Christian Brueckner helped woman ‘who can provide him with Madeleine McCann alibi’ avoid charges

Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner helped get the woman he claims can give him an alibi escape a charge of possessing an illegal weapon, new police documents show.

Convicted paedophile Brueckner, 45, is believed by prosecutors in Germany to have killed Madeleine.

He says that he is innocent and can prove that he was with the woman at the time of the disappearance.

However, documents published today for the first time show Brueckner assisted getting the woman out of trouble with police just six days after Madeleine went missing.

When Brueckner dropped her off at Faro airport for a flight to Cologne, Germany, on May 9, the woman, who MailOnline is not naming, was arrested by police as she passed through security for a flight carrying pepper spray.

Brueckner returned to the airport and acted as translator explaining the pepper spray was legal in Germany.

Madeleine McCann (left) went missing in Portugal in 2007. Christian Brueckner (right) has been named as the chief suspect in her disappearance by Portuguese authorities

Documents published today for the first time show Brueckner assisted getting the woman out of trouble with police just six days after Madeleine went missing

He convinced them the girl had made an honest mistake and was not dangerous and the case was dismissed thanks to his persuasive skills with Portuguese police.

A source said: ‘It’s interesting to see how the woman who he says is his alibi was actually helped by him to escape a serious charge.’

It is known that convicted rapist and padeophile Brueckner was driving between Portugal and Spain setting up supply routes to ferry drugs back to his native Germany.

Brueckner’s signature can be seen on a page of the file and it matches the handwriting of a letter he sent to MailOnline recently.

Through Brueckner she described how in her native Germany she used to cycle frequently and carried the spray with her for protection.

The file reveals paperwork was sent to the woman’s address in Germany informing her the case was being discontinued as prosecutors accepted her defence she had no idea it was illegal.

Brueckner was named as prime suspect in the abduction and murder of Madeleine by German police in June 2020 but since then no charges have been brought.

Details of Brueckner’s alibi emerged in a Channel Five documentary on the case presented by TV sleuth Mark Williams-Thomas but he was unable to provide as much detail as MailOnline has obtained.

Madeleine parents, Kate and Gerry, mark the 15th anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance from Portugal at a vigil in their home village of Rothley 

The woman and Brueckner were stopped by police at a checkpoint near Praia da Luz shortly a couple of days after Madeleine vanished.

She has been traced by Portuguese and German investigators and told them she was with Brueckner the days after Madeleine disappeared and he was ‘normal and calm’ and ‘didn’t act as if he had snatched and killed a child’.

Brueckner has insisted that at the time of the disappearance he was miles away with the woman in his campervan although she cannot recall where exactly she was the night Madeleine disappeared.

Madeleine McCann would have turned 18 last year. In 2012, five years after her disappearance, her family issued an age progression e-fit photo to show what Madeleine may have looked like aged nine (right)