Christian Brueckner, a suspect in the adeleine McCann case, alleges German police are attempting to frame him for various crimes in the hopes he will confess.
45-year-old Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for a 2005 rape he committed in Portugal.
He stated that authorities were attempting to coerce him into confessing to a string of other offenses so that he could “leave this mental anguish.”
Brueckner spent many years in Portugal, notably in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine vanished there in 2007; nevertheless, he denies any participation and has not been charged, but he remains under investigation for her death.
45-year-old Madeleine McCann (right) suspect Christian Brueckner (left) stated that German police were attempting to coerce him into confessing to a series of other crimes.
Madeleine vanished from this condominium in the Portuguese town of Praia da Luz in 2007 while on vacation with her family.
The convicted German rapist stated in a letter acquired by The Mirror from prison, “There is no evidence whatsoever that I did any of these acts.” Without DNA, there is nothing.
“The prosecution is attempting to entrap me in the hopes that I would cave to mental strain.”
They expect that if I simply say “yes” to everything, I will be able to escape this mental anguish.
Hans Christian Wolters, the German prosecutor, stated that Maddie is dead and that he is “100% certain” Brueckner is responsible.
He stated that detectives are ‘exclusively’ focused on the probe.
Brueckner was charged with a series of sex offences last month, but none of them are related to the abduction of the British teenager.
Christian Brueckner (left) was charged with a series of sex crimes allegedly committed in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017 last month. He is also suspected of kidnapping Maddie (right) in 2007 from the same region, but has not been charged.
Brueckner was not charged with Madeleine McCann’s disappearance from the Praia da Luz residence of her parents Kate and Gerry (shown) last month.
German authorities identified Brueckner as the individual responsible for Madeleine’s abduction in May 2007 with great hoopla and international media attention two years ago.
Until this month, no charges had been filed and the inquiry had failed to conclusively link him to Madeleine, despite prosecutors’ heartbreaking announcement that they had ‘solid evidence’ the child was dead and that Brueckner was the perpetrator and that they had ‘linked’ him to her.
On October 11, German investigators charged him with five crimes committed between 2000 and 2017 while he was traveling between his native Germany and Portugal.
They include the rapes of two unidentified women in Portugal, the rape of a 20-year-old Irish woman in 2004, the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old German girl on a Portuguese beach in April 2007 – not far from where Madeleine vanished a month earlier – and a further sexual abuse case in Portugal in 2017.
Friedrich Fulscher, Brueckner’s attorney, stated that the fresh allegations came as a “total surprise” to him and his client, and that they were based on “questionable witnesses and video evidence that no one has been able to locate.”
The allegations relating to the alleged rapes of the two unidentified ladies are the result of a video recording of Brueckner allegedly assaulting them.
Two important witnesses and old friends of Brueckner, Helge Busching and Manfred Seyferth, are said to have taken the camera with the footage from the German’s home in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast.
In the video, which has since vanished, they depict an elderly mother and a small girl being raped by a man identified as Brueckner.
Brueckner is currently charged with five sexual assaults in the same location where Maddie disappeared in 2007. He is the leading suspect in her disappearance, but he has not been charged.
Brueckner is accused of committing a rape sometime between December 28, 2000 and April 8, 2006 against an unidentified woman between the ages of 70 and 80.
He is said to have bound and raped the woman in the bedroom of her vacation accommodation and beaten her with a whip while filming the incident.
On another occasion between the same dates, he is accused of committing a similar rape against an unidentified 14-year-old German-speaking girl in his home in Praia da Luz, tying her up and filming the assault.
In June 2004, the defendant reportedly gained entrance to the apartment of a then-20-year-old Irish woman in Praia da Rocha via the balcony. The sleeping woman was then awoken at knifepoint by the masked suspect and raped.
The accused is also suspected of filming significant portions of the incident with a video camera he brought there.
In April 2007, the defendant reportedly ambushed a 10-year-old German girl who was playing on the beach in Salema, Faro, Portugal, while wearing just shoes. He allegedly made her witness him perform a sex act against her will.
Ten years later, he allegedly committed a similar act on a little girl in a playground in Sao Bartolomeu de Messines, Portugal.
According to prosecutors, the girl ran to her father for help, and Portuguese police detained the suspect at the site.
According to German law, German nationals suspected of crimes abroad may be tried in their home country.
Investigators suspect the 45-year-old also murdered three-year-old Madeleine after abducting her on May 3, 2007 from a vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. He has not been charged with her disappearance, though.
Portuguese officials recognized Brueckner as a suspect in the McCann case in June 2020. Brueckner has reportedly denied any connection in the crime.