Met Police detectives have secretly flown to Portugal to interview Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner‘s old friends, it has been revealed.
Investigators spent several hours quizzing a couple who housed the sex offender just three months before Madeleine vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.
The 48-year-old is believed to be the prime suspect for the ‘murder and abduction’ of Madeleine and was released from jail earlier this year after serving six of a seven-year sentence for rape.
Now, grandmother Elke Piro, 69, who was acquainted with Brueckner for a number years, has revealed her unequivocal belief that the toddler was hurt by the German suspect.
Ms Piro, alongside her husband Bernhard, 72, were previously interviewed by both Portugese and German detectives, having first met Brueckner in 1995 and remaining in contact with him until 2018.
Speaking to The Sun, Ms Piro said: ‘The British police interviewed us a few days ago but I’m sad because I wasn’t able to tell them anything I haven’t said before.
‘It’s frustrating because I got to know Christian over many years and believe he did something bad to Maddie.’
Reflecting on her time spent with Brueckner, Ms Piro described him as a ‘classic sociopath’ and a ‘terrible alcoholic’, adding how he would switch between being ‘kind and gentle or crazy and raging about sex’.
Met investigators have quizzed a couple who housed Christian Brueckner, 48, (pictured) three months before Madeleine vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007. In 2020, he was declared the prime suspect by German authorities
Grandmother Elke Piro, 69, who was acquainted with Brueckner for a number years, has revealed her belief that the toddler (pictured) was hurt by the German suspect. Reflecting on her time spent with Brueckner, Ms Piro described him as a ‘classic sociopath’
She said she never felt threatened by the sex offender, who stayed with them following his fuel theft in 2006, and again in 2016 for a month while he was on the run from German police.
However, she was completely unaware of the heinous crimes he committed and has now said that she wished both her and her husband had never met Brueckner.
The pair’s sons, Flavio and Pablo, were also previously questioned about the sex offender, but were not on this occasion.
Brueckner’s last plea to be housed with the couple in 2018 was refuted.
A source told the publication that detectives had travelled to convene with the Portuguese Judicial Police around three weeks ago. Later, they spoke to the Piros at a Faro police station, as witnesses not suspects.
It comes as Met boss Sir Mark Rowley recently suggested that if new evidence came to light Brueckner could possibly be extradited.
Sir Rowley also insisted that Brueckner ‘remains a suspect’ in the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
Regarding the likelihood of Brueckner’s extradition, he said: ‘One of the reasons we are involved is that murder is in many situations extra-territorial and potentially a murder of a British subject can in certain circumstances be charged in the UK.
‘There’s lots of maybes, so at the moment we are taking stock with the Germans and Portuguese.’
Of the German inquiry, he added: ‘They’ve got to the point where the prosecutor doesn’t feel they’re able to prosecute.’
Brueckner’s release is a blow to the German and British authorities who have been frantically trying to gather enough evidence to charge him since he was named as the likely suspect in June 2020.
On Friday night, the paedophile declared himself homeless and is currently in emergency accommodation in Neumunster, 40 miles north of Hamburg.
It emerged he was living in a hostel in Neumunster south of Kiel in area ‘mainly where migrants live, who don’t read German media and have no idea who he is’, according to source close to Brueckner.
The news was initially reported by the local paper which said it was revealing the fact because of ‘over riding public interest and protection of the public’.
A spokesman for the city council, Stephan Beitz, confirmed the report and said it had accommodated him as part of its ’emergency response’ but refused to say where exactly.
German media questioned why he had gone to Neumunster as he appeared to have no connections to the city and he had been released from a jail more than 200 miles away.
Local paper Kiel Nachrichten echoed fears he may reoffend and added: ‘The city is presumably concerned that protests or even riots will erupt if the location of the man with his criminal past becomes known.’
Pictured: Kate and Gerry Mccann with a picture of Madeleine, who was just three years old when she was last seen. Brueckner has maintained that he was not involved in Madeleine’s disappearance and no charges relating to the toddler have been lodged against him
The Daily Mail can also reveal he is being watched by German BKA officers – the equivalent of the FBI – and has travelled on a train and ‘gone shopping in Lidl without anyone recognising him’.
Meanwhile, Brueckner’s lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, has confirmed that the sex offender refused to take part in a rehabilitation programme because he felt he was ‘unrightly convicted’ of the horrific attack on a 72-year-old woman.
The sickening assault on the American pensioner took place in 2005 in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast just two years before then three-year-old Madeleine vanished from the same resort, and he has convictions for child abuse dating back to the 90s.
When asked if he understood the public’s fears about Brueckner’s release, Mr Fulscher said: ‘Certainly. Fear is often a very irrational feeling. But given Christian Brueckner’s past one can certainly find rational reasons for such concern.’
Mr Fulscher added that he had ‘spoken with his client about the Madeleine case’ but insisted that he ‘had seen no evidence to make him think he was involved’.
In a previous interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Fulscher said that ‘Brueckner was not the sort of man you would like to look after your children’.
Mr Fulscher added that he had ‘spoken with his client about the Madeleine case’ but said he ‘had seen no evidence to make him think he was involved’.
He insisted that any evidence prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has to suggest Brueckner was involved in the case was too weak to support charges.
Mr Wolters has previously stated that Brueckner is the ‘only suspect’ in the case, adding: ‘We have evidence against him but it’s just not strong enough to bring a case also that’s why we haven’t charged him yet – we hope we can at some stage.’
However, the sex offender has maintained he was not involved in Madeleine’s disappearance and no charges relating to the toddler have been lodged against him.
He was known to be working in Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished and mobile phone data puts him near the hotel complex the night that she was last seen.
Several witnesses have come forward to name him as the suspect but in letters to the Daily Mail Brueckner has insisted that he had ‘nothing to do with it’ and he was being made a ‘scapegoat’.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, Senior Investigating Officer for the Met’s investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, said: ‘We are aware of the pending release from prison of a 49 year old German man who has been the primary suspect in the German federal investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
‘We can confirm that this individual remains a suspect in the Metropolitan Police’s own investigation. We have requested an interview with this German suspect but, for legal reasons, this can only be done via an International Letter of Request which has been submitted.
‘It was subsequently refused by the suspect. In the absence of an interview, we will nevertheless continue to pursue any viable lines of enquiry.
‘We can provide no further information while the investigation is ongoing. Any questions about the conditions around his release should be directed to the German authorities.’
