Prosecutors probing prime suspect in Madeleine McCann case hit major stumbling block

Prosecutors investigating the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case have hit a major stumbling block after they revealed the main witnesses is facing a possible perjury charge.

Convicted rapist Christian Brueckner, 45, was sensationally named as the main responsible for the kidnap and murder of Madeleine, who went missing in 2007 from a Portuguese holiday apartment.

German investigators have built their case around a witness called Helge Busching whose evidence helped jail Bruckner for rape in 2019 but now questions have arisen around his testimony in the trial.

He claimed he and another man called Manfred Seyferth had found a video camera in Brueckner's house showing him raping and sexually assaulting two women and this was used to jail him for seven years.

Busching also told investigators in Brunswick, Germany, the year after Madeleine disappeared, that he had a conversation with Brueckner in which he said it was 'odd that she didn't scream' when they discussed her disappearance.

Two months ago, it was claimed Busching was 'wobbling' and threatening to withdraw his evidence but now another spanner has been thrown into the investigation with the revelation he is being probed for false testimony.

It centres around the camera that Busching and Seyferth claimed to have found and that they had hidden in a house they shared but which later went missing and has never been found.

According to Brueckner's lawyer Friedrich Fulscher, this testimony he gave is different to his statement that says they hid them in a camper van – which he says makes him an unreliable witness.

Busching gave Brueckner's name to British police in 2017, around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.

Busching claims that Brueckner told him at a Spanish kite festival in 2008 that he was involved in Madeleine's abduction from Praia da Luz a year earlier.

When asked in 2020 what he thought of Brueckner, Busching said: 'One word. Guilty.'

Brunswick prosecutor's office have said that are investigating Busching for 'false testimony after their received a complaint from his lawyer Freidrich Fulscher last week but details have only just emerged.

Mr Fulscher would only say, 'as a witness, this man is completely unbelievable', but confirmed he had filed the complaint and asked for a retrial in the rape case which saw Brueckner jailed for seven years.

A source close to the investigation said that when the contradictions were pointed out to him by German police Busching refused to discuss his evidence and refused to cooperate further after speaking with his lawyer.

Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, went missing in May 2007 just a few days short of her fourth birthday while on holiday with her siblings and parents Kate and Gerry and nothing has been seen or heard of her since.

Brueckner is currently languishing in a German prison for the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal just 18 months before Madeleine was abducted from the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

His trial heard he planned the sex attack having broken into the victim's house with a rope to tie her up. She was blindfolded and gagged before being raped and robbed.

Brueckner, a convicted paedophile, is also being probed over a series of sex attacks and a rape on the Algarve from the early 2000s until 2017.

He has denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.