The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been released from German prison after serving seven years for the rape of an elderly woman.
It is the first time Christian Brueckner, 49, has been among the general public since he was named as a suspect in the missing toddler’s case, although he denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
The German national, also known as Christian B, was imprisoned for the rape of a 72-year-old US woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2005.
He also has two previous convictions for sexual abuse of a child, in unrelated cases to Madeleine McCann.
Brueckner has never been charged in relation to the McCann case, but German authorities began investigating him in June 2020 for her kidnap and murder.
He was first named as an official suspect in 2022, 16 years after the toddler went missing.
Madeleine McCann was three years old when she 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.
Her disappearance has become one of the most high-profile missing person cases in history.
Brueckner lived in the Portuguese coastal village of Praia da Luz on and off between 1995 and 2007, and was based around 1 mile away from the resort where the McCanns were staying.
He worked odd-jobs, and had experience of breaking into apartments. Police said he burgled hotels and villas, and also sold drugs.
His Portuguese mobile phone was in Praia da Luz when it received a half-hour phone call around an hour before Madeleine, three, was last seen.
Detectives said Brueckner was believed to have been living in a distinctive early 1980s VW T3 Westfalia campervan at the time and re-registered a 1993 Jaguar XJR6 in someone else’s name the day after her disappearance.
Editor of the Olive Press newspaper in Spain, Jon Clarke, who has covered the case since Madeleine’s disappearance, points out that Christian Brueckner is still facing “two imminent verdicts” in Germany.
“The police will keep a very close eye on him when he is out to prevent him reoffending again,” explained the author of My Search for Madeleine.
“In fact I’ve been told there are many activities being carried out by various law enforcement authorities at the moment to lower the risk as far as possible.”
“He is going to need to give a proper address and will have a probation officer checking him very closely,” he added.
German police consider Madeleine’s case to be a murder investigation, while the Metropolitan Police still treat the case as a missing persons inquiry.
A number of searches have been carried out in Portugal by German, Portuguese and British authorities.
The most recent search took place in June, when German and Portuguese investigators focused on a number of abandoned buildings in the countryside near Praia da Luz, between the complex and where Christian Brueckner had been staying.
The search ended with no significant breakthroughs.
Before Brueckner’s release, the Metropolitan Police announced they had sent an international letter of request to interview him about Madeleine’s disappearance, which he refused.
ITV News spoke to one of Brueckner’s former associates, Helge Buschung, who said he is “100% sure” the German national was involved in her kidnapping.
Both German nationals operated in the Algarve and committed crimes together, from stealing solar panels and diesel, to drug dealing.
Busching told ITV News how Brueckner appeared to let slip details of his involvement in the three-year-old’s disappearance, describing how she “wasn’t screaming” during a conversation about the case.
He also said Brueckner was “a dangerous man. A really dangerous man”
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