Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner ‘boasted to cellmate he kidnapped 13-year-old girl and sexually assaulted her months before Maddie vanished’, trial will be told

The prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance bragged to his cellmate that he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl just months before Madeleine disappeared.

Christian Brueckner, who is on trial in Braunschweig, Germany, accused of three rapes and two cases of child sexual abuse between 2000 and 2017 that took place at the same resort Madeleine came from, bragged about kidnapping a girl and tying her to a pole after she ran away from a youth camp.

Prison cellmate Michael Tatschl will reportedly tell the court that Brueckner bragged that she was only 13 when he held her for four days at his home in Praia da Luz, the same Algarve resort from which Madeleine disappeared in 2007.

Tatschl lived in the farmhouse with Brueckner after both were released from prison in December 2006.

A source told the Sun: ‘Tatschl will say Brueckner told him he persuaded the girl to get into a car with him and kept her for four days.

Madeleine McCann (pictured) disappeared on May 3, 2007 in Praia da Luz, Portugal

“He will tell the court. Brueckner told him he had tied the girl to a pole and sexually assaulted her.”

Brueckner’s pattern of strange and sickening behavior has been laid bare for the world to see, with a former friend revealing that the alleged kidnapper had CDs at his home with labels on them suggesting they contained child and animal pornography.

Former friend Christian Post, who used to hang out with Brueckner in Portugal, told a German court: ‘The labels on the CDs clearly showed what was on them, which made me suspect that there were things involving young people.

‘But I quickly saw it and thought it was all too poor. So I threw this away. I haven’t watched them personally. I just saw the label and then made a decision.

“Some were pornographic practices,” Post told the court. “One thing I noticed involved dogs, so this is (one) thing I subsequently threw away.

“I can’t remember the full details, but there were a few things like this, and I didn’t want to risk transporting something like this.”

He described seeing “piles of paperwork and passports” at Brueckner’s home and recalled bragging to him about his burglary skills in the Algarve, where Madeleine disappeared while on holiday in 2007.

A former friend who reveals that the alleged kidnapper had CDs at his home with labels on them suggesting they contained child and animal pornography

German police are convinced he kidnapped and murdered Madeleine, and the investigation continues years after her disappearance

It is believed Madeleine was taken from her family’s holiday home while her parents were at a nearby restaurant.

Post said: ‘He said he was active at night in Praia da Luz. He said he would climb into buildings with the windows open and take stuff with him.”

Brueckner is currently behind bars after being convicted of raping a 72-year-old American woman in the Algarve in 2005, just a few kilometers from where Madeleine would disappear two years later.

German police are convinced he kidnapped and murdered Madeleine, and the investigation continues years after her disappearance – with the most recent high-profile searches taking place at Arade Lake, some 30 miles from Praia da Luz.

Brueckner himself has repeatedly denied any involvement in her disappearance and his lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, has responded to the allegations, warning that they risk muddying the waters of Brueckner’s unrelated ongoing trial.

He said in court last month that the pedophile had been under “global media fire” since he was named by German police as the main suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2020 – with no charges yet brought against him.