The prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance had a lock picking kit that could unlock any security door, a witness has claimed.
Madeleine disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007 – just a few days before her fourth birthday. Convicted child sex attacker Christian Brueckner has become the prime suspect in her case.
Brueckner bragged about the burglary toolkit which he would use to ‘break into holiday resorts, hotels and holiday homes to steal from tourists’, a former friend has told The Sun on Sunday.
Helge Busching, who is in German police witness protection, suggested that Brueckner ‘came through the door’ of the McCanns’ holiday apartment, raising doubts over the official theory that Madeleine’s kidnapper crept in through a window.
German police are reportedly ‘electrified’ by the discovery of the lock pick kit and also are investigating the possibility that Brueckner used car paint solvent to sedate the young girl.
Brueckner, a convicted paedophile who is serving a prison sentence for rape, was publicly named as a suspect in 2020 in Madeleine’s disappearance and was declared an official suspect last year. He has denied any involvement in her abduction.
The prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance had a lock picking kit that could unlock any security door, a witness has claimed. Madeleine is pictured above
Christian Brueckner (pictured) bragged about the burglary toolkit which he would use to ‘break into holiday resorts, hotels and holiday homes to steal from tourists’, a former friend has
Busching, who claims to have met Brueckner a year before Madeleine vanished, said he found the tool kit in the suspect’s Algarve home after he and a friend, Manfred Seyfreth, decided to ransack the place.
He told The Sun: ‘I knew from Christian that he uses tools to break into holiday resorts, hotels and holiday homes to steal from tourists.’
The petty criminal recalled seeing passports, cameras, suitcases and various items carried by tourists in the property, adding the he ‘also found a lock pick set’.
Busching claims he kept the kit – which he says can be used to ‘pick any lock, including security locks’ – and later gave it to police in Germany.
The kit is understood to be made by Dino which touts that its products ‘ensure easier access into the most restrictive European keyways fast’. It reportedly includes 14 black stainless steel picks that are each designed for a specific door type.
Police in Portugal have always claimed that Madeleine’s abductor broke into the apartment through a window. They allege he likely left with the child through a door or by climbing back out the window.
But when asked how Brueckner entered the home, Busching asserted: ‘Through the door. Easily. He can open any door.’
According to the newspaper, sources close to the investigation say German police believe the window theory is misleading.
The insider claimed investigators were ‘electrified’ by the discovery of the lock pick kit and argued the ‘evidence is now very important to them’.
The source added: ‘It confirmed a suspicion that they’d had for a long time – that Christian Brueckner entered the apartment through the door.’
Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment (pictured) in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007 – just a few days before her fourth birthday
Helge Busching, (pictured) who is in German police witness protection, has suggested that Brueckner ‘came through the door’ of the McCanns’ holiday apartment, raising doubts over the official theory that Madeleine’s kidnapper crept in through a window
Police were also told that Brueckner, a mechanic, had access to car paint solvent. They are now investigating a theory that he used the substance to sedate Madeleine.
Busching last week also claimed that Brueckner had once confessed to kidnapping Madeline, Bild reported.
He alleged that Brueckner told him: ‘She didn’t scream.’
Busching claims Brueckner issued the confession at the illegal Dragon Festival held in the southern Spanish mountain town of Orgiva a year after Madeleine vanished.
He also alleged that Brueckner turned up to the festival in an American campervan that he lived in between early 2007 and 2008. Busching says the van is not the Tiffin Allegro van police seized a few years back.
He insists the vehicle Brueckner drove to the the festival – known for its techno music, booze and drugs – was a Winnebago and believes that if police were able to track down the van, they would find traces of Madeleine’s DNA.
Busching says he knows that Brueckner abducted Madeleine, adding that ‘another witness knows it as well’.
He claims he advised the suspect to come clean but says Brueckner ‘will never do that’ because he is ‘too stubborn’ and ‘assumes police cannot prove anything’.
The witness added that he has been pressed by Brueckner’s lawyers to retract his allegations has been forced into witness protection for the last four years.
Last month German forensic experts searched a reservoir 30 miles from Praia da Luz as part of their ongoing investigation. They are understood to have taken soil samples for analysis
Investigators are pictured at the Barragem do Arade reservoir, in the Algave, Portugal, as searches continued into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Madeleine vanished from a rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007, during a family holiday.
Her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, spearheaded a high-profile campaign for information about her disappearance.
Reports claim that phone records place Brueckner in the town on the night she vanished and that his yellow and white Volkswagen Westfalia campervan was spotted near the Algarve resort.
Last month German forensic experts searched a reservoir 30 miles from Praia da Luz as part of their ongoing investigation. They are understood to have taken soil samples for analysis.
Brueckner and Busching, who is also German, both previously lived in Portugal and were said to have been involved in petty theft.
Brueckner has claimed the pair have not spoken since 2007, when they discussed a drug deal, and has denied Busching’s claims about their conversation in 2008, saying they were ‘not even worthy of comment’.
Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, (pictured in 2012) from Rothley, Leicestershire, spearheaded a high-profile campaign for information about her disappearance after their young daughter vanished in 2007
Busching also claims to have seen videotapes which allegedly showed Brueckner sexually abusing an elderly woman and a teenage girl in Portgual.
In 2019 Brueckner was convicted in a German court of the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman at her home in Portugal, close to Praia da Luz, and he is serving a seven-year sentence. Busching reportedly contacted British police about his former friend after he was arrested in Greece in 2017 over an alleged smuggling ring.
Madeleine’s disappearance was initially investigated by police in Portugal, with support from officers in the UK. The Metropolitan Police took over the investigation in 2011 after the Portuguese operation was shelved.
But more than three years after linking Brueckner to Madeleine’s disappearance, he has still not been charged regarding her abduction as prosecutors do not have enough evidence.
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