Revealed: Inside the last-known address of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner before he was jailed for drug offences in Germany

• Christian Brueckner, now 43, left the apartment in Braunschweig, Germany
• Brueckner is the key suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007
• Apartment is last-known address Brueckner lived in before went to prison in Kiel

Photographs have revealed the inside of convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner’s (pictured) last-known address in Germany

Photographs have revealed the inside of convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner’s last-known address in Germany.

The revamped apartment in Braunschweig was reportedly left a mess when German-national Brueckner, now 43, moved out. 

Brueckner is the key suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann from Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 and is currently languishing in a German prison in Kiel on a drug-related sentence. 

He ran a small store selling drinks and snacks in Braunschweig between 2012 and 2014. 

While working there, he would shower youngsters with toys and teddy bears as they walked to a school barely 100 yards from the kiosk.

Lenta Johlitz, 34, worked for him at the corner shop and told German newspaper Bild: ‘Once he totally lost it when we sat together with friends and had a conversation about the Maddie case. 

‘He wanted us to stop talking about it. He shouted, “The child is dead now and that’s it”.’ 

Peter Erdmann, 64, who worked at the Grundschule Hohsteig, a primary school for around 300 children, said: ‘The kids would come to school holding ponies and teddy bears. I used to ask them where they got them from, and they used to tell me, “Christian at the kiosk gave it to us”.

‘He used to give the kids the presents when they walked past the kiosk in the morning.’ 

The revamped apartment in Braunschweig, Germany, was reportedly left a mess when German-national Brueckner, now 43, moved out. Pictured: The living room

The apartment’s living room – which has been redecorated since Brueckner moved out – features a living room with a door leading onto the bedroom 

Brueckner (right) is the key suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine (left) from Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 and is currently languishing in a German prison in Kiel on a drug-related sentence 

Mr Erdmann, who worked at the school between 1999 and 2016, added: ‘At the time, I did not think anything of it. I used to go and see Christian in the kiosk, and he always came across as friendly.

‘I even asked him if he gave gifts to the kids, and he told me he had a little box full in the kiosk.

‘It turns my stomach now to think of his intentions and I wish I had raised what was going on with my bosses at the time.’

Brueckner moved from Germany to Praia da Luz in 1995 after serving part of a two-year sentence for molesting a six-year-old girl in Wurzburg. Left: The kitchen of Brueckner’s former flat. Right: The entrance to the flat in Braunschweig

The doorway to Christian Brueckner’s last known address in Braunschweig, Germany. Brueckner is currently in prison

Brueckner moved from Germany to Praia da Luz in 1995 after serving part of a two-year sentence for molesting a six-year-old girl in Wurzburg.

At the time of Madeleine’s vanishing he was living in the area about a 10-minute drive away.  

British detectives believe Brueckner was living out of a battered VW T3 Westerfalia campervan in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.  

Former neighbours said he often slept in his van, which had a distinctive white upper body and yellow skirting. 

Detectives believe Brueckner, the latest main suspect in the McCann case, was living out of a German campervan in 2007

Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry of Rothley, Leicestershire, ‘continue to hope she is alive until they can be shown incontrovertible evidence which proves that she is dead,’ family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said on Saturday

A witness has claimed to have spotted Madeleine getting into a German-owned VW van with a man just weeks after her disappearance, it was revealed today.

Madeleine McCann prime suspect was ‘twisted loner’ at school, former classmate reveals – as police hunting ‘knockout’ clue put him on watch hoping he confesses to cellmate 

Madeleine McCann’s suspected murderer Christian Brueckner was a twisted loner who was hated by the other children at school, a former classmate has revealed. 

The ex-classmate, who wants to remain anonymous, said Brueckner would spend his days annoying the other pupils and getting into fights. 

He added that Bruekner was even hated by the teachers and he ‘knew he’d turn out bad’.

It comes as German police are thought to have put sex offender Bruekner, now 43, under surveillance in prison in the hope that he lets slip a ‘knockout’ clue to his cellmate. 

Now, an ex-classmate has revealed how Brueckner was deeply unpopular at school, winding up and annoying his fellow pupils and even goading teachers before laughing in their faces. 

The former pupil said: ‘I’ve only ever had one fight in my life and that was with Christian Brueckner.

‘He spent a year talking about me behind my back. He would not stop making nasty comments.

‘One day I exploded and told him to go back to the orphanage where he had come from.

‘We all knew he was adopted, so I shouldn’t have said that but I lost my temper with him.

‘He jumped on me and we traded punches until a teacher pulled us apart. Everyone hated him in class and they all kept their distance.

‘But it wasn’t just the children – it was the teachers as well.’

The former classmate, who is in his 40’s, said he knew Brueckner would end up a criminal but never guessed he would become involved in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

He added: ‘I always knew he would turn out bad but it is unbelievable to think he might he involved.’

A police file details how the witness saw Madeleine emerging from a restaurant in the Spanish seaside town of Alcossebre before climbing into the van with an unidentified man. 

According to the witness, Madeleine was seen at 11am on May 28, 2007 – three weeks after she vanished – coming out of popular local restaurant Tunnels in Alcossebre, some 600 miles from Praia da Luz.

At the time, Leicestershire Police Detective Constable John Hughes issued an international Interpol alert with a ‘risk to life missing person’ warning demanding that Spanish and German police investigate.

He urged Spanish police to check the location for CCTV and witnesses and asked for the German vehicle keeper details. It is unclear what checks were made.

The police report, issued as part of Operation Task, says: ‘A caller has reported a possible sighting of Madeleine McCann, 11am, 28th May 2007.

‘Location given as a restaurant called Tunnels, in an old castle at an area called Cap Y Corp, Alcossebre, Spain. She was seen to leave with a man in a Volkswagen van.

‘We request the Spanish police check the location for any CCTV or witnesses. We request German vehicle details. Can the vehicle be circulated for a stop and check to be carried out if seen.’  

German police said there were indications that he could have used either the van or a Jaguar model XJR 6 with a German number plate to commit the crime and appealed for help tracking where they were parked.

Detectives say that the day after Madeleine’s disappearance, Brueckner re-registered the Jaguar in the name of Alexander Bischof, who lives in Augsburg, Germany, despite the vehicle never having left Portugal.

It also emerged that Brueckner sold the VW van for £5,000 in 2015 to a German compatriot running an unofficial scrapyard in the Silves area of the Algarve. Portuguese police officers seized the vehicle in 2019.

The owner of the yard said: ‘The police said they needed the van as part of the investigation. It was all very sudden – there had been nothing on the TV or in the papers about the case at that time.

‘I’m not sure I’d ever get it back, but if it turns out Christian had something to do with Madeleine’s disappearance, then I don’t want it back. It wouldn’t be right.’

Scotland Yard said Brueckner’s Volkswagen van had a Portuguese registration plate. It is not known whether he changed the registration plate at any time.

As part of the appeal for information, the Met Police said in a statement that the suspect had ‘access to this van from at least April 2007 until sometime after May 2007’.

It added: ‘We believe he was living in this van for days, possibly weeks, and may have been using it on 3 May 2007. 

Following his naming by German police, he has been linked to the disappearances of six-year-old boy René Hasse in the Algarve, 1996, and five-year-old girl Igna Gehnricke in Germany, 2015. 

In 2005, two years prior to the infant’s disappearance, he raped a 72-year-old American woman on a waterfront villa less than a mile from the Ocean Club hotel where Madeleine went missing. 

The German suspect had lived in a warehouse outside Praia da Luz for several years but moved into a campervan just before Madeleine vanished

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