Madeleine McCann prime suspect brags about freedom from behind bars as major new search begins near his house
3 June 2025, 09:02 | Updated: 3 June 2025, 13:03
Live updates as police renew Madeleine McCann search efforts
The prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance was "not aware of any guilt" as he gave a bombshell interview from behind bars.
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The first face-to-face interview with convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner comes as police launch fresh search efforts to find the missing toddler near his cottage home in Praia da Luz where he was living at the time.
Brueckner is being detained at Sehnde Prison near Hanover, where he is currently serving a seven-year sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in the Algarve in 2006, which he still denies.
The German national said he's looking forward to a "nice steak and a beer" upon his release from prison, according to German network RTL.
RTL reporter Ulrich Oppold, who interviewed the prime suspect, said: "Christian B. made a very confident impression on me, he seemed serene, spoke with a slight Franconian accent and I had the feeling that I was looking at a man who was not aware of any guilt.”
Read more: Fresh Madeleine McCann search begins as cops scour area near prime suspect's home after tip-off
Brueckner has been described by staff at the prison as reclusive and emotionless.
But Mr Oppold said: "Christian B. seemed intelligent to me, perhaps a little distant, and I think he had prepared himself very well for our conversation.
"He knew exactly what he wanted to say and, above all, what he didn't want to say.”
He refused to comment on the Madeleine McCann case after discussing the matter with his lawyers.
Instead, he discussed matters already mentioned in letters to the journalist.
"The most important thing for me is of course the fact that I have been in prison for many years for something that I could not have committed and that half the world believes me to be a cruel rapist,” he allegedly wrote in one letter.
He has also claimed he was “assaulted by another inmate — at least one rib was broken."
"I now stay in my cell 24 hours a day. I don’t go out. Not even for food.”
Brueckner was acquitted for five non-related sex offences. These included three separate counts of rape and two cases of exposing himself to children.
But German authorities are reportedly looking to build a case against Brueckner as cops scour more than 20 plots of land in Praia da Luz.
Madeleine McCann, then three years old, vanished from a holiday spot near his house on May 3 2007 - becoming perhaps the most high-profile missing persons case this century.
Portuguese police have agreed to cooperate with the search after judicial authorities approved it following a formal request from German police and prosecutors, according to reports.
A source told the Sun: “German cops know it is now or never so they need to push ahead with every credible tip they have.
“Following Brueckner’s trial last year someone contacted them with theories on where anyone who took Madeleine might have dumped her, or her clothes.
“They told cops about trenches that were dug in Praia at the time Madeleine disappeared — and the house where Brueckner had lived on the edge of the village.
“Of course, all these places have been searched over and over again — but now they have a new weapon in their ground-scanning radar.
“It means they don’t need to dig for the sake of it. But as soon as they spot anything of interest they are ready to excavate and check it.
“With time running out they are praying they get a breakthrough.”
