The one suspect within the disappearance of Madeleine McCann shall be released from prison in a matter of weeks.
Christian Brueckner shall be released on September 17 after serving a sentence for an unrelated rape conviction, the lead prosecutor investigating Maddie’s case confirmed.
Hans Christian Wolters said the prime suspect had to go away prison, despite believing the 48-year-old remains to be dangerous.
Brueckner has denied being involved in Madeleine’s disappearance in Praia da Luz, Portugal, and has not been charged in relation to it.
He is understood to have been within the Praia da Luz area between 2000 and 2017, and is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.
Then aged three, Maddie vanished while on holiday together with her family within the Algarve resort after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room together with her toddler twin siblings.
The little girl’s disappearance sent shock waves all over the world and sparked a large investigation that continues to at the present time.
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Wolters, who has led the German efforts to resolve Madeleine’s case, told the BBC there may be ‘nobody else’ they believe aside from Brueckner.
He added: ‘We’ve got evidence which speaks against [Brueckner], which indicates that he’s answerable for the disappearance and the death of Madeleine.
‘We haven’t found anything within the last five years that exonerates [him]. We found evidence that strengthens our case.
‘But in our view, it’s not strong enough to make a guilty verdict likely, and that’s why to date we couldn’t charge him or apply for an arrest warrant.’
The suspect told a journalist earlier this 12 months that if he does get out of jail, he’ll leave Germany for a rustic with no extradition treaty and lie low as he’s so well-known.
He also said he most looking forward to eating steak with a beer when he walks free.
A brand new seek for evidence was carried out in July this 12 months on the request of German police as they raced against time to charge Brückner.
Investigators searched areas between Praia da Luz and a house near the vacation resort where he used to live, but nothing was found.
Timeline of events since Madeleine’s disappearance
- May 3, 2007: Kate and Gerry McCann leave their children asleep of their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while they dine with friends. They check on their children thrice throughout the night, and, at 10 pm, they find her missing
- May 14, 2007: Police take property developer Robert Murat in for questioning and make him a proper suspect – that is later withdrawn.
- August 11, 2007: 100 days after her disappearance, detectives acknowledge that she may very well be dead.
- September 7, 2007: Maddie’s parents develop into formal suspects of their daughter’s disappearance.
- September 9, 2007: The McCanns return to England with their two-year-old twins.
- July 21, 2008: Portuguese authorities shelve the investigation and take away the McCanns and Murat as suspects.
- May 12, 2011: Kate McCann publishes a book about her daughter’s disappearance on her eighth birthday
- April 25, 2012: Scotland Yard detectives say they imagine Madeleine could still be alive and release an image of how she may look as a nine-year-old. They ask Portuguese police to reopen the case, but they are saying they’ve found no latest information.
- July 4, 2013: Scotland Yard confirms it has launched its own investigation and says it has identified 38 people of interest, including 12 Britons.
- October 24, 2013: Portuguese police resolve to reopen the case
- January 29, 2014: British detectives fly out to Portugal
- June 3, 2024: Sniffer dogs and specialist teams are used to look an area of scrubland near where Madeleine went missing.
- December 12, 2024: Detectives begin questioning 11 individuals who it is believed can have information on the case.
- September 16, 2014: The Government states that the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance has to date cost £10 million
- October 28, 2014: Scotland Yard cuts the variety of officers working on the inquiry from 29 to 4.
- April 30, 2017: The McCanns mark 10 years since her disappearance with a BBC interview.
- May 3, 2019: Local media reports say Portuguese detectives are investigating a foreign paedophile as a suspect in the kidnapping of Madeleine.
- June 3, 2020: Police reveal that a 43-year-old German prisoner, later named as Christian Brueckner, has been identified as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.
- April 21, 2022: Christian Brueckner is made a proper suspect by Portuguese authorities.
- October 11, 2022: Brueckner is charged with three counts of rape and two charges of kid sex abuse, unrelated to Madeleine’s disappearance.
- May 3, 2023: Kate and Gerry McCann mark the sixteenth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance by saying she is “still very much missed” and that they ‘await a breakthrough’.
- May 22, 2023: An area near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz, is sealed off as police prepare to begin searching on May 23.
- May 23, 2023: Searches begin with police divers within the water and officers with sniffer dogs and rakes seen on the banks.
- June 23, 2023: A person named Helge B claimed to the German newspaper Bild that Brueckner almost confessed to killing Maddie, allegedly telling him ‘she didn’t scream’ when the pair talked concerning the case at a music festival
- July 11, 2023: The German prosecutor involved with the case warns to not ‘expect an excessive amount of’ from the search.
- February 16, 2024: Brueckner’s trial starts over three counts of alleged rape and sexual abuse of two children not connected to the Madeleine investigation
- October 8, 2024: He’s acquitted of all of the allegations as a result of ‘insufficient’ evidence. An appeal over the acquittal is launched, which remains to be ongoing
- March 27, 2025: A 60-year-old woman is charged with stalking the McCann family
- May 3, 2025: Maddie’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, mark the 18th anniversary of her disappearance with a heartbreaking message
- June 3, 2025: a brand new search near Brueckner’s home and trenches around Praia da Luz begins
- September 17, 2025: That is the date Brueckner may very well be released from prison if no further charges are brought
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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