No-one has reported seeing eye colour as far as I know.
Maddie suspect Christian Brückner was ‘dealing drugs at teenage parties’ in Portugal
David Brown, Praia da Luz
Sunday June 07 2020, 12.00pm, The Times
Madeleine McCann
A witness said Christian Brückner sold drugs at teenage parties around the village of Barão de São João, close to where Madeleine McCann disappeared
A witness said Christian Brückner sold drugs at teenage parties around the village of Barão de São João, close to where Madeleine McCann disappeared
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A convicted paedophile who is the key suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann allegedly used drugs to coerce children into sex in the months before she disappeared.
Christian Brückner is said to have sold marijuana at parties for young teenagers close to the Portuguese holiday apartment where Madeleine was staying in May 2007.
Following Madeleine’s disappearance the German drifter moved to a remote village 40 miles away where he used a different name.
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Before Madeleine’s disappearance Brückner, now 43, sold drugs accompanied by another man, according to a witness. Both men were assumed to be British as they always spoke English.
A witness said he sold drugs at parties held for teenagers in the forests around the village of Barão de São João, five miles north of Praia da Luz where Madeleine was abducted.
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The village has a large German population and is regarded by locals as a “hippy commune” where marijuana is openly smoked. Villagers have confirmed that Brückner was a regular visitor.
The woman said that Brückner used the drug to coerce girls into sex. The Times has not been able to independently verify the witness’s claims.
“That was an exchange of favors,”she told TVI news. “He gave “greens” [marijuana] and in return they gave sex because . . . there was no [other] way to pay.
His accomplice was so similar in appearance that she thought they might be brothers.
Brückner was often seen with another man, both described as tall and fair
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“They were both tall, both were blond, one had green eyes, the other had blue eyes,” she said. “I thought the two of them were English [but] now they are saying that he was German. I always thought they were English, because I heard them speak in English.”The woman said she does not believe Brückner is involved with Madeleine’s abduction but last saw him shortly before the British youngster’s disappearance.
Police believe Brückner was living an “itinerant lifestyle” sleeping in his VW campervan or staying at the homes of people he befriended after being released from a Portuguese prison five months before Madeleine’s abduction.
British and German police have released photographs of a home where Brückner was known to stay which was rented by a German family three miles from Barão de São João.
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The suspect and another man also stayed in a luxury villa owned by German woman six miles from the village. The current owner of the villa, which is run as a luxury Airbnb, said he had not been contacted by police.
Detectives have said that they believe Brückner was breaking into hotel rooms to steal valuables and was drug dealing.
Shortly after Madeleine’s disappearance Brückner arrived in the remote Portuguese village of Foral, 40 miles east of Praia da Luz. Angie Dawes, a British woman, told the Sun on Sunday that he began working as a waiter at a local restaurant owned by a German family.
Her father allowed him to park his camper van in their drive and use their home for showers. Ms Dawes said he insisted on being called Chris.
“Even though he was polite, on every occasion he was weird,” said Ms Dawes, 45. “He would just stare at me in a sleazy way for a minute or two without saying a word and not release his gaze. Later that summer he just disappeared one day never to be seen again.”
Madeleine McCannn disappeared in May 2007 from a resort near to where Brückner was staying
EPA
He also parked his camper at a rented villa in Foral which was used by a German woman for a rehabilitation programme for troubled teenagers.
Lia Silva, the villa’s landlord, told the Mail on Sunday that the German tenant and her young daughter abandoned the villa in 2009, leaving behind syringes and bricks of hashish in a shoebox. Neither Ms Dawe or Ms Silva have been interviewed by police.
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Brückner returned to Germany in late 2007 but made regular trips back to the Algarve. In 2015 he sold the VW T3 Westfalia camper van to the German owner of a scrapyard three miles from Foral.
Brückner had arrived in Portugual in 1995 after fleeing a jail sentence in Germany for the sexual abuse of children. He lived in a rented farmhouse on the outskirts of Praia da Luz.
Witnesses have described seeing a man matching Brückner’s description monitoring the Ocean Club complex where the McCann family was staying in the days before Madeleine’s abduction. Some witnesses believe he may have had an accomplice who was driving a van similar to his VW camper.
He fled to Portugal again 2016 while facing prosecution in Germany for sexually abusing a child. He was extradited in June 2017 and spent 15 months in jail.
Brückner was convicted in Germany last year of the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman after breaking into her villa about half a mile from the McCann’s holiday apartment.