'I lived with Maddie McCann prime suspect – I'm sure he left evidence somewhere'
Thomas Hertel, the former flatmate of Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner, says 'pieces of evidence must be somewhere' as the convicted paedophile 'kept all sorts of things'
A former flatmate of Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner has called on German police to carry out more searches. Thomas Hertel, who lived with the convicted paedophile in the same children's home, believes the fiend has buried crucial evidence yet to be found and wants the authorities to search all of his previous addresses.
He spoke after German and Portuguese officers concluded their latest seemingly fruitless search near Praia da Luz, where she disappeared in May 2007. Thomas, 51, told the Sunday Mirror: 'I am sad. The parents deserve that Maddie is found. I didn't think they would find anything in Portugal, but I do think they might find something if they dig more in Germany.
'I would like to see them search everything in all the places where Christian lived. Brueckner doesn't say the truth, so it's really important that they find some proof so they know what really happened.'
This week's search by both Portuguese and German police was carried out a 50 hectare site around two miles from Brueckner's former home on the outskirts of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared while on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry and her two siblings 18 years ago.
It involved a digger, pickaxes and drones, as well as fingertip sweeps of bushes in a desperate hunt for clues. German prosecutors previously searched an abandoned farmhouse Brueckner, 48, still owns and discovered a trove of items, including buried USB sticks, memory sticks and sickening fantasies written by him.
They are convinced the former drifter was involved in Madeleine's disappearance and are desperate to find evidence that could implicate him before he is due to be released from jail this September after serving a seven year sentence for rape. However, despite dramatically first naming him as their suspect in 2020, they appear no closer to a charge.
Thomas said: 'These pieces of evidence must be somewhere. And of course, Christian's either buried or preserved everything. I know what I am talking about. When I lived with him, he never ever let anyone in his bedroom.
'But I knew that he secretly kept all sorts of weird things and conserved them, because I could see down into his balcony. He used to have loads of preserving jars filled with what seemed to be organs or intestines.'
Thomas added: 'I was sure that he was killing local animals and dismembering them and putting their organs into these jars, because there was no other way to make sense of it. We knew what provisions were bought for us by the home, and they never bought us organs or intestines or anything like that.'
Thomas and Brueckner lived in the same German children's home, a flat-sharing community run by an evangelical welfare charity, when they were both teenagers between 1992 and 1995. In a previous interview with the Sunday Mirror he told how he believes Brueckner is a 'ticking time bomb' who should never be freed.
He spoke out after shock reports emerged in Portugal on Friday claiming police were told Madeline may have been run over by a drink driver and her body taken out to sea. Her parents have vowed to never give up the search and said last month: 'No matter how near or far she is, Madeleine continues to be right here with us, every day.'
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