Madeleine McCann was abducted in 2007 while on holiday with her family in Portugal (Picture: CEN)
Christian Brueckner could be charged with kidnapping and murdering Madeleine McCann by Christmas, detectives now hope.
A ‘concrete case’ is being built against the convicted paedophile in connection with Madeleine’s infamous disappearance in 2007, The Sun reports.
German cops revealed he was their prime suspect two years ago but since then no charges have been brought against him.
Officials maintain they have ‘evidence’ that Madeleine is dead and Brueckner is responsible.
The German national was living in his van in Praia da Luz, Portugal, around the same time Madeleine vanished from her family’s nearby holiday villa.
This week he was charged with attacking five women and girls from 2000 to 2017 in the Algarve, including molesting a 10-year-old girl just three weeks before Madeleine vanished.
Brueckner is said to have attacked the unnamed girl as she played on rocks at a beach in Salema on April 7, 2007, seven miles away from where it’s believed Madeleine was abducted.
He has been accused of carrying out a similar crime ten years later at a playground in Bartolomeu de Messines, also in Portugal, when he was arrested at the scene in 2017.
Christian Brueckner is serving a seven-year sentence for violently raping an elderly woman (Picture: REX)
The 45-year-old has also been charged with three counts of rape, including a violent attack on an elderly woman between 2000 and 2006.
‘The suspect is charged with having tied up and raped the victim,’ a police statement said.
‘He then hit the victim several times with a whip. The accused is said to have also recorded the entire event.’
Brueckner also allegedly raped Irish tour guide Hazel Behan when she was 20-years-old in 2004.
Madeleine was sleeping on the ground floor of the villa the night she vanished (Picture: Carlos Costa / AFP)
A masked man broke into her apartment in Praia da Rocha and threatened her with a knife.
The third rape charge relates to a girl ‘aged at least 14’ being brought to Brueckner’s apartment where he allegedly tied her up.
He is accused of filming himself lashing the girl with a whip during the attack.
More: News
Brueckner is currently serving seven years in Germany’s Oldenburg Jail for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
He also has previous convictions for sexually abusing a six-year-old girl when he was 17 in 1994.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Christian Brueckner was named the ‘prime suspect’ two years ago.