The prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance is free to leave Germany after a shock court ruling – raising the prospect of the convicted paedophile roaming Europe.
Christian Bruckner, 48, was released from a prison near Hanover in September after serving seven years for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005. He was ordered to wear an ankle tag and see a probation officer at least once a month.
But the stipulation that he must remain in Germany has now been overruled, according to a court document – seen by The Mail on Sunday – which cites his human rights.
‘There are concerns regarding the instruction requiring the convicted person to take up residence within Germany,’ it said. ‘The convicted person cannot, under threat of punishment, be ordered to live at a particular place.’
German prosecutors are convinced he snatched three-year-old Madeleine from her parent’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007, then murdered her.
But despite mobile phone data indicating he was in the area at the time, the authorities have never had enough evidence to bring charges.
Christian Bruckner, 48, was released from a prison near Hanover in September after serving seven years for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005
Bruckner, the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s (pictured) disappearance, is now free to leave Germany after a shock court ruling
Bruckner’s previous convictions included for sexually abusing children in 1994 and 2016. Last October, he was cleared of three counts of rape and two cases of exposing himself to minors, alleged to have taken place in Portugal, where he lived for many years.
He boasted to the MoS yesterday that he planned to leave Germany. Now living in a tent in woods in the northern port city of Kiel, he said: ‘The police wanted to keep me in Germany so they could break me.
‘But it turns out I don’t even have to stay in Germany. And now as soon as I can raise some money, then I will leave.’
He plans to set up a crowd-funding website to raise money to leave. But he will have to wear his ankle tag for five years – and it is understood it will work across Europe.
