The main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann "repeatedly" worked at the Portuguese resort she vanished from in 2007, a new documentary claims.
In the documentary, New Leads in the Maddie Case, an anonymous witness claims convicted rapist Christian Brueckner "regularly carried out repair work" as a maintenance man at Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, where the three-year-old disappeared almost 15 years ago. He was reportedly "very familiar" with the resort and the surrounding area.
New cell phone analysis also suggests Brueckner was "no more than five minutes away" from the Ocean Club when McCann disappeared.
The 44-year-old convicted paedophile told an investigative reporter on the documentary, Jutta Rabe, that he was living in a "battered hippy van" near Praia da Luz. He says he didn't abduct McCann and defended himself by admitting he was a drug dealer.
Because of that, Brueckner says he had to avoid "provoking" the police to remain undetected. He was mindful not to attract attention with his campervan, "so that means not committing any crimes, certainly not abducting anyone".
"I see no reason to comment on the accusations made by the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office," he says.
"In theory, I could sit back and relax and just wait for the findings."
British and German authorities revealed in 2020 that Brueckner is the prime suspect in the case of McCann.
While British police continue to treat the investigation as a missing person case, German prosecutors say they believe the girl is dead.
Hans Christian Wolters said in December 2020 he was "very confident" charges would be brought against Brueckner and felt the public would come to the same conclusion "if it knew the evidence we had".
No charges have been filed against Brueckner but he remains the prime suspect.
