Authorities issue 'urgent plea' for help as prime suspect in Madeleine McCann case set to be freed in months
Topics: Madeleine McCann, Crime, Germany, Police, UK News
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: Handout/Getty Images
Topics: Madeleine McCann, Crime, Germany, Police, UK News
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse and rape which some readers may find distressing
Investigators in Germany are allegedly ‘pleading’ with British police to reopen their probe into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann amid prime suspect Christian Brueckner’s potential jail release.
Madeleine McCann was just three years old when she disappeared from her family’s ground-floor apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, on May 3, 2007.
Madeleine was left in her bedroom as her mother and father, Kate and Gerry McCann, went out for food at a restaurant in viewing distance of their apartment, with the parents routinely checking on her and her twin siblings.
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Authorities have also never convicted anybody of her abduction and/or murder.
In 2020, Brueckner was named as the prime suspect in McCann’s disappearance. He has previously denied all involvement in the McCann case, and has never been formally charged.
In 2016, police found children’s clothing and pictures of children hidden in a disused factory he owned. A hard drive was also allegedly discovered, which authorities claim ‘contains evidence’ that ‘Madeline is dead’.
The criminal, who is due to be released from behind bars as early as September 2025, is currently serving time in German prison for seven years after being convicted of raping a 72-year-old woman in 2005.
Last October, a court in Germany acquitted Brueckner of five further rape and sexual abuse offences in an unrelated case that took place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Presiding Judge Uta Engemann said there was insufficient evidence for a conviction and some of the witnesses were unreliable, as per the BBC.
To mark 18 years since the harrowing event, British broadcaster Channel 4 aired a documentary on Wednesday (May 8) titled Madeleine McCann: The Unseen Evidence.
The purpose of the programme was to ‘uncover further evidence that could point towards the prime suspect Brueckner’s involvement in the unsolved crime’.
In a new report published by The Sun, it’s claimed German investigators want the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Grange team to pour more time and money into their missing persons probe.
“There is huge interest in Germany in the British stepping up their investigation again,” a source told the publication. “The clock is against the case here and investigators do not want to see Brueckner walk free.
“Their best option could be intervention from UK cops - but they have to be prepared to take it on. There are 20,000 pages of Madeleine evidence and the Germans are ready to translate the lot.”
A spokesperson from the Metropolitan Police told LADbible Group that they continue to work with German and Portuguese police.
“We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May, 2007 in Praia da Luz." they told LADbible. “This includes working with our colleagues in Germany and Portugal.”
The representative added that the force’s thoughts ‘remain’ with the McCann family.
Following the recent reports surrounding the evidence presented in the documentary, German police told LADbible: "I can't comment on the documentary because I haven't seen it. In my opinion, the article in the Sun doesn't contain any real news and also contains few direct references to Madeleine McCann.
"I assume the article was published only because of the anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance and not because of the timeliness of the alleged evidence."