- Madeline McCann disappeared in 2007
- British boy has never been found
- Former friend makes explosive claim about prime suspect
- READ MORE: Who is Christian Brueckner?
The main suspect in Maddie McCann’s disappearance allegedly confessed to a friend and petty criminal that the British girl “didn’t scream” after she was taken from her parents’ holiday home and never seen again.
Madeleine McCann was just three years old when she disappeared from her bed at her parents’ holiday home in the coastal town of Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007, sparking one of the world’s longest-running cold cases. .
While no one has ever been charged with the boy’s disappearance, German authorities revealed in June 2020 that convicted rapist Christian Brueckner was their main suspect. This week he faces trial in Germany on unrelated charges.
Brueckner, known under German privacy laws as Christian B, is accused of raping a 14-year-old girl and two other women, as well as sexually assaulting other children, and is currently in prison convicted of rape.
Madeleine McCann (pictured) was just three years old when she disappeared from her bed at her parents’ holiday home in the coastal town of Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007, sparking one of the cases without longest-lasting solvers in the world.
Christian Brueckner has been named as the main suspect in McCann’s kidnapping and alleged murder.
An integral part of the upcoming trial is petty criminal and Brueckner’s former friend Helge Busching, who told journalist Jutta Rabe that the sex criminal had confessed to him at a music festival that Maddie McCann “didn’t scream.”
“He said ‘she didn’t scream, she didn’t scream,’ that’s what Brueckner said and then I looked at Mr. Brueckner and I thought ‘what are you telling me now?'” Busching said, in an audio broadcast Sunday on 60 minutes.
Ms. Rabe told 60 Minutes: “And then his reaction to that, is, ‘Huh?’ What did you just say? Didn’t she scream? How can you know? … At that moment, she realized, ‘he knows.’ He, he’s been there. She Take off’.”
Busching claimed to have twice reported his suspicions to the police, first to Scotland Yard in 2008 and again on the 10th anniversary of her disappearance, although there was no follow-up until 2020.
At the time, telephone data obtained by German police placed Brueckner near the vacation home while he was living between Germany and Portugal. The revelation made the convicted rapist the prime suspect.
According to 60 Minutes, Busching will give evidence that he watched videos of Brueckner assaulting women. Rabe also told the program that she had been receiving periodic letters from Brueckner in prison.
The prosecutor in the McCann case, Hans Christian Wolters, told 60 Minutes that he had no doubt that Brueckner is his prime suspect and that Busching was a “credible” witness who testified in another case against Brueckner.
‘The investigation is still ongoing. “We have work to do and when we will come to an end, and if we think it is enough, we will charge Christian B and if it is not enough then we will have to close the case,” he said.
Helge Busching (pictured) was a former friend of Christian Breuckner.
Helge Busching alleged that his former friend told him that Madeleine McCann (pictured) “didn’t scream”.