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Madeleine McCann suspect fantasized about raping a child: 'He wanted to capture something small, use it for days'

German authorities on June 3 announced that they believe Madeleine is dead and are currently probing Christian Brueckner, 43, for her murder
UPDATED JUN 5, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

The German man suspected to be behind the abduction and possible murder of Madeleine McCann had fantasized about kidnapping and raping a young child, reports state. According to investigative documents obtained by a German magazine, the suspect, identified as Christian Brueckner, wrote about his depraved fantasy in an internet chat.

Brueckner, 43, had allegedly told a friend in September 2013, nearly six years after Maddie's disappearance, that he wanted "to capture something small and use it for days." He also suggested to the friend that he would destroy the evidence so the child would never be found. 

The development comes nearly 13 years after the three-year-old went missing in Portugal. Madeleine mysteriously disappeared from her parents' vacation apartment at The Ocean Club Resort in Portugal on the night of May 3, 2007. At the time, her parents were just 50 meters away from the apartment, dining at a tapas restaurant with several close friends while Madeleine and her twin siblings slept in the house. Thirteen years later, the child is still missing. Madeleine's disappearance is the most widely-reported missing person's case in modern history.

Kate and Gerry McCann hold an age-progressed police image of their daughter during a news conference to mark the 5th anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, on May 2, 2012 in London, England. (Getty Images)

Disturbing details about Brueckner's online chat seven years ago were revealed after Der Spiegel, a German magazine, obtained linked documents from investigators. The suspect reportedly told a friend that he wanted to abduct a child and keep them hostage for days while carrying out sexual abuse. When his friend objected, saying this could be "dangerous," Brueckner replied with: "Oh the evidence is destroyed afterward."

German investigators are also reportedly probing whether he was involved in the disappearance of another little girl, identified as five-year-old Inga Gehricke, in May 2015. Inga disappeared from the countryside in the northern state of Saxony-Anhalt, located between Hanover and Berlin. At the time of her disappearance, Brueckner lived nearly 55 miles away from the location where police believe the blonde-haired girl was kidnapped. 

Brueckner's criminal history stated that he was convicted of sexually abusing a child in 1994 when he was 17. The suspect was reportedly given a youth sentence of two years. Later, in 2016, he was imprisoned again for a year and three months for "abusing a child in the act of procuring himself and possessing child pornography," and in June 2017 he received 15 months' prison sentence for sexual abuse of a child.

Brueckner, as he went in and out of prison, spent his time between Germany and Portugal, where he was living at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. The suspect would have been 30 at the time when the little girl disappeared. His phone records showed him near the resort on the day of Maddie's disappearance. He reportedly lived in a farmhouse near Praia da Luz at the time and in May 2007 traveled around the Algarve in a VW camper van as a drifter, according to authorities. 

German authorities on Wednesday, June 3, announced that they believe Madeleine is dead and are currently probing the 43-year-old for her murder. Brueckner, who has an extensive rapsheet for multiple crimes including drug trafficking , is currently in a German prison for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

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