German FBI probe Christian Brueckner’s van which was parked at beast’s lair after Madeleine McCann vanished in Portugal

A VAN once driven by the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case is being probed by German cops thanks to The Sun.

They will examine the white Mercedes Sprinter motor we revealed was parked at paedo Christian Brueckner’s lair after Madeleine vanished.

Dan Charity

Christian Brueckner’s van is being probed by German cops thanks to The Sun[/caption]

Dan Charity

Our exclusive picture shows a white Mercedes Sprinter van parked at a creepy woodland site he later bought[/caption]

Alamy

Madeleine McCann vanished, aged 3, when her family were holidaying in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, Portugal in 2007[/caption]

Dan Charity

Brueckner bought the abandoned factory in the former communist East Germany in 2010[/caption]

He is believed to have had a white Mercedes van in Portugal at the time Madeleine, then aged three, vanished in 2007.

Germany’s federal police, the BKA, want to examine the motor amid hopes it could still contain DNA or crucial clues.

A request has been made to the Rosier dealership in Braunschweig, which leased the van to Brueckner between 2014 and 2015.

An employee at the garage which took the van back when Brueckner was finished with it said yesterday: “We cleaned it and repaired it but it wouldn’t have been wiped of all DNA.

“There could still be hairs and other traces of anyone who was kept inside.

“Due to data protection issues we cannot give you exact dates or further details of the client.”

The Sun revealed the existence of the van in February.

A BKA source said: “We are on to this now and appreciate the tip.

“We are getting in touch with the Rosier garage today.”

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “I know that the white Sprinter information has been passed on to the BKA.”

As well as possible links to Madeleine, it is now thought Brueckner also used the vehicle at the time a girl known as the “German Maddie” vanished in 2015.

Inga Gehricke, five, vanished from a family picnic in a wood in Wilhelmshof, Saxony-Anhalt.

The only clue was the sighting of a white Sprinter van driving down a track through the forest at the time she disappeared.

Brueckner was looked at by cops in 2016 and 2020.

He was unable to give an alibi for the day in question and the day before Inga went missing he had an accident in nearby Helmstedt, an hour’s drive away.

At the time Brueckner, 47, was living at a derelict factory in Neuwegersleben, just 90 kilometres away.

The case, which remains open, was shelved and Brueckner hasn’t been officially discounted.

In February a pal of Brueckner’s told The Sun about his van, saying: “He drove around Europe with it and even took a girlfriend to Portugal and Spain with it.

“I went in it a few times with him and he used it all the time to move his stolen goods around.”

Brueckner is currently on trial in Germany, accused of three rapes and two counts of sexual abuse of children between 2000 and 2017 in and around Praia da Luz, the Algarve resort where Madeleine was on holiday.

He denies involvement in her disappearance and all charges.