Met Police seeking to bring Madeleine McCann suspect to Britain to stand trial

The Metropolitan Police are reportedly seeking to bring Christian Brueckner to Britain to stand trial over the abduction and murder of Madeleine McCann.

The force believes it can present a strong enough case for the 48-year-old German national to face a jury over the alleged crimes more than 19 years after the British child vanished in Portugal, The Telegraph has revealed.

Germany does not extradite its citizens to non-EU countries, but if Berlin refuses to hand Brueckner over, the Met is said to be committed to pursuing charges in either Germany or Portugal, where Madeleine was last seen.

Brueckner was named the prime suspect in Madeleine's disappearance in 2020 while serving a seven-year prison sentence in Hanover for the rape of a 72-year-old woman, but no charges were brought in the McCann case before his release in September 2025.

Brueckner was living a mile away form the Praia da Luz hotel where Madeleine, three, went missing in 2007.

Her disappearance, which marked its 19th anniversary on Sunday, is still being investigated by the Met as a missing person case, but a small group of specialist detectives have been building the case to the Crown Prosecution Service for suspected abduction and murder.

A police insider told The Telegraph: "Next year marks 20 years since Madeleine McCann went missing. If the evidence is strong enough to extradite the prime suspect and try him here, that is what we would seek to do.

"Clearly, there are numerous hurdles but our priority at the moment is to amass the strongest evidence we can against that prime suspect."

Last year, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force was investigating if extradition would be possible.

He explained: "One of the reasons we are involved is that murder is in many situations extraterritorial and potentially a murder of a British subject can in certain circumstances be charged in the UK.

"There’s lots of maybes, so at the moment we are taking stock with the Germans and Portuguese."

While Britain and Germany have a reciprocal extradition agreement through the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), Article 16 of the German constitution overrides this agreement and states no citizen can be extradited to a foreign country outside the EU.

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One possibility could see both British and German authorities hand their evidence to EU member state Portugal, and extradite Brueckner there.

Nick Vamos, the former head of extradition at the CPS explained that Germany is one of 10 EU countries which applies a "nationality bar" and refused to extradite its own citizens.

He added: "Brueckner could still be extradited to the UK if he left Germany, or to Portugal if the authorities there chose to prosecute him. It would be open to the Met Police to share evidence with the Portuguese for this purpose."

Brueckner has repeatedly denied involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.

The missing girl's parents, Kate and Gerry, posted on social media after attending a small vigil in their village of Rothley, Leicestershire.

The couple wrote: "We remain very grateful for all our support - from friends and family, people we know and those we don't - and from the police and authorities for their continued determination and effort. Thank you.⁣

"For Madeleine, who we love and miss every day, we will never give up. Kate, Gerry and family."

Hans Christian Wolters, who led investigations into Christian Brueckner in Germany, previously said he was "not just our number one suspect, he's the only suspect".

Since his release, Brueckner has been seen drifting throughout northern Germany in various motels, and at one point was understood to have lived in a makeshift tent in the woods near Kiel.