Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner ‘confessed to taking child to Portugal’ as cellmate throws bombshell in court

Christian Brueckner, a suspect in MADELEINE McCann’s plot, has confessed to a prisoner that he DID kidnap a child from a Portuguese apartment, a court sensationally heard today.

The 47-year-old pedophile Brueckner is said to have confided his past after asking cellmate Laurentiu C whether he was “also” behind bars for child sex crimes.

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The vagrant then confessed to having taken “a child” with him during a burglary in Portugal, and begged the fellow conman to set his lair on fire once he got out of jail.

It is chilling how Laurentiu C raised the prospect of a funeral for Maddie. He said the rapist had asked him “if the DNA of a child can be taken from bones underground”.

The witness told the Braunschweig regional court: “He said he had stolen in Portugal.

“He told me that he had stolen in Portugal.

“He was in an area of hotels where rich people live. And when he went to the hotel area, there was an open window somewhere, he told me.

“And he would have entered this window for money and gold. However, he found no money, but found a child and took it away.

“About two hours later the area was full of Police And dogs and he departed from there.

“He left the area. He then said that there was someone else with him that he had had an argument with and that they had broken up.

“And he said he took the child to Portugal and drove away, while the whole place was full of police and dogs.

“He drove off in the car and he was gone. He asked me if DNA can be taken from a child.”

Laurentiu C added: “He asked me if a child’s DNA can be extracted from bones underground.”

This comes after Maddie’s investigators previously indicated they were confident the toddler was dead, although they did not say why they believe this.

Laurentiu C also claimed that Brueckner appeared to be panicking about possible evidence he had left at a crime scene. He wondered whether a person could be traced by their hair, or whether he left traces by climbing over a balcony.

He claimed in court that the ailing Brueckner had asked him to set fire to his cardboard factory lair when he was released from prison, because he was convinced he would never be free.

German FBI agents later searched the premises and found a series of data storage devices and hard drives, but their exact relevance to the case has not been disclosed.

Laurentiu C also claimed that Brueckner had bragged about covering his tracks by setting fire to a car. However, he did not specify in court what crime this related to.

He said: “He told me that he was in Portugal with another person and that he had set fire to a car or hired someone else to set fire to a car in Portugal.”

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The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

MADELEINE McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007. Police suspect Brueckner is behind her disappearance.

Almost 17 years later, no one has been charged in connection with this. Here are the key dates

May 3, 2007 – Kate McCann discovers Madeleine missing at 10pm

May 14, 2007 – Project developer Robert Murat is named “arguido” or formal suspect

August 31, 2007 – The McCanns launch a libel action against Tal e Qual, a newspaper that claimed the couple murdered Madeleine

September 7, 2007 – Kate and Gerry McCann are being made “arguidos”

September 9, 2007– Madeleine’s parents return to England with their two-year-old twins

October 2, 2007– Chief Detective Goncalo Amaral is taken off the case after criticizing British police in a newspaper interview

July 21, 2009 – Portuguese police lift the “arguido” status of both Robert Murat and the McCanns

May 12, 2011 – On Madeleine’s eighth birthday, Scotland Yard launches an investigation into the case

April 25, 2012 – Scotland Yard officers say they believe Madeleine McCann is still alive

July 4, 2013 – Two years after an investigation into the case began, Scotland Yard launched its own inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance

October 24, 2013– Portuguese police reopen case after new lines of investigation are found

November 27, 2013 – Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called for cooperation between British and Portuguese police forces

October 28, 2015 – Scotland Yard reduces number of officers working on Madeleine’s disappearance

March 11, 2017 – The Home Office awards Operation Grange an additional £85,000 to run from April to September

September 28, 2017 – British police will receive £154,000 to continue investigation until March 2018

November 2017 – Police moved search to Bulgaria

May 2018 – A new round of funding has been awarded, believed to be around £150,000

September 2018 – An additional six months of funding is being requested from the Home Office

November 2018 – More funding is being provided, estimated at around £150,000

November 2018 – British police reconsider theory that Madeleine left apartment to look for her parents

June 2019 – A new round of funding is awarded, believed to be £300,000 of government money

June 2019 – Portuguese police are investigating a “new lead and suspect” after speaking to British officers

June 2020 – New prime suspect revealed: German pedo Christian Brueckner

April 2022 – Brueckner formally made an “arguido”

May 2023 – Police search remote Algarve reservoir that Brueckner called his “little paradise”

The witness also claimed that Brueckner told him he had abused “little” girls on a “bus” he owned after kidnapping them.

He told the court: “There was talk about a girl, I don’t know if what he said was true or not.

“He said he had a bus and he took her in it. He said he kept some of them but not others, but he never said he killed them.

“We’re talking about girls, not boys. Not all at once, always one at a time. He told me about two. He said he took someone, had sex with her, but he didn’t kill her.”

When the judge asked him how old his victim was, Laurentiu C said: “I don’t want to say it the wrong way, but it was very young, small. I mean young.

“Every time we were together he talked about it, because he was convinced I was a pedophile.”

He added: “He kept asking me if I was a paedophile. Every time we spoke he would come back to that. Brückner would then say: ‘Tell me, you don’t have to pay attention to me’.

“He told me all these things hoping that I was a pedophile too.”

The witness claimed in court that the German confided in him while they were both in pre-trial detention in the same prison.

At the time, the criminals were in prison together in 2020, after Brueckner was publicly named the main suspect in Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance.

The testimony is a huge boost to Maddie’s case. It shows that prosecutors in Germany now have a second person who witnessed Brueckner’s confessions.

Previously, they appeared to rely solely on the story of former vagrant Helge Busching, whose credibility has been damaged during Brueckner’s current rape and sex crimes trial.

Earlier, Brueckner was first confronted with images of Maddie in the courtroom, when they were shown on large screens as part of exhibits.

Convicted paedophile and rapist Christain Brueckner was named as the prime suspect in the 2020 disappearance of Madeleine McCann, although he has never been formally charged.

He is on trial for a series of rapes and sexual offences unrelated to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, which he denies.

The process continues.

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