Metropolitan Police ‘seek UK trial’ for Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police are working to bring Christian Brueckner to the UK to stand trial, it has been reported [National News]

(Image: PA)

Police detectives at the Met are said to be pushing for Christian Brueckner to be extradited to the UK to stand trial over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, according to reports

A top Scotland Yard officer is reported to be behind a drive to charge the German suspect on suspicion of abduction and murder before the 20th anniversary of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance next year, according to The Telegraph.

Investigators reportedly believe they can build a strong enough case for the Crown Prosecution Service to approve charges against 48-year-old Brueckner. However, the main obstacle is that the German constitution prevents the extradition of its citizens to non-EU countries, the Mirror reports.

“Next year marks 20 years since Madeleine McCann went missing. If the evidence is strong enough to extradite the prime suspect and try him here, that is what we would seek to do,” the Scotland Yard insider told The Telegraph.

Christian Brueckner in court in 2024(Image: Phil Harris)

“Clearly, there are numerous hurdles but our priority at the moment is to amass the strongest evidence we can against that prime suspect.”

Brueckner was freed from jail in September last year after serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005. He was allowed to leave Germany in November after a legal restriction was lifted.

Brueckner has never been charged over Madeleine’s disappearance, but remains the prime suspect in both the German and British investigations into what happened to her.

When Madeleine disappeared from her bed at the age of three at the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007, Brueckner was living in his house, about a mile from the Ocean Club where the McCanns were staying.

Brueckner refused to speak to the Met after UK investigators sent an international letter asking to speak to him on his release. He has denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Police Commissioner, said last year that the force was looking into whether it would be possible to extradite Brueckner to the UK.

He said at the time: “One of the reasons we are involved is that murder is in many situations extraterritorial and potentially a murder of a British subject can in certain circumstances be charged in the UK.

“There’s lots of maybes, so at the moment we are taking stock with the Germans and Portuguese.”