Madeline McCann disappearance: Bombshell claim about chief suspect Christopher Brueckner

The main suspect in Maddie McCann’s disappearance is said to have confessed to a friend and petty criminal that the British toddler ‘didn’t scream’ after being ripped from her parents’ holiday home, never to be seen again.

Madeleine McCann was just three years old when she disappeared from her bed at her parents’ holiday home in the coastal town of Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007, sparking one of the world’s most persistent cold cases.

Although no one has ever been charged in the toddler’s disappearance, German authorities revealed in June 2020 that convicted rapist Christian Brueckner was their prime suspect. This week he will be tried in Germany on unrelated charges.

Mr. Brueckner, known as Christian B under German privacy laws, is accused of raping a 14-year-old and two other women, as well as sexually abusing other children, and is currently in prison, convicted of rape.

An integral part of the upcoming trial is petty criminal and former friend of Brueckner, Helge Busching, who told journalist Jutta Rabe that the sex criminal had confessed to him at a music festival that Maddie McCann “didn’t scream.”

“He said ‘she didn’t scream, she didn’t scream’, that’s what Brueckner said and then I looked at Mr Brueckner and thought ‘what are you telling me now?'” Mr Busching said in an audio broadcast on Sunday to 60 minutes.

Ms. Rabe told 60 Minutes, “And then his response to that is, ‘Huh? What did you just say? She didn’t scream? How can you know that?’ … At this moment he realized, ‘He knows. He, he’s been there. He took her away.”

Mr Busching claimed to have reported his suspicions to police twice, first to Scotland Yard in 2008 and again on the tenth anniversary of her disappearance, although no follow-up followed until 2020.

At the time, telephone records obtained by German police placed Brueckner near the holiday home while he was living between Germany and Portugal. The revelation made the convicted rapist the prime suspect.

According to 60 Minutes, Busching will prove that he saw videos of Brueckner assaulting women. Ms Rabe also told the program that she had regularly received letters from Brueckner in prison.

The prosecutor in the McCann case, Hans Christian Wolters, told 60 Minutes that he had no doubt that Brueckner is their prime suspect and that Mr Busching was a “credible” witness who gave evidence in another case against Brueckner.

‘The investigation is still ongoing. “We have work to do and when we come to an end, if we think it is enough, we will charge Christian B and if it is not enough, we will have to close the case,” he said.