Failings over search for missing Madeleine McCann as cops in race against time

Daily Mirror

17 hours ago

Investigators vowed to the Mirror in 2021 that Christian Brueckner would be charged in months, but four years later they are still searching for evidence as his release date looms
It was a drizzly, autumnal day when I met with Hans Christian Wolters in his office in Braunschweig in October 2021. The quietly-spoken German prosecutor was in an unusually bullish mood.
'We're 100% convinced Christian Brueckner killed Madeleine McCann,' he told me. Noting the look of surprise of my face, he continued: 'There's no other possibility. There is no hope she is alive.' Mr Wolters went even further, directly addressing Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann. 'We are confident we have the man who took and killed your daughter,' he said. There was the headline.
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He then added: 'All I can do is ask for your patience. I personally think a conclusion will be reached next year.' Next year. As in 2022.
But nearly four years on from that exclusive interview, a conclusion of a different kind appears to be on the horizon. And it is not one that Mr Wolters, the McCanns or the wider public are hoping for.
Christian Brueckner - the paedophile, rapist and only suspect in Madeleine's disappearance - is about to walk free from prison. And it increasingly appears there is little the authorities can do to stop it happening.
It is a nightmare scenario for them - and one that Mr Wolters insisted back in 2021 would never happen. But even during our interview, I was beginning to have doubts about just what police 'had' on Brueckner.
When naming him as their prime suspect in June 2020, prosecutors said they had 'evidence' Madeleine is dead. But when I pressed Mr Wolters on what evidence they had that proved she was dead but was not enough to charge Brueckner, he backtracked.
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'It is circumstantial evidence - there are witnesses, demonstrative evidence, forensic experts, and other types of evidence,' he admitted. 'We have no scientific evidence. If we had a video of the act [killing] then we would not have had to make a public appeal.
'If we had a picture of Madeleine dead with Brueckner on camera, then obviously the same would apply. But we only have circumstantial evidence. We have no body and no DNA but we have other evidence."
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That was the first glimpse of things not being quite as rosy as billed in the Madeleine investigation. Now, at least publicly, the entire case appears to be in disarray.
Last week I watched as a team of German detectives searched for clues on disused farmland in Portugal. T he three-day search, costing a reported £300,000, involved the use of a JCB, pick-axes and ground-penetrating radar.
It ended in apparent failure, with nothing of significance found.
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The Germans shook hands with their Portuguese counterparts, handing them a crate of pilsner beers as a thank you. As I watched the search peter out, I could imagine the glee on the faces of Brueckner and his legal team.
His current release date from Sehnde Prison, where he is serving a rape sentence, is September 17. That gives prosecutors just 96 days to charge their prime suspect or watch powerlessly as he walks free from jail.
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Last week's search suggests they still do not have enough circumstantial evidence to confidently take the case to court.
The main 'evidence' they have reportedly revolves around the testimony of German drifter Helge Busching. He claims Brueckner said 'she didn't scream' when they discussed the case while sitting around a campfire at a hippy festival in Spain in 2008.
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It was another nine years before recycling worker Busching gave police this 'smoking gun' nugget of information. After watching a tenth anniversary Crimewatch TV special on the Madeleine case, he decided to alert cops. He rang Scotland Yard's Operation Grange team, who have been investigating the case since 2011, and left a bombshell voicemail.
Det Con Mark Draycott recalled: 'Back then we still had a public phone number which was publicised around the world. 'Members of the public could ring in information in relation to Operation Grange, the Madeleine McCann investigation.
"One of my jobs was to check the answer phone messages. On May 18th I checked the answer phone and there was a message. It was from a male by the sound of his voice, he spoke good English and he asked to speak to David Edgar (private investigator).'
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DC Draycott, who remains on Operation Grange, continued: 'He said he had information and he left a Greek mobile number. I then rang this Greek mobile number and spoke to a male I now know to be Helge Lars Busching He referred to himself as Lars and he gave information in relation to the Madeleine McCann investigation.'
DC Draycott was part of a Scotland Yard team which flew to Athens three months later to question Busching in top secrecy. The interview took place in August 2017 in a hotel - after bugging equipment was brought in to check for listening devices. Busching had been released from a Greek jail weeks earlier and was on parole at the time.
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'We spoke to him over two days and he gave us information in relation to the Madeleine McCann case,' DC Draycott revealed. 'He was scared, he had a distrust in the police. He was scared of giving a statement in such a high-profile case. He said he had a conversation with Christian at the Orgiva Festival in 2008.'
His evidence was so explosive the Home Office gave the go-ahead for him to be flown to London to give a formal statement. It was during his interviews that Busching told detectives about other alleged crimes carried out by Brueckner in Portugal. He claimed to have found videos in his ramshackle Praia da Luz home of the German raping women.
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His story was backed up by Manfred Seyferth, Brueckner's partner-in-crime in Portugal, who said he had also seen the sick home movies.
Scotland Yard worked in top secrecy for four months before alerting Germany's Bundeskriminalamt (BKA). Busching and Seyferth went on to become key witnesses in Brueckner's 2019 rape trial, for which he is currently behind bars.
Behind the scenes, German prosecutors continued to desperately search for evidence linking him to Madeleine's disappearance. But with the case stalling, they took the dramatic decision to reveal for the first time that they had a prime suspect.
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Predictably, it made headlines around the world. Strict German privacy laws meant prosecutors could only identify their suspect as 'Christian B'. But it was only a matter of time before his full name leaked out.
Over the following months, various people came forward making allegations against Brueckner. Three families claim he indecently exposed himself in front of their children in a playground and on a beach in Portugal.
And Irish tour rep Hazel Behan told police she believed he was the intruder that raped her in her Algarve apartment. Prosecutors charged him over the attacks and also the rapes allegedly seen by Busching and Seyferth on video.
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However, unlike in the 2019 rape trial, their evidence flopped in court. Brueckner's defence team repeatedly accused the pair of lying and openly mocked them during proceedings.
They were more sympathetic towards Ms Behan, but insisted she could not be certain the German was her attacker.
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So it came as no surprise to anyone when Brueckner was cleared of all charges last October. It was a disaster for prosecutors, who saw Busching - their proposed star witness in any Madeleine trial - ridiculed in court.
Judge Ute Engemann branded his court testimony 'almost worthless' because he had been influenced by the Madeleine case. She said his statements were 'inconsistent' and described pal Seyferth's evidence as 'not convincing'.
The judge went on to accuse Busching of 'seeking to profit' from his evidence and trying to get Brueckner locked up.
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Prosecutors do have other circumstantial evidence that possibly links Brueckner to Madeleine's disappearance. Mobile phone data reportedly shows his device was in the vicinity of the Ocean Club complex when she vanished in 2007.
He received a half-hour phone call from a Portuguese number - [phone] - an hour before Madeleine was last seen. Police have never traced the other caller.
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But Brueckner was living in or close to Praia da Luz at the time, so that evidence is hardly damning. More chilling is evidence discovered by chance in 2016 at an abandoned factory he owned in Neuwegersleben, near Braunschweig.
Police found a hard-drive containing vile images of children, along with kids' swimming costumes and toys and firearms.
Sick stories about kidnapping a mother and her young daughter outside a pre-school and abusing a young girl were also discovered on a laptop.
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There were also records of vile online chats, including one where he fantasised about 'capturing something small'.
Given this circumstantial evidence, and with Brueckner's presence in the Algarve in 2007, it is understandable how he became the prime suspect.
But is that enough to convict him of one of the most infamous crimes of the 21st century?
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Brueckner has already boasted he will go into hiding if he is released from prison in September. One former friend told me he expects the German to head to Cambodia or Vietnam. South America has also been mooted as a possible destination.
Prosecutors are awaiting the outcome of an appeal against last year's verdicts lodged in Germany's Federal Court of Justice.
If that is successful, Brueckner will remain behind bars ahead of a retrial next year or even 2027. But if, as most observers expect, the appeal fails, then charging him with Madeleine's abduction is the only chance to stop him walking free.
Judging by the smirk on his face when I recently challenged him outside court, Brueckner fully expects to be released. That must be a heartbreaking prospect for Madeleine's family.
We can only hope German prosecutors are withholding their trump card. But if they are, the time to play it is rapidly approaching.