Madeleine McCann investigation into Christian Brueckner could face major setback as it's revealed key witness is dying from cancer

The Madeleine McCann investigation into Christian Brueckner could face a major setback as it has been revealed that a key witness is dying from cancer.

Convicted rapist and paedophile Bruckner, 47, was sensationally named by German police four years ago as the man responsible for Madeleine's 'abduction and murder'.

Helge Busching, a former friend and now key witness in the investigation, alerted police to Brueckner seven years ago, when he told them Brueckner had 'confessed' to him that Madeleine 'didn't cry when I took her'.

But it has now been revealed that Busching, a convicted criminal, has recently been diagnosed with intestinal cancer, which could set back the investigation if police lost him as a witness, Sky News reports.

Then three-year-old Madeleine vanished from a ground floor holiday apartment while on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry in Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve coast in May 2007.

However, despite police naming him as a suspect, Brueckner has still not been charged and is currently on trial in his native Germany accused of unrelated sex crimes that took place in the same area where she disappeared. 

Busching appeared in court to give evidence in Brueckner's current trial this week, but it was not until another of Brueckner's former pals, who gave evidence today, that Busching's cancer diagnosis was revealed.

Michael Tatschl, a former partner in crime of Brueckner, told the court he had spoken to Busching on the phone this week.

'We discussed general things including his cancer. It's pretty bad. He got his diagnosis just a couple of months ago,' Tatschl said. 

Tatschl also said that how getting involved in the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance changed his life 'negatively' and that he had lost his job, home and friends. 

Earlier today Tatschl told the trial that Brueckner would break into holiday apartments naked.

He said Brueckner would use the bizarre modus operandi so as not to leave evidence and catch his clothes on surfaces.

Tatschl said: 'He scaled the walls. Once he told me he broke in and three teenage girls were sleeping in the living room. He was naked. One of them woke up when a phone rang and screamed.

'The girl's father heard the scream and came, so Christian had to run and jump off a balcony. He burgled naked quite a few times because he did not want to leave a trace.'

Carpenter Tatschl, 50, is the latest witness to give evidence at the court in Braunschweig, where Brueckner arrived early on Friday under a heavy police escort.

Previously, Tatschl has told how he was a 'partner in crime' with Brueckner when they lived in Portugal and told German media he heard him talk about 'selling children to a paedophile ring in Morocco'.

In a previous interview he also said he was 'convinced' Bruecker had taken Madeleine and said: 'I know he did it. He is more than capable of taking a small child.'

Tatschl was asked if he still believed Brueckner stole Madeleine to sell her to a paedophile network and replied: 'That was my suspicion because he wanted money.'

Tatschl said his suspicion had been the snatch was for a paedophile network operating in Morocco because it was 'nearby' to Portugal.

Tatschl told the court that he had also heard about the graphic videos which were said to show Brueckner attacking and raping an elderly woman and young girl.

He said: 'I heard about it from Helge Busching and Manfred Seyferth but I can't remember who told me first.'

Tatschl added he had seen 'whips and masks' in Brueckner's Portuguese home and a 'stash of 500 passports which he kept like trophies'.

In a shock revelation Tatschl then told the court Brueckner had boasted to him in jail how he had once 'kidnapped a girl of around 14-15 and kept her tied to a post in his house' before letting her go.

Brueckner and Tatschl were jailed in 2006 for stealing fuel in Portugal and shared the same cell before being released just a few weeks before Madeleine vanished.

In testimony Tatschl, dressed in a white shirt, described how he had met Brueckner in early 2006 and became friends with him over the next few weeks.

He said: 'He told me how he earned money, he broke into houses, tourist houses, hotels, at night when they were not there.

'He would even break in when they were sleeping and if they were on the first or even second floor. He had a little box of stolen things, jewellery and watches.'

Earlier Brueckner had been led into court handcuffed and greeted his legal team with warm handshakes.

Police in Portugal have always claimed that Madeleine's abductor broke into the apartment through a window.

They say the culprit likely left with the child through a door or by climbing back out the window.

Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have spearheaded a high-profile campaign for information about her disappearance.

Brueckner is on trial accused of raping three women and assaulting children between 2000 and 2017 in the Algarve.

He was jailed in 2019 for seven years after being convicted of raping an elderly woman in the Algarve in 2005.

His current trial started in February and has heard from witnesses who say they saw Brueckner in harrowing sex tapes which showed the rape of an elderly woman and a young girl.

Brueckner's defence have tried several times to have witnesses ruled out saying the case is unfair and prejudiced against their client because of the link to Madeleine but all attempts have so far failed.

The trial is expected to continue through the spring and into the summer.