A chilling confession from a key witness in the Madeleine McCann case has surfaced, leaving him in fear for his life. What did he hear that night?

The witness who claims twisted Christian Brueckner virtually confessed to snatching little Madeleine McCann is preparing to bolt from Germany – gripped by sheer terror over a vengeful revenge attack.

Helge Busching, 54, who sensationally triggered the German probe back in 2017, has made the spine-chilling revelation that the prime suspect coldly told him the innocent toddler “didn’t scream” during her final horrifying moments.

In a bombshell confession that will send shockwaves through the investigation, the terrified witness declared: “I’m afraid. Christian knows I’m the only one who can pin the Madeleine McCann case on him. He will want me out of the way. Brueckner knows what he told me.” The news emerges as a new report reveals evidence  Madeleine McCann was ‘stolen by paedo ring’ linked to serial killer.

The former small-time crook delivered a jaw-dropping account of the earth-shattering moment that could crack the case wide open: “We were at a festival in Spain in 2008 a year after Madeleine vanished. I didn’t want to speak to him but he asked, ‘Why aren’t you in Portugal any more?’”

“I said it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to be — that there were too many police since Madeleine McCann. Then I said, ‘How did someone take her from the apartment?’.

“Christian looked at me and said, ‘She didn’t scream’. We both knew exactly what he had said.

“I had already seen what he was capable of and I knew he was telling me he had taken her.

“Then I discovered Christian left the festival in the night.

“It was clear he left in a rush because he almost ran over someone’s tent with his camper van.

“To me, he realised what he had said to me and he panicked and decided to run away.”

Helge’s murky criminal past initially made him hesitant about approaching the authorities. However, the haunted witness revealed he finally contacted Scotland Yard just weeks later after another spine-tingling encounter with the suspected killer.

The terrified man made another desperate call to police in 2017 when Germany was gripped by coverage marking the devastating ten-year anniversary of the little girl’s disappearance.

In an agonizing confession, he declared: “It is one of the biggest regrets of my life that I did not contact the police again sooner.

“But when I saw the anniversary I thought, ‘I can’t let him be a free man. This cannot go on for the parents’.

“I believe he took Madeleine McCann — I believe he killed her.”

The recycling plant worker delivered another chilling warning as he continued his explosive testimony: “He will offend again.

“I know him. I know this man. I hate this man. It is a matter of time before he abuses another child or attacks another old woman.”

Helge, whose devastating testimony helped nail Brueckner over a horrific 2005 rape in Praia da Luz, added his bone-chilling fears: “I’m worried he wants revenge. He knows I put him behind bars and I reported him for Madeleine.”

The petrified witness has completely lost faith in Germany’s crumbling legal system and believes his only chance of survival lies in fleeing the country – even if it means abandoning the safety of witness protection.

In a final desperate plea, he revealed: “I am hiding. I will never stop moving — never stay in the same place for too long in case it helps him track me down.”