‘Will Christian Brueckner ever be charged with Madeleine’s abduction?’

As German drifter Christian Brueckner faces a new trial over multiple sexual offences he is alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017 which are unrelated to the British girl’s disappearance, David James Smith takes a closer look at the man who many feel is a prime suspect.

(Getty/The Independent)

Will Christian Brueckner ever be charged with the abduction of Madeleine McCann? It is now more than three years since he was first named and identified as the “prime suspect” in the case, and longer still since he initially became a focus of investigation.

The media speculation around him remains intense. On the BBC’s Panorama programme at the end of last year, Hans Christian Wolters, the chief public prosecutor for the German city of Braunschweig, once again repeated his claim that “we think (Brueckner) was involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and we think that he murdered Madeleine McCann.”

But if there is evidence to make such a public declaration, why hasn’t he been charged? And if there is no evidence, why has the prosecutor repeatedly asserted his belief in Brueckner’s guilt?