The convicted pedophile officially declared a suspect in the 15-year-old disappearance of Madeleine McCann has now been formally interviewed about it for the first time in prison, according to a report Friday.
Portuguese prosecutors traveled to Germany to officially inform Christian Brueckner, 44, that he was an “arguido,” the term for an official suspect who has yet to be charged, according to the Evening Standard.
Sources told the paper that they then fired a barrage of questions at him about the missing 3-year-old UK girl, bluntly asking, “Where were you the night Madeleine McCann disappeared?”
Other questions focused on alleged evidence that led to the official status change this week, including mobile phone records that placed him in Portugal’s Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, the night little Maddie disappeared, the London paper said.
He was reportedly asked, “If you weren’t by the apartment she disappeared from that night, where were you?”
However, Brueckner — who is behind bars for raping a 72-year-old American tourist in the same area where Maddie went missing — refused to answer any of the questions, retaining his right to silence, the paper said.
While the convicted sex attacker has been long eyed as a prime suspect in the case, it is the first time he has been formally quizzed about it, the report said.
The Portuguese prosecutors were granted permission to question him in Oldenburg Prison after sending German authorities a list of intended questions in a formal International Letter of Request, the report said.
The unexpected escalation in the case comes just two weeks before the 15th anniversary of one of the most high-profile missing person cases in recent UK history.
Sources suggested he was named an “arguido” to help dodge Portugal’s 15-year statute of limitations for crimes with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years or more.
Madeleine disappeared from her bedroom during a family holiday in the Algarve region while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz.
Her body has never been found, and German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Brueckner — who was first linked in 2013 — was likely responsible.
Brueckner has a long history that includes sex-crimes offenses — as well as burgling holiday flats like the one Maddie was in while he lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, the year she disappeared, according to Agence France-Presse.
He has denied being involved in the young girl’s disappearance.
With Post wires
