Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has complained that police surveillance has driven him “insane through oppressive persecution”.
The convicted paedophile has been watched by police seven days a week since being released from prison in September last year following a sentence for rape. In a statement released to the Daily Express, Brueckner said: “For over a year now, during which I have supposedly been free, I have received absolutely no help with rehabilitation.
“Instead, there have been continuous attempts to break me down and drive me insane through oppressive persecution.”
Protest cycle to court
In a brazen stunt on Monday, the 49-year-old cycled from the northern German city of Kiel, where he lives, to a court case in Oldenburg in protest over his 24/7 police monitoring. He pedalled the 160 miles to his latest court case, where he was fined €3,000 for insulting prison officers.
Brueckner faced judges on Tuesday for abusing two prison officers under Germany’s strict insult laws. The convicted sex offender also accused police of preventing him from making friends and rebuilding his life.
“So many terrible things happen in the world, none of which have anything to do with me, and yet they refuse to grant me the right to be forgotten and allow me to start a new life,” he complained.
“Instead, every possible means is being used to prevent me from making new social contacts and finding my way back into society.”
Details of the journey
In a statement seen by the Daily Express before the court appearance, Brueckner declared: “I am travelling by bicycle from Kiel to Oldenburg to demonstrate against my 24/7 surveillance by the police.”
He shared a photograph as evidence of his journey showing his bicycle parked against the sign for the town of Glückstadt, roughly 60 miles southwest from Kiel in the direction of Oldenburg. It’s unclear whether German police were aware of the route Brueckner took, but he is still understood to be tagged. The journey is thought to have included at least one ferry crossing.
Insult convictions and ongoing status
Brueckner was found guilty of calling a male prison officer a “son of a whore” in an incident dating back to October 2023, during his imprisonment for a conviction for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005. It was also alleged in court that he told a female guard she could get lost in her “fat arse” if he wasn’t allowed to see a doctor for pain he claimed he felt down his left side. The judge mentioned this allegation in court, but it was not referenced again in the summing up. Complaints were made by both officers.
Judges fined Brueckner €3,000 on Tuesday under insult laws, payable at €20 a day for 150 days.
Met Police and German prosecutors maintain Brueckner remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who vanished without trace from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. Brueckner has never been charged in connection with her disappearance and vehemently denies any involvement.
Brueckner was most recently uncovered by the Daily Express living in a monitored portacabin lair in Kiel in recent months. The vile predator has been forced to move location a number of times in the city since September last year after angry local parents discovered he was living nearby.
Despite his police protection, the 49-year-old was reportedly involved in a physical altercation with an Irishman living locally. No further action was taken in that case. A further alleged altercation was reported involving a British resident of Kiel, but no further details have come to light in that case.
In July, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported Brueckner was involved in a fight with the officers protecting him when he refused to delete pictures he had taken of them off his phone. It’s understood Brueckner often tries to lose his police protection by cycling down routes police vehicles cannot follow.
