German Madeleine McCann suspect investigated over alleged police altercation

A German man seen as the top suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann is under investigation after an altercation with police officers in northern Germany, police said Thursday.

Christian Brueckner, who has been named as a suspect in the McCann case but has never been charged in it, was involved in what a police spokeswoman described as a physical attack on law enforcement officers in the city of Kiel on June 6.

Der Spiegel magazine reported that Brueckner got into a tussle with police outside a supermarket after taking photos of the officers with his mobile phone. According to the magazine, the officers objected to being photographed and Brueckner refused their demand to hand over the phone.

The Kiel police spokeswoman declined to give details of the alleged incident, citing the ongoing investigation. She said one officer was injured. Brueckner was also investigated by Kiel police over a brawl with another man in April.

Brueckner, 49, has multiple previous convictions for sexual offences and other crimes, including theft, drug trafficking, assault and child abuse. In September, he was released from prison in Germany after serving a sentence on rape charges.

A German court acquitted Brueckner in late 2024 after he was charged with rapes and two counts of child sex abuse over alleged crimes between 2000 and 2017 that were unrelated to Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

German prosecutors named him the top suspect in the McCann case in 2020. They said at the time that they had concrete evidence against him, but not enough to secure a conviction.

Madeleine, known as Maddie, vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007 while her parents dined nearby. The case attracted major global attention, especially in the British press. No trace of her has been found.

At the time of her disappearance, Brueckner was regularly spending time in that area of Portugal, and a mobile phone registered to his name pinged near the McCanns' accommodation on the evening she vanished.