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Home / World

Maddie McCann: Prime suspect's lawyer says 'I'd never let him near my kids'

NZ Herald
16 Sep, 2020 03:04 AM3 mins to read

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Sniffer dogs have said to have barked when entering an underground cellar near where suspect Christian Brueckner lived outside Hannover, Germany. Video / Agencia EFE via AP

The lawyer of Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has admitted he wouldn't trust his client to ever be around his children.

Brueckner's lawyer, Friedrich Fuelscher, told the Mirror if he had a daughter, he would never let him "babysit" her.

Despite Brueckner claiming his innocence in the McCann case, Fuelscher told the Mirror "I'd let him look after my dogs but I wouldn't let him look after my children or my daughter - if I had them.

"He could be my dog sitter, yes, but because of his record I would not let him look after my own daughter."

"He could be my dog sitter, yes, but because of his record I would not let him look after my own daughter."
"He could be my dog sitter, yes, but because of his record I would not let him look after my own daughter."
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Fuelscher told the Mirror Brueckner says his client is "as relaxed as a man can be when the whole world thinks he is guilty of murdering a young girl".

The experienced lawyer says he has recently been to Portugal to investigate the case himself and access sources of information available.

He says he has uncovered new information which he plans to make public in the coming weeks.

Fuelscher said: "I cannot tell you what it is - but it is big. It certainly surprised me.

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"I praise the British investigation team and, from what I have seen so far, I certainly think they have good reasons to still treat this as a 'missing persons' inquiry.

"But from the German prosecutors, I still have not received one single file in connection with this case."

German paedophile Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in the disappearance and assumed murder of Madeleine McCann.
German paedophile Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in the disappearance and assumed murder of Madeleine McCann.

Fuelscher's comments come just days after German investigators claim they are on the hunt for a second man, a witness and German drifter who they believe was friends with Brueckner.

The Mirror reported the unnamed man is being treated as a witness, not a suspect, and hope he can blow the case against Brueckner wide open.

Discover more

New Zealand|crime

'She loved me a lot': Slain mum brought close through strangers' stories

18 Sep 07:16 PM

The German drifter is believed to have lived in a campervan near a remote reservoir less than 15km from Praia da Luz, where McCann went missing in 2007.

Brueckner is currently in jail for drug offences and is appealing against a 7-year sentence for raping a 73-year-old woman.

Sources told the Sun while police are working around the clock, leads have dried up over the past few weeks.

"They know [he] will never talk. So it will be up to them to find the missing pieces of the jigsaw to lead them to finally find out what happened to Maddie."

In the first few days of releasing Brueckner's name, police were inundated with hundreds of new leads every week.

Now they aren't getting any.

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