Christian Brueckner laughs off suggestions he could be extradited to Britain to face trial for kidnapping Madeleine McCann
Madeleine McCann’s main suspect, Christian Brueckner, has blasted Scotland Yard by laughing off suggestions that he could be extradited to Britain and face trial for her kidnapping.
Convicted rapist and pedophile Christian Brueckner, 48, was sensationally named by German authorities as the person responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance from Portugal in 2007, six years ago.
But no charges have been filed since, and he remains the subject of intense investigation despite relentless efforts to bring him to justice.
A source close to his legal team told the Daily Mail exclusively: ‘We’ve been here many times before and nothing has ever happened; we are sure that this effort will go in the same direction.
‘If the British authorities have any evidence and are so sure of it, why don’t they share it with the Germans so they can look at it and make their own charges.
‘German law prohibits German citizens from being extradited to another country; they can only be tried in Germany, so the chance of this happening is zero.’
Meanwhile, another source close to Brueckner said: “He has seen the news and is aware of it. He is completely unfazed by it. As far as he’s concerned, they’ve had years to bring a case against him, but they haven’t succeeded.
‘He is confident that this will not lead to anything anytime soon, but on the other hand he has always been an arrogant and confident man.’
Convicted rapist and pedophile Christian Brueckner, 48, was named by German authorities as the person responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance from Portugal in 2007, six years ago
Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007
Brueckner was released last September from a seven-year prison sentence for rape, a crime committed in the Algarve, near Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared.
Since then, he has been in hiding and living a rough life as locals chase him from various locations where he has moved to try to start a new life.
He was ordered to wear an ankle monitor so police could track his movements, but in November a court ruled that he could not be banned from traveling abroad as it was ‘unconstitutional’.
Scotland Yard officers from Operation Grange – the unit set up to investigate Madeleine’s disappearance – contacted him to ask for his cooperation, but he has always refused to speak.
In letters to the Daily Mail, Brueckner always denied any involvement in the disappearance, insisting he was being made a scapegoat by German authorities.
There is a large amount of circumstantial evidence linking Brueckner to the case: his cell phone pinged near the apartment where three-year-old Madeleine disappeared.
He has previous convictions for child abuse, and crucially his name was given to both German and British police by an informant in 2008.
They told detectives that Brueckner told them a year after Madeleine’s disappearance that she “didn’t scream” when she was taken.