleine McCann, who went missing aged three from her bed while on holiday in Portugal with her family in 2007.

For the last five years, the authorities have investigated the convict in connection to the three-year-old’s disappearance but he has not been charged.

Further court documents show that Brueckner’s most recent accusation relates to an incident from 2017.

He allegedly made “eye contact” with a young boy in a playground at a folk festival before he exposed his genitals and began “pleasuring himself”.

The boy ran off to his father for help before an off-duty police officer later made a citizen’s arrest.

Brueckner was extradited to Germany in 2018 and was later found guilty of the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz.

A court file reads: “On an undetermined day between December 28, 2000 and April 8, 2006, the defendant is said to have surprised an unknown woman, aged approximately between 70 and 80, in her holiday apartment on the Algarve.

“The masked defendant tied up the victim, raped her and then beat her with a whip. He recorded the event with a video camera.”

Brueckner has denied the allegations made against him.

It comes after Madeleine McCann’s parents issued a fresh statement on their daughter’s disappearance on New Year’s Day.

They said while there is "no significant news" in their efforts, they believe perseverance will pay off.

"Whilst there is no new significant news to share in the search for Madeleine, efforts continue with the same determination, commitment and vigour. We believe such perseverance will eventually yield results,” they wrote on the Official Find Madeleine Campaign.

Portuguese prosecutors named Brueckner as a formal suspect in 2022, with the German national having spent time around the Praia da Luz resort between 2000 and 2017.

British authorities continue to treat Madeleine as a missing person case.In October, police in Portugal apologised to the McCanns for making them suspects early in the investigation.

They say the initial probe was not conducted properly.