TW: mentions of rape and child kidnapping.
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Madeleine McCann’s disappearance shook the whole world in 2007 and hers is still a name we all remember. The three-year-old vanished from an apartment while on a family holiday in Portugal, and investigators are still trying to find her. Recently, the Portuguese Police apologised to Madeleine’s parents and admitted that they had been ‘right all along’. At the time, Kate and Gerry McCann had suggested the theory that someone - who had gone on to kidnap their daughter - had been watching the family.
The Police now believe that this is true, and their prime suspect is a man named Christian Brueckner. Brueckner is currently serving a 7-year prison sentence for raping a 72 year-old American tourist in the same resort where Madeleine went missing - just two years before the toddler vanished.
He has always denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance, but testimonies from people he came into contact with paint him in a very bad light. Many of these have been detailed in the BBC’s documentary Prime Suspect: Who took Madeleine McCann?
Brueckner was prone to ‘fits of rage’
Brigitte Szegedi managed a bar that Brueckner used to frequent sometime after Madeleine’s disappearance. Szegedi says she saw him ‘almost every day’ at the Madame-Eck bar in Braunschweig.
She said that he was usually friendly:
When he was here, he was nice. If you had a beer with him here, you would have said 'Christian, best friend'.
But there were signs of his dangerous character:
He has two sides. He had fits of rage with some people. Not with women, but with men.
I saw it after he drank a bit too much, but only with men, not with women.
Brueckner was part of a ‘gang’ and ‘strangled’ his teenage girlfriend
Another man, who worked in a shop previously owned by the suspect, told an even more terrifying story. He explained how Brueckner surprised him with a visit from him and his gang. Why? He wanted his freezer back:
He had this long knife and wanted to stab me. He was drunk or on drugs. His eyes glistened like mad and he was filled with rage.
Horrifyingly, the stories just seem to get worse. Brueckner was known to have a teenage girlfriend when he was in his 30s.
A German local has revealed what the teen told him about her abusive partner. He said:
I met her at the bus stop and asked her where she had those strangulation marks from, and she told me he strangled her and beat her.
Telling the story, the man himself got shivers: ‘Look, I’m getting goosebumps’. He said that the young woman was ‘scared stiff’ of Brueckner.
However, the investigation is yet to find any concrete proof that Brueckner was involved in Madeleine’s disappearance. The investigators are hopeful to solve the case within the next year.
Read more:
⋙ Missing French toddler: This is why investigators raided Émile's grandparent's house
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⋙ Cher accused of kidnapping son Elijah by ex daughter-in-law: Who is Marieangela King?
Sources used:
GB News: Madeleine McCann latest: Brueckner ‘had fits of uncontrollable rage’ as he ‘beat teenage girlfriend’
Mail Online: Childhood friend of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner fears he will come back to take revenge on her after she reveals he was part of 'rebellious gang'
Mail Online: Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner moans that inmates have threatened to kill him and he is in constant fear of attack as he serves sentence for raping pensioner
