The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has turned down a request for an interview with the Metropolitan Police, the force has confirmed. Christian Brückner, a 48-year-old German national, has long been considered the main suspect in the case but has never been charged in connection with the missing child. He continues to deny any involvement.
Madeleine vanished in May 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant. The disappearance became one of the world’s most high-profile missing persons cases.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell of the Met Police said that, in line with legal procedure, a request for an interview was made via an International Letter of Request. However, the suspect declined. “It was subsequently refused by the suspect. In the absence of an interview, we will nevertheless continue to pursue any viable lines of inquiry,” said DCI Cranwell.
Brückner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. He is due to be released by Wednesday. German prosecutors have said they suspect him of murdering Madeleine, citing evidence such as mobile phone data placing him in the area at the time. Despite this, no charges have been brought due to a lack of conclusive evidence.
Brückner has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for child sexual abuse in 1994 and 2016. He lived in the Algarve for several years between 2000 and 2017. Fresh searches linked to him were conducted in June near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, 30 miles from Praia da Luz, but no breakthroughs were reported. He was previously cleared of unrelated sexual offences in Portugal by a German court in 2023.
The UK government has spent more than £13.2m on the Met Police’s Operation Grange since 2011, with a further £108,000 secured earlier this year to keep inquiries active. Despite differences in legal approaches, German authorities continue to treat the case as a murder investigation, while the Met Police still class Madeleine’s disappearance as a missing persons inquiry.