02 July 2023 , 09:08
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The suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann had a kit for breaking into people's homes, according to cops working on the case.
Christian Brueckner, who is currently in German prison on drugs charges, is thought to have owned a "lock picking kit" that could twist the cogs and open any security door.
He is said to have boasted about owning the tools to a pal, which could derail the long-held theory that little Madeleine's abductor clambered through a window before snatching her from her room in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
German police and prosecutors are excited and "electrified" by the discovery, they say.
Christian Brueckner is currently in prison on drugs charges and facing seven years for the rape of an elderly woman (REX/Shutterstock)
Madeleine was abducted from her parent's holiday home in Praia da Luz in Portugal (PA)Another line of enquiry they're working on is whether Christian Brueckner employed a chemical found at his job as a car mechanic to sedate Madeleine and move her out of apartment 5a without her making a peep.
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Brueckner has consistently denied any involvement in the abduction, and has not commented on these latest allegations.
Helge B, 52, a key witness who is now under police witness protection in Germany, spoke about what Christian B had told him as he was interviewed from a secret location.
He explained: “He came through the door.”
Helge B, who met the paedophile a year prior to Maddie's disappearance, told The Sun on Sunday that he found the kit at Christian B's home in the Algarve.
Helge Busching was a former friend of Christian Brueckner (Christian Spreitz / BILD)Helge B, who is himself a criminal, had joined another pal Manfred Seyferth and decided to ransack the home.
He said: “I knew from Christian that he uses tools to break into holiday resorts, hotels and holiday homes to steal from tourists.
“There were passports on the table. There was all sorts of stuff lying around — cameras, suitcases, everything that tourists have with them. I also found a lock pick set.”
The resort in Praia da Luz (Mirrorpix)Likely thinking he could use it for his own petty crime, Helge B kept the kit and told German police: "You can use it to pick any lock, including security locks.”
The pair had been friends in Portugal, before Helge B claims he became sickened by video footage he found of Brueckner that showed him raping an American pensioner and a teenage girl.
Busching, a German national, said he stole videotapes and a firearm from Brueckner’s home before Madeleine disappeared and saw the footage.
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He said: “[The victim] said: ‘This borders on rape!’ And he just said: ‘Shut up.’ That's when I knew what kind of guy Brueckner was.”
Madeleine disappeared in 2007 (PA)Busching says he met Brueckner again at a music festival in Spain in 2008 where they discussed the Madeleine McCann case and the suspect allegedly told him "she didn't scream".
He told German outlet Bild : “He asked me: ‘Don't you go to Portugal anymore and do business there?’
“I said: ‘No, since the girl disappeared there, there have been too many police checks for me and I don't need that at all.’
“[The topic of Madeleine's disappearance] came up and I said: ‘Anyway, I don't understand how the little one could have disappeared without a trace.’
“Christian had drunk two or three beers, and he said: ‘She didn't scream.’