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A DISTURBING photo revealed the inside of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner’s lair – where he allegedly tied up and raped a young girl.
Manfred Seyferth, a key witness in Brueckner’s latest rape trial, said he watched footage of the convicted paedophile assaulting her while she was tied to a pole.
Dan Charity
Madeleine McCann disappeared 17 years ago in Portugal on holiday with her family
An image shown in court today showed Brueckner’s supposed ‘rape lair’
The SunA former pal of Brueckner, Seyferth is vital for the ongoing Maddie investigation and gave evidence today as Brueckner faces a string of other rape charges.
Seyferth, 68, previously described him as an “evil psychopath” and told The Sun he thinks the paedophile snatched Maddie 17 years ago.
During his testimony he described coming across a video camera in 2006 with footage of Brueckner abusing an “old woman… and a young girl.”
And the chilling image shown in court allegedly shows the room in which Brueckner tied up the young woman – before brutally assaulting her.
Answering questions in court today he said: “I saw Brueckner directly in his face in one of the videos. And I could tell it was him from his voice in the other video.
“And then there was a second person, a girl in Brueckner’s home.
“She was tied to a post and Brueckner was dancing around her.
“He forced her to perform a sex act on him then when she was unwell he said ‘you are ruining my carpet’.”
Brueckner showed no reaction as a picture of the pole he allegedly tied a teenage girl to, to rape her was shown in court.
The thin-lipped creep stared intently at images of the house where videos of his abuse were uncovered, calmly holding a hand across his mouth.
Describing how they came across the grim find in 2006, Seyferth explained that he and Brueckner’s other former friend Helge Busching broke into his Portugal home and took the camera.
He was pals with Brueckner, 47, when they lived near Praia da Luz in Portugal, around the time Maddie vanished in 2007.
Answering questions in court today he said: “In the house I found a gun and then Helge came with a camera and something small but I don’t know what it was.
“I wasn’t there when Helge took the camera – I wasn’t in the house so I’m not sure which room he got it from.
“Helge showed me the tape. He came with a camera – an old model, a big kind of one.
“I tried to push the abuse out of my mind. I just said ‘throw the f***ing thing away’.
And he added: “After everything I have see Brueckner must go to jail.”
He also revealed today that Brueckner worked in hotels near the resort where Madeleine McCann disappeared – and regularly robbed the holiday apartments.
Seyferth said Brueckner would steal money and possessions – including the video camera he later used to film his revolting assaults.
Brueckner’s former pal claimed that he pushed the videos from his mind until detectives from Scotland Yard tracked him down to Greece.
He admitted: “They were there for three days and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it.”
He said he sent cops away – but was confronted by the German FBI (BKA) when he went to the German consulate in Greece to get a new passport and then engaged with investigators.
He admitted talking to co-witness Helge Busching by phone on Thursday – raising questions about whether the BKA had helped them get in touch to confer over their accounts.
He was expected to reveal today what the convicted paedophile was doing around the time of Irish holiday rep Hazel Behan’s rape in 2006.
Prosecutors were said to be privately nervous over how the heavy-drinker’s credibility would hold up in court over cross-examination.
His account also had to match Busching’s – with fears the defence would be able to pick holes in both.
The credibility of their testimonies could be vital to seeing Brueckner charged over Maddie.
Seyferth spoke to The Sun about his twisted former friend Brueckner: “I never liked him and he is a psychopath. He is obsessed with small children and I didn’t like it.
“He always had a young girlfriend with him and I think he is easily capable of taking a small child.
“That’s why I think he may have something to do with Maddie. He broke in and saw her and because he likes young girls — he’s got lots of convictions — he took her.”
German prosecutors are nervous over failing in any Madeleine case, which could see the suspect walk free in less than two years.
Key dates in Madeleine McCann's disappearance
MADELEINE McCann vanished on May 3, 2007 - and cops believe Brueckner could have been behind her disappearance.
Almost 17 years on, no one has been charged in connection. These are the key dates:
May 3, 2007 – Kate McCann finds Madeleine missing at 10pm
May 14, 2007 – Property developer Robert Murat is named an “arguido” or formal suspect
August 31, 2007 – The McCanns launch libel action against Tal e Qual – a newspaper that claimed the couple killed Madeleine
September 7, 2007 – Kate and Gerry McCann are made “arguidos”
September 9, 2007– Madeleine’s parents return to England with their two-year-old twins
October 2, 2007– Lead detective Goncalo Amaral is taken off the case after criticising British police in a newspaper interview
July 21, 2009 – Portuguese police lift the “arguido” status of both Robert Murat and the McCanns
May 12, 2011 – On Madeleine’s eighth birthday, Scotland Yard launches a review into the case
April 25, 2012 – Scotland Yard officers say they believe Madeleine McCann is still alive
July 4, 2013 – Two years into a review of the case, Scotland Yard launched its own investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance
October 24, 2013– Portuguese police reopen their case after new lines of inquiry are found
November 27, 2013 – Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called for British and Portuguese police to work together
October 28, 2015 – Scotland Yard reduces the number of officers working on Madeleine’s disappearance
March 11, 2017 – The Home Office grants Operation Grange an extra £85,000 to continue from April until September
September 28, 2017 – British police are granted £154,000 to keep the probe going until March 2018
November 2017 – Cops moved the search to Bulgaria
May 2018 – Another round of funding, thought to be in the region of £150,000 is granted
September 2018 – An extra six months of funding is requested from the Home Office
November 2018 – More funding, thought to be in the region of £150,000 is granted
November 2018 – UK police re-examine a theory Madeleine left the apartment to look for her parents
June 2019 – Another round of funding, believed to be £300,000 of government cash is granted
June 2019 – Portuguese police are probing a “new clue and suspect” after talks with British officers
June 2020 – New prime suspect revealed as a German paedo Christian Brueckner
April 2022 – Brueckner formally made an “arguido”
May 2023 – Police search remote Algarve reservoir Brueckner called his “little paradise”
Today Brueckner’s defence team were given a hard drive said to contain child abuse images from the German FBI, the BKA.
The data storage was uncovered at the paedophile’s box factory lair when he was named as a suspect in 2020 – but prosecutors resisted handing it over for years.
Brueckner’s lawyers are fighting for the images it contains to be ruled out of use in the trial.
No pictures of Maddie have ever been confirmed to be on the drive.
In 2007, Seyferth lived in a caravan next to Christian’s house, a few minutes drive from Praia da Luz.
He told The Sun that he didn’t see paedophile and rapist Brueckner for months after Madeleine disappeared.
And reflecting on their life of crime together, Seyferth said: “We called him ‘The Climber’ because of his skills.
“He was an expert at getting into apartments and hotel rooms.
“Christian was athletic and he was strong. I saw him many times climb up to first and second-floor apartments and break in.”
If Brueckner is convicted on his current charges he faces up to 15 years behind bars, giving prosecutors the safety net for the Maddie case they want to pursue.
Brueckner was snapped appearing at Braunschweig regional court today where he faces charges for raping Irish holiday rep Behan at knifepoint after tying her to a table and whipping her on camera.
The convicted rapist was seen peering from the window of a barred police van as he pulled up to court.
He is also accused of tying a teenage girl to a post in the same resort Maddie was snatched from and forcing her to perform a sex act.
During a Praia de Luz raid – in the years before Madeleine disappeared – Brueckner is said to have raped a woman aged as old as 80 and hit her with a whip, filming the attacks on both victims.
The defendant is also said to have performed a sex act on himself in front of a child on a park-swing and made threats towards a prison guard.
He is also charged with grabbing the wrist of a child on a beach six miles from Praia, just weeks before Maddie vanished – and a further charge of insulting a prison guard.
Brueckner denies all charges and the trial continues.
Dan Charity
Braunschweig Regional Court – where Brueckner’s trail continues
Brueckner arriving this morning in a police van
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