Christian Brueckner was jailed for sexually abusing his ex-girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter

The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was jailed for sexually abusing the five-year-old daughter of a former girlfriend, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Christian Brueckner assaulted the youngster in a public park before taking graphic photographs that were later discovered on his digital camera and laptop as police investigated him over a separate claim of domestic violence.

The sex attack took place in 2013 when Brueckner was living in Braunschweig, northern Germany, and around the time that police searching for Madeleine – who vanished from her family’s apartment in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007 – had been given his name by a caller to the German equivalent of the BBC Crimewatch programme.

Brueckner, 43, who is serving a prison sentence for drugs offences, was publicly revealed as a suspect by German police in June.

While in Braunschweig, Brueckner ran a kiosk selling drinks and snacks. He was accused of assaulting the woman he lived with, Nakscije Miftari, who was not the mother of his victim. 

During a raid on his flat, police seized a laptop and other devices on which they found the photographs.

Analysis of the images allowed the officers to identify the scene of the attack and the girl, who had moved to another part of Germany with her mother.

While in Braunschweig, Brueckner ran a kiosk selling drinks and snacks. He was accused of assaulting the woman he lived with, Nakscije Miftari, who was not the mother of his victim. The house where he lived in Braunschweig is pictured above

By then, however, Brueckner had fled to the Algarve in Portugal, where he had been living intermittently since the mid-1990s.

German authorities issued an EU-wide arrest warrant, but it was four years before officers in Portugal seized him after responding to reports that he had exposed himself to children at a park about 40 miles from Praia da Luz. 

Brueckner, who is referred to as ‘Christian B’ by German justice officials, was extradited back to Germany, convicted and given a 15-month jail term in March 2017.

Thomas Klinge, the Chief Prosecutor in Hanover, said last night: ‘I can confirm that there was the child abuse case. Christian B was sentenced in 2017 for one year and three months.’

Friedrich Fulscher, Brueckner’s lawyer, declined to comment.

Brueckner was subsequently convicted of the rape in 2005 of a 72-year-old American woman at her apartment in Praia da Luz – close to where Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared two years later

Brueckner was subsequently convicted of the rape in 2005 of a 72-year-old American woman at her apartment in Praia da Luz – close to where Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared two years later. He was given a seven-year sentence. 

His lawyers have sought to have the rape conviction overturned due to a procedural error when he was extradited from Portugal to Germany in 2017.

The European Court of Justice has issued a non-binding written opinion rejecting their bid, with a final judgment expected in weeks.

Last month, German police searched a hut on an allotment near Hanover and excavated a cellar.

After Madeleine disappeared, Brueckner moved back to Germany and began living in the hut and working as a mechanic. 

Officers have yet to search a second hut, also used as a home by Brueckner, on an allotment in Braunschweig.