Prime Madeleine McCann suspect says he ‘was 150 yards from resort’ when she disappeared

A paedophile and rapist who is the police’s prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has admitted he was “150 yards” from the resort where she was staying when she disappeared.

Speaking for the first time about his movements that night, Christian Brueckner said he was “selling drugs” on a beach near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal’s Algarve where the McCanns were staying on the night she went missing, but denies any connection to the three-year-old’s case.

German police previously named him as their prime suspect in the suspected kidnapping and murder of Maddie, who disappeared in 2007 while her parents Kate and Gerry McCann dined 100 yards away.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday he told of how police had stopped him with a “van full of drugs” as he attempted to make a quick getaway from Praia da Luz the evening she went missing.

“I was on the beach, not far from Maddie's hotel, selling drugs,” he said. “I'd been in Spain and smuggled the weed into Portugal. I was even stopped by police three times on the street [in Praia da Luz] while they were looking for Maddie. Luckily, they didn't find the drugs. My van was full of them.”

He added: “I was making a quick getaway; there were flashing blue lights and checkpoints everywhere. I just thought, 'Get me out of here'.'

Brueckner also said he had previously refused to comment on his alleged connection to Madeleine’s disappearance “because the police want to frame me for the Maddie thing”.

He told the MoS: “I have nothing to do with the little girl's disappearance. I would be happy if Maddie turned up tomorrow, then everyone would immediately understand that everything against me is and was staged.

“But that probably won't happen, so I remain the prime suspect.”

The German was freed from jail last year after serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in Praia da Luz in 2005.

German prosecutors see him as their top suspect in what they believe to be a kidnap and murder investigation, but have said they do not have enough evidence to charge him.

According to reports in The Telegraph from May, senior officers in the UK are also pushing to see Brueckner charged before the 20th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance next year.

Despite Madeleine’s UK case officially being a missing persons investigation, a small team of officers are building a file of evidence for the CPS in relation to her suspected abduction and murder, the newspaper reported.

However, police could face difficulties bringing the suspect to the UK, because the German constitution prevents the extradition of its citizens to non-EU countries.