Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
MADELEINE McCann suspect Christian Brueckner is considering fleeing to Africa if he gets out of prison next year, the Olive Press can reveal.
The 47-year-old paedophile and rapist could be free as early as next September, after being sensationally cleared by a German court of a string of rape and child abuse crimes in Portugal.
A source close to his legal team told this paper that Africa would be the ‘safest place’ for Brueckner to live.
“He won’t be recognised there and he won’t be going after any of the witnesses or victims who named him as a rapist and abuser,” said the source.
“He doesn’t want to get caught again and go back to prison.”
Brueckner – who is currently serving a seven year sentence for raping a pensioner – could also consider Cambodia, where he has an old friend, an IT specialist.
German Christian Post, who was ordered to give evidence at the trial, currently lives in Kampot, a magnet for child sex abusers.
The news comes after Brueckner was found not guilty of five separate sex offences in a German court last week.
The alleged crimes, which all took place in Portugal, included him allegedly playing with himself while sitting under a slide in a children’s playground in Messines in June 2017.
However, despite four children allegedly seeing him with his trousers down by his ankles and their parents finding no sign of urine, Judge Ute Engermann believed he was having a pee.
She ruled him not guilty of four other offences, including three rapes and another child sex assault on a beach near Praia da Luz, a month before Maddie went missing nearby.
German prosecutors have now formally appealed the sentences on the basis of bias, among other claims.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “We will make an appeal to the Supreme court. They have the power to order a retrial with new judges.
“We think there is a case to show bias among the judges and we believe we can show that.”
Victim Hazel Behan, told the Olive Press, she will ‘definitely’ support the appeal and prays for a reversal.
“I’m utterly devastated by the ruling,” she said from her home, near Dublin, this week. “They’ve got it completely wrong and I’m still certain Brueckner was my rapist.
“I’ll never forget his eyes. They are bored into my head and soul. I still see them at night.”
Another witness, Helge Busching, who was described by the judge as ‘a liar’ has also hit out at the ruling.
He told the Olive Press the ruling was a ‘total scandal’, adding he was not going to let the judge’s claims ‘go unanswered’.
The German had first pointed the finger at the accused in 2008 and told the court he had watched two videos of Brueckner raping a teenage girl and another pensioner.
His claims were backed up by a fellow friend Manfred Seyferth, but because a third former pal, Mario ‘Cheyanne’ Schonburg, denied he had seen them, the judge appeared to side with him.
She also brushed aside the testimony of leading prison psychiatrist, Christian Riedemann, who labelled Brueckner a very real danger to the public, telling the court he was in the ‘top league of dangerousness’.
The same prosecutors are also now working to build a water tight case against Bruckner over the abduction of Maddie.
They are expected to launch official proceedings against him over the next few months.
They have already confirmed they have proof that the British toddler is dead and their prime suspect is Brueckner, who was outside her holiday home in Praia da Luz the night she vanished.
