Christian Brueckner, who is suspected of snatching missing toddler Madeleine McCann, was pictured partying just a few weeks after he was first questioned about her disappearance.
Photos show the convicted paedophile partying with friends a few weeks after the police first interviewed him in connection with the missing child.
Brueckner, a German national, is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal in 2007, but he has not been charged at any point with her disappearance and he has denied that he was involved.
Madeleine was on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, in Portugal when she vanished on May 3, 2007. Brueckner was made a formal suspect by prosecutors in Portugal in 2022.
He had previously been identified as a suspect by German prosecutors in 2020, at which point he was named as Christian B.
Madeleine was on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, in Portugal when she vanished on May 3, 2007. Brueckner was made a formal suspect by prosecutors in Portugal in 2022
Christian Brueckner, a German national, is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal in 2007, but he has not been charged at any point with her disappearance and he has denied that he was involved
The last picture of Madeleine McCann taken on May 3 2007, the day she went missing
Brueckner, 47, is currently serving an unrelated jail term in Germany for rape.
He is also set to appear in court in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, on February 16, accused of five offences between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.
Photos seen by MailOnline show him in 2013, celebrating his 37th birthday with a group of friends.
They were taken in a kiosk in Braunschweig, near Hanover – which Brueckner ran from 2012 to 2016.
He is shown smiling and laughing and eating steak, vol-au-vents, Russian salad and Spanish omelette.
The Sun reported that a former friend of Brueckner said he was the ‘life and soul’ of the party.
The newspaper reported the source as saying: ‘He would get everyone drunk with free booze and we would end up partying until two or 3am. His birthday was the same. It ended up being a really long night.’
One photograph shows him hugging his pet dog while on the floor – thought to be the same dog that police found in 2016 buried with memory sticks containing child abuse videos.
Madeleine Beth McCann went missing from her bed while on holiday with her family on the evening of May 3 2007, aged three.
Police scoured the location near Silves that Brueckner reportedly called his ‘little paradise’ in May 2023.
The site is about 30 miles from Praia da Luz holiday resort where Madeleine was snatched.
Christian Brueckner was officially named as a suspect in April 2022 after his yellow and white VW T3 Westfalia campervan was reportedly spotted near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where Maddie vanished.
Brueckner has denied he was in the area at the time and distanced himself from the allegations against him.
But German prosecutors say phone logs show he received a call on May 3 2007 near the Ocean Club.
Personnel at Barragem do Arade reservoir, in the Algave, Portugal, searching in May 2023 as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Pictured is the Arade Reservoir in Portugal, where a shrine was found six months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Brueckner maintains that he was miles away with a young woman.
He remains the sole significant suspect in the case since 2007.
Madeleine’s family kept the investigation open with private detectives until Scotland Yard opened its own enquiry in 2011.
Nine years later, police in Braunschweig, northern Germany, identified a convicted paedophile and German national as a new suspect.
In 2021, prosecutors said they were ‘100 per cent sure’ that they had the right man.
German prosecutor Hans Wolters said evidence included phone analysis placing him at the Ocean Club resort the family was staying at when Madeleine went missing and an alleged confession Brueckner made to a friend.
In April last year, it was reported Christian Brueckner may not face charges in Germany over Madeleine’s disappearance after a court ruled prosecutors had no jurisdiction to pursue a case against him, however.
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