New suspect in Madeleine McCann case also investigated over missing German girl
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The new suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has also been investigated over the disappearance of a German girl, according to German media reports.
The 43-year-old German man, named in reports as Christian Brueckner, is currently serving a prison sentence.
He is believed to have been in the area where Madeleine, three, went missing while on holiday in Portugal in 2007.
A handout photo made available by the Milan branch of Italy’s Carabinieri police force shows an undated photograph of 43-year-old German convict Christian Brueckner, whom investigators are treating as the main suspect in the as-yet-unsolved case of the 2007 disappearance of British child Madeleine McCann in Portugal. EPA-EFE/CARABINIERI HANDOUT
A source told the BBC an investigation into the suspect began after a tip-off in Germany in 2017.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the McCanns said they would be “encouraged” by the response to the latest appeal for information.
An undated handout photo made available by the Saxony-Anhalt police of 5-year-old girl Inga G. who has been missing since 02 May 2015. EPA-EFE/SAXONY ANHALT POLICE HANDOUT
The UK’s Metropolitan Police said it had received more than 270 calls and emails since revealing details of the new suspect on Wednesday.
German prosecutors have said they are assuming Madeleine is dead and that the suspect is being investigated on suspicion of murder.
A number of German media reports said the suspect had been investigated over the disappearance of a five-year-old German girl – named only as Inga.
She went missing from a family party in Saxony-Anhalt on 2 May 2015 and has never been found.
Police have refused to confirm the investigation or comment on a report which says officers searched an area of nearby land belonging to Christian B in February 2016.
He is currently serving an unrelated sentence for drug trafficking in the northern German city of Kiel.
German court documents show that he has served two-thirds of that sentence and can be considered for parole from Sunday onwards.
But even if a judge decides to release him on probation for the drugs offence, he will remain in custody over the rape case.
Brueckner appealed over that conviction to Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, which referred it to the European Court of Justice.
He claims his extradition to Germany under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) was unlawful because it related to the drug charge rather than the rape.
Brueckner had fled to Italy and was found in Milan in September 2018.
Under the principle of “specialty”, extradited people can normally only be prosecuted for the crime for which the EAW was granted.
