THE author of a new book on Madeleine McCann has hit back at claims by the current prime suspect that it is ‘no better than a comic’.

Olive Press editor Jon Clarke insists German paedophile Christian Brueckner – who is currently serving seven years for the rape of a pensioner – is in ‘no position’ to criticise his book My Search for Madeleine that took 14 months of painstaking research.

It comes after sources close to the rapist, who is being held in German’s high security Oldenburg Prison, told the Sun that he was ‘bragging how the police don’t have a shred of evidence’ over his links to missing Madeleine.

The German, 44, went on to slam Clarke’s book saying it is ‘no better than a comic and that the decision by cops to contribute to it just proves how much they are clutching at straws for new leads’.

The book, out last month, included numerous interviews with former friends and acquaintances of Brueckner’s, as well as crucially, interviews with police and the prosecutor’s office.

Lead prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters revealed in the book that Brueckner, who lived in Praia da Luz where Madeleine was snatched in 2007, was being connected to ‘at least’ five other crimes.

These included the sexual assault of four children in a play park in Portugal in 2017 and a separate assault on a 10-year-old girl close to Praia da Luz just one month before Madeleine vanished.

“I don’t know how Brueckner can call the book a comic,” said Clarke. “It is in no way funny that such a dangerous man would be allowed on the loose for so long around Europe without any proper supervision or monitoring.

“The fact that he was able to drift around the continent despite a long list of horrible convictions, many including children, will be a huge concern to most parents.”

The Olive Press understands his legal team is desperately trying to establish an alibi for Brueckner, whose phone was used outside the Ocean Club hotel, less than two hours before the toddler, aged three, went missing there.

He was living in the area at the time and had rented a house less than a kilometre from the resort for seven years.

Prosecutors for the case in Braunschweig insist they are under no pressure to question or prosecute as he will not be leaving prison for ‘at least’ four or five years.

Wolters told Clarke that there were ‘between 10 and 100’ detectives still working on the case at any one time and that they had received thousands of good tips since the public appeal for information on the case in June 2020.

He believes Brueckner murdered Madeleine and claims his department has evidence to back this up.

The lawyer added that Belgian investigators are also looking into Brueckner in relation to the 1996 killing of 16-year-old Carola Titze in Belgium. 

“A Belgian prosecutor had some concrete questions about Carola not long ago,” he said. “They needed some information about Christian B and we gave it to them”. 

Brueckner is also a suspect in the rape case of 20-year-old Irish woman Hazel Behan in Praia de Rocha, Portugal, in 2004.  

“We only have Christian B as the suspect,” Wolters confirmed.

In the same year, an eight-year-old girl, Joana Cipriano, also vanished close to Praia da Luz, leading to the claim that her mother Leonor had killed her.

The same detectives who investigated the Madeleine case were later found to have beaten the confession out of her.

The conviction was eventually overturned, with numerous independent investigators and detectives believing the two cases are very likely linked.

The detective who led both investigations for the Portuguese PJ force, Goncalo Amaral, was later found guilty of corruption and covering up for his officers and received a suspended sentence.

He was sacked from the Madeleine case for a series of blunders and bizarre claims.

Despite that, he has written his own book on the case, pointing the finger firmly at the McCanns for the death of their child.

My Search for Madeleine author Clarke was the first British national newspaper journalist to arrive on the scene in Portugal on May 4, 2007.

My Search for Madeleine, by Jon Clarke, can be bought on all Amazon platforms in both digital and print formats.

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