Investigators vowed to the Mirror in 2021 that Christian Brueckner can be charged in months, however 4 years later they’re nonetheless trying to find proof as his launch date looms
It was a drizzly, autumnal day once I met with Hans Christian Wolters in his workplace in Braunschweig in October 2021. The quietly-spoken German prosecutor was in an unusually bullish temper.
“We’re 100% satisfied Christian Brueckner killed Madeleine McCann,” he instructed me. Noting the look of shock of my face, he continued: “There’s no different risk. There is no such thing as a hope she is alive.” Mr Wolters went even additional, immediately addressing Madeleine’s mother and father Kate and Gerry McCann. “We’re assured now we have the person who took and killed your daughter,” he mentioned. There was the headline.
He then added: “All I can do is ask to your endurance. I personally assume a conclusion will likely be reached subsequent yr.” Subsequent yr. As in 2022.
However almost 4 years on from that unique interview, a conclusion of a distinct variety seems to be on the horizon. And it isn’t one which Mr Wolters, the McCanns or the broader public are hoping for.
Christian Brueckner – the paedophile, rapist and solely suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance – is about to stroll free from jail. And it more and more seems there may be little the authorities can do to cease it taking place.
It’s a nightmare situation for them – and one which Mr Wolters insisted again in 2021 would by no means occur. However even throughout our interview, I used to be starting to have doubts about simply what police ‘had’ on Brueckner.
When naming him as their prime suspect in June 2020, prosecutors mentioned that they had “proof” Madeleine is lifeless. However once I pressed Mr Wolters on what proof that they had that proved she was lifeless however was not sufficient to cost Brueckner, he backtracked.
“It’s circumstantial proof – there are witnesses, demonstrative proof, forensic specialists, and different sorts of proof,” he admitted. “We’ve no scientific proof. If we had a video of the act [killing] then we’d not have needed to make a public attraction.
“If we had an image of Madeleine lifeless with Brueckner on digicam, then clearly the identical would apply. However we solely have circumstantial proof. We’ve no physique and no DNA however now we have different proof.”
That was the primary glimpse of issues not being fairly as rosy as billed within the Madeleine investigation. Now, no less than publicly, your complete case seems to be in disarray.
Final week I watched as a staff of German detectives looked for clues on disused farmland in Portugal. The three-day search, costing a reported £300,000, concerned using a JCB, pick-axes and ground-penetrating radar.
It resulted in obvious failure, with nothing of significance discovered.
The Germans shook fingers with their Portuguese counterparts, handing them a crate of pilsner beers as a thanks. As I watched the search peter out, I may think about the glee on the faces of Brueckner and his authorized staff.
His present launch date from Sehnde Jail, the place he’s serving a rape sentence, is September 17. That offers prosecutors simply 96 days to cost their prime suspect or watch powerlessly as he walks free from jail.
Final week’s search suggests they nonetheless would not have sufficient circumstantial proof to confidently take the case to court docket.
The primary ‘proof’ they’ve reportedly revolves across the testimony of German drifter Helge Busching. He claims Brueckner mentioned “she didn’t scream” after they mentioned the case whereas sitting round a campfire at a hippy competition in Spain in 2008.
It was one other 9 years earlier than recycling employee Busching gave police this ‘smoking gun’ nugget of knowledge. After watching a tenth anniversary Crimewatch TV particular on the Madeleine case, he determined to alert cops. He rang Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange staff, who’ve been investigating the case since 2011, and left a bombshell voicemail.
Det Con Mark Draycott recalled: “Again then we nonetheless had a public telephone quantity which was publicised around the globe. “Members of the general public may ring in info in relation to Operation Grange, the Madeleine McCann investigation.
“Considered one of my jobs was to examine the reply telephone messages. On Might 18th I checked the reply telephone and there was a message. It was from a male by the sound of his voice, he spoke good English and he requested to talk to David Edgar (personal investigator).”
DC Draycott, who stays on Operation Grange, continued: “He mentioned he had info and he left a Greek cell quantity. I then rang this Greek cell quantity and spoke to a male I now know to be Helge Lars Busching He referred to himself as Lars and he gave info in relation to the Madeleine McCann investigation.”
DC Draycott was a part of a Scotland Yard staff which flew to Athens three months later to query Busching in prime secrecy. The interview passed off in August 2017 in a resort – after bugging tools was introduced in to examine for listening units. Busching had been launched from a Greek jail weeks earlier and was on parole on the time.
“We spoke to him over two days and he gave us info in relation to the Madeleine McCann case,” DC Draycott revealed. “He was scared, he had a mistrust within the police. He was terrified of giving a press release in such a high-profile case. He mentioned he had a dialog with Christian on the Orgiva Competition in 2008.”
His proof was so explosive the House Workplace gave the go-ahead for him to be flown to London to offer a proper assertion. It was throughout his interviews that Busching instructed detectives about different alleged crimes carried out by Brueckner in Portugal. He claimed to have discovered movies in his ramshackle Praia da Luz house of the German raping girls.
His story was backed up by Manfred Seyferth, Brueckner’s partner-in-crime in Portugal, who mentioned he had additionally seen the sick house motion pictures.
Scotland Yard labored in prime secrecy for 4 months earlier than alerting Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt (BKA). Busching and Seyferth went on to turn into key witnesses in Brueckner’s 2019 rape trial, for which he’s at the moment behind bars.
Behind the scenes, German prosecutors continued to desperately seek for proof linking him to Madeleine’s disappearance. However with the case stalling, they took the dramatic resolution to disclose for the primary time that that they had a major suspect.
Predictably, it made headlines around the globe. Strict German privateness legal guidelines meant prosecutors may solely determine their suspect as ‘Christian B’. However it was solely a matter of time earlier than his full identify leaked out.
Over the next months, numerous individuals got here ahead making allegations in opposition to Brueckner. Three households declare he indecently uncovered himself in entrance of their youngsters in a playground and on a seashore in Portugal.
And Irish tour rep Hazel Behan instructed police she believed he was the intruder that raped her in her Algarve condo. Prosecutors charged him over the assaults and in addition the rapes allegedly seen by Busching and Seyferth on video.
Nevertheless, not like within the 2019 rape trial, their proof flopped in court docket. Brueckner’s defence staff repeatedly accused the pair of mendacity and overtly mocked them throughout proceedings.
They had been extra sympathetic in direction of Ms Behan, however insisted she couldn’t make sure the German was her attacker.
So it got here as no shock to anybody when Brueckner was cleared of all costs final October. It was a catastrophe for prosecutors, who noticed Busching – their proposed star witness in any Madeleine trial – ridiculed in court docket.
Decide Ute Engemann branded his court docket testimony “virtually nugatory” as a result of he had been influenced by the Madeleine case. She mentioned his statements had been “inconsistent” and described pal Seyferth’s proof as “not convincing”.
The decide went on to accuse Busching of “searching for to revenue” from his proof and making an attempt to get Brueckner locked up.
Prosecutors do produce other circumstantial proof that probably hyperlinks Brueckner to Madeleine’s disappearance. Cell phone knowledge reportedly reveals his system was within the neighborhood of the Ocean Membership advanced when she vanished in 2007.
He obtained a half-hour telephone name from a Portuguese quantity – +351 916510683 – an hour earlier than Madeleine was final seen. Police have by no means traced the opposite caller.
However Brueckner was residing in or near Praia da Luz on the time, in order that proof is hardly damning. Extra chilling is proof found by probability in 2016 at an deserted manufacturing facility he owned in Neuwegersleben, close to Braunschweig.
Police discovered a hard-drive containing vile photographs of youngsters, together with youngsters’ swimming costumes and toys and firearms.
Sick tales about kidnapping a mom and her younger daughter exterior a pre-school and abusing a younger woman had been additionally found on a laptop computer.
There have been additionally information of vile on-line chats, together with one the place he fantasised about “capturing one thing small”.
Given this circumstantial proof, and with Brueckner’s presence within the Algarve in 2007, it’s comprehensible how he turned the prime suspect.
However is that sufficient to convict him of one of the notorious crimes of the twenty first century?
Brueckner has already boasted he’ll go into hiding if he’s launched from jail in September. One former pal instructed me he expects the German to move to Cambodia or Vietnam. South America has additionally been mooted as a doable vacation spot.
Prosecutors are awaiting the end result of an attraction in opposition to final yr’s verdicts lodged in Germany’s Federal Court docket of Justice.
If that’s profitable, Brueckner will stay behind bars forward of a retrial subsequent yr and even 2027. But when, as most observers anticipate, the attraction fails, then charging him with Madeleine’s abduction is the one probability to cease him strolling free.
Judging by the smirk on his face once I not too long ago challenged him exterior court docket, Brueckner totally expects to be launched. That should be a heartbreaking prospect for Madeleine’s household.
We will solely hope German prosecutors are withholding their trump card. But when they’re, the time to play it’s quickly approaching.
