Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner 'almost under house arrest' says top cop

Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann disappearance, has been placed under stringent restrictions akin to "house arrest" after his release from prison, a top child protection expert closely linked to the case has said. And Jim Gamble, former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), who led a 2010 Home Office review of the Madeleine McCann investigation and has advised on it since, is convinced that one day the world will know what happened to the three-year-old who vanished from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007.

Speaking via videolink, Mr Gamble told Express.co.uk the strict measures imposed on Brueckner were a clear signal that German prosecutors still regard him as their "number one suspect". Brueckner, 48, walked free on Wednesday after serving a seven-year sentence for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, the same Algarve town where Madeleine disappeared.

Mr Gamble, whose 2010 review scrutinised the initial police response and recommended new investigative steps, said: "It almost seems to me like he's potentially under house arrest.

"They're putting a tracking device on him, so he'll have to wear an ankle bracelet or something similar.

"There's going to be an area within which he must stay. He's going to have to surrender his passport and identify his primary residence, and there'll be limits on how far he can go from that."

Such measures, including barring Brueckner from leaving Germany and requiring probation supervision, are unusually strict for a released convict in Germany's typically liberal justice system.

Mr Gamble said: "I think in the context of the German authorities, they generally are more liberal.

"But he's a person that represents a risk... known to have committed numerous types of offences from petty theft to inquisitive crime involving burglary... and links to child abuse in his past and potential possession of child sex abuse images."

Madeleine's disappearance on May 3, 2007, from her family's apartment while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dined nearby, remains one of the world's most enduring mysteries.

German prosecutors named Brueckner a suspect in 2020, citing phone records placing him near the resort at the time. Despite a recent search of a German factory linked to him yielding little, the investigation continues as a murder inquiry.

Mr Gamble, who has consulted on the case for over a decade, also warned against "tunnel vision" on Brueckner.

He said: "He circumstantially fits the profile...and more circumstantial evidence places his phone and thereby inference him in proximity to the crime scene at the time Madeleine went missing.

"But I've seen cases where people have become so tied up in the tunnel vision on one suspect that they stop looking for others."

He also praised the Metropolitan Police's Operation Grange for maintaining a broader missing person inquiry, noting: "They haven't nailed their colours to this mast in the way that the German authorities have."

Brueckner's release could open new investigative avenues.

Mr Gamble said: "It might open up other lines of inquiry...that wouldn't have been possible while he was in custody," suggesting his network of dubious associates might now be easier to trace.

He added: "There's no doubt that he's had friends...but if you're looking for a credible witness against someone who does the type of things that this man has been accused of, you're not going to find them in the local choir."

The key to cracking the case, Mr Gamble emphasised, is physical evidence.

He added: "What you're going to want is something physical that you can forensically link to Madeleine and to the suspect. That's what they'll be looking for - that thing which inextricably ties their suspect to the crime."

Despite setbacks, including a failed 2024 court case relying on an unreliable witness, Mr Gamble stressed that he remains hopeful the truth will one day be known.

He said: "I believe in my lifetime we will find out what happened to Madeleine McCann. Someone somewhere knows something...may come forward and share it, and that'll provide that piece of the jigsaw puzzle or DNA."

For Kate and Gerry McCann, Brueckner's release is likely "awful", Gamble acknowledged, but he highlighted the Met's support.

He said: "They've got the Metropolitan Police, still operating on Operation Grange...probably the best at what they do in the world."

Brueckner's lawyer is nevertheless expected to challenge the surveillance, but any breach could lead to re-arrest.

As the McCanns endure another chapter in their 18-year ordeal, Gamble, whose expertise has shaped the case's trajectory, remains optimistic, saying: "It's not over until it's over."