Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner admits he was just '150 yards' from her apartment on the night she vanished

From the Newshound archive · first published 20 September 2026 · last updated 21 September 2026.

Christian Brueckner, 49, has ended his silence over his whereabouts on the night Madeleine McCann vanished, admitting he was selling smuggled cannabis on a beach at Praia da Luz, just 150 yards from the three-year-old's holiday apartment. He claims Portuguese police stopped him three times that evening during the search for the missing girl, yet never searched his van, which he says was loaded with drugs. Brueckner, freed from prison a year ago having completed a rape sentence, says he kept quiet about where he had been because 'the police want to frame me for the Maddie thing'. No charges have ever been brought against him over Madeleine's 2007 disappearance.

Brueckner is now reportedly planning a tell-all memoir, hoping to pocket a seven-figure sum.

Retired detective Kevin Moore called the book plan 'abhorrent', warning the public not to buy it.

German law makes it far harder than UK law to strip convicted criminals of profits from memoirs about their crimes.