A team of Scotland Yard detectives working on a case against Brueckner and are understood to have requested an interview with the paedophile, indicating they are running out of options
Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner was able to snub a request from British police to be interviewed after officers refused to reveal the evidence against him.
A small team of Scotland Yard detectives has been working on a case against Brueckner and are understood to have requested evidence from the German police after he was released from prison last September.
The Daily Telegraph reported last week that they believe they can build a strong enough case for the Crown Prosecution Service to authorise charges against the German national before the 20th anniversary of the disappearance next year.
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But even in the event UK police did get enough evidence to prosecute Brueckner it is not possible to extradite German citizens from their home country to the UK.
The Mail on Sunday reported today that jobless Brueckner was able to refuse an interview with Met detectives last September by exercising his constitutional rights under German law.
An “International Letter of Request” requesting the paedophile be produced was sent by the CPS to German prosecutors. But he was able to turn it down because detectives were unwilling to reveal the case against him and the attempt was subsequently rejected by the German courts.
Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fulscher, told the Mail on Sunday he “was not informed on what specific facts the alleged suspicions were based”. His client continues to deny having anything to do with the crime. The request to interview Brueckner would appear to be a last throw of the dice by British officers.
The suspect told Sky News last year: “I want them to stop this witch-hunt against me and give me back my life.” In a letter published by The Sun, he wrote: “Is there DNA evidence of me at the crime scene? Are there DNA traces of the injured party in my vehicle? Are there other traces/ DNA carriers of the injured party in my possession? Photos? And, not to forget, is there a body/corpse? All no, no, no.”
Lawyer Bernhard Schmeilzl, of Graf & Partners LLP, a firm specialising in Anglo-German legal matters, told the Daily Mirror last week: “Theoretically the Met can charge him but they can’t get hold of him as long as he’s in Germany. But they could extradite him to Portugal as an EU country so I am sure the police and prosecutors from all three countries are having discussions.”
Circumstantial evidence linking Brueckner to the crime includes the fact that his mobile phone was recorded close to the McCanns’ apartment. He has previous convictions for child abuse, and his name was given to both the German and British police by a witness in 2008.
They told detectives that Brueckner had told them a year after Madeleine vanished that she didn’t scream when taken. But it is understood police have so far not found any forensic evidence. Madeleine, of Rothley, Leicestershire, vanished shortly after she was left sleeping by her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who went for dinner in a nearby restaurant in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 May 2007.
Brueckner was serving a seven year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in Praia da Luz in 2005 when he was last September.
