MADELEINE McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has moved into a flat yards from a primary school in his home town.

There are also two more primary schools and three nurseries nearby.

A man with a backpack on his shoulder looking back, standing in a doorway behind a chain-link fence.
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has moved into a flat in his home town yards from a primary school
 

Christian Brückner taking a photo with his phone in Braunschweig.
Brueckner has sparked fury after moving back to his home town of Braunschweig — with locals saying ‘we’re all afraid’Credit: Axel Springer Syndication
 

Madeleine McCann, a blonde-haired girl in a red dress, looks at the camera.
Three-year-old Madeleine vanished in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while on holiday with her family in May 2007Credit: AFP
The 49-year-old convicted paedophile and rapist has sparked fury after moving back to his home town of Braunschweig — with locals saying: “We’re all afraid.”

One neighbour said: “We were surprised to see two plain- clothes police officers always waiting in front of the house.

“Then someone saw him leave the house and recognised him straight away.

“Everyone here in Braunschweig knows him. I know neighbours who no longer send their children to the supermarket. We’re all afraid.

“There are three daycare centres and three elementary schools right nearby.

“Why is someone like that allowed to settle here?”

His two-room flat on the second floor of an ageing building is reportedly owned by an old friend.

Police presence around the property is constant.

Two officers sit in a car behind the house around the clock.

Before his most recent prison sentence, Brueckner ran a kiosk in the same neighbourhood.

He has become a £1million headache for police in Germany, requiring 24-hour surveillance since he was released from prison last September, when his term for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman expired.

He has struggled to settle in a string of different neighbourhoods across northern Germany, with families regularly demanding he be moved on.

Within days of his release last year The Sun revealed he bragged to phone shop staff he had proof to “solve the scandal of the century” — in a clear nod to the McCann case.

Three-year-old Madeleine, of Rothley, Leics, vanished in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while on holiday with her family in May 2007.

In 2020 Brueckner was named by German cops as the prime suspect in the disappearance and murder of the tot.

Officers said his mobile phone had pinged in the area on the night Madeleine disappeared.

Investigators say they have physical ­evidence Madeleine is dead but no forensic proof tying Brueckner to the case.

An exclusive Sun investigation, aired as a Channel 4 documentary, revealed police are in possession of image files that help contribute to their understanding that Madeleine is dead.

They also seized child abduction stories by Brueckner where he daydreams about snatching and abusing young girls — including one outside a kindergarten.

He even brags about his desperation to “take something small and use it for days” in online chats with another paedophile.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, investigators have been reluctant to charge over the case, fearing the lack of forensic evidence would harm their chances.

Brueckner has refused to answer police questions over the case but has insisted he is innocent in letters.

His lawyers continue to protest his innocence on all matters.

Illustration of a map highlighting three search areas related to a missing person investigation.