Madeleine McCann The Unseen Evidence 2025
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00:00In 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal.
00:15Please continue to pray for Madeleine. She's lovely.
00:21In the 18 years since, there have been many theories about what happened.
00:28But there remains one prime suspect. Convicted paedophile Christian Bruchner.
00:37Currently in prison for rape, he's due to be released this year.
00:43Christian Bruchner is our prime suspect and he's still the only suspect we have in the Madeleine McCann case.
00:49As prosecutors try to build a case against him for the abduction of Madeleine McCann.
00:55Tonight, we reveal how the Sun newspaper has obtained new evidence from secret police files.
01:04In an abandoned factory, German police found a huge trove of evidence.
01:11It's hugely important circumstantial evidence that points directly at him.
01:15A raft of previously unseen photos and documents. Evidence that links Bruchner to locations of interest.
01:24For the first time, one really saw Christian connected to a Madeleine location.
01:30And stories of child abduction he's written that have never been heard before.
01:36The stories he wrote are just abhorrent. You wonder how someone can come up with that.
01:41Could this lead to a conviction and bring to an end one of the world's biggest unsolved crimes?
01:49This is a B-6-1-6-1-1-1-1-1-4-1-3-2-4-3-0-4-1-1-1-1-1-1.
02:04Police in Portugal are searching for a three-year-old British girl
02:20who vanished from her parents' holiday flat.
02:22They say she's been abducted.
02:23A frantic search is now gripping all of Portugal.
02:26Borders have been tightened.
02:28Police are scouring the Algar.
02:29Police divers in the water.
02:31There's been a police helicopter overhead.
02:33There are volunteers searching a very wide area.
02:36The family said her parents are distraught and broken hearted.
02:39Now the focus, the total focus, is on trying to find Madeleine.
02:48In the summer of 2007, headlines were dominated by the story of a missing girl.
02:56Madeleine McCann had been on holiday with her parents and younger siblings
03:00in the beach resort of Praia de Luz.
03:02When she suddenly disappeared.
03:08As in any reporting job of this kind, what you need to do is to get there
03:13and find out as much as you possibly can about what's happened.
03:17Where has this little girl gone?
03:18We would again like to appeal for any information, however small, that may lead to the safe return
03:31of Madeleine.
03:37Madeleine's disappearance led to a massive search and a global media storm.
03:42Back in 2007, I was correspondent for BILD in London and one of my jobs was to monitor the English press.
03:54All the papers were full with the same story of this English toddler that had vanished in Portugal.
04:00But within the next few days, you could see that this case was somewhat different.
04:06The focus that the media, not only in the UK, put on this case was somewhat different.
04:13Madeleine was a particularly photogenic little girl.
04:16And they were a very well-to-do middle-class family.
04:21Gerry was a consultant cardiologist.
04:23Kate, a doctor.
04:30Madeleine had disappeared from a holiday apartment that was no more than 50 metres from where her parents
04:37at last had a tapas dinner.
04:41They walked out of their apartment.
04:43You go down through a gate, you walk along the street, then you go through another gate,
04:47then you go inside the Ocean Club complex.
04:50They were inside of the apartment block where their children were sleeping, as far as we know.
04:56Crucially, though, it also became clear that they'd left the patio door open.
05:01Obviously, whoever took Madeleine, took advantage of that situation,
05:07while their backs were turned, had taken her away.
05:12Being on the ground, I thought, how can anyone be so brazen to break into this apartment
05:16while the parents are just a few yards away?
05:20This must be someone with such a big criminal energy that is really difficult to imagine,
05:25someone who really doesn't care.
05:31After 2007, Madeleine McCann became one of the most recognisable faces in the world.
05:44Despite that, for 13 years, her story faded into the background.
05:49Then, in 2020, news from Germany brought it back into the headlines.
06:04A press conference revealed a potential suspect.
06:08The suspect is a 43-year-old German man, thought to be Christian Brückner,
06:13who is a convicted paedophile already serving time in prison.
06:17A German man, who would have been 30 in 2007,
06:23he was revealed to be someone already in prison for rape.
06:28Referred to as Christian B because of Germany's privacy laws,
06:33his name subsequently came out as Christian Brückner.
06:37Police had first started investigating him in 2017 after a witness had identified him as a potential suspect.
06:50Known to have lived in the Praia de Luz area,
06:54investigators said records placed his phone near the Ocean Club on the night of Madeleine's disappearance.
07:00While a car he owned was re-registered to someone else's name the day after she went missing.
07:10But did the police have more information they weren't sharing?
07:14For a year and a half, Sun reporter Rob Pattinson has been investigating Christian Brückner.
07:24Police had Christian B on their radar as a suspect for a number of years before they went public in 2020.
07:31What made them go public in 2020 is they wanted the public's help.
07:36They wanted to launch an appeal because they were missing information that they needed.
07:41It's clear to us he's a suspect now because of everything we found out,
07:45because of everything we've uncovered from the police files.
07:48In 2016, police were called to an address in East Germany,
08:02an abandoned box factory owned by a man living on the fringes of society,
08:10Christian Brückner.
08:13Investigators knew he was a criminal,
08:14with convictions for sexual abuse of a child dating back to the 90s.
08:21But they had no concept of what else they would find.
08:27The location, it has a very, very dark and creepy atmosphere.
08:34Very much isolated, a very hidden place.
08:41My name is Jutta Rabe.
08:42I'm a German investigative journalist and I have been on this case for a couple of years.
08:51A neighbor, he was walking his dog
08:54and the dog was running onto this compound of Christian B.
09:03And the dog started to dig because he smelled something
09:07and he did not let it go.
09:10So his owner had to climb over the fence and get his dog.
09:19And by that, he saw that there was sticking out a little tiny triangle
09:24of a red either carpet or blanket or whatever.
09:27And he pulled on that and the smell which came out from this hole,
09:35from the soil, was this kind of corpse smell.
09:43The source of the smell was the body of a dead dog.
09:46Beneath it was a plastic bag.
09:55Inside was a wallet containing six USB sticks and two memory cards.
10:04As police scoured the compound,
10:07they uncovered more of Bruckner's belongings.
10:09Some images of these disturbing discoveries have never been shown before.
10:16They found 75 toddlers' swimsuits.
10:25There were preschooler bikes and toys,
10:29as well as three working guns with ammunition.
10:33Black market, untraceable weapons.
10:35Police discovered a mask and bizarre self-made photos
10:42of how Bruckner would look in it.
10:46And there was a suitcase.
10:48Inside were pictures of young children
10:50with a list of phone numbers.
10:53When it was all discovered, police knew it was important.
10:59They knew they were on to a highly dangerous criminal.
11:03But they didn't understand the implications for down the line,
11:06for the Madeleine McCann case.
11:09In terms of the McCann case,
11:12it's hugely important circumstantial evidence.
11:16The German police quickly realised
11:18that this was a character who needed much further investigation.
11:23It has been 18 years
11:49since the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
11:51from the Portuguese resort of Praia de Luz.
11:57This is one of the last photos Kate McCann took of her daughter.
12:02Three nights later,
12:03it is believed she was taken from her bed.
12:07Her fate remains a mystery.
12:12From that day,
12:14I think everybody was a bit more wary.
12:17Everybody kept a bit of a closer eye on their kids.
12:20Everybody was worried.
12:21Because there were people out there that might do this.
12:25Geri and I would just like to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to everybody.
12:33But please continue to pray for Madeleine.
12:36She's lovely.
12:37I would have spent probably the best part of a month there to start with and nothing was happening.
12:47The police weren't guiding us at all.
12:49We weren't getting any steers as to where they were searching, what their ideas might be.
12:54Everything was played very close to their chest.
12:56The first 48 hours are the most crucial when a person disappears and if you don't follow the leads in the first 48 hours properly, it gets more and more difficult.
13:08And this is what happened at Madeleine, the first 48 hours basically all the mistakes have been made that could be made.
13:14Numerous people were walking in and out of the apartment touching windows, touching window panes, touching stuff in there, touching door handles and all that.
13:22So a lot of crucial evidence might have been destroyed.
13:27Every day that went by, things got a little bit more frantic, a little bit more worrying, a little bit more concerning.
13:33But then Portuguese police decided to do something really shocking.
13:40Kate and Jerry have both been declared arguidos with no bail conditions and no charges have been brought against them.
13:52The investigation continued.
13:56I'd never heard the word arguido before.
13:59I'd never heard that.
14:00And then it suddenly appears in a press release and it's translated to us, it's suspect.
14:05But Kate and Jerry are suspects over the disappearance of their daughter.
14:12I can't see anything, I'm afraid.
14:14How do you see, Jerry?
14:15To me, it kind of looked like the police on the ground didn't know where else to look.
14:24In 2008, the McCanns were formally cleared of being suspects.
14:31In the years that followed, there was little concrete news.
14:35In 2013, Scotland Yard said they had identified several people who might be of interest.
14:43But the details were vague.
14:46Then, in 2020, the German authorities made their shock announcement.
14:51A German prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters, announced they had a suspect.
15:03He further revealed they were working on the assumption that Madeleine was dead, and they were conducting an investigation into her murder.
15:24Since it was a state prosecutor who had announced that in a press conference, there was no doubt that the authorities were serious about it.
15:36For the first time, there was a suspect, a real suspect, from a German prosecutor.
15:44That meant something.
15:45While Christian Bruckner's identity was made public, police kept their evidence secret.
15:53But journalists in Germany began digging into his past.
15:58It emerged that this was a man with a long criminal history, including sexual offences against children.
16:06You could see a criminal pattern evolving at a very young age when he was still a teenager, committing the first paedophile crime when he was hardly grown up.
16:17When he was 17, he had sexually abused a six-year-old girl on a playground.
16:26It was after this offence in 1994 that Bruckner fled to Portugal to escape a two-year youth custody sentence.
16:35He would eventually return to Germany in 1999 to serve his punishment.
16:41That is a pattern that you can see all through his early adult life.
16:46Going back and forth and whenever he's caught doing something wrong, evading, disappearing and drifting back to another country.
16:55We spoke to a couple of ex-girlfriends and ex-partners and they painted a picture of a Jacqueline Hyde personality.
17:04He could be friendly, he could be charming, he could be smart.
17:07But on the other hand, there were also ex-girlfriends that described him as all of a sudden showing another face.
17:14Especially when he was drunk, becoming violent, threatening people.
17:21Friends have told me he can be very charming.
17:26But then comes the guy in the night.
17:31That man has a very dark side inside himself.
17:39We were able to draw a picture of a person that was drifting between Germany and Portugal mainly.
17:47That was evading punishment whenever he could.
17:51Committing a crime, being convicted for it and then disappearing before the punishment could be served.
18:01Around 2005, Christian Bruchner settled in Praia de Luz, working as a waiter and barman.
18:12But also stealing from holiday accommodation in the area.
18:16He had a certain system.
18:21He had already found out how is the best way to break into that house or apartment, who is living there.
18:28So he was very prepared for these burglaries he did.
18:32And what he was mainly after was not only money, he wanted passports.
18:37Two years before Madeleine McCann disappeared, Bruchner broke into the home of a 72-year-old American woman in the same resort.
18:54He subjected her to an attack that was seemingly planned.
19:00She had been tied up and she was raped numerous times in horrendous fashion.
19:07This case went unsolved for quite some time until prosecutors and investigators found a hair of our suspect on the bedsheet of the woman that had been raped.
19:20So with this hair, investigators had firm forensic proof that this suspect had committed the rape.
19:30Bruchner would not face justice for that crime until 2019.
19:36When the McCanns arrived in Portugal in 2007, he was a free and dangerous man.
19:48Using information from a mobile phone mast, investigators know that on the night Madeleine disappeared, a call was made to Bruchner's mobile phone at around 7.30.
20:00That data places his phone in the area on the evening she vanished.
20:07They were taking turns to go back, put their heads around the door, make sure everything was okay, and then come back again.
20:13There was no reason for them to possibly suspect that anything untoward could happen.
20:20They went from that fairly idyllic holiday situation to every parent's worst nightmare.
20:25It was Kate that made the fateful discovery between 9 and 10.
20:29She went to check on Madeleine, it was her turn, pulled the patio door aside.
20:36The bed was empty.
20:38She came out and shouted out, obviously, with some anguish, someone's taken Madeleine.
20:47Using witness statements and reports from the time, it's possible to piece together a potential route any abductor might have taken.
20:56We know that sniffer dogs followed Madeleine's scent along the back of the apartment to this main road.
21:03From there, it's unclear.
21:06But the kidnapper might have crossed here through unlit scrubland rather than walk by the ocean club and risk being seen by the McCanns having dinner.
21:20The captor would probably have come downhill to this junction.
21:25Significantly, this is where a family of holidaymakers witnessed a man carrying a young girl.
21:35So they crossed over here and they described exactly a man carrying a child as if he would not be used to carry a child.
21:45The witnesses described the child, I mean, and it very much was a description of Maddy.
21:50Search dogs lost the scent of Madeleine in the car park of the village church,
21:56suggesting a captor used a vehicle to escape.
22:01Police know that Christian Bruckner used this camper van in the area.
22:07He also drove a Jaguar XJ6 with German number plates.
22:13It was the day after Madeleine disappeared that the car was re-registered under the name of an acquaintance.
22:20In 2016, when police raided Bruckner's factory hideout in Germany,
22:29amongst the raft of evidence, they found the same model of this Jaguar car,
22:34with unexplained substances inside.
22:38The Sun's investigation can also reveal that police are in possession of stories written by Christian Bruckner,
22:50years after Madeleine McCann was taken.
22:53They have never been heard in public before and given insight into his disturbing abduction and abuse fantasies.
23:02One of these stories was found on a USB stick during the raid of his factory.
23:07In it, he imagines kidnapping a mother and her child using chemicals.
23:12Parts of it are too graphic to disclose.
23:20As she came to the car holding her daughter's hand and opened the rear door,
23:25I was already behind them both, with a cloth soaked in ether in my hand.
23:32I forced it into the woman's face.
23:35At first, she resisted violently, but I held her firmly.
23:40The little girl sat in the car and watched me with big, frightened eyes.
23:44When this was all done, and the two bodies were hidden in the darkness,
23:49I picked up my delivery truck, loaded up my prey and drove away.
23:54Other parts of these stories are too upsetting to broadcast.
24:03For me, in my mind, there is no doubt anymore that Christian B had an obsession with snatching little children,
24:13little girls especially.
24:15There's more disturbing evidence from the raid on Bruckner's property.
24:20Could images directly link him to a location police searched during the McCann investigation?
24:27In 2020, German authorities revealed they had a prime suspect in the disappearance.
24:32of Madeleine McCann.
24:33In 2020, German authorities revealed they had a prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
24:59He was Christian Bruckner, a convicted paedophile who was in prison serving a seven-year sentence for rape.
25:10He has never been charged over Madeleine's disappearance and has denied any involvement.
25:18Three years after that revelation, police began the most extensive search related to the case for almost a decade.
25:37Police in Portugal investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann say they will resume searching for her at a reservoir near the spot where she disappeared in 2007.
25:49Police said they would conduct the search of the Arada Dam around 35 miles from Praia de Luz at the request of the German authorities.
25:56The German national Christian Bruckner, who has been named as a formal suspect in the case, is believed to have visited the area around the time the toddler went missing.
26:08It became very clear that it was a major search and that they were looking for something, something specific.
26:13All we found when we got to the actual ground they'd been looking at was a series of boreholes.
26:17They seemed to have been taking soil samples of some sort.
26:20It's incredibly remote.
26:24Earlier in the week it was full of vegetation.
26:27The search teams have cut it down and have worked all the way back here, taking soil samples.
26:34Those soil samples have now been sent to Germany, where they'll be forensically tested.
26:39The aim of that is basically to establish whether there is any connection between this area, Madeleine McCann, or Christian Bruckner.
26:50It was reported at the time that witnesses had told authorities this was a place Bruckner liked to visit.
26:56But it wasn't clear if there was anything more linking him to the area.
27:04The son's investigation can now reveal evidence that directly connects him to this location.
27:12During the 2016 police raid on his property in Germany, they uncovered a sat-nav.
27:21The data on it shows Christian Bruckner used the secluded reservoir.
27:25As a regular hideout.
27:33He was frequently going backwards and forwards to the Aradis Dam.
27:36It was a go-to place for him, a safe haven.
27:40This sat-nav proved for the first time what his pattern of movement was,
27:44and that the Aradis Dam was at the centre of that.
27:46That is why police decided to search the dam in 2023.
27:50He said to friends, he called it his little paradise here even.
27:56He liked very much to spend time on his own with his camper van or with any other of his cars
28:03and go to places where no other people could trace him or where he wasn't seen.
28:08He went here to be totally on his own and we don't know what else he did here.
28:19As well as the sat-nav, police discovered a series of eerie photographs.
28:23These have been uncovered by the Sun's investigation
28:29and show Bruckner at the Aradis Dam Reservoir.
28:34They include one that has been doctored to show how he would look in a mask.
28:40Some are too explicit to show.
28:44They're not something a normal person would take.
28:51They're not holiday snaps, they're not selfies.
28:54They're self-aggrandizing portraits.
28:57There's a hugely sexualized nature to these pictures.
29:01It's like he's trying to make himself look big and strong.
29:04It gives a real insight into how he sees himself.
29:08In the wake of Madeleine's disappearance,
29:19police launched an unprecedented search operation across the Algarve.
29:33It's believed that Bruckner left Portugal shortly after she vanished
29:37and began dealing drugs on the north German island of Silt.
29:44It seems he lived under the radar for years.
29:49Documents show he bought the box factory in Neu-Vegasleben in 2008,
29:56while it's known he settled in Braunschweig in 2012.
30:03He had bought a little kiosk.
30:06It was basically a little corner shop where he was living in the back room.
30:11It was a perfect cover-up in one way for attracting women.
30:16He had many girlfriends there, attracting children.
30:22During this time here,
30:24Bruckner was accused of assaulting his girlfriend.
30:27When police raided the property,
30:30they seized a laptop and other devices
30:33and discovered images of him abusing a five-year-old girl in a local park.
30:38From this same investigation,
30:40police came across a Skype chat involving Bruckner,
30:44suggesting he was involved in the distribution of child abuse videos.
30:49In messages written under a pseudonym,
30:54he talks with a fellow paedophile
30:56about sending films that might be dangerous.
31:00In more disturbing messages,
31:02he even discusses the idea of snatching a child
31:05and making films showing how he would abuse them.
31:10It clearly shows that he was part of a network talking to other paedophiles.
31:17I don't know how many more Skype chats or other chats have been found,
31:21but this one is revealing very much.
31:24Bruckner was eventually given a 15-month jail term
31:31for his abuse of the five-year-old.
31:35In 2018, he was arrested again for drug trafficking.
31:41It was while he was in prison
31:43that he was found guilty of raping the 72-year-old American woman
31:47in Praia de Luz in 2005.
31:52Since then, he has remained locked up,
31:56as he became publicly linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
32:02Christian B has never answered questions over Madeleine McCann.
32:08He doesn't open his mouth to police.
32:10He's never denied anything over Madeleine McCann to police
32:13because he's never spoken to them.
32:15But his lawyers have always maintained he didn't do it.
32:19It appears Bruckner has refused to talk to investigators about Madeleine
32:24while he has been behind bars.
32:29In that time, others have spoken out.
32:35In particular, former associates who committed crimes with Bruckner in Portugal
32:40talked to the press.
32:43They included this man, known as Helge B.
32:48He spoke about going to the police with his suspicions about Bruckner.
32:54Helge B says that in 2008, so about a year after Madeleine had disappeared,
33:00he's been at a music festival in Spain and that Christian B was also there.
33:07They started to talk, according to Helge B, about this Madeleine situation.
33:12And Helge B claims to have said,
33:15I'm kind of curious that a child can disappear just like that.
33:20And according to Helge B,
33:22Christian B replied to that, well, she didn't scream.
33:26Helge B then says he reacted to that in kind of a surprised way and looked at him.
33:35And then, according to Helge B,
33:37Christian B noticed what he had just said.
33:40And then, according to Helge B,
33:45Christian B not only left the scene, but also left the music festival overnight.
33:49And Helge B, up to today, is convinced that that was the moment that the suspect confessed the abduction of Madame McCann to him.
34:00In 2019, Helge B gave evidence that helped convict Bruckner of the rape of the 72-year-old American in Praia de Luz.
34:09Although in other cases, his reliability as a witness has been questioned.
34:16The son's investigation can at least back up his claims that Bruckner was in the area around the time of the festival.
34:27These are handwritten and signed insurance documents Bruckner filed,
34:31detailing a camper van crash he had near the festival site.
34:38He himself has announced that he, with his motorhome,
34:42was damaging another car on a gas station in Orgiva.
34:46And exactly on that evening,
34:49exactly with his own words he has described it,
34:53there were witnesses about that,
34:55and it was six o'clock in the evening.
34:58They are handwritten and hand-signed also by Christian B.
35:02Now, Christian Bruckner is coming to the end of his current prison sentence.
35:14He is likely to be free within a matter of months,
35:18unless German prosecutors decide to charge him in connection with Madeleine's disappearance.
35:26But is there more evidence to come?
35:46It has been five years since German authorities announced they had a prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
35:52That man is convicted paedophile Christian Bruckner,
35:58who has never been charged.
36:03Prosecutors insist they have been building the case,
36:06while he has been serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape
36:10of an elderly American tourist in Praia de Luz in 2005.
36:14Last year, the German made his first appearance in public,
36:28since being linked to the McCann case,
36:31when he appeared in court.
36:36In early 2024, when it was clear that there's going to be a court case against Christian B,
36:41although it's not going to be around the Medi case.
36:45There was media frenzy.
36:49The main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann appeared in court in Germany today
36:53over unrelated sexual offences.
36:58Christian B was charged with five different offences,
37:01three rapes,
37:02and two cases of sexual assault of minors.
37:05The courtroom at Braunschweig Court was packed to capacity.
37:09There was not a single free seat.
37:12People knew, looking at the clock,
37:14that very soon a door on the right would open
37:16and the man they were waiting for would walk in.
37:19The man prosecution thinks to be the killer of Madeleine McCann.
37:23Bruckner denied all the charges.
37:40For the authorities,
37:41they hoped that by gaining another conviction,
37:44they could keep him in jail
37:46while they continued to build their Madeleine McCann case.
37:49One of the alleged victims,
37:53Hazel Bihan,
37:55waived her anonymity for the trial.
37:58In 2004,
38:00she was 20
38:01and working as a holiday rep in Portugal.
38:04She told the court
38:06she was viciously assaulted in her apartment.
38:09She believed Bruckner was her attacker.
38:12I went to work.
38:20From there,
38:21I went around to a small little bar
38:23where my then boyfriend was working.
38:26That night in particular,
38:28it was no different.
38:29The only difference there
38:30would have been that I went home alone.
38:32I walked about 100 meters
38:36over a small footbridge
38:38and into the front doors of the hotel where I lived.
38:41And I went through the reception of the hotel,
38:44walked into my room,
38:46lay on the bed.
38:50I was woken by my name.
38:51Somebody called my name.
38:54Before I even opened my eyes,
38:56I knew there was something wrong.
38:57That's when fear,
38:59beyond anything you could ever describe in words,
39:03hits.
39:04I just seen this tall black figure
39:09of a man standing over me in the room.
39:14He had a knife.
39:15I'd say it was around 12 inches long.
39:17I didn't think rape.
39:20I just thought murder.
39:23Like, I thought,
39:24this person wants to kill me.
39:26He spoke English,
39:30but I knew he was German.
39:32He had pulled me up by the hair
39:36and positioned me on the bed.
39:39He dragged me by the hair
39:43out of the bedroom area
39:45to the breakfast bar.
39:47He used my belt to tie my hands behind my back
39:52and set up his video camera.
39:56He asked me if I was afraid
39:58and I said no.
40:00I was so afraid.
40:03Like, my whole body was shaking.
40:07But something in me,
40:08I just didn't want to give in to him.
40:09Like, if I was going to go out,
40:10I'm not giving him my fear.
40:12And that's when he whipped me.
40:15Take your breath kind of pain.
40:18He raped me over the counter as well.
40:23He said, you're afraid now.
40:26I said, yeah.
40:31In court,
40:32Hazel said her attacker wore a mask.
40:35But she could see
40:36that they had blue eyes.
40:38The mask had holes around the eyes
40:42that you could see
40:43the bottom of his eyebrows.
40:45I could see he was fair-haired
40:47or, you know, he had fair eyebrows.
40:48I could see his eyes.
40:50It was just all black
40:52with eyes.
41:01Despite Hazel saying
41:02her attacker was Bruckner,
41:04the judge was not satisfied
41:06that she could identify
41:07her abuser from his eyes alone.
41:09Last October,
41:11he was found not guilty
41:13and cleared
41:14of all five offences.
41:16We believe
41:18that the decision is wrong
41:20so we will appeal
41:22to the Bundesgerichtshof,
41:23the German Supreme Court.
41:25Hazel Behan
41:27continues to wait for justice.
41:29She has always maintained
41:31her attacker had a mark
41:33on his thigh.
41:34Bruckner's defence team
41:38said there was no mark.
41:42The Sun's investigation,
41:44however,
41:45has uncovered evidence
41:46not shown in court
41:48that suggests
41:49at one stage he did.
41:53This is a photo
41:54from police files
41:55that shows Bruckner
41:57with what looks like a scar
41:59on the upper part
42:01of his leg.
42:02That photo
42:05has never been seen before.
42:07It's from the USB sticks
42:09that they found
42:11at the box factory.
42:12We know from pictures
42:15Christian B.
42:16took of himself.
42:17He had a scar
42:18on his inner right thigh.
42:20They have also unearthed
42:23details
42:24of a police physical
42:25examination
42:26from 2018
42:27which stated
42:29Bruckner
42:30has an identifying
42:31mark
42:32on his thigh.
42:33The judge bizarrely
42:36in my opinion
42:37made a decision
42:38not to use
42:39any of the evidence
42:40that police had provided
42:41the court
42:42within the trial
42:43and that was it.
42:45That matter was dealt with.
42:47This potential
42:48crucial identifying
42:49piece of evidence
42:50was done.
42:53Bruckner's acquittal
42:54has also raised questions
42:56about the prosecutor's
42:57separate case
42:59involving the disappearance
43:00of Madeleine McCann.
43:04The prosecution hoped
43:05to get
43:06a guilty verdict
43:07that would
43:08A
43:09keep the accused
43:10in jail
43:11and
43:12B
43:13pave the way
43:14for a Medi case.
43:17Well, this hope
43:18wasn't fulfilled at all.
43:20The court declared
43:21the accused
43:22not guilty
43:23in all five counts.
43:28They can opt
43:29for applying
43:30for a new
43:31arrest warrant
43:32concerning the Medi case.
43:34They can press charges
43:35concerning the Medi case.
43:36But they said
43:37on numerous occasions
43:38that they don't
43:39have enough
43:40to charge.
43:41So, this is
43:42a very risky game.
43:45Legally,
43:46there is no connection
43:47between last year's
43:48court case
43:49and the McCann
43:50investigation.
43:52But the presiding
43:53judge suggested
43:54that the wider
43:55perception
43:56of Bruckner
43:57and his links
43:58to the McCann case
43:59might be an influence
44:00on witnesses.
44:03With Bruckner
44:04due to be released
44:05from prison
44:06in September,
44:07investigators now
44:08face a race
44:09against time
44:10if they are
44:11to make a charge.
44:13They insist
44:14it is still possible
44:15despite some
44:16questioning
44:17if they have enough
44:18to take it to court.
44:19Christian Bruckner
44:22is our prime suspect
44:23and he is still
44:24the only suspect
44:25we have in the
44:26Medi McCann case.
44:27We have evidence
44:28that he killed
44:29Madeleine McCann.
44:31From what they say,
44:32it appears
44:33prosecutors
44:34have more evidence.
44:39The Sun's investigation
44:40has revealed
44:41a document
44:42that shows
44:43German police
44:44are in possession
44:45of an 80 gigabyte
44:47hard drive.
44:50They are also
44:51in possession
44:52of a separate laptop.
44:55Details
44:56of what is on
44:56these devices
44:57has been kept
44:58a close secret.
45:01But the Sun
45:02understands
45:03there are crucial images
45:04from Bruckner's
45:04time in Portugal.
45:07And there is also
45:08evidence said
45:08to be key
45:09in persuading police
45:10that Madeleine
45:11died shortly
45:12after her disappearance.
45:16The question is
45:17whether they believe
45:18it is strong enough
45:19for them to charge
45:20Bruckner
45:21before he is
45:22released
45:23from prison.
45:26There's every chance
45:27with his track record
45:28that he could
45:29just disappear.
45:31He could
45:32get out of Germany
45:33and vanish
45:34God knows where.
45:35should that happen
45:37it's very difficult
45:38to see where
45:39the McCann inquiry
45:40might go.
45:44Legally
45:45he could be out
45:46in weeks.
45:47After that
45:48he's a free man
45:49and he can go
45:50wherever he wants
45:51and of course
45:52that brings with it
45:52the risk
45:53he goes to a country
45:54with a non-extradition
45:55treaty
45:56where he can't
45:56be brought back
45:57to Germany.
45:58the Cats
45:59and the
46:16the
46:19the
46:20the
46:24the
46:25The support information for the issues raised online at channel4.com.
46:55Transcription by CastingWords