Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner would break into holiday apartments naked, a former pal has told his sex crimes trial.
Michael Tatschl, a former partner in crime of Brueckner, said he would use the bizarre modus operandi so as not to leave evidence and catch his clothes on surfaces.
Tatschl said: ‘He scaled the walls. Once he told me he broke in and three teenage girls were sleeping in the living room. He was naked. One of them woke up when a phone rang and screamed.
‘The girl’s father heard the scream and came, so Christian had to run and jump off a balcony. He burgled naked quite a few times because he did not want to leave a trace.’
Convicted rapist and paedophile Bruckner, 47, was sensationally named by German police four years ago as the man responsible for Madeleine’s ‘abduction and murder’.
The then three-year-old vanished from a ground floor holiday apartment while on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast in May 2007.
However, despite the claim he has still not been charged and is currently on trial in his native Germany accused of unrelated sex crimes that took place in the same area where she disappeared.
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner (pictured in court today) would break into holiday apartments naked, a former pal has told his sex crimes trial
Convicted rapist and paedophile Bruckner, 47, was sensationally named by German police four years ago as the man responsible for Madeleine’s (pictured) ‘abduction and murder’
However, despite the claim he has still not been charged and is currently on trial in his native Germany accused of unrelated sex crimes (pictured in court today) that took place in the same area where she disappeared
Carpenter Tatschl, 50, is the latest witness to give evidence at the court in Braunschweig, where Brueckner arrived early on Friday under a heavy police escort.
Previously, Tatschl has told how he was a ‘partner in crime’ with Brueckner when they lived in Portugal and told German media he heard him talk about ‘selling children to a paedophile ring in Morocco’.
In a previous interview he also said he was ‘convinced’ Bruecker had taken Madeleine and said: ‘I know he did it. He is more than capable of taking a small child.’
Brueckner and Tatschl were jailed in 2006 for stealing fuel in Portugal and shared the same cell before being released just a few weeks before Madeleine vanished.
In testimony Tatschl, dressed in a white shirt, described how he had met Brueckner in early 2006 and became friends with him over the next few weeks.
He said: ‘He told me how he earned money, he broke into houses, tourist houses, hotels, at night when they were not there.
‘He would even break in when they were sleeping and if they were on the first or even second floor.
‘He had a little box of stolen things, jewellery and watches.’
Earlier Brueckner had been led into court handcuffed and greeted his legal team with warm handshakes.
Police in Portugal have always claimed that Madeleine’s abductor broke into the apartment through a window.
They say the culprit likely left with the child through a door or by climbing back out the window.
Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have spearheaded a high-profile campaign for information about her disappearance.
Earlier Brueckner had been led into court handcuffed and greeted his legal team with warm handshakes (pictured above as Brueckner arrived at court)
On November 18 last year, prosecutors confirmed Brueckner would stand trial for various charges of sexual abuse against women aged between 10 and 80
Then three-year-old Madeleine vanished from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, in Portugal’s Algarve coast, in May 2007 where she was staying with parents Kate and Gerry and her siblings
This locator map shows where the McCann family went on holiday in 2007, in the Algarve region of Portugal
Brueckner (pictured), 47, is accused of three rapes and two sex assaults said to have been carried out on Portugal’s Algarve coast in a period from 2000 to 2017
Brueckner is on trial accused of raping three women and assaulting children between 2000 and 2017 in the Algarve.
He was jailed in 2019 for seven years after being convicted of raping an elderly woman in the Algarve in 2005.
His current trial started in February and has heard from witnesses who say they saw Brueckner in harrowing sex tapes which showed the rape of an elderly woman and a young girl.
Brueckner’s defence have tried several times to have witnesses ruled out saying the case is unfair and prejudiced against their client because of the link to Madeleine but all attempts have so far failed.
The trial is expected to continue through the spring and into the summer.
