Police will search an abandoned box factory in Germany where the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case lived in a caravan shortly after a five-year-old girl vanished nearby in 2015, it was revealed today.
Prosecutors have re-opened the investigation into whether Christian Brueckner abducted Inga Gehricke after she was grabbed from Diakoniewerk Wilhelmshof in Saxony-Anhalt during a family outing five years ago.
Her disappearance on May 2, 2015 - almost eight years to the day after Madeleine vanished in Portugal on May 3, 2007 - was only 48 miles away from where Brueckner lived on the ramshackle five-acre in the isolated of village of Neuwegersleben, south-east of Hanover.
More than 100 officers descended on the old box factory in February 2016, digging holes looking for Inga's body.
The little girl wasn't found but Brueckner's USB stash of child sex abuse images was found on a USB stick hidden under 'animal bones' with police now set to return, according to German tabloid Bild.
Brueckner was prosecuted over the child porn but he was never charged with Inga's disappearance when the probe was dropped after four weeks.
But today prosecutors confirmed they have reopened a preliminary investigation into whether he was involved in the unsolved Inga case.
Police are set to return to this abandoned box factory in Neuwegersleben, Germany, where Christian Brueckner lived in a caravan and hid child porn among animal bones. Police raided it in 2016 looking for missing Inga Gehricke
It is not clear if the paedophile owned the abandoned box factory or part of it - but he is known to have been living there in a caravan behind its gates
Inga Gehricke vanished from Diakoniewerk Wilhelmshof in Saxony-Anhalt during a family outing on May 2, 2015 in an case that detectives have been unable to solve ever since. Prosecutors confirmed they have reopened a preliminary investigation into whether Christian Brueckner (pictured in 2018) was involved in the unsolved Inga case
More than 100 police officers descended on the site in February 201 (pictured), digging holes looking for missing Inga
It came as documents revealed by Spiegel allegedly show Brueckner fantasised in disgusting online chats about the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a child in September 2013.
He is said to have told one acquaintance he wanted to 'capture something small and use it for days', and that it would be safer if 'the evidence is destroyed afterwards'.
As police tried to gather the evidence to charge him with Madeleine McCann's abduction, it also emerged today:
Brueckner is allegedly going to be eligible for parole this weekend having served two-thirds of a sentenced for drugs charges at Kiel prison in Germany;
The mystery caller who spoke with Brueckner minutes before Madeleine was abducted has been named as Diogo Silva by Portuguese media;
More details of his child abuse has emerged including a sex attack on a nine-year-old girl and exposing himself to a six-year-old;
Madeleine's parents have been 'encouraged' by the results of the latest appeal with Scotland Yard already receiving more than 270 calls and emails;
A friend who lived above his shop claims he was violent, beating up his underage Kosovan girlfriend and cruelly locking up his dogs in a shop 'for weeks';
Brueckner is said to have had a relationship with an unnamed British woman while living in Praia da Luz in 2004.
Brueckner is currently behind bars in Germany serving 21 months for dealing drugs.
While he was in prison last December he was also found guilty of raping a 72-year-old American tourist in Praia da Luz 18 months before Madeleine disappeared. The seven-year jail term for this conviction will not start until his appeal has been heard.
Inga has often been labelled the German equivalent of Madeleine, who went missing aged three during a family holiday on the Algarve in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
Now, it is believed that police investigated Brueckner, 43, in February 2016 over the disappearance of Inga, according to Saxony-Anhalt newspaper Volksstimme.
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Detectives reportedly discovered a device at his home containing child pornography and it has been said he had no alibi for the day in question when Inga went missing.
Also, one day before Inga's disappearance, he was at the wheel of a car in a parking accident at an autobahn service station in Helmstedt 55 miles from where Inga lived.
But it appears no further action was taken against him in relation to Inga, which has been questioned by lawyer Petra Kullmei, who represents the girl's mother.
Christian Brueckner (left), 43, is now the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann (right), who vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal on May 3, 2007
In 2014, Brueckner was said to have been living at a house on this road in Braunschweig, near Hanover, where he told friends he had opened a shop and worked from 7am until midnight
Inga's disappearance on May 2, 2015 was almost eight years to the day after Madeleine vanished in Portugal on May 3, 2007
Justizvollzugsanstalt Kiel in northern Germany where Brueckner is currently being held in jail
Mr Kullmei, who is calling for a new investigation, told Volksstimme: 'The file was closed again only four weeks after starting work. I think that's not very ambitious.'
However, Stendal Public Prosecutor's Office spokesman Birte Iliev said today: 'It is now being examined whether there is any new evidence in connection with the murder suspect in Braunschweig.'
Brueckner, who has been labelled a 'multiple sexual predator' by prosecutors, is said to have been convicted of a child sex offence in Germany when aged just 17.
Yet the drifter, who reportedly has as many as 17 criminal convictions, was apparently overlooked by Portuguese police during their Madeleine probe.
Brueckner, who is in jail in Kiel, Germany, was also convicted of raping a 72-year-old US widow in her Algarve home 18 months before Madeleine disappeared.
But Brueckner only became a suspect for Scotland Yard in 2017 when he is said to have told a friend at a bar he 'knew all about' what had happened to Madeleine.
Madeleine disappeared while her parents, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were having a meal with friends at a tapas bar close to their apartment in Praia da Luz.
Inga, who had blonde hair and blue eyes, had been having a barbecue with her family at an apartment complex in a forest when she disappeared.
She is believed to have wandered off to collect wood to light a campfire but never returned, prompting more than 500 people to search for her.
Police say Brueckner may have been living in this campervan at the time Madeleine vanished
Brueckner had lived in this remote villa overlooking Praia da Luz from 1999 to 2006
The farmhouse where the new prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance lived was located just two miles from where she went missing from her family's holiday apartment
Police dogs also failed to pick up the scent of Inga who had been wearing a butterfly T-shirt, blue jeans and her hair in two plaits and vanished at about 6.30pm.
Brueckner had lived in a remote farmhouse overlooking Praia da Luz from 1999 to 2006 and may have been living in a campervan at the time Madeleine disappeared.
But not long after Madeleine vanished in 2007, he left Portugal and returned to his homeland - where he was later said to own the property in Neuwegersleben.
In 2014, he was said to have been living in Braunschweig, near Hanover, where he told friends he had opened a local shop and worked from 7am until midnight.
Sources have said that a German national serving time in prison in northern Germany would likely face trial in his homeland rather than be extradited to Britain.
The Metropolitan Police in London has always insisted that if the suspect is a UK national, it will push for them to be charged and prosecuted in Britain.
But in the case of a foreign suspect, it would be extremely difficult to extradite them to the UK for a crime committed overseas.
The Portuguese authorities could seek to pursue the case as the offence occurred there. But sources said the German investigation would be likely to take primacy.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann are pictured in London in October 2014
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Madeleine's parents are 'encouraged' by the results of the latest appeal over their daughter's disappearance, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today.
Scotland Yard's Operation Grange received more than 270 calls and emails less than 24 hours after revealing details of the new suspect.
Mr Mitchell said her doctor parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, from Leicestershire, are 'trying to maintain as normal a life as possible' and awaiting updates from police.
'Two hundred and seventy calls and emails isn't a bad result, given it was 13 years ago,' he said.
'They certainly will be encouraged to know the appeal is yielding results already and hopefully within that there will be crucial bits of information the police can act upon.'
Prosecutors have re-opened the investigation into whether Christian Brueckner abducted Inga Gehricke after she was grabbed from Diakoniewerk Wilhelmshof in Saxony-Anhalt during a family outing five years ago.
Her disappearance on May 2, 2015 - almost eight years to the day after Madeleine vanished in Portugal on May 3, 2007 - was only 48 miles away from where Brueckner lived on the ramshackle five-acre in the isolated of village of Neuwegersleben, south-east of Hanover.
More than 100 officers descended on the old box factory in February 2016, digging holes looking for Inga's body.
The little girl wasn't found but Brueckner's USB stash of child sex abuse images was found on a USB stick hidden under 'animal bones' with police now set to return, according to German tabloid Bild.
Brueckner was prosecuted over the child porn but he was never charged with Inga's disappearance when the probe was dropped after four weeks.
But today prosecutors confirmed they have reopened a preliminary investigation into whether he was involved in the unsolved Inga case.
Police are set to return to this abandoned box factory in Neuwegersleben, Germany, where Christian Brueckner lived in a caravan and hid child porn among animal bones. Police raided it in 2016 looking for missing Inga Gehricke
It is not clear if the paedophile owned the abandoned box factory or part of it - but he is known to have been living there in a caravan behind its gates
Inga Gehricke vanished from Diakoniewerk Wilhelmshof in Saxony-Anhalt during a family outing on May 2, 2015 in an case that detectives have been unable to solve ever since. Prosecutors confirmed they have reopened a preliminary investigation into whether Christian Brueckner (pictured in 2018) was involved in the unsolved Inga case
More than 100 police officers descended on the site in February 201 (pictured), digging holes looking for missing Inga
It came as documents revealed by Spiegel allegedly show Brueckner fantasised in disgusting online chats about the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a child in September 2013.
He is said to have told one acquaintance he wanted to 'capture something small and use it for days', and that it would be safer if 'the evidence is destroyed afterwards'.
As police tried to gather the evidence to charge him with Madeleine McCann's abduction, it also emerged today:
Brueckner is allegedly going to be eligible for parole this weekend having served two-thirds of a sentenced for drugs charges at Kiel prison in Germany;
The mystery caller who spoke with Brueckner minutes before Madeleine was abducted has been named as Diogo Silva by Portuguese media;
More details of his child abuse has emerged including a sex attack on a nine-year-old girl and exposing himself to a six-year-old;
Madeleine's parents have been 'encouraged' by the results of the latest appeal with Scotland Yard already receiving more than 270 calls and emails;
A friend who lived above his shop claims he was violent, beating up his underage Kosovan girlfriend and cruelly locking up his dogs in a shop 'for weeks';
Brueckner is said to have had a relationship with an unnamed British woman while living in Praia da Luz in 2004.
Brueckner is currently behind bars in Germany serving 21 months for dealing drugs.
While he was in prison last December he was also found guilty of raping a 72-year-old American tourist in Praia da Luz 18 months before Madeleine disappeared. The seven-year jail term for this conviction will not start until his appeal has been heard.
Inga has often been labelled the German equivalent of Madeleine, who went missing aged three during a family holiday on the Algarve in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
Now, it is believed that police investigated Brueckner, 43, in February 2016 over the disappearance of Inga, according to Saxony-Anhalt newspaper Volksstimme.
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Detectives reportedly discovered a device at his home containing child pornography and it has been said he had no alibi for the day in question when Inga went missing.
Also, one day before Inga's disappearance, he was at the wheel of a car in a parking accident at an autobahn service station in Helmstedt 55 miles from where Inga lived.
But it appears no further action was taken against him in relation to Inga, which has been questioned by lawyer Petra Kullmei, who represents the girl's mother.
Christian Brueckner (left), 43, is now the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann (right), who vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal on May 3, 2007
In 2014, Brueckner was said to have been living at a house on this road in Braunschweig, near Hanover, where he told friends he had opened a shop and worked from 7am until midnight
Inga's disappearance on May 2, 2015 was almost eight years to the day after Madeleine vanished in Portugal on May 3, 2007
Justizvollzugsanstalt Kiel in northern Germany where Brueckner is currently being held in jail
Mr Kullmei, who is calling for a new investigation, told Volksstimme: 'The file was closed again only four weeks after starting work. I think that's not very ambitious.'
However, Stendal Public Prosecutor's Office spokesman Birte Iliev said today: 'It is now being examined whether there is any new evidence in connection with the murder suspect in Braunschweig.'
Brueckner, who has been labelled a 'multiple sexual predator' by prosecutors, is said to have been convicted of a child sex offence in Germany when aged just 17.
Yet the drifter, who reportedly has as many as 17 criminal convictions, was apparently overlooked by Portuguese police during their Madeleine probe.
Brueckner, who is in jail in Kiel, Germany, was also convicted of raping a 72-year-old US widow in her Algarve home 18 months before Madeleine disappeared.
But Brueckner only became a suspect for Scotland Yard in 2017 when he is said to have told a friend at a bar he 'knew all about' what had happened to Madeleine.
Madeleine disappeared while her parents, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were having a meal with friends at a tapas bar close to their apartment in Praia da Luz.
Inga, who had blonde hair and blue eyes, had been having a barbecue with her family at an apartment complex in a forest when she disappeared.
She is believed to have wandered off to collect wood to light a campfire but never returned, prompting more than 500 people to search for her.
Police say Brueckner may have been living in this campervan at the time Madeleine vanished
Brueckner had lived in this remote villa overlooking Praia da Luz from 1999 to 2006
The farmhouse where the new prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance lived was located just two miles from where she went missing from her family's holiday apartment
Police dogs also failed to pick up the scent of Inga who had been wearing a butterfly T-shirt, blue jeans and her hair in two plaits and vanished at about 6.30pm.
Brueckner had lived in a remote farmhouse overlooking Praia da Luz from 1999 to 2006 and may have been living in a campervan at the time Madeleine disappeared.
But not long after Madeleine vanished in 2007, he left Portugal and returned to his homeland - where he was later said to own the property in Neuwegersleben.
In 2014, he was said to have been living in Braunschweig, near Hanover, where he told friends he had opened a local shop and worked from 7am until midnight.
Sources have said that a German national serving time in prison in northern Germany would likely face trial in his homeland rather than be extradited to Britain.
The Metropolitan Police in London has always insisted that if the suspect is a UK national, it will push for them to be charged and prosecuted in Britain.
But in the case of a foreign suspect, it would be extremely difficult to extradite them to the UK for a crime committed overseas.
The Portuguese authorities could seek to pursue the case as the offence occurred there. But sources said the German investigation would be likely to take primacy.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann are pictured in London in October 2014
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Madeleine's parents are 'encouraged' by the results of the latest appeal over their daughter's disappearance, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today.
Scotland Yard's Operation Grange received more than 270 calls and emails less than 24 hours after revealing details of the new suspect.
Mr Mitchell said her doctor parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, from Leicestershire, are 'trying to maintain as normal a life as possible' and awaiting updates from police.
'Two hundred and seventy calls and emails isn't a bad result, given it was 13 years ago,' he said.
'They certainly will be encouraged to know the appeal is yielding results already and hopefully within that there will be crucial bits of information the police can act upon.'
eliasbrennan@web.de
