Madeleine McCann suspect plans new life on 'billionaire island'
The 48-year-old convicted rapist and paedophile is due to be freed from prison in September and previously boasted he plans to go into hiding. Now his lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher has claimed Brueckner plans to stay in Germany after his release - and has already chosen a new home. 'According to my information, he plans to settle in Schleswig-Holstein,' Fuelscher told Bild. And Brueckner has a very specific location in mind - the exclusive North Sea island of Sylt. 'Sylt has appealed to him in the past,' Fuelscher added.
Brueckner previously ran a cannabis dealing operation on the island and was handed a suspended sentence in 2011. He is due to complete his current seven-year rape sentence in Sehnde prison on September 17. His legal team thought he would have to stay behind bars for a further five months because he owed an outstanding €1,400 fine.
But German tabloid Bild claims an anonymous female donor has now paid the fine on Brückner's behalf — clearing the final obstacle to his release.
Despite a lengthy police investigation, detectives appear to be no closer to charging him over Madeleine's disappearance. He was cleared last October of a string of sex crimes he was accused of carrying out in Portugal.
Prosecutors are awaiting the outcome of an appeal against those verdicts lodged in Germany's Federal Court of Justice. Brueckner denies any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.
German search teams spent three days hunting for evidence in Portugal earlier this month. Brueckner was living in a ramshackle farmhouse on the edge of Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished from the holiday resort in May 2007.
Sylt is Germany's northernmost island, nestled in the North Sea just off Schleswig‑Holstein. It has been connected to the mainland by the Hindenburgdamm causeway since 1927.
In WW2 it was heavily fortified with concrete bunkers hidden beneath dunes, and some of this wreckage and relics dot the island's landscape today.
From the 1960s, Sylt reinvented itself into a jet‑set playground for rich movers and shakers, and it is still this way today.Affluent entrepreneurs, VIPs, celebrities, and models flock here for gourmet dining, designer boutiques, luxury spas, and even the famed 'Whisky Mile' in Kampen. It is also known for its dramatic sand dunes and vast 40 km beaches.
In recent years, however, the island has also become the stage for disturbing far‑right incidents.
A shocking video emerged showing patrons in a Sylt nightclub chanting a Nazi slogan - 'Germany for the Germans – foreigners out' - prompting a nationwide outrage. The scandal rocked Germany because this time, instead of far-right thugs and skinheads it was wealthy 'yuppies' orchestrating it.
Left‑wing protest groups pitched protest camps on the island against what they claimed was elite gentrification and far‑right infiltration.
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