Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has moved into a flat just yards from a primary school in Braunschweig, Germany, sparking fear among local residents. The 49-year-old convicted paedophile and rapist now lives near three primary schools and three nurseries in total, including the one directly adjacent to his two-bedroom home.
Neighbours expressed alarm, with one saying: 'We were surprised to see two plainclothes police officers always waiting in front of the house. Then someone saw him leave the house and recognised him straight away. Everyone here in Braunschweig knows him. I know neighbours who no longer send their children to the supermarket. We’re all afraid.'
Brueckner's flat, on the second floor of an ageing building, is reportedly owned by an old friend. Police maintain a constant presence, with two officers in a car behind the house around the clock. This surveillance has been in place since his release from prison last September, after serving a sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman.
Brueckner has struggled to settle in several neighbourhoods across northern Germany, with residents repeatedly calling for his relocation. Days after his release, he boasted to staff in a phone shop that he possessed evidence to 'solve the scandal of the century,' apparently referring to Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
Madeleine, three, vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on 3 May 2007. In 2020, German authorities named Brueckner as the prime suspect in her disappearance and suspected murder. Police say his mobile phone connected to a mast near the resort that night and that they have physical evidence indicating she is dead, though no forensic link to Brueckner has been disclosed. Investigators also seized child abduction stories written by Brueckner, including fantasies about snatching young girls.
