Christian Brueckner’s lawyer slammed prosecutors for labelling him the Madeleine McCann ‘prime suspect’ – saying it is impossible for him to get a fair trial as he returned to court this morning on unrelated rape charges.
Brueckner’s defence team opened proceedings with a furious attack on local prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters who named him as the ‘prime suspect’.
Atilla Aykac stressed how despite almost four years of investigating no charges for Madeleine’s disappearance had been made and his legal team had still not received the case files.
He said: ‘The disappearance of Madeleine McCann is one of the biggest cases in the world but our client has not been charged and we have not seen any files.
‘This is the fault of the public prosecutor’s office and has created a worldwide sense of pillory against our client.
Christian Brueckner’s lawyers slammed local prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters who named him as the ‘prime suspect’ in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Atilla Aykac stressed how despite almost four years of investigating no charges for Madeleine’s disappearance
Brueckner is also facing former pal Helge Busching in court today as he tells prosecutors the convicted paedophile was an ‘expert at lock picking’
‘This prejudices our client’s case and also the ability of the court to try him fairly.’
He went on to accuse Mr Wolters – who was in court – of ‘making publicity’ for the case against Brueckner, 47, despite not having presented or shared any case files.
Also in court today, Brueckner will face a key witness who will tell prosecutors the convicted paedophile was an ‘expert at lock picking’.
Breuckner, was sensationally named by German police four years ago as the man responsible for Madeleine’s ‘abduction and murder’.
However, despite the claim he has still not been charged and is currently on trial in his native Germany accused of unrelated sex crimes that took place in the same area of the Algarve where the then three-year-old disappeared.
Former pal Helge Busching is the latest witness to give evidence at the court in Braunschweig, where Brueckner arrived early on Wednesday under a heavy police escort.
Last year Busching told German media that Brueckner was an expert lock picker and could have easily got into the apartment in Praia da Luz where Madeleine was taken from in May 2007.
He said Brueckner bragged about the burglary toolkit which he would use to ‘break into holiday resorts, hotels and holiday homes to steal from tourists’, Busching told Bild newspaper.
Dressed in his now trademark blazer and jacket Brueckner was brought into court with handcuffs and shook hands with his legal team before sitting down.
Busching, who is in German police witness protection, suggested that Brueckner ‘came through the door’ of the McCanns’ holiday apartment, raising doubts over the official theory that Madeleine’s kidnapper crept in through a window.
German police were reportedly ‘electrified’ by the discovery of the lock pick kit and also are investigating the possibility that Brueckner used car paint solvent to sedate the young girl.
He has denied any involvement in her abduction and is currently on trial accused of raping three women and sexually assaulting children between 2000 and 2017 on the Algarve.
Busching, who claims to have met Brueckner a year before Madeleine vanished, said he found the tool kit in the suspect’s Algarve home after he and a friend, Manfred Seyfreth, decided to ransack the place.
Brueckner’s former pal Helge Busching is the latest to give evidence against the convicted paedophile
Brueckner arrived early to the court in Braunschweig on Wednesday under a heavy police escort
The petty criminal recalled seeing passports, cameras, suitcases and various items carried by tourists in the property, adding the he ‘also found a lock pick set’.
Busching claims he kept the kit – which he says can be used to ‘pick any lock, including security locks’ – and later gave it to police in Germany.
The kit is understood to be made by Dino which touts that its products ‘ensure easier access into the most restrictive European keyways fast’. It reportedly includes 14 black stainless steel picks that are each designed for a specific door type.
Police in Portugal have always claimed that Madeleine’s abductor broke into the apartment through a window. They allege he likely left with the child through a door or by climbing back out the window.
But when asked how Brueckner entered the home, Busching asserted: ‘Through the door. Easily. He can open any door.’
Busching also claimed that Brueckner had once confessed to kidnapping Madeleine alleged that Brueckner told him: ‘She didn’t scream.’
Busching claims Brueckner made the confession at the illegal Dragon Festival held in the southern Spanish mountain town of Orgiva a year after Madeleine vanished.
He also alleged that Brueckner turned up to the festival in an American campervan that he lived in between early 2007 and 2008. Busching says the van is not the Tiffin Allegro van police seized a few years back.
He insists the vehicle Brueckner drove to the the festival – known for its techno music, booze and drugs – was a Winnebago and believes that if police were able to track down the van, they would find traces of Madeleine’s DNA.
Dressed in his now trademark blazer and jacket Brueckner was brought into court with handcuffs and shook hands with his legal team before sitting down
Brueckner has denied any involvement in McCann’s abduction and is currently on trial accused of raping three women and sexually assaulting children between 2000 and 2017 on the Algarve
Busching says he knows that Brueckner abducted Madeleine, adding that ‘another witness knows it as well’.
He claims he advised the suspect to come clean but says Brueckner ‘will never do that’ because he is ‘too stubborn’ and ‘assumes police cannot prove anything’.
Busching added he has been pressed by Brueckner’s lawyers to retract his allegations has been forced into witness protection for the last four years.
Madeleine vanished from a rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007, during a family holiday.
Her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, spearheaded a high-profile campaign for information about her disappearance.
Reports claim that phone records place Brueckner in the town on the night she vanished and that his yellow and white Volkswagen Westfalia campervan was spotted near the Algarve resort.
Last May German forensic experts searched a reservoir 30 miles from Praia da Luz as part of their ongoing investigation. They are understood to have taken soil samples for analysis.
Brueckner and Busching, who is also German, both previously lived in Portugal and were said to have been involved in petty theft.
Brueckner has claimed the pair have not spoken since 2007, when they discussed a drug deal, and has denied Busching’s claims about their conversation in 2008, saying they were ‘not even worthy of comment’.
Busching also claims to have seen videotapes which allegedly showed Brueckner sexually abusing an elderly woman and a teenage girl in Portgual.
He later told the court he had contacted Dave Edgar in 2008, a former policeman and private detective hired by Kate and Gerry McCann to help find their daughter.
Mr Edgar worked on the case for three years before enquiries were taken over by Scotland Yard and in later interviews, he always said he believed Madeleine’s disappearance had been ‘intricately planned by a gang of paedophiles’.
Busching did not go into detail regarding a response from Mr Edgar but added he contacted Scotland Yard in 2017, after he had moved Greece where he had been convicted of people trafficking.
He said:’They came to Athens, they wanted to question me, officially and they registered it with Greek police.
‘With hindsight that was a mistake as the Greek police tipped off the local press and they heard about my meeting in an Athens hotel.
‘The British police said they weren’t interested in the rapes I had seen, they were with me for three days and then left.’
In 2019 Brueckner was convicted in a German court of the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman at her home in Portugal, close to Praia da Luz, and he is serving a seven-year sentence. Busching reportedly contacted British police about his former friend after he was arrested in Greece in 2017 over an alleged smuggling ring.
Madeleine’s disappearance was initially investigated by police in Portugal, with support from officers in the UK. The Metropolitan Police took over the investigation in 2011 after the Portuguese operation was shelved.
But more than three years after linking Brueckner to Madeleine’s disappearance, he has still not been charged regarding her abduction as prosecutors do not have enough evidence.