A woman who used to work for the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance recalled how he used to always have young girls around him, and beat up a teenager he was paying for sex.
Sabine Wojtkowick was an employee at Christian Brueckner’s kiosk in Braunschweig, Germany, which he opened in 2012, aged 36.
Speaking in Channel 5’s Madeleine McCann: The Case Against Christian B, which aired last night, Sabine recalled seeing Christian B ‘kissing’ young girls aged 16 to 17 in his kiosk.
She added she never liked him and considered him a cold character who was ‘a pig of a man’.
The convicted sex offender, know as Christian B, has been named as a prime suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who was snatched from her bed in a holiday resort in Praia Da Luz in 2007.
Sabine Wojtkowick worked for Christian B in the kiosk he kept in Braunschweig and recalled seeing him kissing young girls and recalled one particular teen who was seeing him for money.
‘I never liked him,’ Sabine told investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas, who led the documentary’s investigation into Christian B, and met with her in Germany.
‘He was so unapproachable, he never talked much.
‘He just said, “This has to be done and when I return, this will be finished”,’ she added.
The convicted sex offender, know as Christian B, has been named as a prime suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who was snatched from her bed in a holiday resort in Praia Da Luz in 2007
Madeleine McCann was snatched from her bed in a holiday resort in Praia Da Luz in 2007 while her parents were out
What do we know about Maddie murder suspect Christian Brueckner and his criminal past?
1976: Christian Brueckner (pictured) is born in Würzburg under a different name, believed to be Fischer. He was adopted by the Brueckner family and took their surname.
1992: Christian Brueckner is arrested on suspicion of burglary in his hometown of Wurzburg, Bavaria.
1994: He is given a two-year youth jail sentence for ‘abusing a child’ and ‘performing sex acts in front of a child’.
1995: Brueckner arrives in Portugal as an 18-year-old backpacker and begins working in catering in the seaside resorts of Lagos and Praia da Luz.
But friends say he became involved with a criminal syndicate trafficking drugs into the Algarve.
September 2005: He dons a mask and breaks into an apartment where he rapes a 72-year-old American tourist.
The victim was bound, gagged, blindfolded and whipped with a metal cane before being raped for 15 minutes. She said afterwards that he had clearly enjoyed ‘torturing’ her before the rape.
April 2007: He moves out of a farmhouse and into a campervan now linked to the crime. The farmhouse is cleaned and a bag of wigs and ‘exotic clothes’ is found.
May 3, 2007: Madeleine McCann is snatched at around 10pm from her bed as her parents eat tapas with friends yards away.
Brueckner’s mobile phone places him in the area that night. He returns to his native Germany shortly after that.
October 2011: He is sentenced to 21 months for ‘dealing narcotics’ in Niebüll, in northern Germany.
In 2013 police released a photofit of a man seen lurking near the McCann apartment and Scotland Yard said that suspect last night had not yet been ruled out of the probe
2014: He moves to Braunschweig where he starts running a town-centre kiosk. He then goes back to Portugal with a girlfriend.
2016: He is back in Germany. He is given 15 months in prison for ‘sexual abuse of a child in the act of creating and possessing child pornographic material’.
May 3, 2017: Brueckner is said to be in a bar with a friend when a ten-year anniversary appeal following Madeleine’s disappearance is shown on German television.
He is said to have told him in a bar that he ‘knew all about’ what happened to her. He then showed his friend a video of him raping a woman.
MailOnline understands the friend went to police shortly afterwards.
June 2017: He heads back to Portugal and extradited again to Germany. The reason was a sentencing of the Braunschweig district court to 15 months’ imprisonment for the sexual abuse of a child.
August 2018: After his release from prison he lives on the streets. But he was jailed again for drug offences.
First Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters addresses the media during a press conference on the Madeleine McCann case at the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig
September 2018: Brueckner is arrested in Milan, Italy and extradited to Germany and put on trial for raping the American tourist in 2007 after a DNA match to hair found at the crime scene.
July 2019: He is jailed for 21 months for drug dealing in the northern German resort of Sylt.
August 2019: Brueckner is charged with the rape of the American tourist in Praia da Luz in 2005.
December 2019: He is convicted of rape of extortion of the tourist based on DNA evidence. He is given a seven year sentence, but this has not been imposed pending an appeal.
June 3, 2020: Scotland Yard and the German police reveal that that they have identified a suspect in the Maddie McCann case
June 4, 2020: Prosecutors in Braunschweig, where he lives, say they believe Madeleine McCann has been murdered, says spokesman Hans Christian Wolters. He is named in the German press as the prime suspect.
May 4, 2021: Kate and Gerry McCann post a statement on the Official Find Madeleine Campaign website saying they still cling to the hope of seeing their daughter again as they prepare to mark her 18th birthday on May 12.
April 21, 2022: Christian Brueckner, now 44, is made an ‘arguido’, a formal suspect, by Portuguese authorities. But he has not been charged.
She moved on to talk about the young girls she would see with Christian B in the kiosk, saying they looked to be about ’16 or 17 years old,’ and adding ‘he kissed all of them there’.
She also mentioned a 16-year-old Russian teen she saw with Christian B.
‘He abused her, that’s why she ran,’ she said.
She recalled asking the teenager what she wanted from ‘such and old guy’ and the girl replied: ‘Well, money. I sleep with him.’
Sabine said she asked the girl: ‘Are you stupid?’.
‘I just saw her leaving with green and blue bruises the next morning. I thought he was a pig of a man,’ she continued.
‘Men who beat women have nothing in their brains.’
When Mark asked her if she thought he could be capable of taking Madeleine McCann, Sabine replied: ‘I don’t know. But I believe whoever beats up women, could do anything. That’s not a real man for me.’
The documentary explores the leads that point to Christian B’s alleged involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
He was identified as a murder suspect by German prosecutors in June 2020, but he has yet to be charged.
In April this year, he was made a ‘formal suspect’ by Portuguese authorities.
A statement was issued by the Portimao section of the Faro department of criminal investigation and prosecution which, according to a translation, said that a person was made an ‘arguido’ – which translates as ‘named suspect’ or ‘formal suspect.’
The statement did not name Brueckner, but said the person was made an ‘arguido’ by German authorities at the request of Portugal’s public prosecution service.
It said the investigation had been carried out with the co-operation of the English and German authorities.
Jim Gamble, the former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) who worked on the investigation into the child’s disappearance, told BBC Breakfast: ‘Well, this breakthrough could mean everything or it could mean nothing.
‘My own gut feeling on it – from the moment the Germans began to release information two years ago – was that this was the best fit.
‘You have proximity, you have opportunity, and you have a profile with regards to an offender that absolutely fits in a way that no others have.’
He added: ‘This is all positive. And from my own position, and I wouldn’t be surprised if charges did follow.’
The move by Portuguese authorities could allow Brueckner, who is in prison in Germany, to be transferred to the Algarve for formal questioning.
The German newspaper Bild reported that Brueckner’s lawyer, Friedrich Fuelscher, said the Portuguese decision appeared to be a ‘procedural trick.’
In Portuguese law, an arguido status can be a preliminary move ahead of an arrest being made or charges brought.
The Metropolitan Police continue to treat Madeleine’s disappearance as a missing persons inquiry.
Brueckner is currently servicng a seven-year jail term for a brutal 2005 sex attack on a 72-year-old woman, and had his application for early release rejected by the German authorities.
Prosecutors are investigating him over the rape of a Irish tour guide Hazel Behan in the Algarve as well as a sexual assault in Praia da Luz on a ten-year-old German girl a month before Madeleine disappeared.
He is also being probed over an indecent exposure in a children’s playground in the Algarve.
Recently, the convicted sex offencer wrote to MailOnline to claim he had nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance almost 15 years ago.
In all the notes – handwritten in near perfect English – Brueckner explained how he feels he is being ‘persecuted’ by prosecutors and police and even accuses them of ‘fitting’ him up.
But MailOnline showed the letters to handwriting expert Tracey Trussell, who reported back with a three-page expert analysis of his distinctive handwriting, describing it as ’perfect, too perfect.’
Tracey added: ‘On closer inspection there is much more going on than meets the eye. It looks almost eerily unnatural – slow, contrived, mechanical and robotic – unforgiving in its transmission and deliverance.
‘The writer comes across as super cool, unflappable, calm and collected, not easily rattled, because the slant of the writing is vertical or upright.
‘He’s also incredibly polite and well mannered, the left margin is dead straight, the script is legible and there are a number of arched or arcade shaped letters throughout,’ she added.
‘He’s motivated to present himself in the best possible light, and he’s hiding something.’
Brueckner, who this week had his application for early release from a seven-year jail term for a brutal 2005 sex attack on a 72-year-old woman rejected by the German authorities, has written to MailOnline and supporters around the world to claim he had nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance almost 15 years ago. Pictured: Letters from Brueckner
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