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<\/p>\nA German prosecutor leading the\u00a0Madeleine McCann\u00a0investigation has revealed that sick online messages between suspect Christian Brueckner and another paedophile ‘could be a hint’ as to what happened to the toddler.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Convicted sexual predator\u00a0Brueckner has been named as the prime suspect in the 16-year long case due to his activities in Portugal at the time but is yet to be formally charged.<\/p>\n
The three-year-old disappeared during a family holiday in the Algarve in May 2007, sparking a nationwide hunt – but 16 years later and the truth of what happened to her has still not been unearthed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Hans Christian Wolters, a public prosecutor in Braunschweig has told BBC’s Panorama that it is their opinion that Madeleine was killed in Portugal by Brueckner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He told the programme: ‘I can only say that we have only have one suspect at the moment. [She died] in Portugal and we think maybe we know where it happened.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Convicted sexual-predator Christian Brueckner has been named the prime suspect in the 16-year long case<\/p>\n
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Madeleine was snatched just nine days before her fourth birthday while she was left sleeping alone with her younger twin siblings<\/p>\n
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Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters\u00a0described how a online exchange between Brueckner and another paedophile could be a ‘hint’ as to what happened<\/p>\n
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He then speaks about ‘destroying evidence’ to which the paedophile replies: ‘mm’<\/p>\n
Mr Wolters also described how an online exchange between Brueckner and another paedophile could be a ‘hint’ as to what happened due to the use of the letters ‘mm’ – which they say could be a cryptic reference to Madeleine McCann.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The online chat, which was found on one of Brueckner’s computers shows a brief conversation with a paedophile.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the chat, Brueckener details explicitly his desires to abduct and kill a little girl and ‘document it.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
He then speaks about ‘destroying evidence’ to which the paedophile replies: ‘mm’.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Commenting on the vile exchange, Mr Wolters said: ‘It could be a hint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Of course, it’s important for us. It could be piece for the big puzzle.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison term in a high-security prison locally dubbed ‘Alcatraz of the North’ in Oldenburg, near the historic northern city of Bremen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this month it was reported that the suspect could face trial as early as February next year for a string of heinous crimes, which include three shocking rapes and two sex attacks on children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is said to have filmed two of the rapes he is being tried for which are said to have taken place at his former residence outside Praia da Luz – the same area where Madeleine disappeared.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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German prosecutors have said it is their opinion that Madeleine was killed in Portugal by Brueckner<\/p>\n
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German prosecutors have not yet formally charged Brueckner with the abduction and killing of Madeleine<\/p>\n
The trial is expected to span over a month and\u00a0is likely to take place at Braunschweig High Court.<\/p>\n
German prosecutors have not yet formally charged Brueckner with the abduction and killing of Maddie but authorities in Germany have indicated the McCann trial could take place closely on the heels of his upcoming trial, The Olive Press reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is currently serving his sentence for the brutal rape of an American pensioner in Portugal in 2005, but he now faces charges of rape of a young Irish woman, Hazel Behan, in the Algarve in June 2004.<\/p>\n
Behan endured a harrowing ordeal when a blond-haired German intruder with blue eyes broke into her apartment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The vicious assailant raped her at knifepoint and filmed the vicious four-hour attack.<\/p>\n
Two witnesses reported seeing a man resembling Brueckner enter and exit the apartment in Portimao at dawn, with one hotel worker claiming he saw the German expat without his mask.<\/p>\n
In the Panorama documentary, a woman said Brueckner\u00a0was part of a ‘rebellious gang’ when he was a teenager.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The woman said\u00a0she knew Brueckner as a teenager when he was running in a gang in W\u00fcrzburg in Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said: ‘They were very rebellious and destroyed a lot of stuff. They were always out and about, escaping through windows and gone.’<\/p>\n
She also revealed that she was afraid of what Brueckner might do if he found out she had spoken to the press, despite the fact he is\u00a0currently serving a seven-year sentence for the brutal rape of an American pensioner in Portugal in 2005.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The woman said: ‘I was thinking about how the older lady got raped and read about it. I thought about when he wanted to take his revenge, who knows what will go on in his head. It may well be he goes looking for me.’<\/p>\n
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A woman has revealed that the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case Christian Brueckner (pictured) was part of a ‘rebellious gang’ when he was a teenager<\/p>\n
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Madeleine McCann\u00a0went missing during a family holiday in the Algarve in May 2007, sparking a nationwide hunt<\/p>\n
Throughout the documentary, other people who had encounters with Brueckner over the years since Maddie’s disappearance also gave testimonies about his violent and aggressive nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One woman, who manages a bar that Brueckner frequented sometime after May 2007, said he sometimes had ‘fits of rage’ with other people in the bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brigitte Szegedi, bar manager at\u00a0the Madame-Eck bar in Braunschweig, said she saw Brueckner ‘almost every day’ and he would often get into fights with men.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said: ‘I saw it only after he had drank a bit too much, but only with men, not with women.’<\/p>\n
Another man, who worked at a shop that Brueckner previously owned, said he confronted him with a knife after demanding he return his freezer to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man, who was not named, told the BBC: ‘He came with a gang demanding his freezer back. He was brandishing a knife in the corridor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘He had this long knife and wanted to stab me. He was drunk or on drugs. His eyes glistened like mad and he was filled with rage.’<\/p>\n
The man added that Brueckner’s girlfriend, who was a teenager at the time while he was in his late 30s, said the German national had strangled her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said: ‘I met her at the bus stop and asked her where she had got those strangulation marks from and she told me he strangled her and beat her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘She was scared stiff of him she told me a lot of things. She was really scared of him.’<\/p>\n
When asked if he thought Breuckner was capable of the crimes he is accused of, the man replied: ‘Yeah because he is so aggressive and after I saw how he strangled his girlfriend and that, yes he is capable.<\/p>\n
‘In the beginning he is sweet but once you get to know him he is a psychopath. He has several faces. This man is highly highly dangerous.’<\/p>\n
A third man, Oliver Sternard, who employed Brueckner as an odd-job man in the Algarve in Portugal, said Brueckner broke his nose after he found out that he had been hiding alcoholm in his warehouse.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Sternard said: ‘When I went in to my workshop I found out that he was hiding alcohol.’ He later confronted Brueckner and he became violent.\u00a0‘He said don’t call me a liar in German. He was very aggressive. There was a fight, he hit me.’<\/p>\n
He added that Brueckner broke his nose and was taken away by police but was later released.<\/p>\n
Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison term in a high-security prison locally dubbed ‘Alcatraz of the North’ in Oldenburg, near the historic northern city of Bremen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Sternard added: ‘He should stay in prison as long as possible. He is dangerous so he should keep away from society.’<\/p>\n