Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
DANGEROUS child molester Christian Brueckner might make a return trip to Spain or Portugal in under a month.
The convicted German sex offender – the prime suspect in the abduction of British toddler Madeleine McCann – will have served a current prison sentence by September 17.
The seven-year stretch for the rape of an American pensioner in Portugal will end that day, making him a free man.
However, The Olive Press understands that the prison authorities are likely to allow him to leave a week ‘or ten days’ before that date.
“I’ve been told from very good sources that they will let him go quietly to avoid any big media attention,” a German source close to the case told the paper.
“They also don’t want the chance of any vigilante attacking him, in case they need him back to face other charges soon.
“Meanwhile the police are working around the clock to try and find the final bit of the jigsaw to charge him over the death of Maddie.
“They know he did it, but they need to prove it.”
Brueckner’s current sentence was for the sadistic rape of Diana Menkes, 72, on camera in 2005.
A trial in Germany found him guilty in 2018 after one of his hairs was found on the bed of the American who had been tied up and beaten before being brutally raped.
The attack in Praia da Luz, on the Algarve, took place, just meters from where Maddie was snatched in May 2007.
He will be released from custody at Sehnde prison despite being the Germany authorities current ‘prime suspect’ in the abduction.
He is also an ‘arguido’ (or official suspect) in Portugal.
While his own lawyers have indicated that he might change his appearance and go a long way away, it’s more likely he will stay in Europe.
He spent many months living in the Granada area of Andalucia, where he bought and sold drugs and stolen goods.
He knew all the back roads of Spain having driven through the country dozens of times.
Meanwhile, he lived for over 10 years on and off in Portugal, where he had various spells in prison.
He was living on beaches in a camper van near Praia da Luz when Maddie vanished on a family holiday with her doctor parents.
His release comes while prosecutors also await for an appeal date against the decision to rule him not-guilty for five other sex offences he allegedly committed in Portugal.
Prosecutors in Braunschweig filed their appeal immediately after the end of the eight month trial last year, claiming the judge was biased.
Lead prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters believed judge Ute Engemann ignored key evidence.
In particular, up to five children claimed he flashed at them, during a local festival in Messines on the Algarve in 2017.
While Irish rape victim Hazel Behan told the court she was certain she recognized his ‘piercing blue eyes’ after he attacked her on the Algarve in 2004.
The attack which was extraordinarily similar to the sadistic attack the following year, saw her tied up and beaten in a long late night ordeal.
She told the court how he had spoken to her in English with a German accent, and he had some sort of mark on his thigh.
For some reason, the judge failed to grasp this key bit of evidence, which has since been exposed in the media.
The trial also heard a leading prison psychologist describe Brueckner as being in the ‘top division’ of dangerous criminals, and highly likely to reoffend within a short time.
German judicial sources told the Olive Press this weekend that while his sentence is ‘technically served’ in four weeks’ time, they hope there will be a ‘stay of execution’.
The source also told the paper that if he got out next month he ‘would be issued with an ankle tag’ by the local police (LKA) in Braunschweig.
“It will be their responsibility and obviously very important that they don’t let him vanish,” said the source.
“You’re just gonna have to wait and see until next month what happens,” he added.
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