EXCLUSIVE: Madeleine McCann Suspect Released After Serving Seven Years in Jail for Rape Charges – but U.K. Investigators Are Now Scrambling to Bring Him to Justice
Madeleine McCann suspect has been freed after serving seven years as U.K. investigators move to pursue justice.
Oct. 31 2025, Published 7:45 a.m. ET
The prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann from a Portuguese resort has been released from a German prison where he was serving time for an unrelated crime, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
But now British authorities are considering extraditing him to the U.K. to stand trial in McCann's case.
Christian Brückner, 48, who served a seven-year sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005, was recently released from a penitentiary near Hanover, Germany.
Brückner's Connection To The Case
Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley confirmed Christian Brückner remains a suspect in the Madeleine McCann case.
From 1995 to 2007, Brückner lived near the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz where McCann and her family were vacationing in May 2007.
The young English girl vanished from the resort after she and her siblings, 2-year-old twins, were left sleeping in an apartment while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, went to dinner in a nearby restaurant.
The U.K.'s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said Brückner "remains a suspect for us," adding Madeleine's case is still active and considered a missing person inquiry.
"The Germans have done everything they possibly can do within their law," Rowley said.
Brückner's Admitted He 'Knew All About' The Missing Toddler
Former officer Jim Gamble said a phone linked to Brückner placed him near the resort in 2007.
Germany and the U.K. have different legal standards when it comes to what is required for prosecution.
But Rowley confirmed: "[Brückner] remains a suspect in our investigation into Madeleine McCann being missing."
He points out Brückner, a German citizen, has a long criminal record, including convictions not only for rape, but for burglary, child sex abuse and drug dealing.
According to Jim Gamble, a former police officer who led a 2010 review of the McCann case, a phone linked to Brückner placed him in the area of the Portuguese resort within a 30-minute window of Madeleine's disappearance.
In 2017, Brückner allegedly told a drinking buddy that he "knew all about" what happened to the little girl.
Denying Any Involvement In The Case
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Kate and Gerry McCann remain hopeful their missing daughter Madeleine is still alive.
But he has denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance and has not been charged in connection with it.
A German police spokesperson said they had no knowledge of Brückner's current whereabouts, though he was fitted with an ankle monitor upon his release.
Kate and Gerry McCann insisted they "have not given up hope that Madeleine is still alive and that we will be reunited with her."
