The Metropolitan Police announced they need to push ahead with plans to place Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner on trial.
Shortly after the news got here out, Brueckner, 48, a convicted rapist, issued a sinister response: ‘I even have good lawyers.’
If the Met can persuade the Crown Prosecution Service to authorise charges against one of the crucial high-profile suspects within the disappearance of Madeleine, he could stand trial.
‘Next 12 months marks 20 years since Madeleine McCann went missing. If the evidence is robust enough to extradite the prime suspect and take a look at him here, that’s what we might seek to do,’ a Met insider told the Telegraph.
Brueckner backed down, nevertheless, adding: ‘I think that is just hot air again. Extradition would require an arrest warrant. But there definitely isn’t one.
‘Like all countries, Germany only extradites individuals if there’s an arrest warrant against them. And I actually think it’s out of the query that there’s an arrest warrant against CB within the Maddie case. I’m not able to say whether the British police can obtain an arrest warrant from a British court.’
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The German national was named because the prime suspect within the disappearance of the British tot in 2022 by German authorities.
The Met’s announcement comes days after the nineteenth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.
On the anniversary, Kate and Gerry McCann shared a brand new message on the Official Find Madeleine Campaign Facebook page.
’19 years. The search goes on… to search out our Madeleine, to attain some justice, to make the world that bit safer,’ they wrote.
‘We remain very grateful for all our support from family and friends, people we all know and people we don’t, and from the police and authorities for his or her continued determination and energy. Thanks.
‘For Madeleine, whom we love and miss daily, we’ll never surrender. Kate, Gerry and family.’
Madeleine was three when she vanished from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve while on a break together with her siblings and oldsters.
Where is Christian Brueckner now?
Prime suspect and convicted rapist Brueckner was released after serving a jail sentence in his native Germany last September.
He had been serving a seven-year sentence for an unrelated sex crime. Along with his conviction for the rape of the girl within the Algarve, he also has convictions for child abuse and drug trafficking.
State prosecutors in Germany have said there’s circumstantial evidence suggesting Brueckner was involved in Maddie’s disappearance, including three witnesses who said he had confessed to them.
He lived within the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, with a period spent working as a pool maintenance assistant on the Praia da Luz resort, where the McCanns were staying when their daughter vanished.
But extensive searches for more direct evidence have ended without success.
He has never been charged with any crimes in reference to Madeleine.
In March, it was announced that more funding had been granted to proceed to research the disappearance.
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