Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner 'confessed to abducting a child in Portugal'

A German detective has confirmed reports that a key figure in the Madeleine McCann case has claimed the chief suspect confessed to a child abduction in Portugal.

Christian Brueckner , a convicted rapist, was named by German police as the man they believe is responsible for the British girl’s disappearance in 2007.

At a hearing at Braunschweig Regional Court on Wednesday, Larentius Codin, a former inmate in the same prison as Brueckner, claimed he had told him about various rapes and convictions he had carried out.

Codin, 50, who was giving evidence in an unrelated cases involving Brueckner, claimed he was told by the suspect that he had raped young girls near Hanover and had abducted a girl in Portgual, reported The Daily Mail.

Codin also alleged Brueckner had asked whether sniffer dogs could detect children's bones if they were hidden underground.

Detective Niko Mueller, who works with Germany’s BKA, the equivalent of the FBI, confirmed that Codin had made the allegations.

Mr Mueller said: “We had him named as a possible contact to Christian Brueckner, so we were able to establish he was in prison and so we approached him in this capacity,' the detective said.

“He was told what it was about, we said was a murder case involving Madeleine McCann and that there was a suspect, Christian and we wanted to talk to him about that.

“At first he talked about Christian Brueckner having asked him if he could sort him out with a fake passport and driving licence, as he said it would be good for Brueckner if he goes back to Portugal.

“But later he reported that Christian Brueckner had committed rapes in Hanover… at this moment I hadn't heard of this before.”

Brueckner denies involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance from a Praia da Luz in Portugal.

Madeleine was three years old when she went missing from her family's holiday flat.

Her parents had left her sleeping with her siblings while they had dinner at a nearby restaurant and realised at about 10pm that she was gone. It remains one of the world’s most famous missing person cases

Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison term for raping an American pensioner in the area.

He is facing charges in Germany of separate sex crimes allegedly carried out in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017, including the rape of an Irish tour rep.

Brueckner is also accused of raping a teenage girl in his Praia da Luz home and also raping an elderly woman..

He also faces a child sex charge for allegedly exposing himself to a German girl on a beach in Salema in April 2007.

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