Madeleine McCann went missing from an apartment resort in Portugal in 2007.
Madeleine McCann went missing from an apartment resort in Portugal in 2007.
Armed police have raided a home in Germany searching for a man described as Christian Brueckner’s “partner in crime”, who could have vital information about Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, more than 17 years after she went missing.
At least 10 officers armed with machineguns swarmed a house owned by a mannamed as Ralph H, a 56-year-old who has connections to paedophile and main suspect Brueckner.
The new suspect worked with Brueckner, admitting to having robbed homes with the paedophile in a spate of crimes.
Now police want to speak to him “about his connection” to the McCann case.
But Ralph H disappeared before the raid with police now issuing a manhunt for him.
“We urgently need to speak to this man in connection to his relationship with Christian Brueckner,” they told the .
“We must find him to ask him about missing Madeleine McCann. He’s not at home, he doesn’t answer the phone, he’s apparently disappeared.”
A neighbour reportedly told the Sun that Ralph H hadn’t been at his home for “nearly a week” and said he ran a number of “schemes” with Brueckner.
A friend of Ralph H’s told the Sun that he “definitely knows everything” about Brueckner and his life and that he has “no intention” of helping the police.
German paedophile Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in his home country for raping a 72-year-old woman in the Algarve region of Portugal in 2005 — the same area from which Madeleine went missing.
German police named him in 2020 as the man responsible for her disappearance, but he has denied the claim.
He is currently facing court, charged with offences relating to five women aged between 10 and 80, all in Portugal.
One charge is an indecent assault against a 10-year-old girl on a beach near where McCann went missing. Another is an indecent assault charge related to a child at a playground in the Algarve.
Who is Christian Brueckner?
In 2020, about 13 years after Madeleine disappeared, police identified Brueckner as the main suspect. He had been living in a campervan just kilometres away from the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz when she disappeared and has a history of sexually abusing children.
German police have claimed they have substantial evidence linking Brueckner to Madeleine, including a confession he allegedly made to a friend while drinking at a bar.
He has repeatedly denied any involvement with her disappearance.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters was interviewed on a show called Sabado in 2022, in which he claimed investigators found fibres from Madeleine’s pink pyjamas in Brueckner’s van.
German investigators claim to have found "evidence" of missing Madeleine McCann in the van of prime suspect Christian Brueckner in a bombshell TV interview. Photo / Metropolitan Police / NZME
“It’s not forensic evidence but evidence and, because of our evidence, we are sure he is the murderer of Madeleine McCann. We are sure he killed Madeleine,” he said.
A phone call made by Brueckner just 60 minutes before Madeleine disappeared placed him within kilometres of the Ocean Club complex. Wolters said the phone call connected to the mast belonging to the club.
Brueckner has since sent a letter from his prison cell saying he has no connection to the case.
“I wasn’t kidnapping anybody and, of course, I wasn’t killing anybody,” he wrote.
“I’ll go further: I’ll tell you I wasn’t attacking anybody after I was 18. I made some silly mistakes when I was younger but who hasn’t?”
Brueckner noted there was “no proof” against him and that German authorities were leaking information to portray him in a poor light.
“I know of about five open cases against me, all of them including raping and abusing. They have manipulated the truth in such an unprofessional way that I am laughing.
“I still have not lost my sense of humour. Even in this critical situation. This is what keeps me alive.”
