Madeleine McCann suspects Christian Brueckner would break into holiday apartments naked, a former friend has told his sex crimes trial.
Michael Tatschl, Brueckner’s former accomplice, said he would use this strange modus operandi to avoid leaving evidence and not getting his clothes caught on surfaces.
Tatschl said: ‘He scaled the walls. One time he told me that she came in and three teenagers were sleeping in the living room. He was naked. One of them woke up when a phone rang and he screamed.
‘The girl’s father heard the scream and came, so Christian had to run and jump from a balcony. Several times he stole naked because he didn’t want to leave a trace.
Bruckner, 47, a convicted rapist and pedophile, was sensationally named by German police four years ago as the man responsible for Madeleine’s “kidnapping and murder.”
The three-year-old disappeared from a ground-floor holiday apartment while on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry in Praia da Luz, on Portugal’s Algarve coast, in May 2007.
However, despite the claim, he has not yet been charged and is currently on trial in his native Germany accused of unrelated sexual crimes that took place in the same area where she disappeared.
Madeleine McCann suspects Christian Brueckner (pictured in court today) would break into holiday apartments naked, a former friend told her at his sex crimes trial.
Convicted rapist and pedophile Bruckner, 47, was sensationally named by German police four years ago as the man responsible for the “kidnapping and murder” of Madeleine (pictured).
However, despite the claim, he has not yet been charged and is currently on trial in his native Germany, accused of unrelated sexual crimes (pictured in court today) that took place in the same area where she disappeared. .
Carpenter Tatschl, 50, is the latest witness to testify at the Braunschweig court, where Brueckner arrived early Friday under a heavy police escort.
Previously, Tatschl said she was an “accomplice in crime” with Brueckner when they lived in Portugal and told German media that she overheard him talking about “selling children to a pedophile ring in Morocco.”
In a previous interview he also said he was “convinced” that Bruecker had taken Madeleine, saying: “I know he did it.” He is more than capable of carrying a small child.
Brueckner and Tatschl were jailed in 2006 for stealing fuel in Portugal and shared the same cell before being released just weeks before Madeleine disappeared.
In his testimony, Tatschl, dressed in a white shirt, described how he met Brueckner in early 2006 and became friends with him over the following weeks.
He said: ‘He told me how he made money, breaking into houses, tourist houses, hotels, at night when they weren’t there.
‘He would even barge in when they were sleeping and if they were on the first or even second floor.
“He had a small box with stolen things, jewelry and watches.”
Earlier, Brueckner was led into court in handcuffs and greeted his legal team with warm handshakes.
Portuguese police have always claimed that Madeleine’s kidnapper broke into the apartment through a window.
They say the culprit probably left with the child through a door or out a window.
Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leicestershire, led a high-profile campaign to obtain information about her disappearance.
Earlier, Brueckner had been brought into court in handcuffs and greeted his legal team with warm handshakes (pictured above as Brueckner arrived at court).
On November 18 last year, prosecutors confirmed that Brueckner would be tried on several counts of sexual abuse against women between the ages of 10 and 80.
Then three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, on Portugal’s Algarve coast, in May 2007, where she was staying with her parents Kate, Gerry and her siblings.
This location map shows where the McCann family went on vacation in 2007, in the Algarve region of Portugal.
Brueckner (pictured), 47, is accused of three rapes and two sexual assaults that allegedly took place on Portugal’s Algarve coast in the period between 2000 and 2017.
Brueckner is on trial accused of raping three women and assaulting children between 2000 and 2017 in the Algarve.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2019 after being found guilty of raping an elderly woman in the Algarve in 2005.
His current trial began in February and has heard from witnesses who say they saw Brueckner in harrowing sex videos showing the rape of an elderly woman and a young girl.
Brueckner’s defense has tried several times to have witnesses thrown out, saying the case is unfair and prejudicial against their client because of the link to Madeleine, but so far all attempts have failed.
The trial is expected to continue through the spring and summer.