LISBON –
Portuguese prosecutors said on Thursday that a man had been officially identified as a suspect in the disappearance of Britain’s young child Madeleine McCann 15 years ago.
This is the first time Portuguese prosecutors have identified an official suspect in the case since Kate and Gary McCann, Madeleine’s parents, were declared suspects in 2007. They were later admitted.
Madeleine disappeared from her bedroom on May 3, 2007, during a family vacation in the Algarve area while her parents were having dinner with friends near the resort of Praia da Luz.
The prosecutor’s office in Faro, the capital of the Algarve, did not publicly disclose the man’s name, but said in a statement that he had been identified as a suspect by German authorities at their request.
German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was presumed dead and that convicted child abuser and drug dealer Christian Bruckner was probably responsible.
But since then, Bruckner, 45, has not been charged with a missing person. He is behind bars in Germany for raping a woman in the same area of the Algarve where Madeleine disappeared in 2007.
Bruckner denied involvement in McCann’s disappearance.
Prosecutors said the investigation was carried out in co-operation with British and German authorities.
Bruckner lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007 and robbed hotels and holiday apartments, according to court documents seen by Reuters in 2020. He also forged passports and was caught stealing diesel from a Portuguese port.
Portuguese judicial police handed over documents with hundreds of names related to Madeleine’s case, including Christian Bruckner, to British authorities in 2012, according to the forces.
German police received their first report linking Bruckner to Madeleine’s case in 2013.
The reasons that led Portuguese prosecutors to identify the suspect now are unclear, but may be related to Portugal’s 15-year statute of limitations for crimes with a maximum sentence of 10 years or more.
Next month will mark the 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.
(Report by Katarina Demoni; edited by Stephen Coates)
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