German Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner speaks for the first time to claim he's innocent and ridicule prosecutors in strange sketch
- Christian Brueckner, 44, claimed the investigation was 'scandalous' in letter
- He also sent sketch of the prosecutors in a restaurant discussing 'filet forensics'
- Cartoon and letter are first time Brueckner has publicly addressed allegations
- German prosecutors allege 'concrete evidence' against him in McCann case The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has spoken for the first time to claim he's innocent.
Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner, 44, claimed the investigation was 'scandalous' and condemned prosecutors who 'brought shame to the legal system,' in a letter obtained by German newspaper Bild.
It was accompanied by a strange sketch which depicts two prosecutors ordering food at a restaurant. They have speech bubbles over their heads, with one saying, 'I'll take the filet forensics,' and the other replying, 'Yummy, me too.'
It may refer to the lead prosecutor Hans Wolter's previous admission that there was no forensic evidence against Bruckner in the McCann case.
Christian Brueckner, 44, claimed the investigation was 'scandalous' and condemned prosecutors who 'brought shame to the legal system,' in a letter obtained by German newspaper Bild. He has denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance
Three-year-old Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal's Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.
Her parents Kate and Gerry had put her and her siblings to bed in the flat before meeting friends for dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant.
Brueckner was living in a camper van near Praia da Luz at the time of the disappearance.
Last June, German and UK police revealed Brueckner as a suspect after first becoming aware of his potential connection to the case in 2017.
He has not yet been interrogated by police and the letter published in Germany today is the first time he has spoken publicly since the allegations surfaced.
Brueckner wrote: 'Charging an accused is one thing. Something completely different, namely an unbelievable scandal, when a public prosecutor starts a public prejudgement campaign before the main proceedings are opened.
'Freedom of expression is not a basic right so that everyone can say and write what they want. Freedom of expression does not protect the majority.
'It protects the minority. It does not protect the most logical, most convincing or most popular views, but rather the outsider position.
'I call on the Brunswick public prosecutors Wolters and Lindemann to resign from their offices.'
Lead prosecutor Hans Wolter's has previously conceded that there was no forensic evidence against Bruckner in the McCann case
The paedophile continued: 'You both prove worldwide, through arbitrary convictions in the past and through scandalous prejudgement campaigns in the present, that you are unsuitable for the office of an "advocate for the honest and trusting German people" and that you bring shame to the German legal system.'
The letter and the bizarre accompanying cartoon are signed with his signature and dated May 8. It is not clear why it has only now been unsealed.
Brueckner is serving seven years for raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz.
He is also being investigated for allegedly exposing himself in a playground while children were present.
Brueckner has denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance, refusing to speak to police or prosecutors so far.
Investigators have interviewed a number of potential witnesses in Germany and Portugal, including Brueckner's British ex-girlfriend, who claims he assaulted her.
Chief prosecutor Wolters, who believes Madeleine is dead, said authorities have not spoken to her parents Kate and Gerry McCann.
Last month, the McCanns said they 'hang on to hope, however small' that they will see their daughter again as they marked the 14th anniversary of her disappearance.
Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007. Pictured: A timeline showing his movements up until 2020 where he remain in a Kiel prison
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In a message shared online, they noted that this year's anniversary was even more poignant because it would have been Maddie's 18th birthday.
The message, which was shared on the Find Madeleine website, read: 'Every May is tough – a reminder of years passed, of years together lost, or stolen.
'This year it is particularly poignant as we should be celebrating Madeleine's 18th birthday. Enough said.'
What do we know about Maddie murder suspect Christian Brueckner and his criminal past?
Sex criminal Christian Brueckner
1976: Christian Brueckner is born in Würzburg under a different name, believed to be Fischer. He was adopted by the Brueckner family and took their surname.
1992: Christian Brueckner is arrested on suspicion of burglary in his hometown of Wurzburg, Bavaria.
1994: He is given a two-year sentence for 'abusing a child' and 'performing sex acts in front of a child'.
1995: Brueckner arrives in Portugal as an 18-year-old backpacker and begins working in catering in the seaside resorts of Lagos and Praia da Luz.
But friends say he became involved with a criminal syndicate trafficking drugs into the Algarve.
September 2005: He dons a mask and breaks into an apartment where a 72-year-old American tourist.
The victim was bound, gagged, blindfolded and whipped with a metal cane before being raped for 15 minutes. She said afterwards that he had clearly enjoyed 'torturing' her before the rape.
April 2007: He moves out of a farmhouse and into a campervan linked to the crime. The farmhouse is cleaned and a bag of wigs is found.
May 3, 2007: Madeleine McCann is snatched at around 10pm from her bed as her parents eat tapas with friends yards away.
Brueckner's mobile phone places him in the area that night. He returns to his native Germany shortly after that.
October 2011: He is sentenced to 21 months for 'dealing narcotics' in Niebüll, in northern Germany.
2014: He moves to Braunschweig where he starts running a town-centre kiosk. He then goes back to Portugal with a girlfriend.
2016: He is back in Germany. He is given 15 months in prison for 'sexual abuse of a child in the act of creating and possessing child pornographic material'.
May 3, 2017: Brueckner is said to be in a bar with a friend when a ten-year anniversary appeal following Madeleine's disappearance is shown on German television. He is said to have told him in a bar that he 'knew all about' what happened to her. He then showed his friend a video of him raping a woman.
MailOnline understands the friend went to police shortly afterwards.
June 2017: He heads back to Portugal and extradited again to Germany. The reason was a sentencing of the Braunschweig district court to 15 months' imprisonment for the sexual abuse of a child.
August 2018: After his release from prison he lives on the streets. But he was jailed again for drug offences.
First Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters addresses the media on the Madeleine McCann case in Braunschweig
September 2018: Brueckner is arrested in Italy and extradited to Germany and put on trial for raping an American in 2007 after a DNA match was found at the crime scene.
July 2019: He is jailed for 21 months for drug dealing in the northern German resort of Sylt.
August 2019: Brueckner is charged with the rape of the American tourist in Praia da Luz in 2005.
December 2019: He is convicted of rape of extortion of the tourist based on DNA evidence. He is given a seven year sentence, but this has not been imposed pending an appeal.
June 3, 2020: Scotland Yard and the German police reveal that that they have identified a suspect in the Maddie McCann case
June 4, 2020: Prosecutors in Braunschweig, where he lives, say they believe Madeleine McCann has been murdered, says spokesman Hans Christian Wolters. He is named in the German press as the prime suspect.
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