Madeleine McCann disappearance: what do we know about the new suspect?

Q. What has happened?

British, German and Portuguese police have launched an international appeal for information after identifying a German national as the new prime suspect in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal 13 years ago.

Scotland Yard said that significant information regarding the man had emerged after investigators made an appeal in May 2017, the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Q. What is known about the suspect?

The 43-year-old, who is currently in prison in Germany and has been named by sources in Portugal as Christian Brückner, is a German paedophile who is thought to have been in the Algarve resort of Praia Da Luz where Madeleine went missing 13 years ago.

He is believed to have broken into hotel and holiday rental properties and to have been involved in the trafficking of drugs in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007. Images have been released of a camper van in which he was living near the resort where Madeleine was staying with her family, including her twin siblings.

Now aged 43, in 2007 he was 30 but may have looked as young as 25. A photo of the man, with his eyes blanked out, has been published by a tabloid in Germany, where police have also published details of Portuguese properties linked to him.

Q. What do the police want help with?

As part of their appeal, Metropolitan police investigators have released images of the camper van and a Jaguar car they say are linked to the man and want anyone to come forward if they recognise them.

Members of the public are being asked if they recognise either one of two Portuguese mobile phone numbers. One, +351 912 730 680, police say was used by the suspect and was called by someone from another number, +351 916 510 683, on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance at 7.32pm for a conversation that ended just over an hour before she went missing.

Q. Is this a breakthrough?

It’s too early to tell but Stuart Cundy, the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner, said on Wednesday: “Our main line of inquiry is this suspect. He is the main focus of our investigation, which is why we are making this appeal, to help us with that investigation, to prove or disprove his involvement.”

Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, believe the identification of the man as the key suspect in their daughter’s disappearance is “potentially very significant”.

Their spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, told the BBC: “Of all the thousands of leads and potential suspects that have been mentioned in the past, there has never been something as clear cut as that from not just one, but three, police forces.”

Q. What happens next?

British police have said that the man is the main focus of the investigation and the appeal has been made “to prove or disprove his involvement”.

The joint appeal by the international police investigators includes a £20,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person responsible of Madeleine’s disappearance.