Christian Brueckner has written to former friends (Image: Rex/ Shutterstock)
Former friends of the suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have been “freaked out” after he sent letters to them begging for help with his potential defence in court.
German paedophile Christian Brueckner is serving a seven-year prison term for rape and drug trafficking and is due for release in 2026.
Brueckner is being probed by a team of German detectives over Madeleine’s disappearance in Portugal in May 2007.
He was already awaiting trial for a string of rapes and child sexual assaults allegedly committed in Portugal, but those charges were dramatically dropped earlier this year after a court ruling over who had jurisdiction in the case.
They were originally filed by prosecutors in Braunschweig because he previously lived in the city in 2016. But Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher argued he was actually living in a warehouse in Neuwegersleben, Lower-Saxony.
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Madeleine McCann went missing in in May 2007 (Image: PA)
A court in Braunschweig ruled in his favour - although prosecutors are hopeful of overturning the decision. Now Brueckner wants pals to back his defence if he has to stand trial on rape and child sex charges.
In one letter the convicted sex offender moaned that prosecutors were making him out to be a “monster”. At least two former friends in Portugal have received letters from Brueckner, 46, in recent months.
According to The Mirror letters came to light after being highlighted by another ex-pal who is still in touch with Brueckner’s associates in the Algarve.
They told the paper: “I know of two people who got the messages from Chris. It really freaked them out. They hadn’t heard from him in years and then these letters suddenly arrived in the post from Germany.
“He was asking them to speak in his defence, about what a good guy he was. He said the German police and prosecutors have it in for him, that they are saying he is a monster.
Kate and Gerry McCann during a trip to Germany highlighting Madeleine's disappearance (Image: Getty )
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“It’s outrageous for Chris to ask for help because now we all know about his past. Back when we were hanging with him in the early 2000s it was all a secret.
“We didn’t know he was a paedophile. But now he doesn’t stand a chance of anybody speaking up for him in court.”
Madeleine was three when she disappeared from her parents’ holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007.
Parents Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leics, were dined with friends in a nearby tapas restaurant at the time she vanished. The couple have refused to give up hope that their daughter will one day be found alive.
Brueckner, who lived in a ramshackle Praia da Luz farmhouse at the time of her disappearance, was named as a suspect in 2020. He denies any involvement in the crime.
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