Inside the secret lair of prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance | 60 Minutes Australia

the disappearance of three-year-old madeleine mccann is one of the world's most heartbreaking mysteries for 13 years ever since she went missing on a family holiday in portugal her beautiful face has haunted us all in that time her parents kate and jerry have never stopped searching for answers about their daughter or hoping she's still alive now there is news but it's not good german prosecutors say they know maddie is dead and they have the prime suspect a known sex offender in their sights tonight we look into the depraved world of 43 year old christian bruckner including the first pictures from inside his secret lair and the investigation to ensure justice for madeleine mccann if innocence has a face then surely it is madeleine mccann's since the night she disappeared her anguished but unbroken parents kate and jerry have never let the world forget their daughter please please do not hesitate please don't scare her please tell us where to find her [Music] but the evil that befell maddie has never had a name until now christian bruckner has dramatically become the prime suspect i see a lot of clues and a lot of evidence that he is a psychopath who has an escalating fantasy of violence which finally maybe ended in abducting and killing maddie mccann yes tonight we trace his criminal history through portugal living a stone's throw from where madeleine was taken his menacing bolt hole in germany where he buried damning evidence of his crimes beneath the body of his dog and exclusive police records of an alleged pedophile chat room revealing his depraved and criminal mind who doesn't want to catch something small and use it for days i will document exactly how they will be tortured june 4th 2020 after 13 years that have baffled police investigators in the uk and portugal german authorities make a shock announcement in the case of madeleine mccann the public prosecutor's office is investigating a 43 year old german national on suspicion of murder we are assuming that the girl is dead their suspect is soon identified as 43 year old christian bruckner a sex offender currently in prison for the rape of a 72 year old woman in portugal christian b i mean he is the serial offender in many past cases he was criminal and he was in prison and he did it again and again and again and again 17 or 18 times mark hoffman is a berlin-based crime and intelligence analyst who works with german police and has studied christian bruckner's sordid criminal past i mean this absolutely matches um the facts of the evidence number one he was there and because most serial offenders it's all about power and control and they like to do it in environments which are their comfort zone so they are doing what they do near to the places where they live between 1995 and 2017 christian bruckner drifted between germany and the portuguese coastal town of prague deluge he was a small-time drug dealer and thief breaking into holiday homes and hotels his house at the time was just over a kilometer from the ocean club resort where madeleine mccann disappeared also chillingly close is where he committed another truly awful crime the rape of a 72 year old woman in 2005 two years before maddie vanished this is not just rape this is one of the most brutal ways of rape which are possible bruckner subjected his elderly victim to torture and sexual assault over a period of hours according to police files he beat her with a metal rod the accused forced the naked bound and gagged woman to stand up and beat her repeatedly on her chest lower abdomen arms and buttocks with a metal object he had brought with him and in the mark of a psychopath he videotaped the entire attack it's about violence it's about playing god it's about power it's about dominance this is not just about sex or rape this is about torture it was only last year that dna evidence finally led to bruckner's conviction for this terrible rape but in 2007 when the mccann family along with their young daughter maddie checked into the ocean club no one in prague deluge knew of the monster living amongst them mark hoffman says the three-year-old girl was potentially just as much a target for bruckner as his elderly victim for some laymen this is quite confusing how how can this be the same offender i mean raping elderly woman and abusing or raping or killing children well it's really important to understand that many child molesters are not pedophiles so for them it's not about the young age itself it's about weakness it's about vulnerability and it's about feeling some sense of power so they like to abduct easy victims and if you ask me elderly women and children this is not a contradiction this is one of the biggest similarities may 3rd 2007 jerry and kate mccann go to dinner with friends at a tapas bar within the ocean club resort complex having checked their children a number of times that night at around 10 pm kate mccann goes back to the room she finds maddie missing and the bedroom window open so begins the unimaginable nightmare that has been the mccann's existence for the last 13 years please tell us where to find her or put her in a place of safety and let somebody know where she is the distress you know of the her family and her parents and i think that touched everybody's hearts simon foy is the former head of homicide at scotland yard and was part of operation grange the uk investigation into maddie's disappearance given the german investigators have said very clearly that they believe madeleine mccann is dead do you accept that they must have significant information my experience of working with the german police is that they are very careful um what they say publicly they would have recognized the significance of it they would have recognized the international sensitivity of it and they would probably have recognized the public interest in it and so the fact that they have made that statement is of itself significant do you have irrefutable evidence that madeleine mccann is dead we have strong evidence that melanie mckenna's death and that our suspect killed her but i'm not allowed and i'm not able at the moment to tell you all the details of our evidence german prosecutor hans christian walters leads the investigation into christian bruckner you don't have a body obviously yes we don't have the body and no parts of the body but we have enough evidence to say our suspect killed mel mccann and can i ask you this how long ago did you realize that madeleine mccann was dead it was sometime in the last two years when we realized that she's dead was abducted between 9 and 10 pm prosecutor walter's team discovered that during that same time a mobile phone linked to christian bruckner was used in the immediate area of her hotel room we know that the phone number which was used by a suspect on the 3rd of may 2007 was connecting in the mast belongs to the ocean club in uh praia dallus so what you're saying to me is that you can place christian bruckner at the scene yes we think so walter's team also discovered that the day after madeleine's disappearance bruckner deregistered a second car he owned and identicated photos released at the time also show a striking similarity to the german's prime suspect [Music] based on your knowledge of what we do know about christian bruckner if it was that he did take maddie mccann then it would follow from what you understand of a person like this that he would have killed her if he abducted maddie mccann it is also likely that he not just abducted but killed her and killing is likely for different reasons number one is likely because it's part of the fantasy but number two it also just could have practical reasons not to be arrested for this crime because she was old enough to talk [Music] in 2007 although christian bruckner had convictions for child sex offenses in germany he was unknown to portuguese police his rape of the 72 year old woman two years before was still unsolved and so shortly after maddie's disappearance he slipped out of portugal and returned to germany a monster no one knew on the run if i look at his life and his criminal records he's quite clear about his fantasy about abducting torturing and children to to name it and this could be a serial killer in the making and this absolutely is a red flag yes coming up he's very very clear about his fantasy about abducting children the secret life of christian bruckner do you suspect maddie mccann featured in the videos or pictures an insider tells all he gave the kids dollies for free and the greatest worry for investigators do you fear you are dealing with a serial killer that's next on 60 minutes how's it going bear it with me it's 2013 six years after madeleine mccann's disappearance and german police believe this is their prime suspect christian bruckner allegedly in a pedophile chat room catch something small and use it for days if the evidence is destroyed afterwards i will document exactly how they will be tortured well let's see not only talking but also doing it he's very very clear about his fantasy about abducting children and and torturing them and using them for a couple of days so these are very clear words for german criminal analyst mark hoffman christian bruckner absolutely fits the profile of a psychopath a psychopath who lived less than two kilometers from the hotel where madeline was abducted and close to where he brutally raped a 72 year old woman and videotaped his crime in reality they don't start with like murder or rape and this is sometimes the end of a long process of an escalating fantasy because if you think about it murder or homicide is like the purest form of domination because they choose if the victims live or die they play god christian bruckner left portugal in 2007 during the desperate search for madeleine mccann he moved to the german city of brunswick an insider who knew him speaking anonymously says for years bruckner ran a kiosk next to a kindergarten yes kindergarten kindergarten and her junior school next door they spent their pocket money on streets here he gave the kids lollies for free even more chilling was that bruckner's friend says he talked of creating a dungeon in this his rented cottage just like the one austrian pedophile joseph fritzel used to imprison and abuse his daughter for 24 years and he said he wanted to line it with heavy plates like the guy in austria this was in 2013 when police allege he was fantasizing about potential crimes in a pedophile chat room i will document exactly how they will be tortured then in 2015 just two hours drive from where bruckner was living another little girl inga garrick disappears it is the 2nd of may almost eight years to the day since madeleine mccann went missing a dark van similar to one bruckner owned at the time is cited leaving the abduction site but inga is never found her case is now being re-examined and german prosecutor hans christian walters says he believes there are others i think that there are more victims of our suspect of other crime there are other investigations all over germany in every case the prosecutors will check if our suspect is the suspect in the other case but do you fear that you are dealing with a serial killer i don't know i don't know um [Music] i'm not i'm not able to to to judge this over the years the mccanns continued to appeal to the public for information appearing twice on german tv and each time there were tip-offs at first just the name christian bruckner then in 2017 more information reports that bruckner made a drunken confession to a friend police searched a deserted factory owned by bruckner and made a grim discovery hard drives and usb sticks hidden in a plastic bag buried with his dog it's on the property of christian bee they they found material which according to the current information is like 8 000 pieces videos and pictures and this is quite typical for these kind of offenders they are filming what they do and sometimes they are fantasizing about their crimes every day and every night over and over and over and over again bruckner's lair uncovered many secrets and not just his ghastly buried trove of videos there was more and over there was where his american camper was parked 10 meters long in his camper van police discovered the swimsuits of little girls how on earth do the mccann family recover from this if this man is the person who took their daughter i can just imagine how they feel right now and being in this state of uncertainty some people are some some parents of missing children say this uncertainty is worse than having the fact or knowing that maybe the child is dead do you suspect that maddie mccann is one of the people featured in the videos or pictures i'm quite sure that they have some good evidence it could be videos i mean he was into child pornography and torture and he did crimes against children at a very early age and according to the current information he also filmed his offenses so you can clearly say what happened there if it's on tape [Music] but whatever the critical new piece of evidence german authorities have they're keeping it to themselves although prosecutor walters may have given us a clue we do know that police recovered thousands of files of disturbing pictures and videos that you believe belong to christian brookner is there evidence on those videos of madeleine mccann at the moment i'm not allowed to content on that so i'm not able to say if there are pictures or if there are no pictures of merlin if the german authorities do have video proving madeleine's death together with the mobile phone trace showing bruckner was in the area then evidence from a witness or photograph putting him at the ocean club between 9 and 10 p.m on the night of may 3rd 2007 would be the last piece of the puzzle and for jerry and kate mccann the final terrible truth [Music] dear kerry i've wanted to write this letter for so long it's painful information that perhaps only another parent who's been there can understand every parent of a missing child hopes that their child will be found kerry needham's 21 month old son ben vanished on the greek island of cos nearly three decades ago i'm aware that your search for ben continues like ours for madeleine she and kate mccann share a unique tragic bond with love and look and lots of good wishes for the future take care kate mccann kerry the mccanns have been told from the german prosecutors that seemingly almost almost 100 percent that their daughter is dead but we can't tell you why if can you explain how that must feel heart-wrenching absolutely heart-wrenching and you know you can you can not accept that your child's dead but you want to know how they know that why they know that who's told them that information you'll have so many different emotions you know going going through your body and your brain and so many unanswered questions and it's the answers that you need as a parent you know that it's that's the most important thing as a parent you need to know how and why it's the last thing you think about at night and it's the first thing you think about in the morning and you're just living a nightmare that you can't wake up from hello i'm liz hayes thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the nine now app for full episodes another exclusive 60 minutes content

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Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, where is maddie, madeleine mccann, maddie mccann, missing child, abduction, christian bruckner, christian brueckner, secret lair, inside secret lair, madeleine mccann dead, disappearance, madeleine mccann parents, kate and gerry mccann, portugal, germany, german prosecutors, what happened to madeleine, is madeleine mccann dead, who killed madeleine mccann, madeleine mccann netflix

Id: IXsXXxRek2Q

Length: 23min 16sec (1396 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Jackjaipasenvie]

If you ask me saying he isnt allowed to say if there are photos of Maddie on the hard drive either means they havent checked through it yet, or there is photos or videos and they cant say publicly in case the media coverage effects their case against him. If they had checked and there were no photos they could just say “no” and it wouldn’t effect anything. I think saying their isnt enough evidence to think CB did it from a public perspective is probably a bit hasty as the police would be unable to share all their evidence with us. I’m not familiar with the justice system, but if the police have to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that CB is the perpetrator and without a body that is really difficult. They are going to need shed loads of evidence. I think we are going to need to just read what we can and see how the case unfolds before we say their isnt enough evidence.

[u/Lass103]

Where did he get the money for a brand new Winnebago? Seems like he came in to a chunk of money in May 2007.

[u/-RY4N-M1ND-]

They can’t reveal their evidence on 60 minutes. This is a criminal investigation and process has to be followed as best as possible.

[u/loulou-fleur]

Is anyone able to confirm if he still owns the box factory land? In the UK the public can access the land registry and for a small cost find out the owner of a property - does Germany have any equivalent? I’ve read a lot of contradictory articles about the last place he was living before he want into jail - some say he was homeless, some say he was renting a flat in Braunschweig.

[u/IanAgate]

A truly sick animal this man.😔

[u/Take_Cova]

Any thoughts on what CB wanted this disused factory for

For someone without a lot of money, why buy some old dump?