Madeleine McCann suspect 'confessed to cellmate about abducting child in Portugal'

Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner allegedly confessed to one of his former prison cellmates that he abducted a child in Portugal and buried their body in his garden

Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, allegedly confessed to abducting a young girl from her holiday apartment in the Algarve, according to statements made by a former prison mate.

The notorious sex offender is believed to have kidnapped and murdered the three year old British girl in Praia da Luz back in May 2007. Today in court, Brueckner's ex-cellmate Laurentiu Codin recounted that the German national admitted to taking a child while in Portugal.

"He told me that in Portugal, he had stolen there," Codin revealed. "He was in a region where there are hotels and rich people live. He said there was somewhere with an open window, he told me this. He was looking for money."

Codin continued, "He said he didn't find any money but found a kid and took the child. He said that two hours later, there were police and dogs all over the place, so he then went away, out of the area."

"I am just saying what he told me. He told me that a person was with him, who he had had an argument with, allegedly it was his woman. He said he took the child in Portugal in his car, and in the time when the police and dogs were at the house, he drove away and he was gone.", reports the Mirror.

Codin also mentioned a chilling detail: "He asked me if the DNA from a child can be taken from bones under the ground." In addition to these harrowing admissions, Codin claimed that Brueckner had also confessed to 'abducting and raping young girls'.

Brueckner, 47, is alleged to have made a chilling confession in 2020 about abducting and abusing young girls on a bus he owned. While both were detained in the same jail, Laurentiu Codin, 50, testified that the German divulged these details to him.

Codin recounted in court: "There was talk of a girl, I don't know if what he said was true or not. He said that he had a bus and that he had taken her with it. He said he kept some of them, but not others, but he never said that he had killed them. We're talking about girls, not boys. Not all at once, always one at a time. He told me about two. He said that he had taken someone, had sex with her but he didn't kill her."

When questioned by the judge regarding the age of the victims, Codin replied: "I don't want to get it wrong, but it was very young, tiny. I mean young. Each time when we were together he spoke about it because he was convinced that I was a paedophile."

Brueckner is presently serving a seven-year jail sentence for raping an elderly American resident in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Furthermore, he is facing trial in Germany for other alleged sexual offenses in the Algarve from 2000 to 2017.

One of these alleged attacks includes the 2004 rape of Irish holiday representative Hazel Behan in her apartment in Praia da Rocha. Brueckner is also accused of raping a teenage girl in his Praia da Luz home and raping an elderly woman in her holiday apartment. He also faces a child sex charge for allegedly exposing himself to a German girl on a beach in Salema in April 2007. His final charge relates to an alleged indecent exposure in front of an 11-year-old in 2017. He denies the latest charges, as well as having any involvement in the McCann case.

Prosecutors appear no closer to proving he was behind Madeleine’s disappearance - despite claiming they have proof she is dead. They face the nightmare scenario of seeing their prime suspect walk free if he is cleared in the latest trial. If Brueckner is found not guilty, he could be freed from prison in the early part of next year.

A not guilty verdict would increase the pressure on them to charge Brueckner over Madeleine’s disappearance. The trial is due to end in December.