The man suspected by German authorities of murdering missing British girl Madeleine McCann has a string of previous convictions and prosecutors have described him as a ‘dangerous psychopathic sadist’.
Christian Brueckner, 47, is currently serving a sentence in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old and has previously been convicted of other offences, including sexually abusing children.
However, Brueckner has yet to be charged in the McCann case, and he was today cleared of two unrelated child sex offences and three counts of rape – bringing an end to a closely watched trial in Germany that could have kept him behind bars.
Prosecutors last week called for Brueckner to be sentenced to 15 years for the alleged crimes and said that if released from jail, there was a ‘high degree of certainty’ he would re offend.
But today, the judge disagreed, saying Brueckner could ‘not be convicted of the acts he is accused of’ while clearing him of the five counts.
During the trial, a psychiatric expert described Brueckner as being in the ‘absolute top league of dangerousness’, according to German media reports.
‘It doesn’t get any higher than this,’ the expert said, predicting a 30 to 50 percent chance that, if released from jail, Brueckner would reoffend within two years.
Evidence in the trial included notebooks in which Brueckner is said to have documented his sexual fantasies, including a ‘guide to the detailed abuse of children and women’.
The expert described the notes as ‘gruesome’ and some of the ‘greatest perversions’ he had ever seen in his professional life.
However, the defence had raised serious doubts about the cases against Brueckner, which were based on testimonies but not forensic evidence.
The notebooks seized from Brueckner detailing his sexual fantasies were also used as evidence. But, despite their disturbing content, they provided no direct link to the alleged crimes.
According to German police, Brueckner lived in the Algarve region of Portugal, where Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday, between 1995 and 2007.
They say he made a living doing odd jobs in the area and also burgled hotel rooms and holiday flats.
The psychiatric expert said Brueckner had always been ‘on the fringes of society’ and led a ‘socially isolated, nomadic, parasitic life’.
Brueckner’s current rape sentence runs until September 2025, according to Christian Wolters, a spokesman for the prosecution in Brunswick.
His lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher has said the defendant could be free as soon as the spring.
In order for Brueckner not to be released, German authorities will now have to be prove that he poses a danger to society for them to be able to impose ‘preventive detention’ and keep him behind bars.
There have been other questions raised over Brueckner’s psychological state.
Speaking to Sky News in 2020, a former neighbour in Portugal said Brueckner was ‘always a bit angry, driving fast up and down the lane, and then one day… he just disappeared without a word’.
He lived in Hanover from 2007, according to German media, and later split his time between Germany and Portugal for several more years.
When German police searched an allotment plot the suspect once owned near Hanover, the owner of a neighbouring property, Wolfgang Kossack, told the Daily Mail that Brueckner had been living off-grid there.
‘He never did any gardening. He did not plant anything or try to grow anything,’ Kossack said. ‘He just sat around drinking beer.’
Brueckner was born on December 7, 1976 near Wuerzburg, according to Germany’s Bild newspaper.
He grew up in a foster home where he was subjected to neglect and violence, including being locked up in dark rooms and beaten with a belt, the popular daily said.
Brueckner was first convicted of sexually abusing children when he was still a teenager, according Der Spiegel magazine.
By 2020, his criminal record already contained 17 entries, the report said, including driving without a licence, causing bodily injury, theft and drunk driving.
He went on trial for the first time in Bavaria in 1994 for ‘abusing a child’ and ‘performing sexual acts in front of a child’, Der Spiegel said.
When he was 17 years old, Brueckner received a juvenile sentence of two years, which he only served part of.
In 2016, the district court of Brunswick sentenced him to one year and three months in prison for ‘creating and possessing child pornographic material’, according to Der Spiegel.
At the time he was revealed as a suspect in the McCann case, Brueckner was in prison in the northern German city of Kiel serving a sentence for drug trafficking.
His prison file documents arrogant behaviour, according to media reports, including calling prison officers ‘torturers’.